Seeing the small bottle in Kanzaki Rin's hand, Fang Cheng could sense a single drop of liquid inside.
Even just probing it with his senses brought back a distinctly intense heat.
It was like magma or molten iron, and it seemed to contain some kind of violent energy.
He ventured a guess. "Phoenix blood?"
Kanzaki Rin's ability was Phoenix Fire, which came from the flames left behind in the mortal world after a phoenix's Nirvana. If Li Yu wanted to find a suitable monster's blood for her, phoenix blood should have been the best choice.
Though phoenixes were auspicious beasts, they were no different from monsters in essence.
But Kanzaki Rin shook her head at Fang Cheng's guess. "Wrong. Guess again."
Not a phoenix?
He hesitated. "Could it be a Blue Phoenix?"
Kanzaki Rin shook her head again.
"Bi Fang?"
"No!"
"Golden Crow?"
"Not that either!"
Kanzaki Rin looked at him speechlessly. "How did you manage to skip right over the correct answer?"
Fang Cheng's gaze fell on the small bottle in her hand. "Because I couldn't believe it. Li Yu actually gave you something like that."
The ones he'd guessed were either auspicious beasts or divine birds, and none of them were weaker than Tamamo-no-Mae.
But there was another creature equally skilled at wielding fire, one far more powerful than Tamamo-no-Mae.
The Vermilion Bird!
Many people confused the Vermilion Bird with the phoenix, but they were nothing alike.
The phoenix was the king of birds, an auspicious beast representing peace and harmony.
The Vermilion Bird, however, was one of the Four Celestial Spirits of myth. Originating in the ancient worship of the constellations, it was the southern god who represented the Flame Emperor and the Seven Mansions of the South.
Before the Han dynasty, the Four Celestial Spirits were