Ji Xuansu did not answer. Her eyes faced forward, but her pupils were unfocused, as though she were looking somewhere far, far away.
Cai Jingwen said softly, "She's only an image. She has no consciousness and can't talk to us."
No sooner had she spoken than Ji Xuansu's body turned into a crimson flame and flew toward Cai Jingwen.
The flame moved too fast for them to follow. Before the women could react, it had already plunged into Cai Jingwen's body.
"Ah!"
The instant the Vermilion Bird flame entered her, Cai Jingwen shuddered violently and let out a low cry, her face flushing crimson.
An immense flood of memories from the Vermilion Bird's inheritance surged into her mind like a raging tide, while fire Spiritual Power battered every part of her body.
Her head felt ready to burst, and her entire body burned as though engulfed in flames, the heat unbearable. Waves of tearing pain coursed through her meridians.
Fighting through the agony, Cai Jingwen forced out a few words to the panicking Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing beside her. "I... I've received the Vermilion Bird's inheritance. Don't come near me..."
As soon as she finished speaking, her legs gave out. She sat cross-legged on the spot, eyes squeezed shut and brows tightly drawn, trying to absorb the power of the inheritance within her.
But she had never truly cultivated. Even though she had eaten spirit beast meat and soaked in the Jade Pool's spiritual water while accompanying Chen Hao, making her constitution far stronger than an ordinary person's, she had never encountered the inheritance power of a Primordial Divine Beast.
The Vermilion Bird's inheritance was overwhelmingly potent and pure. Her mortal body simply could not withstand it.
Within moments, crimson light shone around her. Her skin grew hotter and