Chapter 266: Fei Yu's True Identity

"So, Yu'er, you're saying this unexpected situation might be a sign that the divine bird is about to appear?"

Li Qinghe muttered, standing up.

"Yes, it makes sense. The ancient texts have descriptions of the divine bird that match this exactly."

"And last time, didn't you divine a hexagram showing 'the merging of surface and inner'?"

He turned back to look at the girl.

The young girl nodded.

"Right. That human should represent the surface, and the people from the East Lake Prefecture who went after him represent the inner."

"Congratulations, Your Majesty. You are already very close to the divine bird."

She smiled.

"Now we just need to find out who on that train will be getting off at Sparrow City to narrow down the search."

"You must act quickly, Your Majesty. The divine bird is easily startled and might flee amid the commotion."

"Good. Very good."

Li Qinghe let out a long, excited breath and nodded.

"I'll tell Teluoshan to keep a close eye on things right away. We absolutely cannot let anyone off or allow them to make the return trip."

He immediately picked up his Jade Token. Weird Energy surged as he tried to locate Teluoshan's token.

To his surprise, after a long while, the Jade Token in his hand yielded no response.

"That idiot—what did he do this time?!"

Li Qinghe was so furious that his hands trembled.

Meanwhile.

Teluoshan let out a long sigh of relief after sending off the investigators from the East Lake Prefecture.

He gleefully walked over to his bed and dug out the pile of jade fragments from underneath.

Thank goodness he had been quick-witted enough.

Before they came in, he had made the drastic decision to crush his Jade Token to pieces. If the people from the East Lake Prefecture had found it, wouldn't His Lordship have been exposed?

Although losing the Jade Token meant severing contact with the other side, His Lordship had already assigned the task; he just needed to make sure it was done right.

"The divine bird... what could the divine bird look like?"

Lying on his bed, he couldn't help but let his imagination run wild.

"Its feathers must be pristine and silky, the kind that shimmers faintly in the light. Its voice has to be bright, likely able to make ten thousand Daos resonate. And it must be incredibly docile, drinking only divine dew and eating only the meat of sacred beasts..."

"Do you want some sunflower seeds?"

Fei Yu looked at Yan Jing, who was dead set on heading back, and pulled out her ultimate weapon from her pocket, making him laugh out of sheer exasperation.

He could sense that something had definitely happened over there, and Fei Yu was trying to protect him by stopping him from returning.

"I'm mostly worried about Master Liu and Huzi," he said with a helpless smile.

"Master Liu is immensely blessed by fortune, and with Mr. Huzi there, there's nothing to fear!"

Fei Yu spoke with absolute certainty, shoving the handful of seeds into Yan Jing's hands. She then pressed her lips together and looked at him, her phoenix eyes blinking rapidly as if afraid she had angered him.

Yan Jing felt even more helpless. Chuckling, he crouched down, picked up a seed, and cracked it.

Seeing Yan Jing eat the seeds, Fei Yu knew he wasn't angry anymore. She crouched down beside him and laughed.

"Master Liu is definitely fine. He might be slightly injured at worst, so please don't worry."

"Why are you so sure?"

Yan Jing asked softly.

Fei Yu's heart fluttered. She knew he was actually asking: Who are you?

She also had a vague feeling that Yan Jing had already guessed her identity.

But she shook her head.

"I can't say."

Yan Jing didn't press the issue.

"So, Xiao Yu, are you saying that your young master isn't as immensely blessed as Master Liu?"

Yan Jing said with a smile. "Is that why I can't go back to the train?"

"You used to be."

Fei Yu replied softly.

"And then?"

Yan Jing looked up at the streaks of pitch-black light flowing through the sky. In his mind, he gave an instruction to Xiao Xin, telling him to check on the situation aboard the train, especially on the Old Man and Tiger.

"Then you weren't anymore."

Fei Yu answered honestly.

She didn't even know who she was having this exchange with.

Was it her incredibly naive and kind-hearted young master, or an evil spirit she had read about in storybooks?

But the feeling was quite wonderful.

Because she knew that whoever sat across from her had likely seen through her identity.

This was the first time she had ever chatted with someone using her true identity.

"Why wasn't I anymore?"

Yan Jing asked around a mouthful of seeds.

"I don't know,"

Fei Yu said.

"You're quite silly then, Xiao Yu,"

Yan Jing teased.

"Even I, your young master, know why."

"You know?"

Fei Yu's eyes widened. "Why aren't you anymore, then?"

"I can't say."

Yan Jing flashed a smug smile, tossing her own words right back at her.

Fei Yu pursed her lips. Whenever he acted like this, she felt that her young master truly hadn't changed.

They waited for about eight or nine minutes before Xiao Xin appeared behind Yan Jing. The creature quietly touched his hand, signaling him to follow.

"Let's go. We're going to find Master Liu."

Yan Jing stood up. "He's no longer on the train."

"Not on the train? How do you know?"

Fei Yu was a little confused, but Yan Jing merely smiled without answering and kept walking. Behind him, Xiao Xin would dart out from time to time to touch his hand, guiding him in the right direction.

It didn't take long for the two to reach a towering, pitch-black mountain blazing with raging flames.

It seemed to belong to a coal-producing range. Black coal veins were exposed across large swathes of the rocky surface, having ignited under intense heat. Once this kind of fire started, it was utterly impossible to extinguish, creating a scene like a mountain of pure fire.

At the foot of the mountain, they found the Old Man hiding behind a large boulder. He looked utterly wretched. A massive chunk of flesh was missing from his back, exposing his bare spine. Through the gaps in his bones, one could even see his faintly beating internal organs.

The Old Man sat cross-legged on the ground, surrounded by a flickering dark-gold light, seemingly in the midst of healing his wounds.

Both of their gazes darkened at the sight.

The Paintbrush materialized in Yan Jing's hand. He painted a figure of Yi Ji, and under its cover, he extended silk threads that pierced the Old Man's skin, beginning to stitch his flesh back together.

Fei Yu also cast a cyclone of air that wrapped around the Old Man to aid his healing.

The Old Man shuddered the moment the threads touched him. He subconsciously opened his eyes, and upon seeing Yan Jing and Fei Yu, he was about to speak, but Yan Jing told him everything was fine now.

Only then did he close his eyes in relief and focus entirely on healing.

Eventually, a thin layer of flesh grew back over his back, barely enough to cover his spine and internal organs. He stood up, let out a long breath, and recounted everything that had happened on the train to Yan Jing.

"Young Master, that person seemed to be looking for Xiao Yu,"

the Old Man said, somewhat puzzled.

Off to the side, Fei Yu's expression had completely frozen after hearing the Old Man's description.

Yan Jing was silent for a long moment before finally smiling.

"They probably knocked on the wrong door."

The Old Man, thoroughly confused, wanted to say more, but the Walkie-talkie at his waist suddenly lit up, and he hurriedly answered it.

It was Tiger on the other end, asking where they were.

When he woke up, he saw several people from the East Lake Prefecture searching outside the door. The train had also stopped. The investigators used Weird Energy to carefully inspect the room before leaving.

Judging by the leader's Tier, Tiger could tell the man was definitely not simple.

The East Lake Prefecture's people had come?

The group was stunned again. After confirming that the East Lake Prefecture's people were gone and that the station workers had begun emergency repairs on the railway and train, they called Tiger, Liu Ye, and Bi Jie to meet them on the streets of Dangdangli.

Based on the repair estimates, the group would have to stay in Dangdangli for a day or two.

Soon, all six of them met up.

The Old Man managed to book rooms at a remote inn in Dangdangli.

That night.

Yan Jing rested with his eyes closed, pondering the current situation.

In the afternoon, he had chatted separately with the Old Man, Tiger, and Fei Yu. His reason was simple: he wanted to ask if they needed to cut this trip short.

To his surprise, the ones who had initially been opposed all unanimously chose to keep moving forward.

It seemed that whatever had happened over the past day or two had made each of them change their minds.

The Old Man's response was that he wanted to catch a glimpse of his old sect at the martial assembly.

Having suffered severe injuries, he was no longer planning to participate in the tournament, but he still wanted to see his old master.

Fei Yu's answer was that she wanted to go back and see Paima County, the place where she first met Yan Jing.

Tiger was the only one who explained his reasoning.

His answer was that just as he was startled awake from a dream that afternoon, the priest-like figure in the place he had dreamed of before told him that fortune and disaster went hand in hand. The fortune on his body now was too overwhelming, meaning that a disaster would very likely follow.

The arrival of that Seventh Rank expert was highly likely an example of this.

Yan Jing didn't know what had happened to make everyone change their minds. However, since they all wanted to keep going, he couldn't object; after all, he was the one who had proposed this journey in the first place.

Now, the most critical issue was actually Fei Yu.

When he had drawn Fei Yu with that Paintbrush, he had discovered her past.

She wasn't human at all, nor was she an Inner World Resident in the common sense.

She was a bird.

A bird with a truly magnificent appearance. Red-gold feathers covered her entire body, and her eyes sparkled like jewels. Her beak was slender and sharp, etched with mysterious patterns, and she was surrounded by auspicious clouds.

She looked exactly like a phoenix or Vermilion Bird out of a storybook.

In truth, there were many signs pointing to Xiao Yu's similarities with birds. She loved cracking sunflower seeds, excelled at using the wind, and enjoyed reading storybooks—specifically mixed genres featuring Azure Dragons, White Tigers, and Vermilion Birds. Furthermore, she rarely cooked poultry and could even predict the weather...

Connecting that to the phrase Bai Qiu had spoken:

"A Sage emerges, a Martial Saint guards the Dao, and the divine bird follows..."

He could deduce the truth. The Sage in that phrase most likely described Eldest Young Master Luo.

But just as Fei Yu had said, Eldest Young Master Luo had indeed fit the description in the past, but his eventual fate had already been witnessed...

The Sage was dead.

The Martial Saint was crippled.

And the divine bird... seemed to have lost its magic.

Young Master Luo was a genuinely good person, but good people didn't seem to fare well in this place.

No, the more fundamental reason was that he was "too weak." He clenched his fists. It was impossible to say he wasn't furious about the Old Man getting hurt that afternoon, but against a Seventh Rank expert, he had no choice but to hide his anger for now.

This was also why he wanted to grow stronger, faster.

The current him was still too weak.

Right as he was deep in thought, a sudden knock came at the door.

Knock, knock, knock!

He got up and opened the door. Standing out in the night, wearing pajamas, was Bi Jie.

"County Magistrate Luo, something has happened."

"What happened?"

Yan Jing asked.

Bi Jie held up a red piece of paper and said, "A railway riot broke out in Baijia County, which we passed through last night. The return railway has been temporarily shut down. Right now, there are only a few cars made by the West Lake Prefecture available for use over there."

"A railway riot?"

Yan Jing was taken aback.

For such a thing to happen at this critical juncture, it was hard not to suspect that some external factor was at play.

However, hearing the latter half of Bi Jie's words, he asked, "Can those cars go to Luohe County?"

"They can, but the train should be fixed by the day after tomorrow."

Bi Jie continued, "If you're going to the martial assembly, there's no need to rush. It doesn't start for over ten days."

"Can the cars go to Paima County?"

Yan Jing asked again.

"Paima County?"

Bi Jie was stunned.

Paima County didn't have a train station because the terrain made it impossible to build one. It was located not too far from Luohe County.

"They can."

"Alright."

Yan Jing nodded. "Then we'll set off tomorrow!"

At the Ninth Lake Prefecture.

Li Qinghe received the news that the matter had been handled, his eyes flashing.

Unable to contact that piece of trash Teluoshan, and terrified that the divine bird would escape, he had decisively contacted his subordinates in Baijia County to sever the return railway.

"Even if it did run, there are only so many places it could go..."

Thinking of this, Li Qinghe picked up his Jade Token, preparing to contact Xu Chengyi.

Behind the folding screen at his back, the young girl named Yu'er listened to Li Qinghe's every move and couldn't help but sigh.

In truth, when she told Li Qinghe that the divine bird was easily startled, she was hinting for him not to make any huge commotion. Given the current situation, there was no telling whether the divine bird would still land in Sparrow City.

It was just that there were some things she couldn't interfere with too much.