281 Meeting in the Night Sky

The ice-cold lake water splashed onto his face, just like countless, sharpblades. After an unknown amount of time, Chen Changsheng finally woke up. He attemptedto open his eyes, but his eyes were only hit painfully by the incoming lakewater, so he could only close them once again. He did not know of the currentsituation, and only knew that he was in the water of the lake, travelling atunimaginable speeds. From the feeling in his hand, he confirmed that the YellowPaper Umbrella had saved his life. The Yellow Paper Umbrella was an inanimate object, so how could it act byitself? To him, it was a very hard question to understand. The faint swordintent that was transmitted from somewhere ahead allowed him to vaguely guesssomething. However, he was unable to make a link between the sword intent andthe Yellow Paper Umbrella—that sword intent should have belonged to thelegendary Sword Pool, which should have disappeared for several hundreds ofyears in the Garden of Zhou already. As for the Yellow Paper Umbrella, it was anew object that the Junior Uncle of Mount Li, Su Li, had requested the WenshuiTang Clan to make for him. The two objects had a difference in years, sologically, it was impossible to make any connections. After another period of time, he became even more clear-headed, and fixed hisposture with great difficulty. It allowed him to squint his eyes open, uponwhich he saw the light not far behind him. Only then did he learn that thedangers had never left him. At the same time, the injuries that could not beseen in his body began to ache, clearly sending the feeling of pain into hissea of consciousness, causing him to suffer extreme pain. The front part of the umbrella rotated at high speed without stopping, justlike the corkscrew propellers created by the people of the great westerncontinent for big boats. It dragged him forwards at high speeds.  The dark, icycold lake water constantly rammed against his body, bringing even more pain.Just how long did he have to be dragged for? Where did the Yellow PaperUmbrella want to take him? Suddenly, he realized the lake water had disappeared, and at the same time, heheard many sounds. They were the sounds of bursting through the lake water, and the sounds of thebugs within the grass beside the lake. Just why did that clear yet slightlyviolent cry sound so close to his ear, when it should have been very far away? Was the dark image in front of his eyes really the bottom of the lake? No, itwas the night sky, and it was dark because there were no stars in the Garden ofZhou. It was a small lake ten or so li away from Sunset Valley. That night, the small lake had seen the battle of incessant blood and flameson the peak. It had heard the cry of a phoenix, it had been illuminated bywings of fire, and at this moment, it had also heard the cry of a peacock. Justwhen it had experienced peace, it was destroyed again. The Yellow Paper Umbrella rotated, and brought Chen Changsheng out of the lake. Lake water fell off the umbrella and his body, flying in all directions. Itcreated a falling curtain of water. Chen Changsheng became clear-headed, and understood that he had finallyescaped from the cold and scary lake water. He had returned to the world abovethe lake, however, he just did not know whether he was still in the Garden ofZhou, or the other side of the cold lake. In the next moment, he discovered that he had arrived in the night sky. Thesmall lake below his feet had become a mirror, and he was several dozen zhangabove the ground. Any person, to go from the depths of the lake to high up in the night sky sosuddenly, would feel slightly astonished and absent-minded. At that moment, the lake water split open once again, and a pair of wings oflight transformed into flowing radiance. It chased from below him. The tips ofthe wings were brought together, forming a sharp spike and heavily striking hisbody. A muffled sound. Chen Changsheng’s blood surged, and he almost spat out some blood. Heforcefully swallowed it back down, but that did not mean he was not injured. After being decisively hit again, he who was already heavily injured was nolonger able to last anymore. Holding onto the Yellow Paper Umbrella, he was just like a kite with a brokenstring, flying higher into the night sky dispiritedly. To continue flying to the highest point before falling onto the groundagain—would that be the time of death? Thinking about these matters, he fainted once again. In the final momentbefore he fainted, he suddenly felt the night sky grow slightly lighter. That was not the feeling of impending death, but rather the night sky hadreally been illuminated. What illuminated the night sky was a pair of flaming wings. Not the light wings behind the two girls that chased him, but… a pair of flamewings. The flame wings opened up comfortably in the night sky. They were very large,and gave off warm yet holy flames. As a result, the girl in the wings seemed somewhat delicate. The flame wings rushed through the night sky, and just at the moment whereChen Changsheng was about to fall to his death, she grabbed him beforecontinuing to fly towards the far away distance. The two girls that had chased Chen Changsheng until now felt an extremelystrong feeling of dread for some reason. The wings of light rapidly flapped,dodging backwards. Afterwards they thought of the peacock cry they had heard inthe lake before, and the dread within their hearts intensified. Without eventhinking, they flew hurriedly towards the area where the cry originated fromwith unbelievable speed which almost seemed to be a method of burning theirlives. Nanke jumped off the cliff, and fell faster and faster just like a rock. Thewhistling wind blew at her hair, however, it was unable to blow away theindifference in her eyes. Concerning the approaching ground and death, it didnot hold any meaning to her, because she could see very clearly that her twofemale servants had already arrived in front of the Sunset Valley peak, underthe cliff, and were waiting. Without a sound at all, the two females caught Nanke’s petite body, and thenimmediately transformed into a ball of light. The ball of light then opened upinto wings of light, like clouds in the blue sky. The wings of light suddenlychanged slightly in color as compared to when they chased after ChenChangsheng. The edges of the wings carried a smear of bewitching green, as ifan ethereal body had transformed into a real object. The green wings on Nanke’s back moved slowly. She gazed at a distance in thenight sky with an indifferent expression. After confirming the location of thewings of fire that had already turned into a spot of light, she beganfluttering her wings without hesitation, chasing in that direction. The greenwings of several zhang in length created two whirlwinds in front of the cliff,and with a terrifying whistle of piercing through the air, she disappeared. The innate blood talent of humans or demons seemed somewhat similar to thetransformations of demi-humans. However, the difference was actually very big.The awakening of innate talent normally had four stages. The initial awakeningwas the blood itself, and the second awakening was the spirit. In simplerwords, after this awakening, the cultivator and her blood would combine intoone body, no longer differentiating between the two. This was also trulyunderstanding what they were. After two days and two nights without rest, being unable to defeat Nanke andthe zither-playing old man working together in the end, peacefully walking intothe abyss of despair, and before the great dread of death, Xu Yourongsuccessfully completed her second awakening. The phoenix spirit deep within herbody also awakened like this. Her blood and her body combined and merged, andthrough use of spiritual sense, a pair of wings of fire unfurled in the nightsky. However, this did not mean that she suddenly gained the power to burn thewhole world. At that moment, she was still heavily injured, and Nanke’spoisonous blood was still constantly wreaking havoc in her body. This causedher vision to become slightly blurry, so she did not fly back to the peak tofight a life and death battle with Nanke again. Instead, she flew into the faraway distance in the night sky, as she needed treatment and grooming the mostright now.