282 Flying Wing to Wing

No matter who it was—in that brief moment she had been unable to clearly makeout the other person's appearance—it was definitely one of the humancultivators that had entered the Garden of Zhou. This was enough of a reason.It was enough for Xu Yourong who was flying around Sunset Valley to unsparinglyuse up her true essence once more to adjust her direction and fly over to thatheavily injured and unconscious human cultivator's side. At that critical pointwhere it seemed like she would dash herself to death against the ground, shegrabbed the cultivator and flew off into the distance. She had no experience in flying with wings, but she had a lot of experienceriding the white crane as it soared through the blue sky. As she soared throughthe night sky, she had none of that imagined unease or terror. But she was justa beginner after all, so it was hard to avoid some improficiency andawkwardness. This was especially the case when considering that she was alreadyheavily wounded and very weak, and that she was now carrying an extra person.It was hard to avoid swaying a bit, giving the appearance that she was drunk. It was not too long before Nanke had caught up, only several li behind.Separated by such a distance, she could even feel the killing intent comingfrom her. She did not turn around, instead focused on learning how to fly. Herwings of fire began to sway less, her posture grew more stable, and her speedbegan to quicken. Gradually she began to turn into a streak of fire blazingthrough the night sky. After the awakening of the phoenix soul, she had comprehended many principles,and gained use of much of her innate ability. Solely in terms of speed, she waswithout a doubt the fastest on the continent. Whether it was the Red Falconsused by the Great Zhou army or the Great Western Continent's Heavenly MessengerBirds, whether it was Nanke or the swift Silver Dragons; none of them couldsurpass her speed. The problem was that she was severely wounded. An even larger problem was thatshe was currently carrying a person. The person was unconscious, and weighedher down like a wet bag of flour. If she dropped this person, even Nanke wouldfind it very hard to catch up to her. She could go back to the gardens wherethe rest of the human cultivators had congregated and develop a counterattackagainst the demon plot. She could also temporarily escape, treat her wounds andthe poison in her body, then return to battle Nanke, and this time she believedshe would definitely obtain victory. But she could not do so, so there was no 'if'. This entire time, she had not glanced at the person in her hands—she made nodistinction of identity, because no matter what, she could not throw them away.It was just like Nanke had said at the peak of Sunset Valley. From beginning toend, she was an existence burdened with the word 'responsibility'. Many choiceshad already become a sort of instinct for her. She did not need to ponder themor weigh the pros and cons, she only needed to carry them out. Two streams of light skimmed over the forests and wetland at the edge of theplain, their colors only slightly different. Wherever they passed, bits ofgrass were sent flying and leaves were shocked into puffs of green. She had never been able to pull away from Nanke and her vision was starting togo fuzzy. This was a sign that the peacock's poison was beginning to erode hersea of consciousness. She had always been using the Heavenly Phoenix's trueblood to suppress it, but over the course of this chase, that blood wasgradually being boiled away and was no longer able to suppress the poison.Perhaps she could ignite all the Heavenly Phoenix true blood to go even faster,but then what would she do about the poison? Nanke's figure grew closer and closer and the darkness of the surroundingplain was newly dyed with green. There was no time to think, but in truth, shedidn't even think before she made her decision. At this moment, she finallylowered her head to glance at the person in her hands. She helplessly thoughtto herself, everyone here cultivates the Dao, paying attention to dining withthe pure wind and eating the starlight, but just what are you eating every daythat you're so heavy? Then she ignited the meager remnants of the true blood of the Heavenly Phoenixin her body. With a boom, the surrounding plains began to burn, and glimmers of light fromwater could be vaguely seen under the grass. Xu Yourong turned into a streak of fire, and disappeared into the sky. After a while, Nanke arrived at this place and paused. She stared off into thedistance at that streak of fire, her expression cold, thinking about something. Her green peacock wings slowly flapped, spreading coldness all around. Theburning grasses and reeds were gradually extinguished, leaving behind onlyscorched earth. The speed obtained from burning the true blood of the Heavenly Phoenix was sofast that even she could not catch up. "A woman's softheartedness, failing to see the big picture, lacking a noblespirit."  (TL: All three of these are Chinese idioms.) Nanke's evaluation of Xu Yourong was cold and disdainful. "Even if you cancontinue to live, how can you continue to be my rival?" She understood very clearly that in this sort of situation, even if theHeavenly Phoenix soul within Xu Yourong's body had awakened, it would still bevery difficult for her to survive. The green wings slowly retracted, and the light subtly changed. Those twowomen appeared on both sides of her and kneeled down onto the ground. Theirvoices trembling, they said, "These lowly servants pay respects to the master.These lowly servants are incompetent!" Nanke paid no attention to her two maids, not even glancing at their facespale from fear. She pensively asked, "That person… was Chen Changsheng?" The two maids hurriedly narrated the events that had occurred on the otherside. For the first time, a smile appeared on Nanke's face, but it was still avery cold smile. "So originally it wasn't a woman's softheartedness, nor was itfailing to grasp the big picture. Instead it was chaos arising from too manyproblems… for the two of you to die together would be rather interesting.” The wind that blew against her face was originally cold, but because of theboiling and burning of her blood, it became a warm wind. Xu Yourong wanted togo to the Mountainside Whispering Wood, but her Heavenly Phoenix true blood wasalmost exhausted and she could not hold on for much longer. She glanced behindher to confirm that Nanke had not caught up, then turned towards the northeastand flew for several li before landing. She had always followed the edge of the Plains of the Unsetting Sun as sheflew. Her reason was very simple, and Nanke was also very clear on it. It wasonly by this that from the very start, she had been able to persist for solong. When she finally landed, it was also naturally at the edge of the plains.It was a giant stretch of wetland, with reeds growing as far as the eye couldsee. The reeds were like a small isle, the surrounding reeds so high that they hidit away from any outside gazes. It was like a little world sectioned off fromthe rest. There were no stars in the night sky of the Garden of Zhou. The lightreflecting from the water between the reeds came from those wings of fire. Theywere like innumerable mirrors, creating a beautiful scene. With a thought from Xu Yourong, the golden flames slowly faded. The two wingshad originally been a pure snowy white. Her brows slightly creased together; she appeared to be in pain. Deep withinthe clear and limpid water of her eyes, a discomforting green could faintly beseen. Around that green was a golden spark that was incessantly burning, but itwas a very dim flame. At any time, it could go out. Then she turned once moreto that human cultivator that she had saved. For some reason, she felt that this person was somewhat familiar, although hervision was rather fuzzy. She could not even make out the person's features,only faintly tell that his face was very pale. For some reason, even though theperson was unconscious, he still gave her a calm and amiable impression. Because of this impression, she stared blankly at him. Then she was struck by exhaustion. She sat down cross-legged and then closed her eyes to stabilize her breathing.A pure white wing slowly drew back, then like the warm quilts in the DivineGeneral's mansion, wrapped around her body. The wings were a pair.