283 Even If They Met, They Would not Recognize Each Other

It was late at night, and the indistinct disk of light in the plains stillhung over the horizon, giving even the reeds at the edge of the plains a littlelight. Xu Yourong opened her eyes as she awoke. The crystals in her hands hadalready become useless powder and the true essence in her body had recoveredsomewhat. However, it was only enough to suppress the poison in her blood, andcould not be used to solve any of her other problems.  With a thought, she retracted her pure white wings. Only when her fingersbrushed up against something did she remember that she had rescued a humancultivator.  Her finger rested against that human cultivator's vein, then after a moment,she slightly raised her brow. She seemed rather surprised—this human cultivatordid not have that much true essence, and it was not a result of any sort ofbattle. There was something wrong with the meridians themselves. To be bornwith such a defect and yet still enter Ethereal Opening and thus obtain thequalifications to enter the Garden of Zhou; one could infer from this just howdiligently he inevitably would have had to cultivate.  It was a pity that this person's luck was simply too disastrous. The Gardenof Zhou was so vast, and yet he somehow managed to encounter Nanke's two wings.His body was heavily injured, and if he did not receive treatment soon, hewould definitely die. The other reason this person's luck was just toodisastrous had to do with her current situation. Currently, her true essencewas almost completely exhausted and she had lost a lot of blood. It was simplyimpossible for her to use the Sacred Light technique to treat his wounds.  She stood up and looked towards the depths of those plains as she shook herhead, then she turned around and began walking in the opposite direction.Across the pond of reeds, not too far away, was dry land. A little further pastthat was a forest, and past the forest, she could faintly see a cliff. If shefollowed that cliff, she would probably arrive at one of the gardens that thehuman cultivators were gathered in. She even remembered that this particularcliff had many caves.  She silently gazed at the dense forest and cliff through the weeds. Yes, sheonly remembered, but she could not see it clearly. Right now, her vision wasstill blurry. She had thought that the person's situation to be dire, but her situation waseven more disastrous. In order to escape from Nanke with that person in tow,she had ignited far too much of her Heavenly Phoenix true blood, and now thepoison in her blood had begun to spread. Her vision, as well as the rest of herfive senses, had all received serious damage. If she could not promptly makeher way out of the Garden of Zhou, she really would die here.  At the summit of Sunset Valley, the phoenix soul had awakened, but so what?Without a fleshly body to inhabit, what did it matter how strong the soul was?Without a lamp wick for the flame, could the flame exist? Would she really diehere?  A gentle breeze blew from the plains. As it blew across the water beneath thereeds and weeds, its temperature lowered, and it felt slightly chilly. Herexpression remained serene, but the hands that hung over the edge of her skirtbegan to tremble, as if they wanted to grasp the wind but could not. As shecalmly gazed at the mountains of the Garden of Zhou, slowly… ever so slowly…for some reason, she became angry. Yesterday when she had taken her final leave from the Mountainside WhisperingWood, she had gone to where the senior from Holy Maiden Peak was and learnedthat Chen Changsheng and the wolf youth had quietly departed. It seemed theyhad gone upstream of that river. As the next Holy Maiden of the south, she wasprivy to many secrets. Although she did not know it exactly, she knew that theentrance to the Sword Pool was some place upstream of that river.  Chen Changsheng's original destination had been the Sword Pool.  The upper reaches of the river were separated from this patch of reeds andfrom the peak of Sunset Valley by several hundred li. Separated by such a vastdistance, even if Chen Changsheng and Zhexiu could fly, they still would nothave been able to rush over here.  This was why she was angry.  She had never concealed her thoughts on Chen Changsheng, and she had nevermuch liked the fiancé that she had never laid eyes on. However, she and thatperson had a marriage contract between them after all, so she naturally hadsome conjectures, and even hopes.  Only with hope can there be disappointment.  As she looked at the mountains of the Garden of Zhou, gazing in the directionof the upper reaches of that river, she developed an ineffable fury towardsthat fellow. "He doesn't have the slightest grasp of the bigger picture, onlyknowing how to treat injuries and save lives. Could it be that he didn't seethat this was all part of the demons' plan? His actions are so extremelysmall-minded that it really makes one angry."  The chaos within the Garden of Zhou definitely had something to do with thedemons. It was only because she had reached this conclusion that she had walkedthat lonesome mountain path on Sunset Valley. If Chen Changsheng and Zhexiu hadreached the same conclusion and they had pooled their strength, then togetherwith Liang Xiaoxiao and Qi Jian, those two members of the Divine State's SevenLaws, they would have definitely been able to break through the demons' plans.  But Chen Changsheng had gone to find the Sword Pool, so she had given such anevaluation.  She could not have thought that at the peak of Sunset Valley, Nanke had givena similar evaluation of her.  "As expected, Shuang'er wasn't wrong. Normally he'll appear honest andconsiderate, kind and benevolent, but when push comes to shove, you can see thecold selfishness within. At this time, he still regards the Sword Pool as moreimportant than anything else. Only… why was it that he was like me, rushingaround the Garden of Zhou for two nights doing his utmost to save others?"  Xu Yourong creased her brows in thought, then finally came to an answer—ChenChangsheng had done it on purpose and saved all those people for her to see.  "Did he use this method so that… I would get a good impression of him? Trulya hypocritical scoundrel."  Her mood was a little strange, so she no longer thought about it. Turning,she went to look at the cultivator that she had rescued. Because her vision wasstill blurry, she lowered her head and moved very close to get a clearer viewof that person's appearance. His unconscious appearance, with his brows creasedtightly together, still gave a honest and calm impression, like one would wantto get to know him. His age was around twenty years old.  "He seems like a sincere person. For him to be at Ethereal Opening at hisage, perhaps he's some heavily favored core disciple of some sect, or perhapshe was on one of the Three Banners of this year's Grand Examination. It's apity that he's going end up a corpse in this wilderness." She had confirmed that she could do nothing to save him, so she could not helpbut feel a little regret. She shook her head in pity, then reached out her handand began to search his body, looking for something that could prove hisidentity. Unexpectedly, she found nothing except a very ordinary dagger, whosesurface bore no mark or insignia.  She remembered that when she rescued him last night, there had been a strangeweapon in his hands, possessing the shape of an umbrella, but now she could notfind it. She wrinkled her brow, then perhaps because she thought of something,she turned around and began to make her way to the dry land across the pond ofreeds. The water soaked her skirt, causing her to leave marks on the beach atthe edge of the forest.  In the very instant Xu Yourong's figure disappeared into the trees, a thinblack silhouette fell like lightning on that patch of reeds.  The reeds swayed with the wind. A strand of Qi suddenly appeared then just asquickly vanished. A little girl wearing a black dress appeared by ChenChangsheng's side. At her waist was a jade ruyi.  The little girl had a cold expression, and her vertical pupils were as blackas her dress. All this made that red birthmark between her eyebrows seem allthe gaudier.  She was the Black Dragon. Chen Changsheng called her Zhizhi, or sometimes hewould call her Hongzhuang.  As she stared at the unconscious Chen Changsheng, the slightest trace ofconcern and confusion appeared in her cold expression. "Weren't you on theother side of the cliff? How did you suddenly end up here?"  As a noble and powerful Black Frost Dragon, even though she was but a strandof a soul, it only took her a glance to see that Chen Changsheng's insides wereriddled with injuries.  If no-one came to save him, he would most certainly die.  "How did you end up together with that woman?"  She gazed at the forest across the reeds, and her brows rose up indispleasure, as she thought to herself, "Chen Changsheng, you idiot! Just whatdid she promise you? How could you trust a human female?"  For her, the human that had left her the most bitter memories, besides thelong-gone Wang Zhice, was that woman, the Tianhai Divine Empress.  Xu Yourong was very much like a young Tianhai Divine Empress. Taken togetherwith that engagement that Chen Changsheng had talked about, it meant that shehad an innate wariness of Xu Yourong. She did not have a single good impressionof her.  She saw Xu Yourong save Chen Changsheng, then spent a very long timesearching for the two. When she finally found them, she unexpectedly saw XuYourong leave once more.  This only increased the enmity she had towards Xu Yourong.  In her view, the reason why Xu Yourong had risked such danger to rescue ChenChangsheng last night was because the demons were watching. Now when Xu Yourongleft Chen Changsheng to die, it was because there was no one there to see. Thereason for all this was because Xu Yourong highly valued her reputation,viewing it as even more important than the lives of others, and even her ownlife as well.  This sort of woman was truly very cruel, hypocritical, and frightening.  She thought about the letter that Chen Changsheng had once described to herin the underground cave, she thought about those words written in the letter,and an expression of loathing appeared on her face.  To leave Chen Changsheng in these reeds as you walk off, letting himhelplessly and slowly wait for his death, is that what you meant in your letterwith 'do your best'?  Besides Chen Changsheng, she did not have any good impression about humans,so right now she was very angry. Moreover, she had invested a lot of blood intoChen Changsheng, true blood. She could not permit Chen Changsheng to die likethis, or else that blood would go to waste. Then her first priority was to finda way for Chen Changsheng to survive.  How could she heal the wounds in Chen Changsheng's body?  She thought of a method, then an indescribable mixture of shame and rageappeared between her eyebrows, causing that red birthmark to seemingly glow.  "Remember, you owe me yet another life," she said angrily to the unconsciousChen Changsheng.  With these words, she bent over and embraced Chen Changsheng, then nestledinto his bosom. Then she turned into a black light and entered into his body.  A strand of extremely cold and extremely pure Qi emerged from ChenChangsheng's stomach, then it gradually returned into his body.  Chen Changsheng's internal organs were covered with a host of fine cuts, eachone bleeding incessantly. That cold Qi caused the blood to stagnate and theflow to gradually cease. Simultaneously, both his pulse and his breathing alsobegan to slow.  The water between the reeds became covered with a thin layer of frost.  Chen Changsheng's brow also began to develop a layer of frost.  At the same time, a jade ruyi appeared on his wrist.  After a while, there came the sound of water splashing about.  Xu Yourong walked out of the forest, carrying her skirt as she returned tothat patch of reeds. What she had gone to do was a complete mystery.  Seeing the layer of frost over Chen Changsheng's brow and sensing that thesurroundings were a little colder than they had been before, she slightlyraised her brow, thinking that something had happened while she was gone.  But there was clearly nothing around this patch of reeds.  She took out her Fated Star Plate, her fingers seemingly inadvertently movingacross it a few times.  The Fated Star Plate gave no indications. Those lines were extremelydisorderly, in complete chaos. Just like how there were no stars in the nightsky above the Garden of Zhou, she could not see a single thing in this plate.  Her injuries were too heavy, making it impossible to walk back to thosegardens where the human cultivators had gathered. Then what should she do next?  She stretched out her hand and grabbed Chen Changsheng's belt, then beganwalking towards that cliff while carrying Chen Changsheng like he was a bundle.  Because she was not that tall, Chen Changsheng's face would occasionally dipinto the water, causing a splash and waking up a few fish.  Just what did this person eat every day? He doesn't look fat, so why is he soheavy?