Chapter 416 - Princess Snow
Not long after, Yun Che finally recovered some of his consciousness, and pain could be felt through every part of his body. In order to kill Feng Chihuo, he had paid a large price, one that was larger than he had expected. Nearly half of all his blood vessels had ruptured, seventy percent of his muscles received various levels of harm, and several tens of various sized gaps appeared inside his internal organs. If these injuries were on any ordinary profound pract.i.tioner’s body, they would long since been dead.
The painful sensation told Yun Che that he had not died, as his bodily functions also began to recover. He vaguely sensed a current of warm profound energy slowly flowing through his body… This was not his profound energy, rather, it was someone else’s. This stream of profound energy was gentle and careful, as if it wanted to heal his injuries, yet was also afraid of accidentally injuring him. This cautious and hesitant activity proved that the owner of this profound energy had never used profound energy to heal injuries.
Who could it be...
Who’s saving me...
At this moment, the scene he saw before he lost consciousness appeared inside Yun Che’s mind… That was a beautiful and pure face that should not exist in the mortal world. Even though he only had a glimpse of it in the extremely short instant before he lost consciousness, it still left a long lasting mark and had been engraved in the depths of his soul. No matter who saw it, that kind of beauty was impossible to forget for an entire lifetime.
Was it a dream… or a painting on a scroll? No… even in a dream, even if it was the best artist in the world, that kind of peerless beauty was impossible to portray.
That beautiful dream-like face made Yun Che’s consciousness that had just awakened feel an uncontrollable hazy intoxication, even the pain in his body had been forgotten. That current of warm profound energy slowly disappeared, and Yun Che’s consciousness went silent.
Not long after that, Yun Che’s consciousness awakened once more, and still felt that warm and gentle profound energy. The time after that, his consciousness continuously woke and slept. Every time it recovered, he would feel that stream of profound energy… or perhaps every time that stream of profound energy came over, his consciousness would awaken for a short period of time.
In the end, at some moment in time, the fingers on both of Yun Che’s hands twitched, as his incredibly heavy eyelids opened bit by bit under the urging of his willpower.
What entered his eyes was a bright light and the blue sky. Yun Che’s body had an astonis.h.i.+ng recovery rate. As soon as he opened his eyes, he felt the existence of his body and four limbs. Even though they were heavy, he distinctly felt that he could control their movements. A bit of profound energy also had collected inside the originally empty profound veins. These profound energies also helped his body recover its bodily functions, so much that they allowed him to move in the simplest of actions… including standing up.
Yun Che grabbed the ground, gritted his teeth, and struggled to sit up...
“Ah, you’re awake!”
The sound of a girl’s voice came over to his ears, this voice was young and tender, a sound so ethereal that it seemed to not be from this world. When he heard this voice, an uncontrollable shudder came over Yun Che’s soul, as well as a kind of crazy, unsuppressable longing… a longing to know the owner of this voice, to know what kind of girl could let out such a pure, ethereal voice.
He turned his head to look at the girl who was standing beside him… It was a girl that seemed to have walked out of the fairy realm. Once he clearly saw her face, Yun Che’s consciousness suddenly blanked out for an instant, not daring to believe the image before his eyes… because he didn’t dare to believe that such an incomparably beautiful face existed in this world. Yun Che searched his own memories, yet still couldn"t come up with any words to describe how this face looked like.
The girl wore a luxurious red garment, embroidered on top was a flying phoenix. This was not the first time Yun Che had seen a phoenix robe, but her phoenix robe was even more gorgeous than the one Yun Che had seen before. No matter the red or the golden color, both glistened brightly, as though every thread and every decoration was made of the world"s most expensive material. However, this phoenix robe was like cosmetics on jade, overshadowed by her snowy creamy skin. If this extravagant outfit was seen someplace else, it would leave one dumbstruck, yet would never attract any of Yun Che’s attention. His eyes fixed on the girl’s face, incapable of moving away. Especially her beautiful eyes... they seemed to billow like blue ripples, condensed inside her dreamy, illusory pupils, becoming a illusory, poetic, fairy-like dream.
This was that fairy he saw before he lost consciousness… and not from his imagination, nor an illusion. She stood there quietly as her silky eyelashes fluttered, with not a single bit of impurity, her eyes had a joyous expression of clear mountains and springs. Then, she looked at him with somewhat nervousness. The gently wind lifted the corner of her skirts, bringing about a simple elegance, yet the most beautiful poem of this world could not describe it.
She looked to only be around fifteen or sixteen, her beautiful dreamy, liquid eyes were young. In terms of appearance, she couldn’t compare with Xia Qingyue, but in terms of how delicate and perfect her complexion was, even Xia Qingyue, number one fairy of Blue Wind, was inferior. In Yun Che’s two lifetimes, out of all the females he had encountered, in terms of complexion, only Jasmine could stand shoulder to shoulder with her. It was as if the heavens favored her, and gave her this fairy-like complexion before his eyes.
If he was an ordinary man, he believed that his heart would definitely be lost, but he wasn’t an ordinary man. In the entire Profound Sky Continent, it was perhaps impossible to find a second who could make him forget himself like that just with their complexion. He suddenly moved his gaze away, slightly bent his head as he calmed his heart. When he lifted his head to look at her fairy-like face again, it was still indescribably beautiful, but he was no longer distracted.
He opened his dried lips, speaking with a hoa.r.s.e and rough voice: “Was it you… who saved me…”
“Um… It seems like it.” The girl slightly perked her flowerlike lips and spoke as though she was uncertain: “This is the first time I tried to save someone, so I’m not sure if I did it right. It’s been many days, and I wasn’t sure if I should tell royal father, but good thing you woke up. Oh right, what’s your name? Which elder are you under? Why did you fall down from Absolute Phoenix Cliff?
The girl’s casual “royal father” caused Yun Che’s heart to violently tremble.
Royal father...
Extremely luxurious phoenix robe...
Around fifteen to sixteen years old...
And a face so beautiful to the point of being illusory...
Was she actually the one Hua Minghai spoke of, the “Princess Snow” known as Profound Sky’s number one beauty!?
Originally, Hua Minghai had used an exaggerated tone of voice when mentioning “Princess Snow”, so he never believed it. But this girl in front of him, it was indeed adequate for her to be t.i.tled “Profound Sky’s number one beauty” because of her face.
However, if she really was Princess Snow, the most treasured pearl of Divine Phoenix Sect, the entire Divine Phoenix Empire’s treasure bestowed by the heavens… then why was she here? When she said “many days”, it meant that he had lost consciousness for several days. And in these past “many days”, she had always been here! What exactly was going on? What exactly was the current situation he was in?
Yun Che’s mind quickly spun as every kind of possibility rapidly flashed in his mind. He s.h.i.+fted his body, his cordial tone of voice containing a hint of terror: “My name is Feng Lingyun, under Nineteenth Elder. I was training alone inside Phoenix Mountain Range and encountered an extremely terrifying profound beast, then was forced to jump off Absolute Phoenix Cliff… I thank Princess Snow for saving my life.”
The girl’s eyes were clear, and as bright as early morning. In front of these beautiful eyes and this girl who had saved his life, it was no doubt an enormous sin to lie. But since he had not recovered from his grave injuries, what he had to do right now was to protect his own life, no matter what. He knew the reason why this girl had saved him, and the reason why she wasn’t on guard with him was because he possessed the same phoenix aura she did.
“Ohhh…” Princess Snow innocently tilted her delicate head. Then, her fine brows bent, as she started to laugh lightly: “As expected of what royal father said, you knew who I was in an instant. Royal father said that within the sect, even though there aren’t many who have seen me, as long as it’s someone within the clan, even if they’ve never seen me before, they would recognize me instantly.
The girl laughed with sincerity, it was as if her laughter was heavenly music that came from between the clouds which could rinse the most evil of thoughts from the world. Yun Che opened his mouth, and uttered: “Your Highness is the most beautiful girl in the world, no matter who it sees Princess Snow, they would never recognize falsely… This place, where is this? Have I... disturbed Your Highness’s secluded cultivation?”
“This is Phoenix Perching Valley, a place that I’ve played in since childhood.” Princess Snow was not on guard with Yun Che at all as she casually replied. Perhaps it was his phoenix bloodline, or perhaps it was because she had always been this pure, and never had contact with any sin, nor had to be on guard at all: “Royal father has been really busy lately and is afraid that I’ll be hurt by others, so he allowed me to come here to concentrate on cultivating World Ode of the Phoenix. Aside from me and royal father, usually no one is allowed to enter, you’re actually the first, you know.”
“...Your Highness, then why didn’t you tell… Sect Master about me? Your Highness is not afraid that I… could be a bad person?” Yun Che clasped his chest, checking the condition of his injuries.
“I did think about telling royal father.” The girl stuck out her white, graceful, jadelike nose: “But if I tell royal father, he’ll definitely kill you. You fell from such a high place, and is already this injured. If you’re killed by royal father, that would be too pitiful, and Little White would be sad. Bad person? ...You’re the same as me, a descendant of the Phoenix, how could you be a bad person? Besides, Little White is so beautiful and docile, its owner would never be a bad person.”
What saved Yun Che was not only her profound energy, but her soft heart —— even though he used such an abrupt method to enter her territory. Only… Little White? What did that mean?
By his ears, a somewhat weak, yet still resonant cry of a bird sounded. This sound made Princess Snow softly “ah” as she turned around, then lithely ran like a sprite toward a magnificent, snow white silhouette: “Little White, your injuries have not recovered, you’re not allowed to move, otherwise, that means you’re not being obedient… even if you see that your owner is awake, you still can’t move rashly.”
On the ground not even thirty meters behind Yun Che was the Snow Phoenix Beast. Its wings were unfolded, and the bloodstains on its wings had been washed clean, without any trace of a b.l.o.o.d.y color. Princess Snow stood by its side and used her little snow white hands to lightly stroke its soft, ice-cold, snowy feather. From an agitated state, she made it obediently calm down as it carefully withdrew its wings.
Yun Che was shocked… it was the Snow Phoenix! It was actually okay! His own body could barely resist falling from such a high place, but the Snow Phoenix had already lost consciousness mid flight, unable to fully make itself float and use any defensive abilities. From such a height, it had sharply fallen down, so its bones and body ought to have been crushed. Why did it seem that its injuries were much more lighter than his own?
Could it be that this girl had saved the Snow Phoenix before it fell?
Then, the “White” she spoke of, was… Snow Phoenix Little Chan!