Under such pressure, Wu Yu could only say his own name.
"Wu Yu...." She rolled his name around on her tongue, her eyes still regarding him. Wu Yu could not speak incautiously. After all, she was extremely powerful.
"But she cannot be her...." Wu Yu"s mind was reeling as well. This was an impossible turn of events for him.
The White Sun Immortal Lord interrupted, "The Princess must be remembering wrongly. How can such a cla.s.s of person have ever interacted with the august Princess? Why don"t I quickly search him, and then we can continue searching for the Mark of an Immortal King?"
"Shut up!" The Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord frowned, displeased. She seemed to be racking her brain. s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g her eyes up at Wu Yu, he felt even more uncomfortable, his hair standing on end.
"I have it now!" The Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord suddenly showed a relieved expression. If such a thing remained niggling at her, she would feel uneasy. Now that she had resolved it, it felt like a weight off her mind.
But hearing this made Wu Yu feel like he was sitting on a carpet of nails. What on earth did she "have?"
"Princess, please tell us," the White Sun Immortal Lord said with a sheepish smile.
The Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord was excited, and her att.i.tude towards the White Sun Immortal Lord improved considerably. She said, "I recall it now. Do you remember that I used Mother"s Ancestral Phoenix Nirvanic Venerable Art and placed some companion phoenix eggs outside? I absorbed one and completed a nirvana. For some reason, one companion phoenix egg came to life and grew its own body; it even had its own memories. Of course, it doesn"t matter. I still completed the nirvana smoothly. After all, it was originally a part of my body! It was not I who has seen him before, but that body."
She pointed at Wu Yu with a finger. The Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord had strange moods. To her, puzzling this out was enough to make her very happy.
The White Sun Immortal Lord laughed. "So that"s what it is! Of course I know about it. It was even my elder brother who personally went to that lesser Jambu Realm to bring your companion phoenix egg out."
"Yes, yes. That egg. Of course, it"s no longer an egg now!" The Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord had puzzled it out, and she was delighted. She said, "To think that a mere few decades of memory could actually enter my consciousness. How fascinating. Well, what is a Xuan immortal like you to that body of mine? I can"t recall that. Tell me?"
Everything that she had said was stored in Wu Yu"s mind, and very clearly at that.
"Ancestral Phoenix Nirvanic Venerable Art, companion phoenix egg, absorb, a portion of her body...."
The Full Moon of Nanshan gasped.
"That means Big Sister Nangong...." Ye Xixi was pale.
"No way...." The Full Moon of Nanshan"s jaw dropped. Of course, he knew of Wu Yu"s past relations.h.i.+p with Nangong Wei. Even if they could not become dao companions in the future, they could still be friends. At least he would look out for her. But now things had changed. And it was unclear how things would settle as a result of this.
"Well, speak. Who are you to her? She is, after all, a part of me. I"m still quite curious as to her memories and past." The Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord stared at Wu Yu. She was starting to feel a little unsettled again as Wu Yu continued to remain silent.
What was Wu Yu feeling?
The words were choked in his heart.
He knew now what had transpired.
The Phoenix Supreme had found a phoenix egg in her lesser realm that did not belong to her. That was the companion phoenix egg the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord had placed at the time of her birth. It was a part of her body. She had placed these companion phoenix eggs in various lesser and greater realms to grow. It was likely that they would absorb the power of those lesser realms and mature. After they matured, the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord would gather these companion phoenix eggs and use the Ancestral Phoenix Nirvanic Venerable Art to a.s.similate them into her body, causing her to undergo a transformation.
This should be the most refined cultivation method of the eternal phoenix tribe. There were definitely not many people in the eternal phoenix tribe who could do this.
But the Phoenix Supreme had brought the phoenix egg out of the dwarf realm and then transformed it. It had been given a soul and a spirit, a mind and a will. It then grew anew, and Nangong Wei was brought into a new body. After that, as her bloodline continued to elevate her, Nangong Wei"s features also started to transform, growing closer and closer to the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord, until the two were exactly the same.
But in the eyes of the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord, it did not matter what the companion phoenix egg grew into. It was still a part of her, and would not affect the Ancestral Phoenix Nirvanic Venerable Art continuing. She had absorbed it for a transformation. Besides, perhaps because Nangong Wei"s consciousness had grown stronger, even nearing immortalhood, the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord was forced to quickly a.s.similate that companion phoenix egg before it reached nirvana itself.
This was the truth of what had happened!
This meant that she was as good as dead, vanished from this world.
She was a minuscule part of the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord now, and gone.
She had once been reborn because of the Phoenix Supreme and the phoenix egg. There was a hope for her to reach immortalhood. But now, she had died as a phoenix egg. She had lost everything....
This was no less than a nightmare for Wu Yu.
Was she dead?
Or was she still in the body? Somewhere in a limb, or an eye?
Or a feather on the body of the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord?
As these thoughts came to him, love and hate tussled within him. He looked at the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord, a reckless urge to find out his own answers and satiate his curiosity rising within him. He started to tremble, his eyes turning red.
He did not know if she was currently looking at him, or if her eyes were equally red.
In the mortal domain, Wu Yu had left her an immortal treasure, and she was definitely very likely to reach immortalhood. But this world was a strange place, and she had ended up as an insignificant leaf on the vast tree that was the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord.
"I...." Hatred and a need to kill. Wu Yu looked at the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord, who had her exact image. His hatred and killing intent were smothered, and now there was only sorrow, sorrow for her.
Such unexpected twists were part of fate. Wu Yu would never have thought that she would come to such an end.
Was the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord wrong? To her, she was but cultivating. But this was not a simple matter of right or wrong. Wu Yu only cared about the outcome, and the outcome was that because of her existence, Nangong Wei might be dead.
It was Nangong Wei who had invaded her companion phoenix egg.
But this was not important. What was important was how much of Wu Yu"s past she made up. All the memories they had, the unforgettable times. Wu Yu was not willing to see her come to such a demise.
He was angry, bitter, he wanted to kill. But he knew that this was not the time. He was wondering if he could bring her back to life, removing her from the great tree.
"Speak, you. If you don"t, I will show you no mercy. I"ll take you away and interrogate you at my leisure!" The Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord was slightly irritated now. She was spoiled and was used to getting her way. Not many people dared to contradict her.
"Speak, Wu Yu." Xu Zidong also urged him. He sensed that something was off about Wu Yu, but he knew that the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord"s patience was limited.
"In the mortal domain, I saved her life before." Wu Yu gritted his teeth, choking out those words. His eyes looked at her strangely, as he sought to cloak his killing intent.
"That simple? I want to know more. Follow me. Tell me a little every day." The Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord did not ask him, but commanded him. Perhaps all of this, on top of her tone, expressions, and movements, were very similar to Nangong Wei. But Wu Yu knew that this was not her!
And now she was commanding Wu Yu to wait upon her.
"The others can go now," the White Sun Immortal Lord said irritably. They were on an important mission. If possible, he would prefer not to bring along a burden like Wu Yu.
"Wu Yu...?" Xu Zidong and the others were in a bind. Mainly, they were unable to resist the might of the eternal phoenix tribe.
And Wu Yu could not either, because he would then implicate Xu Zidong and the others.
His own mind was a mess. He was in an unstable state, and might transform into the Heaven Devouring t.i.tanic Beast at any moment. Reason told him that he should stay away from the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord and think through this!
"What are you hemming and hawing for? Scram," the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord said to Xu Zidong and the others. Others had already left after being checked.
"You all go ahead first." Wu Yu threw a look at Xu Zidong and the others. He had finally calmed down. Once Xu Zidong and the others left, he could leave at any time.
Xu Zidong naturally understood his look. He feigned an unwilling parting from Wu Yu and then made their escape. The White Sun Immortal Lord laughed loudly, mocking Wu Yu. "Seems like your seniors don"t care that much about you at all."
Wu Yu remained silent.
The White Sun Immortal Lord was much more caustic, "Be good and stay smart. Or don"t blame others if you die."
Wu Yu was just waiting for Xu Zidong and the others to get far away.
As for the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord, she had lost interest in him for the moment. Wu Yu"s eyes were locked on to her back. His killing intent could not be hidden now.
Suddenly, there was a huge disturbance at the sea of fire. A phoenix immortal beast surged out triumphantly, "Dancing Flame Princess, the Mark of an Immortal King has been found! It is an eighth-grade Mark!"
"Eighth-grade? Not bad!" Many of the phoenixes immediately flocked over to see what an eighth-grade Mark of an Immortal King looked like.
Soon, there were not many people by Wu Yu"s side. This was the best chance to leave. He took a final look at the Dancing Flame Phoenix Lord, in the crowd of people.
"In time to come, I will definitely come to find you...."
At that time, he would understand everything.