Yi Qing and Shen Ying were taken aback. Together, they asked, "Where"s she?" "Relax, she"s fine now." Lonemoon frowned. "When I just arrived at the Divine World, I happened to be right next to the Underworld. I sensed the same Yin Qi as we saw in the flower in Xuan Tong"s room. That"s how I came all the way here. On the way over, I found her."
"Is Shortie alright?" Shen Ying asked.
"Her body is fine, although she is slightly injured." Lonemoon seemed to have recalled something as his face drained of colour. "She was locked in a cave. At the time, I was not confident of rescuing her on my own, so I told her to look for Shen Ying on her own. I wanted to stall some time for her to escape. Before I could plan anything, I sent her away, and was told that I was going to marry a pervert who already had hundreds of wives."
The three of them turned to look at a certain phoenix.
The perverted Feng San: "…"
"Little Zhen." Feng San immediately turned to Long Zhen beside him. "Listen to me. I had no idea about this!"
Long Zhen turned away. "This has nothing to do with me!"
"Little Zhen…" Feng San began to tear up. "Trust me this once. It"s true! Why don"t I bring you into the rear hall - you would know how to come back."
"I don"t want to know."
"Listen to my explanation."
"No."
"Please listen to me."
"No."
"You say I-"
"Shut up!" Yi Qing pursed his lips. The next moment, hundreds of immortal swords appeared in the sky, pointing toward the two of them. This had already gone on for two chapters, yet they were still arguing. "If you keep fighting, I"m going to act."
Feng San: "…"
Long Zhen: "…"
Er… you"ve already acted.
"Your blood will drench this entire place!" Yi Qing turned to Feng San. "You should know who"s the person that Father Niu sent over?"
Feng San paused. He pondered for a moment, then said, "He came from the Divine Underworld. I only know one ghost immortal from the Underworld."
"Who is he?"
"Ghost Immortal Zhu Ming." Feng San frowned, as if thinking of something. Then, he added, "No… If it were him, he might not have been trying to do you harm by sending someone here."
Lonemoon started. "What do you mean?"
"Come with me to the rear hall and you will know." Feng San gestured toward his back.
The few of them exchanged meaningful glances, then followed Feng San into the rear hall. The moment they stepped through the door, the entire surroundings changed. The majestic hall immediately turned into a dense forest.
They could hear phoenixes calling from all around them. The phoenixes were of all sorts of colours. They gathered around in a square, as if guarding something. Beside the phoenixes stood a few girls who were dressed in strange clothing. There was an array set up around the birds, and right in the middle of the array sat an egg as tall as the girls. From its texture, it was obvious that the egg was belonged to a phoenix.
"This is…" Long Zhen was startled. "The phoenix"s incubation forest!"
"It"s only temporary," Feng San replied.
All along, dragons and phoenixes had trouble reproducing. Every single egg had to undergo thousands of years of incubation. That was why both races tended value the incubation process. The moment they obtained an egg, they would focus all their energy on incubating. Even dragons, who were used to living solitary lives, would gather together to incubate an egg once they found out that there was one. That was why each race would normally keep their incubation location hidden from other races.
"They are my wives," Feng San introduced indignantly.
"So…" Shen Ying paused. "Those eggs are yours?"
"Pu…" Feng San nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. "Fellow Daoist, please do not harm me. This is my phoenix race"s incubation location. I am only responsible for fetching them here."
"Oh…" She thought he was excellent at fertilising eggs.
Yi Qing, who thought he was good at fertilising eggs: "…"
Lonemoon, who shared the same thoughts: "…"
Fortunately, they kept their mouths shut.
"Ten thousand years ago, the phoenix race faced trouble with the incubation process. At the time, they had not found a location safe enough to incubate their eggs. That was why they came to me for help. I created this mystic realm to allow them to incubate their eggs temporarily. I did not expect there to be more and more phoenixes!" Among all the phoenixes, he had the highest cultivation level. Since they were all of the same race, he did not think it would have been nice to turn them down. Even after the new incubation forest was ready, phoenixes would still come to him for help from time to time. "Incubation is required from time to time. That is why I decided to take in those from other races who have nowhere else to go, and I help to take care of them."
Upon closer inspection, they found that apart from women, there were also other men inside the array. There were even some people of other races.
"Why do the girls of the Feng Qi Palace call you their husband then?"
Feng San paused. An awkward look flashed past his face. "Well… Well, that"s because I heard that you, Long Zhen, took in a lot of… servants. I thought that you…. That"s why I allowed them to address me as such."
"Oh…" The three of them exclaimed.
Was he being spiteful?
Here, they had a woman who looked for a bunch of male servants to incubate her eggs, and a man who found a bunch of women to incubate their eggs. On a certain level, they were a match made in heaven!
Long Zhen did not respond, but her anger had clearly dissipated slightly.
"The people in this mystic realm have all decided not to go out from here until their eggs have hatched. That"s why these are all people who have nowhere else to go and are only searching for a place to escape dangers," Feng San said to Lonemoon. "So I think that if Zhu Ming wanted to send your friend here, perhaps he wanted to protect her from something. It should be someone else that"s intending to harm her."
The three of them fell silent.
"Father Niu, where"s Shortie now?" Shen Ying asked.
Lonemoon paused, then quickly retrieved a transmission amulet. He transmitted a gust of immortal Qi into it, but there was no response ."How could this be? I sent her to a dense forest nearby to wait for me."
"Go and take a look!" Shen Ying disappeared out the door immediately after she said that.
The rest exchanged meaningful glances and followed behind her.
Lonemoon pulled her back and said, "Shen Ying, it"s this way!" If you"re bad at directions, then don"t rush in front.
Lonemoon had arranged with Shortie to meet at a dense forest just a few hundred miles from Wu Qi Mountain. The forest there was extremely dense and was filled with complicated auras from all around. Therefore, it would not be easy for anyone to locate her.
However…
"s.h.i.+t!" Lonemoon glanced at the now-destroyed forest. There were still remnants of Yin Qi on the burnt ground. He had only been gone for less than an hour.
"I should ask Zhu Ming to understand this situation better." Feng San glanced at the few anxious people and immediately retrieved a mirror.
A moment later, a black-robed middle-aged man appeared in the mirror. All around him was thick and rich death Qi. Yet, his face seemed kind and his lips curled up in a slight smile. "Feng San? How are you so free to contact an old friend? Did you receive the big gift I sent you?"
"Brother Zhu, can you please tell me why you sent that girl over here? What exactly happened?" Feng San asked.
"Has something happened to her again?" Zhu Ming exclaimed.
"Again?" Feng San repeated.