Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 36: Our Lives are Yours

The beastkin siblings hung suspended in mid-air, not ten meters from the stampede just below. A beast could be knocked up into the air at any moment, and then they would lose their grip and fall.

“Brother, let go! Otherwise, we’ll both die.” Zhuo Lin’er looked up desperately at her brother.

“No, I won’t let anything happen to you, Lin’er!” Zhuo Yifeng’s forehead was creased, but he forced a smile as he looked at her. “Lin’er, don’t be scared! I’ve promised Mother I’ll take care of you for life!”

“Brother Zhuo!” Lin Qingxue had already begun to cry. “Don’t move, don’t you dare move! I’m coming to save you!” Ignoring her own limits, she tried to move towards Zhuo Yifeng.

But she had almost no strength to begin with, and in her haste, she almost fell from the cliff herself.

“Qingxue, don’t try to move! Take care of yourself first.” Lin Qingchen anxiously called out from beside her.

Although Lin Qingchen was very worried about the beastkin siblings, she was much more logical than Lin Qingxue, and she knew that keeping herself steady and not causing even more trouble was all she could do.

“But Zhuo Yifeng and Zhuo Lin’er...” Lin Qingxue looked at her sister, tears streaming down her face.

“Don’t move, any of you! I’m coming!” Yun Ruoyan had already climbed to a spot below Zhuo Yifeng, extending a hand out toward Zhuo Lin’er. As long as Zhuo Lin’er was safe, Zhuo Yifeng would be able to save himself easily.

But at this moment, another incident happened. The small tree that Zhuo Yifeng was clinging onto had reached its limit, and was uprooted and wholly detached from the cliff under the beastkin siblings’ combined weight.

That little tree was Zhuo Yifeng’s only support, and once it fell, Zhuo Yifeng made a muted grunt as he began falling with Zhuo Lin’er.

“Ahhh!” Everyone let out a sound of panicked horror at once, and Lin Qingxue was so scared that she even closed her eyes.

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In that moment, it felt as if the whole world had stopped. It was a good while before she dared to open them once more, tears falling from her eyes like a flooding river.

“Sister, Brother Zhuo...” She looked at Lin Qingchen by her side, her mouth trembling as though she were about to begin crying in earnest.

“Stop crying!” Lin Qingchen actually smiled upon looking at her face.

“Sister, wh—”

“Quick, look below you.” Lin Qingchen motioned in Yun Ruoyan’s direction. “Isn’t your Brother Zhuo doing just fine?”

Lin Qingxue hurriedly looked below her, seeing Yun Ruoyan’s left hand clutching a sword which had been embedded into the cliffside.

With her right hand, she was holding onto a jet-black spear, from which Zhuo Yifeng hung. Zhuo Lin’er was safely in Zhuo Yifeng’s embrace.

Just as the tree became uprooted, Yun Ruoyan had activated her bracelet’s power, plucking out her sword and stabbing it into the cliffside.

At the same time, she called out the spear in her bracelet and quickly used its enchantment to extend it to twice its original length. “Grab the spear!”

Zhuo Yifeng reacted almost preternaturally quickly, one arm grabbing Zhuo Lin’er’s waist, and his other hand, the other end of the spear.

Yun Ruoyan would normally have been unable to carry out this series of actions so smoothly, but in an adrenaline-fuelled moment and enhanced by the power of the bracelet, she had somehow managed it all.

The bracelet’s power coursed through Yun Ruoyan’s body, and she gathered it into her right shoulder.

“Hold on tightly, I’m going to pull you up!”

And then, amazingly, under everyone else’s jaw-popping stares, she slowly but steadily raised her right arm and pulled the beastkin siblings to safety.

Yun Ruoyan, who looked like a rather thin thirteen-year-old girl, had actually managed to lift such a weight with one hand alone, a feat that left the others gobsmacked.

Zhuo Yifeng himself was amazed, let alone the Lin sisters.

“Sister Ruoyan, you’re amazing! You’re almost there!” Lin Qingxue cheered.

Meanwhile, Lin Qingchen muttered to herself, “How did Sister Ruoyan manage all that?!”

“Just like when she slew the saber-toothed tiger, of course! Sister Ruoyan’s talent must be blossoming again!” Although Lin Qingchen felt equally nonplussed, this seemed like the only feasible explanation. She wasn’t the type to care too much about specifics, and quickly threw her doubt aside.

Only when Zhuo Yifeng had found a new foothold did she finally loosen her grip, and the two siblings looked at Yun Ruoyan with a grateful smile.

Yun Ruoyan thought that she would have to find another excuse for her sudden strength, but no one pressed her for the moment.

She relaxed and thought that this was probably what it meant to have her teammates’ trust: that although some things might be difficult to explain, they’d choose to trust and believe her.

After a life filled with deceit and scheming, being able to trust someone so wholeheartedly was probably something she would never be able to do. However, she also wouldn’t let down anyone willing to trust her so deeply.

“Thank you for saving us.” Zhuo Yifeng looked at Yun Ruoyan, his expression suddenly serious.

Yun Ruoyan smiled back before murmuring the enchantment to shrink Pei Ziao’s spear into the size of a flute, which she stuck by her waist.

“We beastkin have a mandate, that if someone were to risk their life to save us in our time of need, then our lives will belong to that person!” Zhuo Yifeng suddenly exclaimed.

Only then did Yun Ruoyan turn back to look at Zhuo Yifeng once more, saying equally seriously, “It’s nothing so serious. You’ve saved all of us too, and now we’re even!”

“No, it is. This was a vow we took under the Beast King, to obey our savior like our master.” Although Zhuo Yifeng was insistent, Yun Ruoyan didn’t take his words to heart. After all, even if this was a code the beastkin followed, Zhuo Yifeng could hardly do anything if she refused his service.

Seeing that Yun Ruoyan refused to respond to his words, Zhuo Yifeng didn’t say anything more, but he began to frown stubbornly.

The stampede lasted till the evening before the dust and noise finally petered out. Gazing at the corpses lying everywhere below them, Yun Ruoyan’s party sighed in relief. It was finally over; their hands and legs were so sore and numb that they didn’t feel like their limbs anymore.

As night fell and the last remaining beasts dissipated, the group finally climbed down the cliff and inspected the beast corpses strewn all over the ground.

“We’re really going to be rich now! With all these beast cores, I’d be satisfied even if I’m unable to get into Kongming Academy!” Lin Qingxue was grinning so hard she couldn’t close her mouth. “Why didn’t Grandfather give us his larger bag of holding? With so many magical beasts, we can’t even take all their cores! What a waste!”

As the others looked at how many treasures awaited them, they all felt a joy permeating their hearts, instantly feeling that the struggle and scare on the cliffside was all worth it.

Because they had stayed on the cliff the entire afternoon, they really didn’t have the strength to clean and dissect the beast carcasses immediately, so they headed to where they’d rested last night once again.

The night passed without any commotion. Once again, Zhuo Yifeng insisted on taking the night shift alone, and Yun Ruoyan wasn’t able to overcome his stubbornness. Furthermore, because she had exerted the bracelet’s strength during the day, she did feel tired and fatigued. Rather than insist further, she shut her eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.

Next day, by the time she woke up, she found Zhuo Yifeng curled up against a rock. Even his seemingly infallible physique couldn’t stand such abuse, especially considering he both had to take care of Zhuo Lin’er and prepare food for everyone.

Yun Ruoyan felt like it wouldn’t have been too bad to have such a capable youth working with her.

But then her gaze turned toward Zhuo Lin’er, sleeping by Zhuo Yifeng’s leg, and she shook her head.

It wasn’t as if she disliked Zhuo Lin’er; on the contrary, the weak little girl was intelligent and thoughtful. However, her road was destined to be filled with trials and tribulations, and this was an atmosphere wholly unsuited for the small girl.

“Wake up, everyone!” Yun Ruoyan stood up and called out. In the blink of an eye, it was already the fifth day since they had entered the imperial realm. They had five more days to get to the realm’s exit; their journey so far had been quite rough, and it wouldn’t be amiss to expect the same going back, so they needed to make the most of their time.

“Ah!” Zhuo Yifeng suddenly sprang up from his rock. “I fell asleep!”

Amidst his calls, the others quickly woke up in succession.

“It’s already been a few days since you had a good night’s rest, so it’s perfectly normal for you to have fallen asleep,” Yun Ruoyan smiled as she commented, her tone without a hint of blame.

Regardless, Zhuo Yifeng was still very embarrassed. “I’ll go prepare a meal.” As he said so, he quickly ran up the valley path: there were countless corpses all over, after all, and he wouldn’t have to spend any effort hunting.

Although it was summer, the realm was full of spiritual energy, and the beast carcasses themselves were likewise. This allowed their corpses to be preserved freshly longer than otherwise would be possible.

By their campsite was a little stream, and while Zhuo Yifeng was away, the girls took the opportunity to wash themselves and freshen up. Halfway through, however, they heard Zhuo Yifeng’s frantic shouts.

What could have made such a calm and collected person so worried?

“What’s the matter?” Yun Ruoyan was the first to walk up to Zhuo Yifeng.

“Quick, come with me to the valley!”

“Is something wrong?”

Zhuo Yifeng was both worried and mystified. His brows came together as he frowned and said, “Half the carcasses vanished overnight!”