Wei Jie and Xiaoxiao exchanged glances. Since they couldn’t get out, they decided to go down and investigate.

So the two of them descended into the valley again. Wei Jie took Xiaoxiao’s hand and followed those circling and dancing phoenixes deeper into the valley bottom.

Xiaoxiao originally wanted to shake off his large palm, but when her gaze fell on Wei Jie’s injured wrists, she couldn’t bear to use force anymore. Being pulled by him, she obediently followed by his side.

After passing through a narrow mountain path, their view suddenly opened up, as if they had arrived at a paradise beyond the world. Here, mountain springs flowed, grass was green as a carpet, and on a patch of verdant grassland grew an exceptionally flourishing parasol tree.

On the tree was a huge nest, and at this moment, those five phoenixes had landed on the parasol tree, contentedly stretching their feathers.

Wei Jie was naturally extremely bold. Since they had come here, of course, they should investigate thoroughly, so he simply embraced Xiaoxiao and jumped onto the large tree.

They could see scattered eggshells in those nests. The eggshells were extremely beautiful, sparkling as if sprinkled with mica powder. Looking at the colors, they corresponded to the five colors, so it seemed these phoenixes were born in this nest.

However, Xiaoxiao’s eyes were sharp, and she noticed there seemed to be some fine eggshell fragments in the grass by the stream.

Xiaoxiao jumped down from the tree, went to the streamside to pick up those eggshells, but discovered that this egg’s color was somewhat dull gray, not sparkling with bright colors like the other phoenix eggshells. It looked extremely dim, but judging by the egg’s shape, it should also be a phoenix egg.

Wei Jie also came down from the tree and saw the fragments in her hands. After thinking, he boldly guessed that this should be an egg that had been pushed out of the tree, leaving behind eggshells after breaking.

Xiaoxiao listened with a puzzled, slight frown: “Pushed out of the tree? Could it be that a cuckoo mixed into the phoenix nest?”

Cuckoos like to have other mother birds raise their young, so they often lay eggs in others’ nests and push the host’s original eggs out of the nest, which is why Xiaoxiao asked this.

As a member of the Wei family, Wei Jie was quite familiar with many legends of strange beasts.

Looking at those blackened eggshells thoughtfully, he said: “This should be a rare black phoenix egg. It’s said that when black phoenixes appear in the world, they’re considered inauspicious and not tolerated by heaven’s mandate, so phoenixes will actively push black eggs out of their nests…”

The so-called black phoenix was an ominous thing, said to gather demons and cause changes, a strange creature that only appeared in chaotic times.

So it didn’t seem strange that this gray egg was pushed out.

Xiaoxiao didn’t speak, but lowered her head to search again and again in the grass where she found the eggshells, and found a tiny piece of black down.

Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but call out happily: “Wei Jie, look, there’s a little bird down here. Did this egg hatch after all? Let’s search and see if we can find that little black phoenix.”

Seeing her searching enthusiastically, Wei Jie couldn’t help but tease: “Why? Do you think being hunted by five phoenixes wasn’t exciting enough, so you want to find another black phoenix?”

Xiaoxiao also knew her behavior was somewhat pointless, but when she heard that black phoenixes were pushed out of their nests by their mothers when they were still eggs just because they represented bad luck, she felt somewhat uncomfortable. She was born with the “Ten Injuries” fate, suspected by relatives from childhood as an ominous person. She understood too well the taste of being ostracized.

So, hearing Wei Jie’s words, she wanted to see if that little black phoenix was still around.

But after Xiaoxiao searched around in a circle, she still couldn’t find any trace of a black phoenix. Perhaps that black phoenix, after luckily hatching, still died young.

After all, not being a creature blessed and expected by heaven, it was normal for it to be gone.

But why did the five phoenixes lead them here? Was it just to visit the divine parasol branch where they were born?

Just then, Wei Jie, who had turned to one side of the tree, suddenly became grave, looking toward a smooth, large stone beside the tree.

On that stone were written several large characters in a flowing, phoenix-like style—”Heaven’s Mandate Can Be Defied.”

Such rebellious words appearing in this divine bird’s secret realm were quite incongruous.

But what made Wei Jie’s expression heavy was that this flowing script was unmistakably his handwriting!

Xiaoxiao also recognized his handwriting and couldn’t help but hesitantly ask: “What? You’ve been here before, too?”

Wei Jie frowned and shook his head. This was his first time coming to Ghost Stone Cliff in his life; he had no memory of writing here.

But that writing… was indeed Wei Jie’s penmanship, and even this rebellious phrase was his usual tone—what was going on?

Just then, Wei Jie’s expression became grave again, because he discovered a wine gourd in the grass beside that stone, and this wine gourd was the same as the one he carried with him…

Xiaoxiao picked up that wine gourd in surprise and sniffed it. The wine smell in the gourd was exactly the fine brew Wei Jie often drank in Luoyi City…

When Wei Jie took down the wine gourd hanging at his waist and compared it with the one they found, he really couldn’t see any difference between the two.

But this wine gourd was made by Wei Jie himself, and even the inscription on it should be unique!

Xiaoxiao stared at this suddenly appearing strange wine gourd and suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

She looked around and discovered that the barrier aura set up around here seemed somewhat familiar. This warm and surging aura seemed able to make one’s state of mind become peaceful…

Xiaoxiao’s eyesight was different from ordinary people. When she looked up to examine the surrounding barrier, she suddenly remembered that when her master wanted her to understand the truth of her childhood, he had used the Retrospective Light method. When that formation activated, its aura was very similar to here.

At that time, although she had returned to the past, her mother couldn’t see her, and she was enveloped in a similar barrier.

Her master had said there were more sophisticated ancient spells than the Retrospective Light method that could freely travel through past and present, but their essence was setting up barriers to make time constant.

That is to say, inside this barrier became a virtual realm, a true paradise beyond the world, a place that could appear at any time and location.

It didn’t exist in any space-time, yet could also travel through any space-time.

Could this phoenix-narrow valley be such a time-constant existence? People from any space-time might break in, with different fates overlapping.

So Wei Jie’s assertion that he had never written here was both right and wrong.

Although those words weren’t written by Wei Jie, the Talismonger Sect disciple, they very likely were words left by Wei Jie, the Demon Lord of one generation.

Thinking of how Master Tang Youshu had mentioned in the secret texts that after Wei Jie led his followers to Ghost Stone Cliff, he had disappeared in the back mountain, but the demon cult disciples searched the entire back mountain without seeing his figure.

When Wei Jie reappeared, he seemed to have been burned by fierce fire, and the snake scales on his body were burned even blacker and harder, becoming invulnerable to weapons. Moreover, at that time, a crow had appeared beside him…

Wei Jie seemed to like that ugly bird very much and raised it for a long time…

Xiaoxiao asked Wei Jie thoughtfully: “If you were to keep a pet, would you raise a crow?”

Wei Jie raised his eyebrows in surprise: “What? Are there crows that sing well? What would I keep that thing for?”

After confirming that Wei Jie had no special preferences in pet-keeping, Xiaoxiao could boldly deduce that this valley with the divine parasol branch was like a chamber isolated from time.

The Demon Lord Wei Jie from the original trajectory had once mistakenly entered this place, probably fought with these five birds like her, and after escaping death, wrote his life sentiment—”Heaven’s Mandate Can Be Defied,” then the Demon Lord left behind his wine gourd while taking away a black crow… Ah, no, a little black phoenix.

So this time when they broke in again, although the five phoenixes were all there, and the wine gourd and inscription traces left by Demon Lord Wei Jie were also there, only that black phoenix was missing.

Because Wei Jie had taken that black phoenix out of the phoenix narrow valley, naturally, it wasn’t there anymore.

After reasoning through this, Xiaoxiao became dejected again to discover that she seemed to have followed Wei Jie’s path to demonhood again, helping him through what should have been his trial of true fire burning.

It’s just that after Wei Jie was burned by phoenix flames, his snake scales all over became invulnerable to weapons. What about her snake scales?

Thinking of this, Xiaoxiao opened her robe to examine her arms. Unsurprisingly, she discovered that the snake scales on her body seemed to have spread much more, covering her entire arm.

It’s just that the charred black shell from being burned hadn’t completely fallen off yet, and the half-exposed color inside seemed somewhat glaring and strange. Xiaoxiao reached out to rub that charred shell…

The charred shell fell away rustling, revealing a dazzling gleam of gold…

Xiaoxiao suspected she was seeing things and hurriedly rubbed harder, and Wei Jie also extended his large palm to help her rub.

Finally, when the black shell of the entire arm fell off, what was revealed was truly a golden, gleaming arm…

Xiaoxiao was somewhat dumbfounded. Why did Wei Jie’s previous life burn out black scales and iron armor, while hers was such a rich and glorious color?

Thinking of the future sight of golden scales covering her entire body, Cui Xiaoxiao was distressed!

Wei Jie was initially also grave, silently thinking about why Xiaoxiao’s arm had become like this. Seeing Xiaoxiao frowning sadly, he gently asked: “What’s wrong? Do you feel uncomfortable in your body?”

Xiaoxiao puffed out her cheeks, frowning with delicate brows, saying in a low voice: “What should I do? My arms have turned golden… it’ll be hard to match clothing colors in the future!”

Gold was even worse than black, so glaring. In the future, wearing fresh, tender colors like green wouldn’t match at all!

Wei Jie was silent again, having to admit that his master was not an ordinary person—she could think of things others couldn’t think of!

After all this fuss, she was worrying about this?

Just as Xiaoxiao revealed her golden arm, the five phoenixes perched on the branches seemed unable to bear such a dazzling color either, crying out loudly as they took flight again.

Circling above their heads, the next moment, the five phoenixes transformed into five colored lights, shooting straight toward Xiaoxiao.

Wei Jie instinctively blocked in front of Xiaoxiao, but it was already too late.

They saw that on Xiaoxiao’s smooth neck, five colored phoenix brands had been imprinted, encircling her neck like a necklace.

Xiaoxiao rushed to the stream edge to stare wide-eyed, then looked up at Wei Jie dumbfounded: “They… they couldn’t have attached to my body like the Demon Pearl, could they?”

Wei Jie also frowned. He had never heard of phoenixes attaching to human bodies.

After asking Xiaoxiao and confirming she felt no discomfort, Wei Jie decided to first take Xiaoxiao out, then seek his grandmother to ask if she knew what this situation was.

The two had stayed in the illusion too long, but after those five phoenixes transformed into marks imprinted on Xiaoxiao’s neck, the surrounding barrier aura seemed to weaken significantly.

Xiaoxiao sighed deeply. Since the path to demonhood had gone this far, she might as well go all the way.

So she picked up the Heaven’s Punishment Sword, came before the round stone, and under the flowing “Heaven’s Mandate Can Be Defied,” also wrote four large characters—”Attract Wealth and Treasure”!

It’s just that, compared to the vigorous and powerful calligraphy above, Xiaoxiao’s handwriting showed some childishness.

Wei Jie tried to appreciate his teacher’s literary work and praise it, but had nowhere to start, so he could only raise his eyebrows and ask: “What’s so brilliant about your inscription?”

Xiaoxiao said seriously, “Our Talismonger Sect has encountered slightly too many unlucky things recently, so of course we need auspicious words! As the sect leader, I’m supporting so many of you—don’t I need to attract wealth? Your master’s body is about to become an inn for various demons to attach to! I still have to carefully restrain these increasingly numerous demons, and I need to attract even more treasure! As for that idiot above who wrote ‘Heaven’s Mandate Can Be Defied’—just listen to such talk. If you try to practice it, you’ll get struck by heavenly thunder!”

After hearing her speak so eloquently for such a long passage, Wei Jie was completely relieved. She had the mood to play the boring trick of “so-and-so was here” like the Monkey King, so it seemed the fire burning hadn’t severely damaged her vitality.

After confirming Xiaoxiao was fine, Wei Jie carried her on his back, retraced their path, and soared upward.

Wei Jie was agile, carrying Xiaoxiao while stepping on cliff walls, borrowing force to continuously leap upward. When they reached the gap above the narrow valley, he burst through the much-weakened barrier in one go and rushed out.

But just as Wei Jie broke through the barrier, the two gourds hanging at his waist didn’t hold on and fell back down to the valley bottom…

Yu Ling’er and the others had been guarding at this crevice, but being unable to break through the barrier and unable to go down, they had been extremely worried about Xiaoxiao.

When Wei Jie carried Xiaoxiao up, Yu Ling’er let out a fox-like cry of joy.

She quickly came over, embraced Xiaoxiao, then looked her up and down to see if she had been burned.

The sight of the five phoenixes breathing fire earlier had been too terrifying—they were roasting Xiaoxiao like fragrant meat.

Yu Ling’er had thought Xiaoxiao would be charred, but unexpectedly, when she came up, although she still had some charred carbon shells hanging on her, they looked like they could be washed off. Her face was still smooth, and she seemed fine.

It’s just that Xiaoxiao’s clothes… seemed to be Wei Jie’s, and inside she seemed to be wearing nothing… so when the two were down there, hadn’t Wei Jie seen Xiaoxiao completely naked?

So after Yu Ling’er put down her heart full of worry, her gossiping soul immediately burned vigorously. She lowered her voice to ask Xiaoxiao: “When he went to save you, you weren’t wearing clothes? Did he…”

Xiaoxiao suddenly reached out to pinch Yu Ling’er’s mouth, pinching the fox’s mouth into a duck’s mouth, then squinted and said: “Try bringing this up again?”

Yu Ling’er discovered that Xiaoxiao, after being roasted by fire once, seemed to have changed appearance. Although she had become more enchanting and moving, when fierce, she was also sharper-eyed! She really increasingly had the bearing of a great sect master!

But… Yu Ling’er wasn’t afraid! After mixing with Xiaoxiao for so long, she also knew her temperament—when she glared, it was mostly just to scare people!

So after Xiaoxiao let go, Yu Ling’er pitifully covered her mouth, quickly retreated, hid behind Tang Youshu, then suddenly stuck out her neck and shouted: “Xiaoxiao, did Wei Jie see you without clothes?”

Xiaoxiao angrily pounced to pluck the talkative fox’s fur, while Yu Ling’er used Young Master Tang as a human shield, dodging left and right.

Tang Youshu was also helpless, only able to protect Yu Ling’er like a mother hen while carefully trying to persuade Xiaoxiao: “Master Ancestor… don’t argue with her. We all know you and Master are gentlemen who see no evil and hear no evil!”

But Yu Ling’er said: “Come on! They’ve kissed several times already! When we were in the village, I saw them hiding in the room kissing…”

The fox clan advocated deep emotion and natural disposition. Since they were people who liked each other, of course, they should be together openly.

Yu Ling’er just couldn’t stand how Xiaoxiao was practicing dual cultivation with her disciple, yet stubbornly refused to admit it!

However, her saying this was also to give Young Master Tang a heads-up—never fall for this succubus Xiaoxiao! Cui Xiaoxiao already had Wei Jie for dual cultivation, so she mustn’t harm Young Master Tang either. His body was weak and couldn’t withstand such harvesting!

Only then did Xiaoxiao realize that when she and Wei Jie “transferred” inner cores in the village those few times, they had all been seen by the little fox.

Probably she had pinched her mouth too hard just now, so the stinky fox was deliberately taking revenge, actually revealing such secrets.

Looking at the surrounding fox clan’s faces of sudden realization, Xiaoxiao looked at Wei Jie with some despair, hoping he could come forward to clarify.

Master, your venerable soul above, this disciple’s will was momentarily unsteady and was bewitched by Wei Jie’s masculine beauty, committing errors that dishonor the master’s teachings!

But the great banner of the Lingshan Talismonger Sect’s righteous path cannot fall!

How should she make everyone believe that their relationship was truly a pure and innocent master-disciple relationship, that the initial inner core transfer was unavoidable, and that the subsequent repeated kisses were merely the result of momentary emotional turbulence?

She didn’t want to practice dual cultivation with Wei Jie or become immortal partners or anything…

However, that scoundrel Wei Jie clearly lacked a sense of duty to protect the sect’s reputation and wasn’t much troubled by everyone’s strange looks.

He smiled and nodded to everyone in acknowledgment, his handsome brows and starry eyes showing a humble yet proud expression, as if kissing his master was quite an honor.

This behavior… suited a Hehuan Sect disciple!

Xiaoxiao regretted it. She should have been burned to death in that True Crimson Fire earlier, saving herself from being roasted by everyone’s strange looks in public now.

But the first thing she needed to do now was to tear Yu Ling’er’s big mouth.

Did the stinky fox think hiding behind Young Master Tang would solve everything?

As a result, Xiaoxiao darted out in one swift movement and immediately grabbed Yu Ling’er’s fox ears that had popped out in fright, pulling her out by the shoulders.

Both Xiaoxiao and Yu Ling’er were stunned.

Although they had played and fought like this before, Cui Xiaoxiao usually couldn’t catch Yu Ling’er.

After all, slippery foxes were much faster than humans. In comparing speed and agility, Xiaoxiao was far inferior to Yu Ling’er.

But just now, Yu Ling’er seemed to have no ability to resist. She only felt a flash before her eyes, and Cui Xiaoxiao had caught her.

Yu Ling’er didn’t believe it and broke free to run again, but the next moment her swishing tail was steadily caught in Xiaoxiao’s hand.

Yu Ling’er blinked her big eyes, half-opening her mouth: “Xiaoxiao, did you practice some lightning talisman? How are your movements so fast?”

Where had Xiaoxiao practiced any lightning talisman? She hadn’t even used her true qi just now—she had just naturally become faster. And Yu Ling’er’s previously dazzling, swift speed now seemed to have slowed down in her eyes, so naturally it was easy to catch her…

Could it be… because of those five phoenixes attached to her body? Thinking of this, she tried lightly touching her toes, feeling her body become light, and the next moment, she flew up into a tree!

Not only was Xiaoxiao surprised, but everyone was also surprised, looking at Xiaoxiao, while Yu Ling’er quickly ran under the tree, winking at Xiaoxiao: “Hey, come down quickly. You forgot… you’re only wearing this one robe! That belt is about to come loose!”

The next moment, Wei Jie had already flown up, pulled her down in one motion, then with a dark expression tied her belt into a dead knot, then asked: “Where did you put your clothes?”

This question made Xiaoxiao suddenly gasp—mentioning clothes, she suddenly remembered her bundle that was thrown when she fell off the cliff.

That bundle contained not only clothes but also her thick master’s secret manual!

Thinking of this, she had no mood to clarify the sect scandal or study how much her movement techniques had improved. She hurriedly searched for where the bundle had fallen based on her memory.

Strange, she clearly remembered the bundle being thrown at this cliff edge, but she couldn’t find it, no matter how she searched!

After Xiaoxiao searched around in a circle without finding it, she suspected her bundle had also fallen into the phoenix valley below like Wei Jie’s wine gourd.

But when she wanted to go down again, she discovered that the narrow valley crevice had somehow completely disappeared. Where she had fallen earlier was now like flat ground—there was no way down!

Xiaoxiao lowered her head to slightly pull open her collar, looking at the five-colored phoenix marks around her neck like a necklace, thinking: Could it be that because the phoenixes all came out with me, the phoenix valley disappeared?

What did these five phoenixes want by sticking to her body? Were they tired of staying in the secret realm and planning to come out with her to see the world?

This way, she was even more impressive than Wei Jie. Wei Jie had only brought out a crow—no, a black phoenix.

But she had taken them all, bringing out all five phoenixes. However, whether these five phoenixes appearing in the world were a blessing or a curse, she didn’t know.

These phoenixes were the Demon Pearl’s nemesis. Now that Xiaoxiao had five phoenixes on her body all at once, she could feel that the Demon Pearl’s aura was suppressed tightly—it probably didn’t even dare breathe loudly.

According to Wei Jie, when she was dying, the Demon Pearl had wanted to abandon her and leave, but was forced back by Wei Jie’s sword. One could imagine how the Demon Pearl was now cursing Wei Jie with foul language under the five phoenix claws.

What Xiaoxiao was most worried about now was where her bundle had gone. Had it fallen into the unmanned Phoenix secret realm? If so, how could she retrieve the bundle?