Phoenix's Requiem

“Yes, I’m willing!”

“No!” “No!”

Two voices responded immediately: the first was Yun Moxiao’s, and the second was Li Mo’s.

“Would you like to discuss this among yourselves?” Huang Chaun offered.

“No, there’s no need. Let me do it,” Yun Ruoyan volunteered again.

“Yan’er, it’s far too dangerous.” Li Mo frowned as he looked toward Yun Ruoyan. “The silver dragon elder has seen your face before. What if he recognizes you?”

“Ruoyan, Li Mo’s right,” Yun Moxiao added. Then, he turned toward Huang Chuan. “Are there any openings for male servants?”

Huang Chuan shook his head. “Except for the silver dragon elder, the holy maiden cannot come into contact with any other men.” ƒ𝗿e𝘦𝚠𝗲𝚋n𝚘ν𝙚𝗹.𝑐o𝙢

“As I said, I’ll go,” Yun Ruoyan insisted. She cozied up to Li Mo. “I can easily change my appearance to make it difficult for him to identify me, and I’ll have Qiuqiu with me. I’m a second-rank sword saint now, so even if I find myself in a difficult spot, it won’t be a problem.”

As long as she didn’t traipse into an ambush, Yun Ruoyan was quite confident in her ability to escape. After so much time spent adventuring, she had grown rapidly in two areas: her cultivation, and her ability to flee.

“Li Mo, it doesn’t seem like there’s any other choice,” the demonic spirit said.

Li Mo glared coldly at the demonic spirit. Of course he knew it was the most logical option—but how could he bear to let Yun Ruoyan face danger alone? If something were to happen to her...

“Brother Li, I can try to get you into the silver dragon castle as a guard. Although you won’t be able to be with your wife, you’ll both be in the castle. If anything goes wrong, you’ll be able to react in time to save her,” Huang Chuan proposed.

“Why didn’t you mention that earlier, Brother Huang?” Yun Moxiao asked. “In that case, you might as well get me in too—it’s always better to have more people.”

“No, that’s impossible,” Huang Chuan replied immediately.

“Why?”

“Because you don’t possess the silver dragon bloodline,” Huang Chuan continued. “You aren’t qualified to enter the silver dragon castle.” Huang Chuan explained that there were quite a number of races on the Jiyuan continent, even though it was now dominated by the silver dragons. What the races shared in common were gray hair—none of the other six bandits in the clan had the silver dragon bloodline, and the three that did had already been working in the silver dragon castle and were exposed when they realized that their head had been captured.

“But how could they tell that I don’t have the silver dragon bloodline?” Yun Moxiao continued.

“Anyone working the silver dragon castle will have their blood tested to confirm that they’re indeed members of the silver dragon clan. 𝐟re𝐞w𝐞𝒃𝓃𝒐𝐯𝚎𝒍.c૦𝚖

“But you didn’t test my blood!” Yun Moxiao frowned. “Furthermore, my sister, Yun Ruoyan, also doesn’t have the silver dragon bloodline. Doesn’t that mean that she can’t enter the silver dragon castle?”

Huang Chuan narrowed his eyes at Yun Ruoyan. “No, she does possess the silver dragon bloodline—a meager amount, to be sure, but just its presence is enough.”

“That’s impossible!” Yun Moxiao shouted.

“My racial talent allows me to sense the purity and nature of the bloodlines that people possess,” Huang Chuan replied. “The instant I saw you, I noticed that you weren’t members of the silver dragon clan. It was because you didn’t possess the silver dragon bloodline, Brother Yun, and because Madam Li only had trace amounts of the bloodline, that I was so lax toward you.”

Yun Moxiao continued shaking his head, but Li Mo stared at Yun Ruoyan’s abdomen instead. “Yan’er, could you... be expecting again?”

Yun Ruoyan nodded. “A few days before we entered the Jiyuan continent, I found out that I was pregnant. I had to enter the Jiyuan continent with you, but you would surely have forbidden me from doing so if you knew I was pregnant, so I kept it a secret from you.”

When she saw Li Mo’s face turn black, Yun Ruoyan continued, “Remember how you forbade me from entering the Mingyuan continent with you because I was injured? I followed you there anyway, and we stayed for years in the Mingyuan continent! There was a considerable amount of danger, certainly, but we’re both fine now, aren’t we? This time, it’ll be the same. I believe that, as long as we stay together, we’ll be able to deal with any problem that arises.”

This was a philosophy she had arrived at by experience: whenever she was in a life-or-death situation, her fighting spirit would always be bolstered by the fact that Li Mo was waiting for her not too far away. She believed that Li Mo felt similarly.

Li Mo sighed. “Now that it’s come to this, I couldn’t send you back even if I tried.”

Qiuqiu was able to tear open a spatial rend, but he could not—and Qiuqiu only listened to Yun Ruoyan.

“Believe me, Li Mo,” Yun Ruoyan emphasized. “I might have been rash and impetuous in the past, but now that I’m with child again, I’ll definitely make sure to take care of myself.”

In the end, they agreed that Yun Ruoyan would enter the silver dragon castle as the new personal servant of the holy maiden, while Li Mo would enter the castle as a guard. The others would lie in wait, ready to act once the holy maiden left the castle again. Then, they would lay an ambush for the silver dragon elder.

They waited in the demonic enclave for another three days before Huang Chuan finally returned with good news. That afternoon, he left for the silver dragon castle with Yun Ruoyan.

The castle was divided into three sections. The outermost section was the exterior, where several of the guards and the prisoners stayed. Within was the central enclosure, where several of the important figures of the silver dragon clan resided and dealt with clan matters. At the center of the castle was the inner core, home to the most important members and structures of the silver dragon clan: the silver dragon temple and the residences of the holy maiden and silver dragon elder.

Huang Chuan brought Yun Ruoyan through the exterior of the castle, then waited with Yun Ruoyan by a spot close to the prison. Not long after they arrived, a middle-aged woman appeared. Her hair was a sterling silver, not as pure as Li Mo’s, but clearly more distinguished than most.

“You’re here, Madam Li!” Huang Chuan immediately stepped forward with his short legs.

“Huang Chuan, the woman you sent me last time simply won’t do. She’s far too fragile,” she grumbled. “Just one slap from the holy maiden caused her to be so shocked that she was trembling all over, and it angered the holy maiden to no end.”

“Please calm down, Madam Li.” Huang Chuan stuffed a pouch containing a hundred spirit crystals into her hands, relieving some of her anger.

“You must be earning quite a lot from these women’s families, aren’t you?”

“Of course, Madam. I respect your generosity for allowing me to nominate attendants for the holy maiden herself. If this candidate’s able to do a satisfactory job and ingratiate herself with the holy maiden, I’ll have more gifts for you as well.” Huang Chuan smiled obsequiously.

“If these servants manage to ingratiate themselves with the holy maiden, they’ll receive a hefty reward for their service. As their recommender, you’ll share in part of the rewards, and it’s only natural that you would share some of that with me,” Madam Li stated. The pouch of spirit crystals that Huang Chuan had given her had already vanished into her storage ring.

“Of course, Madam!”

What Madam Li certainly wasn’t about to tell Huang Chuan was that, although the holy maiden was generous, her temper was odd and quirky. The servants valued their life more than they valued money, and there was no longer anyone in the entirety of the palace who was willing to serve the holy maiden. That was why she had to find new recruits through Huang Chuan. As someone who shared his profits with her, Huang Chuan was a good option for a long-term partnership.

“Let me inspect the newcomer.” Only then did Madam Li turn to Yun Ruoyan. “Raise your head and let me observe you.”

Yun Ruoyan, who had been standing still with her head lowered, now raised her head.

Madam Li frowned. “Well, she seems a little better than the one before. We’ll take her.”

Yun Ruoyan lowered her head again. Given my current appearance, I’m still better than the last servant Huang Chuan brought in? How ugly could she have been? No wonder the holy maiden would get mad if she had to stare at an ugly face all day long!

Yun Ruoyan had changed her appearance before they set off for the palace, but Huang Chuan had told her that she was still too pretty. As a result, she had given herself thicker lips, uneven eyebrows, and a crooked nose. She would be ugly on the Chenyuan continent, let alone the Jiyuan continent. Most of the women that Yun Ruoyan saw on the streets were beauties, and only a rare few were a little uglier because their silver dragon bloodline wasn’t particularly concentrated. Nevertheless, Yun Ruoyan was uglier than the ugliest woman she had seen.

“Go serve the holy maiden. Your family and I will await your good news.” Huang Chaun patted Yun Ruoyan’s back and nudged her forward.

Yun Ruoyan followed Madam Li toward the gate to the central enclosure. There, a guard pricked her with a specialized silver needle, which turned a very faint blue.

“Alright, she can go in,” the guard said.

The central enclosure was very spacious, and it took another hour of walking before they entered the gates to the core of the silver dragon castle. Yun Ruoyan estimated that the castle was about half the size of the silver dragon city itself.

Unlike the city, however, the entire castle seemed to be silent throughout. Everyone she saw, men and women alike, wore silver attire and trod noiselessly, clearly having received specialized training. Furthermore, they all possessed incredible beauty.

Yun Ruoyan couldn’t help but wonder why it was that she would be sent to the holy maiden immediately. Shouldn’t the holy maiden’s personal servants undergo rigorous training? And why would they pick someone as ugly as she was?

Just as Yun Ruoyan was pondering these questions, Madam Li suddenly turned back and said, “I don’t know how advanced your cultivation is, but you have to remember never to use your cultivation within the silver dragon castle. The consequences will be dire.”

“I understand, Madam,” Yun Ruoyan replied obediently.