The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 10

Qu Linyan felt her pride had been badly hurt at the exact moment Fu Xiaoba said she hoped Qu Linyan would take her to the human world to find a man to be her husband.
There were many versions of the white snake repaying kindness in human storybooks. Every version mentioned offering oneself in marriage. Even if humans knew it, demons who had never entered the human world should have heard of it too.
But among all those versions, Qu Linyan had never heard that “offering oneself” could mean taking someone else’s body and offering that.
Qu Linyan felt she might have split into two minds.
If Fu Xiaoba truly coveted her body, Qu Linyan would definitely be embarrassed and angry. Yet now, it seemed Fu Xiaoba did not covet her body at all. Not only that, she was still thinking about wild men in the human world.
Clearly, this should have been a good thing. Yet for no reason, Qu Linyan still felt a burst of irritation.
What did this little pheasant mean?
She had clearly spent so long with Qu Linyan. She clearly squeezed into the same bed with her every night. She was clearly only honest before falling asleep, then once asleep, threw all her arms and legs onto Qu Linyan.
How could she skip over Qu Linyan the moment kindness repayment came up and say she wanted to go to the human world to find a man?
Was Qu Linyan not even as good as those common mortals?
This stupid pheasant was absolutely not right!
Qu Linyan silently picked up a cup of water, trying to press down the nameless anger in her heart.
“Little Black? What is wrong?” Fu Xiaoba waved a hand before Qu Linyan’s eyes. Seeing Qu Linyan return to herself, she quickly asked, “You look unhappy. Did I say something I should not have said?”
Qu Linyan choked on a mouthful of water. She set down the cup and coughed heavily.
Fu Xiaoba hurried forward to pat her back and help her breathe.
Qu Linyan waved her hand. Her expression was awkward, and she did not know how to answer.
She could not exactly say to Fu Xiaoba, “I am angry because you actually dare not covet my body!”
After thinking for a long time, she shook her head with a serious face. “I am not unhappy. I only think you were tricked.”
“Ah?” Confusion filled Fu Xiaoba’s eyes.
“Fu Xiaoba, do you know that the lives of demons and devils are not governed by the heavenly realm?” Qu Linyan touched her chin and put on an old, solemn look. “Those immortals in heaven cannot even control their own fates. At most, they manage the lives of mortals.”
“All living beings in the three realms have three souls and seven spirits. When the soul scatters, life ends, and there is no chance of reincarnation. Because the lives of demons and devils are not controlled by heaven, immortals undergoing tribulation are born as humans to avoid risk as much as possible. Their fate for one life is written by the Star Lord of Fate, all to avoid the danger of their souls being destroyed.” Qu Linyan tapped the stone table with her finger and said sternly, “I have never heard of any immortal being born as a demon to undergo tribulation. The heavenly realm cannot interfere with a demon’s fate. Would they truly not fear an accident?”
Fu Xiaoba listened in a daze. Her innocent, confused eyes blinked several times. “What does that mean?”
Qu Linyan took a deep breath and summed it up. “An immortal becoming a demon for tribulation is something I have never heard of. If you truly are an immortal, I will take your family name, all right? You were definitely tricked by that turkey.”
Fu Xiaoba opened her mouth as if she wanted to argue, but she did not know where to begin.
She stared blankly for several seconds. At last, she said, “Not a turkey. A peacock, a muta…”
“A mutated red peacock!” Qu Linyan finished Fu Xiaoba’s line first and held her forehead with a headache.
Fu Xiaoba bit her lip. After thinking for a long while, she said, “Little Black, I believe every word you said.”
“That is right.” Qu Linyan nodded in satisfaction.
“But I also believe Brother would not lie to me. He has no reason to lie to me.” Fu Xiaoba’s tone was especially serious. “I must go to the human world, and I must undergo my love tribulation. One day, when I ascend as an upper god, I will invite you to the immortal realm for tea and old stories. But if Brother truly tricked me as you say, I do not lose anything.”
“…” Qu Linyan did not know how to argue.
How could Fu Xiaoba be this careless? She did not care about anything…
“So are you repaying this kindness or not?” Fu Xiaoba pressed.
Qu Linyan gritted her teeth, turned her head aside, and said unhappily, “Go away. I am an ingrate!”
Did she look that idle? Was she so full she had nothing better to do than spend time accompanying a pheasant to the human world to find a man?
Impossible. This matter was not open for discussion.
*
Qu Linyan said the exit of a dream was usually hidden in the place the dream master least wanted to face deep in their heart. If they wanted to leave, they had to find out who the dream belonged to and act accordingly.
The Dreamweaving Shuttle could enter another person’s dream without backlash. It could also seal away someone else’s dream, then use a leftover thread of divine sense to weave and change it, turning it into an illusion or killing array that trapped living people.
If it was the first kind, the dream master should be the person asleep. If it was the second kind, the dream master was the one who wove the dream.
The Dreamweaving Shuttle was not an easy spiritual treasure to control. That day, Qu Linyan’s old wounds had not healed and her spiritual power was weak. She should not have used it lightly. But to avoid clashing head-on with Fu Zhuochen before her injuries recovered, she had no choice but to borrow its power and hide in Fu Xiaoba’s dream.
Sadly, too many dreams, good and bad, had been woven and stored inside the Dreamweaving Shuttle. At the time, Qu Linyan’s weak spiritual power was not enough to keep herself awake. In the end, she lost her way completely in those many chaotic dreams. After exhausting herself, she lost consciousness.
When she woke again, she and Fu Xiaoba had arrived in this dream together.
“So this is A-Qing’s dream?” Fu Xiaoba asked.
Qu Linyan shook her head.
At first, she had almost thought A-Qing was the dream master too.
But this dream was too gentle. There was no danger at all, not even the slightest argument. It was clearly a perfect dream someone had carefully woven.
No matter how real A-Qing seemed in the dream, she was still only formed from a thread of the real person’s divine sense.
Familiar, but not real.
If Qu Linyan had guessed correctly, this dream was not meant to imprison anyone. It was a tender refuge that the dream master had spent great effort weaving and preserving.
It was a gentle false image of something they had wanted to keep but had failed to keep.
“I think I know who the dream master is.”
“Who?” Fu Xiaoba asked curiously.
“You do not know her. If I have not guessed wrong, this person should be the owner of the Dreamweaving Shuttle.” Qu Linyan held her cheek and thought for a long while. Then she suddenly stood. “Xiaoba, come with me! I know what she least wants to face.”
Fu Xiaoba gave a confused “eh” and hurriedly stood to chase after Qu Linyan’s small steps. “Little Black… if we find the exit, will we not come back?”
“Reluctant to leave?” Qu Linyan asked coldly.
“A little…” Fu Xiaoba pursed her lips. “She has a good temper and a good nature. She makes me pretty clothes. She helps me cultivate and teaches me spells. The food she makes is also much tastier than yours and Brother’s…”
Hearing this, Qu Linyan immediately tried to throw off Fu Xiaoba’s hand.
Fu Xiaoba quickly held tight to Qu Linyan’s hand. “I was wrong, I was wrong. I will not say more!”
A-Qing, who was cooking lunch in the kitchen, saw the two girls suddenly rush to her hand in hand, looking as if they had something urgent to say. She put out the fire on the stove, wiped her hands, and followed them out of the kitchen.
“What is it?”
Qu Linyan opened her mouth and hesitated for a moment. In the end, she made up her mind. “A-Qing, come somewhere with me.”
A-Qing was confused. “Where?”
“You will know when we get there!” Qu Linyan gave A-Qing no chance to refuse. She reached out and pulled her outside.
The three left the underwater cavern where the flood dragon clan had lived for so long. They kept walking southeast, on and on.
They walked from dawn to night, then from night to dawn.
They left the great canyon and entered a continuous mountain range.
Qu Linyan and Fu Xiaoba had low cultivation and could not use spiritual power to travel quickly. They walked very slowly.
Though A-Qing felt puzzled by this, she did not ask much. She only matched their speed and traveled with them.
Just like that, they ate a little when hungry and rested a little when tired. Day after day, they walked for more than half a month through this dream that seemed to have no edge, never stopping for one full day.
At last, when they reached the border of the dream, everything changed.
As far as the eye could see, there was a sea of blood-red thorns, layered and tangled two meters high, stretching without end.
“What place is this? Why is there no road ahead?” Fu Xiaoba lowered her head and looked at Qu Linyan, her eyes full of surprise.
Qu Linyan only raised her eyes and stared at A-Qing. “You know where this is.”
“If we keep walking forward, we reach the underworld. Past the underworld and across the River of Forgetfulness, one can reach the human world.” A-Qing spoke softly, her eyes full of confusion. “A-Yan, I remember this place was not like this.”
Qu Linyan said, “Someone does not want you to go to the human world.”
A-Qing frowned. “Why?”
Qu Linyan’s face did not change. “If you go look for yourself, will you not know everything?”
“The human world…”
“How can anyone get through this? This is simply…” Before Fu Xiaoba finished speaking, A-Qing began murmuring something for some reason and walked forward as if she had lost her soul.
She reached out and parted the thorns, advancing step by step with difficulty.
Those thorns seemed alive. They began to twist and grow, desperate to become a cage that wrapped around and bound her.
But she ignored them. She only dragged her increasingly heavy steps forward again and again, as if bewitched, unwilling to stop no matter what.
Thin thorns cut her skin. Blood soaked her already torn white clothes red. She seemed to have lost all sense of pain.
“Little Black! What is wrong with A-Qing?” Fu Xiaoba was badly frightened and wanted to rush forward to stop her.
Qu Linyan only reached out and grabbed her. “She is fine.”
“How is this fine? Those thorn branches are clearly alive. They want to kill A-Qing!” After Fu Xiaoba spoke, she threw off Qu Linyan’s hand with force and ran forward in several steps.
The madly growing thorn vines blocked her outside. She used both hands to tear and strike at them, but it was useless. Her palms and backs of her hands were left covered in cuts.
Qu Linyan stepped forward and tried to pull Fu Xiaoba back, but no matter what, she could not move her. She could only release her hands in anger and turn away.
Fu Xiaoba was so anxious that she could not care about anything else. Her only thought was to save A-Qing. Unexpectedly, pain suddenly struck the back of her neck, and her vision blurred along with her mind.
“How many times have I said this? It is only a dream.” After Qu Linyan spoke, she threw away the stick she had picked up from somewhere and muttered, “Only a thread of divine sense. Even I do not care. Why is an outsider like you so anxious…”
As she spoke, she bit her lip, bent down, and helped Fu Xiaoba up. She sat sideways on the ground and gently placed Fu Xiaoba in her arms. Distressed and angry, she held those hands covered in cuts.
At that moment, heaven and earth suddenly changed color. Mountains collapsed, the earth split, thunder crashed, and rain poured.
The plants around them withered completely. Everything, along with the dream that was about to collapse, turned into a desolate scene.
“Xiangsi, so it really is you.” Qu Linyan narrowed her eyes and looked up at the thorn cage that had grown so dense no wind could pass through. For some reason, her heart, which should have been indifferent, could not help feeling a stab of pain.
By instinct, she hugged the woman in her arms tighter and tried to use her small body to shield her from the wind and rain.
Rainwater washed over those wounded hands, carrying a few drops of red. It fell from her fingertips into the dead earth.
In only an instant, withered grass turned green again, and flowers bloomed in a land of death.
In the barren world, only the space around the two of them held a touch of spring.
This was… phoenix clan blood?