The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 25

In that instant, the black flood dragon called down shocking thunder and sudden rain. Under the washing of the storm, the blue flames gradually weakened, and the spiritual pressure from the Nine-Turn Soul-Destroying Array suddenly lessened by a great deal.
Miss Shen looked up at the black flood dragon and could not help frowning slightly.
The strongest part of the Nine-Turn Soul-Destroying Array was that it could heavily suppress the spiritual power of anyone who entered it. No matter how strong a person was, once they entered this array, their limited spiritual power would make escape difficult.
But at this moment, the black flood dragon soared through the air. The people who had set the array seemed to want to stop it, yet wherever it passed, the netherworld power around it was smashed apart. It could not block the flood dragon at all.
This kind of strength was powerful to an almost unbelievable degree.
A demon with less than three thousand years of cultivation, even if her natural clan power was strong, should not have such power…
Yet she did.
Amid lightning, thunder, wild wind, and heavy rain, the black flood dragon flew above the river. It gave a low roar and circled there for a moment. The roar was hoarse yet deafening, mixed with thunder and rain, and was frighteningly cold.
A corner of the clouds filling the sky was suddenly blown open by the wild wind. The blood moon reappeared and reflected in the river.
In the next instant, the black flood dragon dove into the river, and the moon’s reflection shattered beneath its strike.
The array broke into nothing at once. The blood moon vanished, and the spiritual pressure around them scattered completely, leaving only scorched earth everywhere.
Thunder and rain still filled heaven and earth, pouring over the eighty-one black-clothed people covered in blood.
They did not even exchange looks before they all charged toward Miss Shen as if throwing away their lives.
Withered Lamp blood slaves had no choice. The array was destroyed and their spiritual power had scattered. They could only risk their lives on one fatal strike. If they failed the mission, returning would still mean death.
Without the array suppressing spiritual power, Miss Shen forced herself to stand despite her wounds and exhaustion. She protected Fu Xiaoba behind her, formed a seal with both hands, and blue-green light filled the sky.
Although the Withered Lamp clan cultivated netherworld power, their secret arts were fire based. The Nine-Turn Soul-Destroying Array powered by the life souls of eighty-one Withered Lamp blood slaves had been broken, and now they were at the end of their strength. In a rainy night, facing the strongest Blue-Green Light power in the world, even though Miss Shen’s internal injuries were not light, they could not break through for a time.
At that moment, the black flood dragon that had sunk to the bottom of the river suddenly burst out of the water. Fierce as a monster walking out of hell, it let out an angry roar toward the dim night sky.
The falling rain became like knives and arrows, stabbing down from above and piercing every Withered Lamp blood slave’s body.
Fresh blood dyed the human earth, then was washed away by the heavy rain.
The black flood dragon changed into human form in midair. Her lips were deathly pale, and her gaze met Fu Xiaoba’s.
Fu Xiaoba stared with reddened eyes and forced a smile at Qu Linyan. But then Qu Linyan’s body swayed, and she fell straight from the air into the river.
“Little Black!” Fu Xiaoba ran forward in panic, jumped into the river, and pulled Qu Linyan to shore.
This was the first time Fu Xiaoba felt that Qu Linyan’s hands were so cold they held no trace of warmth. Even when she had first picked her up in Wuyou Valley, she had never seen her this weak, weak as if she might leave the world in the very next moment.
Pain made Qu Linyan curl up uncontrollably in Fu Xiaoba’s arms. No matter how hard she endured, she still could not swallow the blood that surged into her throat.
That blood spilled constantly from the corner of her pale mouth, mixing with rainwater and dirtying her cheeks.
Miss Shen stepped forward and opened spiritual light to block the cold rain.
Fu Xiaoba’s eyes were red. She was lost and did not know what to do. She only reached out, wanting to wipe away the blood mixed with rain, but no matter how she wiped, it would not come clean. It was as if Qu Linyan would cough up her own organs.
“Little Black… Little Black, what is wrong…”
“An ordinary demon could not possibly have such strong spiritual power and break through the Nine-Turn Soul-Destroying Array alone.” Miss Shen frowned, crouched beside Qu Linyan, and gathered spiritual power on two fingers, gently placing them at the center of Qu Linyan’s brow.
In that instant, her fingertips trembled uncontrollably.
Fu Xiaoba raised her eyes to Miss Shen and saw that Miss Shen had tightly furrowed her brows. Her eyes were full of disbelief.
“Miss Shen, what is wrong with Little Black?”
Miss Shen hesitated for a moment. “What happened just now was returning-light power.”
“What does that mean?” Fu Xiaoba gritted her teeth and pressed.
“When a demon destroys her own inner core, she can awaken power several times stronger than her own for a short time.” Miss Shen turned her face aside, her feelings complicated. “This power is called returning light…” As Miss Shen spoke, she withdrew her fingers and closed her eyes. “Her inner core has shattered. She will not last long.”
“Destroyed her own inner core…”
A person who destroyed her own inner core would have her soul scattered and could not even enter reincarnation.
Qu Linyan had used her life to bring them out…
Fu Xiaoba’s vision was suddenly completely blurred by tears. She felt her heart hurt so much she almost could not breathe.
“I said I would protect you…” Qu Linyan spoke with difficulty and raised her hand to touch Fu Xiaoba’s cheek. Her cold fingers weakly and gently brushed over the tear tracks at the corner of her eyes.
She tried hard to pull out a smile and endured the burning, tearing pain in her organs, forcing herself to swallow the bloody sweetness in her throat.
“I could not accompany you through your tribulation, and I could not bring you back to see A-Qing… We agreed I would give myself to you and protect you for a lifetime… But I accidentally used up… used up this whole life. Can it… count as me finishing my repayment?”
“No. This does not count!” Fu Xiaoba shook her head again and again. She bit her lower lip hard, but still could not stop herself from crying with snot and tears. “You are the one who brought me out. If you throw me away halfway, where am I supposed to go?”
She held Qu Linyan tightly in her arms and shouted willfully, as if by making such a fuss, she could be like those children who cried and received what they wanted.
But Qu Linyan only gently pinched her face. Coughing blood, she said softly, “You really are very silly…”
After saying this, she weakly raised her eyes to Miss Shen.
In the array, in that thin line between life and death, Miss Shen had not abandoned Fu Xiaoba to protect herself. Qu Linyan had seen it all.
This person valued promises and was worth trusting.
A white shuttle appeared in Qu Linyan’s palm. “Those things that wanted your life… I killed them all… Take this and find someone to enter their dream. Then have Xiaoba bring that person into the earth realm, and you can… avoid the devil-locking barrier in the Nai River Spiritual Territory… The Dreamweaving Shuttle is not mine. Giving it into another person’s hands is truly something I have no choice about… Its owner is named Xiangsi. She has long lived in Soul-Wounding Valley of the flood dragon clan. Miss Shen, do not forget to return it one day…”
Miss Shen hesitated for a moment, then reached out and took it. She opened her mouth but did not know what to say.
“You promised me. After you return… the devil realm will be the flood dragon clan’s support…”
“I will never break my word.”
“Little Black… do not say these things. Why are you saying these things!” Fu Xiaoba tightly held the hand that was gently touching her cheek. “You were so badly hurt before and were fine. How could something happen to you now… Are you not afraid of nothing? Even the heavenly realm could not do anything to you. How could something happen to you!”
Qu Linyan’s eyes were red. She gritted her teeth and said, “If Miss Shen has any trustworthy demon clan person in the earth realm, please help me send Xiaoba back to Wuyou Valley…”
“I am not going back. I want to go with you to the flood dragon clan. I want to go with you to see A-Qing. You said that one day we would be like that dream, with you, me, and her. We would become a family… You said she would definitely like me very much, did you not?”
Qu Linyan raised her eyes to the rain falling outside the blue-green light. She coughed two heavy mouthfuls of blood, so weak that her voice was almost gone. “No…”
“What do you mean no? Why are you lying?”
“From the moment I decided to bring you out, I have been lying to you all along…” As Qu Linyan spoke, she could not help smiling at herself. “Look… at the places burned by fire…”
Fu Xiaoba blankly looked beside her and saw that the scorched earth had, at some unknown time, sprouted new green.
“That day, when the dream collapsed and heaven and earth turned barren… you were injured, and your blood dripped onto the wasteland beneath your feet. The dead land actually bloomed. From that moment, I knew your tribulation was real… because in the vast three realms, only the phoenix clan bloodline of the heavenly realm can do this…”
Fu Xiaoba froze. Her eyes were full of disbelief.
“I was lying to you from the beginning… What I wanted was only the blood from your heart…”
Fu Xiaoba, can you tell right from wrong, good from evil?
You cannot trust everyone who is good to you. Some people are good to you because they have a purpose.
So from the beginning, it had been using her?
Gain and loss come together. If you want to gain something, you must always pay the proper price.
A life for a life is the only price that is enough.
So from the beginning, she had been chosen as the sacrifice?
“If that is true, why were you good to me? Brother was not beside me. If you wanted to take me away, could I resist?”
“If that is true, why did you not quickly trick me into going back? Were you not afraid a long night would bring more dreams?”
“If that is true… why did you risk your life to save me just now? In your heart, am I not only a sacrifice?”
Fu Xiaoba asked blankly, yet she did not know what answer she wanted.
Perhaps she only wanted to hear Qu Linyan say one sentence: I could not be that cruel. I changed my mind for you.
Just like on the stage, a foolishly devoted woman would always hold on to one thread of hope, innocently hoping that the person who had meant to use her from the start would be willing to give everything up for her.
But Qu Linyan did not. She only closed her eyes tiredly. In the end, she said with a breath as thin as a thread, “It was not only you I saved. I am still counting on someone to fulfill a promise…”
By the end, her words were so light they could be easily swallowed by the rain.
A moment of coldness in Fu Xiaoba’s heart made her instinctively loosen Qu Linyan’s hand.
But when that cold hand fell from the side of her face, her heart felt as if pierced by needles, so painful she wanted to dig it out and crush it.
Fu Xiaoba saw Qu Linyan’s three souls and seven spirits slowly leave her body like drifting fireflies. Within the small space covered by blue-green light, they circled around Fu Xiaoba uncertainly, as if reluctant to leave.
In the daytime, she had clearly still said, “Do not be afraid. I am here.”
And now, was she leaving?
Fu Xiaoba suddenly understood that the answer she wanted was already obvious. There was no need for Qu Linyan to say it herself.
“Do you really think I am that easy to fool?” Fu Xiaoba’s fingertips stroked Qu Linyan’s bloodstained cheek. She gritted her teeth and smiled bitterly. “If you meant to sacrifice me, why would you ask someone to send me back?”
“You had already gone soft long ago, right?”
“I am not going back. If I leave, what will happen to you…”
“Xiaoba…” Miss Shen did not know how to comfort her. Her expression was especially hesitant.
Before Miss Shen could decide what to say, she saw resolve suddenly appear in Fu Xiaoba’s eyes. At some unknown time, a dagger had appeared in Fu Xiaoba’s hand, and she stabbed it hard into her own heart.