The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 40

On the fifth day of the heavenly realm’s siege of Soul-Wounding Valley, Qu Linyan sat beside Fu Xiaoba and kissed the space between her brows.
She saw Fu Xiaoba’s hand tightly clutching her sleeve. She could not help pinching Fu Xiaoba’s cheek and smiling with curved brows. “Xiaoba, wait for me to come back.”
Fu Xiaoba blinked. Reluctantly, she let go of Qu Linyan’s sleeve, lifted the corners of her mouth, and said, “Be very careful.”
Qu Linyan nodded. When she stood and left, the Cloud-Tangling mace appeared in her hand.
She walked out of the house surrounded by layers of clansmen, then turned back and laid down a barrier to protect the room. Only then did she say coldly, “I will settle the matter with the heavenly realm. Before that, if any of you hurt her, I will never forgive you!”
The clansmen looked at one another. Even after Qu Linyan walked far away, not one person followed her.
Even at this moment, she still tried to carry everything alone and block everything for her clansmen. It was not for herself, but so that one day, when Qu Muqing opened her eyes, she would not blame Qu Linyan for destroying the entire flood dragon clan.
She had never thought of betraying the flood dragon clan.
But although she had already seen it clearly, she did not dare admit it. The flood dragon clan had betrayed her long ago.
That day, Zhiming saw Qu Linyan outside the Reincarnation Mirror for the first time.
She stood in the air in black clothes that snapped in the wind, holding an eight-edged Cloud-Tangling mace. Alone, she faced more than a thousand enemies, yet her gaze was still firm.
“Black Tortoise Divine Lord! Fu Xiaoba is my lawful wife. I will absolutely not hand her back to the heavenly realm. Please return and tell the Heavenly Emperor that Soul-Wounding Valley is in the earth realm and is not under the heavenly court’s control. Tell him not to reach his hand too far and bully people too much!”
Her voice, pushed by spiritual power, rang through heaven and earth. Even from a thousand meters away, it sounded beside the ear.
Zhiming stood before the formation and answered, “Black flood dragon, you should understand that now, not one member of the flood dragon clan is fighting for you. You are alone, just like when you broke into the heavenly realm by yourself back then. You are doomed to fail.”
Qu Linyan laughed coldly three times and gritted her teeth. “My heavenly luck has always been bad in this life, but I still stumbled and struggled my way to today. Five hundred years ago, I was already someone gambling with my life. I do not mind betting again to see whether heaven truly means to cut off my road to survival!”
“Good,” Zhiming said. “I respect your courage. Today, I will fight you fairly.”
Qu Linyan answered, “If I defeat you, you withdraw your troops.”
“You cannot do it.” After Zhiming spoke, he stepped forward with his hands behind his back. An invisible pressure was born between heaven and earth.
The Black Tortoise was an ancient divine beast, one of the Four Symbols. From birth, it was far stronger than the flood dragon clan. For a black flood dragon who had cultivated for less than three thousand years to fight him was no different from an ant trying to shake a tree.
But so what?
Qu Linyan tightened her grip on the long mace. Black mist coiled around her body, and the resolve in her eyes did not lessen by even half.
…
In Soul-Wounding Valley, outside the flood dragon clan’s spiritual cave, mountains and rivers cracked open. The winds and clouds changed color. Rolling thunder shook the entire world.
Fu Xiaoba could hear the huge movement in the distance. She could even feel the underwater cavern trembling with it.
Qu Linyan must have been hurt. Otherwise, the barrier she had set before leaving would not have begun to collapse under the clansmen’s combined force.
Fu Xiaoba heard the clansmen talking. She heard the elders order everyone to build a sacrificial platform and order Xiangsi to bring Qu Muqing out of the forbidden area. Every voice and every sentence foretold her death.
Perhaps she really would die with Qu Linyan today.
One would die by the heavenly realm’s hand. The other would lose her life on the sacrificial platform.
But before Qu Linyan left, she had clearly told her to wait for her return…
She refused to accept it. She was unwilling. Why did she have to bear all of this? Was it only because of the bloodline power in her body, something she had never been able to choose?
She was only a little demon who had grown up in the mountains. She did not understand clan duty. Countless times, she had wanted to persuade Qu Linyan not to live so tiredly. They could leave. They could leave this place that had trapped Qu Linyan her whole life and leave the people who had never truly cared about Qu Linyan.
Even if they had to flee to the ends of the world and live from then on in wind and rain, she would still be willing.
But she did not want to make things hard for Qu Linyan. She did not dare speak the thoughts in her heart. She only wanted to be the most obedient Fu Xiaoba in Qu Linyan’s eyes.
“I was too cowardly…”
It was because she feared losing what she had, so she always forced a smile and said, I can. I am willing. As long as I am with you, anywhere is fine.
If she had known every compromise would never bring a good result, she would not have hidden everything in her heart. In the end, she could only watch Qu Linyan lose the support of everyone because of her, and then, for those who had betrayed her, force herself onto a road with no return.
For one instant, an uncontrollable urge suddenly rose in Fu Xiaoba’s heart. She wanted to find Qu Linyan, hug her, kiss her, and beg her to take her away.
She still… she still could not just accept fate like this.
Fu Xiaoba clasped both hands together. When she opened them again, a bright red peacock feather lay quietly in her palm. In the next second, it floated into the air and was slowly swallowed by a weak flame.
She gently closed her eyes and hoped that the one thread of light in the endless dark was not too far away from her.
Because in this life, she did not believe in immortals or gods. She only believed in the person she cherished in her heart.
That thread of spiritual power was so weak it was almost invisible, like flying ash that would scatter with one breath. Yet it stubbornly refused to be hidden. It wanted to rise on the wind from the abyss of despair, cross thousands and thousands of miles, and finally reach the nine heavens.
…
Beneath the demon-suppressing pillars, the person whose spiritual power was sealed by demon-binding ropes suddenly opened his eyes.
After a moment of blankness, anger and despair swallowed all of his reason.
He was like someone about to lose everything. With a body of flesh and blood that had no spiritual power protecting it, he slammed himself hard against the sharpest edges of the demon-suppressing pillar, trying to break free from the chains that were unbreakable to him.
Only when both wrists had been smashed into bloody pulp, when the chains and flesh stuck together and blood soaked his clothes dark, did he finally stop.
He leaned against the bloodstained stone pillar, his gaze somewhat dull. Loose strands of hair stuck to his face with sweat, and he could not stop panting hard. He looked so wretched he seemed like a different person.
No one knew how long passed before he suddenly sat up straight. He lifted his blood-covered hands, and his long fingers slowly formed an unfamiliar hand seal.
The seven demon-suppressing pillars suddenly lit with a blinding light. Even the demon-binding ropes trembled wildly without stop, as if the demon they bound was about to break free.
In that instant, pain that drilled into the heart and scraped the bones pulled at every inch of his flesh, blood, and even his three souls and seven spirits. It forced him to let out a heart-rending roar, like a trapped beast at the very edge of despair.
…
Since he was a trapped beast, how could he admit defeat without coughing out his organs and draining every drop of blood from his heart?
Zhiming had already lost count of how many times that female demon had stood again from a pool of blood, covered in wounds.
“You will die.”
So a weak person truly could protect nothing. Even if there was only one person before her, that person still seemed like a mountain she could never cross.
But so what if it was a mountain? Was there no one in this world who could move mountains and fill seas?
Qu Linyan propped herself up with her long mace and looked up at the cold-faced god. She smiled as if mocking herself. “Then let me die. To be shattered to pieces for her can still count as not breaking my promise in this life.”
She would not allow this person to take Fu Xiaoba away.
As long as she had one breath left, no one could take the person she loved most in this life from her side.
Zhiming could not help frowning. A trace of hesitation flashed through his eyes. After steadying his heart, he was about to strike again when he suddenly heard a huge movement in the distance. It seemed something was rushing toward them with a howl.
Before long, both banks of Soul-Wounding Valley were filled with blood-red devil wolves. Their crimson eyes stared at the heavenly soldiers and generals in the clouds, as if challenging them.
“Divine Lord! It is the devil clan. It is the red-eyed blood wolf clan’s devil soldiers! They are coming from the east. At a rough estimate, there are no fewer than three thousand. This is bad for us!”
When Zhiming heard this, relief appeared in his eyes.
At the same time, the Nether Soul Lamp in his spirit pouch suddenly moved. Zhiming turned his head and looked at Qu Linyan one last time. Then he turned, swept his sleeve, and left.
The heavenly realm retreated without fighting. The devil soldiers shouted wildly between heaven and earth, their voices shaking the sky for a time.
Qu Linyan coughed up a mouthful of blood and half knelt in the mud. The heavy rain beat down so hard that she could barely open her wounded, exhausted eyes.
“Xiaoba… Miss Shen did not lie to us. We waited until they came…”
But she hurt so badly. Her organs felt as if they had been burned away by fierce fire, as if she would die in the next second.
…
At the instant between life and death, a beam of spiritual light struck the heavily bound body.
The spiritual power he had finally gathered was completely scattered in that moment. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and in the end, he lost all strength and collapsed to the ground.
Ciyin immediately withdrew her spell and quickly ran forward to gently help Fu Zhuochen up. When she lowered her head, she saw bright red blood spilling from his seven openings. In a panic, she placed her palm against his forehead and transferred spiritual power to ease his pain.
“What are you doing!” Ciyin was both anxious and angry. “You were damaging your inner core to force your three souls and seven spirits out of your body… Are you mad? Even if you could leave the heavenly realm as a soul, what then? When the soul and body separate, it is the same as death. It would be very hard to come back! If I had not come today, you would have died. You would not even have entered reincarnation!”
Fu Zhuochen forced his eyes open, but he could only see a field of blood-red, too blurred to make out anyone.
Only one thought still supported him.
“Why… are you interfering with me…”
“You…” Ciyin gritted her teeth and said, “You care so little for your life. I… if I had come one step later, how would I explain it to the Divine Lord!”
“Xiaoba… she is waiting for me. Waiting for me to save her…”
Ciyin said angrily, “The Divine Lord will save her. The Nether Soul Lamp guarded her life soul long ago. Even if the flood dragon clan blood-sacrifices her, her soul will absolutely not scatter. Why are you doing this to yourself…”
“Who… are you saving…”
Ciyin frowned. “Are you confused? Who else could it be? It is Susu!”
“None of you… clearly none of you… want to save Xiaoba…”
“Susu is Xiaoba, and Xiaoba is Susu.”
After a stretch of silence, Fu Zhuochen instinctively clenched his hand. But not long after, he slowly loosened it again.
Fu Zhuochen suddenly laughed until his voice broke. It tore at his lungs, and he coughed blood, but no matter how much it hurt, he could not stop.
Zhiming, Ciyin, and even the many immortals and gods of the heavenly realm. Every one of them only wanted to save Fairy Blue Luan Yun Su from the earth realm.
No one cared about Fu Xiaoba’s life.
That tiny little peacock demon, in the eyes of these immortals, was the same as him. Her life was like grass, not worth mentioning.
What did he have to hold on to? The thing he clung to and protected was only someone else’s great dream.
Ciyin stared blankly at the demon in her arms, who no longer struggled at all. He had quieted down, but the blood-filled eyes had lost their last bit of light.
…
Step by step.
The person who had returned in victory slowly walked onto the high platform soaked with blood under countless frightened gazes.
Confusion flashed through her eyes. She bent down and lifted that thin body whose blood had been drained dry. With hands covered in blood and filth, she gently stroked the dry, blackened skin.
At that moment, she only felt every wound in her body pulling tightly at a heart that was about to stop beating. Something seemed to have been torn from her life, like tendons ripped out and skin peeled away.
After a long time, she pulled the body tightly into her arms.
“Xiaoba, I… I came back.”
But I came back too late.