The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 6

Immortals had long lives that did not decline. They lived high in the heavenly realm and received respect from all.
Many demons and spirits in the world wanted to cultivate into immortals, but very few had immortal fate.
Two thousand years ago, the Black Tortoise Divine Lord Zhiming once gave Fu Zhuochen eight words in the human world: Your mortal heart is too heavy. I see no immortal fate.
When Fu Zhuochen heard this, he smiled and said he did not like all the rules of the immortal realm anyway. For the rest of his life after that, he truly did not cultivate even half an immortal root.
But demons did not have lifespans like immortals and devils. For them, three thousand years was the age of heavenly tribulation, meaning their demon lifespan had ended and their years were now borrowed from heaven. Once a demon entered the age of heavenly tribulation, they had to pass a lightning tribulation every hundred years. If they endured it, they lived. If not, they died.
Heavenly tribulations were always dangerous. If someone plotted against them during the tribulation, they would surely die on the spot. Even if they survived, without a year or half a year, it would be hard to recover fully.
By coincidence, the spirit stone Coldwater, guarded by the fox and bird clans for more than a thousand years, drew a strange omen once every hundred years. The day of the omen happened to arrive right before Fu Zhuochen’s heavenly tribulation.
Fu Zhuochen had lived lazily all his life and was never bound by rules. The bird clan gave him no sense of belonging. But if both sides could benefit, there was no need for him to act too aloof. Every hundred years, when the bird clan’s omen appeared, they needed an expert to hold the place. Every hundred years, when his heavenly tribulation came, he also needed someone to guard him. So they had a simple trade.
Only, eighteen strikes of heavenly lightning were hard to bear. Even if he endured them smoothly, he needed a long time of quiet rest. That was why every time he returned to the valley, he was late by a year or half a year.
When he went to Qixia Mountain this time, he thought it would be like usual, just going through the motions. Who knew that in this hundred-year cycle, there truly would be someone who did not know the height of heaven or the depth of earth and tried to steal Coldwater from the fox and bird clans.
It was the current flood dragon clan chief, the black flood dragon Qu Linyan.
This demon had always looked down on everything. Five hundred years ago, she had even dared force her way into the heavenly realm. What was one bird clan’s Qixia Mountain compared to that?
But being bold and reckless was one thing. Succeeding was another. The result of overestimating oneself was often paying a terrible price.
In the end, the black flood dragon was gravely wounded and nearly died. She escaped with her last breath.
The omen had passed, and Coldwater’s aura hid itself without a trace. For the next hundred years, there would be no worry.
As usual, Fu Zhuochen passed his heavenly tribulation on Qixia Mountain. But when he woke, he heard that the badly wounded black flood dragon seemed to have fled toward Wuyou Valley. His mind instantly became uneasy. His wounds had not healed, but as soon as he could travel quickly, he hurried back.
The moment he returned to the valley, he sensed that a trace of the black flood dragon’s aura truly remained in Wuyou Valley. At once, his blood surged and would not calm. The injuries tearing through his organs ached faintly.
Following Fu Xiaoba’s spiritual presence, he hurried to the bamboo courtyard in the valley. The instant he entered the room, much of the worry in his heart scattered.
In the bedroom, the small peacock lay in her nest, curled into a ball and sleeping especially sweetly.
“Fu Xiaoba.” Fu Zhuochen crouched down and softly called her name.
The little peacock’s head moved slightly. He reached out and poked her round belly. Seeing her shiver lightly, hum twice in dissatisfaction, and look entirely like she was saying, Do not disturb my dream, he finally relaxed completely.
If that black flood dragon had harmed even half a feather on her, he would make her repay it a hundredfold.
Fu Zhuochen rose and swept his sleeve. The old broken window, worn by wind, was covered with fresh paper. Fu Xiaoba also gained a robe over her body as a blanket.
That dangerous aura still lingered in the valley. The black flood dragon should not have gone far.
Fu Zhuochen lowered his eyes and looked at Fu Xiaoba one more time. Then he turned and chased after the remaining trace of the black flood dragon’s spiritual presence.
*
The moment she opened her eyes, everything around her was completely strange.
Before her stood a dangerous, sweeping cliff. On both sides, mountain forests rose tall and beautiful. Between steep stone walls, waterfalls flew and streams poured.
Fu Xiaoba stood blankly at the cliff edge, her gaze lost and helpless, her feet a little weak.
Had she died in Qu Linyan’s stomach? If so, death did not hurt at all. It was just a pity about nearly five hundred years of cultivation, and that she had not had time to say goodbye to the peacock brother who had cared for her for so long.
Was this the underworld? Was the river beneath the cliff the legendary river of the dead? Why did it feel so different from what she had imagined? It was wide, bright, and grand, not gloomy at all.
So what should I do now? Find the legendary Bridge of Forgetfulness and go across to reincarnate?
Fu Xiaoba looked along the stone wall into the distance, trying to figure out which way she should go next.
“These days, does the underworld not even have a guide? Do I have to find the road myself?”
“What underworld? This is Soul-Wounding Valley in the demon realm. It is flood dragon territory.” A voice came from behind her. It was somewhat cold and distant, yet soft and milky, especially tender.
Hearing this, Fu Xiaoba suddenly understood. “Oh, oh. You should have said so earlier. So I am not dead!”
Still, this place was called Soul-Wounding Valley. It was also a valley, but it looked much more frightening than Wuyou Valley. Just standing by the cliff made her legs weak.
This place was in the demon realm, so it was probably very far from Wuyou Valley in the human realm. She did not know where Qu Linyan, who had brought her here, had gone. Would Qu Linyan still care about her from now on?
If Qu Linyan did not care about her, would she not be helpless and alone in this place?
No, someone had clearly been behind her just now!
Fu Xiaoba suddenly turned. She saw a thin, tiny little girl with fine features and a bit of baby fat on her face. At this moment, the girl was sitting cross-legged with her arms folded, putting on the air of a little adult as she stared at her.
“Who are you?” This little girl’s face looked very familiar.
The little girl rolled her eyes. “Qu Linyan.”
“Qu, Qu…” Fu Xiaoba could not help sucking in a deep breath. She blinked in place for a long while before flapping her wings and jumping up in alarm. “You are actually Little Black!”
“Let me look!” Fu Xiaoba stood on tiptoe, flapped her wings, and happily circled little Qu Linyan a full three times. “How did you become so small? Hahahaha, so cute!”
Qu Linyan could not help covering her forehead. She was the grand flood dragon clan chief, yet she had been called cute by an ignorant little peacock. For a moment, she could not keep her dignity. She turned her slightly red little face aside and said coldly, “Even small, I am still older than you.”
Sadly, although her tone was icy, her voice was even softer and milkier than the tiny peacock before her.
All demons reached adulthood at five hundred years old. Most demon spirits needed five hundred years to cultivate a human form, so when demons changed shape, they usually appeared as adults. Child forms were rare.
Of course, there were exceptions to everything. Some talented demons could cultivate human form in two or three hundred years. There were also demons who used cultivation passed from others to change shape. In those cases, appearing as a child was not impossible.
Qu Linyan belonged to the first kind, but now she was already more than two thousand years old. No matter what, she should not look like this.
She was very confused by it too. Under Fu Xiaoba’s curious gaze, she stretched out one finger and gathered spiritual power for a long time. In the end, she only formed a tiny black flame.
When Fu Xiaoba saw it, she patted her little belly, opened her pointed beak, and spat out a green ball of spiritual energy like she was breathing fire. It was neither too big nor too small, just a little larger than the flame at Qu Linyan’s fingertip.
Then she tilted her head, her eyes full of pride. “I seem to be stronger than you now, Little Black.”
Qu Linyan was speechless for a moment. She stood, patted her bottom, picked Fu Xiaoba up from the ground, and walked along the stone path by the cliff in one direction.
Fu Xiaoba was stunned for a long while before she could not help lifting her head to ask, “Little Black, what is going on now? How did we get here? And why did you lose all your cultivation and become so small?”
Qu Linyan grew angry as soon as she heard this. “Is that not all your fault?”
“My fault?” Fu Xiaoba could not help flailing in Qu Linyan’s arms. “You were clearly the one who knocked me out and brought me here. How is it my fault?”
With that flail, she nearly dragged Qu Linyan, who was holding her, into a stumble and a fall.
Qu Linyan suddenly felt her arms lose strength, and her heart sank. In the past, she had never felt this round, plump little pheasant was this heavy. If she could no longer carry her, would that not become a joke?
Under Fu Xiaoba’s surprised gaze, Qu Linyan frowned. Her body suddenly leaned forward. She bent her waist, lifted one foot, and used her knee to push up under Fu Xiaoba’s bottom, shoving her back into her arms and holding her firmly again.
After being pushed like that, Fu Xiaoba could not help crying out. She instinctively tightened her body and lay obediently in Qu Linyan’s arms.
For some reason, she always felt she had been taken advantage of, but she had no proof.
Qu Linyan’s face reddened for no reason. Holding Fu Xiaoba, she slowly walked along the cliff edge in the canyon. After a silence, she suddenly remembered what Fu Xiaoba had just asked and spoke again. “You little pheasant, every day it is brother this, brother that. Why did you never tell me your brother is Fu Zhuochen?”
“You never asked!” Fu Xiaoba blinked and spoke with perfect confidence. “What is wrong? Have you met him?”
“More than met him. I almost died at his hands.” Qu Linyan gritted her teeth, her expression angry. “My injuries have not healed. If that stinking turkey runs into me now, I will definitely not come out well.”
“Little Black, Brother is a peacock. A mutated red peacock…” Fu Xiaoba reminded her in a small voice.
Qu Linyan cleared her throat to hide her embarrassment. “In short, he wants to kill me, and I cannot beat him right now, so of course I have to hide.”
“So he was the one who hurt you! Then, then why does he want to kill you?”
“If you ask so much, are you not afraid I will kill you to silence you?” Qu Linyan asked back.
Fu Xiaoba quickly covered her mouth. After staying silent for a long while, she could not suppress her curiosity and asked, “Then how did you become like this? And how did you bring me here?”
Qu Linyan thought for a moment and said, “This is a dream.”
“A dream?” Fu Xiaoba was surprised. “I have had many, many dreams. Most of them were blurry and chaotic. Never one as real as this. So real it is no different from reality…”
“This is no ordinary dream. It does not belong to you, and it does not belong to me.” As Qu Linyan spoke, she raised her eyes and looked at the familiar distance. Her gaze was lost. “I only wanted to use the Dreamweaving Shuttle to hide in your dream for a while. But something went wrong, and we entered this place by mistake.”
“Ah?” Fu Xiaoba looked blank.
“The Dreamweaving Shuttle is a magic artifact one of my friends obtained by chance. It can weave dreams and store dreams. It can trap living people inside them, and it can also enter another person’s dream without backlash,” Qu Linyan said. “Before I went to Qixia, she lent it to me for protection. She did say that in a moment of danger, I could use it to hide temporarily in someone else’s dream. But I had to avoid the dreams of people with deep cultivation, and I must not enter a dream already woven inside the Dreamweaving Shuttle. Otherwise…”
“Otherwise what?”
“…” Qu Linyan pursed her lips. “I do not know.”
The Dreamweaving Shuttle wove and stored dreams. So even if it was only used to trap people in an illusion, there would still be a spiritual center that guided the whole dream. That was the master of the dream.
Every dream master could control everything in their own dream. Turning heaven and earth upside down, killing gods and demons, all of it was easy.
An ordinary person’s spirit could not control a dream. But a person with deep cultivation might awaken self-awareness inside a dream. Once that happened, the life and death of an intruder would rest in one thought from the dream master.
“Then how do we get out?”
“I do not know.” Qu Linyan answered calmly. “We will take it one step at a time.”
The only thing she could be sure of was that this dream definitely belonged to someone she knew.
Although she had never studied dream-entry arts, she knew everything in a dream changed according to the dream master’s thoughts. If she had never met this person, she would only be an outside stranger when she entered the dream. Her body would not change at all, just like Fu Xiaoba. Outside the dream, Fu Xiaoba was a peacock. Inside the dream, she was still a peacock.
Now Qu Linyan had returned to flood dragon territory and become this shape. There was only one possibility.
To the master of this dream, she was nothing more than a child in Soul-Wounding Valley who had never grown up.