Chapter 11: Qing Ji

Everyone, including Snow March, was aghast. Who would have thought! As a slave of a demon master, this cat demon, Li Shu, actually had the audacity to revive the jade phoenix!

"Snow March! What are you still waiting for?" Lin Haoqing rose from his sword and stood in the air, holding out a force field to keep himself steady in the gale. He poured mana into his voice so that his words could break through the howling wind and reach everyone's ears.

"Stop your slave!"

The master-servant contract was held between Li Shu and Snow March, and there was no way for him to disobey her orders. Even if she were to order him to kill himself, he would have no choice but to do it. But Snow March did not move.

Ji Yunhe also held out in a force field in the gale, protecting herself and Qu Xiaoxing. Qu Xiaoxing anxiously scratched his head.

"Sister March! Other things are fine, but this is to release the demon bird out into the world! Once it comes out, it's bound to wreak havoc! How can Sister March let the cat demon do this?"

Ji Yunhe quietly looked at Snow March. Others might not understand her, but Ji Yunhe did.

She loved Li Shu enough to follow him in life and in death, and did not have the heart to interrupt him regardless of what he might be doing.

"Snow March! This is not the time for your childish love affairs!" Lin Haoqing urged on.

The earth trembled even more and the cracks grew bigger and bigger, as if the world was being ripped apart right before their eyes. But Snow March only had eyes for Li Shu. In the middle of the blood-tossed formation, the fierce wind pulled and tugged at her clothes and her hair.

"Has this always been your plan?"

Li Shu clenched his teeth as the blood formation continuously drained from him, awakening the jade phoenix at the same time. With my body and my blood… assist you in breaking the seal… A life for a life, such an irreversible pact.

"Waking up the jade phoenix, breaking the seal of the Ten Square Formation, this is no simple task that can be done on a whim…"

Snow March's voice was very soft in the wind. She did not seem to care if they could be heard. She could have been talking to him, or to herself.

"To break the Ten Square Formation, you would need to find the ten eyes of the seal in order to successfully carry out a blood sacrifice. Li Shu, how much time did you spend searching for them? Are you really willing to give your life to free the jade phoenix? Don't you want me anymore?" Li Shu's eyes were red and bloodshot. He ignored everything Snow March was saying.

"Why?" Like a response to her questions, a call of the phoenix rose and the earth on both sides of the chasm tossed up violently. The air abruptly grew still, as if they had entered a dream state. Ji Yunhe saw a long feather slowly drift by. It was jade green with an iridescence that seemed to embody all nine skies within its slender form.

(In traditional Chinese cosmology/mythology, the sky was believed to be made of nine components, commonly referred to as the nine layers of heaven. It's a bit similar to the Ptolemaic system where the earth was thought to be the center which other planets and stars orbited.)

Boom! The jade phoenix broke out of the ground. It flapped its wings and its body soared straight up into the sky. In an instant, the winds went wild, the clouds turned chaotic, and the grass and trees tumbled in ruins. Rocks and debris filled the air as a giant shadow was cast upon the valley. Green feathers shielded the sun and took over the daylight.

Then as fast as it came, the shadow disappeared with a blinding blue light flashing where the demon bird was. Ji Yunhe shielded her eyes with her hand. After the flash of light dispersed and the daylight returned, a green-clad woman with long floating hair appeared in the sky, hovering in midair.

The woman's figure was graceful, and her face... Her face was very similar to Snow March.

"Like a returning friend" finally made sense. So, this was what he had meant. It really was very much like a returning friend. While everyone else looked up at the jade phoenix, astonished by her return to the human realm, Ji Yunhe alone looked at her friend, Snow March...

Li Shu's blood formation was now dim, like his life. He quietly knelt on the ground, his eyes looked up into the sky, and his lips turned into a smile. It was not the face of a dying man, but one who saw the winter snow melting and the spring flowers blooming.

Next to him, Snow March also looked up into the sky. But her face was pale.

"The jade phoenix has emerged! Kill it now before it regains its strength!"

Lin Haoqing simply did not care about the love-hate entanglement between those three. He stood on his sword and quickly gave out a command. The demon masters that were still conscious immediately took action and laid out a golden formation in the shape of a circular prison, trapping the jade phoenix in the center. They chanted their spells and the golden formation expanded and brightened.

"Heh," the green-clad woman grinned somewhat wickedly. Without saying anything, she raised her hand and snapped her fingers. The hundreds of demon masters in the air immediately blew out in every direction, either dead or injured, and fell back onto the ground like garbage.

"Sigh, demon masters nowadays are seriously using such a low level formation on me?" The woman drifted down from the air. Her feet touched the ground with a gentle burst of air, blowing away all the dust in the valley.

She walked toward Li Shu step by step. The face might look similar to Snow March, but the pace was an enchanting and graceful stride that Snow March never had.