Phoenix's Requiem

“You… you dare to kill us…?” Jin Fei’er widened her eyes in disbelief.

Pei Ziao whispered into her ear, “I’ve never entertained any thought of leaving you alive after having brought you here. Do you think that the imperial family’s secret is something everyone can have access to?”

Pei Ziao removed the dagger from Jin Fei’er’s body with a squelch, and she landed on the ground with a heavy thud, her beautiful eyes still wide open.

“Ah, you killed her, you killed Jin Fei’er, you guys--” Liu Sheng was so shocked that it was a while before he exclaimed in earnest, but his voice cut off halfway, the rest of what he wanted to say forever stuck in his throat.

Yun Ruoyao pulled her sword out from Liu Sheng’s body and sheathed it once more.

This time, it was Yun Ruoyan’s party who was shocked.

Before Lin Qingxue could open her mouth and say anything, Yun Ruoyan immediately stepped forth to shield her two cousins. “What do you mean by all this?!”

“Ruoyan, don’t be so agitated.” Pei Ziao smiled in a friendly manner.

By this point, he couldn’t hide anything from Yun Ruoyan, and the strength that she had displayed during her bout with Wang Kuang made him fearful of overcoming her directly. It was also impractical to use the same strategy that they’d used against Jin Fei’er and Liu Sheng, since Yun Ruoyan’s group didn’t trust them to begin with, so he might as well be honest.

“Here’s what happened.” The day they left the misdirection array, they saw Wang Kuang and his group not long after. Because Pei Ziao was familiar with Wang Kuang, Pei Ziao’s group began to travel together with Wang Kuang’s.

After dinner, while everyone else was sleeping, Pei Ziao and Yi Qianying sneaked out of camp and went to a quiet spot for a tryst. In order to raise her value in his eyes, Yi Qianying had told him about how she could concoct powders to attract and repel magical beasts of all types.

Pei Ziao had been struggling to find a way to retrieve cores from high-tier beasts, all of which were unusually ferocious and far too overwhelming for someone of his cultivation.

He’d planned on leaving Yun Ruoyao’s group the next day to head to the thousand-beast valley alone, and then to find a strategy only when they got there.

But after hearing Yi Qianying’s words, he immediately thought of having her concoct some sort of powder that would debilitate the beasts and allow him to extract their inner cores easily.

And so he revealed the secret of the thousand-beast valley to Yi Qianying, and the two were happily ensconced in each other’s embrace when Wang Kuang suddenly appeared.

He had had a stomachache and was in the middle of relieving himself when Pei Ziao suddenly pulled Yi Qianying into the secluded area. In order to hide himself, he quickly buried his fecal matter under two handfuls of dirt, then hid in a nearby bush without even putting on his pants.

He’d thought that he was just enjoying an erotic scene, but who would have expected that he would uncover such a momentous secret? And of course he wouldn’t let go of an opportunity to get something for free.

As a result, he jumped into the clearing, frightening the illicit lovers half to death.

Without any other recourse, they could only accept to bring Wang Kuang’s party to the thousand-beast valley with them, but they were already secretly planning to kill them all.

Pei Ziao revealed the entirety of the events, omitting only his illicit encounters with Yi Qianying.

“Surely you won’t blame us for being vicious?” Pei Ziao raised his head high and said righteously, “This Wang Kuang’s not a trustworthy person at all! If he knows the secret, then so will the entire kingdom of Yue, and the thousand-beast valley’s a treasure for the Li kingdom! How could we let others find out about it?”

“Now that we know this secret too, you’re not going to kill us, are you?” Lin Qingchen suddenly asked.

“That’s right, it’s not the first time you guys have tried to harm us! I bet you’re planning something devious right now!” Lin Qingxue added.

“No, we won’t,” Yi Qianying promised earnestly. “I swear.”

“Oh, really?” Lin Qingchen’s tone suddenly turned sharp. “Using your beast-attracting powder?”

Yi Qianying’s heart thumped as her gaze became dodgy. “What do you mean? I don’t understand.”

“In that case, let me explain it to you.” Her gaze was fixated on Yi Qianying.

“The reason the saber-toothed tiger only focused on Ruoyan, and the reason the snakes only targeted Qingxue within the cave, must be because you sprinkled some sort of beast-attracting powder on their bodies.”

“You’re lying! You have no proof!” Yi Qianying had done this secretly, hiding it even from Yun Ruoyao and Yun Ruoyu.

She was sure that no one had noticed her doing it, but she didn’t expect someone like Lin Qingchen, who had long studied herbs and medicine under Lin Zainan, to have detected something amiss. She hadn’t known who amongst their group had the ability to do such a thing, but Pei Ziao’s recounting made it obvious.

“No wonder those snakes kept pouncing on me!” Lin Qingxue’s eyes opened wide as she digested the revelation. “How dare you try to harm me and Sister Ruoyan in such an underhanded manner! When I’m out of here, you’ll be hearing from my grandfather!”

As soon as Lin Qingxue brought up Lin Zainan, Yi Qianying began to panic. If he really did approach the Yuns about the affair, her uncle would surely go into a rage, and might even kick her out of the Yun household.

And if word of what she did were to spread, then she would be chased out of the capital no matter where she tried to stay.

Thinking about these possibilities, Yi Qianying tightly grasped Pei Ziao’s wrist.

Pei Ziao glanced at Yi Qianying with a complicated expression before saying, “Since we don’t trust each other, why don’t we come to a gentleman’s agreement?”

“What sort of agreement?” Yun Ruoyan appeared interested.

Thinking that there was a chance, Pei Ziao quickly continued, “We won’t reveal the fact that you killed Wang Kuang as long as you don’t reveal the fact that we killed Jin Fei’er. If we keep each other’s secrets, won’t it work out well for both of us?”

Yun Ruoyan leaned against a tree, playing with Pei Ziao’s spear in miniaturized form. She tapped on the trunk with her spear, as if considering his proposal.

“Ruoyan, you can’t trust their words.” Lin Qingxue was the first to object.

However, Lin Qingchen didn’t say anything. Although she didn’t trust Pei Ziao either, in order to protect Yun Ruoyan, keeping each other’s secret seemed like the only solution.

Meanwhile, Zhuo Yifeng, who had been standing behind Yun Ruoyan the entire time, murmured, “This Pei Ziao’s a conniving person, and I’m afraid that he’ll push their crimes and ours all onto us.”

Yun Ruoyan continued to tap on the tree trunk.

After quite a while, as everyone was about to lose their patience, Yun Ruoyan finally stood still and looked toward Pei Ziao, a half-smile on her face. “I have a better solution, one that can resolve all our problems. Do you want to hear it?”

“Oh? What solution?” Pei Ziao took a step forward, and Yi Qianying’s grip on his wrist couldn’t help but tighten.

Yun Ruoyan glanced askance at Pei Ziao. The pus on her face had been cleaned off, and her hair had been let down to cover her scar. From Pei Ziao’s perspective, she seemed to possess a beauty that he had never before seen.

“Come over! I’ll tell you.” Yun Ruoyan pointed at Pei Ziao with her spearhead, and he shrugged off Yi Qianying as he walked forward.

One, two steps… He walked closer and closer, and Yun Ruoyan’s smile was suddenly replaced by a cold lethality.

“My solution is to kill all of you!” Yun Ruoyan suddenly shouted, the spear in her hand suddenly elongating as she thrusted it into his chest.

In Yun Ruoyan’s mind, Yi Qianying and Pei Ziao were the source of all her suffering, and killing them both had been something that she had always planned on doing after her rebirth.

And this was her best chance to do so!

The spear entered Pei Ziao’s body, and fresh blood gushed out.

“Brother Ziao!” Yi Qianying exclaimed in shock.

“Yun Ruoyan, how dare you!” Yun Ruoyao and Yun Ruoyu couldn’t believe how daring their sister was.

They wanted to harm Yun Ruoyan, but were afraid that others would find out, so they always had to make schemes in secret. On the other hand, Yun Ruoyan was willing to kill Pei Ziao in broad daylight!

Was she crazy?!

“You really want to kill me?!” Pei Ziao clutched the spearhead, dyed red with his blood, as he looked toward Yun Ruoyan. He really didn’t understand why Yun Ruoyan, who had always seemed to be fond of him, had suddenly begun to hate him, to despise him, to even try to kill him.

“Because I loathe you!” Yun Ruoyan grit her teeth. “Die!”

Yun Ruoyan attempted to push the spear into his body with all her strength, but she was stopped by a strange resistance that disabled her from moving the spear at all.

What was the matter? Why didn’t the spear listen to her?

“Ha.” Pei Ziao smiled grimly. “I told you, this is a treasure belonging to the Peis, and my blood calls to it.”

As he moved his mouth, the spear instantly became smaller, leaving Yun Ruoyan’s grip and returning to Pei Ziao’s hand once more.

“Brother Ziao, are you alright?!” Yi Qianying hurriedly ran over to inspect Pei Ziao’s wound, throwing a murderous glance at Yun Ruoyan. “What a wicked woman!”

Yun Ruoyan clearly didn’t expect such an occurrence, but her failure only made her more determined.

She hmphed. “The four of you are hundreds, thousands of times more malicious than I am! Today, if you don’t die, I will!”

As soon as she said this, the three people behind her didn’t hesitate to pull out their weapons and stand together with Yun Ruoyan.

“In that case, we really don’t have anything to discuss.” The spear lengthened once more in Pei Ziao’s hands, and Yi Qianying tossed a blood-clotting pill in his mouth. “We fight to the death!”

Yun Ruoyao and Yun Ruoyu also pulled out their weapons, and the two groups lined up against each other.

An unbridled slaughter would soon commence...