"The world is at peace now, so the people I love can live happily, right?" Xiaohuo asked.
The Vermilion Bird nodded, acknowledging the correctness of such a thought.
"Then I have to evolve; I want to protect those I wish to protect," Xiaohuo said resolutely.
"Are you sure you’ve thought this through?" the Vermilion Bird asked for confirmation one last ti.
Xiaohuo nodded, looking in Dugu Qianye’s direction. Seeing Xiaohuo’s gaze, Dugu Qianye shouted, "Go for it!"
With a flap of her wings, the Vermilion Bird caused an image of a Vermilion Bird intersecting with flas to appear within the Evolution Light. "Step into the flas, drain the blood from your body, and then you’ll be reborn from the ashes. It’s a painful process; you must persevere," she told Xiaohuo.
"I know, and I will," Xiaohuo said. He then positioned himself in the middle of the pattern and began to release his own blood. Blood flowed out, filling the entire pattern. By the ti the pattern was fully saturated, Xiaohuo was too weak to hold himself up and collapsed onto it.
"Xiaohuo!" Dugu Qianye shouted anxiously, wanting to rush in to see what was happening, but the Evolution Light barred her way. She could only shout from outside, "Xiaohuo, how are you doing? Xiaohuo, don’t scare ! Xiaohuo!"
But no matter how much Dugu Qianye called out, Xiaohuo’s blood kept flowing, and those once whimsical eyes slowly dimd.
"Xiaohuo, don’t scare ! Xiaohuo, co back, co back! Let’s not go through with this evolution; let’s go back, back to Yuling Continent, okay? Xiaohuo, don’t, don’t! Xiaohuo—" Dugu Qianye kept shouting, repeatedly trying to break through the Evolution Light. As Xiaohuo’s eyes turned ashen and slowly closed, her tears fell, and she approached madness.
But no matter how sad, how crazed, or how desperate she was, Xiaohuo still turned into a lifeless body, his eyes tightly shut, his once vibrant feathers losing all their luster. Dugu Qianye knelt on the ground ford by the Evolution Light, crying hysterically over Xiaohuo’s body, continually calling out, "Xiaohuo, Xiaohuo..."
Dandan watched her from the side, originally wanting to call her an idiot, but after seeing her like this, he swallowed the words he was about to say. Even though she was foolish, she made him feel warm.
"Aye, you silly woman..." Dandan couldn’t help but sigh.
But Dugu Qianye seed as if she hadn’t heard him, staring blankly at Xiaohuo’s body. Flickering in front of her were all the mories since she had t Xiaohuo. She watched it hatch from its shell; she thought of how excited and thrilled she was the first ti she took him out of the Cangmang Mountains; she rembered its sullen little face when it couldn’t control the Phoenix Golden Fla to help with her alchemy; she thought of their life together, their growth, and their battles. She rembered how everything seed fine just monts ago; how could it be that in a blink of an eye, it lay before her as a cold corpse?
In the Nine Heavens, Zi Xiao was researching how to restrain Yong Xing when he suddenly felt a pang in his heart and knew it was Dugu Qianye who was crying over so trouble.
"This fool, what trouble has she gotten herself into this ti that she’s so heartbroken?" Zi Xiao muttered to himself with unmistakable concern in his voice. "Ah well, I should quickly set this up and then go check on her. This spell, it’s truly..."
Dandan, seeing Dugu Qianye’s increasing sorrow, felt that he still had to scold her. He flew in front of her to block her view.
"You foolish woman, Xiaohuo isn’t really dead; what are you crying for?!"
Dugu Qianye, her view blocked, had her attention diverted to Dandan briefly before she could ask why he was in her way when she heard his scolding. The idea that Xiaohuo might not be dead brought a glint to Dugu Qianye’s eyes. But seeing Xiaohuo’s body still in front of her, she couldn’t bring herself to believe Dandan’s words.
Seeing that Dugu Qianye didn’t believe him, Dandan extended his little paw and poked her head, saying, "If she were really dead, would you still be here considering your life-bound Contract?!"
"Xiaohuo clearly had no signs of life left."
"That was just the process of evolution. If she had really died, you’d be dead too, and so would all the other contract beasts. How could you still have the chance to cry here?!" Dandan looked at Dugu Qianye with an expression that scread you’re so stupid.
"Really?" Dugu Qianye looked at Dandan.
As Dandan stepped aside, Dugu Qianye saw Xiaohuo’s body suddenly burst into flas, with the blood from the pattern turning into a red light, intertwining with the fire.
"It’s burning..." Dugu Qianye murmured, watching Xiaohuo’s body ignite automatically.
The flas enveloped Xiaohuo’s body completely, from feathers to bones, leaving nothing but ash.
"Gone..." Dugu Qianye said, looking at the pile of ashes. Xiaohuo had just been a living being and now had turned into a heap of ash!
Suddenly, the pile of ashes stirred, and slowly, a tiny chick erged. Seeing it, Dugu Qianye recognized their contract bond and burst into laughter through her tears.
"So ugly!" Dugu Qianye said with a laugh, but the tears still fell uncontrollably from her face.
Looking at Dugu Qianye, who was both crying and laughing, Xiaohuo said, "You’re ugly too!"
Vermilion Bird looked at Xiaohuo, who had yet to grow full feathers, and said, "The Evolution Light will make you grow quickly. You will have to go through what just happened every ti you grow, eighty-one tis, to be reborn from the ashes. That is to say, you still need to experience that helplessness and despair of death eighty more tis. Do you wish to continue?"
Xiaohuo nodded and said, "I do."
After Xiaohuo finished speaking, the Evolution Light washed over her, and she grew rapidly. When she reached her adult size, she let out her blood once again, filling the pattern with it. Her colorful body beca dim, followed by self-immolation.
Knowing that this was Xiaohuo’s evolutionary process, Dugu Qianye was no longer as frightened and panicked as the first ti. However, her heart still ached for Xiaohuo. She had always treated Xiaohuo like her own child and never imagined it would suffer such pain of dying over and over.
Once, twice, thrice... ten tis... fifty tis... seventy tis... eighty tis... Dugu Qianye kept count for Xiaohuo, witnessing how with each rebirth, the bloodline essence radiating from its body beca stronger and stronger.
Eighty-one tis...
For the last ti, Xiaohuo drained her blood, closed her eyes, and her body ignited a massive blaze that shot straight from the volcano’s mouth, visible to everyone in the Phoenix Tree Forest and the South Sea.
On the South Coast, where Phoenixes and the Dragon Clan stood opposed, everyone ceased fighting at the sight of the firelight that could incinerate everything.
Ye Luo was leading Ye Xi and his allies to the South Coast when, halfway there, they were struck motionless by the sudden surge of firelight from the mouth of the volcano.
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