Chapter 58 – Mutual Growth

The moment the fire ignited, all of the Carnivorous Tree’s branches began to sway violently, emitting high-frequency sound waves that radiated outward in concentric circles from its center. The piercing hum struck Yun Xiguang, and caught completely off guard, he was hit; blood instantly streamed down his ears in two thin lines.

Dizzy and disoriented, he plummeted from the sky, falling into the sea of flames below.

In contrast, Chi Qiong, who resembled a small yellow chick, remained unscathed.

Don’t underestimate Chi Qiong. He had regressed to his juvenile form, losing his strength and unable to wield it, even unable to speak, but his defensive capabilities were the strongest in the world.

Even if thrown into a mountain of blades or a sea of fire, this little yellow chick would not suffer a single scratch.

A mere sonic attack could not harm Chi Qiong at all.

Yun Xiguang, after all, was just an ordinary human. If he had formed a Spirit Contract with Chi Qiong, he could have shared sensations with Chi Qiong, appropriately mitigating the sonic attack. However, they only had a blood pact; Yun Xiguang could not share Chi Qiong’s defenses and endured the attack with his own flesh.

Beneath the sea of fire lay the acidic swamp, where strong acid fiercely resisted the raging flames. The acid intermingled with the fire, transforming into black mist that gradually enveloped the land. It was evident without testing that the mist was toxic. If one fell into the mist, the poisonous gas would instantly seep through the mouth, nose, and pores into the internal organs, destroying Yun Xiguang’s organs.

“Chirp!!!” Chi Qiong let out a shrill cry unlike any before. He wanted to spread his wings that could blot out the sky to shield Yun Xiguang from the deadly miasma. He wanted Yun Xiguang to land within the warmth of his wings, enveloping this strong yet fragile human in his protective embrace.

Yet, he was powerless at the moment. His two unfolded wings did not exceed ten centimeters in length, tender and small, barely able to wrap around a few of Yun Xiguang’s fingers.

In contrast, Yun Xiguang, before his fall, tossed Chi Qiong upward. He swiftly used a Phoenix feather to bind Chi Qiong’s body. A small flame on the feather transformed into a pair of tiny fire wings, assisting Chi Qiong in floating in the air.

He was protected by a human.

This human knew he was the supreme Phoenix Venerable, knew that he wouldn’t be harmed even if he fell into the swamp, yet still protected him in the instant of his descent.

It was a feeling he had never experienced since his birth.

Chi Qiong floated in the air, gazing at the falling Yun Xiguang; a hint of confusion flashed across his eyes.

Why protect him? Humans, spirit servants, and those who offered various tributes during the ancient era — didn’t they want his bestowed power? Didn’t they want their wishes fulfilled?

Why did he need human protection? Why did humans arrogantly believe they could protect him?

Chi Qiong didn’t understand.

Since he didn’t understand, he would seek understanding.

He flapped his fleshy, short wings; the wind generated by their movement manipulated the flame on the Phoenix feather. Like a small rocket, he dove downward, hurtling toward Yun Xiguang’s embrace.

Yun Xiguang was falling back-first.

As he fell, he used the force of tossing the spirit bird into the sky to rotate his body, deliberately landing back-first.

The sudden sonic attack caught him off guard. He hadn’t anticipated such an attack; the sound waves focused on his brain, causing dizziness and making it difficult to concentrate, hindering his control over the fire wings.

But Yun Xiguang wasn’t afraid. In a fleeting moment, he devised a solution.

He simply couldn’t control the fire wings, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t continue protecting him.

If he landed back-first, the fire wings would merge with the flames on the swamp, instantly expanding to encase his body, preventing him from sinking into the swamp.

And the black mist was merely miasma. Upon contact with the fire wings, it would lose its toxicity due to the high temperature.

What Yun Xiguang hadn’t anticipated was the small spirit bird chirping as it flew toward him.

Was the spirit bird trying to protect him?

Seeing the small bundle rush toward him, Yun Xiguang revealed a blissful smile.

This was the spirit beast he was willing to form a Spirit Contract with. Meeting Chi Qiong was the greatest fortune of his life.

Yun Xiguang didn’t want Chi Qiong to land on the swamp. Swiftly, he stuffed something into his ears and simultaneously held the cannonball-like Chi Qiong in his arms.

At the same time, the fire wings collided with the flames on the swamp, burning more fiercely than ever. Just as Yun Xiguang had predicted, he lay safely atop the fire wings, unharmed.

However, the Carnivorous Tree apparently wasn’t aware of this.

After Yun Xiguang landed, countless drops of acid rained down from its wildly thrashing branches, turning the swamp into a storm of corrosive rain. Even a single drop would penetrate bone marrow.

That was the true purpose of the Carnivorous Tree — it wanted to immobilize Yun Xiguang and drag him into its attack range.

Before Chi Qiong could ask why Yun Xiguang was protecting him, he saw the acid rain descend. With a “chirp,” he spread his wings, attempting to cover Yun Xiguang’s body entirely with his vast wingspan.

Unfortunately, he was too small. Spreading his wings could only cover Yun Xiguang’s heart.

No, he couldn’t even protect Yun Xiguang’s heart.

Because Yun Xiguang reached out and touched his body, a warm palm covering Chi Qiong’s body.

“Thank you.” Chi Qiong heard Yun Xiguang’s gentle voice, soft enough to touch the core of a bird.

With one hand protecting the small spirit bird, Yun Xiguang gently waved his other hand, sending a flame from behind him. It transformed into an umbrella-like cover over Yun Xiguang’s body.

At that moment, the Carnivorous Tree unleashed even more intense sonic attacks, wave after wave.

Under the acid rain, if Yun Xiguang was hit by the sound waves again and lost control of the flames for even a moment, he would fall into the dense acid rain, his entire body dissolving.

But this time, the sonic attack was ineffective against Yun Xiguang.

He lay calmly atop the sea of fire, resting for a moment until his dizziness subsided. Enduring the pain in his ears, he concentrated again, controlling the fire wings and rising from the flames into the sky.

His ascent was similar to a phoenix born from the flames, golden orange light surrounding him.

In that glow, Chi Qiong was entranced.

Even though Yun Xiguang didn’t grow golden feathers and didn’t court him in the way Chi Qiong preferred, Chi Qiong felt his heart flutter.

The Carnivorous Tree, seeing Yun Xiguang’s counterattack, grew even angrier, intensifying the sonic attacks and increasing the frequency.

But Yun Xiguang remained unperturbed.

What did he stuff in his ears that could completely block the attack?

Curious, Chi Qiong looked at Yun Xiguang’s ears and saw two golden Phoenix feathers stuffed inside.

Yun Xiguang had balled the Phoenix feathers into earplugs, inserting them into his ears, with the ends dangling down like golden earrings.

For a moment, Chi Qiong didn’t feel offended by Yun Xiguang’s desecration of his Phoenix feathers; rather, he thought Yun Xiguang looked good wearing golden earrings.

Anyway, these two Phoenix feathers were useless. Should he weave them into earrings and temporarily adorn Yun Xiguang with them? Birds naturally built nests; his weaving skills were pretty good. Chi Qiong thought, his thoughts clouded by lust.

Unaware of the strange ideas swirling in Chi Qiong’s mind, Yun Xiguang removed the Phoenix feather wrapped around Chi Qiong’s body and whispered softly, “May I borrow it?”

Naturally, Chi Qiong agreed.

Yun Xiguang waved his palm; a fire bow appeared in his hand. He hung the Phoenix feather on the bow as a string, using heavenly fire as an arrow, and aimed at the white cocoon on the Carnivorous Tree, firing a flaming arrow.

With the Phoenix feather as the string, the flaming arrow carried Chi Qiong’s aura.

It pierced through the cocoon like a bolt of lightning, ignoring the resistance of the branches, breaking through obstacles, and piercing the white cocoon with a single shot.

The white cocoon was engulfed in flames, splitting open with countless cracks. Red-brown ants poured out from the gaps, each biting the other’s tail, forming a line, allowing the ants that had fallen to the bottom to climb back up along the line.

Apart from the few ants that initially fell into the sea of flames, the remaining ants climbed back one by one.

The returning ants threw themselves into the fire one after another. Their bodies were extremely tough, capable of penetrating the beak of a Golden-Winged Great Peng, allowing them to withstand the flames longer. Once enough ants covered the flames, the fire gradually extinguished.

These ants were unafraid of heavenly fire.

Because they weren’t afraid of heavenly fire, their bodies could extinguish the flames released by Yun Xiguang.

Yes, they weren’t awakened spirit beasts from ancient times, but evolved ants from this world. They conformed to the laws of the world and were unafraid of heavenly fire.

Heavenly fire, fundamentally, was a weapon of cause and effect, not ordinary earthly flames. Any creature within the realm of cause and effect would be devoured by heavenly fire.

However, the Weaver Ants were outside the cause and effect of heavenly fire, thus fearless of these flames. As long as their bodies were tough enough to withstand the flames controlled by Yun Xiguang, they could extinguish them.

Moreover, the white cocoon spewed out more and more Weaver Ants.

Their sturdy bodies made them unafraid of the strong acid; they climbed one by one onto the branches of the Carnivorous Tree. They devoured the branches voraciously, while the Carnivorous Tree didn’t struggle, allowing them to consume it.

The Weaver Ants that ate the branches grew much larger. They fell into the sea of flames in clusters, crawling over the sea of fire, quickly extinguishing the fire in that area.

The reason the Carnivorous Tree allowed the Weaver Ants to eat its branches was to provide energy for them, enabling them to help extinguish the flames.

It was indeed a wondrous symbiotic relationship.

Yun Xiguang didn’t move; he quietly observed the white cocoon.

As the cracks widened, Yun Xiguang clearly saw a person lying inside, someone he didn’t recognize. This person was curled up, lying in a food cart, identical to the ones in the sanatorium, precisely the connection point between reality and illusion.

This person was still alive; ants continuously crawled out from his body, yet he showed no expression of pain, a foolish smile permanently etched on his lips.

Yun Xiguang immediately made a judgment. This person was the true Spiritbond Master of the Weaver Ants, the ant nest. However, this person was clearly under the control of the Weaver Ants, having lost his senses, leaving little chance of rescue.

Yun Xiguang took out his phone and snapped a photo of the person’s face.

He wanted Zhang Jiancha to investigate this individual, checking where he was on the day the spirit energy reached nine points, which would roughly determine the specific location where the Phoenix feather fell.

When taking the photo, Yun Xiguang glanced at his phone. Indeed, there was no signal. The signal here should have been blocked, preventing anyone from leaking information about the situation.

Without a signal, it was impossible to pinpoint the exact location.

Yun Xiguang had anticipated this. For him, the inability to determine the precise location was better. That way, nobody could find him, and no one would know what happened here. He could smoothly retrieve the fourth Phoenix feather.

The most pressing issue now was dealing with these ants.

“Your combination is almost perfect, but unfortunately, you overlooked one thing,” Yun Xiguang said. “The reason you possess such formidable power is fundamentally due to possessing a Phoenix feather. You absorb its power to extinguish my flames. Now, the owner of the Phoenix feather is right here. Without the owner’s permission, you cannot borrow the power of the Phoenix feather.”

The flames on the cocoon had not yet been completely extinguished. One of the flames had already spread to the unknown Spiritbond Master’s body. The ants seemed indifferent to the Spiritbond Master’s life, or perhaps they didn’t think the fire was capable of destroying the ant nest. Therefore, their priority was to extinguish the fire on the cocoon and the sea of fire, leaving only a small flame burning on the Spiritbond Master’s body.

However, it was precisely this ignored flame that touched the Phoenix feather wrapped around the Spiritbond Master’s body.

The fourth Phoenix feather, imbued with Chi Qiong’s aura, was ignited, finding its master.

The flame spread throughout the Phoenix feather; it hovered in the air and flew toward Chi Qiong like an arrow.

The Carnivorous Tree and the Weaver Ants screamed, desperately trying to trap the Phoenix feather.

But who could stop the Phoenix feather from returning to its body?

It broke through all obstacles, arriving before Chi Qiong.

The fourth Phoenix feather had returned.