NOVPUBIn the old man’s astonished look, Xia Feng’s body ignited with a pale flame, quickly unfurling into a pair of majestic, holy white fire wings constructed from tumultuous flames.
Hum-
The fire’s hum purged the air, and the tranquil forest rustled with the sound, as the man dressed in a pure white tailcoat slowly ascended.
"Is this my... Vermilion Bird Demon Armor?" the old man gaped, slowly tilting his head back.
Although the connection with the Spiritual Artifact was severed, he could still distinctly feel that as the armor’s flames turned from crimson to holy white, the entire quality of the Demon Armor seemed to have been sublimated.
Even more so, he had an inexplicable sensation that the leaping, exuberant flames of the Vermilion Bird Demon Armor were rejoicing, excited, delighted for the strength of their new master!
"See clearly, this is how your Spiritual Artifact should be used."
With a flap of his fiery wings, Xia Feng, like a white lightning, instantly appeared behind the old man.
Swipe—the bloody edge of the blade plunged into the old man’s back, and he widened his eyes in shock, clutching his chest, trembling with fear, "Don’t kill me! I can tell you everything about the Prince!"
Xia Feng paused with the blade, as if a thought struck him, and looked thoughtfully at Mu Qingtong, "Indeed, it would be a pity to kill him just like that, don’t you think so, Miss Mu?"
"Right, I can tell you anything you want to know!" The old man, seeing this, loosened up a sigh of relief and nodded eagerly.
"The words of the dead are the most trustworthy."
Mu Qingtong’s beautiful eyes remained calm as she looked towards Xia Feng, "Kill him, I can make the dead speak."
Startled, the old man gazed at the black-dressed woman not far away, as though he was looking at a devil: "Wha—"
Swipe—the blade pierced through his heart, and his bewildered, shocked gaze slowly faded into lifelessness, as he murmured lowly, "Devil..."
Xia Feng smiled and looked up, "Miss Mu, it’s your turn to perform."
The woman in the black dress stepped forward, her palm facing the old man’s forehead.
Immediately, an almost transparent, blurry Spiritual Body slowly floated up; it was the soul of a man in his thirties, his pupils lit with golden ☩ symbols, slowly rotating clockwise in the pitch-black orbits of his eyes.
Xia Feng saw this and nodded with a smile. This woman indeed knew how to hypnotize.
So far, it was known that her Spiritual Unsealing had two abilities: hypnosis and a strange ability to forcefully control one’s body, with unknown trigger conditions, at least not by staring into one’s eyes.
Since it’s an alpha-level Spiritual Artifact, she likely also possesses a third ability before completing the Holy Release.
It’s just unknown what the last ability is.
"Why does the Prince want to capture Li Hongdou?" Mu Qingtong asked in a soft voice.
The young soul spoke in a dull tone, "Because only if Li Hongdou acknowledges the Princess as her mother, the Princess can complete the birth ceremony."
"Be more specific."
"The Princess was erased of her Existence Power by the Imaginary River and thereby expelled by the World Will. To regain recognition from the World Will and incarnate a soul into a body, one must find a way to regain the Existence Power."
"The birth ceremony requires a large amount of spiritual materials and the Infinite Stone. The Prince completed the collection a few days ago, and now all that’s missing is the attainment of Existence Power.
To obtain the Existence Power, one must have an existence identity acknowledged by the ’World,’ and this identity is often related to one’s deepest obsessions."
The Spiritual Body monotonously recited a bunch of dry and difficult-to-understand statements, while Xia Feng frowned and continued to listen.
"As for the Princess’s obsession, she desires to have a daughter. But the Princess’s body is now trapped in the Ice God Coffin, and her soul..."
Hearing his words, Xia Feng suddenly nodded.
So, the Princess could obtain the identity of a mother and thereby the Existence Power, to avoid being expelled by the ’World.’ But with the Princess’s body sealed in the Ice Coffin and her soul surrounded within a three-meter radius by the Imaginary River, she couldn’t give birth to a daughter, so....
"Wait a minute, why doesn’t she just adopt any girl to be her daughter?" Xia Feng asked, puzzled.
The young Spiritual Body spoke listlessly, "Yue Hongli doesn’t recognize it, she said she hasn’t even been married, how could she have a daughter?"
So this Princess could actually talk... Xia Feng listened to the young man ramble on for a while, and generally understood the situation.
The obsession of Yue Hongli was to have a daughter, so the Prince held a grand wedding ceremony three meters apart from Yue Hongli’s Soul Body, witnessed by numerous nobles, and conferred upon her the title of Princess.
Although the Soul Body often zoned out and floated around like a ghost, making it difficult to communicate and apparently not very intelligent, it still understood human speech and knew it had gotten married.
Getting married meant she could now have a daughter.
Therefore, the Princess acknowledged the stepdaughters the Prince had found for her.
Unfortunately, the domain of the Imaginary River hadn’t disappeared, indicating that they hadn’t received the World Will’s recognition.
The Princess’s Soul Body’s approval was utterly useless... The Prince wasn’t discouraged, though, because he had a real daughter.
Li Hongdou!
Because of this, Mushroom began a life of being coerced into acknowledging a mother.
Sadly, after sporadic attempts over two or three years, seeing Mushroom stubbornly refusing to recognize the mother, the Prince gradually gave up this method temporarily. It wasn’t a big deal; he could just have another one!
The Prince simply found several women and had three more daughters, nearly exhausting himself to death, only for the Princess to say what she wanted was a daughter who could bear daughters.
This completely baffled the Prince.
A daughter... who could bear daughters?!
If Yue Hongli’s Soul Body hadn’t looked so dazed and stupid, he almost would’ve suspected this Soul Body was playing tricks on him.
However, being a Prince who had seen it all, he remained undaunted and after trying several more methods, he found...
Still not a single one succeeded!!
For example, divorcing and marrying Yue Hongli to a man with adult daughters, but the Princess’s Soul Body stated that a woman’s marriage can only happen once in a lifetime...
The Prince was torn apart! He understood now, Li Hongdou was the only option! If not Li Hongdou, then this birth ritual was an outright paradox that could never be completed!
So, after completing the collection of the Infinite Stone, he held his birthday banquet as usual, and specifically summoned Xia Feng to see him.
Although Li Hongdou had moved out of the Prince’s mansion, the Prince had been secretly surveilling her all these years; he knew Xia Feng was Li Hongdou’s only weakness.
As long as he had Xia Feng’s life in his hands, it would be easy to make this unfilial daughter obediently listen. 𝓃𝓸𝓿𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝓬ℴ𝓶
Unfortunately, a bit of an accident occurred midway through the banquet...
After listening to the young man’s story, Xia Feng’s eyelids twitched slightly. So that banquet was that dangerous, huh? Both Li Siwen and Liszt were out to get me.
Did this father and son not coordinate with each other at all? If Li Siwen really killed me, Liszt would probably die from anger.
After asking a few more questions, Xia Feng’s blade vibrated, and the young man’s Spiritual Body dissipated into Spiritual Light, vanishing into thin air.
After disposing of the body with Blood Beast, Xia Feng exchanged glances with Mu Qingtong and smiled.
"Let’s go."
*
Atop the ruins of Ping Shan Hospital, the woman in the red dress still stood in front of the glazed coffin like a ghost, her petite face with upturned fox-like eyes covered in black veil, quietly looking upwards.
A middle-aged man stood not far away, hands behind his back, his eyes squinted as he watched the woman for a long time. He slowly reached out, as if attempting to cross the three-meter domain in front of him, but he stopped halfway and lowered his hand, murmuring with a profound gaze:
"The time is near, my Princess. Soon you will be able to meet your King...."
