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When he sensed the condor’s fear, Ye Zichen burst into laughter. “Brother Condor, aren’t you the top dog? This little bit of fire’s really enough to scare you? Don’t worry; I’m just trying to warm her up. I’ll disperse the flames in a moment.”
When it heard the term “Top Dog”, the condor’s expression filled with pride, as if it were saying…
That paltry little bit of fire? As if you could scare me with that!
But at the same time, Ye Zichen could still see the terror in its gaze, a fear embedded deep within its bones.
The cave’s temperature gradually increased, and the tightly curled girl relaxed somewhat. Her tightly knit brow smoothed out, but her face was still flushed, and she looked weary.
Ye Zichen knew the condor feared the flames, so once the temperature stabilized, Ye Zichen dispersed his flames. Then, the walked up to the girl and rolled up her sleeves. Indeed, there was a dark red line crawling up her arm.
Thousand Lotus Flower poisoning!
Ye Zichen kept rolling up her sleeves. The red line had long since spread past her shoulder.
“Scree?” The condor walked over and looked at Ye Zichen, his gaze questioning.
“You brought me here so I could use the Worry-Alleviating Grass to save his human girl?” Ye Zichen tilted his head and looked up at the bird. The beasts should have treated intruders like them as enemies. To think the bird brought him all this way just to save a human girl! The bird had even fought its way into snow ape territory just to acquire Worry-Alleviating Grass.
It seemed the condor was quite good-natured!
The condor again nodded as if it were human. From time to time, it placed its massive wings against the girl’s forehead, as if taking her temperature.
“But I don’t know what to do! Yes, I have the Worry-Alleviating Grass, but don’t tell me I’m just supposed to feed it to her?” Ye Zichen looked at the condor.
It screeched and nodded, confirming his words.
“No way! That simple and rough? I don’t even need to do anything to it first?” Ye Zichen was a picture of disbelief. “Don’t think we humans are like you yao. Our digestions are nowhere near as tough as yours.”
“Scree!” The condor raised its voice, as if telling Ye Zichen to just do as it said.
“I already said our digestions aren’t as strong as yours! Come on, you big ol’ condor, you can’t just…” Before Ye Zichen could finish, the girl lying in the straw let out an agonized whimper. Just hearing it made Ye Zichen worry.
The condor looked at her in obvious concern, then beat its wings and screeched repeatedly.
There was no other solution!
It was Venerate Spirit Treasure who’d told him to fetch the grass in the first place. If not for him, Ye Zichen would never have known such a grass existed.
But Venerate Spirit Treasure hadn’t told him how to use it, so Ye Zichen naturally had no idea.
He didn’t just want to feed it to her, but that was out of concern for her. Yet given the situation and how severe her condition, and that he had no better ideas, perhaps….
Perhaps there really wasn’t a better solution than just having her swallow it whole.
The girl’s condition was getting worse and worse, and the condor was getting increasingly frantic.
“Fine! It’s a desperate situation, so I’ll try anything!” The red streaks had already spread past her shoulders, and it was obvious she wouldn’t last much longer. Thus, Ye Zichen directly took a stalk of Worry-Alleviating Grass and stuffed it in her mouth.
However, since she was unconscious, she couldn’t swallow it herself.
“My apologies.” Ye Zichen cupped his fist, then touched the girl directly. His divine power surged through his fingers, and he used it to guide the grass into her stomach to begin digestion.
Although this sounded like a simple process, it actually took him almost an hour!
Perhaps she was just unusually sensitive, but regardless of where he touched her, she moaned, throwing Ye Zichen’s mind out of whack.
In any event, he finally managed to get her to swallow the grass. Then, covered in sweat, Ye Zichen sighed and sat off to the side.
“Brother Condor, is this good?” he asked.
“Scree!” The condor nodded, seemingly rejoicing, then it sat there quietly until the girl woke up, like a servant waiting for its master.
Ye Zichen had a hard time understanding what he was seeing.
The condor was clearly an inhabitant of the Transcendent Mausoleum, while the girl was undoubtedly from the outside world here in search of fortune. The two of them shouldn’t have any sort of relationship, but by the way the bird was behaving, you’d think the girl had raised the condor.
It was just too strange!
Also, just about everyone here was at least an imperial king. The girl only looked sixteen years old, give or take. Was she already an imperial king?
If so, her talent was even more terrifying than the Divine Arbiter’s monstrous nephew!
“Brother Condor.” Ye Zichen attempted to speak to it, but it ignored him. It was completely fixated on the girl.
Ye Zichen awkwardly rubbed his nose but said no more. He walked up to the entryway and looked outside. When he looked up…
The towering palace was in view. If he could fly here, he could reach it in less than a hundred breaths of time.
Except he couldn’t. If he went on foot, who knew how long it would take?
But he was even more worried about his friends. He had no idea if Gu Li had returned safely with the antidote. He was also worried that they were worried about him.
“Scree!” Suddenly, the condor’s delighted cry filled the cave.
Ye Zichen turned and saw that the girl lying in the straw was showing signs of awakening. He took a few steps towards her, and saw her eyes slowly opening.
The bird let out a few more joyous cries as it circled her. Ye Zichen could sense the girl’s weakened state, so he took out a divine-grade recovery pill and placed it in her hand.
“Are you human?” The girl didn’t directly take the medicine.
Ye Zichen nodded. She clearly hadn’t expected to encounter another human here, so her eyes filled with shock.
Then, she turned to the condor. “You snatched him up, didn’t you?”
This time, the condor seemed to pretend not to understand her. It just looked at her curiously.
The girl laughed helplessly and patted its wings. Then, she turned to Ye Zichen and laughed apologetically. “Sorry! I cost you precious time you could have spent hunting for treasures and fortune.”
“No harm done. You’re still in a weakened state, so this medicine should be useful to you.” Ye Zichen gestured to the pill.
She took it and sniffed. “Divine-grade spiritual recovery medicine? You must’ve been no ordinary person outside.”
“What ordinary person could have entered this place to begin with?” laughed Ye Zichen. The girl didn’t argue; it was true. Entering this place meant you were at least an imperial king, which in turn meant you could rule your own territory outside. No immortal king was ordinary.
But that wasn’t what the girl meant when she said he wasn’t ordinary. But if Ye Zichen didn’t wish to speak of that, she wouldn’t press the issue.
“Thank you.” She wasn’t the type to hem and haw, so she accepted the pill.
And it was true that, in her depleted state, there was no better way to replenish her energy.
Once she took the pill, she sat cross-legged and set about recovering. The divine-grade recovery medicine indeed contained quite a bit of energy, but it wasn’t enough to fully replenish an imperial expert.
Once she was about thirty percent recovered, she left her meditation.
“Scree!” The condor’s eyes flashed with solemn light, and it called out to the girl.
She seemed to understand its words. Her eyes narrowed. “Want me to help out?
It shook its head.
“Then be careful.”
With that, the condor left the cave and took to the air. As Ye Zichen watched it leave, his eyes widened. He couldn’t help but curse inwardly. “Brother Condor, if you’re leaving, you should have taken me with you!”
“Big White says there are invaders in its territory, and he has to go take care of things. When he gates back, I’ll have him send you back,” said the girl, as if she could read his thoughts.
“Invaders? You mean…”
“Naturally, to the birds, we’re invaders. He’s referring to someone like us,” laughed the girl.
“I’d like to ask something, but I’m not sure I should!” Ye Zichen seemed conflicted.
“You practically saved my life. If you have something to ask, go right ahead. So long as I know the answer, I won’t hide anything.”
“You and that huge condor knew each other before?”
“You mean Big White?” The girl smiled. “Of course not. I’m from the outside too. As soon as I entered the mountains, I was sent straight into his territory. I came this close to getting eaten alive. It was Big White who saved me.”
“Does it like humans?”
“I don’t know, but he’s been very good to me. He helped me gather up practically all the treasures in the area around his territory.
“…..” Ye Zichen was at a loss for words.
He and other “guests from outside” had all fought vicious beasts to gain the treasures hidden here.
Yet this girl was ridiculously lucky. As soon as she arrived, the local despot took a shine to her and helped her seize treasures. Wasn’t that just infuriating?
“Perhaps I resemble his former mistress, which is why he took a liking to me? But don’t ask me about his past; I haven’t asked him in any great detail, so I don’t know.”
She seemed like she could read minds; Ye Zichen really was just about to ask her about the condor, but she stopped him before he got the chance.
He hadn’t learned anything about the condor, but Ye Zichen arched his brow. “Can you talk to beasts?”
“A little bit!”
What did it mean for a conversation to be cringeworthy?
Wasn’t Ye Zichen’s conversation with this girl a bit painfully awkward?
Neither of them knew the other, so their communication was limited to question and answer.
“Right, I still don’t know your name. You saved my life, and once I get out of here, I’ll be sure to repay your kindness,” said the girl.
“I…” Ye Zichen hesitated, a bit unwilling to tell her. But this was an expert, at least an imperial king, who owed him a favor. Ye Zichen didn’t want to throw the opportunity away.
After a moment’s hesitation, Ye Zichen decided to tell her his real name. “Ye Zichen!”
To his surprise, when she heard that, the girl’s eyes lit up. “Is your mother Ye Rong?”
“How did you know that?”
“Call me ‘Aunt’!”