Phoenix's Requiem

Chapter 176: The Boy of the Story

As the banquet came to an end, Yun Moxiao realized that he couldn’t spot Yun Ruoyan anywhere. He was somewhat worried and about to begin searching for her, only to have his father pull him back.

Yun Lan had seen Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo leave with his own eyes, and he easily intuited that the two of them were currently together. If Yun Moxiao were to search for his sister now, wouldn’t that incite the Slaughtering King’s displeasure?

As expected, not a moment later, a servant came to inform Yun Moxiao that Miss Yun had been brought away by the Slaughtering King for the moment, so neither Yun Lan nor Yun Moxiao had to worry about her disappearance.

Li Mo had brought Yun Ruoyan soaring through the clouds. The late-August night wind was bitterly cold, and Yun Ruoyan ducked into Li Mo’s robes.

As Li Mo steered his sword with one hand, he held her shoulder with the other. Although Yun Ruoyan wasn’t as thin as before, she was still petite in front of Li Mo himself.

Yun Ruoyan’s stomach began to rumble.

Li Mo chuckled. “Your appetite’s unusually good.”

Dissatisfied, Yun Ruoyan protested, “I didn’t have a full lunch, and I didn’t have a full dinner either. Wouldn’t it be abnormal for me not to be hungry?”

Both lunch and dinner were hosted at the crown prince’s manor. Yun Ruoyan had been surrounded by the young misses of all the other noble families, each one eating more and more delicately than the last.

The banquets from her past life had also been much the same way. Under the environmental pressure, she subconsciously followed suit, but the price she had to pay for that was a half-filled stomach.

“How can I bear to let you starve?” Li Mo steered them toward the west, and the two of them stopped by a crystal-clear lake.

Yun Ruoyan found her surroundings unusually familiar. “Isn’t this the lake we fell into that time we were trying to escape from the forest of dead souls?”

“You have a good memory, Yan’er.”

“Shouldn’t you be bringing me to a restaurant? Why bring me here in the middle of the night?”

“For revenge, of course. And then a big meal.”

Li Mo jumped into the lake, splashing cold water on Yun Ruoyan’s face.

“Li Mo, wait!” Yun Ruoyan stood by the shore, staring at the once-again placid surface of the lake. “Be careful, there are fish-type beasts in there that bite!”

After about ten minutes, the surface of the lake remained as calm as ever. In her panic, Yun Ruoyan began throwing stones into the lake.

The surroundings were quiet, and all Yun Ruoyan could hear was the steady plop-plop of her stones falling into the lake. The scene would have been terrifying to an ordinary young miss, but Yun Ruoyan couldn’t care less about attracting the attention of a magical beast at the moment.

“Li Mo, what’re you doing in there?!” Yun Ruoyan yelled into the lake. “If you don’t come out now, I’m going to ditch you and run away!”

But just as Yun Ruoyan spoke, a huge silver shape emerged from the lake, revealing Li Mo’s silvery-white form, riding on a gigantic silver serpent easily twice as long as Li Mo was tall.

The man and serpent splashed back into the lake, the serpent struggling all the while to get out of Li Mo’s grasp. After an indiscernible period of time, the serpent finally stopped resisting, and the lake became still once more.

Yun Ruoyan walked toward the surface of the lake and craned her head out. With a big splash, Li Mo emerged from the lake, dragging the silver serpent’s body behind him. This time, the resulting splash struck Yun Ruoyan head-on, chilling her to the bone.

Li Mo lit a fire and began drying her sodden jacket by the flames, then borrowed Yun Ruoyan’s dagger to dissect the serpent and start roasting its most tender flesh.

Yun Ruoyan huddled into a little ball by the fire as she stared at Li Mo. His robe had turned silver, the same shade of silver as his hair and brows, but his eyes were an icy blue. He gave off an ethereal, immortal beauty.

Ignoring her gaze, Li Mo slathered a layer of fat over the roasting flesh, preventing the tender flesh from being scorched. The fragrance characteristic of seafood began spreading through the air. Yun Ruoyan swallowed her saliva, finally shifting her attention from Li Mo to the serpent he was roasting.

Once the serpent had turned a pleasant golden-brown, Li Mo wrapped it up in a silk handkerchief and handed it to Yun Ruoyan.

She took it happily and impatiently bit down. The outer layer was crunchy and a little charred; the inner layer tender and with a hint of sweetness, almost melting on her tongue.

“Who knew the Slaughtering King would be so good at cooking?” Yun Ruoyan praised as she ate.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve roasted anything, so I’m a little rusty. The flames could have been controlled better.” Li Mo only ate a few bites of the serpent flesh before taking out his flask of wine, sipping from it slowly as he watched Yun Ruoyan eat.

Although Li Mo wasn’t too satisfied with his own performance, Yun Ruoyan enjoyed the meal very much. She thought that Zhuo Yifeng’s technique was already quite amazing, but Li Mo’s seemed to be even better.

When she had devoured half the serpent, Yun Ruoyan rubbed her swollen stomach as she looked up at the night sky, the full moon, and then at Li Mo, who shone even more brightly than the moon itself.

“Aren’t you curious about my identity?”

Yun Ruoyan shook her head. “If you’re willing to tell me, I’m happy to hear about it. If you’re not, however, I won’t be curious.”

She didn’t care whether Li Mo was man, demon, beast, or something else entirely. Given Yun Ruoyan’s past life, she valued nothing more than a sincere heart. Even if he were a magical beast in disguise, that he had bared his heart to her was enough for her to be willing to protect and cherish him with her life.

“What I’m curious about is…” Yun Ruoyan sat up straight. “Why are you treating me so nicely? Let’s see.”

Yun Ruoyan bent a knee as she sat on a stone and rubbed her lower jaw. “The first time we met, I did help you out—but surely not to such an extent that you would devote your life to me. Furthermore, everyone knows that you’re not fond of women, but you’ve repeatedly pretended to be fond of me. I know quite well what my face is like, thank you, so why? Honestly, at first, I even thought you were attracted to deformed people, but after having known you for some time, I’m sure you’re a normal person. I still don’t understand your sudden devotion to me, however.”

Yun Ruoyan squinted, then pointed at Li Mo. “You’re not trying to get something from me, are you?”

Li Mo choked on his wine and began to sputter. Luckily, Yun Ruoyan dodged away from Li Mo in time.

No one else but Li Mo knew that Yun Ruoyan was a human furnace, not even Qiuqiu. After Li Mo had added his own beastkin blood to the qilin beads on Yun Ruoyan’s hand, her aura had been masked further. Li Mo was certain that he was the only one who knew her secret. If he didn’t mention anything, even Yun Ruoyan would never find anything amiss about her own body.

“What do you think I can get from your body?” Li Mo smiled as he looked at her.

His icy-blue eyes were mirthful, and his face was so gorgeous it was beyond description. Yun Ruoyan could barely tear her own eyes away.

“I… I… Well, I don’t think I have anything that you would want…”

“No, there’s one thing that I do want.”

“What?”

Li Mo suddenly pushed Yun Ruoyan down. “You.” He kissed her, gently and probing at first, then deepening it with every second until her face was completely red.

He caressed her, circulating spiritual energy about his body in order to warm her up. Under the night sky, Li Mo’s heady kisses had rendered Yun Ruoyan somewhat dazed, but she wasn’t tired and didn’t want to sleep.

“Li Mo, why don’t you tell me a story? My mother passed away when I was very young, and no one’s ever told me a bedtime story before. Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to be lulled to sleep.

“Alright.” Li Mo hugged Yun Ruoyan even more tightly as he began, his voice low and magnetic.

In the past, a long, long time ago, there was a little boy. He had a strong father and beautiful mother, and a cute little pet. He lived in a palace located within a mountain valley, where it seemed to be spring all year round, leading an idyllic life.

But one day, his kin betrayed his father, gathering a number of strong men to kill the boy’s father and capture his mother.

“That boy must be very upset,” Yun Ruoyan murmured.

“Right, he was. But he was too weak to do anything about it; instead, he could only bring his little pet to safety under the protection of some palace maids,” Li Mo continued.

It was a harsh, bitter winter day. Under usual circumstances, he would be having fun within the heated palace with his mother. However, that winter, the boy had to keep trudging forward in the snow, the wind, the cold. In order to hide from the pursuing troops, the palace maids brought the little boy into the overgrown mountains.

Because the boy’s feet were frostbitten, the palace maids had to take turns carrying the boy as they continued forward.

A few days later, even when their food was on the verge of running out, they still hadn’t walked out of the mountains, and they didn’t dare to retrace their path on account of the pursuing troops.

The cold and hunger caused their morale to fall, and some of the palace maids stole some valuables and left. In the end, of the dozen or so palace maids, only three were left. The valuables that they had taken with them had almost all been stolen.

A few days later, they finally finished the last of the food. The boy’s frostbite became worse and worse, and he began to feel feverish. Without food or medicine, the boy’s days began to blend together in an endless haze.

One day, the boy was jostled awake. The remaining three palace maidens had told him that they were going to take a trip down the mountain. They removed a precious pendant that had been looped over the boy’s neck, claiming that they would pawn it for money to buy medicine and food for the boy.

That pendant was the only remaining memento of his mother. Although the boy didn’t want to part with it, he was so weak that he could only watch on as the three palace maids left with it. The boy remained in the cave in the mountains for a day and a night, but the palace maids never returned. In time, he realized that he had been discarded.

Li Mo took a deep breath and stopped his tale.

Yun Ruoyan clutched Li Mo’s hand. “What happened to that little boy?”

“Just as the boy was about to die, his wildcat, that had gone missing several days earlier, suddenly appeared. It licked him awake with its warm tongue. The little boy recalled that his mother had once told him that a wildcat’s blood possessed spiritual energy and was able to treat all sorts of frost-related energies. As a result, the little boy held the wildcat in its lap as always, slowly smoothing its fur. And once the wildcat had completely let down its guard, the boy bit down on its neck…”