Creating fire with one’s bare hands was a technique that only a supreme master could barely manage. Naturally, it was impossible for Jeong Yeong, who was still a green escort warrior.
“No, I was joking…….”
“No. I apologize for not having reached that level yet…….”
“Oh, no, it’s fine.”
“Is this really a Phoenix?”
At Hwaryun’s question, everyone fell silent.
Until now, talk of the Phoenix had been half-joke and half-serious, but witnessing such a strange phenomenon made it difficult to dismiss it as a mere jest.
“No, even if it is a real Phoenix… how does a chicken we were raising suddenly turn into a Phoenix? The species… the species is different. Just because they’re both birds doesn’t mean they’re the same, right?”
In truth, Ryeon had a guess. If Spiritual Energy accumulated, a creature would become a Spirit Beast. And she had drawn out Spiritual Energy like a tidal wave from her entire body and fed it to him.
But the others didn’t know that. The idea that she had made him into a Phoenix was just Hwaryun’s joke, after all.
“That’s true, but… is the feng shui here just that good?”
Hwaryun muttered. It seemed he didn’t seriously believe that Ryeon had created a Phoenix either.
Ryeon swallowed dryly.
Among the various ways she could feed her Spiritual Energy to those around her, she had thought of something similar to this.
She had considered raising a Spirit Beast and taking its Internal Core.
Though she had never imagined a chicken would reach the level of becoming a Phoenix.
However, when she tried to imagine it seriously and in detail—like eating Heukwol’s Internal Core—it wasn’t as easy as she thought.
Eating something she had raised with affection and fed with her own hands was not something she could bring herself to do with a normal mindset.
Even now, just letting him leave made her heart feel this empty.
Ryeon folded away her intentions. Even as she descended the mountain, she looked back several times. The radiance of the Phoenix (?) was still shimmering beyond the forest. Jeong Yeong, leading the way with the two children, also couldn’t help but look back repeatedly, suppressing his astonishment.
“Our Heukwol… will live well, right?”
“Don’t you think that guy would be king wherever he goes?”
“Still… No, let’s go quickly.”
Ryeon hastened her steps, trying to soothe her empty heart.
Feeling empty was one thing, but as Hwaryun said, they needed to get down the mountain quickly.
Ever since climbing the mountain, she felt her breath catching due to the Spiritual Energy, and the Immortal Mirror confirmed that the recharge rate had indeed increased significantly.
Spiritual Energy: 45
Tip: Spiritual Energy recharges faster in places where nature is alive and breathing.
This was exactly why, in her past life, she had gone to a hermitage deep in the mountains to recuperate, only to vomit blood and faint!
Ryeon screamed inwardly, shaking her sleeve where the status window had appeared. Not that shaking it would make the numbers go down.
“Huh?”
At that moment, Ryeon stopped walking and shook her sleeve once more. Of course, the scenery beyond her sleeve didn’t change.
“Meow……”
“Uh?”
“Oh.”
Beneath a half-dead tree, under some bushes, there was something like a ball of pure white fur. Jeong Yeong approached cautiously first.
Ryeon poked her head out from behind him and peered over.
“A cat?”
When Jeong Yeong gently pushed aside the bush with his scabbard, a scrawny kitten revealed itself.
It was a cat so small its cry sounded almost like a chick peeping.
With dirty white fur and round ears drooping low, it lifted its blue eyes to meet hers, crying feebly.
Jeong Yeong spoke softly, his voice full of sympathy.
“It seems it was abandoned because it’s weak.”
“What should we do…?”
While Ryeon felt pity, the kitten struggled to move its paws and approached her hand.
“Uh, uh-oh……”
Startled by the kitten suddenly coming closer, Ryeon flinched, causing the cat to cry even more sorrowfully. It was a wonder where such a small and thin body found the strength to make a sound.
“Ah, ah…”
Ryeon looked between Jeong Yeong, Hwaryun, and the cat with a tearful expression.
“Is it okay to leave it here?”
“…If we leave it, won’t it die?”
Jeong Yeong said in a pained voice. Ryeon looked down at the cat with a grimace. The cat snuggled right up to Ryeon’s feet.
“Oh, oh my…”
“Just leave it. Even if you take a kid like that, ten to one it won’t survive long.”
However, Hwaryun’s voice was unusually cold. When Ryeon turned to look at Hwaryun in surprise, the boy grabbed Ryeon’s hand himself and pulled her away from the cat.
“You’re already sniffling because you couldn’t send off one chicken properly. What are you going to do if you take care of this kitten and it actually dies?”
It was a harsh way to put it, but he was actually considering Ryeon’s feelings. And at those words, Ryeon made up her mind even as she looked like she was about to cry.
“Yeah, that’s true… that can’t be helped.”
“What?”
Hwaryun raised his eyebrows as Ryeon, despite hearing his words, carefully scooped the kitten into her arms.
“Sister!”
“I can’t just let it die now because I don’t want to see it die later.”
“What are you going to do if that thing really goes wrong later?”
“What else? I’ll just cry my eyes out.”
Hwaryun’s eyebrows shot up, then his lips pouted out.
“Do whatever you want. If you cry until your eyes look like a goldfish, I’m going to tease you relentlessly.”
“Ryun-ah. A friend should offer comfort. And don’t say Hayang is going to go wrong starting now.”
“You’ve already named it?”
Ryeon began to descend the mountain carefully, stroking the cat that was burrowing into her sleeve.
“Ha, seriously… Ah, hey, look here, Miss Ryeon! You need to look ahead while going down, not at the cat. Sister! Sister! Look ahead!”
“Young Lady! Young Lady!”
“I am looking! I said I’m looking!”
*
Ryeon blinked her eyes wide, listening to the servants whispering ahead of her.
“A Phoenix appeared, is it true? Did you see it?”
“I saw it! That’s why I’m making a fuss! Ha, I really thought I was going to faint.”
“My goodness, a Phoenix appearing at the Danmok Clan. Isn’t this a sign that we’ll become the greatest clan under the heavens?”
“Hey, you. Don’t make a fuss. You might ruin the great event.”
“What, I can’t even speak? Does everything get ruined just because I say it?”
“You brat! Last time when we were playing the shell game, you kept shouting ‘I won, I won, this is it,’ and what happened?”
“No, that was… Ah, fine, I just have to shut up, right?”
The entire clan was obsessed with the shadow of the Phoenix. Even Nanny Jang!
“My goodness. They say a Phoenix appeared, Young Lady. It must be here to watch over you so you can grow up healthy and safe.”
Nanny Jang, who had laughed earlier asking if she had played in the garden since morning seeing Ryeon’s clothes covered in dirt, spoke in a hushed tone.
“…A Phoenix? Really?”
“Yes. The whole clan family said they saw golden feathers flashing through the morning sun.”
“…Everyone saw it?”
Ryeon moved her lips to say something but stopped.
Glancing at Jeong Yeong, who had returned to his role as a guard protecting her quarters, she saw him biting his lips tightly.
“Yes, yes. Listening to the talk, they say all of Hangzhou is buzzing. Such a… Oh my! This child is…”
Nanny Jang, who was continuing her story, belatedly discovered the white cat in Ryeon’s arms and widened her eyes.
In the meantime, Ryeon had cleaned it up and fed it some things to put it to sleep.
“Ah! Nanny. It seems its parents abandoned it. I’m going to raise it.”
She wasn’t entirely unconcerned that this cat might suddenly turn into a Spirit Beast like Heukwol, but she had been so worried it might stop breathing that she had gently breathed some Spiritual Energy into it.
Nanny Jang, who had been silent, tilted her head.
“Is that… a cat… right?”
“Huh? Yeah!”
Ryeon nodded vigorously. Nanny Jang tilted her head again, then eventually crinkled her eyes into a smile.
As if there would be a day when a Phoenix appears in the clan’s back mountain at dawn and a White Tiger appears in the Young Lady’s arms in the morning.
“You must take good care of it. Without the Young Lady, it might die soon.”
Ryeon nodded in agreement.
Even Mr. Jeon from the Wolyeongjae kitchen was completely absorbed in the Phoenix story.
He seemed to have completely forgotten about the one chicken that had gone entirely missing.
However, amidst the noisy excitement of everyone else, the children’s interests were set elsewhere.
“Sister, Sister!”
The door opened quietly, and two young children approached on their knees. They seemed trying not to be caught by the people around them.
“Bi-ah, Ryun-ah, you came?”
Danmok Bi, looking around swiftly, quickly crawled onto his sister’s bed and hugged her tightly.
“Sister, Uncle gave me Dragon’s Beard Candy because I memorized my letters well today.”
“Really? Did you enjoy it?”
Danmok Bi nodded and took something out from his embrace.
When he unwrapped the thin cloth, pure white Dragon’s Beard Candy revealed itself. Three pieces of Dragon’s Beard Candy, made of sugar melted and pulled into thin threads rolled up, lay neatly in a row.
