Chapter 17: Demonic Attachment

Changyi confirmed that the pool was bottomless. Ji Yunhe pondered. The ground was flat everywhere aside from the crater here, and according to her explorations, the pool should be the center of the crater.

If she estimated correctly, this pool of water would also be the center of the seal, or the main eye. If they could shake up this eye, it would completely break the Ten Square Formation. Ji Yunhe scooped up some water with her hand and held it to her eyes. She knew right away that this was their way out, down in the bottom of the abyss...

Because... she felt her double pulse as soon as she touched the water, though very faint. Changyi suddenly grew alert.

"Someone's here." Ji Yunhe was taken by surprise and looked around.

"Where?"

Then she heard it too. A low rumbling from the depths of the pool as if a giant beast had awakened. Ji Yunhe and Changyi looked at each other. There was something very unpleasant under the water.

Ji Yunhe immediately grabbed Changyi's arm and pulled with all her might. It forcefully plucked him out of the water and into the air with a circular arch, while she fell backward onto the ground.

When his huge tail flipped in the air, a cascade of water drops rained down across the courtyard. Amidst the "rain", a cloud of black gas shot out from the bottom of the pool, solidifying into the shape of a giant phoenix on the surface.

A... black phoenix. It lifted its head and called to the sky with the sound of nine heavens, and its huge flapping wings briefly dulled the golden light that surrounded them.

Ji Yunhe looked at the giant bird in amazement -- a second phoenix existed in this world? Did the ten demon masters actually seal two of these powerful demons? But something seemed wrong.

This black phoenix, although only different in color from the jade phoenix, had no feet. Or its feet were somehow still trapped under the water and could not pull loose. It was imprisoned inside the pool.

The black phoenix struggled and screamed incessantly. After Ji Yunhe got used to its shrieks, she suppressed her shock and asked Changyi, "Did you see it down there?"

"No."

"Then where did it come from..."

The demon bird suddenly flipped its neck within the black gaseous cloud, and its blood red eyes fixated on Ji Yunhe.

"Demon master!"

It let out a hellish cry, "I will eat you alive!" With feathers flapping, the black phoenix turned its body and charged at her with its monstrous beak.

Still sitting on the ground, Ji Yunhe only had enough time to shove her bottom a bit to the side. She watched as the bird pecked into the ground between her and Changyi. It left such a deep pit that its own head was almost buried inside. Ji Yunhe looked at the pit and twitched the corners of her mouth.

"What did I do..."

Ji Yunhe got up and dashed for the cabin, but the bird raised its head and thrashed against the walls, overturning half of the structure. Broken pieces made from wood and grass turned into golden dust and scattered across the ground.

Ji Yunhe jumped, rolled, flipped and dodged in every way she could to avoid the vicious attacks, but every time the bird would come after her again.

Soon she was backed into a corner with no way out. Ji Yunhe stopped retreating and stared into its wide open mouth. It charged at her then ferociously snapped its beak… an inch away from her face. No matter how much it struggled, it could not move forward that extra inch.

Ji Yunhe leaned her body sideways and checked behind the bird. It looked as if its feet had been planted in the pool, and could only furiously snap at the air in front of her again and again. Ji Yunhe flicked the giant beak.

"I say, you big chicken, you are really unreasonable! What did I do to you that you have to eat me?"

Her flick made the black phoenix even more furious. It thrashed and flailed, desperately trying to poke its beak forward.

"You're fearless." Changyi finally managed to pull and drag his big tail over to her side. "If you had miscalculated even slightly, you would be dead right now."

"What could go wrong?" Ji Yunhe gestured with her arms.

"When straightened, its body is at most this long."

The demon bird screamed, "Demon master! I want you dead! I will eat you! I will eat you!" Ji Yunhe looked at it up close, and unexpectedly saw a teardrop under its bloodshot eye. So sad?

"Why are you crying?" Ji Yunhe asked.

"You demon masters are heartless! You use then abandon me! I will eat each and every one of you I see!"

So, this was a big chicken with a story. The demon bird enshrouded itself in a black gaseous cloud and dissipated. Then its body solidified again, this time into the form of a woman. She stood in the center of the pool, and her face looked identical to the jade phoenix.

A face very similar to Snow March.

Except she was dressed in all black. Her pupils were blood red and a tear still sat under one eye. Resentful, furious, and... sad. A big, strange chicken indeed.

"Hey, what is your relationship to the jade phoenix, Qing Ji?" Ji Yunhe stopped beating around the bush and asked.

"Why are you imprisoned in this pool?"

"The jade phoenix?"

The woman in black turned her head to look at Ji Yunhe.

"I am Jade Phoenix, I am Qing Ji." She spun around in the center of the pool and looked at her surroundings, then she went crazy. With tears rolling down like a mini waterfall, she pointed to the golden sky and furiously shouted, "I am the demon who was deceived by the Wuchang Saint and imprisoned by him in this Ten Square Formation!"