Hua Xianle

Chapter 70:

They could see the fires raging from Cloud Recesses from many li away. Despite it being hours before dawn was set to come, the sky was tinged orange by the flames that ate away at Gusu. Seeing it from their swords, Lan Zhan and Hua Ying were both stunned speechless. For perhaps the first time in his life, the Second Jade Lan’s face crumbled into anguish, a cry of agony tearing out of his throat.

Hua Ying was similarly distressed, having come to see Cloud Recesses as another home. Seeing it defiled made his core pulse with rage and pain. He clenched his chest, forcing himself to breathe so he could focus on his zhiji. While his beloved was normally a level-headed man, not even he could remain rational in the face of this tragedy. In fact, just looking at his jade’s broken expression showed him just how bad this was.

“Lan Zhan!” he called out, flying closer and grabbing the Lan by the arm. “Lan Zhan, stay close! I’m going to summon Huoyan to scout the area!”

“Muqin…” Lan Zhan managed to choke out. “Fuqin… Brother… Uncle…”

Hua Ying moved closer, squeezing his zhiji’s hand and leaning against him.

“I swear to you, we will find them. But we need to land somewhere and hide. Your white robes stand out too much and whoever is responsible for this may try to find you. Plus, we cannot risk the light of the summoning talisman drawing unwanted attention to us.”

With a grimace, Lan Zhan nodded and followed Hua Ying down. They were still a ways away from Cloud Recesses, in the woods just east of Caiyi town. Initially, Hua Ying considered hiding out in town, but the uncertainty of everything made it too risky. Thus, they landed in a small clearing, hiding themselves amongst the brush. 

As his zhiji began to lay out some warding talismans to protect them, Hua Ying pulled out a different talisman from his sleeve and flicked it toward the ground. As it landed, it erupted into flames as Huoyan appeared.

The summoning talisman was one of Hua Ying’s crowning achievements. He couldn’t bring all of his spiritual animals with him everywhere he went, but he also couldn’t accurately plan which companion would be the most useful in a given situation. Of course, Hua Ying never met a dilemma he couldn’t solve and threw himself into modifying the transport talisman into one that could summon a set target. It had taken a few tries, as well as several of his A-Die’s butterflies disappearing somewhere even the Heavens didn’t know where, but he’d perfected it after about three months.

“Huoyan, my beloved, I’m sorry to wake you up so early.” The prince gave the Phoenix a gentle stroke on the head. “I need you to be my eyes. Can you do that for me?”

With a caw, Huoyan bowed her head, spreading her wings to prepare to take off. Before she did, Hua Ying bumped their foreheads together, using a small bit of his spiritual energy to connect them. His eyes were closed as he did this, but when he opened them, his silver eyes were now the same red-to-yellow gradient as the phoenix. He was also looking through the eyes of his precious bird.

This was a spell that his A-Die had taught him, the same spell the Calamity used to look through the eyes of his butterflies. Being a Ghost King, Hua Cheng could do it with ease while also maintaining his own sight. He’d had over 800 years of practice after all. The fact that Hua Ying was able to use it at all was a testament to his genius and cultivation level.

“Ah, Lan Zhan, I’ll need you to keep me safe while I’m like this. I will be seeing and hearing what Huoyan does, so I will be helpless to everything else. At most, I will be able to distantly hear you.”

Immediately, Lan Wangji took his zhiji’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “Will protect Hua Ying.”

Hua Ying had the pleasure of watching his face turn a brilliant shade of scarlet before Huoyan took to the air, making for Cloud Recesses.