Blue Sky Over Chu Palace, Part 3

The Demon Realm’s vast territories were a chaotic mix of races, predominantly demons, but with scattered humans and beast clans.
Unlike, where order prevailed, the Demon Realm, beyond the four main cities, lacked oversight.

The law of the jungle ruled—without strength or skill, one could only cling to the powerful for protection, or survival was near impossible.

As for the strong, some flaunted their power, others hid in shadows, but…

“Someone as flamboyant as you? That’s a first. Do phoenixes die if they’re not ostentatious?”

In a street-side tavern in Vermilion Bird Main City, Yun Yao set Naihe Sword on the first table, eyeing the figure across from her—
Clad in radiant, multicolored feather robes, demonic aura shimmering visibly from eight hundred li away, accentuating an already striking face.
If not for the scowl screaming “everyone here owes me a ton of spirit stones,” they’d have drawn countless stares.

Feng Qinglian turned, locking eyes with Yun Yao through her veiled hat for three breaths.
“Yun Yaojiu?”

“…” Yun Yao patted Naihe Sword. “This is the Demon Realm. Killing, silencing, and burying a body is easy.”

Feng Qinglian snorted a laugh, confirming Yun Yao’s identity, then turned back, resuming their haughty phoenix posture, a cold, vibrant peacock.

Used to this bird’s antics, Yun Yao didn’t care. “What are you doing here?”

“Yu Yan stole my clan’s Phoenix Gall to prolong his enemy’s life. I’m here to take it back,” Feng Qinglian paused, frowning. “Didn’t Mu Jiutian tell you?”

Yun Yao was briefly stunned. “I knew you went to the East Sea, but not for the Phoenix Gall…”

“Now you know.”

“Is Chen Jianxue really in mortal danger?” Yun Yao asked, frowning.
“Who’s Chen Jianxue?”
“…The ‘enemy’ of your true dragon.”
“…A woman?”

Meeting Feng Qinglian’s unguarded shock, Yun Yao held back a sigh. “You chased to the Demon Realm without even knowing if the other person’s male or female?”

“…” Feng Qinglian turned away. “I’m chasing Yu Yan, not his enemy.”

Yun Yao’s suspicions deepened.
The Demon Realm was vast; meeting Feng Qinglian in Vermilion Bird City felt too coincidental.
And their evasive demeanor only heightened her doubts.

“You followed Yu Yan to Vermilion Bird City?” Yun Yao pressed. “My probes suggest he’s near Azure Dragon Main City.”

“True dragons excel at soul techniques. It’s normal for your probes to err.”

“The closer you are, the stronger their deception. I’m thousands of li away—if I’m wrong at this distance, I might as well abandon my Tribulation Realm cultivation.” Yun Yao caught herself, correcting, “—abandon my immortal status.”

Luckily, Feng Qinglian, preoccupied with guilt, didn’t notice her slip.
They avoided her gaze.

Yun Yao narrowed her eyes. “Did Mu Jiutian message you? Tell you I’d come to Vermilion Bird City, so you showed up?”

“…If the Demon Realm invades 仙域 again, we’ll use Qianmen’s Little Grandmaster’s face as a shield—it’s big enough to block everything,” Feng Qinglian deflected, expressionless.

Yun Yao slowly gripped Naihe Sword.

Feng Qinglian glanced at the icy expression forming on Qianmen’s Little Grandmaster, softening slightly. “Both realms’ safety concerns us all. Qianmen and Phoenix Immortal Mountain have been allies for nearly a millennium. With the Demon Realm in turmoil, it’s only right I investigate while passing through.”

“Such a burden for the Phoenix Clan’s lord.”
Yun Yao grabbed her sword and walked off.

Feng Qinglian’s face shifted, chasing after her. “Where are you going?”

“Oh, didn’t Mu Jiutian’s message tell you? Ask him.”

“Yun Yaojiu,” Feng Qinglian’s stunning face darkened, “still want to sneak into Vermilion Bird Guards’ northern expedition?”

“…”
A few zhang out, the black-robed woman stopped.

After a few breaths, Yun Yao turned suspiciously. “You have a way?”

—

Half an hour later.
Vermilion Bird Guards, Yulin Camp.

For the first time, Yun Yao wore guard armor, its clasps tormenting her into a scowl. Behind a screen, she fumbled with the armor, asking Feng Qinglian outside, “How do you know a Vermilion Bird Guard general?”

“In ancient times, the Vermilion Bird Clan was our Phoenix Clan’s vassal. Some ties remain—isn’t that normal?” Feng Qinglian replied stiffly.

Yun Yao adjusted her helmet, thoughtful. “So, Yu Yan going to Azure Dragon City—does he have ties to the Azure Dragon Clan?”

“For eons, all beast clans obeyed him. A demon dragon’s loyalty is no surprise.”

“Tch,” Yun Yao sighed. “Getting Chen Jianxue back from Azure Dragon territory just got harder.”

“Still worried about his enemy?” Feng Qinglian sneered. “Worry about yourself first. This northern expedition to Skyfall Abyss’s Two仪 City isn’t just a simple purge…” @Infinite Good Reads, Only at Jinjiang Literature City

Their words stopped as they turned, freezing.

Sword-like brows, starry eyes, jade face, thin lips, clad in imposing armor—
A stranger, a handsome young general.

Feng Qinglian stiffened, divine sense circling the “young general” three hundred times, finally unclenching their fingers. “Yun Yaojiu…”

“Hm?” Yun Yao, amused by the phoenix’s stunned-goose look, grinned. “What?”

“You’re… a man?”

“…”
Yun Yao: “?”

Fooling a phoenix who’d known her for five hundred years into thinking she was male—
Yun Yao fully believed in Mu Jiutian’s disguise pill.

The phoenix, learning the truth, grew even more expressionless.

After changing, the Yulin Camp was set to depart. Yun Yao, grudgingly adopting Feng Qinglian’s garish feather-robed style, blended into the march north.

At first, Yun Yao worried. “Won’t someone in the guards notice we’re strangers, never seen before?”

“No.”
Feng Qinglian, still struggling with Yun Yao’s flawless male disguise, refused eye contact.

Yun Yao frowned. “Why not?”

“The Vermilion Bird Guards reorganized all camps last month, shuffling everyone.”

Yun Yao paused, frowning instinctively.

“And most commanding generals were replaced,” Feng Qinglian added darkly, “especially the Vermilion Bird City lord’s loyalists and confidants.”

“…” Yun Yao, twirling a grass blade she’d plucked, mused silently.

After no response, Feng Qinglian turned back. “Changing generals before battle, reorganizing camps—both are military taboos. Don’t you find the city lord’s orders odd?”

Yun Yao spun the grass blade. “If the new White Tiger City lord has such skill, why trap himself in such a dire situation?”

“I fear he’s not trapped,” Feng Qinglian said coldly, “but baiting a deadly trap.”

“For whom? Azure Dragon? Black Tortoise?”

Feng Qinglian sneered. “What if it’s for you?”

“—”

A breeze swirled, blowing the grass blade into the dusty air.
Yun Yao snapped back, adjusting her helmet. “Impossible. He doesn’t know I’m here.”

Feng Qinglian frowned, about to speak.

Yun Yao lifted her helmet’s edge.
The handsome youth flashed peach-blossom eyes, blinking innocently at Feng Qinglian. “Besides, if I stood before him now, do you think he’d recognize me?”

Feng Qinglian: “…”

“Whatever. If you court death, don’t expect my help,” Feng Qinglian snapped, turning away.

Yun Yao: “?”
This bird—inexplicably moody.

—

The next day.
Demon Realm, Skyfall Abyss East, Two仪 City.

Three elite Vermilion Bird Guard camps arrived last night, encircling the city’s west gate a few li out, holding position—
Clearly waiting for Black Tortoise Guards to arrive from the north, planning to use the narrow valley between Skyfall Abyss and Longyi Mountains to crush the new White Tiger City lord.

That night, Two City.

“City Lord! Traitors among the White Tiger Guards planned to kill the west gate’s general and defect tonight. They’ve been captured—how to proceed?”

In the temporary lord’s manor, a heavily armored White Tiger Guard Right Envoy knelt, shaking the hall like a collapsing jade mountain, startling Xiao Ling, serving tea nearby, her hands trembling.
She glanced nervously at the cold-eyed guard team behind the envoy, then at the white-robed zitherist.

Still wearing that grotesque bronze mask, his long lashes lowered lazily, voice weary. “If they sought to kill and defect, they chose death. Kill them, toss them into Skyfall Abyss.”

The Right Envoy, unflinching, struck his scabbard on the ground. “Yes!”

“…”

The White Tiger Guards rose, moving outward.
Save for the clanging of their armor, they were silent as ghosts.

“Sir,” Xiao Ling approached cautiously after they left, “the Vermilion Bird Guards are at the gates, and Black Tortoise City’s forces arrive tomorrow… Aren’t we escaping?”

“My goal was always Skyfall Abyss. Why escape?” The zitherist propped his head on a slender arm, asking lazily.

“Skyfall Abyss?” Xiao Ling’s heart trembled, recalling those thrown into its endless flames for their crimes, reduced to ash. “Why… throw them into Skyfall Abyss?”

The zitherist shifted slightly, finally glancing at her. “Not entirely hopeless, are you?”

*Gulp.*
In the silent hall, Xiao Ling’s swallow was stark.
Sweat beaded her palms as she held the teapot. “Is it… as the city rumors say, you’re truly here to reopen the Demon Sovereign Hall?” @Infinite Good Reads, Only at Jinjiang Literature City

“…”

The white-robed zitherist chuckled lowly.
Hoarse, gleeful, almost bewitching.

Mu Hanyuan rose from his seat. “To reopen the Demon Sovereign Hall, and to wait for someone.”

Sensing the restless soul in his sea of consciousness, his eyes darkened, voice chilling with displeasure.
“Reopening the Hall shouldn’t be this complicated. A mere hundred thousand soul-fire lives would suffice—toss them in. In this Demon Realm of millions, how many are truly innocent?! Yet you insist—those not deserving death shouldn’t die? Forget the Demon Realm; across the world, every heart harbors filth, darkness, and demons! Who doesn’t deserve it?!”

“…”

Though not her first time seeing the new lord rant maniacally to an empty void, Xiao Ling stepped back, terrified.

Unmindful, she bumped a chair, the thud echoing.

It drew the chilling gaze of the grotesque bronze mask.

Xiao Ling forced a smile, offering a teacup to Mu Hanyuan. “Who… who are you waiting for, City Lord?”

“Someone to save me, or kill me.”

“…!”
At “kill me,” Xiao Ling shuddered, dropping the teacup. It shattered, its clear tea staining the jade floor black.

“Ah! N-No… not me!” Xiao Ling, panicked, tried to retreat but was caught by a cold, jade-like hand gripping her slender neck.

“Of course not you. Are you worthy?”

“I-I wouldn’t dare—” Xiao Ling gasped, vision darkening.

“But this is fine,” Mu Hanyuan eyed her. “Another sinful life to add.”

His grip tightened, about to snap the trembling dancer’s neck.

*Shing.*
A sword wind grazed his sleeve, slicing off half his white robe’s folds.

Beneath the bronze mask, Mu Hanyuan’s eyes flared with near-mad intensity. Still gripping Xiao Ling, he stared into the dark corner of the hall—

“Look, she’s here!”

A laugh climbed his lips beneath the mask.

Then he frowned.

“…Why is it a man?”