"Master, I think we are now close to it, the scent of the fire element grass is becoming stronger," she announced with delight on her face, Xi Feng smiled broadly in happiness and quickly walked over to where she was.

"Where is it?"

​​

"Somewhere here, I will find it very soon," she answered, then she started scrutinizing the area they stood, brushing away the shrubs and branches, the three of them started looking for the fire element grass together.

"I found it!" Xiaodi screamed, they turned to look in her direction, the both of them quickly scurried over to where she stood with her hands pointing at the spot covered by green shrubs, the fourth prince knelt on one knee and brushed the shrubs away.

A fiery red grass with long red leaves stood straight in a spot, the ground where it was planted looked like it was molten since it had a fiery red colour, he touched its leaves to check if it is truly the fire element grass since he has never taken anything else from the spirit forest except for the herbs he needs to suppress his ice power and stop him from having the appearance an ice saint should have.

"Is that it, master?" Xi Feng asked with his hands rubbing against each other in nervousness, the fourth prince smiled and stood up from his knees, he was about to answer him when another cough escaped his mouth with blood spluttering out of his mouth.

They widened their eyes in shock as they weren't expecting that, he clutched his chest tightly as a sharp and burning pain ran through his chest, he pulled the edges of his robe slightly only to see the blue lines already reaching his heart.

"Master!" both of them called in shock seeing the blue lines a little bit away from his heart, he closed his robe and wiped the blood from his mouth using his sleeve, since the colour of his robe is black, it wasn't obvious that he had just wiped the blood with it.

"I will use my ice power to freeze the grass, what you have to do is pluck it the moment I am done before it melts the ice then we leave the forest," he stated then he pushed his hands towards the ground, blue frost soon covered the ground, the fire element grass immediately turned into a reddish-white colour while Xi Feng quickly used the chance to pluck it from its root.

"I have gotten it,". the fourth prince stopped then he took the fire element grass from him and sighed in relief, from the look on his face, they could tell that their mission had already been accomplished.

"I don't have much time left, let's go now," he ordered then he and Xi Feng started out to leave the forest, the had walked quite a distance when they noticed that Xiaodi wasn't following after them, they turned back only to see her staring intently at the spot where they found the fire element grass.

"Xiaodi what are you doing?" Xi Feng questioned angrily, he couldn't understand what else would be more important than the fourth prince treatment, the fourth prince noticed that Xiaodi seemed entranced by whatever she was looking at so he moved closer to her.

"Xiaodi!" he called with a tap on her shoulder, her body jerked as she turned to see the fourth prince standing beside her, they became confused when they saw the little drops of tears on her face.

"What is wrong Xiaodi, what happened to you?" the fourth prince questioned with both hands holding her shoulders, while Xi Feng stared at her with a quizzical look on his face, he oddly disliked the tears on her face.

"Master...master"

"I am here, why are you crying?" the fourth prince asked with a frustrated tone, he didn't like that she looked like something serious had happened but she wasn't saying anything, he scanned around to see what might have caused her to shed tears.

"Not you....mistress," she turned to look in the direction of the spot where they had just uprooted the fire element grass while they traced her gaze, their eyes caught an icy blue flower with eight glimmering petals, they were shocked to see the single flower appear out of nowhere even though they had just left there a moment ago.

"What is this?" the fourth prince asked, squinting his eyes at the flower, he could feel his power reacting to the presence of the flower but he couldn't understand what connection they have and Xiaodi's behaviour upon seeing the flower also added to his confusion.

"That is the mistress soul," Xiaodi disclosed, both men turned to her with their eyes widened at her statement, the fourth prince who had walked forward to see the flower clearly slowly walked back towards her with a stir of emotions inside him.

"Did you just say that is my mother's soul?" he asked in disbelief, he didn't get to fully know much about his mother, even though he wasn't an infant when his mother died, he had forgotten everything about her, her touch, her voice and what she loos like, all he remembers is her back view and her long cascading ocean blue hair when she transformed in front of him once while he was still a child.

Xiaodi nodded in affirmation to his question, she once belonged to his mother who saved her beast mother when she was just about to give birth, since then she has cared for and trained Xiaodi as best as she could even though she couldn't risk letting anyone know she possesses a spiritual beast.

Apart from the fourth prince, Xiaodi is the only person who can feel the connection with the flower, when she smelled the scent of the flower before, she just knew that she has smelt something like that before but she just couldn't remember when she has smelt that scent before, now looking at the flower in front of them, she now realized the answer to her question.

"Mother..."

"Mistress used to take care of an eight petaled flower with an oddly foul smell, she cared for the flower just like she cared for me but she kept her soul inside the flower before the imperial consort came into her palace to take care of her, she died in the imperial consort's arm after she entrusted her with the task of handing me over to you,"

"Why didn't you tell me about this before?" the fourth prince questioned in a gentle tone with a hint of anger in his tone as he glared at her, Xi Feng who doesn't know his mother personally just kept quiet as he watched them converse over a flower.

"I couldn't talk back then and I forgot about it after I turned into a human, the imperial consort was the only one who cared for the mistress back then but she couldn't risk telling them about her identity as the ice saintess of the extinct ice clan, the imperial consort only knows about me being a spiritual pet, she doesn't know anything about the ring and the jade flute she gave you," Xiaodi narrated, she couldn't bring herself to stop talking about her old mistress past, she realized just how much she has enjoyed living with the fourth prince that she has forgotten the mistress who took care of her from the start.

"what would happen if I take the flower with me," the fourth prince asked, knowing that Xiaodi is the only one who has the answer to all his questions.

"taking the flower is the same as leaving it here, I suppose the mistress arranged the blossom pavilion and the spirit forest in the same city so you can find the flower here, she must have been the one who made this place a spirit forest,"

"It turns out that she went through the trouble for me," he uprooted the flower and handed it over to Xi Feng who collected it carefully and kept it inside the box they had arranged for the fire element grass.

"Let's return"

Ruo Rufei was already worried that something unexpected might happen since she didn't come this far when she first entered the spirit forest, she prayed in her mind that everything would go well without them finding out that she didn't actually get the fire element grass with her own ability, she remembered how battered and covered in blood the man looked when he saved her, she was sure that there must be a more dangerous difficulty ahead of them.

Just when she was in thought...

"Watch out!" Wei Xianlu shouted she raised her gaze to see the statue of a soldier dashing towards her with a sword in its hand, the statue raised the sword and was about to bring it down on her but Wei Xianlu quickly pulled her elbow, helping her dodge the attack.

"What is this?" she muttered with a deep breath, she certainly didn't expect that a stone statue would appear out of nowhere, just while they were still trying to comprehend the situation, other stone statues started appearing out of nowhere.

They moved back but they couldn't escape the statues...

"I sense other presence in this forest," the fourth prince remarked on their way back

"No one has dared to enter this forest for years, who would be so brazen to enter the forest," Xi Feng responded.