Taken by surprise once again, Ming could only watch in horror as he loses coordination of his limbs with his arms flailing wildly to prevent the fall but to no avail. Since the appearance of the phoenix, Ming had allocated all of his attention to Qian, discarding Baihe to the side after she became nothing more than a wooden log.

Who knew that loathsome girl would actually launch a sneak attack with some sort of weird needles! Once he saw that ominous smile on Baihe’s face — obviously mocking him, Ming knew she was involved and had deployed some dirty tricks, causing him to nearly end up being boiled in lava if it weren’t for the timely rescue of his mermaid.

He almost saw Ox-Head and Horse-Face: the two guardians of the underworld who escort dead souls. When would the highly flustered Ming still have time to pay attention to Baihe? He was too busy scrambling up from the ground and trying to calm his erratic heartbeats when that deplorable girl launched another sneak attack!

Something pricked his legs again and a bad sense of déjà vu overwhelmed Ming. He turned his head to face Baihe — eyes filled with hatred and unwillingness — while his unbalanced body tumbled over the edge, falling down backward.

When the warrior snow mermaid saw her master in peril, she promptly made the choice to sacrifice herself again. Holding onto her last thread of consciousness, the mermaid discharged a barrage of snowballs to propel Ming outside of the fighting arena. Before his body landed on the hard surface among the mass of people, the snowballs consolidated together to create a soft snow cushion for Ming.

As for the warrior snow mermaid, her body immediately burst into dazzling snowflakes, fluttering gently in the air as they were instinctively guided back toward her master; however, more than half of the snowflakes were evaporated by the baleful lava or melted by the intense heat.

At the same time, Qian turned into a flash of bright light and entered into Baihe’s space. Suddenly, Baihe heard a maniacal laughter erupted from the bird that echoed loudly inside her head. Usually, Baihe would rack her brain trying to shut the stupid bird up for one second, but today, she was just happy that the dumb phoenix was still here — alive and kicking.

“The fish may have escaped from being seared and made into mermaid sushi, but she ended up scattering her soul into snowflakes. More than half of them were destroyed and each one gone is equivalent to her soul being permanently damaged. Karma, this is karma!”

Hearing that from Qian, she nodded her head in agreement. Such setbacks would greatly hinder Ming’s cultivation progress, but… Baihe frowned. What did the stupid bird meant when he said karma? Recalling his earlier words, her expression turned from shock to disbelief before changing back to her indifferent attitude with a tinge of awkwardness in her dark limpid eyes.

This stupid bird, he couldn’t have sacrificed a part of his soul to forcefully come out right? Or perhaps it was his divine cultivation?

Faced with such situation, Baihe wasn’t equipped to handle this type of emotional scenario and for a second, didn’t know how to react so she could only pretend to be normal. Thankfully, the royal announcement for the champion of the first half of the Feng Martial Tournament saved her from a sticky situation.

♦

Baihe watched as a eunuch approached her with a beaming smile — his eyes disappearing into slits as lines appeared on his face from smiling too brightly. From one glance, Baihe knew this eunuch wasn’t simple; his eyes were crafty with a foxy smile. It wasn’t too difficult to guess that he was probably the most trusted confidant of Emperor Feng.

In his hands, the eunuch carried a silky brocade wrapped box. “Congratulations Miss Baihe, I am Eunuch Gong. Because Huang Ming had went beyond the arena stage, he automatically lost. By the emperor’s decree, Lady Baihe is announced the winner for the first half of the Feng Martial Tournament and shall be bestowed the mermaid pearl necklace!”

Baihe accepted the reward and turned to walk away from the now decimated arena platform. Before Qian returned back to her space, the phoenix drank the lava sea like a bowl of soup, leaving behind only mini island platforms as evidence of the glorious former Feng landmark. Although the place was destroyed, the royal family was secretly relieved that an unstable volcano wasn’t sitting in the middle of the busy city.

“Lady Baihe, please hold,” Eunuch Gong yelled. He quickly followed after Baihe who immediately left without turning back once she took the reward box from him. “The emperor would like to know your surname and have you enter his imperial harem!”

Instead of stopping and running up to him all excited about the grand news as Eunuch Gong had expected, Baihe’s footstep actually increased and she hastily made her escape through the crowd. Spurned by the girl in public, Eunuch Gong’s expression turned slightly ugly before restoring its usual appearance.

Activating his qigong, Eunuch Gong chased after Baihe. In the palace, his position was high and he was always tasked with the most important missions by Emperor Feng. This time it was no different. If Emperor Feng wanted this girl to be his imperial concubine, then she should feel honored. How dare she runs away!

“So your beauty was only enough to get a eunuch chasing after you,” Qian teased.

Baihe snorted as she weaseled her way through the crowd, using the mass of people as coverage while trying to shake off the eunuch on her tail. “Obviously, it was enough for the Emperor too.”

“Oh, then you’re willing to be a monkey concubine?”

A look of disgust filtered across Baihe’s eyes when she heard the word concubine from the bird. “No thanks. This world doesn’t have condoms right? Who knows what kind of disease Emperor Feng got after enjoying so many different fragrances. I don’t believe every single woman in his imperial harem were completely pure until him. Even if they were and he’s completely clean, he won’t live to be emperor much longer if he insists on bringing me into his imperial harem.”

The two of them continued to banter playfully back and forth at Emperor Feng’s expense, but there was a tinge of awkwardness from Baihe as she wasn’t sure on how to deal with Qian’s sacrifice.

Suddenly, Qian said: “Monkey girl, this grandpa made such a huge sacrifice for you. How are you going to repay me? Don’t worry, I don’t want your monkey body. Just erect a temple to worship me daily, kowtow before my esteemed self and pledge your loyalty as my servant for all of your future incarnations.”

With each word the phoenix said, Baihe’s awkwardness disappeared bit by bit until her face was completely overshadowed by dark lines. “How about I pay respect to you by offering some phoenix nuggets as tribute?”

Annoyed with the girl’s obsession toward correlating his mighty self with a chicken, Qian harshly criticized: “You darn unappreciative monkey girl! How many time does this grandpa need to tell you that I’m not a damn chicken? I’m a phoenix! Phoenix!”

“I know, that’s why I said phoenix nuggets, not chicken nuggets,” Baihe replied in a deadpan voice.

The playful banter between the two resumed once more, except this time, there was none of that awkwardness from Baihe.

Abruptly, Qian coiled in pain and beads of perspiration could be seen on his entire body. The sacred flames on the phoenix dimmed a bit in color, turning slightly dull from its original vibrant glow.