Su Hua truly couldn't fathom just how deeply Jin'er was infatuated with Gu Qingfeng, to the point of believing his ghostly boast that 'as long as he doesn't want to die, no one can kill him.'
Just as she was fretting over how to respond to Jin'er, Qian Shan hurried over.
"Miss, you should come see this."
"What's wrong?"
"It's Xiao Yi."
"What about Xiao Yi?"
Beside them, Jin'er knew Xiao Yi was a spirit bird by Su Hua's side who had already cultivated a human form. Over the past two or three years, they had often played together and were very close. Seeing Qian Shan's expression, Jin'er feared something had happened to Xiao Yi and asked with concern, "Sister Qian Shan, hasn't Xiao Yi been in seclusion all this time? What's wrong with her?"
"I'm not quite sure either."
Su Hua didn't ask further and strode away quickly.
Inside a stone chamber.
A little girl who looked about five or six years old was sitting cross-legged. She had two pigtails, and her tender face wore a pained expression. A faint, ghostly light flickered around her.
"Xiao Yi?"
Jin'er was about to go over and touch Xiao Yi but was stopped by Su Hua.
"Sister Hua, what's wrong with Xiao Yi?"
Su Hua stared intently at Xiao Yi, her brow slightly furrowed. She couldn't understand what was happening either. She tried to extend her divine sense to investigate, but the moment it touched the faint, flickering ghostly light surrounding Xiao Yi, it was as if it encountered a special protective force, blocking Su Hua's divine sense.
How could this be?
Just as she was feeling shocked and puzzled, suddenly, the ghostly light around Xiao Yi began to burn like blazing flames. Immediately after, Xiao Yi bizarrely transformed into a small, white, yin-cold serpent.
Seeing this, Jin'er was utterly astonished and exclaimed in disbelief, "Sister Hua, isn't Xiao Yi a spirit bird? How... how did she turn into a white snake?"
"This is Xiao Yi's true, original form. She just usually prefers to transform into a little bird."
Yes!
Xiao Yi was a spirit snake, and not just any ordinary spirit snake. She was likely a spirit snake that did not belong to this era.
Because Su Hua had discovered Xiao Yi inside a fragment of the Mysterious Era's Heaven and Earth.
Su Hua still vividly remembered when she first obtained that fragment of the Mysterious Era. Filled with curiosity, she explored it for a very, very long time. Finally, she discovered a site that could barely be called ruins. And it was within those barely-there ruins that she found Xiao Yi.
Su Hua didn't know why Xiao Yi was inside that fragment of the Mysterious Era's Heaven and Earth.
She had asked, but Xiao Yi knew nothing, not even about the so-called Mysterious Era.
The fiery ghostly light continued to burn, and Xiao Yi, having revealed her true original form, flicked her serpentine tongue within the flames, as if breathing and circulating energy.
An unknown amount of time passed. The ghostly light gradually weakened until it completely vanished. Xiao Yi stopped flicking her tongue. She looked at Su Hua, then at Qian Shan and Jin'er, before transforming once more, reverting to the five-or-six-year-old little girl.
"Xiao Yi, you... are you alright?" Jin'er asked, both amazed and worried.
"Little Jin'er, how many times have I told you to call me Elder Sister! Why won't you ever listen?"
Xiao Yi placed her hands on her hips, adopting the airs of a little adult, demanding Jin'er call her 'Elder Sister.' Jin'er seemed caught off guard by this. After a brief moment of surprise, she stepped forward and scooped Xiao Yi up into a hug, laughing, "It's good that Xiao Yi is fine..."
"Little girl, is this any way to hold your elder sister? Put me down!"
"I just wanted to hug you!"
Watching Xiao Yi and Jin'er playfully banter, Su Hua's anxious heart finally settled. She had truly been afraid something had happened to Xiao Yi. Recalling the earlier ghostly light, she asked, "Xiao Yi, what happened just now?"
"Just now?"
Xiao Yi lifted her little face, thought carefully, then shook her head. "I don't know either. I was cultivating, and then suddenly... something inexplicable changed."
"Changed? What kind of change?"
"It was a very strange change... like being in a dream."
Xiao Yi searched her memories, murmuring, "I felt like... I have an older brother."
"You felt? You have an older brother?"
Hearing this, Su Hua was even more surprised, wondering where Xiao Yi had suddenly gotten an older brother from.
"Mhmm, I think I should have an older brother. He seemed to have just woken up."
This...
Even with Su Hua's profound knowledge of heavenly secrets and earthly divinations, she couldn't fathom what Xiao Yi meant by her 'older brother.' She asked, "Do you know where your older brother is?"
"I can sense it. It's very faint, but it should be my older brother. He seems... seems..." Xiao Yi closed her eyes, pondered for a moment, then opened them and said, "My older brother should be somewhere in the Great Northwest Frontier region."
"The Great Northwest? That's wonderful!"
Upon hearing 'Great Northwest,' Jin'er immediately perked up beside them and said to Xiao Yi, "Xiao Yi, your older brother is in the Great Northwest? My Big Brother should also be in the Great Northwest! You go find your older brother, I'll go find my Big Brother, let's go together, okay?"
Xiao Yi said very seriously, "Your Big Brother? That guy surnamed Gu? Little Jin'er, your Big Brother is already dead!"
"Your older brother is the one who's dead!"
"I also thought my older brother was dead, but I just discovered he's still alive, and he just woke up."
"Hmph! What's so great about that!" Jin'er retorted defiantly, "Your older brother can die and come back to life, can't my Big Brother do the same?"
"Ai!"
Looking at Jin'er, Xiao Yi shook her head helplessly and sighed. "I don't know what kind of bewitching potion that guy surnamed Gu fed you, to have you so utterly enchanted. What a pitiful little girl."
"Hey! Xiao Yi, if you dare speak ill of my Big Brother again, I'll never talk to you ever again!"
"Alright, alright, alright! I won't say it then. Your Big Brother is still alive, okay? Not only alive, but living well. Your Big Brother is invincible under heaven. Your Big Brother is the most powerful person between Heaven and Earth. Even Old Heaven can't kill him. Satisfied?"
"What do you mean 'satisfied'? That's just the truth!"
Xiao Yi rolled her eyes, a look that clearly conveyed she couldn't communicate with such an ignorant young girl. She stopped paying attention to Jin'er and turned to Su Hua. "Great Immortal Su, Great Mistress Hua, if I recall correctly, didn't you say that after you're done with your current business, you still have to make a trip to the Great Northwest? Something about the Yaoyue Palace matter? Since you're going to the Great Northwest anyway, could you help me look for that older brother of mine while you're there?"
"Sister Hua, since you already planned to go to the Great Northwest, why didn't you tell me?"
Hearing that Su Hua was going to the Great Northwest, and had long since decided to do so, Jin'er instantly became somewhat sullen.
"I..." Su Hua was utterly helpless, momentarily at a loss for words. She indeed had to make another trip to the Great Northwest soon, precisely for matters concerning Yaoyue Palace. The reason she hadn't told Jin'er was precisely because she feared Jin'er would go looking for her Big Brother Gu Qingfeng, who had already turned to ashes and vanished.
Beside them, Xiao Yi comforted, "Little Jin'er, you keep clamoring to find your Big Brother, but your Big Brother is already dead. Your Sister Hua couldn't bear to shatter your beautiful dream, so she didn't dare tell you!"