Chapter 284: What Is the Wish? Just Say It
Unlike Mo Yan and the other three, Meng Fanxin and He’er fell into a deep sleep the moment they entered the space. Yu An didn’t know why, but after checking them and finding nothing wrong, she settled them into a room.
"I’ve even made contact with his mother. Why hasn’t he shown any sign of appearing?"
Yu An muttered to herself, "If I trash the Tian Family, will that really force him to show himself?"
Tian Fu didn’t care about his parents, but he had accepted the family’s orders to go to the Beastman World. It was clear he cared about the family, or rather, the position of Young Master of the Tian Family.
But this was the Tian Family of the past. It seemed destroying this place wouldn’t have any real effect on Tian Fu.
’Why overthink it?’
Han Li had appeared behind her at some point. "This is an Illusion Realm. If we destroy everything in it, the realm itself surely can’t continue to exist."
Rather than pointless speculation, it was better to just act!
"How violent," Yu An said, bending down to rub his little head. "But I like it."
Han Li must have been shy, as his cheeks flushed red. But he didn’t pull away from her hand. Instead, he secretly stood on his tiptoes, hoping to stay close to Yu An for a little longer.
Yu An was completely focused on going out to stir up trouble, so she quickly withdrew her hand. Before she could leave the space, Mo Yan and the other three announced they wanted to go with her.
"No, you’re all still too young and your spiritual power is weak. What if a Tian Family member catches you..."
"But we can turn into our beast forms!" Feng Xuan argued reasonably. "If we run into danger, we can just flee. Four legs can definitely outrun two."
Yu An’s gaze swept over Mo Yan, Han Li, and Feng Xuan. She agreed to let the three of them go, but as for Lan Yin...
Once he was in his beast form, he wouldn’t even have two legs. All he’d have left was a short, plump little tail. How was that any different from just letting himself be captured?
Lan Yin: "..."
Humph!
’Fine, I won’t go! I’ll just stay here and play with the Zaizai!’
Unfortunately, the Zaizai also applied to join the battle. After checking the progress of their recent training, Yu An happily agreed.
Lan Yin: "..."
’This is the end! I can’t go on!’
Of course, that was just a joke. A family should stick together, neat and tidy. As the only adult among them, Yu An handed out weapons one by one, then tied a vine bracelet onto each of their wrists.
"Wear this and keep it on," Yu An instructed. "If you run into danger, Lu Lu will bring you back to the space."
Among everyone there, Lu Lu was the only one who could enter and exit her space at will, serving as a medium between the outside world and the space.
The string of little kids all nodded in unison. Yu An even tore a piece of cloth to make a flag.
With a wave of the little flag, she announced, "Let’s go!"
She had nothing to do last night, so she’d used the cover of darkness to familiarize herself with the Tian Family’s layout.
As a top-tier family in the Upper Realm, the Tian Family estate was as vast as a small city.
Their current location was where the direct lineage of the Tian Family lived—the living quarters of the Family Head.
Yu An let everyone out. The group instantly scattered, each gleefully heading off in a different direction.
Her target was the courtyard where the current Tian Fu was living. She also released Red Fox and gave it an important task.
--To guide the group of children from the training grounds out of the Tian Family estate.
After that, she walked into the place where Tian Fu lived.
Because of the scandal involving his mother, Meng Fanxin, his father—the Second Master of the Tian Family—had taken his anger out on him. As a result, the courtyard Tian Fu lived in was small and dilapidated.
When Yu An entered, she saw only a servant sweeping the courtyard. A six-year-old Tian Fu was sitting at a stone table in the yard, drawing.
Moving closer for a look, she saw he was drawing a lush green meadow with a large tree. A person was sitting on one of the tree’s branches.
Only the person’s back was visible, but Yu An could sense an endless loneliness from it.
As if guided by some unseen force, she thought of the Second Master’s name—Tian Pingyue.
And the tree in the drawing was an apple tree.
A child’s drawing skills were, well, a bit abstract, but looking at the bright red fruits on the tree, Yu An figured it had to be an apple tree.
’Looking at it this way, it seems Tian Fu isn’t as cold and heartless at such a young age as Meng Fanxin described.’
’No, wait. He was capable of framing his own mother and even wanted to kill Meng Fanxin afterward. Maybe he’s just putting on an act right now.’
Yu An raised her hand, just about to see if attacking the younger Tian Fu would force the real one to appear, when Little Tian moved.
He picked up his brush and added a few strokes to the drawing. A brilliant golden sun appeared in the picture.
Then his hand paused. Just as Yu An thought he was about to put the brush down, he drew... a human face on the sun.
The features were distinct, and it was clearly smiling benevolently, yet Yu An felt a sudden, inexplicable chill, as if a sinister wind had blown past.
She flinched, and then watched as Little Tian produced a dagger from somewhere and plunged it into his own body without a moment’s hesitation.
PFFT—
A mouthful of fresh blood sprayed from his mouth onto the drawing. The moment it touched the paper, it was instantly absorbed.
Yu An was startled, thinking Tian Fu was performing some kind of Evil Technique. She instinctively took a step back.
She glanced at the servant sweeping the courtyard. The person seemed completely oblivious to Tian Fu’s suicide attempt, continuing to sweep mechanically.
The next second, Yu An heard Tian Fu speak:
"Divination shows that the Imperial Princess is here at this very moment. Phoenix, if you can hear your believer’s prayer, please grant your believer’s wish."
More and more blood gushed from his wound, and his voice grew quieter. "Your believer, Tian Fu, kowtows in thanks to the Phoenix. Please, Your Highness..."
Yu An figured that the "Phoenix" Tian Fu was speaking of was probably her. But as she listened, all she could hear was him repeatedly begging her to grant some wish.
But as for what that specific wish was...
Yu An couldn’t help but step forward, wanting to shake Tian Fu’s shoulders and ask him what on earth his wish was.
’It doesn’t matter if I can grant it or not, just say it!’
But her hand passed right through Tian Fu’s body, and he couldn’t hear her words. She could only watch, helpless, as his breathing grew fainter.
His eyes were wide, staring straight ahead, before he collapsed heavily onto the table.
’Wait, he just died? Like that?’
Yu An was dumbfounded.
She went forward to check his pulse. The good news was, she could touch Tian Fu now.
The bad news was, he was dead.
Yu An: "..."
She was speechless for a moment. Just then, thick smoke began to rise from all corners of the Tian estate, and the shouts of servants echoed from every direction.
"Fire! Fire!"
"Hurry, put out the fire! This is bad, it’s spread to the main courtyard!"
"The Family Head has ordered that we save the ancestral hall first! Nothing can happen to the ancestral hall!"
Outside the courtyard, a group of people hurried past with buckets of water, rushing toward the front. Yu An tried to store Tian Fu’s body in her space, but she couldn’t. Instead, the drawing he had made was pulled into her space.
She hadn’t intended to take the drawing, and logically, it shouldn’t have been pulled into her space.
There was no time to think about what was so strange about the drawing. Yu An also casually set a fire, and after leaving the courtyard, she thought for two seconds before heading straight forward.
Along the way, she saw servants rushing back and forth between the pond and the ancestral hall with buckets of water, not even bothering to put out the fire in the main courtyard.
’That makes sense. To people like them, the ancestral hall is the most important part of a family, so of course it has to be saved first.’
This place might as well have been the ancient world. When Yu An got near the ancestral hall, she discovered it was built from Thunderproof Wood.
Thunderproof Wood, as the name implied, could protect against lightning and was often used to ward off evil and avert disaster.
It was rare to see it used to construct an entire building.