Chapter 289: Fortune Favors Fools
A faint golden light flashed, and once it vanished, Tian Fu’s figure was gone.
Yu An swung a wing down, hitting only empty air. She was slightly disappointed.
"He sure runs fast."
She muttered to herself, then flew to the ground and shifted back to her human form.
"An’an, you were so cool just now!"
Han Li, who had been watching from the sidelines, hurried over. "An’an, is this what Female Mother was talking about? Have you undergone Nirvana and become a true Phoenix?"
"That’s right," Yu An said, her eyes curving as she failed to suppress a smile. "My beast form isn’t a little bird anymore!"
Her view had been restricted just now, so she hadn’t gotten a full look at herself. But that was fine; she remembered there was an extra-large, full-length mirror in her personal space.
Before they could exchange more than a few words, Feng Xuan abruptly appeared behind Yu An.
The adult version of Feng Xuan.
"An’an, I..."
Before he could finish his sentence, his body began to turn transparent. Yu An quickly held up a hand in a ’stop’ gesture.
"I know, I know. You’re going back to the temple. Don’t worry, I’ll come find you once I get to the Upper Realm!"
She had already been through this process twice, so it was safe to say she was very familiar with it.
Yu An had said all of Feng Xuan’s lines for him. His words caught in his throat, and after holding them back for a long moment, he instructed Han Li to take good care of Yu An just before he vanished completely.
He didn’t need to waste his breath. Han Li knew what to do. Besides, unlike Mo Yan and the others, he didn’t have to return to a temple.
Yu An’s focus went off on a tangent. "Whoa, so my family has laid claim to all Five Great Divine Palaces!"
Han Li sighed. "An’an, that’s not the point!"
Yu An paused. "Then what is? Don’t tell me you have to go back to a temple like them too?"
’So everyone’s just going to leave, is that it?’
"Of course not."
Han Li proudly lifted his chin. "An’an, take a good look. See if there’s anything different about me?"
Yu An sized him up and down several times but couldn’t see anything different. If she had to point out one thing...
She reached out and felt him up. "Hmm, nice workout."
Han Li’s face flushed red, like an innocent boy being harassed. "That’s not it! The difference is my spiritual power."
He added, slightly bashful, "It’s broad daylight, An’an. Wait until tonight to feel me up..."
Yu An’s attention was already captivated by his spiritual power, and she completely missed what he said after.
After not seeing him for a while, Han Li’s spiritual power had somehow leaped from Heavenly Level to Divine level!
"I’ve always had Divine level Spiritual Power," Han Li huffed. "The temples are parts of the Heaven and Earth Stone, after all. How could a spirit born from it be anything less?"
"An’an, once my spiritual power returned to the Divine level, all my memories as a Divine Hall Spirit came back, too. There was some imposter in the temple who came from who-knows-where, but I’ve already taken care of him remotely. And now, the temple will be fine even without me there."
’So, now I’m the only one who can stay by An’an’s side!’
"I see," Yu An said with understanding. "Then what about Mo Yan and the others? Tian Fu knew you were the true Divine Hall Spirits, so those imposters must have something to do with him."
Han Li scratched his head. "I’m not sure. But don’t worry, An’an, those guys are sharp. They won’t be tricked easily."
’Although I hate to admit it... it’s a fact that I’m at the bottom of the family when it comes to brains.’
’Those guys are all sharper than the last, with minds more complex than a honeycomb!’
’Oh well, stupid is as stupid does. As the old saying goes, fortune favors the foolish.’
’Just look at the situation now—I’m the only one here with An’an!’
A few sentences later, the Illusion Realm suddenly began to shake.
At the same time, a ring of light appeared ahead. Han Li said urgently, "An’an, this place is collapsing! That’s the exit! We need to get out of here, fast."
The two of them stepped into the ring of light together and, in the next moment, appeared on Divine Mountain.
After spending such a long time in the Illusion Realm, Yu An felt as though a lifetime had passed. In reality, however, only a single day had gone by.
’Let me think,’ she thought, ’why did I chase Tian Fu into the Illusion Realm in the first place?’
’That’s right, it was for that Beast Skin scroll. Tian Fu said it held the method to restore the Beastman.’
"AWOOOO—"
The Red Fox inside her personal space cried out. Its paw was resting on a Beast Skin scroll, signaling to Yu An that this was the very one Tian Fu had thrown into the Illusion Realm.
The fox gestured wildly, and only through a mix of deduction and wild guesses did Yu An understand where it had come from.
The Red Fox had guided that group of children to escape the Tian Family during the chaos. After watching them get clear of the family’s territory, the Red Fox was about to go find Yu An when it happened to spot the Sheepskin Scroll.
With Yu An’s permission, those inside her space could see what was happening outside. A large screen would appear in the space’s sky, like a television, displaying everything visible from Yu An’s point of view.
The Red Fox knew this Beast Skin scroll was important, so it snatched it up and brought it into the space.
Now that she had the Reversing Array, what was actually on the Beast Skin scroll no longer mattered.
Still, Yu An opened it for a look. The Red Fox had gone to a lot of trouble to bring it to her, after all.
She rewarded the Red Fox with a box of candy. It beamed, its eyes squinting with joy, and took the candy to share with the other Zaizai.
When the Beast Skin scroll was unrolled, she saw it was covered in a mess of chaotic lines and some text she couldn’t understand.
"What is this? Han Li, can you read it?"
Han Li leaned in, peering at it from every angle. He turned the Beast Skin over and back again several times but couldn’t make heads or tails of it either.
"Oh well. It’s not important. Into the space you go to gather dust."
She tossed it into her space, where it was deftly caught by Cloud Beast Little Thirteen, who then carried the Beast Skin off to be stored.
Tian Fu’s subordinates were all on Divine Mountain, awaiting his command. After a full day passed with no word, they grew restless and came to investigate.
The moment they arrived, they came face-to-face with Yu An and Han Li.
They all recognized Yu An. Seeing her emerge without Tian Fu, they assumed their leader had been defeated. Terrified, they turned to flee.
Yu An snorted. With a wave of her hand, a swarm of snakes and members of the Merfolk Clan—their tails transformed into human legs—appeared.
Leaderless, they had no will to fight; all they wanted was to escape. Seeing that the snakes and Merfolk couldn’t fly, they hastily took to the air.
’This should work. We can escape now, right?’
’Our leader is already defeated. What’s the point in us struggling any further?’
’If we don’t run now, the only thing waiting for us in Yu An’s territory is death!’
But they were wrong.
If they had tried to escape on foot, a few might have slipped through the cracks. But in the sky...
The Cloud Beasts mercilessly called down bolts of lightning, striking them one by one until they were charred on the outside and tender on the inside. The beasts were holding back, though. They didn’t kill the men, only zapped them enough to temporarily paralyze them.
As they fell to the ground, they were either ensnared by the snakes or had their hands and feet bound by the Merfolk Clan.
Yu An followed behind, collecting them one by one and tossing them into her spatial prison to serve their time.
Ao Yi and his three companions were worried about Yu An. They quickly brought the situation in Beast God City under control, then grabbed Tian Shu and flew toward Divine Mountain.
It was Tian Shu’s first time being carried by a dragon. To make matters worse, his ride was Ao Si. That rascal made a point of diving through clouds and would occasionally pull off big stunts like barrel rolls and nosedives. It was as terrifying as it was thrilling.
Tian Shu’s lips turned white with fright. He clung on for dear life, refusing to let go. Thankfully, after a warning from Ao Yi, Ao Si toned it down significantly.
When they reached Divine Mountain, Tian Shu was filled with an overwhelming sense of relief just to have his feet on solid ground again. He couldn’t wait to find Yu An.
’As long as I don’t have to ride a dragon again, I’ll do anything!’
’I’d even take being struck by lightning over that!’