Phoniex Requiem
Chapter 27: Find a Way Out

Chapter 27: Find a Way Out

The meat that Yun Ruoyu had taken was roasted by none other than Pei Ziao.

Even though he wasn't helping at all, he was complaining about every little thing, and his obvious dislike made Pei Ziao feel somewhat embarrassed.

Pei Ziao was holding some more meat satay in his hand, and he was just about to share it when Yun Ruoyu spoke up. As a result, he simply stood still awkwardly, his face red and his hands trembling.

Yi Qianying grabbed one of the skewers, biting it before turning to Yun Ruoyu. "Not that bad! Ruoyu, you are a bit too picky.”

“If you like it, you can have it all! As I said, it's charred outside and half raw inside, you might be able to consume it, but I can't!" Yun Ruoyu's face was filled with displeasure.

“This has been very good for Brother Ziao's first try!” Yi Qianying looked towards Pei Ziao with a look of admiration on her face.

“Qianying..” Pei Ziao called out with gratitude, her heart almost melted under her bright smile.

Perhaps half a year ago, Pei Yingxiong had sat Pei Ziao down for a serious conversation, telling her to frequent the Yun household and try to get on good terms with their only daughter who was born as a wife, Yun Ruoyan's.

It was an open secret that Yun Ruoyan was useless and ugly, and there was hardly anyone in the upper echelons of society who was unaware of that fact. But to keep the family prosperous, Pei Ziao had no choice but to follow his father's orders.

Pei Yingxiong had promised her that she was nothing more than a decoration after they got married. Once Pei surpassed Yun, he would be able to get a divorce and soon find a new wife.

Pei Ziao had spent a lot of effort for Yun Ruoyan in the past. After all, even though she was shy and self-deprecating, she had to make sure that her every move was polite and kind to avoid scaring her.

Moreover, he was so sensitive that one look of demeaning from the other party would be enough to make him cry.

Everyone would show a look of disdain upon seeing the birthmark on Yun Ruoyan's face, and that was all she could do to ignore her existence and pretend that she was completely unaffected.

Eventually, gradually, he finally gained a good impression of her.

During their mountain journey, he knew that Yun Ruoyao and Yi Qianying were planning to push Yun Ruoyan into the lake, and wanted to conquer her heart completely with one big move. Of course, he did not expect to almost die in his attempt.

Fortunately, he managed to survive, but Yun Ruoyan's attitude towards him had completely deteriorated.

Pei Ziao did not care much about Yun Ruoyan except for her family's obligations, but her sudden indifference actually triggered her desire to obtain her good graces once again.

As a dashing man, the sole heir of Peis, he could have any girl he wanted, let alone an ugly and useless one like Yun Ruoyan!

He forcefully suppressed his feelings for Yi Qianying and turned his gaze to the side.

Across from them, Zhuo Yifeng was cutting the roast meat into pieces. The golden brown meat was dripping with fat, and hissing as it landed on the charcoal, making everyone salivate more.

The four girls finally looked at Zhuo Yifeng as he prepared the meat, and even Yun Ruoyan could not help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.

Zhuo Yifeng carved out a large piece of meat, but he handed it to Yun Ruoyan rather than to his own sister.

Yun Ruoyan hesitated for a moment before picking up her meat, but instead of eating it herself, she handed it to Lin Qingxue by her side.

“Thank you, Ruoyan.” Without hesitation, Lin Qingxue took a big bite. “Wah, so good! Even more than the chefs in the capital!”

Lin Qingxue praised Zhuo Yifeng in an exaggerated manner so harshly that Yun Ruoyu gave a haughty look to the entire crowd from afar.

Yun Ruoyan was just about to stand up when Zhuo Yifeng gave her another piece of meat. He frowned slightly, saying "I'd rather do it myself, please."

And then he stood up, walked over to the roast, and used his own little dagger to cut two pieces of meat, one for Lin Qingchen and one for himself.

“Oh, this is really good!” Yun Ruoyan bit and praised Zhuo Yifeng sincerely. “You really are a great cook.” 

"Sister Zhuo is really skilled, isn't he?" Lin Qingxue muttered as she chewed, and Lin Qingchen also ate voraciously.

Zhuo Yifeng revealed a rare smile. "We beastkins often have to hunt deep in the mountains, so we have gathered some cooking-related skills." As he said this, he finely cut his flesh and placed it on top of a large green leaf before handing it over to Zhuo Lin'er.

Zhuo Lin'er picked up the proffered food and started chewing slowly, and it was only then that Zhuo Yifeng took a few bites for herself.

"Who else is in your clan besides your brother?" Yun Ruoyan asked carelessly while putting a piece of meat into her mouth.

Zhuo Yifeng was silent after hearing the question.

At first, Yun Ruoyan hoped she would refuse to answer, but she instead spoke calmly. "Only the two of us are left now, but there might be another clan member missing somewhere else."

Beastkin was a rather special kind of existence in the Chenyuan continent. Supposedly, beastkins were the descendants of humans and half-blooded beasts, and had always served as noble slaves, generally as hunters and beast tamers.

A hundred years ago, a brave warrior appeared among the skins of animals. He led his relatives to victory against their human masters, ending thousands of years of slavery.

This warrior had snatched countless riches from human hands, brought his relatives to the other side of Yueli mountain and established the beastkin kingdom.

For a while, this kingdom coexisted with the kingdoms of Li, Yue, Mo, and Chen, and it was said there were five great empires in the Chenyuan continent.

The warrior who founded this kingdom was titled the Beast King.

But eighteen years ago, the Beast King had died from a mysterious cause at the peak of his life. The beastkin kingdom was divided, marred by internal divisions and conflicts. Soon, it became no more.

Many adventurers, driven by the greed for treasure captured by beastkin from humans, would go hunting beastmen and interrogate them as to where the treasure ended up, and it is in these conditions that the beastkin population is shrinking day by day.

What made Yun Ruoyan extremely curious was how Zhuo Yifeng and his sister managed to obtain tokens to enter the imperial world despite being beast skins.

Seemingly having anticipated Yun Ruoyan's question, he said, “I once saved the master of a noble family while hunting. He granted my request, that's how I'm here now.”

Zhuo Yifeng's openness made Yun Ruoyan a little uncomfortable, as if she was petty and closed in comparison.

“Ah, there is no reason you should leak all this to me. Shouldn't you beastkin be wary of us humans?”

Zhuo Yifeng seemed to be really an exception among his people. Even when they first spoke in the morning, Zhuo Yifeng had revealed his identity as a beast hide from the start.

“I believe you,” Zhuo Yifeng said firmly, looking at Yun Ruoyan with overly bright eyes.

"Trust me?" Yun Ruoyan looked towards him, her expression uncertain. "Why? This is the first time we've met!”

“Because your body is covered by a familiar scent.”

"What scent?!"

"I don't know, but it's familiar!" Zhuo Yifeng looked at Yun Ruoyan, his eyes shining like magical beasts.

“It's impossible for this guy to smell me, right?!” Qiuqiu chirped from the bracelet.

Yun Ruoyan's heart trembled in shock. Was this man's sense of smell so sharp that he could even sense what was inside the dimension of his pocket? That defies common sense!

Yun Ruoyan's attitude turned cold once again. "You look like an honest man, so I didn't expect you to try to hit me like that."

“No, I did not—” Zhuo Yifeng quickly spread her hands.

"Well, I'm tired and I'm going to rest now." Yun Ruoyan was unwilling to hear his explanation. He walked up and to one side of the fire, preparing to lie down to sleep.

Late at night, she was woken up by someone. He opened his eyes to see Lin Qingxue looking at him in pain.

"What's the problem?"

“I ate too much meat for dinner, and then a bottle of cold water on it. My stomach hurts so much! Ruoyan, can you accompany me to pee?” Lin Qingxue pleaded solemnly.

So the two girls found a location against the wind and away from the fire. After Yun Ruoyan gestured, Lin Qingchen went to urinate.

In his boredom, Yun Ruoyan looked at her surroundings before suddenly seeing a dim light coming from a nearby brush.

He walked closer. Under the moonlight that was filtering the leaves above, he found a pile of animal entrails near the brush, a possibility that Zhuo Yifeng had cleared as he prepared the meat for dinner.

Funnily enough, there was an object that emitted a faint green light from within that entrails.

Yun Ruoyan unsheathed her sword and cut through the glowing organs, revealing a glowing green monster core!

After he cleaned it thoroughly and examined it carefully in his hands, he could even smell a bit of medicinal herbs. It could only be the beast core of the rabbit that had landed them inside the hunting dog herd!

Before the dog that caught the rabbit could digest it completely, they had killed and eaten the dog.

The rabbit grew by eating such medicinal plants, and its core would retain some of that potential in restoring qi and curing toxins. In that case, this one core was more valuable than a hundred firehound nuclei.

"Ruoyan, what are you doing there?" Lin Qingxue's voice came from behind her. Yun Ruoyan quickly stored the rabbit core in the dimension of her pocket and then turned around.

"I just saw a firefly and wanted to catch it, but it flew away."

Lin Qingxue narrowed her eyes towards her cousin. When did he become so naughty?

In the end, the two of them returned to the fire pit to sleep, and when they woke up again, it was already morning.

The next morning, as soon as everyone woke up, they went looking for a way out to the order of misdirection.

Yun Ruoyan brought up the idea of dividing into two parties once again. Yun Ruoyao and Yun Ruoyu were fine with the suggestion, but Pei Ziao insisted on following Yun Ruoyan.

The reason for that was that he had to protect and take care of her to thank Yun Ruoyan for saving his life.

"I feel like we should work as a team,” Yi Qianying started. "None of us are familiar with the imperial territory, and if we meet with hordes of other beasts, it would be best if there were more of us."

After hearing Yi Qianyin's words, Yun Ruoyao steadfastly followed behind Yun Ruoyan's group, ignoring Lin Qingxue's ridicule and Yun Ruoyan's cold and aloof behavior.

"I saw it first!" Yun Ruoyu and Lin Qingxue glared at each other, both of them unwilling to release half of their light purple medicinal herbs carefully grasped in their hands. 

This is already the third incident this morning between the two girls.

For some reason, the two of them would always look at the treasure and rush over there at the same time.