Chapter 541: Disobedient Children Will Grow Evil Bones

At this moment, I felt like I couldn't breathe.

Yeah, my head was torn off, my body turned cold and stiff—how did A Cheng even come back to life?

I clearly realized I had died; I don't know how long it's been, but my bodily functions miraculously revived. I discovered I'd become a monster—no head, yet alive, able to think, and even awakened some ancient witchcraft I could never learn before.

But soon I discovered that, as I lost my head and awakened these ancient witchcraft, my memory kept deteriorating—I'm terrified that one day I'll forget who I am, forget my sister.

Fortunately, I awakened an ancient witchcraft that can temporarily preserve memory—eye memory. I dig them out one by one from the White Bone Road, store them in this cosmos bag, and whenever I feel my memory fading, I crush an eye, letting its images stimulate my memory...

Only this way can I keep remembering—I'm A Cheng, and I'm waiting for my sister to come pick me up home...

I could no longer hold back; I put force into my hands, yanked A Cheng's body out of that little corner, and held him tightly.

I cried, and he cried too.

I never imagined that behind these eyes lay such a huge secret of A Cheng.

"Sister, I've finally waited for you," I sobbed.

We held each other and cried for a long time.

After our emotions finally stabilized, A Cheng and I sat side by side on the hilltop.

Thick layers of thorny vines tamed by A Cheng surrounded us, those eyes scattered around and on our bodies, jumping up and down, very lively.

A Cheng pointed ahead at the White Bone Road and asked, "Sister, do you still remember what happened there?"

"I don't remember." I said, "Only after I blasted that eye last time and saw those images did I infer that a battle had once taken place there—likely a clan‑annihilating war for the Ancient Feng Clan."

"Yes, a clan‑annihilating war." A Cheng said, "But our people, our parents and elders, didn't die on this White Bone Road—they had to go further on, further still..."

I wondered aloud: "Then what about those massacred on this White Bone Road..."

"They are the entire future of the Ancient Feng Clan." A Cheng's voice trembled again, "They were just like us—the elite of the youngest generation of the Ancient Feng Clan."

The phoenix is king, all birds pay homage to it; one could say that among all birds in the three realms and six paths, the most gifted descendants gathered here—and were all slaughtered.

Fire Phoenix Sister exerted all her strength to push us out; she told you to take me away, while they poured their last breath into building a wall of escape for us—because one of us is the heir of the Nirvana Phoenix, the other the direct lineage of a Great Witch versed in ancient witchcraft...

So that's how it was.

A Cheng and I are like fire seeds.

As long as we survive, the Feng Clan will have a day to rise again.

I asked, "A Cheng, do you remember who our clan‑annihilating enemy is?"

"I remember!" A Cheng strained to hold back his emotions, "It's a mottled three‑legged crow. Fire Phoenix Sister told me that the Ancient Feng Clan's ancestors trace back to three great birds that cultivated diligently at the Buddha's knee: the phoenix, the fenghuang, and the three‑legged crow."

Later the phoenix and fenghuang became husband and wife, founding the Ancient Feng Clan, while the three‑legged crow continued cultivating beside the Buddha, aiming one day to achieve flight and ascend as a Solar Divine Bird, just like the Great Roc and the Illuminating Bird, to join the ranks of divine birds.

But in the end even the obscure gray hawk beside the Buddha gained a Buddha‑like nature, yet he still failed to achieve enlightenment and ultimately went berserk...

Listening to A Cheng's narration felt like hearing a myth.

I never expected the origin of the Phoenix Clan and the three‑legged crow to be like this.

I couldn't help but ask, "What happened after the three‑legged crow went berserk? Surely he couldn't stay by the Buddha's side—where did he go?"

"Fire Phoenix Sister said nobody knows where he went." A Cheng continued, "But when he was on his deathbed, he sent an egg to the Phoenix Clan, asking his former companions to take him in, and the phoenix and fenghuang, softened at heart, agreed."

I widened my eyes in shock: "Could this egg that hatched possibly be Dìshì?"

"It's him!"

When Dìshì was mentioned, A Cheng's tone turned icy, as if frost might form: "After the three‑legged crow died, he was buried lavishly in the Ancient Feng Clan's ancestral tomb; that egg eventually hatched into a mottled three‑legged crow identical to his father."

No one knows why, but from birth he bore a wicked bone; the entire Ancient Feng Clan treated him as a formidable threat, so the Phoenix couple gave him the name 'Dìshì' to suppress his evil nature and raised him alone.

Just hearing the name Dìshì sounds very Buddha‑like.

The Phoenix couple also went to great trouble to choose his name.

What a waste of such a good name.

I sighed, "It seems even solitary upbringing and great effort can't overcome the innate flaw brought by that wicked bone."

I subconsciously blamed all of Dìshì's faults on that wicked bone.

But I hadn't expected A Cheng to deny it.

"Sister, the wicked bone can be peeled from the body." A Cheng said, "Fire Phoenix Sister told me that my ancestor, the most renowned Great Witch of the Ancient Feng Clan, personally used ancient witchcraft to strip that wicked bone from Dìshì when he just came of age."

Huh?

I didn't understand: "If that wicked bone was removed so early, Dìshì's fate should have been changed—why would he still slaughter the Ancient Feng Clan?"

A Cheng said, "It's said that after the wicked bone was removed, Dìshì completely lost his cultivation talent; although his cultivation level wasn't low, he could no longer ascend."

"But if the wicked bone weren't removed, his cultivation talent would be based on that bone, and he'd ultimately follow his father's path—going berserk and still unable to ascend."

Dìshì's train of thought is totally bizarre.

How can he be so clueless?

And how can he repay kindness with hatred?!

"Who knows what he's really thinking?" A Cheng sighed, "I only remember that when I was little, whenever I misbehaved, Fire Phoenix Sister would threaten me with 'disobedient children grow wicked bones,' and that 'wicked bone' became my nightmare."

"Back then I was still very young; everything about the Ancient Feng Clan came to me through stories, so my knowledge of Dìshì is also very scarce."

"Until that day, when a huge mottled three‑legged crow suddenly burst in, a single wing unleashed rolling black fog that engulfed us, blood flowed like rivers, corpses littered the wild…"