Chapter 96

Song Xunian, Song Mingxuan?

I immediately took out my phone, opened Song Ruoqing's painting, and examined it carefully.

Yes.

The names on the necks of the dragon and phoenix twins in the painting are exactly these two!

Is it a coincidence, or…

I didn't dare to think, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on my back.

What exactly is Song Ruoqing trying to convey to me?

Why does the name on her painting match exactly the dragon and phoenix twins from Tafengcun?

Has Song Ruoqing ever seen this pair of dragon and phoenix twins?

No.

Still feels wrong.

In the photo my mother took, those dragon and phoenix twins were only about four years old, but Song Ruoqing has been abroad for over six years.

After returning home, she has been staying at the Song Family preparing for the art exhibition; how could she possibly have met the dragon and phoenix twins from Tafengcun?

So is it really a coincidence?

Just as I was almost convincing myself, I suddenly remembered something.

In the year the Song Family broke ground and built, a pair of dragon and phoenix twins died.

Later, that pair of dragon and phoenix twins was buried by the Song Family in Wangting Mountain.

Dragon and phoenix twins, again dragon and phoenix twins!

And they all bear the surname Song!

Could there be some connection here?

"Tongtong, if you don't come back with us to Tafengcun today, I'll bring your younger siblings and kneel to death in this Dang Pu," my mother threatened me, tears and snot streaming.

I almost laughed from anger: "After all these years, you've learned nothing good, but you've mastered my grandmother's shameless tantrum‑throwing skills to perfection."

As soon as I finished speaking, my father, who had been sitting aside doing nothing, suddenly stubbed out his cigarette and stood up.

He had a lame leg, but that didn't stop him from whooshing out the belt at his waist and swinging it down at my head: "You've rebelled!"

Li Qingying and I reacted at the same time, but we were still a step too late.

Liu Junyan suddenly appeared, grabbed the belt with one hand, yanked it hard, and my father was slammed to the ground with a dull groan.

He really appeared out of thin air; my mother saw it clearly, was frightened to her knees, her whole body trembling.

After a while, she suddenly kowtowed wildly to Liu Junyan: "Immortal, immortal, don't blame us; we didn't mean to offend the pawnshop, I take back my words, we're leaving now."

Saying that, she helped my father up, and the two of them, holding Xin Xin and A Bao, fled as if escaping.

I let out a cold snort.

For over a hundred years, Tafengcun has worshipped the Qilin deity, firmly believing that divinities exist in this world.

Their reverence for the divinities has almost reached the point of going berserk.

Of course, such reverence is based on the fact that every child in Tafengcun is indeed obtained through prayer at the Qilin temple.

Tafengcun is a very strange village.

At some point, a Qilin temple was built on the hill behind the village, enshrining a statue of the Qilin deity carrying a hundred children and stepping on a golden phoenix.

The Qilin sends offspring, arriving on the phoenix.

Every year the village holds a prayer-for-offspring ceremony, and all eligible girls can participate.

It is said that whoever grabs the first incense will, that very night, be visited by the Qilin deity in a dream and be granted new life.

So where do these children, granted by the Qilin deity to the villagers of Tafengcun, come from?

Could it be related to the Qilin statue in Song Ruoqing's painting?

Countless pieces of information flooded into my brain, yet I couldn't make sense of any of it.

Until Liu Junyan's fingers pressed against my temples, gently rubbing: "Xiao Jiu, empty your mind, first let yourself calm down."

His tone was calm, the pleasant scent of sandalwood wrapping around me, and I indeed soon calmed down.

Only then did Liu Junyan ask: "What were you just thinking about?"

I shook my head: "It's a mess; I don't know where to start."

Liu Junyan then asked: "Do you want to save your younger siblings?"

I hesitated a moment, then answered truthfully: "Yes, I definitely want to save them, but they might be intending to trade my life for theirs."

Liu Junyan furrowed his brows.

I thought of something and continued: "Right, my grandmother also said that the Qilin deity appeared in a dream to the villagers, saying that because I took the deity's belongings, the deity brought down punishment."

"Ha, the deity brings punishment." Liu Junyan chuckled, "What a Qilin deity; it seems time to go meet him."

Liu Junyan immediately took me, got into that big G, and set off for Tafengcun.

As the vehicle entered Tafengcun, to our surprise the whole village was eerily quiet; we didn't see a single villager along the way.

I and Liu Junyan went up the mountain together, but at the entrance of the mountain's Qilin temple we saw the villagers of Tafengcun.

They gathered before the Qilin temple, holding the suffering children, kneeling and worshipping something, repeatedly giving thanks.

When we reached the doorway and saw the girl standing inside the Qilin temple distributing medicinal liquid to the villagers, we all froze.

The girl wore a red‑black archery outfit, with a feather mark between her brows—who else could it be but the fake Ali?

At this moment, she was applying the medicine.

The villagers held bowls, received the medicinal liquid from her, and fed it to the children.

After the children drank it, they vomited nonstop, but after spitting out a few mouthfuls of black blood, each one became conscious, and the burns on their bodies faded and healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The girl saw Liu Junyan at a glance and immediately smiled, going up to meet him.

She acted as if she hadn't seen me at all, and affectionately called out to Liu Junyan: "Āyàn, do you also sense that there's a great disaster here? Come over to help save all beings?"

"I've looked it over; it's not a big problem."

"This place should have yin and yang in harmony, free of disaster, but at some point a pure yang object went missing from the corner of the formation, causing yin-yang imbalance, and that's why the villagers suffered."

She said, reaching to take Liu Junyan's hand: "Āyàn, come see if what I did is right?"

Liu Junyan dodged her hand, narrowed his vertical pupils, his eyes full of warning.

The girl paid no heed, turning to point toward the phoenix tree.

Only then did I see that the tall phoenix tree I had considered a lucky tree, the phoenix tree from which I had retrieved Feng Wu, was now reduced to just half its trunk.

Moreover, that half was completely charred, still faintly emitting smoke.

On the trunk of the phoenix tree, there was, to my shock, a lightning-summoning talisman drawn in cinnabar!

She actually used the lightning-summoning talisman to draw down heavenly lightning, cleaving the phoenix tree!

The phoenix tree, though struck by lightning, still lived; its core was scorched, turning it into genuine lightning-struck wood.

Although examples of phoenix trees becoming lightning-struck wood are exceedingly rare, they do indeed exist.

Lightning-struck wood, utmost yang.

This is indeed a flawless method to correct the yin-yang imbalance.

But why do I feel so awful inside?

The girl looked at Liu Junyan with sparkling eyes, teasingly saying, "Āyàn, aren't I capable? Quick, praise me."

She was so natural, her tone brimming with an undisguised coquettishness, as if she had been getting along with Liu Junyan like this for hundreds of years.

The next moment, Liu Junyan suddenly struck, seizing her throat; wind swirled around him as he pressed forward, finally pinning her against the phoenix tree trunk, demanding coldly, "Speak—who is your master behind all this?"