Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Cold Crow Bathes in Fire

The spring breeze, seeing me desperately shielding him, cried out anxiously, "Little Crow, don't be foolish! Come to me!"
"Step back! If you come any closer, I'll die right here!" I shouted at him. Spring Breeze dared not move.
"Are you not afraid that I might hand you over to the Underworld soldiers?" Ming Zhong asked in a low, chilling voice.
I was afraid—terrified of Ming Zhong's despicable, shameless threats. I feared bringing disgrace to Jade Pure Realm after death, dishonoring the life my master granted me, and losing the face to meet him again. But Spring Breeze was alive before my eyes. He was my master's brother, my mentor and friend, my kin! I could not let him suffer the same fate as my master!
"If you let him go, I will stay. Do with me as you will!" I replied to Ming Zhong in a harsh voice.
"You think a mere princess, a sacrifice for the banner, can outweigh a true god? Keeping you alive is for his sake!" Ming Zhong let out a sinister laugh.
I sneered coldly at him, "You truly are foolish! If you use the Jade Dragon Goblet, I will throw myself into it! Once my soul disperses, you cannot disperse Spring Breeze as well! If you're gravely injured, you will not be able to defeat Spring Breeze, and he can seize the chance to kill you or escape. Do you think keeping me is wiser, or using the goblet?" With the Crystal Sword poised, I walked toward Ming Zhong...
"You would truly allow yourself to be destroyed for him!" Ming Zhong exclaimed in shock.
"Little Crow! Come here!" Spring Breeze shouted urgently.
"Silence! Or I'll die right now!" The razor-sharp Crystal Sword had already slit my neck...
"I stay, you let him go! If you use the goblet, you will perish with me! Is your life worth it? Think carefully." I addressed Ming Zhong.
He hesitated...
Slowly, I approached Ming Zhong... Suddenly, I reversed the Crystal Sword and plunged it fiercely into his left heart. Ming Zhong, startled, struck me with his palm...
Spring Breeze seized the moment, flying over in an instant, raising a hand to block Ming Zhong's blow, and unleashed a dazzling lightning bolt! Amid the brilliant radiance, Spring Breeze swept me up and fled. The Crystal Sword withdrew from Ming Zhong's chest, transformed into a bracelet, and returned to my wrist. Ming Zhong reached for my hand but, weakened by his wounds, collapsed, watching helplessly as my hand slipped from his fingers.
Staggering, Ming Zhong leaned against a stone, clutching his chest in pain, gazing at the two figures vanishing beyond the boundary—like a dream forever out of reach. Blood gushed from between his fingers... The air was suffused with sweet, fragrant scents...
Spring Breeze carried my fevered body back to Hundred Flowers Isle.
"Spring Breeze... your face..." Seeing the wound on his cheek, my heart was wracked with guilt. I forced myself to raise a hand and cast a healing spell. If a scar remained on Spring Breeze's face, he would surely lose his mind.
"Don't worry, it won't scar. Why is your body so hot?" he asked anxiously.
I remained silent.
"How did you enter the Underworld? Did you take the place of the Seventh Princess?" Spring Breeze pressed.
"Yes," I answered.
"How foolish you are! Since I met you, you've never been well! How could you go and seek vengeance yourself?" Spring Breeze was frantic.
I wept quietly, saying nothing.
Spring Breeze fell silent for a moment, then cursed angrily, "Maybe you'll die of this fever! Stupid Crow! Foolish bird! Why did you try to seduce the enemy on the battlefield! Have you forgotten your last ordeal in the Underworld?"
I could not tell Spring Breeze that Tiande, to avenge his private grudge, disguised me as the Seventh Princess and bound me for the Underworld. The plot was secret, without evidence, and Tiande would surely claim I volunteered for my master's revenge. With Spring Breeze's temperament, he would risk his life to storm Heaven and take Tiande's head. How could he outwit those villains? If Heaven and the Nine Provinces turned against each other, war would break out, giving the Underworld an opportunity, and my master's death would be in vain. Besides, the Underworld coveted his divine body. I could not let him fall as my master did.
I remained silent, tears streaming.
Back on Hundred Flowers Isle, I entered the Cave of Time. Spring Breeze tossed me onto a large rush mat, "Idiot! I ought to beat you to death! You actually submitted to that depraved villain! Have you forgotten how he harmed you? Who risked their life to bring you back? Have you honored your master? Have you honored me? So foolish! Are you trying to enrage me to death?"
My body burned fiercely. I had held myself together for Spring Breeze in the Underworld, but now my strength was spent, and the heat in my chest became unbearable. After his furious scolding, he tossed me aside, amplifying the power of his Dawn Spring Palm, shaking my insides to agony, flames raging in my heart...
I tried to suppress it with the Cloud-Condensing Method, but at last, I could not hold it back. Fiery flames surged from my heart, and I collapsed, covering my mouth with my hand and vomiting a mouthful of blood, then another...

Spring Breeze panicked, supporting me, "Little Crow! What's wrong?"
Another mouthful, staining his sleeve...
He hurriedly wiped the blood from my lips, his voice trembling, "Little Crow! I... didn't mean it! I won't hit or scold you anymore! Marry whomever you wish! Don't frighten me!"
With effort, I spoke, "Spring Breeze... I'm sorry..." Then, after several more mouthfuls of blood, I fainted.
I awoke, driven by the intense heat, and began vomiting blood again. Spring Breeze was beside himself, trying every immortal technique he could to help, but nothing worked. The flower fairies bustled around—fetching water, washing, wiping—white silk stained red scattered across the floor of the Cave of Time.
"Little Crow, use your Cloud-Condensing Method!" Spring Breeze urged.
"Alright..." My heart burned, my breath a mere thread. I realized the strength I had when escaping the Underworld was but a final burst—now my end was near... I had faced this calamity two thousand years ago when I became an apprentice, perhaps on the Immortal Cliff as well, but each time my master saved me... Now, there was truly no escape...
"Little Crow, as long as you came back, that's all that matters. The past is gone, I won't scold or hit you anymore. Please, stop vomiting!" Spring Breeze pleaded.
"Spring Breeze... it's too stifling here. I want to go outside for some air... I'll feel better..." I said with difficulty.
"Alright!" He carried me out...
"There..." I pointed to a clearing in the pear orchard.
"Alright!" Spring Breeze conjured a bamboo couch and laid my weakened body upon it.
"The wind here is so pleasant... The flowers so beautiful... Just like the Jade Pure Realm... But I can't go back..." I smiled faintly, all my tears gone...
"Little Crow! Marry whomever you wish, really! It's fine! I was speaking nonsense earlier!" Spring Breeze wept openly.
"Spring Breeze... I want to sleep here for a while... You don't have to watch over me..." I summoned the last of my strength with the Cloud-Condensing Method.
"No! You're tricking me again! If I leave, you'll jump into the South Sea!" Spring Breeze protested.
"You've always tricked me... I just want to sleep... You watching keeps me awake..." I replied with a weak smile.
Spring Breeze shook me desperately, "You mustn't sleep! Don't sleep!"
His shaking caused me to vomit more blood.
"Little Crow, was it my Dawn Spring Palm that hurt you?" He wiped the blood from my lips, regret etched on his face.
"No... Ming Zhong wounded me... Go fetch the Divine Guardian Pill..." I lied to him.
"You, watch over her! Don't let her sleep!" Spring Breeze ordered the fairies, rushing to fetch medicine.
Once Spring Breeze left, I ordered the flower fairies to move away.
"We can't, the god forbade us to leave..." the fairies protested.
"If you don't obey me... I'll have Spring Breeze banish you all..." My strength was barely enough to maintain the Cloud-Condensing Method.
The fairies were confused.
"Go!" I shouted, using the last of my strength.
Frightened, the fairies scattered—not daring to come too close, yet unable to stray far—panicked and helpless.
I smiled gently at them. In my heart, I whispered, "Master, Fei'er is sorry." I released the Cloud-Condensing Method...

The flames in my heart surged through my immortal veins, and instantly my body was engulfed in blazing fire... The fierce flames devoured the couch, crimson fire illuminating the entire orchard of pear blossoms...
The flower fairies were terrified, crying out, "God! Something's wrong! The immortal is self-immolating!"
Spring Breeze rushed in, dropping the medicine and trying to extinguish the fire with spells, but nothing worked... "Put out the fire! Save her!" Exhausted, Spring Breeze shouted frantically at the flower fairies and tree spirits. They cast spells, splashed water, but all was futile.
"God, the red fire is too fierce, it cannot be extinguished," an ancient tree spirit, hair and beard white, clung to Spring Breeze, preventing him from rushing into the flames.
Spring Breeze collapsed to the ground, watching as the fire grew ever stronger... The bamboo bed cracked and splintered in the flames, scarlet sparks bursting forth like blooming fireflowers...
"Let the crimson fire burn away the shame of the Underworld, burn away this body, burn away that night from memory..." The wind grew stronger, the fire blazed brighter, the couch turned to ash, the cold crow became charcoal...
"Little Crow!" Spring Breeze's cry echoed across Hundred Flowers Isle.
On the Star-Gazing Platform on the thirty-third heaven, the North Star Lord and the God of Non-Form gazed toward the Great Summit of Light.
"God, did you truly divine the sign? Will a divine star appear?" North Star Lord asked.
"Of course! When have I ever deceived anyone?" God of Non-Form said, waving his folding fan.
North Star Lord curled his lip, thinking, "As if you haven't deceived enough people."
"No need to doubt me. Crimson flame arises, Remin perishes. You, as a star official, ought to know Nüwa's prophecy," God of Non-Form replied.
"I know, Remin refers to the God of Clouds, but what does the crimson flame mean? I can't understand..." North Star Lord fretted.
Suddenly, from the southeast of the embryo realm atop the Summit of Light, a red light flared—a divine star shot skyward like burning lightning, its color stained with blood, its light blazing like flame.
North Star Lord stared, speechless, pointing at the star, "God! A divine star is truly born! Is this an auspicious omen or a dire portent?"
"Don't speculate. Just report it as a shooting fire star; in a few hundred years it will be gone. Go report," God of Non-Form replied.
North Star Lord went to report the celestial phenomenon, while God of Non-Form stood on the Star-Gazing Platform, gently waving his mottled bamboo fan, sighing, "Crimson flame demon star, chaos as its vessel, reforging heaven and earth. All forms are but illusions..."
On the second morning after escaping the Underworld, Spring Breeze stood before the grave beneath the ancient pear tree, his expression sorrowful, his mind echoing his earlier desperate cry.
"Little Crow, do you know how precious my tears are?" Spring Breeze murmured, caressing the gravestone, a single tear rolling down his handsome cheek...
"Who!" Immersed in grief, Spring Breeze suddenly sensed a pair of eyes watching from a hidden corner. He raised his hand and struck a spirit butterfly from the tree, which turned into a wisp of black smoke and vanished.
He shouted angrily toward the distant figure fleeing, "Tell Ming Zhong! I will never reconcile with him!" Spring Breeze raised his hand, casting a spell to seal Hundred Flowers Isle within a barrier.
Days later, Heaven received news from the Underworld of the Seventh Princess's passing. The event was sudden, yet expected by the celestial court. The Seventh Princess died in a foreign land. The cause of death, understood by all, was nothing but torment and abuse. Some were disheartened, some mourned, some grieved bitterly, and some rejoiced. The celestial historian recorded her final entry: "Sent to the Underworld for alliance, struck by sudden illness, died."
A campaign, a marriage alliance, thus ended. Heaven and earth each rested and recovered. The Underworld King busied himself repairing his disrupted qi and rebuilding his divine body. Tiande was finally crowned prince. The God of Clouds became a revered memory among the immortals. Lord Yu Fei became a legend of a young hero whose filial piety moved heaven and earth. The Seventh Princess fulfilled her mission, with gentle sorrow and steadfast courage, completing her brief, tumultuous, glorious, and humiliating life, fading with time from the immortals' memory...
Dust returns to dust, earth returns to earth...
A century later, prosperity returned once more...
One day, in the Eight Immortals Town of Penglai by the Eastern Sea, a lively, adorable little girl dressed in a white celestial dress skipped through the marketplace, about to run off to something interesting, when someone behind her caught her firmly, "Fei'er, don't run off!"