The Immortal Phoenix King was one hundred and seventy-five centimeters tall. Her black dress wrapped around her curvy body, making her look all the more tall and lanky. Her flesh was smooth and creamy, while her skin had the chill of winter and the sacredness of a snow lotus.
Wang Jing was standing in the not-so-far distance. She seemed to be filled with joy upon seeing her son’s new "girlfriend". "Is she going to be my daughter-in-law? What a pretty and charming girl!"
However, the woman next to her son was no ordinary woman. She was a king with six severed shackles. Something like leveling a mountain to the ground for instance, was a piece of cake for her. Therefore, this left Chu Feng in a sticky situation. "What should I say to my mom?" Chu Feng murmured to himself, "should I tell her that this is my girlfriend? That’ll certainly make my mother happy, but I’ll be risking my life!"
"Mom!"
Chu Feng quickly ran up to his mom. He needed to make sure that she wouldn’t say anything that would make him regret for life, and the only way to do that was to shut her up before she say anything at all.
However, he underestimated Wang Jing’s passion. Wang Jing bypassed her son and went straight for the Immortal Phoenix King. She was full of praises. "Oh, what a lovely girl! Those eyes! Those lips! Absolutely impeccable! You look like a beauty that comes straight out of a painting!"
Wang Jing had completely ignored her son. Her passion was unbridled. This scene seemed more like the one where two friends reunited after a long separation than where two complete strangers meeting each other for the first time.
Chu Feng was dying on the inside. He really wanted to shout to his mom, "Stop it, mom! You won’t stand her once you know who she is! She is a bloody bird king who can level a mountain with just a jerk of her feet, for goodness sake!"
However, surprisingly, although the Immortal Phoenix King might seem cold and elegant, she was not arrogant or rude at all. Wang Jing’s compliments seemed to have somehow melted away that icy expression of hers; right now, the phoenix king was smiling.
Chu Feng quickly ran up to his mom and whispered, "She and I have only just met. Don’t be too overzealous, mom! Go home, mom. We’ll soon follow!"
In reality, Chu Feng was afraid that this Immortal Phoenix King might give his mom a scare, especially when it was least expected. If the phoenix king somehow unwittingly let her energy permeate through her flesh or accidentally let her phoenix eyes burst out divine radiance, it would be something way too terrifying for someone like Wang Jing to bear.
"Sure! You two can continue with your romance and all that. I’ll leave you to it." Wang Jing then left the two alone. Chu Feng could finally vent out a sigh of relief.
Right at this moment, Xiong Kun and Hu Sheng walked past them. Chu Feng saw them trying to sneak away, but he quickly stopped them. "Find me and this lady somewhere quiet, preferably a café or something."
The two fervently nodded. This was a piece of cake for them. It was an easy chance for the two to redeem what they had done before.
Lu Shiyun and her brother were waiting for their taxi. They had been watching Chu Feng since the moment he walked out of the ballroom. White Tiger curled his lips with disapproval and said, "What a bastard! He was the one who was flirting with you moments ago, wasn’t he? And now you see, he’s all over that woman in black dress. I’m gonna teach this unfaithful no-good son of a b*tch a lesson!"
"Brother, don’t! I’m not sure who is gonna teach who a lesson if you continue to act so thoughtlessly," Lu Shiyun said.
"What do you mean? Are you saying that he’s gonna beat me? Who on earth is HE?!" White Tiger looked scornful.
"He’s Chu Feng," Lu Shiyun
casually said.
"HUH?!" White Tiger was dumbfounded. His body had turned stiff.
In the meantime, Xia Qianyu and Jiang Luoshen had both walked out of the building as well.
"Are you just going to admit your defeat like that, Luoshen? I’m sure that in terms of looks and charms, you are way superior to that woman in black. If I were you, I would go into the battle and fight it out with that woman! I would not let anyone get in the way of my love!"
"Xia Qianyu! Shut up!" Jiang Luoshen still had an elegant carriage, but her eyes looked murderous.
At the same time, her eyes were also seeking for her auntie.
…
Inside a teahouse
The teahouse had an old quaint charm. From tables and chairs to doors and windows, everything was made to mimic the ancient style. The environment felt peaceful, and the decoration looked tasteful.
Chu Feng and the Immortal Phoenix King sat at a table face-to-face. Meanwhile, a girl with consummate skills in tea making was elegantly making tea for them.
"I can’t remember what happened in the past," the Immortal Phoenix King frankly admitted.
She had indeed lost all her memory. She couldn’t remember how she came to the east. She could only recall that she was saved by a female mutant when she passed out on a hillside field, and the female mutant brought her to Shuntian.
The female mutant had abundant financial resources. She was the organizer of tonight’s blind-date party. The party was part of her business plan. The phoenix king said that this female mutant signed her up with the goal of helping her enrich her monotonous life in mind.
The Immortal Phoenix King hadn’t lost her power. She was still a king with six severed shackles, and her memory was the only thing that was lost. She couldn’t remember whether her amnesia was the consequence of a head trauma or was because of something that went wrong during the process of nirvana.
"Have you forgotten everything about yourself?"
"Pretty much. The memory that’s still left feels kind of blurry. I always have this dream of me living inside an active volcano. Around me, there was billowing lava, scorching heatwaves and the overpowering smell of sulphur…" the phoenix king was lost in thought.
Chu Feng was visibly moved by her recount. He sighed with emotion. "She is totally deserving of the title of ‘Immortal Phoenix King’. It’s unbelievable that she lives inside an active volcano. It must be a hellish place for ordinary people like me."
"We did meet before." Chu Feng chose not to hide the story; instead, he told the phoenix king her identity in a kindly and informative fashion.
Suddenly, the entire teahouse trembled. Chu Feng could feel the energy drizzling out from every pore of her skin. This was the energy of a true king. The energy was spreading in the air, making all those who were around palpitate with fear. Chu Feng could tell that even the souls of these people were shivering with fright.
"Take it easy!" Chu Feng said. He let the energy of his body diffuse into the air as well to counter the effect of her energy.
The woman in black had a head of silky black hair, but right now, her hair was dancing in the wind, like they were pulled by an invisible force. Her face became more and more ashen. The look in her eyes became more and more piercing. First, there was a glint in her eyes; then, it became a white bolt of lightning, and lit up the entire teahouse!
Her black dress had somehow puffed up, but there was no wind in this room. At this very moment, the Immortal Phoenix King was a very dangerous beast.
"Is the Black Dragon King dead?" she asked.
"Yes!" Chu Feng replied, but then he added, "Schiller is alive. He is the main culprit here!"
Chu Feng knew that he was probably the most hated person in the eyes of Schiller. After all, he was main villain in ruining the entire city of Vatican, but Chu Feng had nothing to fear because he had got himself a trusty ally, and that was the Immortal Phoenix King.
"Schiller!" the Immortal Phoenix King whispered to herself. She had remembered this name. She sealed the pores of her skin and locked the energy inside her. Finally, everything went back to normal again.
Meanwhile, Xiong Kun and Hu Sheng were waiting in the other room. They didn’t know what happened just then, but their faces had turned pale with fear. There was an unspeakable feeling of oppression and pressure filling the room just then, and that made them shudder with fear.
As for that tea-brewing waitress, she had already fallen into a coma.
Although the Immortal Phoenix King had lost most of her memory, her intelligence was still intact. She did a bit of research on the internet on top of what Chu Feng had told her to confirm that everything he said was truthful.
Then, the two had a private talk.
The Immortal Phoenix King smiled a sweet smile when they left the teahouse. It felt like seeing a thousand-year-old iceberg finally thawed. It looked dazzling; it was otherworldly beautiful. Both Xiong Kun and Hu Sheng were stunned by the sight.
"Thank you so much. To repay for what you’ve done for me tonight, I’ll help you find a beautiful girl to deal with your parents; but of course, if you want me, myself, to attend at your house and to meet your parents and to continue to help you stage this play, I don’t really find it as repugnant as some of other girls may find, so I can certainly help you with that."
Having said that, the Immortal Phoenix King walked away with elegance and grace. Her tall and lanky figure disappeared in the darkness of night.
Chu Feng was flabbergasted. Did she actually mean what she said? Chu Feng found it very hard to believe that a king would say to him something like that.
She was a king with six severed shackles. Being cold and indifferent seemed to have always been her character. However, surprises always came when it was least expected. Just as the two were about to part ways, the Immortal Phoenix King suddenly decided to poke fun at him. This was so untypical of her.
Chu Feng looked over his shoulder. Xiong Kun and Hu Sheng were standing behind him, but they seemed to have been put into a trance. Both of them looked flabbergasted. "Hey, wake up! What’re you looking at? Get lost!" Chu Feng shouted at them.
Of course, Chu Feng did not feel that things had gone easy for him tonight either. Just seconds ago, he became the target of a beast king’s ridicule; however, Chu Feng couldn’t do much about it. The person who ridiculed him was no other than the Immortal Phoenix King.
Chu Feng went back to the teahouse to finish his tea.
"God Chu, you’re a bloody legend!"
"Of course! God Chu has always been a bloody legend! Do you know who that woman is? She’s a phoenix king. She’s someone that we can only read about in books about myths and legends. She is also a king with six severed shackles, but so what, sooner or later, she’ll still just be another woman that will come down to her knees in front of our God Chu’s naked lower body and…" Hu Sheng was getting more and more obscene.
"Shut up!" Chu Feng shushed him just in time.
But the two still looked full of rabid passion. They almost prostrated themselves before Chu Feng in admiration.
They were curious to see what kind of sensation it would stir up once the news about tonight’s encounter went onto the internet. They were sure that the sensation was going to be massive.
However, Xiong Kun and Hu Sheng dared not to tell anyone else about this because Chu Feng had warned them that the news about the reappearance of the Immortal Phoenix King must be kept as a secret.
During the days that followed, Chu Feng had been bombarded by invitations from different tycoons. They tried to extend their olive branches to Chu Feng through all kinds of different methods, but Chu Feng responded to none of them. He had a few days of leisure time at home.
Everything was calm and easy except when Wang Jing urged Chu Feng to spend some time with his "girlfriend". This gave Chu Feng quite a headache.
"Bodhi had conquered Putuo Mountain?!" Chu Feng was surprised.
Putuo Mountain was one of the four most sacred mountains that were believed to exist in Buddhist legends; Putuo was perhaps the most extraordinary one of the four.
After the world was first hit with the upheavals, there was an open space on the hillside. This open space seemed to be a portal of some sort. This "portal" emitted peculiar kinds of gases. The gases often covered the entire mountain, making the forest both misty and mysterious-looking. Inside the forest, beast kings were roaming and fighting. A lot of kings had either been injured or died.
Chu Feng thought that Hu Sheng and Xiong Kun might have a better idea of the situation at that mountain, so he decided to ask them for more information.
Meanwhile, Hu Sheng and Xiong Kong were discussing on whether they should just leave the city of Shuntian for good. "I’m very terrified of that Demon Chu, to be honest!" Xiong Kun said. But before they could make up their mind, Chu Feng had already rung them and told them not to go anywhere for the next few months. And just like this, they were now stuck with the source of their nightmare, and god knew how long it would take before they were free from his grasp again.
Luckily, Chu Feng had been very kind to them ever since. He had been treating them in the nicest way possible, and barely had he ever assigned them with any dangerous tasks. Errands like gathering intelligence and making reservations at teahouses and cafés were pretty much the only things they were asked to do.
"According to what I’ve gathered so far, I heard that Bodhi was solely relying on the two Buddha disciples to be their main manpower. One of them had been pretty much an incapacitated, good-for-nothing, disabled person since the fight with the white snake at Kunlun; and the other disciple was said to be an old monk who was well over a hundred years old. He was said to have severed five shackles, so naturally, he was the more terrifying one between the two.
"And here is the interesting part. In the battle of Putuo Mountain, Bodhi didn’t send in any of their own manpower. They seemed to have formed some sort of alliance with a few non-Bodhi mutants and mutated beasts to help them fight. The only investment they put in was rockets, bullets and shells," Hu Sheng reported.
But as to whom specifically had they formed the alliance with, neither of them knew.
However, there had been a rumor circulating on the internet before. It was said that Bodhi once had a secret meeting with the Peacock King, and this had prompted many people to suggest that the two parties might have teamed up for something huge and important, and all these happened before the battle of Putuo had even started.
"Bodhi, Pre-Qin Research Institute and Extra-terrestrial Civilization Department had all been fighting for sacred mountains. Almost every tycoon had put their money on trying to get these mountains into their pockets. So far, most of them seem pretty successful on achieving that," Hu Sheng reported.
Chu Feng had a strange look on his face. He knew that a lot of big companies in the east had grown quite considerably during the time when the Western Punitive Expedition was busy fighting in the West. Today, most of them had doubled or even tripled their strength and manpower.
In fact, the reason that Chu Feng seemed interested in information like this was because he himself wanted to have a sacred mountain that belonged to him.
Kunlun and the pilgrimage ground might not necessarily be the best places in the world once another round of upheavals began.
And most importantly, having something that belonged to himself was very different than sharing something with others. Chu Feng could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Nothing would restrain him. Furthermore, with the second round of upheavals right around the corner, Chu Feng could use the energy-rich soil of the sacred mountain to plant the seed from the stone box!
Chu Feng believed that the seed would prove to be very important in the future if he wanted to get even stronger than he was now, and the only way to do that was to find a first-class sacred mountain before the upheavals began!
"Tell me, which mountain has the most abundant reservoir of sacred energy?" Chu Feng asked.
"Longhu Mountain, of course! The founder’s temple of Taoism is located there!" Xiong Kun shouted.
"But Longhu Mountain is perhaps the most hellish mountain of them all. It’s the most difficult one to conquer. I heard that many kings had lost their lives when fighting over there. The stone staircase that leads up to the peak of the mountain has been drenched in blood!"
Hu Sheng said that Pre-Qin Institute, Deity and Bodhi had been sending many of their men to conquer the mountain. There were also a lot of mutated beasts led by their kings fighting alongside these soldiers. However, every single attempt had only resulted in failure. The soldiers went in, looking all dignified and proud, but those who came out of there were all crestfallen and riddled with injuries and wounds. "‘It’s hellish in there!’ That’s what all of them said," Hu Sheng said to Chu Feng.