Dragon and Phoenix (7)

Since the 24-hour limit wasn't over yet, Yin Mei continued to wander the giant treasure room, until she reached the end. She stood in front of what seemed like a giant piece of ice, inside of it was... a person.

She stared up at the person, having no idea what this person was. There wasn't any mention of it at all in the information. Yin Mei felt that the system's information was becoming more and more useless as she kept on coming across things that were never mentioned.

The person was a man who looked like he was sleeping, his skin dyed a pale blue by the color of the ice. "Is it a corpse? Sleeping? Sealed?" Yin Mei wasn't sure.

She wondered if it was okay to melt this ice? Like, she wouldn't be releasing some sealed away legendary devil king, right? She studied him. No dark skin, so he shouldn't be a devil? But, there was still a chance of being a demonic cultivator. But then she wondered why such a person would be sealed away inside a palace treasury.

But she really didn't know what sort of person could possibly be in here. He had to be from the golden age, that was for sure. After all, this place hadn't been touched since those times. "Eiii, whatever!" Yin Mei didn't like overthinking things, so she stuffed it all into the back of her mind, throwing her golden phoenix flame at the piece of ice angrily, as if she was venting out all her frustrations.

"Ahahaha, burn, burnnnn!" She laughed weirdly as she watched the ice melt away in satisfaction. She guessed that the formations that formed the ice must have weakened over the thousands of years to allow it to burn away so easily, but it certainly was a pleasure to watch, so she wasn't complaining.

Feeling this pleasure, she thought that perhaps she had the makings of an arsonist. Oh well. It seemed that her morals had already significantly deteriorated from spending too long here.

Although the flames were eating at the ice at a steady pace, seeing the size of the thing, Yin Mei guessed that it might take a couple hours before it was completely melted away, so she decided to sit down and relax a bit, taking out a tea table, chair, and tea and snacks. She then began to leisurely read a book while elegantly sipping her tea.

"... What in the world are you doing?" Yao Lan asked with an odd expression, as she came across this scene that she really didn't know how to describe. It was filled with elegance, but then on the other side was a lifeless man encased in ice that looked like he was being burned at the stake.

"Hm? I'm waiting for that ice to melt. I wonder what sort of person is inside? Hope he's still alive, at least, or my efforts would be wasted." Yin Mei answered. "Want to come sit with me?"

"You already looked through everything, to be so relaxed?" Although Yao Lan said that, she also sat down to partake in some tea and snacks. Yao Lan was currently very satisfied with her haul, so didn't mind taking some time off to chat with Yin Mei.

Yin Mei seemed to take the time to think. With the unexpected discovery of these mysterious items outside of the system's knowledge, she wondered what other treasures could be buried here that she didn't know about. But she then inwardly shook her head. "Yep. Anything else at this point would just be superfluous. Anyways, bringing back a potential cultivator from the golden ages would be good enough of a treasure, right?"

Yao Lan had to agree with that. She looked at the piece of ice. "Could he really be from the old age?" She asked. The legends of the golden age were told to children since they were young, and although the current age actually really wasn't too much behind, they still had not yet achieved the peak of prosperity and knowledge like in those days.

"Probably. Perhaps he even witnessed that war." Yin Mei said. That war was the fiercest one in the history of the upper realm, and even now the land had still yet to fully recover, even though the seal that locked away the devils into their own realm was already beginning to unravel itself.

"Hey, if we bring such a person back, don't you think that the Jade Emperor would reward us?" Yao Lan asked.

"If that was the case, we'd probably have to give most of the rest of this away to the Jade Emperor, under the reason of donations to the state." Yin Mei said. "But, that might not be too bad either." For one, it would most definitely raise the level of their clans in the eyes of the emperor. In addition, it would probably mean that the Jade Emperor would personally reward them and favor them after that.

Essentially, it was whether they wanted riches or glory. Or another way of saying it was if they wanted to be selfish or patriotic. But, being on the Jade Emperor's good side did come with many more long-term benefits. "We can discuss it with the rest of the group, when we're done." Yin Mei said. After all, this was something that couldn't be decided alone, since this treasure had been found by all of them together.

Yao Lan agreed. They chatted a little while longer, before Yao Lan was ready to go leave and meet up with her brother to continue searching for the remaining time, Yin Mei stopped her. "Here," she said, tossing a ring toward Yao Lan, who probed Yin Mei with a questioning gaze. "I found it, but I don't need it, so I'm giving it to you." It didn't answer Yao Lan's questions, but she didn't reject it, and put it away after politely thanking Yin Mei. After Yao Lan left, Yin Mei continued reading as she waited for the ice to melt.

When it finally did, she quickly restrained her flames before they could start burning the man, and he fell down onto the ground. He was unconscious, and his life force was extremely weak. It didn't look like he could live another moment, so Yin Mei forcefully shoved a healing elixir into his mouth while holding his nose closed until he swallowed it. His color showed signs of improvement, but Yin Mei guessed it would take a lot more for him to wake up. It had already been who knows how long since the end of the golden age, so supposedly, that was how long the man had been trapped in the ice. It would certainly take a toll on someone's life force to be inside a block of ice for that long.

Because a storage ring couldn't carry living people inside them, she could only use a telekinesis like technique to bring him along floating behind her toward the entrance of the treasure room. The others also began appearing one after the other once some time had passed, expressions of satisfaction on each of their faces.

When they had all arrived, Yin Mei explained what her and Yao Lan had talked about. All of the people here didn't have bad personalities and it wasn't like they were disloyal to the crown, so they had no issues with revealing the rest of this place to the emperor. The emperor, as well, was not a tyrant, so he certainly would allow their clans to keep a portion of the treasures here.

They first sealed of the entrances and exits to the city before leaving. Returning to the capital, they went their separate ways to their clan palaces. All Yin Mei had to do was notify her father and brother of the treasures and the course of action that they had decided on. Her father and brother would then report it to the emperor, without Yin Mei needing to worry about anything. As for that half-dead person she had brought back, Yin Mei just threw him to the servants and had them take care of his matters, to give him some nourishment and healing pills and elixirs.

Since she had a successful day, Yin Mei was very happy. She immediately went back to her room and took out the water basin and pedestal. She then looked into it, figuring out how it worked. It would allow her to see anywhere and anyone throughout the nine realms, as long as she personally knew the person or place that she was spying on. Actually, Feng Hua did not personally know the demon king, but the soul inside Feng Hua's body, Yin Mei, did. So it seemed that she was still able to see the demon king because of that.

Nothing had changed, really, from the first image. The demon king was still peacefully cultivating, wearing that white robe. For cultivators of the demon king's level, this was normal. Most of them would shut themselves inside for years and years until they broke through. But, personally, seeing this demon king for Yin Mei was weird. First of all, the white robe turned his normally seductive and devilish aura into something more pure, which honestly, freaked Yin Mei out a little. And secondly, it was because her first experience with the demon king was him living life like a normal, lazy noble person. She remembered wondering why he wasn't in secluded cultivation like normal people and had basically been sleeping and eating snacks all day. Even now she didn't know the answer.

"I wonder if he can tell I'm watching him?" Just as she said that, the demon king opened his eyes, his cold and piercing gaze seeming to stare right through Yin Mei, and she ended up on the other side of the room, up against the wall with a pale face and a cold sweat. "Holy sh*t that freaked me out!" She said, like she had seen a ghost. She slowly inched back, peeking at the water basin again.

She heard the hidden guard captain's voice ring out from the basin. "Your Majesty, that man has died." Oh, so the hidden guard captain hadn't died. That was good. But who was that man that he was talking about?

The demon king sneered. "He went too easily. Throw him into the forest and let the demon beasts eat him." Yin Mei was really curious now. What sort of person was it to have the demon king treat even his corpse with such cruelty?

Yin Mei still seemed to be unable to remember that she hadn't ascended through normal means, and that her former body from the lower realm had already died.

It was only until the hidden guard captain spoke again that she realized. "Your Majesty, are you going to go visit Bai Yu's grave today?"

"Ah, that's right." Yin Mei said. She was the one that had died. So the demon king's mourning clothes were for her?

The demon king didn't say anything, and neither did the hidden guard captain. Only after a long time did the demon king finally reply, "No." And with that, their conversation was over.

Yin Mei didn't know how to feel. Slightly bitter that he wouldn't visit her grave? Or slightly warm that he had bothered to wear mourning clothes? Or just plain odd, because she was still alive, while the corpse of her former body lay cold six feet under the ground?

"Will he recognize me when he ascends?" Yin Mei asked herself. Would he? Should she reveal her identity? Would he believe her? How would she even explain herself? Or should she just help him without explaining anything?

"Argh! I don't know! Thinking about all this just makes my head hurt!" Yin Mei exclaimed, feeling somehow upset with herself. She didn't know what this feeling was inside her chest, that was making her feel terrible. Her chest ached, her head hurt, and she felt nauseous. She didn't know why. She just knew that the expression on the demon king's face right now... it really made her upset. She wondered. Would this inexplicable feeling go away by the time he ascended?