Chapter 124: Chapter 124: Beast Form is a Tender Yellow Bird?

When Granny Gu and her people burst in, they only saw a mass of flesh and blood twitching faintly amidst the ruins.

Yu Yun wasn’t dead, just blasted into a mangled, bloody mess by the force.

"Granny... Save... save me..."

She used her last ounce of strength to call out to Granny Gu before passing out, her fate unknown.

The people of the Ghost Market rushed over when they heard the explosion, but by the time they arrived, the scene was a complete wreck. There was nothing else to be found.

...

Ao Wu avoided the crowd and left the Ghost Market. He didn’t go to the palace, but instead to the Tiger Clan’s residence.

The house was unguarded and the main gate was tightly locked. That didn’t matter—he could just jump over the wall.

Finding a random room to enter, Ao Wu carefully took Yu An out from where he held her against his chest.

To be precise, it was Yu An in her beast form.

—A small bird with downy, yellow feathers.

"With the Feather’s protection, An’an will be fine."

Ao Wu murmured, unclear if he was stating a fact or just comforting himself.

But logically, if the Feather had activated, a Phoenix Illusion should have appeared to protect Yu An, and that hadn’t happened...

Yu An’s eyes were tightly shut and her breathing was faint. After checking that she had no external injuries and that the blood on her wasn’t her own, Ao Wu felt a slight sense of relief.

What he didn’t know was that Yu An was indeed injured. The Feather had worked, but it had only been able to protect her heart. The reason he found no external wounds was because Lu Lu, inside her, was frantically commanding the Wood Element Ability to heal her.

The external wounds had been healed, but her internal injuries were severe. And, most importantly—

Lu Lu let out a sharp cry. ’How is there another zaizai!’

Normally, her superpower would have been enough to stabilize Yu An’s condition. But now, Lu Lu had to struggle its way into the pocket dimension to slowly transport Divine Spring Water to Yu An.

The dimension belonged to Yu An; no one could enter or leave without her permission. Lu Lu, however, shared a deep connection with her and could just barely manage to get inside.

Yu An felt as if she were in a vast, white space, with nothing around her.

She looked around blankly as her memories gradually returned.

That’s right, she had been caught in Yu Yun’s self-detonation. When the explosion erupted, she had seen a brilliant golden Phoenix Illusion.

The Phoenix Illusion had protected her, but how did she end up here? Where was this place?

Just as she was wondering, a blurry figure suddenly appeared not far away.

A woman whose face was impossible to see sat before a cradle, softly humming a lullaby.

Yu An wanted to get closer to see who the woman was, but whether she walked or ran, she couldn’t reach her.

After finishing the lullaby, the woman gently patted the baby in the cradle, her voice soft. "Zaizai, you must grow up quickly..."

After speaking, Yu An saw her lift a brilliant golden egg from the cradle and hand it to the empty air before her.

"I’m entrusting my zaizai to you," the woman said softly to the air. "Take good care of her. This is my... only wish."

Yu An wanted to ask who she was, but before she could speak, a light flashed, so bright it forced her to shut her eyes.

Only the woman’s ethereal, indistinct voice reached her ears. "...I’m counting on you, my sister."

"An’an, you’re finally awake!"

Yu An opened her eyes to find Ao Wu’s magnified, handsome face right in front of her.

She tried to speak, but all that came out was, "CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP."

Yu An froze, then realized she had turned into a little bird!

Ao Wu seemed to sense her helplessness and quickly explained, "An’an, this must be your beast form. When a Beastman is severely injured, they revert to their beast form to reduce the damage. You’ll be able to change back once you’re healed."

Yu An took a moment to assess herself and felt waves of pain coming from deep within her body.

When Lu Lu noticed she was awake, it quickly updated her on her physical condition.

Yu An asked in surprise, "I have another zaizai?!"

"That’s right," Lu Lu sighed, its main body slumped limply in Yu An’s Dantian, refusing to move. "An’an, hurry up and get some Divine Spring Water. Fetching water these past few days has exhausted me."

Yu An then thought of Mo Yan and the others in the pocket dimension. According to Ao Wu, she had been unconscious for a full ten days. They must have been worried sick after she hadn’t entered for so long.

She was right. Mo Yan and the others had expected Yu An and Ao Wu to return home quickly and let them out of the dimension, but a full ten days had passed without Yu An showing up.

Da Hu and the others had already asked several times, and Mo Yan had always found an excuse to put them off. But the zaizai weren’t stupid; they secretly wondered why their Female Mother hadn’t let them out or come in to see them.

Was she injured? Or had she run into some kind of danger?

After five days, they couldn’t sit still any longer. They tried all sorts of methods to get out, but all ended in failure.

Just as their worries reached a fever pitch, Ao Wu appeared in the pocket dimension. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Da Hu was the first to see him and immediately rushed over. "Beast Father Ao Wu, where’s Female Mother? Did Female Mother come?!"

The others quickly surrounded him. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Ao Wu opened his hands. "She’s here."

Looking at the downy yellow bird in his palms, the group fell silent.

Lan Ying’s mouth twitched. "Ao Wu, what are you trying to say? This little chick is An’an?"

At that, Yu An instantly flew into a rage. She leaped from Ao Wu’s hand and, flapping her wings, gave Lan Ying a flurry of pecks! PECK PECK PECK!

’Who are you calling a little chick? Who!’

"An’an, I was wrong, I was wrong!"

Seeing the fury filling Yu An’s beady little eyes, Lan Ying didn’t dare to dodge. He just coaxed her gently, and it took quite a while to finally placate her.

She gave a cold huff and landed on Feng Xuan’s shoulder.

Holding back his laughter, Ao Wu explained the situation, and only then did everyone finally relax.

They went to sit at the stone table. Feng Xuan held out his hand like a staircase, allowing Yu An to hop down.

"An’an, I did some asking around."

Ao Wu recounted the events of the past few days. "Yu Yun is claiming to be sick and hasn’t appeared in public. The Beast Emperor has sent people everywhere looking for you. He seems pretty anxious."

"Cui Su, on the other hand, doesn’t seem very worried. He visits Yu Yun’s residence almost every day, but he doesn’t stay for long."

Yu An lifted a wing to stroke her chin. ’That explosion was huge, it destroyed the whole house. If it weren’t for the Phoenix Illusion and my Wood Element Ability, I probably wouldn’t have survived.’

’Ao Wu said he was only focused on getting me away and didn’t pay attention to Yu Yun’s condition. Could she have actually survived?’

Yu An shook her little head. ’It’s useless to spend any more time thinking about these things. I’ll investigate after I get out.’

The most important thing now was to get some information about her own past from Qiuyue. And then there were the last words spoken by that woman with the blurry face while she was unconscious.

Yu An felt that the woman was her Female Mother, Yu Huang. In that case, the "sister" Yu Huang mentioned...

It seemed the two sisters weren’t the mortal enemies everyone believed them to be. Otherwise, why would her Female Mother have entrusted her to the Beast Emperor?

"Also," Ao Wu said, taking out a letter and interrupting Yu An’s train of thought, "we received a reply from Han Ling City."

Han Li and Yu An looked at the letter at the same time. He took it and tore it open eagerly, his eyes flying across the page.

Curious about what it said, Yu An flapped her wings and flew to the top of Han Li’s head to read along with him.

The beginning was just pleasantries, which Yu An skipped over. But when she saw a line in the middle of the letter, she subconsciously clutched her belly.

So that was the cause of Han Li’s so-called terminal illness!