When Golden Finger Meets Salted Fish

The four people gathered together, each with complex expressions after their conversation.

Zhu Baiyi wasn't aware her ancestors had Phoenix bloodline, but she knew one thing: although divine beast clans were favored by the Heavenly Dao, passing down their lineage in today's world was even more difficult than for monstrous beast clans. At least she could preserve her bloodline through secret methods, but divine beast clans had not produced offspring for thousands of years before the White Tiger appeared, and for divine beasts to bear children was extraordinarily difficult.

Under such circumstances, even if Yun Qingyue experienced atavism, it was impossible for her to transform directly into a Swan Goose. Besides, even if she truly had the opportunity to transform into a Swan Goose through atavism, expecting the Heavenly Dao's acknowledgment was almost wishful thinking... In short, how could it be so easy?!

After her initial shock and confusion subsided, Zhu Baiyi cast her suspicious gaze toward Jiang Mo.

Jiang Mo wasn't stupid. Meeting Zhu Baiyi's gaze, she quickly understood what the other was questioning. She immediately forced an awkward smile and voluntarily lowered her head in admission: "Actually, Senior Sister's transformation is because of me. Back then in the Canglán Secret Realm at Mingzong Mountain, Senior Sister and I accidentally obtained a dragon skeleton, which we kept in our storage space. Senior Sister's bloodline awakening was influenced by that dragon skeleton..."

The strength of monstrous beast clans was related to their bloodline, like the fox clan. If a small fox was born with only one tail, limited by its bloodline, it could normally cultivate at most to three tails. Unless it had great fortune to purify its bloodline and break through the three-tail limit, in which case it could reach as high as six tails. As for the higher achievement of nine tails, that was completely unthinkable.

Throughout history, monstrous beasts with opportunities to break through bloodline limitations were exceedingly rare, showing how difficult bloodline purification truly was. If not for the dragon skeleton's stimulation, Yun Qingyue probably wouldn't have awakened her bloodline.

Up to this point, everything was still a normal stroke of luck, but what wasn't normal was that a daring and ignorant White Tiger had actually extracted the essence from an entire dragon skeleton for a monstrous beast in the midst of advancement. If Yun Qingyue's inherited bloodline hadn't happened to contain a trace of Phoenix bloodline, she would likely have been unable to withstand the dragon skeleton's power and died during her advancement.

With the dragon skeleton's stimulation, that trace of Phoenix bloodline was strengthened, suddenly suppressing the Nine-Tailed Fox bloodline.

Various coincidences ultimately led to the current result—Jiang Mo had thought about it much over the past year, barely managing to sort out the cause and effect, unsure whether to cry or laugh. Her beloved fluffy Senior Sister was gone just like that.

As for how the Little Swan Goose actually survived the Heavenly Dao's annihilation lightning tribulation, even Jiang Mo who witnessed it wasn't clear.

Anyway, if the Heavenly Dao had truly been determined to destroy the Little Swan Goose, even Phoenix Nirvana couldn't have saved her!

Jiang Mo concealed nothing, explaining everything clearly to the two elders, lowering her head obediently waiting for a scolding. Although Zhu Baiyi and Qingyu were angry and annoyed, in the end they didn't say much.

Zhu Baiyi nodded toward the Little Swan Goose in Jiang Mo's arms: "Stop protecting her, let me have a look."

This time Jiang Mo didn't dare refuse, obediently offering the Little Swan Goose, after all, when a birth mother wants to see her daughter, no one can stop her—even though this birth mother and daughter now belonged to completely different species.

Of course, Zhu Baiyi wouldn't do anything to the Little Swan Goose. She took her, seeing her bewildered expression looking back at her, and her heart immediately softened. Even without carrying her for ten months, this was still her only daughter. She had been sent away while still in swaddling clothes, and at that time Zhu Baiyi was single-mindedly concerned with Qingyu, not paying much attention to this daughter. Now, seeing her confused yet affectionate demeanor, she unexpectedly felt a rare surge of maternal love.

Yes, the Little Swan Goose felt affection for Zhu Baiyi. Unlike ordinary fledglings who imprint on the first creature they see, she had a keen intuition about bloodlines. This was also why she had asked Jiang Mo to bring her here, and why she flew over to show affection.

And compared to Qingyu who only contributed a drop of essence blood, Zhu Baiyi, her true blood-related mother, clearly had a stronger influence on her.

The Little Swan Goose had also overheard the earlier conversation, though being young, she understood only vaguely. Now, being held by Zhu Baiyi, she didn't struggle to escape but instead opened her clear Phoenix eyes to carefully examine the other—how strange that they looked completely different, yet that pull of bloodline connection was undeniable.

Zhu Baiyi hadn't changed back to human form yet, and used her furry paw to rub the Little Swan Goose's head. The latter, probably accustomed to Jiang Mo's daily stroking, not only accepted this well but also habitually narrowed her eyes slightly.

At that moment, a spiritual light flashed from the fox paw and entered the small body of the Swan Goose.

Seeing this, Jiang Mo's body immediately leaned forward, not knowing what Zhu Baiyi was doing, her gaze revealing both concern and vigilance.

Zhu Baiyi noticed this and wanted to roll her eyes at her, but currently had no time to be distracted. She didn't have much spiritual energy left, and quickly finished examining Yun Qingyue thoroughly. When she withdrew her spiritual energy, she raised her eyebrows in surprise.

Of course, foxes don't have eyebrows, but this humanized gesture was still quite obvious. Not only did Jiang Mo who was worried about the Little Swan Goose notice it, but Qingyu standing beside her also observed it and asked: "What's wrong? Is something amiss?"

Zhu Baiyi withdrew her paw and didn't keep them in suspense: "She is a Swan Goose, yet not a Swan Goose—she is not a divine beast!"

༻༺❀༻✧⋆｡°✩☽༓☾✩°｡⋆✧༺❀༻༺

The bloodline awakening and transformation was a stroke of fortune for Yun Qingyue, but it could also be considered a tribulation.

Monstrous beast clans had been hidden from the world for too long, and people knew little about them, even less about their bloodline awakenings. At the time, Yun Qingyue herself didn't understand what was happening. Instinctively sensing it was an opportunity and wanting to become stronger, she took a chance.

However, what she didn't know was that because her bloodline awakening was stimulated by the dragon skeleton, her instinctive action of approaching the dragon skeleton during her awakening brought her unexpected troubles and opportunities—even the well-read Yun Qingyue was unclear about these monstrous beast matters, let alone the semi-literate White Tiger. She only instinctively wanted to help her, and since Yun Qingyue had previously absorbed the dragon skeleton's spiritual energy without issue, she boldly used the entire skeleton for her.

The originally minuscule divine Phoenix bloodline was thus stimulated and strengthened, suddenly suppressing all other bloodlines in Yun Qingyue's body. The awakening process involved purification, and purification specifically meant elimination.

Eliminating excess and chaotic bloodlines, leaving only the singular and powerful one, aimed to raise one's limits.

Yun Qingyue was originally an inheritor of the Nine-Tailed Fox clan. Her Nine-Tailed Fox bloodline constituted at least eighty percent of her blood, the remaining twenty percent consisted of Qingyu's human bloodline and other ancestral inheritances.

Normally, during bloodline awakening, any bloodline beyond the Nine-Tailed Fox would be eliminated. But things changed unexpectedly—the Phoenix bloodline, possibly less than a thousandth of her total bloodline, rose dramatically, not only suppressing other excess bloodlines but also pressing down the dominant Nine-Tailed Fox bloodline, about to eliminate it.

But at that moment, the awakening Yun Qingyue suddenly sensed something, and at the last second forcibly retained a trace of Nine-Tailed Fox bloodline, along with a tiny bit of human bloodline.

These two bloodlines were preserved in minimal amounts, perhaps only one percent of the total, thus showing no external manifestation.

From her outward appearance, the transformed Yun Qingyue had become a thorough Swan Goose. At first glance, even the Golden Peng didn't notice anything amiss, which led to the lightning tribulation, even the annihilation lightning.

The Heavenly Dao both favored and was strict with divine beast clans, not allowing divine beasts to repeatedly exceed expectations—one White Tiger in the world was enough, there was no need for another Phoenix. So it sent down lightning tribulation to eliminate this anomaly, and almost succeeded. It was only at the last moment that the Heavenly Dao suddenly discovered this Swan Goose's bloodline was impure and couldn't be considered a true divine beast.

So Yun Qingyue seized this sliver of hope. She underwent Phoenix Nirvana and became a not-so-pure Swan Goose. However, Phoenix Nirvana was so rare, and her appearance looked so much like a pureblood, that many people were deceived.

Jiang Mo had raised the Little Swan Goose for a year without knowing she didn't qualify as a divine beast.

As Yun Qingyue's mother and an inheritor of the Nine-Tailed Fox clan's bloodline, Zhu Baiyi quickly understood what had happened upon investigation—she was quite pleased. She was relieved that Yun Qingyue was clever enough to assess the situation and make the right choices, thus saving her life. She was also happy that she was still alive and even retained a trace of Nine-Tailed Fox bloodline, meaning she wouldn't need to worry about having a second child.

After all, secret methods were a matter of luck—succeeding once was fortunate, hoping for a second success wasn't something she could just wish for. Rather than focus on such an unavoidable responsibility, she would prefer to spend that time with Qingyu.

With her major questions mostly answered, Zhu Baiyi no longer dwelled on having a Phoenix daughter. She stroked the smoothly-feathered Little Swan Goose and quickly turned her attention to their current predicament: "Alright, enough about this. Where exactly are we?"

Hearing this, Jiang Mo blinked and asked curiously: "This place? Isn't this a secret realm?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, she received another eye roll. Zhu Baiyi leaned against Qingyu and asked lazily: "Does this look like a secret realm to you?!"

Jiang Mo was speechless. To be honest, it didn't feel like one, but weren't many secret realms strange and unusual?