‘I doubt he is lying,’ Hui Yue thought annoyed. ‘It seems as if this person does not care about me at all, so why would he bother to lie about such a thing?’ After contemplating for a short while, Hui Yue decided to believe the arrogant voice in his mind. In the end, he had no real choice if he wished to get information.

‘What do you mean when you say that you caused me to reincarnate? Where am I?’

As soon as Hui Yue asked these questions, he heard a sigh from the phoenix, and somehow he understood the feelings the phoenix felt.

He felt a certain degree of impatience, and annoyance but also hope. Hui Yue felt astonished as he realized that he was currently able to understand the feelings of the voice inside of his mind. He was deeply astounded, but at the same time unsure why the phoenix would allow him to feel this.

‘I will tell you a long story,’ the phoenix said after a pause.

‘I have nothing but time, I’m a baby you know,’ he thought while noticing that his new mother had fallen asleep. Hui Yue pretended to be asleep as well so that he would not be disturbed while talking with the voice in his mind. Had Hui Yue not been moved to a different world, he would have been certain that he was going insane.

‘Be quiet and listen to my story,’ the phoenix said just as the silence was getting suffocating, and his actions made Hui Yue think of a child throwing a tantrum.

‘It is really quite a long story, and you better listen because I will only say it once,’ the phoenix said aggressively, but Hui Yue just stayed quiet, waiting for the bird to start his story.

He had a feeling that the phoenix was able to understand everything about him, his thoughts, his emotions, everything. Even if they did not directly communicate, he felt that the bird understood him. Unfortunately, it seemed this did not work both ways.

‘Hmm,’ the phoenix grumbled a little before he decided how to start. ‘This world is quite different from the one you were used to. Here strength is what matters the most; the stronger you are, the better prospects you have in life.’

The phoenix was quiet for a second before continuing, ‘This world was created by the four divine beasts: the Azure Dragon, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird, and the Black Turtle. These four divine beasts created multiple worlds prior to this one; however, they decided to settle here. They laid down their bodies as the foundation for each of their countries, and their consciousness created new bodies that they used to walk these lands and experience a normal life.’

Hui Yue was dumbfounded as he heard about these four beasts. He had never thought that they were real. In China, they valued these beasts by naming constellations after them and even went as far as to call them symbols of China. To think that these beasts were real and that he was in a world they created, it was simply unfathomable.

Even though Hui Yue was filled with excitement and astonishment, he did not open his mouth even once. Instead, he was focusing on what Lan Feng was saying. He would definitely not repeat this later, Hui Yue thought dejectedly.

The phoenix spoke once again, ‘Thousands of years passed after the divine beasts created this world and they had started their own families in their individual countries where they settled down. Their descendants were not divine beasts; instead, they were normal humans.’ Hearing what this odd phoenix said, Hui Yue felt nostalgia wash over him. Immediately he felt how strange it was to feel this as he had no reason whatsoever to feel nostalgia which caused him to assume that these emotions belonged to the phoenix.

‘Time went by, and eventually, the four divine beasts decided to enter an eternal slumber. They had long since buried their original bodies far below the surface of this world, and they spent the rest of their energy to create four massive mountain ranges that split the whole continent into four equal parts. Those four parts represented the locations of each of their bodies. In the middle was a large castle they had created when they first came to this world. Each one of the divine beasts called their oldest son to the Four Beast’s Palace in the center of the continent. There they passed down their legacy together with some of their powers and the right to lead their kingdom. After this rite of passage was completed, they reentered their original slumbering bodies and went into an eternal slumber.’

Yet another wave of sadness and nostalgia hit Hui Yue as these final words were spoken. Although these feelings did not belong to him, they greatly influenced Hui Yue’s mood.

Hui Yue was not a slow person, and he instantly understood that this was part of the phoenix’s story.

‘The sons did a good job and many thousands of years passed by in peace. Civilization flourished, and humans started cultivating their internal powers. However, four thousand years ago a human tricked the descendant of the Azure Dragon and used his powers to seal and banish the four beast clan leaders from this world.’

This time, he felt a mixture of hate, regret, and pity as he understood part of the reason why the phoenix had ended up as a hairpin.

‘You are the eldest son of the Vermilion Bird?’ Hui Yue asked as he decided to make sure his assumptions were right. He had a lot of questions waiting to be answered.

‘That’s right,’ the phoenix said with a proud voice, and Hui Yue understood that he indeed had a right to be proud.

‘Then why are we stuck in a baby’s body instead of one matching our age?’ Hui Yue could not help but ask. Being in an infant’s body with the mind of a twenty-four year old person was simply too surreal for him to accept.

‘Why don’t you try being sealed inside a hairpin for four thousand years?’ the phoenix snorted. ‘I had almost no power back then, and only a small fraction got released when I merged with you while you were dying. We share a body right now, so I am unfortunately also quite limited by this arrangement,’ he continued with disdain.

‘Hey, don’t complain about the body. It was you who chose it!’ Hui Yue pointed out as he laughed at this incredibly haughty phoenix. A strange sense of satisfaction grew within Hui Yue every time he made the phoenix display his unhappiness.