Chapter 222 The Evolved Phoenix (First Update, Please Give Me a Monthly Ticket)

A few dozen seconds ago, the meteorite summoned by the "Tunguska explosion" broke apart, and the fragments were scattered like a rainstorm.

The Christmas sleigh shuttled among the meteorite fragments, and the blood-red twilight fell on the cheeks of the blue-eyed boy. His ponytail was scattered, and his long white hair was flying in the wind.

Xizel turned his head from the sled and looked anxiously at the island, the shaky figure reflected in his blue pupils.

"Li Qingping——!" he growled.

Starting from the shoulder blade, half of Li Qingping's body instantly broke apart and turned into dust. His body slowly knelt in front of the five members of the Wangting team.

"Li Qingping..."

Xizel's eyes were dull and he kept murmuring over and over again. He knew in his heart that this might be the last time he would say this name to him, but he could not hear it.

He suddenly recalled that when he was a child, he was locked up in a castle and often leaned on the windowsill with his chin in his hands. He thought the world was beautiful, but no one was willing to play with him. He often stretched out his hand out of boredom to catch the falling water from the flying fish.

Only Li Qingping would come to see him occasionally.

When the two met for the first time, the king took Caesar to meet the seven members of the Royal Court Team.

Everyone nodded slightly and lowered their eyes, with their hands behind their backs. No one dared to look at Xizel.

Only Li Qingping was different. He raised his eyebrows curiously and stared at Xizel motionlessly.

The young César was stunned, holding his father's hand tightly, and looked at him tremblingly.

Finally, Li Qingping hesitated for a moment, and suddenly said, "Your Highness Xizel, there are still grains of rice on your face."

"Really?" Xizel was stunned for a moment, raised his hand to wipe his cheek, "But what are rice grains?"

"Just a joke." Li Qingping smiled with his hands behind his back, "Where are the rice grains in the whale's box garden?"

After that, one night the old king suddenly came to Cesare.

The old king said that he liked Li Qingping very much. Li Qingping was a genius picked out of a million, but his heart was not in the small garden. It would be great if Xizel could persuade him to stay in the small garden.

Xizel didn't quite understand, so he just nodded, feeling a little nervous but also very happy.

So, with the task of persuading Li Qingping to stay in the box garden, Xizel would summon Li Qingping every day and ask him to come to the castle to chat with him.

Whenever this happened, Xizel, who was only eight or nine years old, would act as if he was facing a great enemy. He would sit upright and put on the attitude of a monarch, fearing that Li Qingping would look down on him like everyone else and would stop playing with him after a while.

But Li Qingping was actually happy to come and chat with him, because he hated the tedious affairs of the royal court. If the third prince summoned him, he could be lazy openly.

The two of them often sat on the bed in the bedroom and chatted, or sat cross-legged under the maple tree in the yard.

César liked to write poetry, but Li Qingping did not have such artistic talent. However, one day he sat with César on the bed, picked up a piece of paper and a pen, lowered his head and thought for a while, and wrote the first half of the sentence.

Xizel glanced at him and said, "'Bird in a cage'...what's the second half of that?"

Li Qingping held the pen and thought for a while, saying that he hadn't figured it out yet. Then he suddenly put down the paper and pen, leaned on the windowsill, and told the third prince about his past.

He lost his parents when he was young, and his adoptive father died of illness due to years of alcoholism when he was six years old. Li Qingping could only work as a little follower for the local fisherman leader, following him to catch fish at sea and barely making a living.

Most of the time every day, Li Qingping sat on the railing on the deck, staring blankly at the sea at dusk.

Later, one time, Li Qingping sneaked into Qiwen Academy and tried to touch the crystal ball used to test talent. The instructor turned his head while shouting at him, and he stood there in a daze as he looked at the colorful light on the crystal ball.

After that day, the tutor sponsored Li Qingping to enter the Qiwenshi Academy at his own expense, and his life slowly began to get better.

But he seemed to become more lonely. Those people in the village who used to be close to him began to keep their distance from him. Everyone knew that as long as they became a strange news envoy, they would have the opportunity to join the Royal Court Army and go to the high heaven.

Li Qingping's reputation became more and more famous, from a young genius, to the later "Red Dragon", and then he became the deputy captain of the Wangting team, but the people around him became fewer and fewer.

He said to Cesare, I felt like I was almost suffocating. When I returned to the village that time, I saw people who once hated me, including the fisherman who had taken me in, kneeling down in front of me, and I suddenly felt that I should not stay here.

So after that, Li Qingping finally made up his mind to leave the box garden.

He cannot create an equal world, nor can he change this cramped little box, so he can only look for such a world, even though that may just be a pipe dream.

After listening to his experience, Xizel was deeply moved and asked him: "Li Qingping, why do you tell me this?"

Li Qingping just said that if Xi Zeer became king in the future, he hoped that he could go to the island in person to see those people who were not seen and heard.

Later, Xizel and Li Qingping had known each other for a long time. One day, the two of them were sitting in the yard, silently watching the falling leaves. Li Qingping suddenly said:

"The outside world is huge. In comparison, the whale's box garden is actually quite small. It's not such a great thing to be the king of a place like this."

Xi Zeer was so shocked when he heard this that he cried out, "Li Qingping, you're the first person I've ever seen who dares to say something like this."

Li Qingping just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Don't tell anyone, otherwise I will be beheaded."

Xizel smiled, then raised his finger to his lips and said, "I won't tell you. Li Qingping, you are my only friend. What should I do if you are beheaded?"

Li Qingping also said at the time that from the perspective of the deputy captain of the Royal Court Team, he would naturally hope that Xizel could become the next king, because His Royal Highness Xizel was a genius and had a kind heart, and he did not need the White King's Scepter to win the hearts of the people.

But from a friend's perspective, he hopes that César can break free from the shackles of the royal family, leave the whale box, and go out with him to see the wider world.

But if Xizel wanted to come back after his trip, Li Qingping would not stop him.

Li Qingping liked to share things about the outside world with him. He said that he was always the first one running to grab bread in the school cafeteria after school every day, and no one in the school could beat him in grabbing bread.

He also said that he had a bad friend and best friend who had a very bad temper. This best friend would pick fights with people every day at school. If Li Qingping did not go to help, he would be beaten black and blue every time. However, he would still refuse to accept the defeat the next time and would not change his ways despite repeated warnings.

Once, his best friend was beaten to the ground. In order not to beat the man to death, Li Qingping deliberately conserved his strength. As a result, he was attacked from behind and fell to the ground.

Finally, the two men fell on the playground with bruised noses and swollen eyes, watching the sunset sinking from the horizon. The students beside them ran over from the track and looked at the two men who were beaten like pigs with strange eyes.

My best friend was silent for a long time, then suddenly said, "I really envy you for being a rich second-generation... Unlike me, my living expenses are all dependent on the compensation I got from my mom's accidental death. Isn't that funny? My dad even ran away from home. I might not be able to go to school one day. In fact, I'm not good at going to school. My brother and sister are much better than me."

Li Qingping thought for a moment and said, "Actually, my house is empty, there's not a lot of people there, I just have a little more money."

After hearing this, his best friend choked him, "You just don't know how lucky you are."

Li Qingping said: "You too, you don't know how lucky you are. You still have a good brother and sister to accompany you."

When Xizel heard this, he asked Li Qingping why he didn't tell his best friends that he was an envoy of strange news?

And... why didn't you tell him that you weren't actually some rich second-generation, but just a good-natured guy who walked out of a whale's box garden?

Li Qingping shook his head and said that although his best friend seemed carefree, he was actually quite inferior in his heart. He was worried that if he told those things, it would create a rift between them, so he never said anything.

Xizel stared at him seriously and said, "How can this be? Friends should be honest with each other. Li Qingping, you are not hiding anything from me, are you? I have told you everything I know... well, although I don't know much."

Li Qingping was silent for a long time, then shrugged and said that he would tell him next time.

Xizel thought that Li Qingping was careless and nonchalant about everything. Only when he mentioned his friends would he be silent for a long time like this, with a lot of thoughts. Maybe Li Qingping really valued his friends?

After all, Li Qingping is very lonely. In the box garden, everyone only regards him as a peerless genius and keeps their distance from him. No one cares what he is thinking. Even if he does not want to be superior, he has to pretend to be superior for the sake of the Wangting team's face. Every time he returns to the island where he used to live, the villagers look at him with awe.

Fear and flattery are things that cannot be hidden and will always flow out from their eyes inadvertently.

Later, Li Qingping met someone who was neither afraid of him nor flattering him, and he was very happy, so he really valued that friend.

So every time Xizel saw him, he would specifically ask him: "Li Qingping, Li Qingping, have you told your friends?"

Li Qingping would always shrug and pass it over, saying that he would tell him next time, "Your Highness the Third Prince, why are you more anxious than me?"

Xizel frowned and asked in confusion: "Every time you say 'next time' and 'next time', when will it be 'this time'? Li Qingping, are you not keeping your word?"

Li Qingping just sighed helplessly, touched his head and said:

“There’s always a next time.”

But now…

There will be no next time.

Xizel silently watched as half of Li Qingping's body turned into a blood mist and dispersed. This unruly man finally bent down, lowered his head, and knelt in front of the five members of the Wangting team.

Meteorite fragments flew in front of him, passing by him with a scorching air current. The countercurrent caused the Christmas sleigh to stagger and fall into the forest. César slid off the edge of the sleigh. His falling body broke the branches and finally fell to the ground.

He rolled around in the bushes and collapsed to the ground covered in blood.

After a moment, Xizel wiped the blood off his face with the back of his hand and slowly raised his head.

Suddenly, there was a sound of breaking through the air. When I came to my senses, I saw a dark blue shark swooping across the forest like a rocket.

A black tide fell from above his head like a heavy rain, hitting César's face.

He couldn't tell whether he was crying or was wet by the rain. Unable to stop the liquid from sliding down his pale cheeks, his wet hair covered his eyes. At this moment, César suddenly saw the fiery red feather fallen on the ground.

That was left to him by Li Qingping, who said it was a feather of a phoenix and would be useful if he kept it. Xizel lowered his head, picked up the feather that fell to the ground, and looked at it silently.

"Yagubaru, I'm so useless... You must be blaming me,"

He was like a puppet whose spring had been cut off. He whispered to himself, tears streaming from under the shadow of his forehead, "I killed Li Qingping... It was all my fault. A loser like me should not have struggled from the beginning. Then Li Qingping would not have been implicated..."

However, at this moment, the phoenix feather in César's hand suddenly glowed with dazzling light.

The shape of the feather changed rapidly in a short period of time, and it felt like burning in the hand. But Xizel never let go, but just slightly widened his eyes and stared blankly at the card in his hand.

A giant bird reborn from the ashes slowly appeared on the card. Its eyes were so gorgeous that they seemed to reflect all the colors of the world.

The flames burning on the card gradually healed César's hands and the wounds on his body, stitching the broken skin together and allowing the blood to flow back into his body.

At this moment, his pupils were illuminated by the flames and a memory flowed into his mind like a tide:

The "Phoenix" will only meet the conditions and evolve into a "generational wonder" when the previous owner dies and gives the "Phoenix Feather" to other people in advance.

And because the previous owner Li Qingping died, the fragment of strange news evolved at this moment.

Just like the phoenix in mythology that was reborn through death, it came into Cesare's hands.

Xizel was stunned for a while, and suddenly realized that Li Qingping had long expected that he might die. It would be better to say that he had been prepared to die from the very beginning.

The flames of the Phoenix were dark and light, and the dark flames gradually carved out a line of words in the light flame curtain:

“Even a bird in a cage has its day of freedom.”

"Your writing is so lame... Li Qingping, you are not suitable for writing poetry at all. No wonder you didn't show it to me that day."

Xizel whispered to himself, raised the corners of his mouth slightly, and tears flowed even more uncontrollably.

The words faded quietly in mid-air, and then orange light illuminated every line on the back of the card, like pouring engine oil into the oil tank of a machine.

He took a deep breath, held the "Phoenix" tightly in his hand, and then whistled.

The elk fell from the sky upon hearing the sound, and he jumped onto the Christmas sleigh and rushed towards the whale's mouth. His long snow-white hair was blown high, his blue pupils were shining with a chilling light, and his expression had never been so calm.

Xizel looked up at Yagubaru who was standing in mid-air, then drove the sled away and reached out to catch the cold, mutilated body that fell from the shark's back.

He lowered his eyes, took a last look at the broken face, and then flew towards Ruth while crushing the generation-level wonder in his hand.

“Phoenix——!”

The roar ended, and an orange light pattern flashed by. Amidst the sharp whistle that was enough to pierce the sky, a giant ochre-red bird flew over with a curtain of flames, following behind Xizel.

An overwhelming heat wave poured over, creating waves on the sea, and then evaporated into a scorching white mist.

At the same time, the dark blue shark hanging in the air in the distance slowly came to its senses.

Its body suddenly expanded, and its entire body was covered with a hard and cold metallic color.

Yagubaru reached a length of twenty meters, like a huge yacht, wrapped in black waves, flying straight at an incredible speed.

(End of this chapter)