Chapter 4526 — Vermilion Bird
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
"I suppose you could call it that..." The ghost-thing's breathing had plainly grown somewhat hurried now, and its tone turned complicated. "This doesn't count as a complete Spirit Beast Assembly, because the spirit beasts of several territories haven't come over. Still, the scale is already nothing to laugh at—the spirit beasts in this area have all been summoned. It seems this Vermilion Bird really is eaten up with ambition, and is preparing to make itself regent."
"Vermilion Bird? Which one is the Vermilion Bird?" Wei Zhao looked up at the high platform in surprise. Since it was not in its true form, he could not fix upon which one it was even knowing full well that the Vermilion Bird stood upon the stage; his gaze unconsciously sought the very center of the platform.
In that seat sat a mysterious figure in a bamboo hat. What it looked like was unknown, and what manner of spirit beast it was was even less known—all that could be said was that the hat and robes were made entirely of brilliant feathers in every color, making it the most flamboyantly dressed of anyone present. And whoever occupied the central seat was bound to be the most important personage; barring accident, this should be the Vermilion Bird.
After all, by the logic of the vast majority of normal folk, this Vermilion Bird—top elder of the spirit beast clan—might be mighty, but when all was said and done it was still a bird, and a fondness for draping itself in gaudy plumage was entirely natural, entirely in keeping with common sense.
"Not that one." The ghost-thing knew what Wei Zhao was thinking and directed him. "The one to the hat-wearer's left—that's the Vermilion Bird."
At these words Wei Zhao looked hard again, and only then noticed that in the two seats nearest the central hat-wearer, one to the left and one to the right, sat two elders of strange appearance.
The one on the left had a face red as blood, with brows that stood upright, giving off a daunting pressure that overawed without anger. Though he merely sat there calmly, his whole body seemed shrouded in raging fire, so that none dared meet his eyes; one felt that to come a little closer would be to be burned to nothing, scattered to ash and smoke.
Strange as his appearance was, the Vermilion Bird's true face and aura were not altogether beyond expectation—at least in Wei Zhao's eyes it was worthy of its station as top elder of the spirit beast clan, making it plain at a glance that this was a being who stood among the clouds like a god of heaven, and by no means to be taken for some common spirit beast.
"Then who is that hat-wearer in the very center, and who is the one at his right hand?" Wei Zhao could not help asking out of curiosity.
Leaving aside the mysterious hat-wearer, even the elder standing at his right hand was, like the Vermilion Bird, of a most outlandish and eye-catching appearance—a blue face and jutting fangs, and most striking of all a pair of golden pupils that fairly stung the eye. The dreadful aura rolling off him was not much inferior to the Vermilion Bird's.
"That mysterious hat-wearer looks to be the new Spirit Beast King the Vermilion Bird has found, though what manner of spirit beast he truly is, I couldn't say." The ghost-thing's voice carried a note of lament.
It was to seek the bloodline of the Spirit Beast King in the secular world that he had ended up in the wretched state he was in today. To claim he harbored not the slightest doubt about this new Spirit Beast King who had appeared from nowhere would be a downright lie—the Vermilion Bird's reputation had never been good, after all, and besides, the ploy of holding the sovereign hostage to command the lords was one that had played out far, far too many times.