Chapter 600: Chapter 550: Mother and the Little Beast_2
Baili An approached the prison cart and observed Ning Feiyan’s condition up close.
Hong Zhuang hadn’t drunk a drop of water in several days, and neither had she, especially after the assassination of the Hook Snake male demon which left her with numerous injuries. If truth be told, Ning Feiyan’s physical condition was much more severe than Hong Zhuang’s.
She clearly had a fever at the moment, her lips were chapped, and her eyes were red and inflamed, showing a very sorry state physically.
The slap from the woman had been especially forceful, and now her consciousness was clearly not very clear.
Baili An quietly watched the young girl in the prison cart, slowly extending a hand to caress her cheek, but his palm passed through her body, unable to touch her at all.
The departing woman hadn’t been gone long before she returned to the prison cart, holding a pancake in her arms and a bowl of clear water in her hands, carefully packing away the embarrassment and shame in her eyes.
She first fed Hong Zhuang a mouthful of water, then tore the hard, brittle pancake into small chunks, her eyes filled with tenderness and sadness as she silently fed her the food, mixed with her purest and most giving emotions.
The woman tearing the hard bread suddenly noticed a gaze. Her eyes shifted slightly, following the gaze, and saw Ning Feiyan lying on the ground, looking at her with exceptionally calm, red eyes.
Her gaze was too tranquil and knowing, never being overly noisy or annoying, devoid of the adoring, dependent, desiring emotions a child would have for a mother, yet she watched her for a long time.
Touched by a feeling of compassion, the woman carefully remembered that this child had never done anything outrageous to them, even during the year she returned from the Southern Wilderness, behaving exceptionally submissively without any unreasonable demands.
Hesitating for a moment, she pinched a corner of the pancake with her fingers, nearly exerting force, then glanced at Hong Zhuang again, struggled for a long time, but eventually just tore off a very small, dry, cracked piece from the edge.
She carefully dipped the dry bit of pancake in some clear water and then, lifting her skirt, walked over and placed it in front of Ning Feiyan without saying a word, then quickly returned.
Ning Feiyan stared blankly at the moistened crumb in front of her, a chord in her heart seemingly gently plucked by the dim, indifferent gaze.
She slowly reached out, picked up a corner of the pancake, and her body slowly curled into the shadows, making it difficult to see her facial expression.
Baili An watched the young Enchanting Demon girl, feeling like she was a weak, dying little beast, having endured hunger and cold for a long time and sensing a trace of a precious motherly scent.
Yet, she moved away from the direction of her mother, as if afraid to disturb her.
Baili An watched this scene, feeling an indescribable bitterness in his heart.
Because when someone wishes to offer their heart, they should be prepared for heart-wrenching pain.
A thousand years later, the difference between Ning Feiyan and her current circumstances was vast; Baili An found it hard to imagine what kind of past she had endured to become the unassailable figure she was now.
The great army of the Hook Snake clan ultimately failed to successfully return to their tribal territory.
They had not even managed to exit the Beiyuan Forest before mysterious diseases began appearing among the soldiers; initially, only a few Hook Snake warriors began shedding scales, and their skin started to mildly rot.
But as a cold rain fell, those rotting wounds rapidly spread whenever they met water, eventually causing chunks of flesh to continually fall from their bodies, as if countless small knives were hidden inside, cutting out flesh from within painfully.
The strange disease spread rapidly within the army, and they were unable to discern the source of the infection.
And at the peak of the disease outbreak, unfortunately, their army reached a thinly forested valley floor, where the seasonal changes were difficult to influence with their demonic breath.
The heavy rain turned into a downpour overnight.
In this mountainous, maze-like valley, an Enchanting Demon assassin lying in wait for a long time initiated a very brutal battle.
The combat power of the Hook Snake clan, hampered by the strange disease, was vastly inferior to before; coupled with the continuous heavy rain and the agony of thousand cuts torture, how could they have the strength to fight again?
It wasn’t until the head of the Hook Snake leader was severed by a middle-aged Enchanting Demon that the battle finally came to an end.
Through the bars of the iron cage, Hong Zhuang, with tears streaming down her face, called out with immense surprise, “Daddy!”
The woman looked at the middle-aged man, her eyes blurred with tears, her voice choked.
The middle-aged man was the son of the Enchanting Demon Lord and the husband of the woman, as well as the biological father of Hong Zhuang and Ning Feiyan.
He cleaved open the locks of the cage and embraced his wife and Hong Zhuang tightly, “I’m sorry, I’m late.”
At that moment, Ning Feiyan was holding out her palms, catching the rainwater, quietly sipping it, looking very calm.
No euphoria of surviving a disaster, no reverence for life—after drinking the water, her eyes indifferently watched the dead bodies of Hook Snakes all around her, as if all this was within her expectations.
After calming his wife and daughter, the middle-aged man walked towards Ning Feiyan and also patted her head; the emotions in his eyes as he looked at her were subtly ones of shock and admiration.