C1180 The Star River

"Hand me that potion. I want to drink it."

Chen Qinghuang's slender fingers pointed at the three remaining bottles of Essence Brew dangling from Yu Yuan's waist pouch as she commanded with an air of nonchalance.

Yu Yuan was baffled.

The Songbird Queen before him, no matter how he looked at her, was unmistakably a young Shadowkin girl.

Her face, capable of enchanting all who beheld it, was now concealed. Currently, she didn't stand out much, not the kind to leave a lasting impression.

Yu Yuan took a moment to notice that her altered appearance matched his own previous disguise perfectly.

The difference was that the dye he had applied had become her actual skin tone, and the materials he used to sculpt the contours had caused the underlying bones to shift.

It was akin to using the bones and skin of an alien beast to construct a familiar creature.

It looked authentic, yet lacked internal organs and vitality. But in a flash, what was fake had turned real.

That was the impression Chen Qinghuang gave him at that moment.

"The potion."

Lost in thought, Yu Yuan found Chen Qinghuang's hand extended before him.

"Why this particular concoction?" Yu Yuan inquired, puzzled.

In Zekrica, where pills could not be condensed, he had resorted to creating bottles of what he termed Essence Brew.

In the Everlands, he wouldn't even give a second glance to the unfinished Essence Brew.

Perhaps it was his inner conviction that Essence Brew was no pill that made him reluctant to store it in the Cosmos Ring.

Yet, it was precisely this that Chen Qinghuang requested.

"It's useful."

The First Female Emperor of All Ages from the Everlands tapped her temple with her other hand, a faint gleam flickering in the depths of her green eyes.

Yu Yuan's thoughts stirred, wondering, "Could her soul have been wounded, causing her memories to become jumbled?"

With this in mind, he reluctantly handed over the remaining Essence Brew and watched her closely. Indeed, Chen Qinghuang's gaze seemed vacant and unfocused, as if her mind was wandering far away, her soul lost in some distant place.

Yu Yuan, seasoned as he was, quickly surmised that the Songbird Queen must have expended an immense amount of her strength while embracing the Dragon Slaying Stage and breaking through the wall of the Primal Blood Continent.

This exertion had wounded her soul, leaving her in her current peculiar state.

She instinctively craved anything that could aid in her soul's recuperation. If she sensed something could bolster her Soul Power, she would immediately reach out for it.

The liquid within the Essence Brew had emitted a distinctive aura conducive to refining Soul Power, which she had detected.

With this realization, Yu Yuan let out a heavy sigh.

He had waited patiently for Chen Qinghuang to awaken, hoping to extricate himself from the predicament before him and leave Zekrica behind. Yet, to his dismay, the queen had lost her memories and was still requesting the Essence Brew.

The Essence Brew was scarcely sufficient for his own needs, let alone with Chen Qinghuang's added demand. Yu Yuan was on the verge of tears.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The dull sound of footsteps grew louder as they neared.

Yu Yuan felt a sense of foreboding—he had been preoccupied with Chen Qinghuang for too long and had neglected to seek cover. Now, it seemed they had caught the attention of the Fire Lizard warriors patrolling the vicinity.

As expected.

Shortly thereafter, eight towering Fire Lizard warriors, their crimson tails trailing behind them, appeared brandishing Flame Spears, axes, and long knives.

"People of the Shadowkin!"

The leader, a formidable Fire Lizard warrior of the fifth level, locked eyes with Yu Yuan and Chen Qinghuang, his gaze fiery with rage. Speaking in the Starborn tongue, he bellowed, "At last, we've found you! You are the reason our Fire Lizard Race has been punished!"

Yu Yuan's brow furrowed. Hearing the warrior's accusations, he realized that Pellet must have betrayed them.

The Fire Lizard warriors were convinced he was the culprit behind their misfortune, no doubt due to the Tranquilherb and Sunfire Bloom he had harvested.

"Shadowkin scum, state your names!"

The Fire Lizard chieftain gripped his battle axe, from which sparks erupted as he channeled the power of his bloodline, setting the axe ablaze with a crimson flame.

"Oh no."

Yu Yuan's heart sank. He had only recently revealed his true name to Chen Qinghuang. What if this disoriented woman mentioned the name "Chen Qinghuang" to the leader of the Fire Lizard Clan? Could that slip of the tongue bring a never-ending stream of trouble their way?

Would the siblings from the Starborn be overjoyed to discover that both the Songbird Queen and Yu Yuan were within their domain?

And then, would the Starborn's mightiest warriors descend upon them?

These thoughts raced through Yu Yuan's mind in the blink of an eye. He quickly glanced at Chen Qinghuang, trying to prevent her from carelessly uttering that name, which was currently taboo.

Yu Yuan froze.

To his amazement, he noticed that the empress of the Songbird Empire had already turned her gaze towards the eager Fire Lizard warriors.

Chen Qinghuang looked at the Fire Lizards as if she were staring at the dead...

And then, the eight Fire Lizard clansmen, armed with axes and Flame Spears, indeed became corpses.

Boom! The eight Fire Lizard warriors fell in unison, their bodies devoid of any trace of life or aura.

Chen Qinghuang hadn't uttered a single word, nor had there been any unusual disturbances. It seemed that only the color of her eyes had momentarily shifted.

From green to gray, then back to green in an instant.

The eight warriors of the Fire Lizard Clan, who bore clear malice, perished silently, without any forewarning.

Yu Yuan remained motionless, his gaze fixed on Chen Qinghuang as a chill crept through him.

Suddenly, he realized something that was both a blessing and a curse.

The soul of the Songbird Queen before him had sustained severe damage and was in a state of memory loss, slowly piecing together her past.

Yet, the Queen's body might have already undergone its metamorphosis, harboring the power to obliterate anything in her path!

Despite assuming the form of a Shadowkin girl, at her core, she remained the formidable Songbird Queen, possibly at the zenith of her strength, perhaps even having one foot in the realm of the highest deities!

But the Queen's soul was wounded, and she temporarily couldn't recall her own identity.

Yu Yuan was filled with a sense of foreboding. He realized that accompanying a queen with the ability to destroy worlds, yet so unpredictable, might be the greatest challenge of his life.

Chen Qinghuang, with her god-like presence, could harbor a deadly thought that would naturally resonate with the Death Rule, instantly ending his life.

"Sigh."

Yu Yuan let out a deep sigh.

Shortly thereafter, he watched with astonishment as the queen, disguised as a Shadowkin, adeptly rummaged through the belongings of the fallen Fire Lizard warriors.

She meticulously inspected every lapel, sleeve, sole, and even the tangles of hair.

Her search yielded a considerable number of valuable magic items and exotic herbs.

Chen Qinghuang performed these actions as if by instinct, as though she had done this countless times before, her movements and dexterity a testament to muscle memory.

"This..."

Yu Yuan massaged his temples, pondering what the empress had gone through in her past.

Was it possible that after battles with the Otherkin in the extraterrestrial Star River, the empress meticulously searched every fallen enemy, unwilling to overlook even a single strand of valuable hair?

"Sort these out, and pick your share first."

Chen Qinghuang stripped a Fire Lizard warrior of his robe, bundling it with the loot, and tossed it to Yu Yuan, commanding him with the authority of a leader.

Clearly, she was well-accustomed to this.

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