The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

Five Fuzhu deer had already run over. Yang Wanqing, holding the little pet, flipped onto the deer—the Fuzhu was reluctant, pawing the ground a couple of times with its front hooves, trying to back away. Yang Wanqing clamped one leg around the deer's belly, grabbed its mane with the other, and forced herself onto it.

"Run!"

Fu Zhu reluctantly took a step.

Fu Zhu ran fast.

The little pet in Yang Wanqing's arms was breathing shallower and shallower, its body twitching every few seconds. Blood seeped out from the gaps in the hemostatic powder, staining the front of Yang Wanqing's clothes dark red.

"Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up—" Yang Wanqing urged Fuzhu.

I ran for about twenty minutes.

A peach orchard appeared ahead.

It wasn't a peach tree from Blue Star. The trunk was twice as thick as a normal peach tree, the bark was dark purple, and the branches were covered with flowers. The petals were pale pink, three or four times larger than the peach blossoms on Blue Star, each petal had fine veins, and emitted a rich fragrance.

Sweet.

Very sweet.

Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing jumped off Fuzhu and entered the peach grove.

"Where?" Yang Wanqing looked around, holding the adorable little pet. "Where's the nest?"

The little pet's paw was still pointing forward. Yang Wanqing carried it and took another dozen steps.

Deep within the peach grove, there was nothing but more peach trees and fallen petals.

There were no caves. No nests. No herbs.

"Why isn't it there?" Yang Wanqing asked anxiously. "Don't they say that when cats and dogs are sick, they'll find herbs to eat on their own?"

Chen Siyao was also looking. She circled around several peach trees nearby. The ground was covered with a thick layer of petals, soft and yielding underfoot.

There was only blue moss in the crevices between the tree roots, and no other plants.

"There's nothing there," Chen Siyao frowned. "It's just a peach grove."

She took out her phone to read the comments.

The viewers in the live chat were also completely confused.

"Why is there nothing here?" "Did it point in the wrong direction?" "The little pet must be confused, it's too badly injured." "Poor little guy."

Chen Siyao scrolled down.

A comment popped up—the username had a blue V mark next to it, and the authentication information stated that the user was an attending physician in the emergency department of a top-tier hospital.

"Something's not right. That little animal is so badly injured and has lost so much blood, yet it's still so resilient and hasn't gone into shock."

Chen Siyao's finger stopped on the screen.

She scrolled through two more posts, and another user with medical certification posted something similar:

"A penetrating abdominal wound, ruptured internal organs—an animal of this size should have gone into shock long ago with this amount of blood loss. Something's not right."

Chen Siyao looked up at the little thing in Yang Wanqing's arms.

It was indeed still breathing. It was weak, but its breathing rate was steady, and its four legs would occasionally twitch—not convulsions, but an active struggle.

Its eyes are golden?

wrong.

Red.

Those eyes are now red. The same crimson red they were when they fired the beams.

Chen Siyao's nostrils were filled with the scent of flowers. A sweet, thick floral fragrance. She had been smelling it ever since she entered the peach grove.

dizziness.

When did it start?

She wasn't sure. But right now, something like a wad of cotton was swelling in her head, making her thoughts sluggish.

She looked at Yang Wanqing, who was holding the little pet and swaying. It wasn't moving, it was just that it couldn't stand steadily.

"Qingqing! Quickly take the antidote! This fragrance is poisonous!"

Chen Siyao shoved her hand into her Qiankun bag. After rummaging around inside for a couple of seconds, she found the medicine bottle, unscrewed it, poured out a pill, and popped it into her mouth.

The pill melted instantly upon entering the mouth. A cool stream of air flowed from the throat into the abdomen, and the cotton ball in the head instantly dissipated.

Yang Wanqing was a beat slow to react. She swayed even more, her eyelids drooping, but Chen Siyao's shout still jolted her awake a little.

She took a medicine bottle out of her Qiankun bag with one hand, almost dropping it on the ground. She then put her mouth to the bottle opening and poured the pill into her mouth.

Three seconds later, the dizziness disappeared.

Both of them regained their senses at the same time.

Chen Siyao stared at the adorable little pet in Yang Wanqing's arms.

"Qingqing, put it down."

Yang Wanqing was taken aback. "Huh?"

"lay down."

Yang Wanqing didn't understand, but Chen Siyao's tone made her not hesitate. She squatted down and placed the little pet on the ground covered with flower petals.

The little thing lay there, its red eyes looking up at Chen Siyao.

Chen Siyao's mind was racing.

Fuzhu has been avoiding it ever since it first saw it. Yesterday in the forest, it became restless when five white deer approached. Just now, Yang Wanqing rode Fuzhu and held it, but Fuzhu refused to leave at all.

Fuzhu. An ancient mythical beast. Its sense of danger is more acute than that of any other creature.

That bee. When that large killer bee rushed towards Yang Wanqing—who was at the late stage of the Meridian Opening Realm—the bee's sting wouldn't cause him much harm.

But the little pet pounced on it.

It didn't know that Yang Wanqing was a body-refining cultivator?

wrong.

It has been staying with Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing since yesterday. When they were cutting vines in the cannibalistic forest and fighting among the insect swarms, this little thing was always nearby and couldn't possibly have missed Yang Wanqing's physical strength.

It knew that the bee stings couldn't hurt Yang Wanqing.

But it still pounced on it.

Why?

After taking that injection, Yang Wanqing named it, cried with heartache, and held it in her arms, refusing to let go.

Then it pointed in a direction.

The direction of a poisonous peach orchard.

"It's been playing all along."

Chen Siyao drew the sword from her storage bag. The tip of the sword pointed downwards at the little thing lying on the ground.

Yang Wanqing stood to the side, her face still wet with tears. "Yaoyao? What are you saying?"

"Think about it." Chen Siyao didn't move the sword. "Think about it from beginning to end. The first time it appeared, it was begging for food. The second time it appeared, it was being chased by a big bird and injured its leg. Then, when my brother went to chase the big bird, we were trapped in the cannibalistic forest."

"The third time it came to the attic to spend the night. The fourth time it was chased by killer bees and just happened to run to our feet. Every time it appeared, it was creating an opportunity for us to protect it, care for it, and trust it."

Yang Wanqing's mouth was open, but he couldn't speak.

"A penetrating abdominal wound, ruptured internal organs. With that size, it should have bled to death long ago." Chen Siyao looked at the pair of red eyes. "But not only is it not dead, it can also guide the way."

A cute little pet. No, that thing—lying on a petal, its red eyes staring at Chen Siyao.

It understood her murderous intent.

one second.

Change has begun.

It wasn't a sudden outburst. It was a slow, gradual transformation, like ice melting.

The golden fur began to fade from the edges of the wound on the abdomen. It wasn't shedding, it was dissolving.

The texture of the fur changed from soft down to a translucent membrane, and the color changed from gold to dark red and then to gray-black.