"No, my room became spotless overnight!" Yao Ranran's pupils trembled.
Tang Xiangyin and Xiao Rong both looked blank with confusion.
"…Being clean is a good thing though!"
Xiao Rong squeezed the pillow in his arms, ready to turn back and continue sleeping.
"No, you don't understand. I never touched anything in here, yet everything is immaculate!" Yao Ranran scanned the room warily. "Could it be that the three of us are being watched without knowing it?"
Tang Xiangyin flinched at first, then hesitated. "Fairy Ranran, if someone were really spying on us, would they go to the trouble of cleaning your room at night?"
"…"
Yao Ranran slowly lowered her guard.
"You… actually have a point."
Xiao Rong yawned widely. "Boss, I think you're just sleep-addled and forgot you cleaned it yourself last night."
Tang Xiangyin nodded reflexively, but the moment her eyes met Yao Ranran's weighty gaze, she quickly shook her head and corrected herself. "How could Fairy Ranran be muddle-headed in her sleep? Maybe it was a secret admirer sneaking in to clean for her!"
Yao Ranran nodded in agreement. "Xiang Yin's guess makes sense."
"But aside from us three, the only one in Gu Ling Mountain is that phoenix. No one else could get in…"
Her gaze shifted outside.
"Could it have been the phoenix?"
Xiao Rong, half-asleep with his pillow, muttered, "Boss, that chicken doesn't look like a docile bird to me. Probably its doing."
Tang Xiangyin tilted her head in confusion. "A phoenix that doesn't sleep, secretly cleaning Fairy's room? How is that the same as some restless wild chicken?"
That… didn't quite make sense.
She turned toward Xiao Rong, but he had already collapsed on the floor hugging his pillow, snoring loudly while mumbling nonsense.
"Yes, it was that chicken! Mm, and that chicken meat must taste delicious!"
Tang Xiangyin: "…"
-
By noon.
Yao Ranran entered the room carrying a bowl of chicken blood.
Behind her, the phoenix cowered in the corner, shivering.
She shut the door and opened her smithy. After an entire morning of interrogation, she confirmed the phoenix had not been the one who cleaned the room last night. "But who was it then? Who tampered with my Shu Xi Palace?"
Setting aside the blood-filled bowl, Yao Ranran pulled out the alchemy text she had obtained from Yan Fortress. "Since the transaction with Yun Gu Sect isn't complete, and the pill they need happens to be recorded here, I'll refine it for them today."
As for the sneaky little thief who cleaned her room, since nothing had been stolen, she could catch them later.
The sun climbed high, then slowly drifted west.
Boom! Boom!
Explosions erupted both east and west at once.
Thick black smoke rose over Gu Ling Mountain, while in Longyin Village, Grandma Zhang's house burst into flames.
"Another failure!" Yao Ranran sighed.
"Another failure! Put out the fire, quick!" Jiang Shengxiang cried.
Villagers rushed out with buckets in an orderly manner. Jiang Shengxiang drew his sword and flicked, sending torrents of water splashing into the blaze.
Tang Xiangyin flew out of the flames carrying Grandma Zhang, only to be drenched head to toe by the water.
"Mother, are you alright?" Jiang Shengxiang hurried to her side, worried.
Grandma Zhang, still shaken, clutched Tang Xiangyin's hand and rasped, "Child, listen to this Grandma's advice. Don't block all your own paths. You don't have to insist on becoming a cook…"
"Master, as a refiner, you don't actually need to learn alchemy!"
The phoenix spread its wings nervously, desperate to escape.
Yao Ranran walked toward it with an apologetic smile.
"Da Huang, it's true refining fire isn't suitable for alchemy. Lend me a little more of your blood, please."
Phoenix: The problem is the fire?!
"No!"
Its wail of despair split the air. Yao Ranran caught its claw and drew another bowl of blood. The phoenix slumped in the corner, staring at her departing back, utterly hopeless.
By late afternoon, Yao Ranran finally produced a pill. When she opened the door, a wild chicken flapped frantically past her sight, escaping.
"Da Huang, I've succeeded with the pill!"
She hurried to explain, since she had tasks to assign.
The phoenix, midair, dropped straight back to the corner, eyelids drooping.
Yao Ranran stroked its feathers. "You're my best helper. I need you to deliver something for me."
The phoenix nodded weakly. Anything was fine, as long as she didn't take more blood.
Yao Ranran handed it a jade bottle of pills and the Good Fortune Brush.
"This jade bottle holds the pills. Deliver it to Zhao Lingyi of Yun Gu Sect. As for this spirit treasure, deliver it to a scholar named Lu Ziqian of Youyan Sect."
She imprinted their appearances into the phoenix's mind. "Remember, never let anyone discover your true form."
The phoenix let out a ringing cry.
Finally, no more bloodletting!
Seeing its obedience, Yao Ranran smiled faintly, smoothing its feathers. "Good Da Huang!"
But the phoenix did not feel happy at all. Because the gesture was identical to the village grannies stroking their dogs. Worse, the dog at the village entrance was also called Da Huang.
"Go now. Deliver the pills first, that's urgent. I'll head down the mountain as well."
She patted its back and sent it into the skies.
The phoenix circled once above, tempted to turn back and demand a new name. But Yao Ranran moved swiftly, vanishing into the black mist in moments. Left with no choice, the phoenix cried out and flew away.
-
Longyin Village.
Yao Ranran stared blankly at the villagers kneeling on both sides of the road, forgetting even to help them up.
Because they weren't the first villagers she had seen prostrating to her today.
All along the road, every person who saw her—no matter what they were doing or holding—would immediately drop everything and kneel.
At first she tried to lift them, but the moment she didn't leave right away, they would kneel again.
So she had no choice but to hurry past.
This time was no exception.
Her heart was full of questions, yet her steps only grew quicker.
Grandma Zhang's burned house was now nothing but a gaping hole. Tang Xiangyin had taken her to stay elsewhere.
When Yao Ranran arrived, only Jiang Shengxiang remained by the ruins.
"Village Chief Jiang, it's been a few days. Why do you look so much older? And your house… what happened?"
Yao Ranran's eyes widened with surprise.
Jiang Shengxiang raised his head at the sound. When he saw her, joy burst across his face.
Thud!
"Fairy Ranran, why have you come?"
Yao Ranran startled. "Village Chief Jiang, there's no need for such ceremony!"
He blinked in confusion, then glanced down. Only then did he realize that even as he spoke, his knees had already bent to the ground.
===
Yao Ranran stroked its feathers in the same way an old village granny would pet a dog. To such a proud divine beast, being treated like a household pet was insulting.
Yao Ranran called it 大凰 (Dà huáng, "Great Phoenix").
But in the village, she noticed the granny's dog was called 大黄 (Dàhuáng, "Big Yellow").
Although the characters are different (凰 = phoenix, 黄 = yellow), the pronunciation is almost identical. To the phoenix, it felt like being equated with a mutt named "Big Yellow."
Also for additional information pinyin spacing rules in this matter:
大凰 → Dà huáng
凰 (huáng) is not a very common word in modern daily Chinese, and it's usually used in compounds like 凤凰 (fènghuáng, phoenix).
When written separately (大 + 凰), pinyin is normally split: Dà huáng.
大黄 → Dàhuáng
大黄 is actually a fixed word in Chinese (it can mean "rhubarb" the herb, or used as a nickname for pets like "Big Yellow").
Since it's a single lexical unit, pinyin is written together: Dàhuáng.
That's why:
大凰 → Dà huáng (adjective + noun, not a fixed word)
大黄 → Dàhuáng (established word/nickname, treated as one unit)