My husband is too wild, I need to go home and find my mom.

Chapter 249 Phoenix Realm and Chinese Realm

Linni nodded in his arms: "Yes, I said I want to be with you."

She took out a champagne gold pearl necklace made of strands of Yao's hair from her pants pocket and handed it to Yao: "Put it on for me."

Yao smiled happily as he looked at the necklace on her hand, and while helping her put it back on, he asked, "So, you've always been reluctant to part with me, haven't you?"

Linni nodded. From the moment she saw him, he had taken up residence in her heart.

Yao helped her put on the necklace, gently kissed the top of her hair, and said, "We have arrived at the world you lived in before. You can go back to your home first and see your parents. After eighty-one days, I will open the passage to the Phoenix Realm and go back with you."

"?!" Lin Ni looked up in surprise and looked around: It was still morning, and this was a forest. The key point was that the trees in this forest were all ordinary trees a few meters tall. The plants in the forest were also quite lush, but you could no longer see those trees that were tens or hundreds of meters tall, nor could you see the various strange fruits, let alone the super-large leaves that were common on the Beastman Continent.

Has she really returned to her original world?

This realization brought tears to Linni's eyes. Although she had decided to stay and live on the Beastman Continent, the sudden realization that she had returned to the place where she had lived for eighteen years, and could see her familiar relatives and friends, and everything familiar, still made her burst into tears.

She wiped away her tears. She'd been gone for over six hundred days, almost two years, and when she returned, it was still summer. Were her classmates preparing for their first-year final exams, or already planning their summer break? She wondered if her mother, who suffered from heart disease, had been weakened by her disappearance.

Lin Ni's tears flowed more and more as she wiped them away, but almost two years had already passed, and now that she was back, she wasn't in a hurry. Finally, after wiping away her tears, she leaned back into Yao's arms, calming herself down as she asked, "Yao, you just said that we would have to wait eighty-one days to open the passage between the two worlds. Does that mean I can stay here and live for eighty-one days?"

Yao nodded and said, "Yes."

Linni had calmed down and looked up at him, asking, "You just said that the Beastman Continent is the Phoenix Realm. Now that you've regained your divine power, will you be able to travel freely between here and the Phoenix Realm?"

Yao shook his head: "My divine power has basically recovered, but the Huaxia Realm is suppressing me greatly, so I can't stay here for long. Because the civilization of the Huaxia Realm is reviving, I'm able to accumulate energy to open the passage between the two realms. If the culture continues to revive and I have enough energy, then I should be able to travel through the two realms a few more times. However, it takes at least eighty-one days to go from the Huaxia Realm to the Phoenix Realm, and at least sixty years to go from the Phoenix Realm to the Huaxia Realm. If the Huaxia civilization declines and is invaded by other cultures like before, I won't be able to accumulate energy and will have to fight against alien creatures in the void."

The amount of information was a bit overwhelming, and Lin Ni's brain couldn't process it all at once. After a while, she asked, "You said this is the Chinese Realm, and you can accumulate energy through Chinese civilization?"

Yao nodded: "That's right! Actually, there are many small worlds around the Huaxia Realm, just like the Phoenix Realm. We are all small worlds that were born from Huaxia civilization, guarding Huaxia like guardians. These small worlds have grown stronger through Huaxia civilization and have also helped Huaxia resist the invasion of foreign cultures. However, these small worlds cannot prevent real wars between advanced worlds. Because Huaxia experienced a century of humiliation, the divine beasts of our Huaxia Realm lost their energy source. So, after exhausting their energy in battles against invading creatures, they could only fall into a deep sleep."

Lin Ni was somewhat surprised. Was the relationship between China and the Beastman Continent—or rather, the Phoenix Realm—so close? Lin Ni asked, puzzled, "Although China has experienced a century of humiliation, and Chinese civilization was once suppressed by Western civilization, we have never forgotten our ancestors, and the legends of the phoenix have never been forgotten. Why do you beastmen of the Phoenix Realm remember nothing about it? Even without writing, you shouldn't have forgotten so quickly! And weren't Xuan and Ling's father beasts said to have died two hundred years ago? The Phoenix Realm's lineage was broken long ago on your Beastman Continent!"

Yao shook his head and said, "Xiao Ni, we Chinese have an old saying: 'A day in heaven is a year on earth.' Have you heard of it?"

Linni nodded: "You mean--?!"

Yao said, "Huaxia is the upper realm, where one day is equivalent to sixty days in the Phoenix Realm. So, only a little over a hundred years have passed in Huaxia, while more than five thousand years have passed in the Phoenix Realm (a year in the Phoenix Realm's beastman continent is 520 days). So it's normal that the lineage was interrupted."

Linni nodded. Five thousand years! There are no written records. Orcs don't live long either. How can a lineage be broken so easily?

Yao said, "Because Chinese civilization has begun to revive, I have regained my divine power. However, the beastmen of the Phoenix Realm have forgotten my name. Therefore, I need you, who came from China, to help me find my name and identity and regain my divine power."

Lin Ni nodded, but her mind wasn't on that. She was calculating the days: one day in China was equivalent to sixty days in the Phoenix Realm. So, if she had spent over six hundred days in the Phoenix Realm, did that mean only ten days had passed in China? Thinking this, she excitedly took off her hiking backpack, her hands trembling as she pulled out her phone. If more than a year had passed, then a day earlier or later wouldn't matter at all, but if only ten days had passed? Then everything would be alright! Lin Ni's hands trembled as she turned on her phone. There was no signal at first. She stood up from Yao's embrace, walked out of the shade, and went to an open area to find a place with a better signal.

Yao picked up her hiking backpack and followed beside her, puzzled as she paced back and forth with her phone, glancing at the sky and then at her phone. She usually took out her phone to take pictures, so Yao asked, "Xiao Ni, what are you taking pictures of?"

Finally, her phone received a signal, displaying a battery level of 15% and the date as 8:30 AM on August 21, 2024. Linni's tears flowed uncontrollably again. She turned on her phone; it was flooded with messages—WeChat, texts, and missed calls—quickly draining the battery to a mere 10%. Linni tapped the phone screen and dialed her mother's number. The familiar yet unfamiliar electronic music started playing, making her heart leap into her throat. She silently chanted, "Answer the phone! Answer the phone!"