Feng jiu's statement would have serious consequences if it was true. Lian song and mo yuan gaped at what she had just said. in order to get a confirmation for her statement, they looked at dong hua but the old god was just staring at her with a face devoid of expressions. Finding no answer to his questions this way, mo yuan spoke up, "how is that possible? How can hellfire give life to demons?"

While the question was directed towards feng jiu, it was dong hua that answered, "It is very much possible, mo yuan. Hellfire is the base power of xaio bai's innate phoenix form. since she is the source of all life forms, it is not too farfetched to infer that the powers of her inherent self would embody some part of the creation magic of her primordial spirit. And if you think about it with reference to the pieces of evidence and instances that we have seen, this is the only plausible explanation that ties together all these events that have been happening over the years. With what xaio bai had just told us, we have very little time left before even stronger demon spirits are awakened from that burial site and the eastern desert bell is reignited by these ancient demons."

"so, what do we do now, dijun?" lian song asked with his voice reflecting the concern that had crept upon him.

"the happenings of the ancient demon burial site are against the laws of nature. No being once dead should be brought back to life again; it upsets the balance of nature. This deed needs to be punished appropriately and no seal would be an adequate penalty for it. To stop the current situation from escalating and prevent this from happening again in the future, I need to purify that entire piece of land. As for the matters of the eastern desert bell and its hellfire, I believe that decision rests with the source and creator of hellfire. Only the queen of living can decide the forward course of action for that case." Dong hua said with his eyes resting on feng jiu's face. he noticed the surprise spreading through her when he deferred to her for the matter concerning the eastern desert bell.

With eyes wide and brows climbed high up her forehead, she reconfirmed, "are you sure, dong hua? This is a huge matter; you should be the one making decisions here."

He wrapped an arm around her waist and softly yet with a firm voice said, "this is your decision to make, xaio bai. it took me a long time to understand this but I get it now. I can't make the decisions that rest on your shoulders. by doing so I am just delaying the inevitable and prolonging fate. I can only support your choices and hope that before making every decision you will keep me in your heart and mind. so, no matter what you decide from now on, you have my full support. I trust you, my love."

At his words, feng jiu's eyes started to fill up. she gently caressed the side of his face and said, "thank you, dong hua. I will never let you down. "

A moment later, dong hua and feng jiu broke apart to face the two men beside them. feng jiu took stock of the situation before saying, "dong hua, you need to hurry with the purification of the demon burial site. If the demons spread out over the realms, it would be hard to hunt down each one separately."

While dong hua gave a firm nod, lian song interjected, "but what about the demons here? We still have a war going on. also dijun, would you be going alone to face off against those demons?"

Although the questions were directed towards dong hua, it was feng jiu that answered with an arched eyebrow and a cold, hard voice, "lian song, do you doubt my husband's competency at handling a couple hundred thousand demons? Have you forgotten who you are talking about?"

While lian song looked taken aback at the implication behind feng jiu's words, dong hua buried his face in her hair and gave out a low chuckle.

"you misunderstand me, your majesty. your servant was just concerned for his master's safety."lian song said with a deep bow.

"rest easy, lian song, I understand. I was just playing with you." feng jiu said with a chuckle of her own. While mo yuan was also trying to hide his laughter behind a sudden bout of cough, lian song huffed and muttered, "not funny, feng jiu."

Failing to hide her chuckles, she said, "loosen up, lian song. dijun would be completely fine. He could eat those demons for breakfast without even leaving behind a bone."

This time, it was dong hua who gave her a dubious look. Seeing his reaction, she replied, "what's that look for? You know I am right." Her carefree statement made dong hua laugh aloud. Amid his laughter, he threw out, "I missed you, my lively little fox."

Shaking away his laughing face, she issued a command to lian song, "find ye hua and bring him here. I have a plan to get rid of these demons, once and for all. they are getting too annoying now." Immediately, lian song dissolved the privacy shield and went in search of ye hua.

Done with her orders, feng jiu focused her attention back on dong hua as she said, "come back soon, okay. I love you and I am going to miss you."

He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead before replying, "be a good girl while I am gone." A moment later, he stepped backward and faded from the ruoshi river bank. As she watched him fade, mo yuan spoke beside her, "what do you plan on doing with the eastern desert bell, feng jiu?"

"This bell has created enough problems as it is. doesn't matter if it's ignited or not, it's time this universe was liberated from its burden, mo yuan. But first, we need to get rid of these demons." Feng jiu replied before blasting off the approaching group of demons.

A few moments later, lian song appeared with ye hua beside him. both of them were wiping off demons in an attempt to clear their path ahead. Tired of the delay, feng jiu burned down the demons blocking their path in a strong burst of fire. As the three dragons were now gathered beside her, she first addressed ye hua, "tell your army to form a ring formation around the demons. Force the demonic army towards the inside and the celestials on the outside." Understanding the command, ye hua nodded. Feng jiu then regarded all the three gods together.

"after the celestials are congregated on the outside of the circle, you three have to round up all the demons and make a boundary around them. make sure that the celestials are properly segregated away from the demonic army and no space or opening is available in your boundary."

While the trio set to work on her commands, feng jiu pushed off the ground and went to fight by her grandfather's side.

Meanwhile, Ye hua's orders made their rounds through the entire celestial army, its generals, and the high immortals. under their ruler's insightful commands, the celestials smartly separated from the demons and started to back them towards a common center. After an indistinct line had started forming between them and the demonic army, the celestials watched as three enormous dragons started to slither their way around the demonic army.

Coming from three separate sides, the blue dragon form of lian song, the black dragon form of yehua, and the golden dragon also known as mo yuan, roped in the demon army in a circular formation. The celestials saw the entrapped demons attacking the three dragons all over. it stood to reason that these continuous attacks should have left at least some lasting gashed on the dragons' body instead the dragons stood strong, completely wound free and growling away at the demons like they were nothing more than some irritating flies. It took the viewers a few minutes to understand the reason that enabled the dragons to stand unharmed. On top of their dragon wings shone a silver symbol. This symbol of an unfurled phoenix flower was the mark of only one god all over the realms; the queen of living, bai feng jiu.

Since this mark had been seen before, it didn't take long for the celestials to join two and two together. They quickly understood the fact that the three dragons were under the protection of the great fox queen and it was her mark that acted as a safety armor for them.

After the dragons had effectively trapped the demons, the bai family started to herd the celestials away from them. excited at the prospect of what would happen now, every pair of eyes started to look for feng jiu and found her red-robed form flying up into the air. She flew so high up into the sky that the clouds hid away her ascending form. the celestials intrigue rose too. Though their wandering minds hadn't gone too far when they saw a red figure descending from the sky. Plunging at the speed of light, this figure was of a regal, ruby red dragon. As the dragon continued down, everyone stared with wonder at its gargantuan body with the scales, wings, and tail all tipped in gold. There, also, sat a golden crown at the top of the dragon's head which marked it as the leader of the horde. It was apparent that this gigantic ruby red dragon was another form of the queen, bai feng jiu. Although, they had heard about the fox queen being able to shift into the form of every living creature, but to witness it with their own eyes was a whole different experience for the celestials.

No one dared to blink as the dragon continued on its descent with its head pointing downwards and the tail end facing the sky. After it had reached a seemingly predetermined distance, feng jiu's dragon form opened its mouth and shot out a huge stream of fire. The fire burst had been pointed straight in the middle of the circle formed by the blue, black, and golden dragons. The stream of fire grew stronger and bigger as the red dragon came closer to the surface. From their vantage point, the celestials had watched as the trapped dragons had started a stampede within their boundaries. In a frenzied rush to avoid the incoming stream of fire, they had even tried to climb over the bodies of lian song, mo yuan, and ye hua but had gotten thrown back into the fire.

By the time, feng jiu's red dragon form had reached the surface and closed the fire torrent, a fire pit had formed in the place where the demons had stood earlier. The three dragons who had previously served as the boundary trapping an army were now serving as a stone wall that was keeping the fire in control. The view of the huge roaring fire was mesmerizing and elating. The fox queen had once again, ended the entire war in one masterstroke. The euphoria of victory was running high among the celestials.

This jubilance wasn't mean to last long though. It hadn't even been ten minutes since feng jiu had stopped the onslaught of fire on the demon army when the most dreaded sound was heard throughout the universe. It was the chime of the eastern desert bell. The last couple of times this bell had sounded, it had taken the lives of war god mo yuan and tianjun ye hua, respectively as a sacrifice. The celestials dreaded the existence of this bell and in their case, it was pretty justified.

Feng jiu watched as the eastern desert bell rung, signaling that it indeed has been reignited. She hated the fact that her prediction had come true and the demons had succeeded in activating the bell again. she quickly faced the three dragons and spoke in their mind at once, "lian song, ye hua and mo yuan, under no circumstances, are you to move from your stance until the fire goes out by itself. and that will happen only after it has destroyed all traces of the demon army. Till then you are the only mediums that are keeping it contained. so, it is the order of your queen to stay just like you are, until the fire extinguishes itself."

As she made to leave, ye hua called out in a frightened voice, "where are you going? Please don't tell me you are going after that bell."

"don't worry, uncle ye hua. I am not going to sacrifice my spirit to the bell. Even if I tried the bell won't be able to handle even a tenth part of my primordial spirit, it would burst under the weight of its power. this time, I am going to destroy the bell completely." Feng jiu replied in a soothing voice.

"How would you destroy the bell, feng jiu? No magic works on it. believe me, I have tried and so has mo yuan."

With a small chuckle, she answered, "I am not going to use any magic, uncle ye hua. I am simply going to consume it."

With that she fled away from the dragons, leaving behind the tinkering sound of her laughter and towards the gathered celestials at the other end of the shore.

The celestials watched as the gigantic ruby red dragon steered in their direction. While they eagerly awaited the arrival of feng jiu's dragon form to take a closer look at it, a red haze seemed to cover the dragon's entire body. Moments later, through the thick red fog emerged a huge phoenix with a rich blood-red body and wings made of fire.

The spectators didn't know whether to be in awe of the queen's transformation mid-flight or to be disappointed that they didn't get to see her majestic dragon form up close.

Still, they watched with undivided attention as the regal red phoenix flew towards them and stopped at the center of their gathering. The phoenix folded in one of its wings and spreading out the other, it spun in a complete circle once. Everyone gawked as a golden mist was discharged from the phoenix's wing of red and golden fire. The mist covered the entire assembly of celestials like a protective shield.

While the celestials were caught up in feng jiu's actions and magic, the bai's understood the situation for what it was. They saw as the eastern desert bell had started to open up and from its midst, the red glow of the hellfire inside had begun peeking through. When feng jiu had approached them and the celestials to cast a protective shield around them, all the bais' had tried to stop her from embarking on this journey. But before they could even open their mouths to say anything, she had spoken in all their minds simultaneously, "please stop worrying. You have already seen that hellfire has no effect on me, so I will be completely safe. Try to understand that as a queen I cannot let people suffer because of this bell, anymore. It has already caused enough misery and destruction. It is my duty to ensure the safety of the realms, so, please don't try to talk me out of fulfilling my duties."

Her honest and sincere words seemed to have reached their marks as all the members of her family grudgingly nodded their heads. Happy at gaining their support, she quickly added, "I haven't made this shield obstructive. it is only meant to protect from hellfire. So, I request you all to please keep everyone inside the walls of this shield until I have destroyed the bell. " with that as her last statement, feng jiu flew towards the bottom of the eastern desert bell.

A/N
let me know what you feel about this chapter.
P.S. I have drooped some pretty big hints in this chapter and the last couple of chapters that point towards what's gonna happen next. let me know if you find those.