After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 28
by Little PandaRelics
Ah Que, your shijie1 will take you home
Wen Qiwu had a nightmare. She saw her shijie in the dream embracing her corpse and taking her own life, warm blood staining the snow of Yunwu Mountain red.
She couldn’t move in the nightmare, nor could she make a sound. She could only watch helplessly as the snow of Yunwu Mountain buried her shijie’s body. Wen Qiwu cried for a long time in the nightmare. When she struggled awake from it, she unsurprisingly found that the down on her chest had been soaked by tears.
The little white puffball trembled slightly. Though the nightmare had ended, the lingering panic still swirled in her heart.
Shijie… where was shijie!
The first thing Wen Qiwu did after waking from the nightmare was search everywhere for Yun Heng. She needed to see her shijie to feel at ease. She was still in her shijie’s room, and the cage now had many spirit fruits and spirit grains added to it, but her shijie had gone somewhere unknown.
Beside her cage sat a dish of steaming Chestnut Cake. It must have been freshly made by her shijie not long ago. This time, her shijie had not only placed them on a dish fitted with Fire Crystal Stones, but also covered them with a hood inlaid with fine Fire Crystal Stones, so there was no need to worry about the cold wind blowing them cold.
But who were these Chestnut Cakes prepared for?
Whenever Wen Qiwu thought of what had happened last night, her heart ached with sharp twinges. Her shijie had eventually come to her senses. If so, why would she make another dish of Chestnut Cake?
Had her shijie truly come to her senses? Or had she…
Probably due to the effects of having her heart’s blood drawn without immortal power to sustain her, Wen Qiwu couldn’t muster much strength. She dragged her exhausted body to the cage door and bumped against it. The cage door didn’t budge at all. Opening it from the inside was nearly impossible.
Wen Qiwu struggled inside the cage for quite a while. In the end, having accomplished nothing, she had to accept reality. This was a birdcage forged by her shijie’s own hands, also an Immortal Artifact capable of trapping enemies. How could her shijie leave an escape opportunity for an enemy? She couldn’t get out on her own.
Unable to do anything, she could only wait in the cage for her shijie to return. The spirit fruits around her gave off a sweet fragrance, but she had no appetite at all.
By now the sky had brightened considerably, and Wen Qiwu could observe her shijie’s room more clearly. Her shijie’s room had always been very plain, but a century ago, there had at least been some traces of life here. Now Wen Qiwu could no longer see the former decorations. If not for the bedding on the couch, anyone who came to look would probably think no one lived here.
The only spot of vibrant color in the entire room was on the windowsill nearby, where sat a very, very old cloth tiger. Wen Qiwu recognized it as her childhood toy. She had always thought it was lost long ago—so her shijie had kept it for her?
Wen Qiwu withdrew her gaze and looked down at her left chest. The feathers there still had some blood stuck to them. She suspected her wound hadn’t healed yet. Otherwise, why would it hurt so much?
Time passed bit by bit. The little puffball in the cage looked increasingly anxious. Wen Qiwu feared her shijie might encounter something like what had happened last night. The blizzard outside was still fierce. At this hour, probably no one would want to come over. If she collapsed somewhere else on this mountain, no one would probably find her.
Shijie… please come back soon, Wen Qiwu silently prayed in her heart.
Whether or not the person outside sensed her thoughts, before long, Wen Qiwu suddenly heard unsteady footsteps outside the door.
Then the door opened. Yun Heng entered, bringing the wind and snow with her. This time the Chestnut Cake on the table wasn’t affected, but Wen Qiwu seemed to faintly catch a whiff of blood.
“Cough, cough…” After entering, Yun Heng leaned weakly against the door. Her face was completely bloodless, pale as paper. She had only been gone for a short while, yet Yun Heng’s aura had grown even more withered. Her body even exuded a faint breath of death.
Yun Heng’s always-straight spine curved slightly. She leaned sideways against the doorframe and lowered the hand she’d used to cover her mouth while coughing. Wen Qiwu hopped and flew inside the cage, only then barely managing to see that her shijie’s palm had quite a bit of blood foam.
Hadn’t she fed her shijie a drop of phoenix heart’s blood last night? How could her shijie still be coughing blood!
“Chirp chirp!” Wen Qiwu let out two clear chirps in her urgency.
Her voice drew Yun Heng’s attention. When Wen Qiwu met her shijie’s exhausted, hollow gaze, her nose stung and she nearly cried again.
Yun Heng looked at Wen Qiwu for a long while, her eyes revealing blankness, as if she’d forgotten there was a little one waiting for her return in her room.
“Qingtuan.” Yun Heng murmured as she walked over, her steps still somewhat unsteady. Fortunately, there were few things in the room, so she didn’t trip. But Yun Heng’s state still frightened Wen Qiwu badly. She instinctively spread her wings, wanting to fly out, but was blocked by the birdcage.
“Chirp?” Wen Qiwu tilted her head. Hadn’t her shijie known last night that she wasn’t Qingtuan? Why would she still call Qingtuan’s name?
Yun Heng picked up the birdcage and murmured to herself, “Qingtuan, I saw Ah Que. I’ll soon be able to bring her home. Don’t you bully her anymore.”
After hearing her shijie’s words, Wen Qiwu was stunned for a long while.
“Chirp…” Wen Qiwu’s voice carried a tremor. Where had her shijie seen her? Was it a heart demon? Or something else?
Yun Heng’s state was very wrong, as if she were trapped in heart demons and nightmares. Wen Qiwu gently pecked her shijie’s finger, but her shijie had no reaction at all.
Wen Qiwu was so anxious her eyes brimmed with tears. When the crystal teardrops fell through the down onto Yun Heng’s nearly temperatureless fingertips, the person trapped in heart demons finally looked at her.
Yun Heng’s memory seemed to have developed a problem. She seemed to have forgotten what had happened last night, even thinking Qingtuan had never left Wenshen Sect.
She gently wiped away the tears on Wen Qiwu’s down and said, in a voice so gentle that Wen Qiwu found it frightening, “Don’t cry. Ah Que will soon be able to come back.”
Shijie, please don’t be like this…
Wen Qiwu’s tears fell even more uncontrollably. What exactly was her shijie’s heart demon? Was it like what the storytellers said? Or was her shijie’s heart demon born because of her? Because of her own death?
With tears in her eyes, she gently bit Yun Heng, trying to guide her shijie’s hand into the cage. Unfortunately, Yun Heng thought she was playing, so she withdrew her hand.
“I still have things to do. Be good and stay at home. Don’t run around, or Ah Que won’t be able to find you again,” Yun Heng instructed. Only, her words sounded especially eerie.
Where was her shijie going to find her?! Wen Qiwu couldn’t speak, and Yun Heng couldn’t understand her “chirp chirp” bird language.
The birdcage was placed back on the table by Yun Heng. The little one inside chirped, as if anxious to express something, but Yun Heng only murmured things about waiting for Ah Que to return. The little white puffball’s movements didn’t catch her attention. Then Yun Heng went off to the side alone to meditate and heal.
The little white puffball in the cage finally quieted down. Her shijie finally knew to treat her own injuries! Wen Qiwu breathed a sigh of relief. She stayed obediently in the cage, no longer disturbing her shijie. If her shijie could properly use her heart’s blood to heal, her injuries should recover quite a bit.
The room returned to silence. The little white puffball in the cage watched her shijie without moving, her expression carrying gentleness and worry.
Her shijie’s condition made Wen Qiwu desperately want to regain her freedom. She needed to think of a way…
Wen Qiwu pondered ways to escape, but hadn’t considered what her shijie’s unusual initiative to heal might mean.
Yun Heng nursed herself for three days before opening her eyes. During those three days, Wen Qiwu hadn’t dared to close her eyes, afraid something might go wrong with her shijie. Fortunately, everything went smoothly.
“Chirp chirp!” Wen Qiwu perked up, wanting to ask if her shijie was better.
But the person shrouded in shadow gave no response. She sat there somewhat dazed, and Wen Qiwu’s heart tightened again.
“Tap tap tap.” Suddenly, there came a knocking sound on the window.
It sounded like a Transmission Paper Crane.
Yun Heng seemed to finally snap back to attention, raising her head. She used immortal power to push open the window, and sure enough, a Transmission Paper Crane flew in.
【Qianyue Sword Sect’s Lin Shu requests an audience, hoping the Sect Master will hand over the items that Yuxi Sect’s Zuo Lan left at our sect to her.】 An elder’s voice came from the Transmission Paper Crane. 【Sect Master, I recall that the items the Yuxi Sect Holy Maiden left here are being kept by you on her behalf. Will you give them to her?】
Wen Qiwu was somewhat puzzled. What had Zuo Lan left at Wenshen Sect? But no matter what she left, what did it have to do with that Immortal Lord Lin Shu?
Yun Heng left a reply on the Transmission Paper Crane.
“Those items are all things the Yuxi Sect Holy Maiden gifted to my shimei2. I have no right to handle them on my shimei’s behalf. If Lin Shu truly wishes to take the Holy Maiden’s relics, then let her discuss it with Qiwu.” When dealing with outsiders, Yun Heng’s voice carried not a trace of emotional fluctuation. The elders all knew that Wen Qiwu’s soul had already scattered and dissipated, but they didn’t know the Sect Master was plotting to resurrect her. So to those who didn’t know, it sounded as if Yun Heng were sending Lin Shu to her death.
“Thud!” A small commotion came from the table nearby. After releasing the Transmission Paper Crane, Yun Heng turned toward the birdcage—the little one inside seemed to have taken a tumble.
Wen Qiwu felt herself being lifted up by cool immortal energy, but her shijie’s cold immortal power couldn’t calm her down either. She rushed to the edge of the cage, letting out a string of chirps.
Had she heard wrong? What word had her shijie just used? Relics?!
Wen Qiwu’s eyes widened.
How could this be!
How she wished she had heard wrong! But when Wen Qiwu saw the legendary Immortal Lord Lin Shu who cultivated the Way of Heartlessness appear on Yunwu Mountain, the last sliver of hope in her heart vanished completely.
What had happened over this century? Wen Qiwu leaned weakly against the birdcage. She remembered that the last time she had contacted Zuo Lan was before the other woman went to the frontier battlefield. How could she wake up and find her old friend gone?
Yun Heng furrowed her brow slightly. She didn’t appear to welcome this uninvited guest, but she also didn’t want to be visited again and again, so she rose and walked out the door.
And she was gone for two whole days without returning. In her anxiety, Wen Qiwu dug through her newly acquired inheritance memories. The phoenix clan was one of the most ancient living beings in the world, and their inheritance memories held many lost secret arts. She might be able to find a method to resolve her current predicament.
On the evening of the third day, Yun Heng returned, travel-worn. On her face was actually the first smile Wen Qiwu had seen in a century—only, this smile carried a hint of morbidity.
She was about to succeed.
Ah Que, endure a little longer. Shijie will soon be able to take you home.
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