After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 37
by Little PandaHeavenly Punishment
She could only use her body to shield her shijie from heavenly punishment.
“Sh-Shizun1? How did she…” Dong Shiyue’s second disciple, her hair like straw, stared in bewilderment in the direction Wen Qiwu had disappeared. Where was her little bird dumpling? How had the small, soft little dumpling suddenly turned into a beautiful young woman? And then she had just vanished!
“Did you already know?”
Dong Shiyue said stiffly, “I did not.”
If she had known, she would never have locked the young woman in a cage and brought her back to the sect!
Well, that made sense. Second Disciple knew her shijie2‘s temperament—she would never do something like kidnapping a young woman and dragging her back to the sect.
“What a pity…” Second Disciple accidentally murmured aloud.
Dong Shiyue shot her a glance. “Don’t get any ideas about her.”
“I know, I know, it’s just… Shizun, don’t you think she felt nice to pet?” Second Disciple recalled the soft texture of that downy fluff, her fingertips unconsciously rubbing together.
“…This is a demon cultivator senior3 of at least Earth Immortal Realm. Do you still think she felt nice to pet?”
Second Disciple immediately fell silent. She stared wide-eyed at her Shizun in disbelief, but unfortunately could not detect any hint of joking on her Shizun’s face.
Th-this, she really did not dare anymore. She had actually petted the head of a demon cultivator senior who was at least Earth Immortal Realm?! Heavens, was her hand still intact? Second Disciple felt her own hand—thank goodness, every finger was still there.
But then another question arose. Her Shizun was only a Dao Integration cultivator—how had she captured this senior? Could it be that her Shizun had silently broken through to Earth Immortal Realm?
Dong Shiyue casually picked up a branch and rapped it on Second Disciple’s imagination-filled head. She had only just broken through to Dao Integration—how could she have reached Earth Immortal Realm a few months later? Even the Sect Master back then had never had such cultivation speed.
If relying on her own strength alone, of course she could not have captured this Earth Immortal Realm demon cultivator senior. It must have been because of this cage—the Sect Master had personally forged this Immortal Artifact as a gift for Elder Wen. She had heard that even Golden Immortal Realm cultivators struggled to escape once locked inside.
“Shizun, don’t worry. This senior seemed gentle and mild, and she did not look angry. She probably will not come after you for trouble,” Second Disciple comforted her.
Dong Shiyue’s brow creased slightly. She was not worried about that matter, but…
She recalled the way the other woman had anxiously asked about the Sect Master just now. That expression was truly so like hers.
If only Elder Wen were still here. Dong Shiyue’s eyes drooped with sorrow.
The Sect Master’s illness was an affliction of the heart, and the only person who could cure her was already gone.
Elder Wen would surely want the Sect Master to live well. She did not know when the Sect Master would understand, when she would find release.
But the Sect Master had looked much better just now. Dong Shiyue silently prayed that she would gradually walk out of her grief in the future, little knowing that Yun Heng was hovering on the edge of life and death at this very moment.
SPACE LINE
From the outside, there was nothing unusual about Yunwu Mountain. The perennial wind and snow had dissipated, and sunlight dotted the snow-covered peaks, making them look especially peaceful and beautiful.
A green-robed figure halted not far from Yunwu Mountain. She raised her hand and touched the seemingly invisible barrier in the air, thinking to herself, just as expected…
There was an array here that blocked outside perception of what lay within. Her shijie must be doing something.
Wen Qiwu was both anxious and heartsore. She forced herself to calm down and break the array, but what she had not expected was that when she channeled her immortal power to shatter it, the array’s resistance suddenly vanished.
Unable to rein in her momentum, Wen Qiwu tumbled straight through. Once inside, the entire landscape of Yunwu Mountain transformed once more.
The sky above Yunwu Mountain was shrouded in chaotic energy, as though it had reverted to the primordial state before heaven and earth were formed. Terrifying power brewed within the chaos, like a divine scourge. Just standing here, Wen Qiwu felt a suffocating sensation, as though her heart was being gripped in a vice.
What was her shijie doing?
The array blanketing Yunwu Mountain had not disappeared. It seemed that only those permitted by the mountain’s master could enter, and the current situation looked extremely dire. Wen Qiwu thought her shijie would not allow anyone else inside, but for some reason, she had become the exception.
But Wen Qiwu had no time to ponder these details. The anomaly in the sky made her blood run cold.
The Heavenly Dao4 was enraged!
A great fissure had torn open in the sky, and within these pitch-black depths, countless “slender” bolts of lightning had converged together. These so-called slender bolts of lightning were actually thicker than ordinary lightning, let alone the entity they were continuously coalescing into. This was the first time Wen Qiwu had ever witnessed the Heavenly Dao in such a “furious” state.
The Time Reversal Technique5 was a taboo among taboos. Under normal circumstances, the Heavenly Dao paid no attention to so-called forbidden techniques—only this method was strictly prohibited by the Heavenly Dao. That was why even God Domain powerhouses of the past had almost never succeeded, and Yun Heng had not even reached the God Realm.
Wen Qiwu’s face gradually turned pale. She did not know exactly what Yun Heng had done, only that her shijie’s body was very weak right now. Could she truly withstand the Heavenly Dao’s fury?
Her body reacted faster than her thoughts. By the time Wen Qiwu made up her mind, she had already appeared at what had once been the Flower/Herb Garden. This place had once grown many rare medicinal treasures for Wen Qiwu’s use, but now only a stretch of withered, frozen earth remained.
This was the closest point to Yunwu Mountain’s spiritual vein. Yun Heng had directly extracted the power from the spiritual vein. Luminous spiritual light converged from all directions, ultimately forming a Spirit Sea beside the immortal.
This breathtaking Spirit Sea was like the inverted reflection of the Milky Way in the night sky. In a daze, it made one feel as though Yun Heng already possessed the strength to contend against heaven itself.
If she directed all the power before her against the heavens, she might still have a chance—but Yun Heng’s purpose had never been to contend against the Heavenly Dao. It was to resurrect Wen Qiwu.
So all the power around her had been channeled into the ash urn placed at the center of the array. The forbidden technique began to activate, and this act thoroughly enraged the heavens.
Yun Heng maintained the forbidden technique’s operation while barely fending off the heavenly punishment6. Though she looked battered, she had not sustained any severe injuries.
But Wen Qiwu had never died to begin with, so naturally she could not be resurrected—and this forbidden technique was doomed to fail from the start.
All the catastrophe unfolded the instant the forbidden technique collapsed.
Yun Heng stared blankly at the disintegrating technique, momentarily forgetting the heavenly punishment above her head.
Or perhaps she had simply given up resisting.
The forbidden technique’s backlash struck immediately. Yun Heng spat out a mouthful of blood, and her vision blurred in an instant.
Boom! Blood-red light poured down with power that seemed capable of splitting the Cangwang Realm asunder. At that very moment, a green-robed figure lunged forward, shielding the faltering woman beneath her body.
Wen Qiwu summoned every artifact she could use, but she had just come from the Endless Tree Sea to this place and had nothing decent on her—even her Nine Tribulations Bow was still back at the sect. She knew these items might not be of much use, so she could only use her immortal beast7 body to shield Yun Heng from the descending heavenly punishment.
An immortal beast’s physique was many times stronger than a human’s, sturdier than even ordinary immortal artifacts—so Wen Qiwu dared to take the risk.
Yun Heng’s breath caught slightly. She could not clearly see the face before her, but the absence of visual illusion only made the tremor in her soul all the more distinct.
Ah Que…
Was she dreaming?
But Yun Heng had no time to consider whether she was dreaming. The instant the heavenly punishment fell, she pulled the slightly trembling body close, swapped their positions, and shielded the person firmly against herself, letting the heavenly punishment strike her own body instead.
Footnotes
- A respectful address for one's direct master in cultivation.
- A pinyin kinship term meaning 'senior martial sister,' used to address or refer to a female senior fellow disciple.
- A respectful address for cultivators of higher seniority or cultivation level.
- The supreme cosmic law governing the world, which severely punishes violations of forbidden techniques such as time reversal.
- A general term for techniques that reverse time; strictly forbidden by the Heavenly Dao, with even God Domain powerhouses rarely succeeding.
- Catastrophic divine retribution enacted by the Heavenly Dao against cultivators who violate forbidden laws, manifesting as blood-red lightning.
- Immortal-tier cultivated beasts whose physiques are many times stronger than human cultivators and sturdier than ordinary immortal artifacts.
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