After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 4
by Little PandaEvents of the Past, Part 3
Seeing the displeasure in her Shijie’s eyes, she lost the courage to speak any further.
“The Discussion Great Hall is just ahead. You may proceed on your own, Fellow Daoist1,” Wen Qiwu said, pointing toward the grand hall that had already come into view. At such a close distance, even a young child wouldn’t get lost.
Zuo Lan walked behind her, her fox-like eyes swimming with intense grievance. A suspicious red mark marred the fair skin on the back of her hand, looking very much as though she had been struck.
She had originally thought this was a sweet, gentle young woman, but she had never expected a simple slap from her to smart so much. Zuo Lan rubbed the back of her reddened hand as she turned the matter over in her mind.
If her senses weren’t mistaken, the girl before her was only at the Void Refining Realm—a full major realm lower than her own. Yet, when she’d slapped her just now, she’d somehow been unable to dodge. Furthermore, the girl’s strength was absurd. A casual tap had actually stung a Dao Integration cultivator like herself. Was she a body cultivator?
Her divine sense was just a bit weak, though. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been affected by the bells.
“I still have things to do, so I’ll take my leave,” Wen Qiwu acted as though she didn’t see the resentment in Zuo Lan’s eyes. When the other woman had suddenly drawn suspiciously close, Wen Qiwu had merely slapped her hand away instead of stabbing a hole in it with an arrow—that was already the height of restraint.
“Fellow Daoist, please wait!” Zuo Lan suddenly blocked Wen Qiwu’s path again with a smile. “We’ve walked all this way, and yet I still don’t know how to address you.”
“…My surname is Wen,” Wen Qiwu said, taking a guarded step back, looking like a small herbivore that had spotted a sly fox stealthily closing in.
“Ah, so it’s Fellow Daoist Wen. How unfortunate—my Shizun just sent a transmission saying they haven’t reached an agreement at the Discussion Great Hall yet. Since it’s already getting late, they’ve decided to resume tomorrow, so there’s no need for me to go after all~” Even though she saw a faint guard rising in Wen Qiwu’s eyes, Zuo Lan still took a step forward, her eyes curving with fox-like cunning.
“This is my first time visiting Wenshen Sect. If it’s convenient, could you take me on a tour of Yunwu Mountain, Fellow Daoist Wen? I’ve long heard that the scenery there is absolutely exquisite…”
But no matter how beautiful the scenery was, it was still an inanimate object, serving at best as a backdrop. Zuo Lan believed she had a good understanding of Wenshen Sect, yet she had never known they were hiding such a Void Refining Realm beauty.
This reminded her of a certain rumor, prompting her curiosity to test the girl. The green-robed girl’s reaction was so endearing that Zuo Lan had accidentally failed to restrain her “old habit.”
[Holy Maiden! Put your hand down this instant!]
Zuo Lan suddenly heard the familiar voice transmission. Sensing danger, she immediately took a step back, though she didn’t forget to coquettishly transmit a retort of her own: [I only wanted to help her brush off a leaf stuck to her clothes. Don’t be so harsh.]
[Heh.]
Zuo Lan soon learned what that cold sneer portended. She rubbed her arms. Frost seemed to form over the surrounding grass, and even she, a Dao Integration cultivator, felt a sudden chill.
At some point, a white-robed woman had appeared before them. The faint, glowing patterns of Daoist light on her robes signified her status as Wenshen Sect’s Sect Master. Zuo Lan only dared to steal a quiet glance upward. The moment she caught sight of those indifferent, emotionless eyes, she immediately lowered her head.
“Greetings, Immortal Venerable Yun Heng,” Zuo Lan said, her demeanor instantly becoming perfectly proper. She had no choice. After all, there were several existences in the Cangwang Realm that one must absolutely never provoke, and the person before her was one of them.
“Qiwu, let’s go,” Yun Heng said, casting only a fleeting, indifferent glance at Zuo Lan before looking away.
Was Shijie in a bad mood?
“Alright,” Wen Qiwu replied, quickly taking a couple of steps to keep pace beside her Shijie.
Once the Immortal Venerable departed, Zuo Lan, left standing in place, could finally breathe a sigh of relief. As soon as she looked up, she met the glaring gaze of her own sect’s elder.
“Holy Maiden… the next time you see her, please walk the other way.” The one who had arrived alongside Yun Heng was Elder Xiao Tong of Yuxi Sect. She had originally hoped to find an opportunity to discuss the Eclipse Secret Realm with the Immortal Venerable, only to witness her own Holy Maiden trying to “get close” to another young woman. Just now, she had almost thought the Immortal Venerable was about to draw her sword!
“I’ve long heard rumors that Immortal Venerable Yun Heng has a frail, sickly Shimei whom she has raised within the sect since childhood, rarely allowing her to show her face. Little Elder, that Fellow Daoist Wen is the Shimei of Immortal Venerable Yun Heng, isn’t she?” Zuo Lan tugged at Xiao Tong’s sleeve, her tone showing not the slightest intention of backing down; instead, she seemed even more intrigued.
“My surname is Xiao, not ‘Little’… and she indeed is the Shimei of Immortal Venerable Yun Heng. So no matter what wicked schemes you’re cooking up in that head of yours, keep them entirely to yourself!” Xiao Tong was usually as reticent as a wooden block, making it rare for her to speak so many words in a single breath.
Yet when she looked at the Holy Maiden, she found her eyes shining.
“Elder, I want to…”
“No, you don’t,” Xiao Tong interrupted her flatly.
“Let me finish! If I build a good rapport with Fellow Daoist Wen, perhaps Immortal Venerable Yun Heng will agree to cooperate with us for this trip to the Eclipse Secret Realm~”
Hearing this, Xiao Tong turned and walked away without another word.
“Elder? Why are you leaving? Our quarters are in the back. Why are you walking toward Wenshen Sect’s main gate?”
Xiao Tong sighed. “I plan to return to our sect first, lest I get caught in the crossfire if the Immortal Venerable decides to strike.”
“…I just want to make a friend, that’s all! Where on earth is your mind wandering, Elder? Besides, her heart already belongs to another.”
Xiao Tong looked at Zuo Lan with some suspicion. “You can tell her heart belongs to someone else from a single meeting?”
Zuo Lan let out a soft scoff, though the smile in her eyes dimmed a little. “Even if I explained it to a wooden blockhead like you, you wouldn’t understand.”
“What a pity, though…” The Holy Maiden saw a shadow of her past self in the girl. Giving such innocent, youthful affection so unreservedly to someone like that… Fellow Daoist Wen will likely have to suffer quite a bit in the future.
On the other side, Yun Heng had already brought Wen Qiwu back to Wanyao Mountain. Abundant in spiritual energy and enjoying a perpetual spring, Wanyao Mountain was an exceptionally suitable place for a patient to recuperate.
Yun Heng didn’t say a word during their journey. Although she was never a talkative person to begin with, Wen Qiwu could sense that her Shijie’s silence carried a distinct trace of displeasure.
“Shijie…”
Yun Heng suddenly felt her right pinky finger brushed by a feather-light touch. She turned back and met her Shimei’s somewhat worried, yet slightly nervous expression.
The coldness in Yun Heng’s eyes softened. Her irritation just now had been directed solely at those from Yuxi Sect. Her own Shimei was sweet and innocent; she had to ensure that Holy Maiden kept her distance from Qiwu.
Yuxi Sect had come this time to beg a favor. She only hoped that her Shimei’s encounter with that Holy Maiden was a mere coincidence, rather than something engineered by design.
“Did that Holy Maiden of Yuxi Sect make things difficult for you?” Yun Heng was worried that her Shimei might suffer at the hands of that fox.
“No, not at all. She had simply lost her way earlier and asked me to lead her to the Discussion Great Hall,” Wen Qiwu replied, shaking her head.
“Lost her way?” How could a Dao Integration cultivator get lost on a single mountain? Was her divine sense just a decoration?
“If she approaches you again in the future, you may ignore her.” Yun Heng felt even more certain that the woman’s intentions weren’t pure.
Wen Qiwu nodded absentmindedly, her thoughts drifting away before she realized it. In truth, although today was the first time she had ever met Zuo Lan in person, it was not their first communication. That Holy Maiden likely had no idea that Wen Qiwu was the very pen pal with whom she had exchanged letters on several occasions.
That she’d been able to recognize her feelings for her Shijie so quickly in the past was largely thanks to this Holy Maiden.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Thinking about Zuo Lan…” Wen Qiwu’s heart jolted. She had been daydreaming, and the moment her Shijie asked, she had blurted out her thoughts. She hurriedly corrected herself, “Thinking about some of the rumors about her.”
“Rumors…”
Yun Heng’s brow furrowed slightly.
“She… I heard she prefers women, and that she once pursued Immortal Lord2 Lin Shu of Qianyue Sword Sect. There are other messy rumors as well, though those are probably just false reports…” Wen Qiwu naturally knew how much truth lay in those rumors, yet when she saw the displeasure in her Shijie’s eyes, her heart trembled. Suddenly, she didn’t dare to guess whether the part of the rumor that had upset her Shijie was the first half.
“The rumors are true,” Yun Heng’s voice carried a rare touch of severity. She almost never forbade Wen Qiwu from doing anything, but when it came to the Holy Maiden of Yuxi Sect, she instinctively adopted an uncompromising stance. “Stay far away from her. Do you understand?”
A Shimei from Wanyao Mountain had once said that woman was the epitome of how having too many affections was no different from being heartless.
As her words fell, Yun Heng felt the warm hand she was holding tremble slightly. She almost thought it was a trick of her senses.
“Is my hand too cold?” Yun Heng softened her tone, intending to release her grip, but Wen Qiwu actively applied a bit of strength, refusing to let her Shijie withdraw her hand.
“It’s not cold,” Wen Qiwu said, conjuring her usual smile to mask the bitterness in her heart.
“Chirp!” A white fluffball with a touch of green suddenly plummeted from the sky, nearly colliding with Yun Heng. But how could a mere bird-ball of the Heart-Contemplation Realm hope to catch Yun Heng—who was in the True Immortal Realm—by surprise? Before it could even touch her, she caught it in her hand.
The ruffled bird-ball chirped frantically in her grip, but unfortunately for it, it was not Wen Qiwu and could not make Yun Heng’s heart soften.
The bird’s name was Qingtuan. It had flown in from outside the sect a long time ago and settled on Yunwu Mountain. When Wen Qiwu was young, she had been pecked by it more than a few times, and the bird often vanished for days on end without a trace.
“So this is where you’ve been.” Wen Qiwu had been searching for it for several days. As she looked at the bird, she quietly reined in her emotions.
Yun Heng did not notice her Shimei’s unusual behavior. Lowering her head, she retrieved a newly crafted birdcage from her storage bag, stuffed Qingtuan inside, and handed the secured cage to Wen Qiwu.
“The birdcage I promised to craft for you before. It can trap any entity below the Golden Immortal Realm.”
“Golden Immortal?” Wen Qiwu was somewhat astonished. “Qingtuan is only at the Heart-Contemplation Realm. Isn’t using this as its birdcage a bit of a waste?”
“It’s not a waste. Just consider it an extra artifact for self-defense.” Yun Heng spoke as though she were merely describing another toy. In truth, Wen Qiwu possessed quite a few such “toys”; if anyone else were to see them, they would likely weep from sheer envy.
“I’ll teach you how to use it when we return. Also, did Elder Lu snatch any of your chestnut cakes after I left?”
Wen Qiwu nodded at once, tattling playfully like a spoiled child. “Elder Lu told me to save a couple of extra pieces for her.”
The corners of Yun Heng’s lips seemed to curve upward ever so slightly, though it was difficult to tell for certain. “I must head to the Eclipse Secret Realm soon and won’t return for a month. I’ll prepare some extra pastries in advance. Hide them well, and don’t let her find them.”
Her Shijie’s voice was exceedingly close, her seemingly cold tone carrying a warmth reserved solely for her. The fragile psychological defense Wen Qiwu had painstakingly constructed was pierced once more, causing her heart to beat slightly out of control yet again.
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