After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 40
by Little PandaNever Parting
She now cannot bear to leave Wen Qiwu for even a moment
“Fellow Daoist, I would like to speak with you about the Endless Tree Sea.” After packing away her medical kit, Medical Immortal thought it over and decided to offer a reminder. Whether the other woman listened was beyond her control.
Wen Qiwu understood the implication—Medical Immortal wanted to speak with her alone. She tucked the covers around her shijie, then rose to leave.
Yet the moment she stood, her hem was caught. Wen Qiwu looked down and found her shijie’s gaze brimming with unease.
“Ah Que… where are you going?” Yun Heng could not bear to let Wen Qiwu out of her sight for even a single moment now.
Medical Immortal’s heart sank at those words. She grew ever more certain of her conjecture—this girl was truly being treated by Yun Heng as Wen Qiwu.
“I will be right back. I will be standing just outside the door, not going far.” Wen Qiwu patted the back of her hand reassuringly.
The look Yun Heng directed at her shimei was gentle, but that did not mean Medical Immortal would receive similar treatment. In those few short breaths, Medical Immortal felt as though Yun Heng’s gaze had subjected her to death by a thousand cuts—as if she were some villain trying to abduct this girl.
…Never mind—she would not stoop to the level of a patient consumed by a heart demon! Especially one so powerful. Reasoning was futile, and fighting was out of the question.
Medical Immortal pushed the door open and stepped out. Her expression was composed, but her stride carried a hint of haste.
“Creak…” The instant the door opened, Medical Immortal found herself subjected to numerous stares. Traces of the Feather Tribe1 lurked beneath the eaves, in distant trees, and everywhere in between.
She could not see the more distant ones clearly, but those beneath the eaves were plain enough. When she opened the door, they had all swiveled their heads toward her in unison—and upon realizing it was her, these birds collectively revealed expressions of distaste.
Medical Immortal had no idea how she managed to read disdain in a bunch of feathers. Her lips twitched, and she walked on.
When Wen Qiwu emerged, the birds beneath the eaves erupted in crisp, joyful song. Medical Immortal glanced back—the contrast was almost absurd.
Wen Qiwu nodded in greeting, and the birds seemed so thrilled they nearly took flight on the spot. She raised a hand and waved, signaling them to clear the area for now. The nearby birds obeyed at once, vacating the premises.
“Please do not mind her, Medical Immortal. She is just… somewhat worried about me.” Noticing her shijie’s earlier behavior, Wen Qiwu could only offer Medical Immortal a helpless apology once outside.
“It is fine. Her heart demon runs deep, and some things are beyond her control. I will not take it personally.” For patients of this sort, Medical Immortal could afford a measure of grace.
But the latter half of Wen Qiwu’s remark gave her pause. Worried about her? Was Yun Heng truly worried about her? Or about the familiar shadow she carried?
“Heart demon…” Wen Qiwu murmured. It was not merely her shijie’s heart demon—it was her own heart’s affliction as well.
“Immortal Venerable Yun Heng’s heart demon has progressed to a very severe stage. Her emotions, her feelings, her very perception will be twisted. She may not even see you as you are now, but as the person she obsesses over in her heart.” Medical Immortal had made the point plain enough that even the most oblivious could understand.
“Can a heart demon twist one’s feelings?” A flicker of sorrow crossed Wen Qiwu’s eyes. “Medical Immortal, do you think someone afflicted by a heart demon could twist guilt into love?”
“…It is hard to say. Such a thing has happened before, ultimately producing a resentful couple2. But heart demons manifest differently in each person, so I dare not speak in absolutes,” Medical Immortal said.
Resentful couple…
Wen Qiwu’s lips pressed together thinly. At those two words, her face paled. Medical Immortal regarded her with some pity and said, “The Immortal Venerable once had a shimei who passed away a century ago. Her death is the Immortal Venerable’s heart’s affliction, and you… resemble her somewhat.”
“She seems to have mistaken you for her. Fortunately, that is why she has been willing to accept treatment instead of day after day… So for now, we can only play along with her. I may need to impose on you for a while.” They had all seen Yun Heng’s condition—if she could not be stabilized, she might truly take her own life one day. With this girl present, perhaps they could keep her steady for the time being.
But acting was acting—she absolutely must not lose herself in the role, or Medical Immortal would end up treating two heart demon patients instead of one.
“I still don’t know how to address you, Fellow Daoist?” Medical Immortal suddenly realized that in all the chaos, she had forgotten to ask this girl’s name.
Lost in her own thoughts, Wen Qiwu did not hear her. It was not until Medical Immortal called out twice that she came back to herself.
“My surname is Wen… given name Qiwu.”
“So it is Fellow Daoist Wen. You are a demon cultivator, are you not? I—” Wait, what was her name?!
Medical Immortal’s voice froze. Her eyes went wide—she had never been so rude, yet the moment that name left the other woman’s lips, she staggered back two steps in shock.
What had she said her name was?
“Medical Immortal…” Wen Qiwu offered a smile that could not quite be called pleasant. “I nearly forgot to tell you—it has been a century. I don’t know if you still remember me.”
“…” Medical Immortal stood stunned for a long time. When she recovered, she strode forward and seized Wen Qiwu’s wrist. A thread of gentle power flowed into her body to examine her soul.
The previous incident where “Lu Qiaoyi” had infiltrated the sect as a demon cultivator had caused an uproar. The various sects of the immortal realm had all strengthened their methods for identifying spies. Medical Immortal dared not be careless—if this woman were a spy from the Demon Realm, then letting her anywhere near Yun Heng would be far too dangerous.
The danger was not to Yun Heng alone, but to all innocent living beings across the Cangwang Realm! If someone from the Demon Realm gained control of an Immortal Venerable who had fallen into madness and demonic corruption, it would not be long before the Cangwang Realm was entirely consumed by the Demon Realm.
Medical Immortal examined her step by step with meticulous care. She had managed Wen Qiwu’s condition for decades and was intimately familiar with her soul. Whether this was truly her, Medical Immortal could tell at a glance.
And the result—aside from being healthier, this soul’s power was identical to that of the girl from before.
“How—how are you alive?!” Disbelief filled Medical Immortal’s voice. It was only when a gaze from the room nearby froze her hands stiff that she had to release Wen Qiwu’s shoulder.
“I am not entirely sure how I survived either. Perhaps… what I suffered from in the beginning was never that illness.” As she came into contact with more and more Inheritance Memories, Wen Qiwu harbored a vague suspicion—her soul might never have belonged to that previous body in the first place. But this conjecture could not yet be verified.
“Medical Immortal, let us set my matters aside for now. Tell me about the Endless Tree Sea first. The passage there is about to close, and I must hurry over.”
As a healer who had saved lives for thousands of years, what Medical Immortal wanted most right now was to tie this person down and study her thoroughly. Alas, the person nearby was watching too closely—there was no way to steal her away.
“Very well, time is indeed pressing…” Medical Immortal could only suppress her curiosity and explained the matter of the Phoenix Lord Tomb to Wen Qiwu.
In ancient times, the Demon Emperor shot down the Demon Lord and slew the True Demon. Before its death, the True Demon erupted with a terrifying curse that would have engulfed the entire Cangwang Realm.
The Demon Emperor burned her own soul, incinerating the True Demon and its curse together. The Demon Emperor possessed a treasure pearl called the Purifying Flame Pearl, and it was through this pearl that she burned the True Demon’s curse away completely.
To eradicate the curses imposed by the Heavenly Dao, the only recourse was to obtain the Phoenix Lord’s Purifying Flame Pearl.
“The vicinity of the Phoenix Lord Tomb is extremely dangerous. Ordinary Golden Immortal Realm cultivators would not dare set foot there lightly. Your identity is unique, so perhaps it will be somewhat easier for you, but you must be careful,” Medical Immortal said.
This child had “passed away,” only to return as a phoenix. It had been a very long time since a new phoenix was born in the Cangwang Realm. Ever since the Demon Emperor’s death, everyone had assumed the Ancestral Phoenix bloodline had gone extinct. Who could have imagined that a little phoenix still remained hidden in this world?
With a phoenix’s descent, the vacant imperial throne in Shiling Domain might finally have an heir. But the other demon clans had long since grown wild at heart—there would surely be no shortage of turmoil ahead.
“I will—” Before Wen Qiwu could finish, the door of the nearby room was shoved open. Yun Heng emerged draped in a thin outer robe, her face pale as paper. Her increasingly frail frame could not fill out the garment, leaving it hanging loosely, almost empty.
Wen Qiwu hurried over to support her.
“Where are you going? I will come with you.” Yun Heng panted softly, gripping Wen Qiwu’s hand and refusing to let go, as though terrified her shimei would vanish again.
Her eyes still carried the fear left over from a century ago. She dared not let her shimei stray too far, terrified of repeating the tragedy of the past.
“I am going to the Endless Tree Sea to find something. I used to live there, so I am familiar with it. Do not worry about me. Stay here at the sect and focus on recovering.”
Yun Heng’s lips moved slightly. How could she possibly let her shimei go alone to such a dangerous place?
Seeing her shijie about to reveal that pitiful expression that would soften her heart, Wen Qiwu swiftly covered her eyes.
“Be good. This time, stay at the sect and heal properly. I will go retrieve the Purifying Flame Pearl.” Wen Qiwu felt her shijie’s long lashes sweep across her palm again and again.
“And then… think about how you will answer my question when I return.” Wen Qiwu deliberately left her shijie with a problem to solve.
Yun Heng’s lashes trembled. The woman who had been so insistent on following her shimei fell silent, her entire being seemingly cloaked in an emotion called grievance.
Her shimei still refused to call her shijie—she must still be angry.
But that was the Endless Tree Sea. The Phoenix Lord Tomb… Medical Immortal certainly knew how to pick a place. The Demon Lord and the True Demon had both died there, and their lingering obsessions still roamed the Phoenix Lord Tomb. How could her shimei go alone to such a dangerous place?
0 Comments