After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 49
by Little PandaDoubt Arises
Her silhouette gradually overlapped with her shijie’s
“Fellow Daoist Wen, I’ve rested enough. Let’s keep moving forward. With so many corpses here, I’m afraid they might attract other things.” Yu Hengwei’s taut posture relaxed only slightly when she saw Wen Qiwu return.
But upon catching the faint probing edge beneath Wen Qiwu’s gentle smile, Yu Hengwei’s hands tightened again unconsciously.
“All right, but please don’t push yourself too hard, Fellow Daoist Yu.” Yu Hengwei’s complexion remained pale—it was difficult not to worry.
“I’m not pushing myself. That was just an old ailment of mine. It’s nothing.” At Yu Hengwei’s insistence, Wen Qiwu agreed.
As they walked, Wen Qiwu devoted a fraction more attention to Yu Hengwei—partly out of concern for her condition, partly because of the doubts stirring in her own heart.
Though she had contacted the Medical Immortal, Wen Qiwu hadn’t fully dispelled her misgivings. At the end of it all, she still couldn’t quite believe that her shijie would be so well-behaved.
“Fellow Daoist Yu, might I ask who you’re having Ah Fu search for? I have some connections of my own—perhaps I could be of help.”
At the sound of Wen Qiwu’s voice, Yu Hengwei paused briefly. “It’s… a family member. If Fellow Daoist Gao is unable to find her, then I will certainly come looking for you.”
“Then it’s settled. My name is Wen Qiwu—you can find me at Wenshen Sect when the time comes. Take care of your health, Fellow Daoist Yu. Your family member must worry about you a great deal.”
Yu Hengwei pressed her lips together, then gave a small nod.
Wen Qiwu sighed softly. “My shijie’s situation is rather like yours. She used to be prone to reckless behavior. Even though I’m away from the sect, I can’t stop thinking about it—worrying that she won’t follow the Medical Immortal’s orders, worrying that she might sneak out and do something dangerous. Don’t be like her, Fellow Daoist Yu.”
Yu Hengwei shifted her gaze slightly and gave a quiet murmur of acknowledgment.
The moment her shijie came up, Wen Qiwu seemed to open a floodgate, chattering on at length. From an angle Wen Qiwu couldn’t see, Yu Hengwei grew visibly tense.
“I just hope my shijie truly behaves herself as she promised. Otherwise…” The warmth drained from Wen Qiwu’s tone. She bit down especially hard on those last two words.
“…Otherwise what?” Yu Hengwei’s bloodless lips parted and closed several times before she finally summoned the resolve to ask.
“I haven’t decided yet.” Wen Qiwu blinked, half-smiling. “But my shijie ought to know what’s coming. The things I promised her before are certainly gone now. As for the rest…”
Wen Qiwu gave a short hum of laughter and said no more, but the threat was unmistakable.
“Fellow Daoist Yu? Are you sure you can keep going? Your complexion seems to have worsened again.” Wen Qiwu looked at Yu Hengwei and noticed she had grown even paler.
Yu Hengwei hastily shook her head, insisting she was fine and that they should hurry on.
Reach this journey’s goal sooner, and then… go home sooner.
The demon packs they encountered on the road were not limited to the group from before. The two focused on fighting their way through, and the brief interlude was temporarily forgotten.
Around the halfway point of their journey, Wen Qiwu suddenly spotted a vortex forming in the distant, overcast sky. A tornado-like current was taking shape below—but the airflow carried not just wind, but all manner of demonic creatures and vengeful ghosts.
These things were being sucked into the center of the current. She could faintly see something on the verge of being born within. The air hummed with the resonance of clashing metal. Having devoured so many foul things, whatever emerged would likely be a top-tier Demonic Artifact the moment it was born.
“Someone is using demon souls to forge an artifact.” Yu Hengwei’s Divine Sense swept over the group of demon cultivators ahead. “They’re from the Demon Realm.”
The Endless Tree Sea had truly become a prime treasure land for the Demon Realm’s people of late—whether for cultivation or artifact forging, everything was twice as effective here. Quite a few demon cultivators must have poured in during this period.
“That person appears to be Bone-Eroding Demon Lord.” Bone-Eroding Demon Lord possessed ten thousand skins, but only his skeletal frame never changed. Yu Hengwei could faintly discern the traces of the Demon Lord’s bones on the lead demon cultivator.
Wen Qiwu still remembered how Bone-Eroding Demon Lord had attempted a second raid on Yunwu Mountain. She had long wanted to find an opportunity to “return the favor.” Of course, more importantly, she couldn’t allow a Demonic Artifact of this caliber to come into existence—the stronger the Demonic Artifact, the more blood it required upon birth. If this weapon entered the world, it would surely leave another swath of devastation in its wake. So the vindictive little phoenix drew her bow, nocked an arrow, and loosed a single shot straight into the center of the fiend embryo.
A fiend embryo on the verge of completion didn’t simply fail when destroyed—all the power accumulated to forge the weapon would detonate simultaneously.
“Run!” Wen Qiwu immediately tried to pull Yu Hengwei and fly in the opposite direction, but Yu Hengwei reacted faster than she did. The moment the arrow was loosed, she had already wrapped her arm around Wen Qiwu and surged away.
Rumble! A burst of white light erupted across heaven and earth, and then berserk force tore everything in the vicinity to shreds.
The Demonic Artifact on the verge of birth let out its final wail of anguish as the last flicker of its nascent weapon spirit consciousness was extinguished. The various demonic creatures and evil ghosts that had been summoned into that space were likewise destroyed by the shockwave of the explosion.
After the blast, the sky returned to a clear expanse.
But someone’s mood was decidedly less clear than the sky.
“WHO WAS IT?!” Bone-Eroding Demon Lord’s furious roar reverberated across heaven and earth. His flesh had been blown away, leaving only stark white bone, but he couldn’t spare a thought for the pain in his body—because the pain in his heart was worse!
He had spent centuries forging that fiend embryo, and now, at the very final step, someone had destroyed it. How could he not be consumed with hatred!
“Pity. Didn’t kill him.” Wen Qiwu expressed a moment of regret.
Bone-Eroding Demon Lord scoured the area for the culprit. Just as Yu Hengwei was about to act, another furious voice rang out from afar.
“Is it you filthy things who have disturbed the Phoenix Lord’s resting place?!” A streak of cyan flame tore across the sky, and the pressure of the Golden Immortal Realm swept forth.
The newcomer was Qingluan King—and she was not alone. Several more auras were pressing in from nearby.
This place was the Feather Tribe’s sacred ground. To see it reduced to such a polluted state filled the birds with boundless fury—and Bone-Eroding Demon Lord’s activities were essentially a confession in themselves. How could the Feather Tribe kings not be enraged?
Qingluan King’s wings whipped up a hurricane and Luan Fire. Caught off guard, Bone-Eroding Demon Lord found flames clinging to his bones.
Qingluan King’s flames were exceptionally tyrannical—once they clung to you, they were nearly impossible to shake off. Bone-Eroding Demon Lord made a split-second decision and severed the burning bones to stop the fire from spreading further.
Qingluan King’s attacks followed in relentless succession. That stretch of sky was dyed cyan. Though Bone-Eroding Demon Lord was powerful, he had just been wounded by the explosion and quickly found himself at a disadvantage. Surrounded by so many Golden Immortal Realm Feather Tribe kings, even with hatred dripping from his heart, the Demon Lord had no choice but to retreat for now.
“Bah! Does that Demon Realm brat really think we’re pushovers? Back when we followed Her Majesty in suppressing the Demon Realm, he was nothing but a bone fragment buried who knows where!” Qingluan King spat.
【All right, the Phoenix Lord Tomb is more important. Set the Demon Realm business aside for now.】 Bifang King spoke up.
“Right.” Qingluan King suppressed the fury in her heart. Her Majesty’s matters took priority.
She beat her wings and flew off into the distance, not noticing the two people nearby.
But her not noticing didn’t mean the other birds hadn’t seen. For instance, Bifang King, who had just urged her to leave. After Qingluan King departed, she transformed into a red-robed woman and landed before Wen Qiwu and Yu Hengwei, greeting them with a radiant smile.
Calling it a greeting between two people was generous—her gaze never left Wen Qiwu.
“How should I address you two?” Bifang King didn’t look down on them despite her far higher cultivation. If anything, she radiated an indefinable sense of fondness.
Yu Hengwei had witnessed this many times already on their journey—only those had been in bird form, while this one was human-shaped.
She stepped forward half a pace, smoothly and unobtrusively positioning herself between Wen Qiwu and the newcomer. If it had been an ordinary bird, she might have endured it. But this one…
“My surname is Wen, and this Fellow Daoist’s surname is Yu.” Wen Qiwu was finding it a bit difficult to withstand Bifang King’s enthusiasm. It was a good thing Yu Hengwei had stepped in to shield her.
“Little Friend Wen, you’re Feather Tribe, aren’t you?” Bifang King looked her up and down. This Little Friend Wen had concealed her aura remarkably well—even she couldn’t say for certain whether the girl was demon or human.
“…I am.”
No wonder she felt such an instinctive fondness for her—truly a child of the Feather Tribe! The warmth in Bifang King’s eyes softened further.
“Which lineage are you from? Don’t you have elders accompanying you?” Bifang King seemed rather eager, as though the moment Wen Qiwu said no, she would whisk the girl back to her own clan in a heartbeat.
She would dress it up as “protection,” of course—but whether she ever returned the girl would be a matter for the girl’s elders to negotiate in person.
A glint of coldness entered Yu Hengwei’s eyes. Sure enough—the Feather Tribe kings all took an interest in her.
Bifang King chatted at length about this and that with Wen Qiwu, showing no inclination to leave at all—quite as though she hadn’t been the one just urging Qingluan King to depart.
“Bifang King, the Feather Tribe Trial is about to begin. If you don’t go now, you’ll be late.” As Bifang King inched ever closer to Wen Qiwu, Yu Hengwei couldn’t stop herself from resting her hand on her sword hilt. That single small gesture, falling into Wen Qiwu’s eyes, made her freeze for an instant.
“Oh, my memory! Are you here for the trial too? Shall I take you there?” The trial here was a task set by the Feather Tribe kings for the younger generation—its purpose was to observe changes within the Phoenix Lord Tomb, and ideally to locate the Phoenix Lord’s remains.
“…Thank you for your kind offer, but we still have some other matters to attend to, so we plan to make our own way there.” Wen Qiwu replied immediately after collecting herself.
What a polite, obedient, and well-behaved child—far more pleasing to the eye than the ones at her own place! So even after being refused, Bifang King felt an inexplicable surge of delight.
After politely declining Bifang King’s offer, Wen Qiwu stole a glance at Yu Hengwei. Perhaps once the seed of suspicion was planted, doubt came all too easily—this Fellow Daoist Yu’s small gestures were overlapping with her shijie’s silhouette once again.
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