After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie

After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 50

by Little Panda

Phoenix Lord Tomb

Wen Qiwu is forcibly buried in a patch of softness, unable to move

【King, the trial grounds are only waiting for you.】 A Bifang bird spiraled down from the sky, reporting on the situation at the trial grounds while sneaking glances toward Wen Qiwu.

“I know.” Bifang King furrowed her brow slightly. Though reluctant, if she did not show up, the youngsters of her clan would not be able to enter the trial grounds. It seemed she would have to hurry over first.

【King, who is she?】 The Bifang bird who had come to deliver the message regarded Wen Qiwu with curiosity shining in eyes like rubies. For some reason, she had an overwhelming urge to nuzzle up to that beautiful “human.”

Bifang King curved her lovely eyes and said, “A child from another clan.”

“Here, take this.” Bifang King placed a feather-shaped token in Wen Qiwu’s hand. With it, she could come and go freely within Bifang Clan territory. “You are welcome to visit the Bifang Clan anytime.”

After handing over the token, Bifang King dragged along the other Bifang bird, who could not seem to tear herself away, and headed toward the trial grounds. Gradually, from her clan member’s persistent distraction, Bifang King noticed something she herself had overlooked just moments ago.

“What are you thinking about?”

“About that Feather Tribe member just now…” the Bifang bird answered reflexively.

Bifang King looked back at her clansman, her expression growing thoughtful. “You also like that child?”

The Bifang bird, hovering half a step behind her, nearly tumbled out of the sky. She stammered incoherently, “N-no, no, I… actually I… just felt a bit of an urge to get close to her. Right, that is all it is!”

Precisely because it was that simple, that child must be hiding quite a secret!

Bifang King had initially assumed she simply felt some fondness for the child. But if that child drew not only herself but other Feather Tribe members as well, then she would have to carefully weigh what this affinity truly meant.

In the past, only the Phoenix Clan could make all birds feel an instinctive closeness rooted in their bloodline. But Bifang King was relatively young among the Feather Tribe kings—she had never seen a phoenix and did not know that such attraction stemmed from bloodline.

It just so happened she had left a token on the girl. Once the trial was over, she would have nothing pressing to attend to, and she could investigate personally.

Wen Qiwu held the token, gazing in the direction Bifang King had departed, seemingly lost in thought.

Naturally, what occupied her mind had nothing to do with Bifang King. It was about… her shijie’s little habits when drawing her sword.

Most people would assume that sword cultivators’ grips on their hilts could not differ much from one another. Yet every person had their own subtle quirks—quirks the sword cultivators themselves might not even be aware of, detectable only by someone familiar enough with them to notice such details.

Having accompanied her shijie’s sword practice every single day since childhood, how could Wen Qiwu not be intimately familiar with them?

When enough coincidences piled up, they were no longer coincidences. Wen Qiwu thought she ought to take the initiative and try to uncover the secret Fellow Daoist Yu was hiding.

“Fellow Daoist Wen.”

Wen Qiwu suddenly felt a gentle tug on her sleeve. Only then did she notice the somewhat nervous expression on the person beside her. How to describe it… it was the same insecurity she had often seen on her shijie after returning—as though she feared that the moment she let go, Wen Qiwu would leave.

Wen Qiwu’s heart softened, and she instinctively wanted to reassure her. But then she remembered that this person was “Yu Hengwei,” not “shijie.” The words she had been about to say were swallowed back down.

Right. Her shijie needed her comfort, but Fellow Daoist Yu certainly did not. After all, they were not even close. Wen Qiwu gave a soft inward hmph.

If it were her shijie… well, she would not be getting any comfort from her right now either!

“Bifang King has already left. Shall we set off too?” Yu Hengwei spoke as though she had drunk a bowl of vinegar¹, her tone carrying a faint sourness.

Wen Qiwu’s gaze fell on the jade fingers still holding her sleeve. The curve of her lips was barely perceptible before she parted her red lips slightly and said, “All right.”

The Feather Tribe trial grounds were near the Phoenix Lord Tomb. The Feather Tribe kings were likely not entirely ignorant of the tomb’s location, but in all these years, no one had been able to enter. The Feather Tribe could only observe the tomb’s condition from the outside.

Yu Hengwei, however, led Wen Qiwu around the trial grounds and headed straight for the spatial rift where the Phoenix Lord Tomb lay.

The closer they drew to the Phoenix Lord Tomb, the more treacherous the surroundings became. The fiends and vengeful ghosts roaming the earth were no longer the minor fodder that a single arrow could dispatch by the dozen. Before the Phoenix Lord had slain and suppressed them, they had been renowned overlords of their respective domains. Some had even been at the True Immortal Realm in life. Now, even dead and reduced to little more than residue, they remained exceedingly troublesome entities.

Who knew what had happened to make these things, once firmly suppressed, all crawl out.

Wen Qiwu and Yu Hengwei’s pace was slowed by them. For some reason, from the very start, Yu Hengwei had prioritized protecting Wen Qiwu above all else. Her attacks were measured and methodical—a far cry from her earlier rampage through the mist, slaughtering monsters without restraint.

“Fellow Daoist Yu, is something amiss nearby?” Wen Qiwu had noticed Yu Hengwei’s constant vigilance, her reluctance to fully commit to offense. Was there something here that warranted such wariness?

“Look ahead. That corpse in the gold-threaded black robe—do you see it? I suspect it is one of the Demon Lords slain by the Demon Emperor back then. Legend has it that the weakest of the Demon Lords from that era was at least at the early True Immortal Realm.” Yu Hengwei looked at the Demon Lord’s remains mixed among the fiends and vengeful ghosts.

“True Immortal Realm…” Even if it were merely a corpse dead for ten thousand years, the moment those three words were spoken, Wen Qiwu had to steel herself with full vigilance.

“Do not be afraid. The Demon Emperor did not simply suppress them back then. Over ten thousand years, their strength has been depleted to less than one in ten. They are not truly formidable.”

I will protect you, Yu Hengwei thought to herself.

She pierced several lunging monsters with ice needles. Her voice, though not exceptionally gentle, carried a reassuring strength.

No monster could get close to Wen Qiwu. Those that dared approach were reduced to ice shards. Yu Hengwei protected her impeccably, while Wen Qiwu cooperated by shooting down distant fiends, lightening Yu Hengwei’s burden.

“But… there is something else that worries me.” Yu Hengwei furrowed her brow, her tone turning grave. “The Demon Emperor also suppressed a True Demon of the same God Realm. Now that all these things have broken free, I do not know whether the remains of that God Realm True Demon have stirred.”

The remains of a True Immortal Realm entity she could disregard. But to cross another full realm above that…

Yu Hengwei recalled being forcibly ejected from the Phoenix Lord Tomb. The gap between the True Immortal Realm and the God Realm was simply too vast. She dared not take risks.

“A God Realm True Demon… Right. I wonder whether whatever suppresses it has been affected by this upheaval. Let us hope it is truly dead.” A sense of foreboding welled up in Wen Qiwu’s heart. This was no place to linger…

The Phoenix Lord had essentially perished together with that True Demon. The opponent’s strength was not to be underestimated. So even if only residue remained, it was residue of the God Realm—on an entirely different scale from everything else.

Suddenly, the ground beneath Wen Qiwu and Yu Hengwei’s feet heaved with violent tremors. The sensation was just like when the upheaval had struck the Endless Tree Sea before.

But this time, there was no eruption of flame. Instead, the sky went pitch-black in an instant.

When darkness fell, the number of fiends and vengeful ghosts surged. Yu Hengwei’s heart clenched. She could not afford to hold back now—she decided to carve a direct path to the Phoenix Lord Tomb. But if she fought in earnest, she would need her sword.

She pressed Wen Qiwu’s head against her chest, held her close, and activated the Divine Stride Technique. Simultaneously, she drove her sword forward with telekinetic will, forcibly clearing every obstacle in their path.

Wen Qiwu was forcibly buried in a patch of softness, enveloped in a faint, cool fragrance. After a stunned instant, she struggled twice—only to be pressed in even more firmly. She did not dare move after that.

Yu Hengwei searched for the Phoenix Lord Tomb from memory. It had been decades, after all, so navigating took some time.

Eventually, she noticed that the fiends were sparser in one direction, and their numbers dwindled further the deeper they went. Yu Hengwei made an immediate decision and veered toward that area. In the blink of an eye, she brought Wen Qiwu to the base of a cliff piled with rubble.

This was the place.

Yu Hengwei loosened her hold slightly, and the person in her arms immediately pushed her away to one side, gasping for breath. She had not quite realized what had happened until Wen Qiwu caught her breath and, face flushed red, said in a small voice, “That way of holding me… it was a bit stifling.”

Stifling?

Yu Hengwei recalled the position from just now, and then her face burned hot.

“S-sorry. I will be more careful next time.”

As if there will be a next time!

Wen Qiwu’s beautiful eyes shot her a surreptitious glare.

“This is the entrance to the Phoenix Lord Tomb. The fiends will not dare approach for now, but that may not last. Hurry—try to see if you can get in.” Yu Hengwei hastily redirected the conversation to the tomb.

Wen Qiwu mentally noted it down in her little ledger. Now was not the time to settle accounts, though. She would bring it up after they had dealt with matters here and left this dangerous place.

She surveyed the surroundings. It looked utterly ordinary—nothing like a place that would conceal a spatial rift.

“But there is nothing here but a pile of rubble…” No sooner had Wen Qiwu spoken than Yu Hengwei gripped her wrist and pressed her hand against the largest stone.

The instant her palm made contact, a flame phoenix sigil surfaced on the boulder.

Then a vertical spatial rift materialized above the rubble heap. Though they had not entered yet, standing outside was enough to feel the scorching heat radiating from within. This was the entrance to the Phoenix Lord Tomb.

“So it is here!”

Wen Qiwu reached out to test whether she could enter. But before her hand even touched the rift, a sudden force violently repelled it. If Yu Hengwei had not been quick-eyed and swift-handed to block the blow, Wen Qiwu would have suffered a minor injury.

The Phoenix Lord Tomb was rejecting her too?!