After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 56

Entrustment

If she were not dead, she would never have entrusted her daughter to you so easily.

At the sound of Wen Qiwu’s cry of “Mother,” the Qingluan King, who had just been about to land, stumbled headlong into the pile of bones beside her.

            

The shock in Yun Heng’s eyes was no less than the birds’. This Phoenix Lord was Ah Que’s mother?

No wonder their phoenix forms looked so alike.

Wait!

            

Yun Heng thought of Qingtuan, who had just flown into the stone tablet, which meant… she was the Phoenix Lord?!

The realization froze Yun Heng on the spot. Hesitation and nervousness surfaced in her eyes. Never mind all those times she had shut Qingtuan up in a cage back on Yunwu Mountain — decades ago, when she had nearly torn this place apart, she had even threatened the Phoenix Lord…

If she had known the Phoenix Lord was Ah Que’s mother, she would never have been so reckless. By now, the Phoenix Lord’s impression of her was probably not a good one.

            

Disbelief filled the birds’ eyes — especially those of the Qingluan King, the most senior among the kings. She had always insisted, with absolute certainty, that the Phoenix Lord had no offspring, and now the younger generation was already casting doubtful looks her way.

“You… you… When was the Little Highness born? We never knew… All these years, we failed to care for her…” The Qingluan King had served at the Phoenix Lord’s side the longest, and her self-reproach ran deepest.

【She was born in turbulent times. Only days after her birth, an accident nearly took her life. By then my body had already perished, leaving behind only this wisp of a remnant soul. I had no choice but to leave her here to be raised, so there was never a chance to tell you. You need not blame yourself.】 The Phoenix Lord’s voice sounded faintly ethereal. Her wing brushed gently over Wen Qiwu’s head — the remnant soul could gather only the weakest impression of substance, and to Wen Qiwu it felt like a current of warm wind sweeping over her head.

            

“An accident? It must have been those despicable Demon Realm vermin!” The Qingluan King’s fury shattered the bones all around her. The only period the Phoenix Lord could have called the most turbulent was the Immortal-Demon War, ten thousand years ago.

Back then, the Phoenix Lord had often gone off alone to the most dangerous battlefields, gone for years at a stretch. But for demons of their level, a few years was nothing more than the blink of an eye¹. No one had ever imagined that the Phoenix Lord had given birth to a daughter in those years.

If they had known she had left behind an unhatched phoenix egg, the Feather Tribe would likely have dug through the entire Cangwang Realm, searching every last inch of it! But on second thought, the Qingluan King decided that would not have been safe either. Phoenixes shared a bloodline bond with the Feather Tribe, which was why they were naturally drawn to phoenixes — but the other demon races would not necessarily welcome the birth of a little phoenix. If the Phoenix Lord had a daughter, the vacant throne of Shiling Domain would have an heir, and how could those races possibly bow their heads in willing submission a second time?

            

It was just a pity the Little Highness had suffered so much for it.

【The Demon Realm meant to ambush me back then, but something went wrong with their plan, and it was my daughter who was hurt instead.】 The Phoenix Lord lowered her gaze to Wen Qiwu, whose eyes shimmered with tears, and asked, 【Qiwu, do you remember what happened then?】

A phoenix could sense the world outside even while still inside its egg, but Wen Qiwu’s memories were a tangled mess. For the moment she could not recall what had happened, and when she forced herself to try, all she could feel was a fear carved deep into her soul.

            

Buried in her mother’s feathers, Wen Qiwu trembled faintly. She shook her head — she could not remember.

【Then don’t try. It was nothing important anyway.】 The Phoenix Lord patted her head. It was all in the past now; if her daughter had forgotten, so much the better — spared from remembering those wretched things.

“But… Mother, why did I awaken inside a human body?” As Wen Qiwu gradually absorbed the Phoenix Clan’s inheritance memories, she had slowly come to realize that this was not simply a matter of being resurrected in a phoenix’s body. She shared countless invisible ties with this body, while that human body, by contrast, had always sat ill upon her.

            

【Not long after you were born, you met with that accident, and it scattered your soul. I did everything I could to gather the pieces back and return them to your egg, but the most important strand — your main soul — was gone without a trace. Only much later did I discover that it had gone off to reincarnate. I could not leave this place, so all I could do was wait for your main soul to be born, then find a way to call the rest of your soul back to it.】 The Endless Tree Sea was far more dangerous, and the Phoenix Lord’s remnant soul could not leave the phoenix egg. So she had shaped an avatar from her own feathers and blood — Qingtuan — and sent it out to find the reincarnation of her daughter’s main soul.

Qingtuan carried the Phoenix Lord’s power, but its wits were limited, and its temperament was more like the Phoenix Lord’s own in her youth. Only when Wen Qiwu’s main soul returned and she broke free of the egg — only when the Phoenix Lord no longer needed to guard it — did she occasionally descend upon Qingtuan in truth.

The Phoenix Lord had originally expected her daughter’s main soul to return within a few years, but the years stretched on and on, and the process took far longer than she had imagined. She had never counted on her daughter meeting a shijie like Yun Heng, who had poured every rare treasure under heaven into raising her with the utmost care. If not for the Ten Thousand Souls Demon Lord’s attack on the sect, Wen Qiwu’s return to her true body would likely have been delayed even further.

            

The Phoenix Lord glanced at Yun Heng, who looked exceptionally tense beside her. Though she had her grievances about certain matters, this human’s devotion to her daughter was truly beyond reproach.

“Soul-summoning²… so what I had before wasn’t Spirit-Dispersing Syndrome after all?” Understanding dawned on Wen Qiwu, dissolving an old doubt. She had wondered before — an illness like hers should have been bound to the soul itself; there was no reason it would vanish simply because she changed bodies. Unless she had never had Spirit-Dispersing Syndrome at all.

【Of course not. It only resembled the illness because your soul was returning to its true body, bit by bit.】 The Phoenix Lord lowered her head and smoothed Wen Qiwu’s tousled hair, the way a mother bird preens her chick’s feathers. This was the first time she had ever groomed her daughter — and it would likely be the last. So she was exceptionally thorough.

            

Once her daughter was neat and tidy, the Phoenix Lord opened her beak and produced a pearl wreathed in a soft, luminous flame.

【This is the Purifying Flame Pearl you sought. Keep it safe.】 The Phoenix Lord nudged the pearl into Wen Qiwu’s hands.

The moment it settled into her palms, the filth in the surrounding air dispersed.

            

“Thank you, Mother!” Cradling the pearl, Wen Qiwu broke into an especially sweet smile.

The Phoenix Lord’s eyes curved with warmth. Her daughter was sweet and well-behaved, nothing at all like the foul-tempered creature she herself had been as a hatchling. If not for that Immortal-Demon War… why would she ever have to entrust her darling Little Dumpling to someone else?

This time, the Phoenix Lord looked up at Yun Heng without bothering to hide it. Yun Heng’s hands clenched of their own accord. Her face betrayed nothing, but the sudden quickening of her heartbeat gave her away.

            

“Phoenix Lord.” There was respect in Yun Heng’s voice. She was straining to leave a good impression on Ah Que’s mother.

【You must heal quickly. Don’t make her worry again.】

Yun Heng assented. The Phoenix Lord’s comparatively gentle tone eased a little of the tension from her.

            

The Phoenix Lord’s eyes narrowed slightly. 【I know everything that has passed between you two over these years. If I were still alive, I would never hand my daughter over to you so easily.】

But she was already dead. She knew full well what covetous eyes an immature little phoenix would draw. Having searched the world over, the Phoenix Lord had concluded that Yun Heng was still the one best suited to raise a phoenix.

Though at this point, it was hard to say who was raising whom — this human child looked like the one in need of looking after. Still, her daughter would surely be safest at Yun Heng’s side, and she trusted the woman would protect her daughter with everything she had.

            

Qingtuan had witnessed every last detail of their years together. Yun Heng held no illusions that the Phoenix Lord was unaware of the times she had made Ah Que sad. She had never been one for honeyed phrases; the only proof of her sincerity she could think of was to swear an oath to the Heavenly Dao.

If she broke such an oath, the Heavenly Dao would destroy her path of cultivation entirely — even for an immortal, that was a grievously heavy oath.

She only wondered whether the Phoenix Lord could grasp that what she felt for her shimei was no ordinary bond between martial sisters, but… a wish to marry her. Yet Yun Heng dared not say it too plainly — not for her own sake, but for fear that the Phoenix Lord, in her current state, could not withstand the shock.

            

The more the Phoenix Lord watched her fidgeting, anxious demeanor, the more amusing she found it. As if she did not already know the tangle of feelings between those two! But the demon races had none of the human race’s excessive moral strictures to torment themselves with. As far as she was concerned, so long as her daughter was happy, and the other party was no one who would ever betray her, that was enough.

A moment later, Yun Heng’s cold, distant eyes suddenly widened. As her thoughts turned, she grasped the meaning beneath the Phoenix Lord’s words!

The Phoenix Lord had said that if she were alive, she would not easily entrust Ah Que to her. But… the Phoenix Lord now had only a wisp of a remnant soul left, one that could fade at any moment. Which meant… she meant to entrust Ah Que to her?

            

A light kindled abruptly in her taut expression, like the first thaw of thin snow on Yunwu Mountain — and Wen Qiwu, sneaking a glance, lost herself in the sight.

“Rest assured. I will take good care of Ah Que.” Yun Heng’s grave, earnest manner was utterly convincing, and the Phoenix Lord felt a measure of relief.

Wen Qiwu gave a soft little humph. Buried in her mother’s feathers, she muttered under her breath, “I don’t need looking after. Shijie would do better to look after herself.”

            

The Phoenix Lord looked down at her daughter with a smile, then swept a wing around and tucked her snugly into her feathers. 【She has a point. If you cannot even care for yourself, how am I to believe anything else you say?】

Yun Heng hastened to admit her fault, promising that once they returned she would properly recuperate and do as Wen Qiwu said. The Phoenix Lord had only meant to tease — she had never expected that the moment she shielded her daughter, Yun Heng would panic so.

No wonder her daughter liked her. The human was a bit wooden, but great fun to tease — and beautiful, too. The Phoenix Lord had seen many lovely people and demons in her time, yet a beauty like Yun Heng was a rare sight.

            

Having gathered a wealth of promises, the Phoenix Lord’s gaze on Yun Heng softened a little. Before, her daughter had been far too passive with her shijie — the sort who trips and falls in matters of the heart. Now the tables had turned³; her daughter had grown some spine. Blood of her blood, after all — she would not lose too badly in love.

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