After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 7

Events of the Past, Part 6

The first time she had ever made her shijie angry from childhood to adulthood

“Ah Que isn’t really in a position to visit Starfall City as a guest right now. If you wish to find her, you may come directly to Wenshen Sect.” The Immortal Venerable, now coaxed into a slightly less angry state, permitted Wei Xiheng to enter and leave Wenshen Sect freely—but taking the other woman away was out of the question.

            

“Oh, oh, thank you, Immortal Venerable.” Wei Xiheng was simple-hearted and didn’t realize she had just weathered a round of “sword-light and blade-shadows.”

But after Yun Heng’s arrival, she had been frozen into silence. The endless stream of words she’d been saying a moment ago were silently swallowed back down, and the atmosphere cooled considerably.

“Qiwu, you haven’t taken your medicine tonight.” The sky was already growing dark, and Yun Heng reminded her.

            

“Right, I almost forgot. If I don’t go back soon, Elder Lu will come to drag me away. Ah Heng, you can come find me directly at Wanyao Mountain next time.”

“Good! Taking your medicine on time is important. You should go back now!”

Wen Qiwu said her goodbyes to Wei Xiheng, nodded to the other two, and then left together with her shijie.

            

“That Immortal Venerable… lives up to her reputation. Standing in front of her, I could barely breathe.” Lin Shuangyun let out a sigh of relief, but there was also a flicker of excitement in her eyes when she thought of the Immortal Venerable. After all, as fellow sword cultivators, who wouldn’t want guidance from someone like that?

“Ah Que is actually a disciple of Wenshen Sect, and a personal disciple of the former Sect Master at that. It seems I can’t just bring her into Starfall City directly.” Wei Xiheng rested her chin in her hand, lost in thought, still not having given up on her earlier idea.

“Is there any way to make Ah Que join Starfall City legitimately?” she muttered.

            

“There is.” Zuo Lan was still thinking about the Immortal Venerable telling Wen Qiwu to go back and take her medicine. She realized that Wen Qiwu’s physical condition might be more serious than she had imagined. Hearing Wei Xiheng’s muttering, she answered without thinking, “Become her dao partner and marry her into the family. That would be legitimate.”

“…” Zuo Lan suddenly realized she had said the wrong thing. Seeing the look of dawning comprehension on Wei Xiheng’s face, she walked over and knocked on the other girl’s head. “Forget it. Do you even know what a dao partner means? Be careful the City Master doesn’t break your legs.”

But before that, the Immortal Venerable’s sword might fall first.

            

…

When they reached a place with no one around, Yun Heng stopped.

“Shijie?” Wen Qiwu could tell her shijie had something to say to her.

            

Yun Heng looked at her shimei’s innocent, clear eyes, and the certainty in her heart wavered slightly.

“Qiwu…” She hesitated for a moment before speaking. “Did you know the Holy Maiden of Yuxi Sect from long ago?”

The light in Wen Qiwu’s eyes flickered faintly. She sighed inwardly. What was coming couldn’t be avoided. “Mm… we did get to know each other a very long time ago.”

            

Yun Heng pressed her lips together, a hint of displeasure creeping into her expression.

“How long ago is ‘very long’?”

“Right after I broke through to Core Formation.” Starting from Core Formation, every time a cultivator broke through a major realm, they had to undergo both a lightning tribulation and a heart-contemplation trial. In that trial’s illusion, Wen Qiwu had seen her shijie kiss her.

            

She had successfully broken through that time, but the scene in the heart-contemplation illusion had left Wen Qiwu unable to sleep. From then on, she realized her feelings had become strange. Later, by chance, she began exchanging letters with Zuo Lan, and gradually, she finally managed to analyze her own emotions clearly.

Wen Qiwu lowered her head, her fingertips unconsciously twisting the fabric of her robes.

It was as if the heavens had seized on her weakness. After that, every time she broke through a major realm, the scenes that appeared in her heart-contemplation trial were always about her shijie—and each time, they were more… explicit! It was said that the scenes in a heart-contemplation trial revealed what a cultivator most deeply desired. Wen Qiwu stole a glance at her shijie beside her, and then those images uncontrollably surfaced in her mind again.

            

“…” Wen Qiwu hurriedly expelled those explicit visions from her thoughts. If she recalled them any longer, she wouldn’t know how to stand beside her shijie anymore!

Wen Qiwu didn’t realize that as she recalled those memories, a hint of shy tenderness had slipped into her expression—the very picture of a maiden in love. Yun Heng’s expression darkened. That had been decades ago, hadn’t it? Yet her shimei had never once mentioned it to her.

Even the temperature of the Ice Prison had never made Yun Heng feel cold, but now she felt a strange chill spreading from her fingertips upward.

            

The last trace of warmth in the Immortal Venerable’s expression vanished completely. The irritation in her heart was tinged with an unnamed, violent resentment. That Holy Maiden must have deceived her shimei.

“Qiwu, have I ever told you to stay away from her?”

Hearing a tone from her shijie that was colder and harder than she had ever heard before, Wen Qiwu’s fingertips, which had been twisting the fabric, suddenly tightened. A faint pain shot through her, and she looked up to see disappointment in her shijie’s eyes.

            

“Shijie…” Wen Qiwu’s lips, which were always somewhat lacking in color, trembled slightly. This was probably the first time in her life she had ever made her shijie this angry.

The other martial sisters and brothers had inevitably had their share of bumps and scrapes growing up, but the two of them never had. Even when she was young and at her most mischievous, when she did something wrong, her shijie would always patiently teach her how to correct it.

But what had that Holy Maiden done wrong? She had only done what Wen Qiwu herself had never dared to do. Wen Qiwu’s spirits sank, but she still mustered the energy to explain to her shijie that Zuo Lan wasn’t what the outside rumors made her out to be. The other woman’s character was sound, which was why she had some correspondence with her. And their interactions had only been a few letters—they had never been close…

            

Her shijie was only worried that she would be deceived or “led astray” by Zuo Lan. Wen Qiwu thought her explanation would calm her shijie’s anger, but this time, she failed to guess what her shijie was thinking.

The more she spoke, the angrier her shijie seemed to become.

Yun Heng looked away, afraid that the coldness in her eyes would frighten her shimei.

            

If what her shimei said was true, and the world had misunderstood that Holy Maiden, should she allow her shimei to continue associating with her? No, no… who knew if that person was just pretending? Shimei Zhao of Wanyao Mountain had been just as adamant before she came back crying.

At this moment, Yun Heng still didn’t understand that she simply didn’t want her shimei to have any contact with Zuo Lan. Any other reason would be found and used as an excuse to convince herself.

It was as if only this could fill the hollow, empty feeling in her heart.

            

They hadn’t quarreled. Her shijie’s words just now couldn’t even be called a scolding. But on the way back, Wen Qiwu couldn’t manage to say another word to her shijie. That very evening, the teams from the major sects set out for the Eclipse Secret Realm. She saw the birdcage hanging on her door. Her shijie had come, but hadn’t said goodbye to her.

That Holy Maiden had also been taken to the secret realm. It was said she hadn’t originally planned to go, but the Immortal Venerable had paid a visit to the Sect Master of Yuxi Sect, and afterward, the Holy Maiden’s Shizun had cheerfully tied up her disciple and dragged her off to the Eclipse Secret Realm.

“Xiao Que’er? I should be calling you my little ancestor! Be good, take your medicine properly.” Seeing Wen Qiwu’s clouded expression, Lu Qiaoyi coaxed her into drinking the medicine before asking, “What’s wrong? Who made you unhappy?”

            

“I made shijie unhappy.” Wen Qiwu’s voice was low.

“You made your shijie unhappy?” Lu Qiaoyi thought her ears were playing tricks on her, until she saw Wen Qiwu’s increasingly dejected expression and confirmed she hadn’t misheard.

“Don’t worry. Your shijie won’t stay angry at you. She was born with an ice-cold face—she looks unhappy at everyone. When she gets back, I’ll go give her a piece of my mind!” Though they were both her juniors, Lu Qiaoyi favored the well-behaved Wen Ah Que.

            

“This time it really was my fault. Elder, don’t say anything to her.” Hearing that Lu Qiaoyi was going to lecture Yun Heng, Wen Qiwu sat straight up and grabbed her arm.

“Alright, alright. Lie down now. I won’t go talk to your shijie.” Lu Qiaoyi pressed her back down onto the bed.

Only a few days had passed since the team left for the Eclipse Secret Realm, but Wen Qiwu’s complexion had grown much paler than before.

            

On the third day after Yun Heng’s departure, Wen Qiwu suddenly felt something strange in her soul. Her illness had always only caused her soul to feel weak and limp, but that morning, she felt as if her spirit were being roasted over a rack of fire. The pain and the gradual sensation of being devoured by flames slowly tightened their grip on her life force.

“How do you feel today? Has the pain eased at all?” Lu Qiaoyi channeled her own power into the patient’s body to examine her. This time, it was the same helpless feeling of sinking into a quagmire. This was the manifestation of Spirit-Dispersing Syndrome.

“I don’t know. I just feel like my soul is very hot.” Wen Qiwu shook her head weakly.

            

Lu Qiaoyi bit her lower lip until it turned white. She realized this was the precursor to an attack of Wen Qiwu’s illness, and this reaction was more severe than any before.

“Xiao Que’er…” Lu Qiaoyi sat by the bedside, looking at the person whose consciousness was beginning to blur. Her slightly lowered eyes hid complex emotions that others couldn’t read.

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll find a way to keep you alive.”

            

After that brief exchange with the elder that day, Wen Qiwu forgot what happened next. She drifted through the burning pain of the flames in a daze. In her haze, she felt her soul fall into a fire. Pale white flames enveloped her, and her consciousness and strength were gradually drained away by the fire.

Later, she vaguely felt Elder Lu come to say something else. Something was fed to her—it should have been some special medicine. But instead of suppressing the flames, the medicine nourished the pale white fire!

Chaotic sounds came from around her. Someone was saying something anxiously. Then, Wen Qiwu could no longer perceive anything.

            

Her consciousness had almost surrendered to those flames. Fortunately, at the most critical moment, a thread of cold immortal power spread through her body. Shijie…

She couldn’t die yet. She didn’t want to die!

When her consciousness cleared slightly, Wen Qiwu felt someone holding her. The warmth in that person’s arms was on the cool side, and there was a very pleasant, cold fragrance. Her shijie was back!

            

“Ah Que! Wake up, you can’t sleep…” If she fell asleep now, she would never wake up again.

[Sleep.]

[Don’t resist.]

            

Strange thoughts came from within the pale white flames. They coiled around her consciousness and soul, as if trying to drag her somewhere.

“Ah Que…”

The voice at her ear was a little choked. Was her condition worrying her shijie?

            

[Come back.]

No. She had to wake up.

[If you don’t come back now…]

            

Go away!

The flames wrapping around her shrank back. Wen Qiwu finally found the chance to break free from them. As the flames disappeared, she felt much lighter and finally had the strength to open her eyes. Her blurry vision gradually cleared, and she saw her shijie’s slightly reddened eyes. But she didn’t have the strength to lift her hand.

---