After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 76
by Little PandaGifting Feathers
In broad daylight… the Immortal Venerable certainly is in fine spirits!
“Chirp?” The chubby dumpling narrowed her beady little eyes, as though asking whether Yun Heng was questioning her word.
“…You’re absolutely right.” Yun Heng gathered herself and immediately voiced her agreement.
Back when their Shizun was still alive, Yun Heng had never been this accommodating even in the old master’s presence.
“Shijie, you can understand her too?” Wen Qiwu lifted her head from her shijie’s arms in surprise.
“I can’t.” Yun Heng admitted it honestly.
Wen Qiwu blinked, confusion written all over her face. “Then how do the two of you communicate?”
She could understand both sides; at least to her ears, their exchanges flowed perfectly normally, as if language posed no barrier at all.
“…” Yun Heng gave her a troubled look, but seeing that her shimei insisted on getting to the bottom of it, she could only murmur, “The Phoenix Lord’s words are never wrong.”
Wen Qiwu burst out with a pfft of laughter, trembling in Yun Heng’s arms so hard that Qingtuan flew off to perch elsewhere.
She couldn’t help it — how could she not, when this was her first time witnessing her shijie’s “flattering” side?
“Ah Que…” Yun Heng called her childhood name softly, a touch helplessly.
Wen Qiwu clapped a hand over her mouth to show she wouldn’t laugh again — though the crescent curve at the corners of her eyes refused to straighten.
“Shijie, Mother isn’t fierce at all. You don’t need to be so afraid of her.” Besides, Qingtuan was only a fragment Mother had split off — even less reason to be scared.
Yun Heng sighed and said nothing more. A hint of helplessness crept into those snow-cool, beautiful eyes of hers — easy to say, yet the mere sight of the Phoenix Lord’s avatar made her tense, and she simply could not face this particular senior with an ordinary heart.
Wen Qiwu held out a hand to Qingtuan. The chubby dumpling toddled into her palm with a “chirp,” asking what was the matter.
“The Demon Realm has marked Shijie as a target. Last night, when she was saving people, they struck at her from the shadows — she very nearly had her body corroded by their Demonic Qi. Thankfully our phoenix flame is special and could purge it in time. Those Demon Realm fiends won’t simply let the matter rest…” Deep worry tinted Wen Qiwu’s eyes.
Wen Qiwu didn’t know how much strength Qingtuan still held in reserve. Day to day, Qingtuan always displayed Heart-Contemplation Realm cultivation — but if an enemy truly believed that was all she had, they’d probably reach the Yellow Springs road1 without ever finding out what had killed them.
Wen Qiwu suspected she was playing the pig to eat the tiger2, deliberately showing weakness to her enemies — her true strength was likely at least Golden Immortal Realm, if not higher.
With her old wounds yet unhealed, Shijie shouldn’t fight those gutter rats in earnest — but with Mother’s avatar present, Wen Qiwu could set her heart at ease.
Qingtuan was the classic type who yielded to gentleness but bristled at force. Once Wen Qiwu had her temperament figured out, handling the great phoenix became easy. Under a wheedling string of “Little Mother” calls from Wen Qiwu, Qingtuan’s gaze gradually wavered; then she tilted her head to glance at Wen Qiwu and gave what sounded suspiciously like a sigh.
“Chirp chirp!” Qingtuan shot Yun Heng another look, and for no apparent reason every feather on her body bristled — the entire dumpling puffed up a full size larger, aggression flooding both her voice and her eyes.
Wen Qiwu translated for her shijie.
Within all that twittering, gossiping chatter, Qingtuan expressed exactly one meaning, and that was…
“Kill them all!”
Wen Qiwu thought her mother had a point: so long as every demon who might threaten Shijie’s safety was slaughtered to the last, Shijie would be safe.
“We don’t know how long the Demon Realm has been infiltrating this place. Killing them would be easy — uprooting them completely is the hard part.” Yun Heng rubbed the little phoenix’s head with a hint of helplessness.
In open confrontation, even all of them bound together would be no match for her. The problem was how to root out every last Demon Realm force in Jiaoyue City — unless they were dug out thoroughly, endless trouble would follow.
Yun Heng had known Bai Jiao for many years; she could hardly stand by and watch the woman face the Demon Realm’s conspiracies alone in such straits.
“Chirp!” After a moment of silence, Qingtuan called out once more, then patted Yun Heng on the head with a wing.
“She says she’ll protect you from now on too.” Wen Qiwu cradled Qingtuan and nuzzled her affectionately.
“Many thanks, Phoenix Lord.” Yun Heng’s lips moved faintly as she let Qingtuan rest that wing on her head like an obedient junior.
She had once read descriptions of the Phoenix Lord in ancient texts. Some called her temperament perverse and battle-hungry; others called her radiant with righteous valor. Of all those views, only one point won universal agreement: the Phoenix Lord’s ferocity in protecting her own.
The Phoenix Lord cherished the Feather Tribe dearly, and so in her era the tribe’s standing towered above every other demon race, with none daring to give offense.
“Chirp chirp!”
Qingtuan gave another crisp chirp — who knew what she’d said — and Wen Qiwu’s face lit up. “You’re so kind!”
Leaning against the bedside, Yun Heng watched with a tender expression as Wen Qiwu prattled on, lodging complaint after complaint against the great phoenix. With every grievance, Qingtuan’s little temper visibly climbed; her gaze turned razor-sharp, and even the little sea bird beside them began to tremble.
Suddenly Qingtuan spread her wings and flapped to the window, prying it open with her beak. Just as she was about to fly out, she glanced back at the sickly Yun Heng on the bed — then kindly kicked the window shut again with one foot.
“Please stay safe!” Wen Qiwu called after her.
“Chirp!” By the time Qingtuan’s reply arrived, it was already very, very far away.
Qingtuan had always appeared and vanished like a ghost — even Yun Heng could never lock onto her trail.
“Where is she going?” Yun Heng sat up a little straighter, worry in her voice.
“She said she’s going to survey the situation in the city.” Wen Qiwu said, “Don’t worry — Little Mother’s soul is linked to mine. Whenever she wishes, she can return in an instant.”
Back then, to protect her daughter’s remnant soul — left drifting in the outside world — the Phoenix Lord had exhausted her ingenuity to split off the avatar Qingtuan. She had buried that remnant soul within her daughter’s soul, so that no matter what befell the girl, her avatar could react the very instant it happened.
“No wonder I never saw her arrive, yet she could appear at your side without a sound or a shadow.” Yun Heng stroked her shimei’s wing, rather unable to keep her hands off it.
“Little Mother says that if you ever bully me, she can rush over that very instant too.” Before Wen Qiwu had even finished, Yun Heng’s arm stiffened.
She looked down at the person in her arms. Her shimei’s glittering eyes had already given away the little scheme behind the words.
Wen Qiwu went soft with laughter in her embrace — that last part had only been a joke.
Yun Heng gave her head a light, helpless pat.
Wen Qiwu flexed her wings. She had long since noticed that her shijie seemed to adore her feathers. She rifled through her wing for a while, then plucked out the most beautiful one.
“Shijie, I noticed you don’t seem to be wearing your jade pendant anymore? As it happens, Mother left me a piece of Ice Divine Marrow — shall I use this feather and the marrow to make you a new one?” Wen Qiwu looked at her shijie full of expectation, clearly hoping Yun Heng would say yes.
At this point Yun Heng still hadn’t registered what gifting a feather meant to the Feather Tribe. A present from her shimei was of course welcome, so she nodded her assent.
“Then Shijie must wear it every day from now on.” Wen Qiwu’s wings tightened, not entirely of their own accord, and she buried her head in her shijie’s arms so no one could see her bashfulness.
Yun Heng accepted the feather. The little sea bird beside them tilted its head, then chirped and twittered a few times, its clear little eyes betraying a measure of newfound respect for Yun Heng.
Most of the Feather Tribe held the ancient tradition of gifting a feather to court a beloved, and phoenixes were no exception. The phoenix was the most devoted of birds — whoever wore a phoenix feather would be known to all the Feather Tribe as the one a phoenix held dear.
The little fellow had been quiet while that one was present, but the moment Qingtuan left it grew lively again. Strange to say — most of the Feather Tribe kept a respectful distance from Qingtuan, not daring to draw near, yet around Ah Que it seemed every bird wanted to come rub itself against her… Was it because Ah Que looked too gentle?
Yun Heng noticed the little sea bird staring fixedly at the feather in her hand. She moved it to the left, and the little fellow’s gaze chased it left; move it right, and the gaze followed right as well.
So she tucked the feather away, and as the little fellow’s eyes went wide, the corner of her mouth curved faintly upward. This was Ah Que’s gift to her — don’t even think about it, little one. A phoenix would never give a feather away lightly to some other person… other bird. Wait — gifting a feather?
Yun Heng’s expression stilled. True — under ordinary circumstances, no member of the Feather Tribe would give away such a beautiful primary feather, unless… it was being given to the one who held their heart.
“Ah Que, a phoenix’s gifted feather… may I truly accept it?” Perhaps the sudden joy had scattered her thoughts, for Yun Heng actually went and asked a foolish question.
“Has Shijie gone silly? If I’m giving it to you, then of course you may accept it.” Wen Qiwu muttered softly.
“What I meant was…” Yun Heng’s voice cut off, joy gradually surfacing in the depths of her eyes. She sighed inwardly — she really had gone a little silly.
The little sea bird, which had just been walking along, suddenly found itself airborne; in the next instant it discovered itself inexplicably outside the window, wrapped in a barrier of immortal power that walled off the cold. A fire crystal stone had come out with it too, ensuring it wouldn’t freeze.
Inside the room, Yun Heng could no longer contain her joy. She begged kisses from the person in her arms, and Wen Qiwu nibbled gently at her lip. The Demon Realm’s trap still left her with lingering trepidation; right now she wanted nothing more than to linger tenderly with her shijie for a while.
Only, she had never known her shijie could be so clingy. Had the innkeeper not come to fetch them in person, she suspected Shijie would have spent the entire morning on kisses and embraces.
While the two of them were warm inside the room — even a little sultry and flushed — the people outside were freezing miserably. Weaker cultivators caught chills outright; even the stronger ones had to throw on an extra layer before daring to go out.
Others might not know, but the innkeeper knew whose hand had loosed that sword strike the night before. All morning she had been soothing guests frightened out of their wits who’d come demanding answers; only by noon had she seen the last of them off.
She had found out which two factions had crossed blades the previous night. They’d shown no regard for the City Master whatsoever. The innkeeper had nearly smashed her abacus in fury — yet the next day she still had to paste on smiles for the several great families, each nursing its own schemes.
Thankfully, the Immortal Venerable’s single sword had cowed the petty vermin, which in its own way had steadied the people’s hearts.
She just couldn’t fathom why, with the whole morning gone, neither of the two had emerged from their room.
The innkeeper had also thought of certain other possibilities, which was why she hadn’t dared go up and disturb them — until noon, when she could sit still no longer, and finally went to knock.
It took them a while to come out. Both immortals’ clothing was perfectly neat, without a single rumpled trace, and the innkeeper had just begun to breathe easier when she noticed that the color of Wen Qiwu’s lips was slightly off.
Wen Qiwu caught the innkeeper’s gaze darting away at once, and hurriedly smeared a healing spell over her own lips.
In broad daylight… the Immortal Venerable certainly was in fine spirits!
Eyes lowered, the innkeeper began reporting the current situation to Yun Heng, not daring to look up and peek around again.
Footnotes
- 黄泉路 | Huangquan Lu | Literally 'the road of the Yellow Springs' — in traditional Chinese cosmology the Yellow Springs are the dark subterranean waters where the dead dwell, and every soul must walk this road after death; to walk it is simply to die.
- 扮猪吃老虎 | ban zhu chi lao hu | Literally 'play the pig to devour the tiger' — a Chinese idiom for feigning harmlessness so that foes underestimate you, then striking with hidden strength to devour them whole.
0 Comments