After Death, I Became My Shijie’s Palm-Sized Birdie – Chapter 77

A Swindled Fortune

Next time, you’re not allowed to kiss me for that long!

“Immortal Venerable, thank you so very much for stepping in last night.” The innkeeper bowed deeply to Yun Heng. “There’s a matter I’d like to discuss with you, if you have the time.”

            

“Come in.” Yun Heng stepped aside to let her enter. Whatever they were about to discuss was certainly not fit for conversation out in the open.

The innkeeper expressed her gratitude once more — though she was so nervous crossing the threshold that she nearly fell into same-arm-same-leg step¹, eyes fixed rigidly ahead, terrified of glimpsing something she ought not to see.

The Immortal Venerable seemed to be in a good mood — her tone was gentler than usual. The innkeeper didn’t dare dwell on that, for fear her thoughts would stray somewhere improper.

            

Hopefully an Immortal Venerable in a good mood would be easier to talk to. The situation in Jiaoyue City was a tangled one right now: the City Master’s grave wounds had yet to heal, and last night’s events had made it plain that those factions no longer paid the slightest heed to the City Master Manor. She and her colleagues had done everything they could to keep the city’s balance of power steady, but they couldn’t stop certain people from deliberately blowing open those muddy waters that looked so calm on the surface.

She couldn’t bear to watch the City Master keep trading blows with those people while dragging a badly wounded body around — so she had no choice but to go against the City Master’s wishes and come beg the Immortal Venerable for help.

“Have you gotten to the bottom of what happened last night?” Yun Heng asked once the door was shut.

            

“I have. It was the former City Master’s uncle who clashed with the Pavilion Master of the Black Sea Pavilion. The Black Sea Pavilion nominally belongs to the Immortal Realm, but I’ve already found that they’ve been dealing closely with the Demon Realm behind everyone’s backs. I suspect what stands behind them is one of the Demon Realm’s Demon Lords.” The innkeeper had stayed up the entire night investigating exactly this; by now she’d pieced it together more or less completely, and what little remained unfinished matched her suspicions closely enough.

“The Black Sea Pavilion is indeed backed by the Demon Realm.” Yun Heng nodded — though she couldn’t tell which of the Demon Realm’s factions they belonged to. “What do you plan to do next?”

“Last night’s fight left both sides battered — a pity they’re all still alive.” Gloom shadowed the innkeeper’s lowered eyes. How was it fair that the City Master lay so gravely wounded while those men walked away intact?

            

She had also spent these past weeks investigating the ambush that had wounded the City Master in a secret realm. The deeper she dug, the more wrong it all felt. That “accident” was no coincidence — someone had planned it meticulously from the shadows. They knew that as long as the City Master lived, Jiaoyue City could not be thrown into chaos — so they had to shatter Jiaoyue City’s sea-stabilizing pillar² first!

How many factions’ shadows stretched behind that ambush? The mere thought made the innkeeper’s blood run cold. At the very least, last night’s two parties had to be in on it — and she refused to let them live so comfortably.

“The one losing ground before you intervened last night was the former City Master’s uncle. The man is petty and vindictive³ — he’d never resign himself to becoming the Black Sea Pavilion’s stepping stone. He has a close friend, a demon king at the Golden Immortal Realm, who slipped into the city only this morning. I’ve already seeded the city with rumors against him. With that reinforcement in hand, he’s certain to strike again tonight.”

            

“When the time comes, I’ll lure them out over the Canghai sea and let them fight to their hearts’ content. If they destroy each other, all the better. Should any Golden Immortals still be breathing afterward — I’d trouble the Immortal Venerable to see they stay in the sea forever.” Once their upper-tier fighting strength was rooted out, she could move without further misgivings.

Wen Qiwu gave her shijie’s palm a gentle squeeze, worry pooling in her eyes.

Yun Heng covered her hand, reassuring her with a look that there was nothing to worry about.

            

“I understand your plan. But this matter… have you discussed it with Bai Jiao?”

The innkeeper stiffened for a heartbeat, then sighed. “The City Master doesn’t know yet. She was afraid of imposing on you — but her wounds are severe, and I don’t dare let her handle this. So I had no choice but to come beg you.”

“When did Bai Jiao learn to be so courteous?” Yun Heng remarked, sounding faintly surprised.

            

“The City Master, well… perhaps it’s her age. She’s grown much more restrained and steady these past years.” The innkeeper was somewhat awkward about it.

She had walked at Bai Jiao’s side all the way here. Outsiders imagined the City Master as majestic and mighty; the innkeeper knew better than anyone what a thick-skinned rogue she had once been. She had indeed reined herself in over the past century — but the character carved into her bones would never truly change. That was exactly why her refusal of Yun Heng’s help had given the innkeeper a moment’s pause; anger and grief had simply drowned out that flicker of strangeness, and she’d never examined it closely.

“Restrained? How rare. Why, back in the day…”

            

Yun Heng abruptly stopped. Wen Qiwu immediately tugged at her hand, curiosity alight. “What happened back in the day?”

Even the innkeeper forgot her mission and lifted her head toward Yun Heng, struck by a sudden premonition: her City Master, she feared, had not been up to anything good.

Sure enough, the Immortal Venerable said: “I was still young then, invited here to exterminate a demon — and she swindled me out of half the immortal stones I carried.”

            

The innkeeper lowered her head again and shut her eyes in pain.

There were times their City Master could truly infuriate a person to the point of wanting to pull off a shoe and hurl it at her. She forced herself to picture the City Master’s present pitiful state and thought: Bai Jiao is already suffering enough — forgive her.

The Immortal Venerable was the magnanimous one, still willing to call the City Master a friend after all that.

            

The innkeeper asked tremulously, “How many immortal stones did she cheat you of? I’ll repay you on her behalf.”

If Bai Jiao weren’t so gravely wounded right now, she wouldn’t be lying peacefully in that bed at all.

“No need. I snatched the stones back afterward — and she took a beating for her trouble.” The Yun Heng of those years was not yet the composed figure she was now; she’d carried her share of youthful fire. Bai Jiao had schemed every which way to win her trust, then made off with her immortal stones — and once caught, a thrashing was naturally unavoidable.

            

Mindful that the City Master’s subordinate was still present, Wen Qiwu fought hard to keep her laughter in.

Her shijie had actually been swindled out of immortal stones as a youngster — how adorable was that! The City Master of Jiaoyue City had to be quite a bit older than her shijie, right? Cheating even a child out of her immortal stones — how wicked!

“She certainly deserved the beating.” Hearing that Yun Heng had thrashed Bai Jiao, the innkeeper actually felt relieved.

            

“I’ve kept in occasional contact with her over the years, and I never sensed any change at her core — which is why it surprised me that she hasn’t come to find me,” Yun Heng said.

“Perhaps because… being ambushed to near death in a secret realm is genuinely rather embarrassing, and she’s too ashamed to come to you?” the innkeeper ventured hesitantly.

“Is she that kind of person?” Yun Heng countered.

            

The answer rose unbidden in the innkeeper’s mind: No.

This was someone who, pressed hard enough by poverty, would swindle immortal stones off a child — would a person like that abandon an ally this valuable for the sake of face?

Wait…

            

The Immortal Venerable was ordinarily a woman of few words — so why did she keep bringing up the City Master?

Alarm spiked in the innkeeper’s chest. She snapped her gaze up to Yun Heng as an uneasy conjecture slowly took shape in her heart.

The Immortal Venerable was hinting at something?!

            

Her body trembled; the blood drained from her lips.

An unspoken understanding passed between clever people.

“Tonight I’ll keep watch over the Canghai sea. Anyone who shouldn’t come back won’t.” Yun Heng consoled her. “And don’t worry too much — Bai Jiao surely has plans of her own.”

            

“My thanks… Immortal Venerable.” The innkeeper’s voice was dry; whether she’d heard the second half of Yun Heng’s words was anyone’s guess. “You’ve both come such a long way — please stay in Jiaoyue City a while longer. Once the internal strife is settled, I will be sure to deliver the City Master’s gift of thanks on her behalf.”

It was a gift the City Master should have delivered in person — but if she could no longer deliver it, then the innkeeper would simply deliver it in her stead.

“Shijie, has something happened to that City Master?” Only after the innkeeper left did Wen Qiwu ask, worry creeping into her voice.

            

Her shijie’s presence drew close, and Wen Qiwu found her cheek kissed once more.

“She’s run into some trouble, but it’s all right. There’s no need to worry now.”

The nuzzle tickled. Wen Qiwu gave her shijie a light push and offered a small complaint. “Shijie, you really… the innkeeper noticed just now!”

            

The innkeeper hadn’t quite managed to hide her shock earlier, and Wen Qiwu was certain she’d guessed exactly why her lips were somewhat red and swollen.

Yun Heng promptly apologized and admitted fault. She raised a hand and gently brushed it over her shimei’s flushed lips, the light in her eyes darkening by a shade.

“Next time, before we go out, I’ll be sure to heal them first.”

            

Wen Qiwu nodded. “That’s more like it.”

Then the thought turned over in her head and something felt wrong — since when was this a question of healing or not?!

“The point is, next time you’re not allowed to kiss me… for that long! My recovery is stronger than even the average Golden Immortal’s — if you only kissed me for a little while, I’d heal myself in the time it takes to walk out the door!” The little phoenix looked ready to bristle from head to toe.

            

Yun Heng’s eyes brimmed with laughter. She gathered her shimei into her arms and coaxed her softly, saying she’d remembered. It took a good long while before the huffy little phoenix’s ruffled feathers were finally smoothed flat.

Nestled against her shijie, Wen Qiwu returned to the subject of the City Master. “As long as she’s all right. Safety matters more than anything.”

For two people who had all but tasted parting through life and death, the preciousness of peace was all the clearer. As long as someone was still alive and well, there was still a future.

            

“She’ll be fine — she’ll just have to swallow some small hardships, by way of a wake-up call.” The peaceful years had dragged on so long that even Bai Jiao had let her guard dull; this affair would serve nicely as her reminder.

Yun Heng looked toward the Canghai sea. The window was shut, but her Divine Sense had already slipped through that thin pane to somewhere far beyond.

The Dragon Gate⁴ Sacrificial Altar had been completed. Several dragon pillars stood planted in the sea, the stone dragons coiled around them so lifelike they seemed ready to wake at any moment.

            

Perhaps it was only her imagination, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that these stone dragons wore expressions unlike the usual majesty — something ferocious and sinister instead.

Why had the Demon Realm fixed its eye on this particular Dragon Gate Grand Ceremony? What set this festival apart from those before it?

Yun Heng refused to believe their goal was merely to seize one small city. Canghai Domain sat farther from the Demon Realm than any other — Shiling Domain lay between them, and Dongzhao Domain stood to the north. Whoever took this city would find themselves beset from several directions at once, with support hopelessly out of reach. Their target could not be the city itself.

            

Which meant… it had to be the Dragon Clan’s inheritance.

Through the city’s ever-tightening air, several rumors rippled from mouth to mouth, among humans and demons alike. Some said the Tianyan Sect had divined that the Dragon Gate would open this time — and that it would admit only a single demon to cross the gate and claim the Dragon Clan’s inheritance. Looking across the whole city, the one with the best odds was none other than the Pavilion Master of the Black Sea Pavilion.

Most of those rumors flattered the Black Sea Pavilion and disparaged the former City Master’s uncle as worthless. Then an invisible ripple of immortal power swept through the city, and every loose tongue was branded with a mark.

            

The vindictive half-demon intended to deal with those gossip-mongers after he’d killed the Pavilion Master. His original plan had been to proceed slowly, step by careful step — but once the Tianyan Sect’s divination spread, he could no longer sit still. He lusted after the Dragon Clan’s inheritance too, so before the Dragon Gate Grand Ceremony he had to eliminate his greatest rival. His friend as well — once the Dragon Gate opened, that demon king would become his rival too, and he had to prepare in advance.

The others’ thinking ran along much the same lines. The surging undercurrents beneath the sea had already taken shape, and when darkness fell, the first soul to die beneath a blade raised the curtain on this slaughter.

Golden Immortals and Earth Immortals opened their war on the sea, while the weaker humans and demons who couldn’t reach open water slaughtered one another in the city’s shadowed corners. Before long, the stench of blood was seeping through the streets.

            

“Be good — don’t look.” Yun Heng covered Wen Qiwu’s eyes, walling the bloodshed away from her shimei.

---