The silver-haired beauty opened his eyes, golden light shimmering within his captivating and alluring phoenix-like eyes. He propped himself up against the head of the bed, his outer robe draped loosely around him, the thin white gauze barely concealing anything as it fluttered vaguely.
With a look of satiated laziness, the silver-haired beauty remarked, “He looks a bit like a human now.”
Hearing this tone of gentle reproach, Gu Shi’s face burned hot. Raising the hem of his robe, he dropped to his knees. “This junior tasted mortal affairs for the first time and acted rashly. Please punish me, senior.”
Calling it rash was putting it lightly. When it came to this matter, Gu Shi truly seemed to possess natural talent.
The first time, he thought he was going to die, and figuring that if he was going to die, he had to at least get his capital back. Having never been in love across both of his lives, and with a great beauty delivered right to him as he faced death, he naturally went all out. He vaguely remembered that the peerless senior had fainted several times halfway through. The second time, the beauty issued a passionate invitation, so he naturally didn’t hold back either. After all, the two of them didn’t have much affection between them, though this time he did restrain himself a bit. Once the senior beauty passed out, he only went at it one more time.
A gentle force caught him and held him up. The silver-haired beauty’s slender, fair fingers hooked a small strand of hair resting across his chest as he spoke in a lazy tone, “What are you doing? I didn’t say I was blaming you.”
Gu Shi wasn’t surprised at all. After all, the senior beauty’s attitude had been crystal clear while they were in bed; it was just that since the other party was a senior figure, he naturally had to leave him enough face.
“Thank you, senior.”
With a gentle flick of the silver-haired beauty’s finger, the parting gift brought by Gu Shi appeared out of thin air on the bed. “For me?”
Hearing this, Gu Shi raised his head for a quick glance, but when his peripheral vision swept across the senior beauty’s chest, he hastily pulled his gaze back, lowering his head to reply, “Yes. This junior offended senior and also received senior’s fortuitous opportunity. This is a token of gratitude prepared by this junior, just a tiny gesture, and I hope senior will not find it lacking.”
The silver-haired beauty’s slender fingers picked up the jade pendant closest to him, and his handsome brows immediately furrowed slightly. “It’s warm. I don’t like it.”
Gu Shi’s heart skipped a beat. He instantly realized that when the senior beauty suffered from his poison flare-ups, his entire body radiated intense heat, so disliking warm jade made complete sense. He hurriedly said, “It was this junior’s oversight. This warm jade is unworthy of senior. There is ten-thousand-year-old cold ice at the bottom of the East China Sea; this junior will go fetch it right away and carve a bed out of it for senior.”
The silver-haired beauty loosened his fingers, and the jade pendant dropped onto the bed. The sound was very soft, but Gu Shi still instinctively glanced toward that direction. The jade pendant landed just a finger-width away from the senior beauty’s slender thighs, and that expanse of white made Gu Shi’s face flush slightly red. The senior beauty was truly uninhibited! Although they had already done everything that shouldn’t be done, that was merely out of helpless necessity. Why wasn’t he trying to avoid suspicion now that he was wide awake?
Completely unaware of Gu Shi’s petty movements, the silver-haired beauty simply asked, “You’re leaving?”
Gu Shi’s heart gave a jolt. Judging by the senior beauty’s tone, did he want him to stay? Although this beauty didn’t look like a proper sort, the Xizhou Secret Realm was brimming with spiritual energy. If he could stay behind to cultivate and have the senior beauty guide him on the side, his progress would surely soar by a thousand miles, making a head-on clash with Xuanyou a reachable goal.
“This junior awaits senior’s commands.”
Ignoring his statement, the silver-haired beauty merely said, “You keep calling me senior. I am not called senior; my name is Feng Yingbai.”
Gu Shi’s heart sank. Feng Yingbai was yet another character who hadn’t appeared in the book.
His tone was far too lazy, leaving Gu Shi unable to discern whether he was teasing him or genuinely didn’t understand that senior was merely a polite term of respect. Regardless, Gu Shi still bowed respectfully with cupped hands, maintaining his humility. “This junior, Gu Shi, pays respects to Senior Feng.”
Feng Yingbai clearly disliked this form of address. “I told you I am not called senior; my name is Feng Yingbai.”
Gu Shi felt a fluttering in his chest. “This junior wouldn’t dare to presume.”
Feng Yingbai’s pretty brows furrowed once more. “You’re disobedient.”
This wasn’t a good sign. Gu Shi quickly said, “I wouldn’t dare.”
Watching his cautious demeanor, Feng Yingbai let out a soft chuckle. “Then call me by my name and let me hear it.”
Cold sweat broke out on Gu Shi’s back. He felt that this person before him was truly unfathomable, but not daring to talk back, he could only bite the bullet and call out dryly, “Feng Yingbai.”
Feng Yingbai looked very satisfied. “Mhm, that sounds nice.”
Since Feng Yingbai didn’t do things according to common sense, Gu Shi didn’t overthink it and hurriedly began to flatter him. “Bright stars shining clear, wind pure and moon white. The person matches his name, which is naturally exceptionally fine.”
Feng Yingbai froze for a moment, then the corners of his mouth curved upward into a soft, upturned arc, seemingly quite pleased with his explanation.
“I am going to sleep for a while. If you want to stay, then stay.”
Hearing this, Gu Shi instantly realized something was amiss. A while sounded like a very long time. While this place only had spiritual energy, he wouldn’t dare touch anything else on his own, and without the senior’s guidance, staying behind lost most of its meaning. Consequently, Gu Shi cupped his hands and said, “Having received senior’s fortuitous opportunity, this junior should naturally stay behind to serve by your side. However, this junior still has a matter that must be attended to. Once that matter is settled, I shall return to ask for senior’s punishment.”
Feng Yingbai asked casually, “What matter?”
Gu Shi kept his guard up. “Has senior ever heard of Xuanyou?”
“Call me Feng Yingbai.” After correcting him, Feng Yingbai immediately asked, “What are you looking for him for?”
Judging by that response, he must know him. Overjoyed, Gu Shi raised his head to look at him, but upon catching sight of his thin, practically naked gauze robe, he quickly lowered his gaze again, his voice dropping along with it. “You know him?”
Feng Yingbai replied, “Never heard of it.”
The hope that had just risen in Gu Shi’s heart instantly plummeted. Still, he didn’t hide it from him, figuring that a powerful figure like Feng Yingbai ought to join forces with him to resist the collapse of the world.
“I have to kill him.”
Feng Yingbai paused, the look he gave Gu Shi carrying a bit more scrutiny. “You have a grudge against him?”
Gu Shi casually fabricated a crime. “This person Xuanyou is savage by nature and holds grudges for the smallest slights. If he isn’t killed, he will surely destroy the world in the future.”
Feng Yingbai arched a brow slightly and let out a light hum. “As you like. You only need to come here once every three months.”
Gu Shi understood. Feng Yingbai’s poison likely flared up once every three months. Seeing how agreeable Feng Yingbai was being, he happily accepted. “Yes.”
Yawning, Feng Yingbai lay down on the bed with a face full of weariness and closed his eyes, looking ready to fall asleep. Raising his gaze to look at the other’s nearly bare body, Gu Shi quickly stepped forward to pick up the warm jade from the bed. “Since you don’t like this item, I’ll take it back.”
Without even opening his eyes, Feng Yingbai gave a breezy, casual response. “Mhm.”
Having obtained permission, Gu Shi turned around in a hurry. If he looked a second longer, his nosebleeds were going to start flowing. “I’ll be leaving first. Next time I come, I will definitely bring a cold ice bed.” With that, Gu Shi hastily departed while steering his paper crane. Good grief, his nosebleed was actually starting to trickle out!
The flapping wings of the paper crane kicked up gentle gusts of wind, which nicely alleviated the sultry heat inside the cave. On the bed, Feng Yingbai suddenly opened his eyes. A cold ice bed?
He pondered for a good while before extending his index finger to press against the center of his forehead, drawing out a wisp of fiery, scorching divine sense. Upon hitting the ground, the divine sense transformed into a handsome young man.
Feng Yingbai cast a casual glance at the young man, then heavily closed his eyes.
Curiously stretching out his hands, the young man inspected himself and moved around a bit. After a good moment, he looked toward the cave entrance, pressed his lips together with an instantly solemn expression, and walked step by step toward the exit.
When the man reached the edge of the cave entrance and was about to step half a foot outside, a powerful pressure carrying heavy karmic fire suddenly materialized out of thin air, pressing in from all directions. The young man coughed up a mouthful of blood, yet his feet didn’t stop as he continued forward. Scorched by the dense karmic fire, cracks began to appear across his entire body, the intense pain causing him to collapse to the ground instantly.
The karmic fire surged, and the rocky crevices burst open. In the blink of an eye, the young man turned into a man of fire. Tendons, bones, and blood burned together. He curled up into a tiny ball, his flesh beginning to melt into a pool of fiery red foreign matter. Yet he was still crawling, very slowly, very slowly, like a flattened lump of mud, creeping forward purely on instinct. He wanted so badly to go out and see what the real world outside was truly like.
The formidable karmic fire burned fiercely. Though his bones, tendons, and blood had all turned to flying ashes, a fingernail-sized speck of red remained, shielded as it flowed out of the array boundary. The moment it left the array, the dim red glow suddenly flared with a burst of golden light. After the radiance faded, a fluffy little baby bird appeared in its place, round, entirely fiery red, with a flash of golden light deep within its eyes that vanished in a flash.
Simultaneously, the unconscious Feng Yingbai on the bed vomited a streak of fresh red blood from the corner of his lips, which flowed continuously before finally stopping after a long while.
The little red bird flapped its wings with difficulty, flying up into mid-air with eyes full of excitement. Though completely devoid of spiritual power, it had finally managed to get out.
Blue skies, white clouds, a crisp and refreshing breeze, everything felt so real that it thoroughly fascinated the bird. Ecstatic, the little red bird fluttered and spun around in mid-air, chirping incessantly.
Meanwhile, the moment Gu Shi emerged from the dwelling cave, he arrived at the forest outside the secret realm. Without lingering, he headed straight back toward the Yuandao Sect. With his taut nerves finally relaxing, Gu Shi felt very tired, so he lay down on the paper crane and closed his eyes to rest. A guiding stone was installed on the paper crane, so it would return to its destination on its own without needing him to steer the direction.
The sunlight blazed brilliantly. Having wrapped a strip of black cloth around his eyes to serve as a makeshift sleeping mask, Gu Shi was sleeping drowsily when his body suddenly lurched, having bumped into something.
Gu Shi hurriedly pulled down his blindfold, but seeing nothing, he instinctively looked down. To his surprise, a chubby little red bird was plummeting downward, its meaty wings still flapping strenuously, though it could only slow down its descent rather than truly fly.
It was the thing that had crashed into the paper crane just now, or, of course, the paper crane might have crashed into it.
Without overthinking it, Gu Shi steered the paper crane into a nosedive to catch it. Though it had looked tiny just a moment ago, he hadn’t expected it to be this small, not even half the size of Gu Shi’s palm. Standing right in the center of Gu Shi’s palm, it tilted its head to stare at him, letting out a crisp, cheerful chirp.
It seemed quite intelligent. Looking at its bean-sized eyes, Gu Shi smiled, though for some reason, he couldn’t help associating it with the senior beauty.
Tsk, the psychological shadow the senior beauty left him with was simply too heavy.
Gu Shi stretched out a finger to tap the little red bird on the head. Its dense, soft down feathers felt as light as a puff of wind. “Little fellow, where is your home? I’ll send you back.”
The little red bird hopped around back and forth in his palm as if quite content, continuously chirping away with a string of chirps.
The force of its little claws was light, gently scratching against the flesh of his palm and causing a tickling sensation. Gu Shi continued, “Even if you can’t talk, you must know your way around, right? Where is your home?”
The little red bird stopped, raised its head to look at him, and finally fluttered its tiny wings to fly right up in front of Gu Shi’s face. Thinking it was going to lead the way, Gu Shi was caught off guard when the little red bird flew straight up to him and pecked him right on the lips.
A baby’s beak wasn’t hard; even using all its strength, it didn’t hurt, carrying only a faint, blunt sense of pressure. Still, such a posture was far too teasing. Gu Shi instinctively raised his hand and gave a gentle swat. The little red bird traced a fiery red arc through the air, staring at him with bean-sized eyes full of utter disbelief.
Seeing that the little red bird was about to drop, Gu Shi hurriedly reached out and caught it. Unappreciative, the little red bird glared at him, turned around to ignore him entirely, and held its head high. For a bird so frail it couldn’t even get weaker, it somehow managed to radiate an air of supreme arrogance.
Gu Shi chuckled, extending a finger to flick it lightly on the head. “Little pervert bird, you took liberties with me, and yet you’re the one getting mad? Let me tell you, lips aren’t something you can just bite casually. Don’t do that to others in the future, or you won’t even know how you died. It’s only because I’m kind-hearted that I’m not haggling over it with you.”
The little red bird stretched out its wing to swat at Gu Shi’s finger, but its wings were too short, forcing it to tilt its head to dodge Gu Shi’s finger instead. Yet Gu Shi’s finger seemed glued right above its head; looking thoroughly irritated, it took a step forward, seized a moment when Gu Shi’s finger missed, spun around, and bit down hard on the tip of Gu Shi’s finger to demonstrate its wrath.
It looked all the more adorable for it. Gu Shi laughed; he wasn’t petty enough to bicker with a fluffy baby creature, so he coaxed it in a good-natured tone, “Alright, alright, I shouldn’t have swatted you. My bad. Since you’re a magnanimous little bird, just forgive me.”
The little red bird held its head even higher, practically engraving the words I am furious across its face. With a roll of his eyes, Gu Shi asked gently, “Are you hungry? How about I catch some bugs for you to eat?”
The little red bird blinked and let out a chirp.
Gu Shi took that as agreement and continued, “The Yuandao Sect has a spiritual herb garden. If you’re willing to come with me, I’ll take you to eat fresh spiritual insects and herbs every day. How about that?”
The little red bird let out another chirp. Still treating this as consent, Gu Shi cradled the little red bird with immense excitement. “Let’s go, time to go home!”
Showing this level of human-like intelligence at such a young age meant it was definitely no ordinary bird. Once they got back, he would let Gu Yan take a look at what breed it was; if it turned out to be a rare and exotic beast, he’d figure out a way to form a blood pact with it, which would also become a major asset down the line.
The string of encounters made Gu Shi increasingly feel that he truly was the destined child of heaven of this world. Not only had he encountered a senior beauty, but he had literally bumped into an exotic beast while flying through the sky, this was standard male-lead configuration through and through!
Laying back down on the paper crane, Gu Shi placed the little red bird on his shoulder and patted its soft little head. “I’m tired and going to sleep for a bit. Don’t act up.”
Chirping continuously, the little red bird scrambled up onto Gu Shi’s shoulder, continuing all the way up until it stopped right in front of Gu Shi’s chest, burrowing headfirst inward. Gu Shi felt a tickling sensation from its nudging, so he reached out, picked it up, and pulled down his eye-blindfold. The sunlight was far too glaring for him to keep his eyes open, so he sat up and stared earnestly at the little red bird to inspect it. “Are you sure you’re a bird and not a snake?”
The little red bird’s wings and claws were both thrashing about as it chirped away incessantly, seemingly condemning this behavior of his.
Gu Shi said, “I’ll make you a nest out of my clothes, so you can just make do with that. Stop burrowing into my clothes.”
The little red bird continued to thrash, every inch of its body radiating resistance.
Gu Shi added, “If you don’t agree, I’m going to toss you down from here.”
The little red bird stopped thrashing, merely staring with bean-sized eyes full of utter disbelief.
Heh, thought I couldn’t handle you. Gu Shi said, “Chirp once if you agree.”
The little red bird, which had been chirping so cheerfully just a second ago, acted as if it had swallowed a mute drug at that moment, falling completely silent.
“Hey now, little fellow, you really thought I didn’t dare throw you off?” With that, Gu Shi lifted the little red bird and moved it outside the boundary of the paper crane. The strong wind whipped through the little red bird’s down feathers, causing them to flutter wildly and tickling his hand.
Suddenly, the little red bird lowered its head and bit down fiercely on the web of Gu Shi’s thumb. Though it was only a slight sting, it was enough to let Gu Shi know it had used its full strength.
Such a stubborn little fellow. Compromising, Gu Shi pulled the little red bird back in. “Fine, fine, fine. You can lay on me, but you can’t burrow inside, you have to stay on the outside of my clothes.”
Tilting its head, the little red bird refused to look at him, clearly unwilling to accept.
Gu Shi felt a brief headache coming on. He couldn’t afford to provoke the senior beauty, and now he couldn’t even handle a little bird?
“You can hide inside my clothes, alright? That should work.”
The little red bird maintained that same cold, aloof expression, ignoring him completely.
Without another word, Gu Shi pulled open the lapel of his robe and tucked the little red bird inside. Once it was settled, he gave it a reassuring pat. “Alright, alright, let’s turn the page on this matter.”
The little red bird didn’t move. Feeling utterly exhausted, Gu Shi re-tied his blindfold, preparing to sleep. The moment he lay back down, however, he felt the little red bird moving inside his garments. It crawled out from the clothes, marched upward along his chest, and didn’t stop until it reached Gu Shi’s face. Suddenly, the sensation of its little claws vanished, replaced by a heavy weight right across his nose and eyes.
The petty little thing was actually kicking his face! But Gu Shi was far too sleepy to care anymore, and since it didn’t really hurt anyway, he just let it be.
Falling into a deep sleep, Gu Shi had no idea that the little red bird was hopping back and forth across his body, beating him with its fluffy wings and kicking him with its toothpick-like little claws until it finally vented its anger. Only then did it stand proudly upon Gu Shi’s chest, spinning and jumping up and down while enjoying the gentle breeze passing through its fine down. With the sunlight falling upon it, the warm heat didn’t displease it at all, and the lush green trees beneath looked like a vast, flowing ocean of endless vitality.
It was two days later when Gu Shi slowly drifted back to the sect. The little red bird still wore that same curious expression as if everything it saw was fascinating, standing upon Gu Shi’s shoulder with its neck stretched out to peer around in wonder while chirping away with endless chirps.
Wanting Gu Yan to take a look at what breed the little red bird actually was, Gu Shi pulled out his communication stone to report his return. “Dad, I’m back.”
However, after waiting for a good while, no reply came from Gu Yan; he must have been busy. Not in a rush, Gu Shi turned his head toward the little red bird. “Come on, I’ll take you to the spiritual herb garden to eat spiritual insects.”
Spiritual herbs had far too many uses, both alchemy cultivators and healing cultivators required them. Therefore, despite being called the spiritual herb garden, it actually occupied half a mountain, making it more than worthy of being called Spirit Herb Mountain.
The spiritual herb garden was managed by Mu Qinghe, the primary disciple of the sect’s Second Elder, Yu Zhanxin. However, because Gu Shi couldn’t cultivate previously, he hadn’t had much interaction with the sect’s disciples, Shen Yusheng being the sole exception. He had only come to check out this spiritual herb garden out of curiosity once before, making this only his second visit.
Presenting his inner-disciple token to enter the spiritual herb garden, Gu Shi was questioned by the guarding disciple as usual about his purpose. Upon learning that he didn’t intend to take away a single spiritual herb, the disciple let him straight in.
Gu Shi knew next to nothing about spiritual herbs, but he did know that some of them were poisonous. As a result, he casually sought out a disciple and asked, “I’d like to ask which spiritual insects are edible?”
The disciple instantly spotted the little red bird perched on his shoulder, staring at him with round little eyes. “Feeding this bird?”
Gu Shi nodded. “Yes, I just got it. I’ve only fed it some soft pastries so far.”
Understanding immediately, the disciple skillfully pointed him in the right direction. “The poisonous ones are all over on the north side, that whole patch is poisonous, but the rest are fine. The leek-grass patch on the south side has lots of small insects; those should be pretty suitable for feeding a small bird.”
“Thanks.”
The disciple smiled warmly at the little red bird. “You’re too polite, Senior Brother.”
Following the direction indicated by the disciple, Gu Shi walked over. Sure enough, the plants looked very much like chives, verdant green and already budding flowers. Squatting down, he didn’t even need to search carefully to spot the insects on the leaves. Though they were spiritual insects that fed on spiritual herbs, they didn’t look all that different from ordinary bugs.
Picking the little red bird off his shoulder, Gu Shi cupped it in his hands and presented it right in front of a tiny spiritual insect. “Eat up.”
With its wings restrained by his grip, the little red bird kicked its tiny claws continuously, pulling its head far away and letting out rapid, angry chirps.
Seeing it act like this, Gu Shi knew it wasn’t to its liking, so he pulled it back. “Which kind do you like to eat? Go find it yourself then.”
The moment Gu Shi finished speaking and released his grip, the little red bird impatiently flew right in front of him, using its tiny claws to kick fiercely at his face while chirping away non-stop. The tickling force made Gu Shi’s face itch, and he couldn’t help laughing. “Are you that happy? No need to thank me! Go find something to eat, little birds need bugs to grow fast.”
Yet the little red bird showed no sign of stopping whatsoever. In fact, after finishing his sentence, it stood right on the tip of his nose, spread its fluffy wings to fan him back and forth, and sped up its chirps. With feathers brushing against his cheeks in a soft, tickling caress, Gu Shi laughed even more heartily. “I told you there’s no need to thank me. I’m not hot, you don’t need to fan me.”
The man and the bird spent the duration of an incense stick kicking at each other right there before Gu Shi belatedly realized the little red bird wasn’t thanking him at all. “Oh, you don’t like eating bugs?”
The little red bird suddenly leaned forward, its pointy beak giving a peck right at the center of Gu Shi’s brow before it spread its wings to fan across his temples, soft and warm. Gu Shi let out a heh-heh laugh. “Sorry, sorry, I haven’t cultivated to the point of understanding bird-language yet. Since you don’t like eating bugs, I’ll take you to stroll around the kitchen. There’s lots of good food in the kitchen; see if there’s anything you like.”
Hearing this, the little red bird finally dropped the matter, holding its head high as it flew onto Gu Shi’s shoulder, though it still refused to look at him, turning its face away with a haughty air. Unbothered, Gu Shi turned around to head back the way he came. Just then, he heard a muffled sound of weeping. “Wuwuwuwu, I’m sorry, it’s my fault for failing to protect you, it’s my incompetence, I’m sorry, I knew long ago I couldn’t keep you, but I never thought I wouldn’t even be able to keep your child, wuwuwuwu, my heart hurts so much.”
Such gossipy words instantly grabbed Gu Shi’s attention. Upholding the spirit of fellowship among peers, Gu Shi decided to go offer some comfort. He grabbed the little red bird, muffled its squawking mouth with his hand, and walked forward.
Taking two steps around a bend, he saw Mu Qinghe clutching a crimson-red tree and crying his eyes out, completely unaware that someone was approaching.
Gu Shi tentatively called out, “Senior Brother Mu?”
Seeming startled, Mu Qinghe trembled all over, abruptly raising his head to look over. Upon spotting Gu Shi, he immediately began crying even harder, casting aside any attempt to muffle his voice now.
Mu Qinghe was handsome, with red lips, white teeth, and a gentle temperament. At present, his eye rims were red and his expression shattered.