Chapter 129
Chapter 129
Chirp chirp chirp. Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp.
Qin Ying’s home echoed with birdsong so piercing it felt like a demonic tune drilling straight into her skull.
It was like trying to sleep in on a midsummer morning while the birds on the branches outside your window chirped for mates without a single care for anyone else’s life or death.
The noise level and the sheer irritation factor were exactly the same.
Qin Ying tilted her head, and her right ear was subjected to a relentless barrage of noise.
The little bird with emerald-blue wings hopped up and down on her shoulder, rubbing against Qin Ying’s face and ears while letting out shrill, delighted cries.
Sometimes it sounded like a bird. Sometimes it sounded like a chick.
“Han Lie, is this what a Thunderbird is supposed to sound like?”
Qin Ying remembered that when this fellow had been in the World in the Box, its call had sounded like a red-tailed buzzard’s-clear, melodious, and imposing.
She asked, “What’s it saying? Translate for me.”
Clinging to the strap of her camisole on her back, Han Lie said in a low voice, “A Thunderbird is a fledgling phoenix. It flies in the sky.”
A winged Qilin had no jurisdiction over it, nor could he understand it.
Perhaps because he saw that Qin Ying looked a little disappointed, he hurriedly added, “However, I can… try to understand it.”
Among the soldiers of the Jade Balance Army in the World in the Box, which one of them was not an experienced observer of birds and beasts?
When traveling through the wilderness to hunt and capture Monstrous Beasts, it was impossible not to understand the temperaments of beasts. Even if one could not, one could observe their forms and learn their habits.
Han Lie climbed upward along Qin Ying’s camisole, but he was soon faced with a situation: he had to set his claws on Qin Ying’s fair shoulder.
Qin Ying’s head was throbbing from the bird’s racket, so she did not notice such details.
Han Lie had intended to say, Forgive my discourtesy, but after hesitating for a moment, he recalled that Qin Ying had said she preferred his former candor and wanted him to recover a bit of it.
He composed himself and climbed onto her other shoulder, treading across Qin Ying’s smooth skin.
His movements were very light. When his claws brushed over her skin, it felt like a tiny bug crawling past, making Qin Ying ticklish enough to shift her neck.
The Thunderbird, which had been singing beside her ear, saw Han Lie, and the feathers behind its crest stood on end.
It wanted to kick Han Lie off with its claws.
But Han Lie was nimble. He pushed away the bird’s beak, which still carried the scent of Ham Sausage.
After looking at it for a couple of moments, Han Lie said blankly, “Supreme Deity, did you truly not know it before?”
This bird was extremely intimate with the Supreme Deity. It did not seem unfamiliar with her at all.
Qin Ying was stunned. She instinctively wanted to say that the last time she had seen this little blue bird, she had swatted it with a Fly Swatter.
But then she realized something was wrong.
The Thunderbird had sealed Golden Saddle Mountain with thunder all year round, only flying out on the fifteenth of each month to eat the horses offered by the Sand People.
It was like a tacit exchange. On that day, the Thunderbird would stop the thunder, and the Sand People could enter Golden Saddle Mountain to gather Immortal Grass and white jade discs.
At the time, Qin Ying had thought the Thunderbird was the guard of Golden Saddle Mountain’s Divine Shrine.
But what was enshrined in Golden Saddle Mountain’s Divine Shrine?
It was suspected to be her.
Qin Ying froze slightly. Han Lie also thought of that layer of meaning. Choosing his words carefully, he said, “What if… what the Thunderbird is guarding is you?”
As soon as Han Lie finished speaking, before Qin Ying could even react, the Thunderbird vibrated its throat and let out another series of shrill cries.
Wangcai, which had been circling around Qin Ying’s feet the whole time, could not bear the noisy racket anymore and turned to run.
Who would have thought that the overly enthusiastic, chatterbox little bird would start flying unsteadily through the air?
So excited it did not know how to express itself, it moved as if dancing, grabbed the tip of Wangcai’s ear in its beak, and spun around once.
It was happy, sure, but Wangcai was so angry that a trace of sulfur crept into its breath.
Before Wangcai could open its mouth to bite it, the Thunderbird chirped and chattered as it flew back to Qin Ying’s shoulder, nodding madly.
Then it hopped over sideways on both feet and rubbed its little dog-scented forehead against Qin Ying.
Qin Ying’s mind was full of mush.
Then, as she thought of something, her eyes suddenly lit up.
She strode over to the desk and took out a velvet earring box.
After opening the earring box, a tiny Wooden Puppet lay right in the center.
This Wooden Puppet was about the same size as the little people in the World in the Box. Its craftsmanship was simple and ancient, with no facial features. Its arms and legs were stiff and straight, and there was a hollow space in its abdomen.
It was precisely the little Wooden Puppet Han Lie had risked his life to seize from inside Yayu’s corpse.
For the sake of this Wooden Puppet, Han Lie had nearly been burned into charcoal ash.
At the sight of the little Wooden Puppet, the Thunderbird’s joyful cries nearly lifted the roof off the house.
It hopped across the desk until it reached the Wooden Puppet.
It looked at Qin Ying, then at the Wooden Puppet, repeating this several times.
“This Wooden Puppet is mine?” Qin Ying asked uncertainly.
She didn’t remember owning such an ugly Wooden Puppet. And if it was a toy, wasn’t it a little too small?
The Thunderbird tilted its head, first shaking it, then nodding.
Qin Ying stared at it, completely unable to understand bird language.
Han Lie was like a tiny jumping bug as he leapt down from Qin Ying’s shoulder.
He rolled on the spot to disperse the force of the fall, then walked lightly over to the Thunderbird.
After propping his chin in his hand and observing it carefully for a while, he spoke cautiously. “Are you saying that right now, it isn’t the Supreme Deity’s possession, but… it can be?”
The Thunderbird looked as if it had found a kindred spirit. It chirped out a long string of notes, then spread one wing and slung it around Han Lie’s shoulders like they were the best of brothers.
Qin Ying rested her chin on the desk, experiencing the agony of a language barrier for the first time.
If only the Thunderbird could draw lots and tell fortunes, and just directly tell her what this little Wooden Puppet was for, and how to make it hers.
“Ah, right.” Qin Ying suddenly thought of something else.
She fetched the Cell Clamp and rummaged through her earring box.
After nearly straining her eyes blind, she finally found a tiny Wooden Bead at the bottom of the box.
“This is yours, right?” she said to Han Lie.
“Sha Ma… Little Sha, I mean. The Hou leader gave it to me.”
Qin Ying, who had casually given her subordinate a name on the spot, said, “You lost it in the underground palace. Little Sha carried it all the way out in his mouth and hid it for you.”
After Qin Ying had taken the Hou out of the Box, Little Sha, the one with a tuft of white fur on his forehead, had turned this Wooden Bead over to Qin Ying.
Han Lie had been rather dazed back then, so Qin Ying had kept it for him.
Qin Ying nudged the Wooden Bead with the tip of the Cell Clamp, signaling for Han Lie to take it.
Recovering something passed down through his family was an unexpected joy. Han Lie happily jumped into the earring box to pick it up.
“Thank you, Supreme Deity. And thank you… Little Sha.”
That name felt a little strange on the tongue.
As Han Lie thought this, he bent down to pick up the Wooden Bead.
The instant his fingers touched the Wooden Bead he had carried with him since childhood, it trembled.
The Wooden Bead grew hot, almost burning, and a strange woody fragrance spread from it.
The Wooden Bead slowly extended an extremely fine, tender little sprout.
Han Lie’s finger happened to press directly against that sprout. The next moment, it instantly withered.
Han Lie, who had beast horns, black scales, and a lion’s tail, and resembled an altered Qilin, seemed to blur as though seen through frosted glass.
Then his body shrank. The beast horns and scales vanished entirely, and he returned to human form.
Standing stark naked in Qin Ying’s earring box.
The gold-red velvet lining made even his wheat-colored skin look a shade paler.
Han Lie froze where he stood. Qin Ying, whose chin was resting on the desk as she leaned in for a closer look, froze as well.
An eerie silence swept through the air.
A few breaths later, Han Lie turned and hid behind the earring box. His fleeing back was filled with embarrassment and mortification.
The second… no, the third time. This was the third time he had been so disgraceful in front of the Supreme Deity.
He was so ashamed he wanted to die…
Qin Ying also coughed dryly and looked away.
It wasn’t her first time seeing it, but it was the first time she felt so awkward about it.
She hesitated for a moment, still wanting to comfort him.
Who knew the Thunderbird would fail utterly at reading the room? It curiously stretched its head over to nudge Han Lie.
It was determined to get a good look at how a big worm could grow on a human body.
…
About seven or eight minutes later, Han Lie, who had shifted back into beast form, clutched the Wooden Bead in his claw.
Trying his utmost to suppress the heat in his body, he said in as calm a tone as possible, “The Wooden Bead is a little easier to use than the Chimei Skin.”
“It… it can switch me between human form and Monstrous Beast form.”
“Mm. Mm. Good thing. Very good.” Qin Ying’s gaze drifted, and her words could not have sounded more perfunctory.
The awkward atmosphere still had not eased.
One sat beside the jewelry box, the other sat beside the desk, both avoiding each other’s eyes.
What finally broke the awkward atmosphere was the ringing of a phone.
Qin Ying secretly let out a breath of relief and picked up her phone to look. It was Granny Shi.