Translator: Ash Editor: Geoffrey_
When Li Yao unsteadily returned to the medical tent, his hair stood upright as if they had been scorched by a flame spirit glyph.
He ruthlessly smashed himself into the medical treatment pod. He felt as if everything was spinning, as if he was a small boat in the middle of a tempestuous storm.
He had been vomiting for a long time, and now, there was nothing left to even vomit; half way through the journey, he had already puked out all the gastric acid in his stomach and had almost spat out his heart, liver, spleen, and lungs.
“A gentlemen’s revenge is never too late, even after ten years. Little Black, you just wait and watch! The day I become a Master Refiner, I will definitely modify you into a broom!” while throwing up, Li Yao ruthlessly shouted in his heart.
However, the Black Wing Sword, who was the target, wasn’t able to hear the cries in Li Yao’s heart. After swallowing an amount that was as vast as the sea of demonic energy and flying as swiftly as lightning twice, its mood was good. It was contentedly sleeping in his backpack.
“Student Li Yao…”
At this moment, an intermittent female voice floated into Li Yao’s ear. it sounded a bit difficult to comprehend.
Li Yao was taken aback in fear.
After becoming a cultivator, Li Yao’s senses had become extremely keen, not to mention that despite there being no place for a woman to hide in such a big medical tent, he didn’t discover anyone.
“Student Li Yao…”
Once again, the female voice rang in his ear. It was faint and weak like a voice of a lingering female ghost.
Li Yao had goosebumps explode all over his back—the female voice was coming from beneath his body; however, there was nothing beneath him but the pedestal of the medical treatment pod!
“I’m in here…”
When Li Yao was just about to be absolutely terrified, a tiny spirit mechanical bird, fluttering its metal wings, flew up from beneath the medical treatment pod. Its sparkling, transparent crystal eyes flickered with an embarrassed look as she gently said, “I’m sorry, I am still adapting to this new body. I am still not able to fly proficiently. Just a moment ago, I crashed into the ground. I was not intentionally hiding or anything to scare you, Student Li Yao.”
Li Yao was stupefied. He opened his palm and let the mechanical bird carefully land on his palm.
It was a small yet exquisite spirit mechanical bird whose whole body was wrapped in a pale green brilliance. A majority of its limbs had been carved from crystals, its frame had been cast from some sort of metal, whilst translucent crystals covered the outer layer of the meticulously carved gears, flywheels, driveshafts, and U-joints. They all fit so perfectly that it gave a natural aesthetic feeling.
Li Yao could not help but wonder because this mechanical bird was giving him a familiar feeling. He always felt that he had seen the look in the bird’s eyes somewhere before.
After pondering for a moment, Li Yao widely opened his eyes: “Wei Qingqing?”
The mechanical bird fluttered her wings in joy as she lightly nodded her small head. Right now, her voice was still very gentle, and unlike the clear and melodious voice from before, her voice had become a bit soft.
“Yes, Student Li Yao, it’s me. It’s all thanks to you finding the wisp of my residual soul that Uncle Tang, Professor Ding, and the others were able to turn me into a spectral cultivator. However, as I was too weak and as a result of my soul having been exposed to the air for too long, my soul was fragmented. For the moment, my soul is not strong enough to sustain a large spirit prosthetic body, thus I can only use this small, bird-type spirit prosthetic body.”
Speaking to this point, Wei Qingqing’s eyes lit up. Her facial muscles that were made of crystal fibers also showed a smiling expression. She said in a gentle tone, “I guess this is alright too. Ever since childhood, I have liked birds. Often in my imagination, I would always think of myself as a little bluebird[1] that could fly freely amidst the clouds. Now, this can be considered as my wish having come true.”
Li Yao, holding the little bluebird, sighed with emotion in his heart.
Amongst the seven cultivators, Wei Qingqing gave him the biggest shock.
She was no more a 20 year old who had just graduated from Sky Fantasia Academy, not to mention she was a culture-type cultivator, the weakest type among all cultivators. To be honest, even if she didn’t come forward, no one would have blamed her.
Yet, she didn’t hesitate to stand up. In the happiest period of her life, she had died even before her life had bloomed—what kind of power actually drove her to come forward?
Li Yao was extremely curious about everything regarding Wei Qingqing.
“I came here specially to express my gratitude to Student Li Yao. If you hadn’t found my residual soul, perhaps I would have already vanished into a puff of smoke by now. How would I be able to see this clear blue sky and the clouds again?”
Wei Qingqing, fluttering her wing, lightly leaped from Li Yao palm and rose into the air. As she somewhat clumsily flew in circles, she intermittently said, “H-however, I still have not yet perfectly mastered this spirit prosthetic body. It takes everything for me to just converse. Student Li Yao, it would be better for you to enter my world of fiction, where we can directly use spiritual exchange. What do you think?”
“World of fiction?”
Li Yao suddenly recalled that Wei Qingqing was a very mysterious “Illusionist”, who, according to the rumors, could create an extremely powerful world of literature, and in this world of literature, everything was at their beck and call.
Li Yao was completely curious regarding illusionists. He momentarily nodded and joyfully replied, “Of course I will, what should I do?”
“You don’t need to do anything. Just close your eyes.”
With a flap of her wings, Wei Qingqing flew to his head: “Student Li Yao, welcome to my novel, <Bluebird>. Let us together enter the <Bluebird> world.”
“Weng!”
Li Yao felt a slight shaking in his eardrums as the scene before him blurred. He felt as if his soul was pulled out from his body and was falling down into a seemingly bottomless hole. He didn’t know how long it took before he felt as if his soul was fiercely smashed into a new body!
In his ears rang howls of the wind, and what was in front of him were the ever-changing white clouds and large groups of white clouds that were like a sea of cotton, which under the breeze were molded into all kinds of shapes and figures.
Puppies, horses, buildings, forests… Everything, shining under the golden brilliance of the sunlight, gave off an appearance akin to a city in the sky.
“Beautiful, this is so beautiful!”
The world of fiction created by Wei Qingqing was almost the same as the real world. Even more so, the illusory aesthetic feeling it gave off made Li Yao completely relaxed and happy.
Then, he found that he had wings. He had turned into a falcon who was flying and hovering freely amidst the clouds.
When he recalled the scene where the Black Wing Sword carried him beyond the ninth heaven, Li Yao’s complexion suddenly became worse.
“What is it? Don’t you like flying high in the sky? If not, then you can imagine yourself as the bird you like and we will fly a bit lower.”
An ordinary, little bluebird that was as ordinary as wildflowers in deep valleys, with the exception of the three long, lush green feathers on its tail, flew above Li Yao as it spoke in a soft voice.
“It’s nothing. I like flying high in the sky, but what I don’t like is diving directly from 10,000 meters high in the sky to just one meter above the ground in half a minute.”
While speaking, with a move of his thought, Li Yao suddenly transformed into a fierce vulture.
The little bluebird was scared by the grim and ferocious appearance of Li Yao. She flew 4-5 meters ahead before circling back. Flying shoulder to shoulder with Li Yao, she curiously asked.
“You like vultures? I thought you would prefer falcons because falcons look majestic.”
“Although the falcon is majestic, it is too noble, too proud. It is not at all suitable to live in every place, and even though the vulture looks ordinary, even though it looks a little ferocious, in the places where the falcon can not live, the vulture can live quite well.”
Li Yao stretched out his wings and soared freely. Bit by bit, he started to enjoy this feeling.
He craned his neck to look about and said, “Since we are in a novel, what is the story of this novel?”
“There is no story. This <Bluebird> novel is just a little bluebird flying in the sky as she gazes upon the many clouds which are all changing into all kinds of forms and were overflowing with multitudes of colorful brilliance under the illumination of the sunlight and the molding of the gales of wind. I am preparing to write all kinds of shapes and colors of clouds into this world. It is simply just this.”
Wei Qingqing paused a bit before continuing with a smile, “Originally, this novel only had one character, and that was a little bluebird, but now, I think that adding a vulture would not be bad too. Together, they will fly over the mountains, rivers, and seas of the Heaven Origin Sector, watching the sea of clouds in the sky till they reach the end of the world.”
“Now, I understand. This is pure literature!” Li Yao was filled with deep veneration.
Wei Qingqing was a little embarrassed. She lowered her head and said:
“In fact, I have also written of other stuff and some popular youth novels in the market. It’s about an extremely talented heir of a major sect who fell in love with an ordinary girl, but the elders of the sect were against them and didn’t want them to be together. Instead, they had wanted to marry him to the daughter of an elder of another sect… It had things like this and that. When I was in university, I had also published two other novels, and they sold pretty well! However, in my heart, my favorite is this incomplete <Bluebird>. I began writing this from the age of fifteen and was planning to write it till the age of fifty. Till now, I have not shown it to anybody else. You are the first person to see it.”
“This is too wasteful! I’m just a coarse fellow who has little, if any, education. I do not understand literature,” said Li Yao. He was immensely embarrassed.
Wei Qingqing slightly smiled. Her little feet lightly stepped upon Li Yao’s body before the little bluebird soar up and circled around the vulture:
“Maybe this is fate. Since childhood, I have liked watching the ever-changing clouds in the sky. I have always wished to turn into a little bluebird and fly in the blue sky amidst the white clouds. Who would have known that I would really turn into a little bird? Ha, now after personally experiencing it, I would definitely be able to write the best <Bluebird> novel!”
The girl’s optimism moved Li Yao.
He asked himself—if it was him who was dead and was reborn into a spirit prosthetic body, and moreover remain life-long as a “spectral cultivator”, perhaps he could not be as calm and as optimistic as Wei Qingqing.
Li Yao could not help but ask, “Sister Qingqing…”
“Call me Little Qing! I am just 3-4 years older than you!” the little bluebird chirped.
Li Yao flushed, but fortunately, his face was covered in feathers, and the little bluebird also didn’t see:
“Little Qing, last night on the crystal train, why did you come forward? Obviously, there were many cultivators who didn’t stand up. Your strength was the weakest of them all. Wouldn’t an Illusionist’s spiritual attack play a limited role against the beast tide? Even if you didn’t stand up, no one would make any irresponsible remarks.”
The little bluebird was silent for a long time. She continued flying amidst the clouds, continuously chasing after the warm sunlight before she finally muttered:
“Maybe, maybe if I did not come forward, no one would blame me.”
“Moreover, I was so weak that even after I overdrafted my entire life force, I could only fire the Taiyi Lightning Railgun once… Even without me, perhaps they would have still been able to delay the beast tide.”
“I was also hesitating, but then I thought of my teacher and what she would have done if she were in my place. She would have definitely stood up, so inheriting my teacher’s will, I just came forward, that’s all.”
TLN:
[1]- The Bluebird is a three-footed mythical bird that is the messenger of a fairy-god mother.