Chapter 372 : Just a Fledgling
As Jiang Mo and Zhu Baiyi took action, space trembled and spiritual energy overflowed. The Little Swan Goose, who had been grinding her teeth on the golden flame stone, raised her head from Qingyu's arms. She opened her beautiful Phoenix eyes and stared at a certain point in the air, though following her gaze revealed nothing.
Qingyu's attention wasn't on the Little Swan Goose at this moment, so she didn't notice her behavior.
Not until the Little Swan Goose suddenly broke free from Qingyu's embrace, abandoning the barely half-gnawed golden flame stone, and flapped her wings to fly into the air—she didn't know what was there, but instinctively felt something drawing her. Moreover, with her recent food shortage, the golden flame stone serving merely as a tooth-grinding distraction, her craving for spiritual energy had grown increasingly intense.
"Qingyue!" Qingyu called out. Initially, she hadn't been too concerned about the Little Swan Goose flying away, after all, she wasn't truly a bird, and no one would constantly restrain her. But seeing the Little Swan Goose fly away without looking back, Qingyu sensed something was wrong.
This call failed to bring back the Little Swan Goose, but it startled the two people who were taking action, both stopping and looking back.
Seeing the Little Swan Goose flying higher and farther, Jiang Mo's heart sank. Without time to consider the Little Swan Goose's intentions, she hurriedly took to the air in pursuit, calling out as she chased: "Senior Sister, Senior Sister, wait! Where are you going?"
However, as mentioned before, though the Little Swan Goose appeared small, her flying speed wasn't something a wingless tiger could match. In almost the blink of an eye, Jiang Mo was left behind. Before she could make a renewed effort to catch up, suddenly her field of vision was empty—the Little Swan Goose she had been fixedly watching had vanished without a trace!
Jiang Mo's tiger eyes instantly widened into perfect circles. She rushed to where the Little Swan Goose had disappeared, but after rushing around desperately several times, she couldn't find even a feather. Only belatedly did she sense a slight spatial fluctuation.
She immediately realized what had happened and first asked the system in her mind, learning that the useless system also didn't know where Senior Sister had been teleported to. She could only turn back to the other two: "Sect Leader, Peak Master..."
Qingyu and Zhu Baiyi naturally hadn't missed that spatial fluctuation, but being newcomers themselves, how could they know where the Little Swan Goose had been transported? Fortunately, they were more experienced than Jiang Mo and didn't panic. After exchanging a glance, they had a conjecture: "Don't worry, she must have been drawn to the legacy site. This place is destined to be her opportunity."
Jiang Mo didn't doubt their judgment and first breathed a sigh of relief, but then grew concerned: "But weren't all those who came to this demon-confining formation to eliminate demons human cultivators? Why would the legacy choose Senior Sister?"
If Yun Qingyue were still the original Yun Qingyue, with exceptional talent and youth, being chosen by a legacy wouldn't be surprising. But she had clearly turned into a bird, with divine beast bloodline constituting the vast majority of her blood, and even the remaining monstrous beast bloodline was not to be underestimated—where was there any trace of humanity left? Logically, among the four present, only Qingyu was the most suitable to receive a human cultivator's legacy.
Hearing this, Zhu Baiyi pondered for a moment, seeming to have some conjecture in mind, but ultimately didn't voice it. She only shook her head and said: "I don't know either. Let's wait for Qingyue to return, and then you can find a way to ask her."
Jiang Mo knew she wouldn't get any answers and could only look up at the sky, full of worry as she waited for the Little Swan Goose to return.
༻༺❀༻✧⋆｡°✩☽༓☾✩°｡⋆✧༺❀༻༺
The Little Swan Goose didn't know people were waiting for her outside, or perhaps she had no intention of concerning herself with such matters at the moment.
She had arrived at a strange place. Here, mountains were clear and waters beautiful, birds sang and flowers bloomed—completely different from the barren, gloomy land outside. Even the air here was fresher than outside, making anyone who arrived want to linger indefinitely.
The Little Swan Goose fell in love with this place at first sight. When she followed several rare jade-colored spirit bees to their hive and stole a drink of their spiritually abundant honey, this fondness increased threefold—if only those jade bees weren't so fierce, not chasing her for two quarter-hours over a bit of spirit honey, she would have liked this place even more!
Thinking of this, the Little Swan Goose smacked her lips, still savoring the delicious spirit honey. Unfortunately, there was only that small amount of honey in the beehive, and she couldn't get any more. Now, having eaten the spirit honey, she felt warm and comfortable all over.
Then, feeling so comfortable, the Little Swan Goose grew drowsy, eventually finding an empty tree hollow to crawl into, and before long, fell into a deep sleep.
The Little Swan Goose slept for a full seven days. After waking, she felt refreshed and invigorated. After awakening, she groomed her feathers and habitually summoned a water mirror to look at herself, discovering that her reflection had changed—originally, the Little Swan Goose had been in an awkward phase: her down had fallen out, and her feathers had grown in about seventy to eighty percent, but the plumes on her head and tail feathers hadn't emerged, making her look like a half-grown chicken chick at first glance.
Phoenixes all love beauty and are narcissistic, and the Little Swan Goose was no exception. She had been distressed about this for a long time, eating voraciously each day just wanting to grow her feathers quickly. Unfortunately, Phoenix's growth rate was too slow. Even with Jiang Mo's wholehearted feeding, the speed was still slow enough to make a bird despair.
However, this time, she had only stolen some spirit honey and then absorbed spiritual energy during her usual sleep, yet when she awoke, she found three small tufts of plumes had grown on her previously bare head... Of course, they hadn't fully developed yet, and weren't stunning, but at least with these three tufts of plumes, no one would think she looked like a chicken chick anymore!
The Little Swan Goose was overjoyed, gazing at herself in the mirror, just short of preening and posing.
Who knows how long she admired herself in the water mirror; after sufficiently appreciating the plumes on her head, she finally turned to check on her tail feathers. Unfortunately, this look disappointed her—her tail was still bare, and the beautiful tail feathers still hadn't grown out.
The Little Swan Goose felt somewhat regretful, but then recalling the sweet and delicious spirit honey, her interest was piqued again—the spirit honey was not only tasty but also effective, and she wanted more. At worst, she'd be stung a few times by those jade bees; if she could exchange that for a few beautiful tail feathers... No, even if it meant growing just one tail feather, she thought being stung a few times would be worth it.
Thinking of beautiful feathers, the Little Swan Goose immediately developed grand ambitions and, without delay, left the tree hollow and flew toward the jade bee hive she had visited earlier. Upon arriving, she saw the beehive was still there, the jade bees busily coming and going to collect honey, as if nothing had happened a few days ago.
But clearly, the jade bees didn't feel the same way, and they were quite vindictive.
At first, when the Little Swan Goose approached stealthily, the jade bees had no reaction, until they caught a familiar scent in the air, mixed with their precious spirit honey. All the jade bees immediately erupted in a frenzy, then neglecting their honey collection, quickly summoned nearby bee species to join them. Before the Little Swan Goose could raid the hive for honey, she was stunned by the black mass of bees that appeared.
Her instinct told her that these bee species weren't high-grade; even gathering all bee species, the jade bees at most had Nascent Soul cultivation—she could crush them casually. But instinct also told her that the situation was dangerous, and she shouldn't engage in a hard fight!
Trusting her instincts, the Little Swan Goose immediately backed down. Before the bee swarm could surround her, she flapped her wings and fled.
Fortunately, the Swan Goose's flying speed was very fast, and the three new plumes on the Little Swan Goose's head weren't grown in vain—her cultivation had improved, and her speed had increased considerably. In just a few breaths, she left those menacing bees far behind. Nevertheless, the Little Swan Goose was extremely regretful, as such delicious spirit honey would probably never be tasted again.
Fortunately, without spirit honey, this space had plenty of other good things, with all kinds of rare fruits to be found. The Little Swan Goose was like a mouse in a rice bin, alternating between joyous contentment and gorging herself.
Several more days passed this way. The legacy Zhu Baiyi had mentioned still hadn't appeared to the Little Swan Goose; instead, she had eaten until her belly was round.
At first, the Little Swan Goose was too happy to think of leaving, but after filling her stomach, she gradually began to feel lonely—this space was wonderful, with no shortage of food or drink. The Little Swan Goose even felt she could grow her tail feathers here. But for all its perfections, there was one drawback: there were no people. Not only were there no people, but there weren't even larger spiritual beasts to communicate with; staying alone for too long made her truly lonely.
She missed the little tiger a bit, and also missed her birth mother who looked nothing like her.
After nirvana, the Little Swan Goose had returned to childhood, with both her cultivation and mentality becoming smaller, but this didn't mean she was stupid. She had heard all of the conversation between Jiang Mo and the others that day, so she knew a thing or two about the nature of this space, and thus wanted to find the legacy and leave quickly.
From this day on, the Little Swan Goose no longer simply ate and drank, but began to explore this beautiful space. In fact, finding the legacy site wasn't as difficult as imagined. After searching the space for less than a day, she discovered a verdant bamboo grove in the mountains, and a bamboo house standing conspicuously within the grove.
The bamboo house wasn't large, at least in appearance. The Little Swan Goose circled around it twice before landing on the roof—she felt this must be the destination, as it was the only place in the space with human traces.
According to Zhu Baiyi, this should be the legacy left by human cultivators who eliminated demons back then, but she was just a bird...
While the Little Swan Goose was still hesitating, not yet decided on whether to enter the bamboo house for a look, she suddenly felt a suction force from below her feet. She flapped her wings in panic, trying to fly away and escape, but her claws seemed to have sunk into quicksand, unable to break free. Not only that, but there was also a tremendous pulling force coming from beneath her feet. Thus, she ultimately couldn't escape and was dragged down in a panic.
She might have fallen into the bamboo house, or perhaps not.
In the dim field of vision, only a shadowy figure stood vaguely before her.
The person seemed to examine her for a few moments, finally sighing deeply: "So it's just a fledgling..."
Hearing this, the Little Swan Goose felt belittled, immediately puffing up and spreading her wings, putting on a fierce appearance. At the same time, she opened her beak and let out several calls meant to be intimidating, but unfortunately, what emerged wasn't the resonant cry of a Phoenix, but the chirping sound of a young bird. Coupled with her chicken-chick-like small frame, it looked like nothing more than a bluff.
The shadow in the darkness naturally wasn't frightened by her, but instead couldn't help laughing. After laughing, the melancholy in their heart dissipated. After all, who could bear to be harsh on an adorable fledgling? Even if she was a full half-month late.