Chapter 58: Could You Shine a Little Brighter?

"Master, I finally found you."
"Master, are you hurt?"
"Master, what happened to you…?"
Liang Si rubbed his eyes.
Uncertain, very uncertain, extremely uncertain.
The person standing before him looked exactly like his master, yet something felt off.
He wasn’t the only one who thought so; his junior brothers and sisters felt the same unease.
"Master…" Wang Xi looked ahead uncertainly, squeezing out two teardrops, "Master, is it really you? Please save me, Senior Brother has gone mad."
Liang Si: …
"Oh." Wen Jinge grabbed a handful of feathers from her face.
She was utterly indifferent to their fate.
Anyone could go mad, except Liang Si—he was always her little confidant, her precious one.
Bathed in sunlight, the girl lay sprawled across a tree trunk, the breeze fluttering her sleeves with an air of carefree grace.
The figure, girlish in appearance, held a feather between her fingers, her profile turned toward the crowd, eyes gazing into the distance. The cool, aloof face seemed suffused with a sacred glow.
Feathers covered her black robes.
So black they gleamed, shimmering in the light like a rainbow.
Brilliant and iridescent, the black was multicolored.
Luxurious yet understated, it exuded a quiet opulence.
But her next actions shattered the beauty of this scene.
When she saw her disciples, the girl's gaze slid sideways, the cold in her eyes fading, replaced by a roguish, playful smile—a fool’s grin.
She scratched at the feathers atop her head, and, before her gaping disciples, stuffed them all into her storage pouch. After jumping down from the tree, she slung an arm around Liang Si’s shoulders, buddy-buddy. "Si Si, am I clean now?"
"Clean. Yes, you’re clean." Liang Si seemed to regain his composure, hesitated, then patiently helped Wen Jinge pluck the fine fluff from her head, collecting it in another pouch.
He had to admit, Wen Jinge’s stinginess had rubbed off on him completely.
Carrying pouches everywhere, collecting all sorts of odds and ends—it had become one of his greatest joys.
"Master, where’s the Golden Crow?"
He’d never seen a Golden Crow, only read about its habits in ancient texts.
But these feathers looked like they belonged to one.
He assumed his master had been locked in mortal combat with the Golden Crow when she sent her message earlier.
"No idea." Wen Jinge honestly didn’t know; she had been rummaging for her stew pot, not expecting the plucked Golden Crow to escape.

If she’d known, she should have wrung its neck like a chicken, then she’d have Crow soup.
Even ordinary crow soup was nutritious—one that had cultivated spiritual power must be even more so.
She was vexed!
Watching a seventy-year-old brat act cute every day was truly unbearable!
"No idea?"
Liang Si couldn’t make sense of his master’s repeated sighs and shakes of the head, so he simply followed her lead, asking, "How can you not know?"
"It lost all its feathers; it shouldn’t have run far."
Liang Si fell silent.
"After all, the hostage taken was your Second Junior Brother, not your Senior Brother." Wen Jinge wore a bitter face.
Liang Si was still speechless.
She muttered on: "Your Second Junior Brother really knows how to hold us back."
Liang Si closed his eyes and said nothing more.
"It’s possible the Golden Crow thinks it can use your Second Junior Brother to threaten me and lead me to its lair."
Liang Si’s inner thoughts: Master is becoming more and more unpredictable.
"Then we can go steal its treasures. Didn’t you say the Golden Crow loves gold, jade, and spiritual objects? Let’s take a good look."
Liang Si drew a deep breath. His grandmaster was right—his master was the purest soul under heaven!
So pure that whatever she wanted, whatever she did, she never bothered to conceal it.
Second Junior Brother being captured was probably all part of her plan—to get to the lair!
"By the way, what are you all doing here?" Wen Jinge interrupted his train of thought.
She had noticed the group long ago, but to maintain her lofty image, she hadn’t asked. She hadn’t expected her disciples to be just as lazy in explaining things to her.
The Green Sand Beast was holding up a chunk of earth, seemingly cut straight from the ground—it wasn’t stone, and the path was littered with mud scraps. The beast looked exhausted.
On the huge block of earth stood three disciples—her own.
And more than a dozen villagers, strangers to her.
All these people had been immobilized by talisman papers, and it looked like a silencing spell had also been cast.
Of the three disciples, aside from Yang Wen Nan, two were puffing with anger, glaring at Liang Si as if deeply wronged.
At this moment, Wen Jinge really wanted to throw a bag over Yuan Qing Ling’s head—she didn’t want to see any expression on that young face.
She glanced at Liang Si, cool and distant, standing at her side; his gaze was full of her, but now even he was at a loss, as if unsure how to explain.
All the disciples wore Flying Fish uniforms, brows furrowed, eyes fierce, hostility between them. Her mind began to conjure up lines, her gaze shifting accordingly.
Three parts indifference, two parts mockery, four parts clarity, with a touch of cruelty—she drawled, "Plotting to usurp the throne?"

Liang Si: …
All his carefully prepared words vanished.
What was he going to say again?
"Yes, yes, yes, that’s exactly what Senior Brother thinks." Yuan Qing Ling, in childlike form, spoke in a soft, sweet voice, but his charming face uttered uncharming words.
"Your Senior Brother wouldn’t usurp alone—he’d take me with him." Wen Jinge smiled at Liang Si. "Our Si Si only wants to pursue enlightenment quickly, isn’t that right?"
"…Enlightenment? Enlightenment? Seek what enlightenment?"
Oh, he understood.
As the disciple personally chosen by Grandmaster for Wen Jinge, he was no doubt outstanding, and his comprehension strong: "Master, is our next destination to seek Buddhist cultivators and discuss the Dharma?"
He’d noticed lately that his Second and Third Junior Brothers were reading ‘Introduction to Buddhist Cultivation.’
Master must have thought about it.
Wen Jinge was confused, miming a weightlifting motion: "No, no, we weren’t talking about that. I was asking why you had the Green Sand Beast do this, like this?"
"Raven Blue," Yang Wen Nan interjected urgently, "It’s Raven Blue."
"What is Raven Blue?"
"To answer the immortal," Liang Si released the silencing spell on an old woman, "It’s feathers, I…"
As he spoke, her body began to ignite.
Without thinking, Wen Jinge raised her index finger. She glanced up at the sky in bewilderment.
She stared at the old woman, and suddenly, there was local rain and wind—the woman's clothes dried out.
Liang Si: "Master, that’s Samadhi True Fire; water can’t extinguish it."
"Then…this…"
"Your disciple doesn’t know either."
"So she’s a demon now?"
"Seems not." Liang Si scratched his head. His master had forgotten much, but bizarre spells remained. "Should I release her?"
"Madam, please move again."
The old woman, terrified, moved, but this time didn’t ignite.
Wen Jinge was stunned and looked up at the sky again, unconsciously adopting Fan Zifan’s tone. "Goodness! This is outrageous—the big boss didn’t manage an assassination, and I’ve stolen the protagonist’s spotlight. Are you blind?"
"Master." Liang Si poked his absent-minded master, then pointed at the sky. "Could you…make it shine again?"