Chapter 59: A Heart Unmoved by External Things
Wen Jinge looked as if she had seen a ghost, suspecting herself to be trapped in a hallucination.
She was merely a tool, after all; borrowing power was one thing, but staking her life was utterly out of the question.
Yes, that was the only reasonable explanation.
Golden Crow, the three-legged sunbird, radiant beast of the sun.
Yet the one she had caught had been so fierce!
Given all these oddities, did it mean the fight from earlier wasn’t truly over?
Raven-black, feathered.
Oh, she understood now.
A slight smile curled on Wen Jinge’s lips as she closed her eyes, gripping Liang Si’s hand more tightly. “Are your junior brothers still here?”
“They are,” came a voice in the darkness.
“Do you know,” Wen Jinge drew him closer, “you are my favorite disciple.”
“Master, I know.”
“No, you don’t!” Wen Jinge pulled him even closer, their faces nearly touching. “You don’t know how much I regret things for you, how much I think you deserve better, how worried I am for you.”
“Master…”
“So, of all my disciples, the one I’ve watched most closely isn’t your second senior brother—but you.”
“Master…”
“Come, let your master hold you properly.”
“Master…” Liang Si resisted the embrace, but Wen Jinge wouldn’t let go. “You’re my little darling, can’t I hold you for a while?”
“Master, it’s improper for men and women to be so close.”
“Yet you put a fake me in your bed.” Wen Jinge said, growing impatient as she began to untie his robes.
“…Master.”
“Be good, let your master spoil you a little. It’ll be over soon, it won’t hurt.”
“I…”
In the dim space, breaths grew shallow. Wen Jinge asked softly, “Is your master serving you well?”
“Very well…”
“See, you can hardly breathe.”
“Mmm… Master…” Liang Si’s voice grew shy, and he murmured in fascination, “Master…”
Suddenly, “Hey! Good child, your master is right here!” Liang Si felt a pat on his back and shuddered.
“Let there be light!” He heard someone clap, and daylight broke through.
Then he froze.
“Did you enjoy yourself?” the person asked.
Wen Jinge stood there, still wearing her harmless smile, her robes immaculate—while he…
“How does it feel to kiss yourself?”
“Liang Si” trembled, still keeping up the smile. “Ma-master, surely you’re joking?”
“It started out just right, but it fell apart in the end.” Wen Jinge pulled out a mirror; in it, Liang Si’s face was sharp as a hawk’s, covered in black feathers, his robes disheveled—a beast, not a man.
“Liang Si” clutched at his body. Slowly, his form caught fire and turned into the creature in the mirror, and the one he’d been holding turned to a heap of ash.
“Master…” At that moment, Wang Xi stirred, and her face began to burn as well.
Wen Jinge frowned and snapped her fingers. This time, no rain fell, but a wind rose.
The fire went out all the same.
“Now what I see must be the truth, right?” Wen Jinge tilted her head, eyeing the bird-man clutching his body. Her mood lightened as she caught his confusion. “The disciples of Xuan Yun Sect now all wear flying fish robes, made by local seamstresses, but my own disciples’ robes are different.”
“How so?”
“I added something special. No one else could copy them if they tried.”
“You’re not even ninth rank! How dare you boast so?”
“Then how do I have disciples?” Wen Jinge glanced at his three legs; as her gaze swept over, he hurriedly covered them with his robe. “Elders outside the mountain are at least sixth rank, if not seventh.”
“With all the magic treasures you carry, how did you become their master, don’t you know?”
“Since I’ve dispelled your confusion, little one, shouldn’t you tell me why you played tricks in the dark?”
“Tricks in the dark?” He clearly didn’t understand, but when she glanced at his legs again, he straightened his neck in defiance. “Kill me if you must! If I’ve fallen into your hands, don’t think you’ll shame me!”
“You certainly seemed to enjoy kissing yourself just now!” Wen Jinge showed him no mercy, lifting the leg he held across his body for a closer look. The Golden Crow rolled away, wrapping itself in its robe like a wronged maiden.
“I—I kissed myself, what’s it to you?”
“Oh?” Wen Jinge had no intention of letting him go. “Kiss yourself, and then call out for me?”
“What is wrong with you? I only teased you a little!” His neck flushed red. “Humiliating me like this—do you find it amusing?”
“Very much so!”
“You—you—don’t you care about your disciples?”
“Aren’t they right there?” Wen Jinge pointed behind her to the stunned row of disciples. “That’s three of them.”
Wang Xi said, “Master, Senior Brother and Second Senior Brother are missing!”
“I know.” Wen Jinge nodded, pointing at the bird-man on the ground. “That’s why I’m asking, isn’t it?”
The disciples: …
This isn’t questioning—this is outright flirting back!
“Master, can you undo our bindings?” Wang Xi asked, adding indignantly, “You’re so biased, you always told me I was your little darling, and now it’s Senior Brother!”
“The more darlings I have, the warmer the winter!”
Wang Xi: …
“Master, you’re biased.”
“I’m not just biased!” Wen Jinge undid the talismans binding her three disciples with a wave of her hand, all the while watching the bird-man’s legs. “I can be single-minded, I can multitask, I can be fickle, or I can empty my mind entirely.”
Rubbing her sore legs, Wang Xi ran over, no longer upset. “Senior Brother is so mean—just because we reacted a bit slowly, he bound us up!”
Wen Jinge found her amusing and pinched her cheek. “Do you know what it means to have an empty mind?”
She sighed. The Golden Crow, too, pricked up his ears to eavesdrop. Wen Jinge seized the opportunity to grab his leg. “By the way, when you’re in human form, where exactly does this third leg attach? Come, let me have a look!”
“I’m curious too, Master.” Yuan Qingling squeezed over eagerly. “I’ve never seen a Golden Crow, let alone a plucked one. That’s even rarer.”
“Animals!” the Golden Crow cursed, suddenly reverting to bird form.
Of course, he was completely bare, save for a few feathers on his face—Wen Jinge had plucked him clean.
“Hurry, Junior Sister, catch him!”
The Golden Crow was filled with regret; this form was even more humiliating. A bare, glaring white bundle, pinned to the ground as Wen Jinge examined his legs. She asked her disciple, “Nannan, do you know how to tell a male from a female bird?”
The Golden Crow’s three legs kicked, his eyes rolled back, and he played dead.
Nannan, upon being addressed, twitched—he hadn’t yet recovered from the shock. Just a moment ago, he’d almost believed Master would really do something to Senior Brother.
His face was bright red, his temperature high. He’d meant to say something, but the conversation veered. “Master, what happens after your mind is empty of all things?”
“After that!” Wen Jinge, noticing his odd expression, offered a rare word of encouragement amid her usual sternness. “Then you’re no longer just a little junior mystic.”
“Mm.” He suddenly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, a faint violet light shone within.