67. Birdman

Tangxi suddenly opened her eyes.

He didn't know when he fell asleep. He only remembered that before he lost consciousness, Xuanwu said he would see him off. When he woke up, his whole body ached, his mind was foggy, as if he had overused his spiritual power, and he felt nauseous in waves.

Where did they take me?

Tang Xi opened her eyes blankly and stared for a while. All she could see was darkness, but she could smell a familiar fragrance...

I feel like I've smelled this scent somewhere before? It's cool and sweet, and smelling it a few times can calm me down.

Tang Xi blinked hard, waited for a while, but all he could see was darkness. He sighed softly, almost getting used to being in the dark.

In the darkness, Tangxi couldn't see anything, and she instinctively propped herself up to sit up.

"Thump!"

With a loud bang, Tangxi and Chongchong lay down, staring blankly into the void.

It's so narrow.

Where is this?

Tang Xi then realized that she was probably trapped in some small, cramped place.

He raised his hand and touched his surroundings, struggling with how to leave this cramped and awful place. It was so narrow that he couldn't even straighten his arm.

Confined to a large box just big enough to hold one person, made of wood, a little rough, with a subtle floral and earthy scent emanating from the wooden planks.

The size, the feel, the irritating sense of confinement.

Tangxi paused slightly as she fumbled around, a ridiculous thought flashing through her mind.

coffin?

Did someone bury me? Xuanwu?

This joke has gone a bit too far. After groping around for a while and confirming that he couldn't leave this enclosed space by conventional means, he gathered his power in his palm and let out a low shout.

"open!"

boom--

With a loud bang, a large hole was blasted open in the "luxury wooden ceiling" above.

Fresh air rushed in, along with faint light and the dust that fell into Tangxi and onto my face and hair.

Tang Xi, spitting out dirt, crawled out on all fours. The wooden plank that had been blasted into the air shattered into pieces, falling to the ground with a clattering sound, mixed with bits of dirt.

He shook the dust off his head and was about to express his joy at regaining his freedom when he caught a glimpse of a bright light out of the corner of his eye. Tang Xi looked over and met an extremely complicated gaze.

Standing by the pit was... uh, a "birdman"?

To be precise, it was a child wearing a beautiful red feathered robe, barefoot, with two wings extending from beneath the wide sleeves. Moving the gaze upwards, the child's head was prominently displayed as a fluffy, round bird's head, with a pair of bright, beady eyes staring wide-eyed, its beak slightly open, seemingly frozen in an expression of extreme shock.

Tang Xihe: "..."

Their eyes met, and Tang Xihe tried to convince herself that this might be a demon who had failed to transform. Anything strange could happen in this blessed land, Tang Xihe reassured herself, nodding slightly, "Excuse me, I was just passing by."

The bird-headed child blinked, its beak opening and closing, "Tangxi and?"

Does he know me?

Tang Xihe was slightly taken aback. When the other person spoke, the voice sounded strangely familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had heard it before. So, while using a cleansing spell to wash away the dirt and debris from her body, Tang Xihe politely extended her hand and said, "Hello?"

"Tang Xihe! It really is you!"

The bird-like child excitedly darted over, flapping its wings to catch Tang Xi and her outstretched hand, and shook violently up and down. "How did you crawl out of my tombstone?"

tombstone?

Tangxi and Mangran looked back around.

The neatly arranged cemetery resembled a silent stone forest. Faint, ethereal shadows lingered on each tombstone—the remnants of crows' souls. He had been here before; the slaughtered crows slept peacefully beneath the fragrant earth, and he had even been ambushed nearby by Lang Yuehua and Fu Guanhong.

Tangxi and Fuzhi looked at the bird-man child in disbelief, "Pipi?"

"It's me!"

Pipi's beak opened and closed, its beady eyes narrowed into slits, and it exclaimed happily, "What are you doing here? When did you hide in here? This is my grave!"

tomb?

Tang Xihe's expression became even stranger. She looked back at the spot where she had crawled out, and her arms suddenly felt very itchy. Tang Xihe looked around blankly and scratched her arms.

Come to think of it, when we first returned Pipi to Fenfang Cemetery, he did mention that he had a tombstone. At the time, I can't quite explain why I deliberately didn't look at which "tombstone" Pipi had.

As a result, he was teleported by Xuanwu to Pipi's tomb?

An open coffin, its lid gleaming brightly on the ground, was brazenly exposed to the air. The surrounding loose soil and wood chips clearly revealed that Tangxi and the "one-palm-explosion" was not a dream.

Tang Xihe: "..."

The lingering spirits clinging to the tombstones stared at Tangxi and the human emerging from the earth with expressions of utter disbelief. Some even instinctively shrank back into the soil, peeking out only half their "heads" to peek at her.

Tang Xihe: "..."

Is this what Xuanwu meant by "sending me on my way"?

"Why are you the only one here? Where are Gui Fang and Bei Chen?"

Pipi excitedly lifted the muddy mess from his feet, "Look! What happened to your hands? We look exactly the same now!"

Tang Xi scoffed, "Who's like you? You've been practicing for hundreds of years, and you still haven't stopped yourself from using your mouth and hands."

"..."

wrong.

Tang Xi slowly realized something, her expression suddenly changed, and her gaze stiffly lowered.

Bird wings were growing from his arms, and when he noticed the strange changes happening to his body, his arms suddenly sprouted wings like opening fans.

Tangxi's vision went black.

"Hey! Tangxi!"

·

Wandering in the mountains.

As the smoke dissipated, the barrier wall faded away. The nine-headed octopus fed the skeleton fish an unknown mosaic dish, reluctantly bidding farewell to the fading remnants of souls, babbling in a language only they could understand. When the main brain's mouth opened and closed slightly, it would blow bubbles, strings of small bubbles floating upwards and disappearing in the air with a few "pops".

Nine-Headed Chapter looked somewhat uneasy towards the top of Wandering Mountain.

After returning from Junxing Mountain, the three children were very depressed. Although the strange black and white lotus was resolved, the three of them were still shrouded in gloom and gloom.

Bei Chen and the other two flew to the top of Langji Mountain, found a relatively flat open space, and planted a waist-high rock on the ground facing the direction of Junxing Mountain.

With a swift stroke, Tangxi Chun chopped the stone into a neat rectangle and carved the three characters "Tangxi He" in a hasty manner.

After bowing solemnly three times, the three sat down in a row, looking dejected.

The dark clouds that had blotted out the sky had long since dispersed, leaving the mountaintop open and boundless. One could even see the distant Hufo Fire Cave, where a giant golden statue wielding a golden cudgel was slowly fading away.

"The Victorious Fighting Buddha, that's Xuan Yingxian's immortal abode. How did he get teleported to the Calling Buddha Fire Cave?" Bei Chen asked.

“It must be Bu Chengzhi’s doing,” Gui Fang said with certainty.

"Who is Xuan Yingxian?" Tang Xichun asked. "The Victorious Fighting Buddha? Is he very powerful?"

"It depends on his condition," Gui Fang Wu Di replied. "He can be a bit stubborn and likes to compete with others, but he's quite reliable when it comes to important things."

Gui Fang subconsciously wanted to explain Xuan Yingxian's strange obsession with Tang Xihe, but swallowed the words back down.

The three humans sat dejectedly, hugging their knees and looking at the scenery, sighing in unison.

Unable to bear it any longer, the Nine-Headed Octopus casually pulled out three tentacles. "Cheer up, all of you! With so much help from the Immortal Realm, he'll definitely turn the tide!"

After saying that, she lightly smacked Tang Xichun again and scolded, "And you! I want to see the person alive or dead. We haven't even found the person yet, what are you doing making this mess!"

"I want to look too! We haven't even found anyone at the Immortal Realm, how are we supposed to find them!"

Tang Xichun covered the back of her head and said resentfully. After saying a few words, she felt like crying again. She pouted and forced herself to say, "Even Yan Youzu couldn't survive, how could my brother possibly survive! Maybe not even his bones will be left."

"..."

The nine-headed octopus was most afraid of seeing girls cry. Its three heads turned away in different directions, and its more than twenty tentacles twisted and turned helplessly. It said awkwardly, "Oh well, nothing will happen!"

That being said, it suddenly felt a little uncertain.

Nine-Headed Chapter was used to following Xuanwu's orders, and Xuanwu's calculations had never failed. So why did it choose a human cultivator this time and take such a big risk?

Why can't we let the celestial soldiers and generals of the Immortal Realm deal with those five immortals from the Immortal Alliance Cloud Court?

If Tangxi and Zhen really get into trouble, Xuanwu will definitely be severely punished by the Tianxiantai.

Nine-Headed Zhang also sighed and sat down with them in a row. The three people and one demon faced the direction of Junxing Mountain in silence.

Gui Fang felt something on the back of his head, and with a casual scratch, he grabbed a spirit.

The translucent leaves piled up into a soft ball, and the little ball was slowly wriggling in Gui Fang's palm, with a faint light flashing at the edges of the "leaves".

Gui Fang licked his lips. "Like shrimp chips that haven't been cooked yet... Ouch!"

The spirit nimbly flicked its tail, slapping the ghost's face before disappearing into the distance.

Gui Fang stared at the vanished spirit, his eyes brightening slightly. A thought flashed through his mind: "If Tang Xi really is dead, will she return as a spirit?"

Bei Chen looked over with a complicated expression, "Then it's not an accident, it's a ghost story."

Tang Xichun tilted her head and thought about it seriously for a moment, "That's fine too, anyway, even if he becomes a ghost, he'll be a quiet, lazy ghost."

"How did we get onto the topic of Tangxi and becoming a ghost?"

A childish voice, full of doubt, came from behind them, "You even erected a monument for him?"

"Xuanwu?"

Nine-Headed Octopus exclaimed excitedly, "Why did you take so long to arrive!"

"I just went to the Netherworld Ancient Path for some business."

Xuanwu, who appeared silently, calmly nodded slightly to Beichen and the other two under the astonished gazes of the crowd, and gave Jiutouzhang a reassuring smile with a childlike face.

"What are you afraid of? I'll be fine."

"That……"

Nine-Headed Chapter glanced hesitantly at the three people beside him.

It had many questions for Xuanwu, but now was not the time.

Xuanwu, of course, understood what the Nine-Headed Chapter meant. He turned to Beichen and the other two and said, "Tangxi seems to have encountered some trouble. Do you want to go and take a look?"

"My brother is still alive!"

Tang Xichun cried out in surprise, "Where is he!"

"Fragrant Grave Soil, he overused his spiritual power and encountered a problem, which is normal. I hope it won't scare you."

Xuanwu subtly winked at Jiutouzhang, "See them off."

The Nine-Headed Octopus immediately understood. It had long wanted to get rid of these three sighing jinxes. It immediately summoned the Skeleton Fish, flicked its tentacles and eagerly tossed the three of them onto the surface, "The dog swims faster than you, go!"

Without a word, the three of them excitedly jumped onto the skeleton fish, and Gui Fang didn't forget to turn back to Jiu Tou Zhang and say, "We're not giving it back!"

"Get lost! My dog ​​knows the way home!"

The Nine-Headed Octopus shouted to the rapidly flying Skull Fish, "If you're bored, come and play with me!"

...

The three of them, including Beichen, had already experienced the flying speed of the skeleton fish, but the process of waiting for the skeleton fish to reach the Fragrant Graveyard felt like an eternity.

With spiritual energy depleted, the worst-case scenario could be shock. Tangxi and others were unable to leave Junxing Mountain for a long time due to that fierce battle. Could they lose an arm or a leg?

The three remained silent the whole way, considering all the worst-case scenarios. The skeleton fish had already carried them to the sky above the Fragrant Graveyard.

Upon closer inspection, Bei Chen exclaimed softly, "Isn't that Zhu Qianqian?"

Gui Fang snapped out of his daze and followed the gaze. Besides Zhu Qianqian, who looked embarrassed, there were two "birdmen," one tall and one short, arguing loudly.

Tang Xichun's face went from tense to blank and bewildered.

"Is that my brother's voice?"

The skeleton fish hovered in mid-air, below which lay the Graveyard Forest.

Zhu Qianqian's face turned a deep purplish-red from holding her breath. To her left was the furious Tang Xihe, and to her right was Pipi. On one side was her savior, and on the other was the new Vermilion Bird; she couldn't afford to offend either of them. Zhu Qianqian was at a loss for what to do.

"Say something!"

Tangxi and Da Pangpai were furious as they flapped their wings at the monstrous child with a bird's head and a guilty look in front of them. Now, they were afraid that if they moved even slightly, they would fly away with their feet off the ground, so they couldn't help but move very gently.

"Why didn't anyone tell me that crawling out of your grave would have such bizarre side effects! What am I now? I'm a birdman!"

Pipi tilted her head and looked for two seconds, then couldn't help but chuckle. "Don't be angry, Tang Xihe. The angrier you are, the more you look like a chicken being chased by a dog on a farm."

Tang Xi angrily pointed a finger, slapping Zhu Qianqian, who was trying to break up the fight, so hard that she took a half step back. "You're the dog that herds the chickens!"

"I'm not a dog! I'm the divine bird Pipi!" Pipi retorted, flapping its wings twice with force.

Suddenly, a large shadow fell on the ground. Tangxi and the other two looked up and saw a giant skeleton fish circling in the air, slowing its pace.

They've arrived?

Tang Xi's face was blank as she looked down at her two chicken wings.

Upon landing, Bei Chen and his two companions faced Tang Xihe. They had witnessed Tang Xihe and the bird-headed child arguing as the skull fish approached. While on the fish's back, they could deceive themselves by saying it was too far away to see clearly. However, after landing, they realized they couldn't lie to themselves anymore. For a moment, everyone wore strange expressions, hesitant to speak, their gazes all focused on Tang Xihe, unsure how to begin.

"You've come at the worst possible time."

Tang Xi's face returned to calm, her eyes revealing a glimmer of hope mixed with a profound sense of despair. "Laugh if you want to."

"Hahahahaha..."

Gui Fang and Bei Chen burst into laughter, "Tang Xihe, you're so trendy right now! Keep it up!"

Tang Xichun laughed along, and as she laughed, she ran towards Tang Xihe. Her laughter turned into loud sobs as she rushed towards Tang Xihe.

"What are you doing here! We all thought you were dead!"

Tang Xi instinctively opened her arms to catch her, but her outstretched arms slapped Tang Xi's bangs and facial features flying backward.

Tang Xichun's sadness and fear vanished instantly, and she stood in front of Tang Xihe, staring at him expressionlessly.

Tang Xi stretched out a "wing" and patted her head apologetically, saying, "There was a slight accident, but luckily Xuanwu saved me, and Zhu He gave me the Heart-Guarding Bracelet..."

Tang Xi's voice faded away, and he stared speechlessly at his pair of "chicken wings." He was really not used to turning from human arms into bird wings, and helplessly turned to ask Zhu Qianqian.

When can I turn back?

“Good question.” Zhu Qianqian said professionally, “I don’t know either, I’ve never encountered this situation before.”

Tang Xichun burst into laughter through her tears, wiping her face. "Brother, you're quite funny like this. Don't turn back, try flying now!"

"No! Tang Xichun, you've gone astray too!"

Xuanwu tricked me!