Glimpse into the myriad aspects (3)
"This little bird is so cute, is it a gift for me?"
A melodious, clear female voice rang in her ears, and Ye Yingying's consciousness gradually cleared. She slowly opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by several slender railings. Ye Yingying tried to move her limbs, but felt something was wrong. Then she looked closer—hmm, why were there feathers on her hands?
Just as they were wondering, the cage suddenly shook, followed by another gentle male voice: "This is for Xiaoyan."
Ye Yingying raised her head, trying hard to see the faces of the two people who were speaking, but from her perspective, the two were incredibly tall, and she could only barely make out their chins despite her great efforts.
"Xiao Yan? Oh, your new apprentice?" The woman leaned against the stone table, resting her chin on one hand, her eyes smiling.
Across the table, a well-dressed man nodded, then picked up the hot tea on the table, blew away the rising steam, and took a small sip.
The woman stared at him, her smile deepening, and teased, "Oh, now that you have a disciple, you don't miss me anymore."
"Cough cough." The man choked on his words and quickly put down his teacup, explaining, "This child, Xiao Yan, left his parents at a young age to cultivate with me, and he doesn't even have any peers around him to talk to. I was afraid he would be lonely, so I caught this spirit bird to keep him company."
Ye Yingying, inside the cage, tilted her head, her two tiny, beady eyes blinking as she processed the situation before her.
How did she turn into a bird? And a gosling? Who is the gosling?
The conversation continued, and the woman smiled and playfully scolded, "It's easy to find him someone his own age to keep him company. You could just take on a couple more apprentices around his age. It's just that your standards are too high; you've only ever had eyes for this one apprentice all these years."
"How can the matter of accepting disciples be taken lightly? If they can't even pass my sword formation, continuing to cultivate with me will only result in them losing their lives in vain." The man's expression became serious when he mentioned accepting disciples.
But how could he not notice the slight hint of sourness in the woman's words? So he comforted her, "If you want, I'll take you to the valley to the east next time. There are all kinds of birds there, you can pick whichever you like, okay?"
As soon as she finished speaking, a tall and handsome young man walked over from a distance. He had thick eyebrows and big eyes, wore a crown and had his hair tied up. He carried a long sword on his back and walked with a swift and graceful gait. Ye Yingying leaned closer to the cage and opened her eyes wide. She found that this person looked somewhat similar to Yun Yanqiu, but his features were obviously more youthful than the Yun Yanqiu she knew.
A seemingly absurd conclusion popped into Ye Yingying's mind—could this be Yun Yanqiu's past? And those two people are Li Zhoubai and Qin Wenshuang?
The young man stepped forward, bowed respectfully, and greeted the two seated people: "Master, Mistress."
"No need for formalities." The man waved his hand at him. "You've come at the right time. Here, take this."
Before Ye Yingying could react, she felt a violent shaking all around her, and was lifted up, cage and all, and brought to Yun Yanqiu. She was able to admire the boy's exquisitely sculpted face up close. At this time, he had not yet fully grown up, and his brows and eyes revealed a touch of youthful immaturity, but this did not detract from his clear and detached temperament.
Ye Yingying found it all quite amazing and stared in disbelief. Meanwhile, in Yun Yanqiu's eyes, a plump little bird was staring intently at her with its big, black, beady green eyes.
"This bird looks so silly," Yun Yanqiu remarked expressionlessly, which made Qin Wenshuang, who was standing next to him, burst into laughter.
Li Zhoubai coughed awkwardly twice, then said in a seemingly casual tone, "You recently reached the Great Perfection of Core Formation, right? This is a reward; it's yours from now on."
"..." Yun Yanqiu and the little fat bird stared at each other, wanting to say something but stopping themselves.
Seeing his expression, Qin Wenshuang teased Li Zhoubai again: "You're no good as a teacher. You can't even give a gift that resonates with the recipient."
Li Zhoubai was a little saddened upon hearing this, but Yun Yanqiu shook his head sharply and said, "It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I've never raised birds before, so I find it a bit novel."
"It's alright, it's very simple!" Li Zhoubai suddenly perked up and said incessantly, "This is a blue-and-white sparrow. It's not picky about food; it can eat seeds and insects. Feed it three times a day, and take it out to bask in the sun whenever you have time. It's easy to raise."
Ye Yingying was shocked upon hearing this, and the white feather on her chest trembled. She was very uneasy: Could it be that I have to feed her insects?
She looked at Yun Yanqiu cautiously, only to see that the other was listening attentively and nodding from time to time. After Li Zhoubai finished his long speech, Yun Yanqiu said solemnly, "I've remembered it all. I'll go catch some bugs later."
"?!" Ye Yingying's eyes widened, and she frantically flapped her wings, looking at him in utter terror.
Upon seeing this, Li Zhoubai pointed at her and said with a smile, "Look, this bird understands, it's asking you for food!"
"Chirp!—" Ye Yingying chirped angrily, but the white sparrow's chirping was too soft and weak, and it was impossible to tell that she was angry.
Li Zhoubai chuckled, taking it all as the little bird singing, and then asked Yun Yanqiu, "How's your homework going lately? Are you having any difficulties?"
"Everything else is fine, but I'm still having trouble condensing my Qi into a sword..." Yun Yanqiu answered truthfully. "Master, when spiritual energy is in my body, I can clearly control it freely. Why can't I control it when I release it?"
“Well…” Li Zhoubai picked up his teacup and cleared his throat. “Spiritual energy is inherently dispersed. When it’s inside your body, your body is the container that restricts its flow. But once it leaves your body, it’s no longer bound.”
After saying that, he pointed to Ye Yingying in the birdcage: "Just like this bird, if you release it from the cage, it will instinctively flap its wings and fly away from you."
Yun Yanqiu seemed to understand something: "That's why I need to use a sword to control spiritual power?"
“That’s right.” Li Zhoubai nodded with satisfaction. “Cultivators generally need to use all sorts of magical artifacts to control the spiritual power they release. For example, you use a sword, and your master’s wife uses a whip.”
"But if you condense your Qi into a sword, you can do so without the aid of external objects, relying solely on your own divine sense to condense your spiritual power into a shape that becomes hard and sharp, capable of cutting through iron like mud."
As Li Zhoubai explained, he opened his palm. Specks of spiritual energy gathered in his palm, instantly forming a pure white longsword.
Yun Yanqiu stared blankly at the sword, his heart filled with eager anticipation.
“If you learn this move, you’ll be a master,” Li Zhoubai said with a smile. “However, given your current mindset, you’ll probably need to practice for another hundred or two hundred years.”
One hundred and eighty years? Yun Yanqiu curled his lip, feeling that Li Zhoubai was underestimating him too much: "It won't take that long, you'll have mastered it in ten years."
The young man, full of pride and ambition, said goodbye to his master and mistress, then turned around, picked up the birdcage, and went back to his room to cultivate.
After he left, Qin Wenshuang slowly spoke: "Do you really want him to inherit your swordsmanship?"
"Why not? He has already reached the Great Perfection of Core Formation at such a young age, making him an outstanding figure among his peers."
"I don't think so. Wasn't he a merchant's son before he became a Taoist?"
"Yes, what's wrong?"
“In ordinary families like these, sending their children to cultivate immortality is all for the purpose of protecting the family.” Qin Wenshuang lowered his eyes, his expression dark. “Having the strength of the early Golden Core stage is enough to make one arrogant in a small place. How do you know if he will finish cultivating and go back to inherit the family business?”
Qin Wenshuang's worries were not unfounded. If Yun Yanqiu really ran back, Li Zhoubai's efforts would be in vain.
Li Zhoubai wasn't entirely confident about this matter, but he had seen Yun Yanqiu's talent and, out of a desire to cherish talent, he wanted to pass on everything to this disciple without reservation.
"Sigh, since you've made up your mind, I won't say anything more." Qin Wenshuang stood up and stretched. "Don't come crying to me when your disciple abandons you."
Upon hearing this, Li Zhoubai suddenly looked up at Qin Wenshuang, his voice becoming even gentler: "Is it really not allowed?"
Qin Wenshuang was startled, never expecting this man to suddenly act so coquettishly towards her. She stammered, "You... well, it's not entirely impossible..."
She looked at Li Zhoubai and saw that he had a smile on his lips and his eyes were full of mockery.
"Tsk!" Qin Wenshuang immediately realized she had been tricked. She flicked her sleeve and said angrily, "I'm going on a long trip. You can live with your apprentice then!"
Li Zhoubai hurriedly stood up: "Wen Shuang, where are you going?"
"Yanqingzong!"
Qin Wenshuang left without looking back after saying those words. She never allowed Li Zhoubai to interfere in the affairs of Yanqing Sect, so Li Zhoubai, as her Daoist partner, obediently stayed at Xuanming Mountain to look after the sect and supervise his little disciple's cultivation every day.
It was called supervision, but in reality, it was just observing from the sidelines. Ever since the day he resolved to condense his qi into a sword, Yun Yanqiu had spent most of his time meditating and comprehending. Li Zhoubai didn't want to interfere too much, so he could only stay by the side and play with the bird.
But the blue-and-white sparrow clearly didn't like him. Every time Li Zhoubai approached, the bird would chirp and flap its wings, baring its sharp beak as if to peck him to death. If it weren't for the cage, Li Zhoubai would have been badly injured.
At first, Li Zhoubai thought the bird was just temperamental, but later he discovered that Yun Yanqiu was completely unharmed when he approached it. This puzzled Li Zhoubai greatly: "Could it be that it knows I caught it and is holding a grudge?"
Ye Yingying sneered inwardly. As long as this guy didn't give up trying to feed her insects, she would never retract the sharpness of her beak.
"Master, I've already told you, it doesn't like to eat insects," Yun Yanqiu said helplessly.
"That's strange." Li Zhoubai rubbed his chin. "I saw it eat when I caught it."
Still unwilling to give up, he stretched out his index finger, trying to tease the fluffy little creature. But the bird was fierce; it suddenly turned its head and pecked at him.
The bird's beak was as sharp as a knife, startling Li Zhoubai so much that he quickly withdrew his hand. He then saw Yun Yanqiu insert his slender fingers into the cage. The bird affectionately rubbed against his knuckles and even let out a soft chirp.
How envious I am… Such a stark contrast in treatment made Li Zhoubai's heart ache. He clicked his tongue, watching his apprentice preen the bird's feathers with longing, when suddenly a thought struck him: "Right, have you named it yet?"
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