No one from the Yingyue Sect or the Yunqing Pavilion knew anything about the secret communications between the two men.
Nie Shiyun was already at the Pinyin Pavilion, staying in a private courtyard where no one disturbed him, making everything very convenient. Zhai Bairong, however, found his movements restricted. Aside from Duan Mingyu, he was surrounded by a group of Yingyue Sect disciples who looked to him as their leader, making it difficult for him to find another opportunity to make contact.
Amidst one party’s calm waiting and the other’s anxious journeying, ten days passed quickly.
As the hosts of the event, the disciples of the Pinyin Pavilion also participated in the Cultivation Grand Assembly, but they lived in their usual residences and did not venture to the outer pavilion. That being said, Qi Miaohan still found opportunities to sneak out and have fun with Qi Xuan’er. Nie Shiyun naturally had no intention of constantly interrupting the sisters' reunion, but he took the chance to ask Qi Miaohan several times whether the Yingyue Sect had arrived.
"No, they said they’ll arrive tomorrow... Hmph, as expected of the four great sects, arriving late one after another. They clearly don't take us seriously," Qi Miaohan said dissatisfiedly. "By the way, why do you ask me every few days? Are you that concerned about them?"
Qi Miaohan knew that Nie Shiyun had once pursued Duan Mingyu. Although she loathed Duan Mingyu, by the time she met Nie Shiyun, he was already on her side, so she naturally didn't hold that past against him.
"It's nothing like that..."
"How is that possible! Come clean, are you perhaps being bewitched by that little slut Duan—"
"Shh..." Nie Shiyun hurriedly pulled Qi Miaohan aside. "My dear lady, please shut your mouth. Don't slander me in the middle of the street."
Thinking of Duan Mingyu, Qi Miaohan’s face was full of disgust. "Then what else could it be for?"
"In any case, it’s definitely not Duan Mingyu," Nie Shiyun clarified.
Qi Miaohan caught the loophole in his words. "If it’s not him, does that mean there really is someone else?"
Qi Xuan’er usually wouldn't join in their teasing, but hearing this, she couldn't help but feel curious. "Senior Brother indeed rarely shows interest in others. So it turns out..."
When it came to gossip about people she knew, Qi Miaohan became energized, repeatedly nudging Nie Shiyun with her elbow. "Who is it? Who is it? When did you meet? Is it someone we know?"
Although Qi Xuan’er didn't press him, her eyes were also sparkling as she stared at him. Nie Shiyun realized just how much of a draw gossip was for the two of them.
"You might know them..." Nie Shiyun cleared his throat twice. "But I can't tell you yet. When the time is right in the future, I will naturally say."
Qi Miaohan’s curiosity was piqued, but no matter how she asked, she couldn't pry Nie Shiyun’s mouth open. She tried to provoke him by saying things like, "Maybe you just have no confidence in pursuing them, so you don't dare mention it." Nie Shiyun only smiled and said nothing, making Qi Miaohan curse him for being a bad friend, though she was eventually forced to give up.
"Sister, you’ve been out in the outer pavilion for several days. Does Sect Master Jiang know?" Qi Xuan’er saw the two in a stalemate and took the initiative to change the subject.
Qi Miaohan sighed softly. "She knows. According to her orders, I should go back tonight. Sigh, I’m under quite a bit of pressure too. Now that my cultivation has actually surpassed several of my senior sisters, they’ve placed all their expectations on me..."
"With great ability comes great responsibility," Qi Xuan’er comforted her softly.
"The day after tomorrow is the opening of the Cultivation Grand Assembly. At that time, we of the Pinyin Pavilion will be standing by Master’s side. We’ll be so far away, I don’t know if I’ll be able to see you. But once Master finishes speaking and the meeting adjourns, I’ll come find you," Qi Miaohan promised.
Taking advantage of the last bit of leisure time, the two decided to visit a hair accessory shop together. Nie Shiyun stopped disturbing them and returned to his residence.
Two days later, in the afternoon, the Yingyue Sect finally arrived at the Pinyin Pavilion. Their sect's immortal ship had been delayed for some time due to a sudden snowfall on the road.
Zhai Bairong was anxious, and Duan Mingyu was also anxious—though the latter was anxious to reunite with the other two men. Zhai Bairong finally managed to arrange various matters for the sect's disciples and wanted to find a place to privately listen to the transmission crystal Nie Shiyun had sent back. However, he was pulled away by Duan Mingyu to meet Rong Lü and Xu Yehua; they had agreed to meet at the foot of the mountain. Even though Zhai Bairong no longer had feelings for Duan Mingyu, he was truly exasperated by this behavior.
"Why don't you go? I'll wait at the lodging," Zhai Bairong said.
Duan Mingyu’s mind whirled through a hundred thoughts and somehow reached a completely different conclusion. "Senior Brother, are you still angry about the two of them? You said last time that you didn't care anymore, but it seems you didn't really mean it..."
"...That's not it." Seeing Duan Mingyu’s expression as if he were about to burst into tears, Zhai Bairong sighed in his heart. If it were before, seeing such a pitiful expression, his heart would have softened completely, but now he only found it ridiculous.
He coaxed him with a few gentle words, and Duan Mingyu finally held back his tears, but he insisted that Zhai Bairong accompany him to eat with the other two. Zhai Bairong had no choice. Remembering that Qu Zhanmeng had instructed him to keep a close eye on Duan Mingyu and especially to be wary of the two men by his side—particularly the one from Chi Yan Cliff—he had to agree.
He hadn't liked those two to begin with. Now that his state of mind was freed from his obsession with Duan Mingyu, looking at it from an objective perspective, it was truly incredible that three grown men were revolving around Duan Mingyu like this, while pretending to be in perfect harmony. What was even more miraculous was that in the eyes of most people, there seemed to be nothing strange about this situation.
Setting aside the fact that he felt this behavior was quite humiliating, Zhai Bairong now had other concerns. He was already very guilty and feared that Nie Shiyun might hear about this from others and deepen the misunderstanding. Thus, after some maneuvering with Duan Mingyu, he squeezed out a little time to send a message to Nie Shiyun.
But Nie Shiyun did not respond to him.
Even after meeting Rong Lü and Xu Yehua at the foot of the mountain and the four of them heading to a tavern in seemingly perfect harmony, Nie Shiyun still hadn't replied. Zhai Bairong was somewhat restless, his mind filled with various conjectures. Knowing that he had always been somewhat resistant to sharing Duan Mingyu with the other two and that his attitude had only softened after emerging from his Golden Core advancement, the others simply assumed he was a bit uncomfortable and didn't think anything was abnormal.
Meanwhile, the object of Zhai Bairong’s worry was currently inside the jade pendant.
In the chaotic space, a man and a beast were staring at each other.
"..."
The pitch-black little bird opened its beak and actually began to wail with a "awoo" sound.
Nie Shiyun hurriedly picked up the bird, which still had half an eggshell hanging off its body, and asked, "Are you okay?"
He had just been performing a routine check on the phoenix egg, but he hadn't expected that when he entered today, the egg would have already hatched. And this—this half-phoenix hatchling, which looked almost no different from a crow—was sitting on the ground as if in a daze.
To say this spirit beast was no different from a crow wasn't entirely fair. Compared to an average crow hatchling, although its form was still too young to discern much, its size was indeed a circle larger. There were several long feathers on top of its head, and it had a trailing tail; upon careful inspection, these were indeed phoenix characteristics. It was just that its entire body was jet black, so at first glance, anyone would think it was just a crow.
Nie Shiyun recalled the setting from the original novel. This hybrid bird's father was a phoenix from the Upper Heavens who had accidentally ended up in the cultivation world. After getting involved with a female crow from the crow tribe, he found an opportunity shortly after, flapped his wings, and returned to the Upper Heavens. The jilted crow also couldn't stand the sight of this egg, which constantly reminded her of her heartbreak, and threw it directly into a river.
Simply put, this bird was stuck with a powerful scumbag father and a mother who didn't love it and even took her anger out on it.
Unlike ordinary spirit beasts, the Divine Beast clans were born with an inherent inheritance. Presumably, after hatching, the flood of information pouring into its mind made this bird realize it had been abandoned, and it instinctively felt sad.
Once it finished howling, Nie Shiyun bounced it in his hand. "Little Meiqiu, are you done crying?"
"Why am I called Little Meiqiu!?" the spirit beast shouted, opening its beak.
As expected, it was born with intelligence; Divine Beast bloodlines were truly extraordinary, Nie Shiyun thought.
It was just that its voice was too noisy, sounding like a broken gong.
"Then what is your name?"
The little beast's beak was also pitch black. It opened its mouth but couldn't say anything definitive. Spirit beasts' names were given by their parents; thinking about how it had been abandoned, grief struck its heart again.
"You're not my mom or dad, and we haven't formed a contract! I'm just staying here temporarily; it's not your turn to name me anyway!"
Nie Shiyun saw its pitiful appearance yet stubborn mouth and couldn't help but tease it. "Since you have intelligence, you should know that you were floating in a river and your life was nearly at its end, right? If I hadn't rescued you, you'd be a frozen egg by now." Of course, it wouldn't have. If he hadn't saved it, it would have eventually fallen into Duan Mingyu’s hands.
The hatchling in his hand indeed shuddered with lingering fear.
Nie Shiyun continued, "But I won't use the fact that I saved you as a threat; it was out of good intentions after all. However, you've been staying in my jade pendant refusing to leave, and you've snatched away more than half of the spiritual energy I use to nourish this precious land. All in all, you've swallowed about 1.5 million spirit stones' worth of spiritual herbs and materials. I've been keeping a tab. Now that you've hatched, why don't you slowly pay me back this debt?"
"One... one point five... million..." The hatchling flapped its wings helplessly. It recalled that during its long sleep, it had indeed eaten many good things. It was just that its mind hadn't been clear while inside the egg; it had simply followed its instincts to eat, drink, and sleep well. It had never considered where these things came from.
"I'll waive the small change for you. But if you need several more years, I'll have to charge interest. Just a year would be..." Nie Shiyun began to calculate the debt with it.
Seeing the bird in his palm becoming dazed by the explanation, he changed his tune. "However, if you sign a contract with me, we'll wipe the slate clean. I won't order you around unless necessary; you just need to help me with artifact forging occasionally. If you don't want to go out, you can continue living here, eating spiritual herbs as usual. How about it?"
Nie Shiyun’s series of strikes left the jet-black little bird completely disoriented. It flew out of the jade pendant and took a lap, indeed feeling that living in the space was more comfortable. Then, thinking about how it was alone and helpless, without even a single clansman, and how difficult cultivation would be—and where on earth would it earn 1.5 million?—it quickly couldn't help but give in.
"Fine... fine! But at least take the 'Little' out of the name! I'm going to grow as big as a phoenix in the future, very majestic!"
Nie Shiyun was stunned. In the original novel, Duan Mingyu had named this little bird Mo Jia, which was quite literary. He had just called it that because it was black all over; he hadn't expected the other party to actually agree to it now.
Nie Shiyun thought about it. This little bird, which was supposed to be on the Great Dao's main ship, had been intercepted by him halfway. There was no telling if it would be targeted along with him in the future. Calling it Meiqiu was actually quite good; as the saying goes, a lowly name makes for an easy life.
When it eventually transformed into human shape and felt that being called Meiqiu was too shameful, he would let it think of a pseudonym for itself.
Thus, under Nie Shiyun’s "carrot and stick" operation, Meiqiu muddledly signed a contract with him, even feeling like it had gotten a good deal. However, aside from this persuasion, Meiqiu actually remembered that Nie Shiyun had provided it with good food and drink for several months and often came to spend time with it while it was in the egg. Subconsciously, it felt that this person was quite reliable, which was why it was so easily convinced.
The jade pendant was not like a spirit pet bag, where the master could put the pet in or out at will. When it was an egg, Meiqiu had entered the jade pendant on its own. Originally, it couldn't get out, but after forming the blood contract, it could now enter and exit freely. Nie Shiyun earnestly informed Meiqiu that its bloodline was special and staying outside all the time would inevitably lead to being discovered by those with ill intentions, who might capture it to refine medicine. He told it to act cautiously.
Hearing this, Meiqiu trembled with fear on one hand, but felt a bit of pride on the other. Indeed, it was half-phoenix! Thinking that one day in the future it must make the clansmen who abandoned it and its Upper Heaven father look at it with new eyes, Meiqiu decided to keep its light hidden and continue growing while nestled in the jade pendant.
Unaware that his spirit pet's grand ambitions already reached the Upper Heavens, Nie Shiyun only felt that although Meiqiu was just a hatchling, it was quite sensible and understood the logic, allowing him to set his mind at ease.
***
