Back in the living world, tension was growing among the righteous cultivators of the Heavenly Sword sect.

Those naked have dressed up in their clothing over Yin Na’s dead body.

“Well,” Chen Zixi said. “It appears that you certainly owe me the 200,000 spirit stones now, Xiao Feng. Now that I’ve killed Yin Na, this mission would be considered a clear success, no?”

Xiao Feng grit his teeth. “Yes…”

Even though they failed to rescue his master, the contract stated that if Tian Ji Han was avenged, then it would be considered a successful mission.

Xiao Feng was not a vindictive soul. He was benevolent to the core, and even though he had irreconcilable hatred with Yin Na for killing his master, he was glad that Chen Zixi killed him so quickly.

“Let me go!” Ying Er was frothing at the mouth. She was being held back by Brother Liu Kang and Brother Sun Lu as soon as she finished putting on her skirt.

“Ying Er, please! This is unbecoming of you,” Brother Liu Kang pleaded.

“I’ll tear his sinews out! I’ll grind his bones, I’ll eat his organs!” Ying Er screamed. “Only by rending his limbs to a thousand pieces will I be sated for Tian Ji Han’s death!”

Chen Zixi was standing over Yin Na’s corpse, and he laughed at the sight of Ying Er being held back by two other cultivators.

“Ying Er, you may not touch Yin Na’s corpse.”

Chen Zixi made a sudden but firm command. It was unexpected, and it caused everyone else to freeze in thought and action.

Ying Er momentarily stopped resisting before angrily demanding, “Why?!”

Chen Zixi glared. “Because I said so!”

He exuded his domineering Golden Core aura.

Everyone sighed, as if this was the most obvious answer to her question.

However, Ying Er unexpectedly pushed past Brother Liu Kang and Sun Lu’s grips in a burst of speed. She reached Yin Na’s corpse and successfully sliced off one of Yin Na’s arms laying in the grass with a powerful blast of qi.

Plop! Yin Na’s right arm flew a few meters away, spurting blood everywhere.

The next thing Ying Er knew, she was coughing blood.

Chen Zixi had punched her in the kidney, with a quarter of the same speed and strength he used to kill Yin Na.

“Stupid wretch,” Chen Zixi snarled. “You think just because I’m 200,000 spirit stones richer that I’d tolerate brazeness from a dumb girl?”

“Chen Zixi!” Brother Liu Kang and Sun Lu were furious. “This is too far, you’ve insulted and threatened us every step of the mission but now that it’s completed you’d go so far as to hurt your own squad members!”

Chen Zixi amplified his Golden Core aura. “And?”

Brother Liu Kang and Sun Lu quickly checked their emotions. They felt a flash of fear, knowing that they were courting death! Their foundation cores were simply no match for Chen Zixi’s Golden Core.

Seeing that they quieted down, Chen Zixi scoffed: “If you’re so unhappy, maybe you could simply walk back to the Sect yourselves!”

“Maybe we will!” Liu Kang dared to shout.

“Liu Kang,” Sun Lu warned. “Ying Er needs medical attention right now. Let’s quickly heal her first.”

Chen Zixi maintained his personality as someone who was capricious and had a short temper. But he was actually biding his time right now.

Standing by the corpse of Yin Na, he was 200,000 spirit stones richer, so why was he still playing around and wasting time here?

“Hehehe,” Chen Zixi chuckled to himself. “Because that’s why!”

Just at this moment, a single Spirit Budgie made its journey towards the cultivators.

This Spirit Budgie was the new body of Tian Ji Han.

“Huff…huff,” Tian Ji Han fly with exertion. “I think I’ve started to get the hang of flying. It’s a balance between the physical flapping of wings and the usage of the qi reserves. It’s actually a unique cycle of movement and breathing. I have gained newfound respect for Spirit Budgies, flying long distances is certainly not an easy feat considering the pudgy build of their bodies!”

Tian Ji Han had tirelessly flew towards the direction of Chen Zixi as he teleported on his spinning top mount in an attempt to reunite with his disciple Xiao Feng and to also aid, however he could, in the punitive mission against Yin Na.

He had arrived just in time, after Yin Na’s death.

And this was why Chen Zixi was wasting time after the mission had long finished.

“Look, the Spirit Budgie from before!” Xiao Feng cried. “It followed us here!”

“Precisely,” Chen Zixi’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

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Before Tian Ji Han could even notice the dead body of Yin Na lying beside Chen Zixi, the Golden Core cultivator disappeared in a blur from his vision.

Suddenly, his puffy but fragile feathered body was nearly being crushed by the calloused hands, whose fingers formed a cage as he was yanked from the air to the ground.

Chen Zixi had caught Tian Ji Han in one swift jumping motion.

“AIEEEEE!” Tian Ji Han called out in a high-pitched song of avian pain. He was then turned uncomfortably belly-side up, gripped tightly by Chen Zixi’s fingers.

“I knew you’d show up,” Chen Zixi smiled predatorily at the Spirit Budgie. Tian Ji Han’s new beady little bird eyes looked cutely back at the Golden Core cultivator, but could only communicate in rapid tweets and chirps.

“Master, please!” Xiao Feng screamed. “Why are you hurting it? It is just an innocent Spirit beast!”

“‘Innocent?’” Chen Zixi said. “I thought my disciple was not stupid. Xiao Feng, I want you to think about this carefully. Why is this Spirit Budgie so adamant on following us, that it flew over a dozen li to reach us…or rather, Yin Na?”

Everyone fell silent. Chen Zixi’s words implied that the Spirit Budgie had a relation with Yin Na.

“You mean…” Brother Sun Lu said. “It could be a familiar or slave of Yin Na?”

“That does have plausibility,” Liu Kang said. “Spirit Budgies aren’t intelligent, so why is this particular one so insistent on following us?”

“Regardless of what it is,” Chen Zixi said. “The most absolute measures are the safest. Based on its actions, it is clearly influenced by another cultivator, and not an ordinary Spirit beast. What if it is one of Yin Na’s contingency measures, meant to save him after death?”

Chen Zixi also silently thought, “Now that Yin Na is killed, what if this ‘Spirit Budgie’ obtains the benefits of our handiwork?”

There was nothing more infuriating than a weak straggler inheriting the benefits created from the conflict of stronger combatants!

“You’ve already used up all your requests for today, disciple,” Chen Zixi chuckled sarcastically as he saw Xiao Feng’s fearful expression. “Don’t worry, you can consider my action of clearing lose ends as free of charge!”

Chen Zixi was thorough in his actions. Although he enjoyed his reputation as a domineering, short-tempered cultivator, he also prided himself on his approach to enemies. He left no witnesses or stragglers, all threats or competitors must be annihilated!

Xiao Feng was desperately thinking of a way to reason with Chen Zixi, as he could see Chen Zixi was about to crush the Spirit Budgie in the next few seconds.

Tian Ji Han himself knew death was approaching, as he felt the muscles and ligaments of Chen Zixi’s fingers tightening within a split second.

Faced with death, Tian Ji Han summoned every bit of strength, emotion and experience he’d accumulated throughout his life.

“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

The Spirit Budgie’s beak let out a long, drawn-out song that sounded exactly like Tian Ji Han’s voice.

Everyone froze.

“No! No!” The Spirit Budgie cried out again. “I…I am Tian Ji Han!”

The first to react was Chen Zixi.

Chen Zixi was almost gloating in his laughter. “Hahaha, oh Tian Ji Han! I did not expect this, hahahaha! How low you’ve fallen, to be in the form of a little bird now, eh?”

Chen Zixi let go of Tian Ji Han, who flew immediately towards Xiao Feng.

“C-Chen Zixi,” Brother Liu Kang was speechless. “You’ve known all along that this was Tian Ji Han?”

“No,” Chen Zixi said. “I’d be lying if I said if it even crossed my mind that Tian Ji Han was still alive. But living things perform miracles seconds before death, eh? Hahaha!”

Chen Zixi was absolutely giddy at this point. He was rich, and discovered that a fellow Golden Core cultivator that he held in disdain had been reduced to a mere Spirit beast. The whole matter seemed comical to him.

Even more satisfying was the knowledge that he had stolen Tian Ji Han’s disciple right before him.

“Are you going to have two masters now, Xiao Feng?” Chen Zixi laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t hold anything against a Spirit Budgie!”

But Xiao Feng and Tian Ji Han ignored the Golden Core cultivator’s cruel taunts.

Xiao Feng was holding Tian Ji Han in his palms. Tian Ji Han was exhausted from flying and the past day’s events, and from having nearly died multiple times. Within Xiao Feng’s tiny palms, he no longer felt like his master, but just a tired, pitiful animal.

“Master…” Xiao Feng said hoarsely.

“Xiao Feng,” Tian Ji Han replied.

A single tear fell from Tian Ji Han’s beady little Spirit Budgie eyes.

It was clearly Master Ji Han’s voice coming from the bird’s beak. Xiao Feng wept into the Spirit Budgie’s feathers. After a while, Xiao Feng wiped his face on his robe.

“Master, I’m sorry…I’ve become Chen Zixi’s disciple.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Chen Zixi said. He found speaking human language much easier now. “I know why you had to do it. It’s okay, Chen Zixi is strong, he can be a good teacher-”

“Master, how did this happen? What soul transfer technique is this, did you really die?”

“Yes, I did indeed self-detonate after eating a Soul Overload pill during my battle with Yin Na. I’m ashamed to see that it didn’t kill him, but I’m glad that you were able to finish the job now. I have no idea how I am still alive, I don’t recall having been blessed by any constellation or Immortal at birth with the ability to transfer into another body upon death. Earlier, I was a Fire Ka Gu, a slave vessel and even a rock!”

Master and disciple were reunited. Tears flew like rain, but they didn’t care.

However, the most shocked of all was perhaps Ying Er, who stood gaping at the sight of Xiao Feng cradling a Spirit Budgie speaking with Tian Ji Han’s voice. She was still injured from Chen Zixi’s blow, and on top of that, having seen her crush in such a form was a critical blow to her mind.

“W-what is this?” she stammered, her killing intent having faded long ago. “Tian Ji Han…you became a bird?!”

Ying Er fainted, her head caught moments from hitting the floor by Brother Sun Lu.

“Ying Er!”

Xiao Feng and Tian Ji Han snapped out of their reverie, and rushed over by Ying Er. They immediately fed her medicinal pills and tried light acupressure healing techniques on her.

Chen Zixi watched all this unfold with a condescending expression of superiority. His facial expression showed that he was holding back himself from laughing himself to death.

Tian Ji Han had sensed the Golden Core cultivator’s menacing gaze burning onto his Spirit Budgie body during the entire time, and it made the feathers on his back prick up in anxiety. However, he forced himself to fly over to Chen Zixi as Brother Liu Kang and Sun Lu were applying qi therapy on Ying Er.

“Senior Chen Zixi,” Tian Ji Han said. “We need to talk.”

“If you want to buy your disciple back, it will be another 100,000 spirit stones,” Chen Zixi said.

“What!”

“Just kidding,” grinned Chen Zixi, as he stroked his beard. “I don’t have anything against a boy calling a bird a ‘master.’ It’s quite amusing to me!”

Like Xiao Feng, Tian Ji Han was truly benevolent and was slow to temper. However, the blow to his face was so damaging from just these few words that were he still a human, he’d have coughed blood!