Chapter 51 – The Blazing Red Sparrow
“Little Red, are you hurt?” After holding back for a while, the little guy could only muster up these words.
The sparrow, who was scarlet red from head to toe, widened its eyes and angrily stared at him. It seemed as if it left all of the whites of its eyes for him, and seemed to have taken great offense.
The red sparrow who fell from the sky left all the children stunned. Could it be that this was what was always on the little guy’s mind? Was this creature the little bird that the little guy chased after until he left the village back then?
However, the people who truly understood this situation, such as the Chief and some other elders, became stiff all over. Shi Linghu, Shi Feijiao and the others’ hairs stood straight up and did not dare to make any movements in fear of angering the little red sparrow.
They once saw from far away that a little red bird was engaged in a great battle in the endless mountain ranges, and they saw that it was able to burn up half the sky. That scene was too terrifying, and they wouldn’t be able to forget it for the rest of their lives.
Now, this scarlet-red bird fell from the sky, and it even dyed the horizons into a deep red, as if it was a scattering sunset. Even without thinking too much, they all felt their scalps go numb; it most likely was that supreme creature.
“Child, come here,” said Shi Yunfeng gently. He feared that the Little Red Sparrow would feel provoked, and so he called for the little guy to return.
“Grandpa, there’s no problem. I know Little Red is powerful, but I can’t feel any killing intent from it. It does not have any animosity towards our Stone Village,” explained the little guy as he blinked his big round eyes.
The scarlet red sparrow leaned against the ground as it widened its eyes. It opened its mouth as it spouted out a streak of weak multi-colored light in front of a huge piece of rock. With a pu sound, a strand of weak smoke began to burn, and the entire huge rock melted into magma.
Everyone was frightened. This was merely just a tiny strand of multicolored light, and it wasn’t a real flame, yet it already reached such a terrifying temperature. When one associated it with the the scene from back then where the entire skies were filled with inextinguishable flames that burned for half a month, exactly what kind of divine might was this?!
Everyone was sweating because of the little guy. Shi Feijiao and the others carefully walked forward and wanted to drag him back.
“Little Red, don’t be angry. Look, even your head is smoking. Be careful to not burn away all your pretty scarlet feathers. Otherwise, that would be too unfortunate,” said the little guy.
A bunch of scarlet feathers on top of Little Red’s head straightened and began to flicker with multi-colored light. Evidently, it was very angry, but after a while it calmed down. It began to continuously glare at the little guy with a bizarre gaze.
“Grandpa look. Little Red is very kind and is no longer angry.” The little guy happily laughed sweetly and purely. He wanted to hold up this little red bird so much.
The little red sparrow flapped its wings and stood up with great difficulty. Symbols flickered near the injury by its chest and continuously ate away at its life force.
“You were looking for the Willow Deity right? Last time you came, you landed right in front of the tree trunk. You want it to help you heal this time right?” asked the little guy.
“Heng!” After having its thoughts read by a mere child, the Little Red Sparrow appeared to be extremely dissatisfied. It released a snort, and no longer paid attention to him; it instead raised its head and gazed towards that willow tree.
The thick and scorched willow tree was quiet and soundless. That dim and carefree branch swayed back and forth. However, right now, it soundlessly reach down and emitted multi-colored green light.
The little scarlet red bird began to cry out softly as it walked forward with great difficulty to face the tender green branch. It exposed its injuries and held back the last bit of its flames.
A drop of sparkling jade-like liquid that emitted multicolored splendor appeared on the willow branch. Waves of fragrance spread out and made everyone inside Stone Village feel refreshed.
The willow branch draped down and the tender bud touched the blazing red sparrow. The sparkling liquid rolled off the branch and onto that terrifying wound. Immediately, flames began to burn splendidly and symbols flickered non-stop. The little red bird cried out lightly and began to shudder all as it had great difficulty bearing this pain.
The willow branch lightly swayed and several more drops of liquid appeared before rolling down the tender bud. Each drop sparkled all over like pearls with splendid colors, and lights flowed through them as they emitted waves of sweet fragrance.
When the drops of liquid trickled down, the symbols gradually disappeared. The injury that cut across its chest completely closed, and the Little Red Sparrow’s pain seemed to have been alleviated instantly.
Soon after, the green tender bud touched its head and a sparkling liquid dripped down, causing those claw marks on top of the little red sparrow’s head to slowly disappear. All the severe injuries that it had suffered seemed to have completely disappeared.
A flaming light began to flicker, and a scarlet light began to dance splendidly all over the Little Red Sparrow’s entire body. It was so dazzling that people could not open their eyes, and the boundless divine light made it appear extremely bright and beautiful, as if it was a completely different creature compared to before.
The villagers were shocked. A scarlet sparrow the size of their palms was emitting such powerful divine might. Right now, it seemed as if they were facing an ancient deity. Everyone would have limped onto the ground if not for the willow tree shrouding them with light to counteract this divine power.
A little further away, for example the vicinity of the lake, those Five-Colored Birds and those Unicorns seemed as if they were on a pilgrimage as they worshiped and kowtowed towards that place.
The little red sparrow’s was extremely cheerful again and began to lively cry out. It bounced up and down where it stood after it retracted all of its divine power. It spoke out towards the willow tree in human language, “I owe a huge favor.”
The scorched black willow tree did not utter a single sound. The tender green branch swayed as it pointed toward the villagers.
The scarlet red sparrow was bursting with life. It swept away all of its distress and was sparkling all over. It had ample divine essence, as its vitality had already been restored.
With a qiang sound, a scarlet feather was shed from its body, and the multicolored light that it released looked like lightning. It was extremely mystical, and with a chi sound, it inserted itself into a block of stone.
“You guys accept this. If somebody were to bother you, show this to them!” Its voice was very pleasant and sweet like the sound of jade beads dropping onto the ground. It was obviously giving them a gift.
However, after the scarlet feather was inserts into the rock, that place began to melt immediately into magma. Scarlet red rays of light flowed about as liquid began to boil while rapidly spreading outwards.
Everyone took a step back in the face of this high temperature.
The little red sparrow was startled and stared at everyone. It opened its mouth and began to inhale. The burning splendor on that scarlet red tail feather began to flicker intensely as strands of divine light flew into its mouth.
It drew away the divine essence, and left behind only the bright scarlet feather. It then nodded towards the willow tree before flying into the heavens.
“Little red! In the future, come back often to play!” The little guy stood at the village entrance as he waved towards the sky with all his strength.
The scarlet sparrow staggered a bit in midair and almost fell down. It turned its head around and fiercely stared at him. Then multicolored light gushed out all over its body and rushed off into the distant without even turning around.
“Put away this tail feather carefully!” Chief Shi Yunfeng solemnly said. The little scarlet feather meant a lot, and no one would treat it as an ordinary feather.
This place finally calmed down after a long while. The villagers began to familiarize themselves with their new environment.
A group of children were shouting loudly as they ran around the beautiful lake that was surrounded by green meadows. They discussed ways to catch those Dragon Whiskered Fish, and since they already had strong muscles, they thirsted for even more strength.
The feathers of the little Luans were bright-colored, and their body lengths reached over two meters long. They leisurely swam towards the middle of the lake and did not fear the group of children at all. As for the unicorns, they were only a bit wary of the adult males of the village and did not care for the children at all.
After everything calmed down again, the little guy sat on the shore by himself and held both his knees before losing himself in his thoughts again. For a long time, his large eyes looked towards the dark blue lake, and he didn’t move an inch.
“Child, what are you thinking about?” Shi Yunfeng walked over and sat on the green grass by the shore as well.
“Grandpa, it’s about time you tell me.” Shi Hao turned his head around and showed his clear expression.
“Very well, I’ll tell you everything I know.” The Chief nodded. Shi Hao was smart enough a long time ago, and it was no longer fitting to treat him as a ignorant baby.
A cool breeze blew past, bringing about the refreshing fragrance of earth and grass into the air. Large golden fish leapt out from within the lake from time to time, creating a seemingly calm and peaceful atmosphere.
“My Stone Village came from an astonishingly grand origin. However, even we began to quickly forget who we were, and only a few phrases of words passed on by our ancestors remain,” muttered Shi Yunfeng.
Stone Clan was ancient. According to the tribe elders, it could be traced back to the ancient eras. Only, after endless years, everything became blurry, and not even the villagers themselves believed those rumor anymore.
“So ancient.” Shi Hao was amazed.
The chief lightly sighed and said, “There were so many things that even I forgot them all, and the traditions had broken off a long time ago. Only when a young couple who was searching for this placed arrived and mentioned these thing again one day did we understand that what the ancestors spoke of might actually be true.
Little Shi Hao widened his large eyes. He knew… that couple could have been his parents.
“What do they look like?” The villagers were very nice to them, but all the other children had parents while he was the only orphan. Although he was very carefree and optimistic, within the depths of his heart, he was still fragile and was full of incomparable longing.
“The women was extremely beautiful. The man was also very handsome, but had a sickly look,” said the Chief truthfully.
The little guy clenched his fists, and from his brightened eyes, it was clear that he was feeling a bit happy. He had a look of anticipation as he looked up with his little face. “Grandpa, quickly continue.”
“They came from an ancient country, and they said that Stone Village was their ancestral land. Although they were extremely prosperous, they had lost track of their ancestral land a long time ago.”
This tribe was powerful beyond imagination, however due to their ancestral training, they could not return to the ancestral land whenever they wanted to. They wanted to avoid drawing their enemies here, therefore after many, many years, they eventually lost track of how to return.
Their actions were for the sake of leaving behind a stick of incense; to continuously maintain their bloodline. Just in case their glorious tribe was extinguished, this place could continue to live on in this pure land.
The bloodline they left behind was incredibly powerful, however, due to mishaps here and there, Stone Village gradually declined. Now, the cultivation methods had already been lost for a long time.
“The couple during that time accidentally found the path that returned them to their ancestral land, so they arrived here.”
That couple was incredibly powerful. They crossed the great desolate land and treaded past endless territories until they had finally arrived. However, they were disappointed because Stone Village was far from the powerful and prosperous place they had imagined it was, and it had already lost all the might it had from the ancient times.
“That time, they carried you here. You were very feeble when you arrived and seemed to have been only a few months old. However, they said you were already one year old.”
The little guy widened his eyes and listened carefully. At this time, a group of children ran up and sat on the floor without muttering a word as they listened earnestly.
“The condition of your body was extremely bad, and you were suffering from a serious illness. They asked us to raise you as if you were only a few months old, and if you truly couldn’t survive, then they wouldn’t blame us.” The chief sighed and patted the little guy’s head. Not even he could have thought that a child this feeble could live, moreover becoming the heavenly gifted genius he was today!
The little guy had a distracted expression on his face. A cloudy mist appeared within his mind. A child that young shouldn’t have been able to recollect what happened when he was one year old, but this memory was deeply ingrained into his unconscious mind, and it left its mark.
“They… relatives, to help my older brother, I…”
While he was distracted, the little guy appeared to have seen something, and he couldn’t help but weep in sorrow. His tears slid down his cheeks.