Chapter 36.3 - Is it a phoenix or is it a chicken?

'Phoenix bloodlines? How pure are his bloodlines?' Li Xinwen asked Lanyu.

[Lanyu: Unfortunately, I won't be able to figure that out until this brat is born. But as long as master let him cultivate with master's younger brother, he should be able to be born in a few years.]

After saying that, Lanyu sent the egg back to Li Xinwen who then stared at it. After a while, he placed the egg back in its place, then turned to Sun Xiao. The boy had entered a deep state of cultivation so Li Xinwen didn't want to disturb him. He was just about to leave when he sensed Sun Xiao was getting restless. "Ah'Xiao?" Li Xinwen called out, wondering if there was something wrong.

But the moment his voice left his lips, Sun Xiao regained his calmness. Seeing this, Li Xinwen figured out that the boy was probably still afraid about that ghost, so he didn't want Li Xinwen to leave. In the end, Li Xinwen could only settle on the floor near the bed and waited patiently.

Ten minutes passed, and Li Xinwen felt his eyes were getting heavier. He then remembered that after he undid the seal, he also went through with refining the pills. 'It was no wonder that I'm mentally tired...' Li Xinwen thought to himself as he closed his eyes. He wished that he could drink the lake water without repercussion again. 'This is all because of the demonic qi. When I see that An Wuya again, I will make him pay... with interest.'

Two hours passed, and Sun Xiao finally opened his eyes. When he couldn't see Li Xinwen in his line of vision, he showed a panicked expression. His eyes immediately landed on the drawer, where he felt some of the spiritual energy he gathered earlier had escaped to. In his mind, he was still thinking that there is a ghost inside. He was just about to run again when he finally saw Li Xinwen near his bed on the floor, asleep in a sleeping position.

Li Xinwen was still wearing the bathrobe so Sun Xiao could see the other's well-sculptured chest. All of a sudden, Sun Xiao was reminded of the dual cultivation technique that he had read a few days ago to which, most of them contains an obscene description. When he realized where his mind was heading, Sun Xiao quickly shook his head and cleared his thought. His hand reached out and shook Li Xinwen's shoulder lightly.

"Xin-gege, Xin-gege, wake up," Sun Xiao tried to wake Li Xinwen up but the tone of his voice was soft, betraying his attempts of waking the other up.

But Li Xinwen is a cultivator. Unless he had entered deep cultivation, if someone were to wake him up, he could naturally hear them. Opening his eyes, Li Xinwen stared at Sun Xiao. "Done?" Li Xinwen asked.

"En," Sun Xiao replied. "Umm... Xin-gege, what about the ghost?"

"Ghost? There's no ghost, Ah'Xiao," Li Xinwen replied with a chuckle. "The one responsible for stealing those energies you gathered is that egg you got from Xue Rui."

"Egg?" Sun Xiao appeared confused. He appeared as if he is trying to remember what item it is that Li Xinwen was referring to. "Is it that amber coloured stone egg?" Sun Xiao asked.

"Correct. That egg is actually a beast egg. Belonging to the phoenix bloodline," Li Xinwen told Sun Xiao. "I don't know how it got to its current state, but it's still alive. As long as you continue to help him absorb spiritual energy, it will be born in a few years," Li Xinwen repeated what Lanyu had told him earlier.

"So... it's not a ghost?"

"No," Li Xinwen said with a chuckle as he raised his hand and gave Sun Xiao a gentle pat on the head. "Being afraid of ghost. How are you so cute, ah! How about this... since you're really scared of ghost, Ge will teach you something so you can see them," Li Xinwen said with a smile.

"Won't seeing them is scarier?" Sun Xiao asked meekly.

"Ah'Xiao is scared of a ghost... then what about zombies? Compared to ghost, Ge thinks that zombies are more ugly," Li Xinwen replied.

When Li Xinwen said it like that, Sun Xiao suddenly felt that the ghost are not as scary. The reason why ghosts are scary is that you can't see them at will while they can make themselves appear whenever they want when they want to scare people. 'If I can see them at will... then they're no different than zombies,' Sun Xiao thought. Since he wanted to protect his family from zombies, he must first get used to these scary things.

"Then, Xin-gege, can you teach me how to see them? And, can you also teach me how to fight them?" Sun Xiao asked.

"Fighting them is not that much of a problem. As long as you can see them, you can use your spiritual energy to attack them. But before you do, always ask them first. Not all ghost are dangerous," Li Xinwen explained. "Some are only lost, not knowing that they have already passed."

"Then, if I met with these kinds of ghosts, what should I do?"

"Talk to them, help them solve what shackled them to this world so that they can enter the cycle of reincarnation," Li Xinwen replied. "But if they are a malevolent ghost, there are two ways to deal with them. One, if they are not hostile to you, help them solve their resentment. But if they are hostile, destroy them."

"Is destroying them the same as killing them? If we destroy them, will they still enter the cycle of reincarnation?" Sun Xiao asked.

"En. But only after they received their due punishment in Diyu."

"What if we help solve their resentment?" Sun Xiao asked again.

"That depends on the outcome. If the ghost let go of their resentment peacefully, they won't be punished," Li Xinwen replied.

"Then what about the zombies? Does Xin-gege think that they are the same as ghosts?"

"That... I don't know," Li Xinwen said as he shook his head. "Until I've seen them, I won't know what they are. They might be a ghost but they also might be a monster," Li Xinwen added.

After the question and answer session, Li Xinwen finally taught Sun Xiao how to use Moyan. The boy was truly gifted and paired with Li Xinwen's guidance, Sun Xiao was able to activate Moyan on his thirty-sixth attempt. When Li Xinwen saw the boy's pupil had changed colour, he gathered the spiritual energy on top of his palm and started to shape them. Li Xinwen did not condense them, so without Moyan or similar technique to it, one will not be able to see them. It would've made a perfect concealed attack if it were not for the fact that uncondensed spiritual energy is harmless. "Can you see them?" Li Xinwen asked. "What shape are they making?"

"A bird...?" Sun Xiao replied. "It looks like that bird from the painting. The one that guards the south..." Sun Xiao sounded unsure but Li Xinwen just smiled at him.

"Not wrong, but not correct either. This is indeed a bird, but it's not Zhuque," Li Xinwen told Sun Xiao.

"Then, umm... Fenghuang?"

"Right. And go follow it's trails," Li Xinwen said as he let the phoenix shaped spiritual energy flew over to Sun Xiao's drawer where the egg rests. At first, Sun Xiao was still afraid but remembering what Li Xinwen told him earlier about the egg, he gathered his courage and went forward. He slid the drawer out and grabbed the egg in his hand, then looked at Li Xinwen, silently asking what he should do next.

"Whenever you cultivate, just take it out and place in near you. Beasts understand even before they are born. If you let them know you do not mean them any harm, once they are born, they will, in turn, help you. And with you helping it cultivate, it might even think of you as their parent," Li Xinwen explained.

"Oh, okay. Then... should Ah'Xiao just treat it like an unborn pet?" Sun Xiao asked.

"En. You can say that," Li Xinwen said. Then after a while, Li Xinwen called Lanyu up. 'Lanyu, do you think that Ah'Xiao can form a contract with the beast within the egg?'

[Lanyu: Since the beast in the egg has already gained sentience, he should be able to. Try dropping a drop of blood on the egg and see if it will be absorbed.]

Li Xinwen hummed in acknowledgement before he turned to Sun Xiao again. "Ah'Xiao, try giving the egg a bit of your blood."

"Giving blood?" Sun Xiao cocked his head sideways in confusion. "Like... to form spiritual contract?"

Li Xinwen nods his head and walked over to Sun Xiao. "Ge won't hurt you. So trust me, alright?" Li Xinwen said as he took one of Sun Xiao's hand into his. He used his spiritual energy to form a very thin needle and quickly puncture Sun Xiao's forefinger. Then, he told Sun Xiao to smear the blood over the egg.

The blood seemed to boil upon the surface of the egg before it disappeared. They waited for a second, then a minute. Unfortunately, there was nothing. Li Xinwen in the end, had to ask Sun Xiao: "Ah'Xiao, can you sense anything?"

Sun Xiao only shook his head and Li Xinwen can only let out a sigh of disappointment.

"Ah! Xin-gege, Xin-gege!!" Sun Xiao's call brought Li Xinwen's attention with him. "I think... the umm... bird inside is trying to communicate with me," Sun Xiao said as he looked straight to Li Xinwen.

"Oh, what did it say?" Li Xinwen asked, feeling slightly excited.

"Umm... 'Chirp chirp'?" Sun Xiao repeated the sound he heard in his mind to Li Xinwen which resembles the sound that a small chick would make. The innocent expression on the young boy's face only made Li Xinwen felt even more helpless with mixed emotion. For one, he found that Sun Xiao was being cute with how he mimicked the sound of a young chick. On the other hand, he was now suspicious of the true identity of the beast inside the egg.

Li Xinwen to Lanyu: Are you sure it's a descendant of the phoenix bloodline or just a chicken?

Lanyu who was accused wrongly: Master, believe Lanyu, ah! Lanyu has travelled to a lot of realms. How can Lanyu mistakes a phoenix with a chicken? Wuwuwuwu... Master is bullying Lanyu again...