A Sa was a bird, but more than that, it was a raptor.
Sui Ziming raised his eagles as war beasts, so A Sa was clad in armor that protected its vulnerable underbelly during battle. This allowed the Haidongqing to launch headlong charges without fear.
When A Sa unleashed its full speed in a soaring dive, both its velocity and its flight pattern were utterly terrifying.
The wind whipped past its feathers like razor-sharp blades, slicing fiercely enough to force Shen Jiujiu’s eyes—the eyes of a long-tailed little bird utterly unaccustomed to such ferocity—shut tight. His cheeks stung with pain.
Shen Jiujiu’s talons clamped desperately onto A Sa’s back feathers. He buried his head beneath his wing, curling his entire body into a tight ball in a desperate bid to stay glued to the eagle’s back.
The gale had left him with a windswept, forward-balding, rear-trailing look that was anything but dignified.
After A Sa executed another high-difficulty maneuver—a plunging dive followed by a sideways spin through the treetops—Shen Jiujiu, who had been grimly keeping his beak clenched against the onslaught of wind, couldn’t hold back any longer. His wings cracked open just a sliver, allowing him to sneak a glance at the Sparrow Balls perched aboard another raptor.
As the boss, it was only right to check on his underling—
But the unassuming-looking Sparrow Balls showed no trace of fear. Instead, it stood tall and proud on A Sa’s back, occasionally chirping to guide the eagle. Its beady eyes gleamed with admiration for its raptor senior.
Shen Jiujiu: “…”
He flexed his talons, which had gone rigid from gripping so fiercely, trying to make himself look more natural, more nonchalant, more effortlessly in control.
Anyone who’s ridden a roller coaster without a safety harness knows the drill: when you’re clenched up in sheer terror, your hands just lock up completely.
A Sa banked sharply then, veering around a massive tree blocking their path. Its belly feathers nearly scraped the branches—
Shen Jiujiu, who had just eased his grip a fraction, nearly tumbled off. Still shaken, he dropped into a squat, even seizing an armored strap in his beak while digging his talons in even harder.
Who cared about pride or image?!
He was a bird with big things to do!
Life came first!
The little sparrows were all underlings Shen Jiujiu had trained beforehand. He’d dispatched one as a messenger while the rest stuck close to Sui Ziming.
Thanks to the sparrows’ cleverness, their rapid relay of information, and the Haidongqing’s instinctive tracking of its master’s scent, Shen Jiujiu and his two avian companions reached the scene in short order.
The Haidongqing’s wings sheared through the treetops with a series of creaking snaps.
Shen Jiujiu perked up at A Sa’s furious screech. He promptly cracked his eyes open and peered out.
This stretch of woods lay deep in the capital suburbs, far from any beaten path. No ordinary folk would wander here unless they had a mind to seek out desolate places.
Rumors of ferocious beasts had circulated in years past—even tigers—and the court had once mobilized to hunt them down.
The two factions locked in fierce combat amid the trees had both concealed their identities: one side in black garb and balaclavas, the other with full-face masks. The servants and guards escorting the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion’s silver shipment lay slain, hacked to pieces.
Sui Ziming, his face half-obscured by a silver mask, flicked his wrist sharply. The chain stick’s segments clashed with a crisp ring as it met the knife slashing toward him from a masked assailant.
Like a striking serpent, the chain stick coiled along the blade’s edge with a grating screech, then snapped the enemy’s longsword clean in two. The weighted end cracked toward the man’s brow.
The strike landed true. Sui Ziming yanked back smoothly, throwing the black-clad attacker off balance. He staggered forward—right into a brutal blow to the chest.
With a heavy thud, the man grunted and flew backward, crashing into his comrades.
The other masked foes pressed on undeterred, surging forward relentlessly—all zeroing in on Sui Ziming.
Though outnumbered, Sui Ziming clearly excelled at brawls. He whipped the chain stick upward at an angle, letting the segments slither along a knife blade and snare the attacker’s arm.
With a savage pull, the man howled in agony. His short blade spun free, embedding itself in the nearby dirt.
“Get the carriage out of here!”
Sui Ziming had realized these masked thugs valued his death over the silver. His eyes narrowed, and he made the call on the spot.
Sure enough, even as his men drove the carriage away, the attackers kept hounding him, their blows growing ever more vicious.
The Haidongqing dove with a piercing shriek, hurtling into the fray. Its talons raked a masked man’s nape viciously, its hooked beak stabbing toward his right eye.
The man arched in pain—but Sui Ziming’s chain was swifter still. It whipped around the foe’s throat, and with a powerful thrust of his arm, he pinned the man against a tree trunk.
The remaining attackers froze, suddenly hesitant to advance.
A Sa folded its wings and alighted on Sui Ziming’s shoulder.
In the next instant, the man—now blind in one eye from A Sa’s peck—let out a muffled groan. The light faded from his gaze as he took his own life without hesitation.
His comrades scattered into the woods, vanishing in moments.
Sui Ziming frowned. He ripped off the man’s mask, unsurprised to find an utterly ordinary face beneath.
He kicked the corpse aside, wiped down his chain stick with the hem of his robe, and grinned at A Sa. “And how did our mighty A Sa end up here?”
A Sa let out a low “Kraa!”
Sui Ziming didn’t speak bird, so he took it for affection and stroked its feathers. Then realization dawned: “Wait—you weren’t supposed to be—”
Come to think of it, A Sa’s leg ring…
Sui Ziming’s eyes widened as he scanned about. There, balanced on a branch, was Shen Jiujiu—outwardly the picture of calm composure as he surveyed the battlefield from on high, though in truth his little bird soul had checked out some time ago.
Shen Jiujiu clung to the branch, rigid as a stone carving, unwilling to dwell on the ordeal of the past few heart-stopping moments.
The instant A Sa spotted Sui Ziming under siege, it had rocketed forward without regard for the protruding branches, shrieking all the way.
Shen Jiujiu and the little sparrow, riding its back, had been ruthlessly swept off by the limbs like ripe fruit, flung high into the open sky.
The little sparrow had flapped in panic for a mere two cries before steadying itself. Glancing back to see Shen Jiujiu still tumbling, it darted in, seized him by the nape feathers, beat its wings furiously, and—just barely—landed them both on a branch.
So while Sui Ziming and A Sa fought side by side beneath the tree, dashing and heroic in their coordination, Shen Jiujiu remained frozen stiff on a high branch. His little bird face was wooden as he overlooked the battlefield with the bearing of a great general.
Sui Ziming stood under the tree with one hand on his hip, craning his neck to meet Shen Jiujiu’s wide eyes that screamed for rescue. He burst out laughing.
“It’s fine now. Come on down.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll catch you.”
Shen Jiujiu cautiously peered down at the ground and swallowed hard. His little bird claws didn’t dare twitch.
Well…
It seemed birds were… still a bit afraid of heights.
The branches he’d practiced flying on back home hadn’t been anywhere near this high.
Wah.
The man who could have easily leaped up with his lightness skill to scoop the little bird dumpling right down chose not to. Instead, he grinned from below, tossing out teasing remarks. “Oh dear? What’s gotten into our Jiujiu? Lost in thought over some weighty matter? Why not just hop down?”
Aaaah, so annoying!
How could anyone be so infuriatingly loathsome to a little bird!
Shen Jiujiu glared down at Sui Ziming, itching to dive and smash right into his smug face.
—But his little bird legs were jelly. He couldn’t jump an inch.
“Chirp chirp chirp… chirp!!!”
Shen Jiujiu’s listless chirps suddenly sharpened, the pitch spiking in urgency.
In a flash, Sui Ziming raised his chain stick and blocked the incoming dark arrow.
The deflected shaft crushed the grass beneath it.
One by one, figures slipped soundlessly from the woods—but unlike the earlier band of masked raiders in black, these made no effort to conceal their faces or origins.
These were diehards, the kind who wouldn’t rest until their target was dead.
“Tsk. Interesting.”
When attackers dropped all pretense of hiding their identities, it meant they were in it to the death. Sui Ziming saw no reason to hold back either.
He gripped the ends of the chain stick, looped the chain around his fingers, tucked it away, and whipped it backhanded with a sharp click. The unremarkable weapon transformed in an instant into a red-tasseled spear.
The haidongqing on his shoulder unleashed a fierce, battle-ready screech.
Up on the branch, Shen Jiujiu’s eyes went wide.
So this was what it looked like when a general fought with his general’s bird?
Terrifying.
Shen Jiujiu had no idea if this ambush spelled doom for Sui Ziming, but he knew one thing for sure: with Sui Ziming and A Sa fully occupied, he couldn’t afford to stay trapped up here no matter what.
Blades flashed and clashed below in a frenzy of close-quarters combat. Inch by inch, Shen Jiujiu shuffled his claws toward the trunk, terrified of even the slightest slip.
A fall right now might not turn him into little bird paste, but it had a good chance of slicing him into little bird sashimi.
Finally reaching the trunk, Shen Jiujiu prepared to hug it and slide down when a streak of cold steel sliced from behind him, trailing heat. It grazed his back feathers and shot straight toward Sui Ziming!
His nerves snapped taut. In that instant, he knew exactly what was happening—without even turning to look. His beak unleashed the most panicked, piercing cry since his rebirth: “Chiiirp——!!!”
The arrow had come from behind him, aimed right at Sui Ziming. And dead ahead, three killers were desperately tangling with Sui Ziming’s spear, deliberately blocking his retreat so he had no hope of dodging.
Even with Shen Jiujiu’s warning, Sui Ziming couldn’t evade it.
The arrow buried itself in his back—right at the left side of his heart.
“Chirp!!!”
A streak of gray-white lightning plunged from the sky. It hit the ground in a clumsy tumble, staggering forward several steps before the beak jammed down like brakes to halt the momentum and prevent a sideways roll. Then it flapped madly toward Sui Ziming once more.
Sui Ziming had heard that chirp earlier and had stolen a glance at Shen Jiujiu. He didn’t miss the bird’s frantic, stumbling flight toward him now.
He kicked aside the killer in front of him and swept his spear to impale the one blocking Shen Jiujiu’s path. He reached out to catch the bird—only for Shen Jiujiu to dive in ferociously. His claws raked mercilessly across the killer’s cheek, drawing bloody gashes.
“Yo ho, little bird’s learned to fight! Not bad at all. The kid’s got potential.”
Shen Jiujiu ignored everything else. He beat his wings toward Sui Ziming and landed on the man’s shoulder before smacking him hard across the head with a wing: “Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp!!!”
Shut your trap!
You’re hit, got it?!
That arrow’s laced with deadly poison, got it?!
Your life’s on the line, got it?!
“Whoa whoa whoa, easy easy. I’m fine.”
Panting, Sui Ziming parried a hacking saber. With his free hand—the one not gripping the spear—he reached back and yanked the arrow free right in front of Shen Jiujiu.
“See? Totally fine!”
“I’m wearing chain mail. The arrowhead must’ve gotten caught.”
Sui Ziming finished his quick explanation and hurled Shen Jiujiu forcefully toward safety. “You can fly now—perfect. Go play over there for a bit!”
Shen Jiujiu didn’t even have time for a close look before the whole bird went flying. His vision soared; the world spun.
He flapped his wings furiously, clumsily holding balance in midair for the first time. Then, with a spark of wonder, he swayed left and right.
Huh?
Huuuh!!!
He could fly!!
Shen Jiujiu, thrilled at mastering this little bird skill, darted up and down in excitement. It drew a shout from Sui Ziming: “Get farther away!! Don’t come crying if I accidentally hit you!”
Got it, got it.
Shen Jiujiu flapped off in a direction away from Sui Ziming.
Young guy, but such a nag.
No matter the species, that first taste of flight was pure exhilaration. Shen Jiujiu zipped this way and that through the woods until he suddenly collided with an onrushing sparrow ball.
“Chirp chirp chirp tweet!”
【The archer’s over there!】
“Chirp?!”
Shen Jiujiu snapped to attention. His mind whirred, and he let out a series of calls toward Sui Ziming.
A Sa heard and dove in response. Following the direction indicated by Shen Jiujiu and the sparrow ball, its razor-sharp beak struck like a bolt of cold light!
“Ahhh!!”
A wretched scream echoed through the trees, mingled with A Sa’s furious screech.
Shen Jiujiu knew his own limits when it came to combat and didn’t rush in to join the fray. Instead, he folded his wings and scurried underfoot among the battling humans…
Like a pesky ground chicken darting about.
Peck at this one passing by.
Kick that one on the way.
