Chapter 427: 【Shadow Bird of the God】, the Playful Old Fairy

Jier stood where he was without moving; he even made the distant Tianxuecao move further away, at least into the nearby Forest. At the same time, he moved his fingers away from his hand, but did not put away the Magic Dagger directly. He held the Hunting Sword upside down in his left hand, holding the Moonlight Iron used as the pommel weight high up to reveal the Spirits of all the dead birds in the vicinity.

There were many Spirits of dead birds, but the number of black light orbs split off from the Great Bird deity was not small either.

After each absorbed an average of over a hundred dead bird Spirits, these light orbs quickly swelled one by one to the size of chicken eggs, but they were no longer pitch-black; instead, they turned into a grayish, translucent Shadow state, as if they were real avian eggs, gestating something.

These Shadow light orbs floated in mid-air, moving slowly one by one, yet they were vaguely gathering toward one spot.

Crack.

Crack, crack...

Cracks appeared on the surface of the Shadow light orbs one after another, and then they quickly split open; Jier had already anticipated what would be born inside.

Over a hundred Shadow Birds—if it was this quantity, then it did not matter if the strength of these Shadow Birds was a bit thin; after all, quantity was also a part of strength. If the strength was insufficient, quantity could make up for it; Jier also felt that was acceptable.

He vaguely began to look forward to it, even imagining the future when fighting enemies at night, lifting his hand, and having hundreds of Shadow Birds fly out from his palm to cover the enemy's face.

Even if the combat power was insufficient, it would be enough as a powerful interference ability during battle. It would be even better if these things could be controlled by him or used for short-to-medium range Scout.

Amidst the sound of shattering and falling, one black light orb after another broke, and from within them, one adult bird-shaped semi-Shadow bird after another was born, while the scattered "eggshells" turned directly into thin Shadow Divine Power, which the newly born translucent Shadow Birds swallowed into their open beaks.

After receiving the replenishment of this Shadow Divine Power, the bodies of these seemingly extremely fragile translucent Shadow Birds finally became much more solid.

Jier looked at the huge dead tree in the clearing that had originally been selected as the vessel needed for the ritual; he thought that in the next step, those Shadow Birds would fly over one after another and land on the tree, and after that, he would probably walk over to the tree and let it accept these Shadow Birds?

But Jier thought wrong; normally, the ritual was about the same as he had expected, but this was not a normal situation after all. These slightly solidified Shadow Birds did not fly toward the dead tree, but instead circled above his head in the pitch-black environment.

Jier carefully placed his finger back on the Gems of the Magic Dagger, ready to counterattack at any time if these Shadow Birds played tricks on him or if the situation became unfavorable.

But no attack was directed at him; Jier had worried too much.

Those Shadow Birds circling above his head had originally flown in circles of different heights and sizes. But as time passed bit by bit, their circling flight paths gradually unified, their heights unified, and the size of the circles also unified into a single range.

They crowded against each other, pushing one another, and under Jier's upward gaze, their translucent bodies actually gradually merged together.

Shadow merged with shadow, becoming one; power merged with power, becoming one; Spirit merged with Spirit, becoming one.

Over a hundred Shadow Birds gradually turned into fifty-something, twenty-something, a dozen or so, a few...

The more they merged, the more solid and pitch-black their bodies became.

And they looked more and more like the image the Great Bird deity had always maintained.

Finally, under Jier's gaze, only that single one remained of the Shadow Birds circling above his head.

When only it was left, this pitch-black Shadow Bird, no more than ten centimeters in size, fell from the air and, in one go, chose to land on the sword pommel weight in Jier's hand.

The little bird stared at Jier with eyes like black pearls, hopping on the weight made of Moonlight Iron, and even tilted its head, looking at Jier curiously.

It seemed not to be the Great Bird deity, nor the many birds he had killed, but a newly born Spirit.

It was pitch-black all over; the naked eye could not see any details on the surface of its body; it was completely black and blurry from top to bottom. Not only that, its strength was hard to judge, because not only was it black itself, but even everything within a small range of space around it was slowly being affected by the power on its body, becoming dim and blurry. It was as if it were gradually turning into a shadow.

"Not bad, although it's a bit different from what I guessed, it does look like it has some real substance."

Jier praised it, then he boldly put away the Magic Dagger and raised his right index finger, reaching toward this Shadow Bird that could truly be called a 【Shadow Bird】.

The little guy was also very cooperative; as Jier's finger reached out, it gave a hop and jumped onto Jier's finger. In just an instant, Jier's right index finger turned black, looking blurry on the surface.

But he had no other feelings; it was neither painful nor was he unable to control his finger; it just seemed impossible for people to see it clearly.

"This is interesting; I hope you don't only have these abilities."

Just as Jier finished speaking, this tiny Shadow Bird, only ten centimeters in size, lowered its head and tried to burrow into Jier's finger; steel could not stop it, and it had no effect on it. Jier's finger felt nothing either, but after it burrowed for a long time and got half its body in, it was bounced out by some unknown force.

The little guy was a bit annoyed, so it tried to burrow into other parts of Jier's body. But other places didn't work either; as soon as it got in, it was kicked out by something unknown, and some of the counter-forces were so strong that they bounced the little Shadow Bird out and onto the ground.

Finally, the little guy was very annoyed and flew directly toward Jier's face, and while Jier's eyes widened in surprise, it flew into Jier's right eye in one go.

There was no feeling of discomfort; Jier's vision was not even affected; he blinked his eyes and didn't notice anything different about the things he saw around him.

But in his mind, a fragment of knowledge about the Shadow Bird suddenly appeared.

It was named 【Shadow Bird of the God】.

It possessed some of the Great Bird deity's most core divine power.

It fed on Jier's shadow; Jier needed to frequently reveal his shadow under firelight at night so that the 【Shadow Bird of the God】 could receive replenishment of power.

It was composed of countless broken Spirits of birds, and even mixed with a portion of the Great Bird deity's divine essence.

For specific usage, Jier needed to explore and grasp it himself.

Jier opened his eyes and let out a breath; he understood.

So the Great Bird deity had not perished just like that; it was just that the most important vessel it used to manifest in the world had turned into the most important part of Jier's 【Shadow Bird of the God】. And after losing this vessel, it would be very difficult for Jier to make contact with the Great Bird deity again.

Unless Jier actively made a statue of the Great Bird deity himself and then repeatedly chanted the name of the Great Bird deity to summon it.

But the problem was that Jier would never do that; having finally gotten rid of that guy, the two of them were now even, with neither owing the other anything.

"Phew, well then, I hope we never see each other again!"

Jier sighed, looked at the mess around him, shook his head, took off his cloak, and instantly disappeared from this world.

Jier arrived in the lady's dream.

As soon as he arrived, he hurriedly tossed the dirty cloak aside, and then could no longer keep up the act, opening his mouth wide and wailing in pain: "Ouch, ouch, it hurts me to death! %%￥￥! It's a good thing I held on until now; if I hadn't been able to maintain my appearance just now and had revealed this pathetic state, wouldn't that dead bird have laughed itself to death?"

Jier sat down on the ground; the ground was the place that appeared every time he came to the lady's dream, and the ground was full of sturdy Mushroom the size of bowls. As soon as Jier sat down, they began to emit fluorescence on the surface of their caps, revealing one peculiar fluorescent rune after another that was not obvious.

Thanks to these Mushroom, Jier's body was immediately healed; under the intervention of a mysterious power, the places on his body that were broken and cut gradually showed signs of healing.

Jier endured the pain and took off, piece by piece, his Full-body Metal Armor, which he had always treasured but which was finally extensively damaged today.

He also took off the Cotton Leather Inner Armor he wore inside the armor, and just lay naked on the large patches of Mushroom caps, letting these Mushroom perform a thorough treatment on him.

Seeming to understand that the battle was completely over, the Agricultural God Church Divine Art 【Grass and Wood Source】 on Jier's flanks also stopped working. In an instant, Jier was exhausted; his physical strength was like a leaking hole, constantly draining away due to the injuries on his body.

After all, healing and regenerating his body's injuries also consumed a great deal of physical strength.

Jier could no longer stay awake; he spread his body out in a sprawl and fell into an exhausted sleep.

After a while, the old fairy came over with a team of half-meter-tall Mushroom Boy; it circled Jier twice, discovered that Jier had only suffered some minor injuries, and muttered a few words of ridicule at Jier, not caring whether Jier heard it while he was asleep.

It patted the Mushroom responsible for the treatment encouragingly, very satisfied with its masterpiece, and then it pricked up its ears, as if it had heard some sound like thunder.

It was a bit puzzled; after all, in this dream of the lady's, there was only the constant environment of the quiet and dark ancient dense Forest, so where would a sound of thunder come from?

A clever Mushroom Boy pointed at Jier, who had fallen into a deep sleep during treatment, specifically pointing at his belly, from which a rumbling sound like thunder was emanating.

The old sprite hopped up, stood on Jier's belly, and listened curiously, confirming that the rumbling sound was indeed coming from there.

It suddenly shrieked, as if it had discovered something ominous, and hurriedly chattered something loudly to its Mushroom Boys; those Mushroom Boys were also terrified, running around and hiding everywhere, as if trying to conceal themselves.

But then, the old sprite burst into cackling laughter, laughing so hard it even clutched its belly, mocking those foolish Mushroom Boys for being so afraid that Jier would eat them because he was hungry.

After all, Jier was still in the middle of treatment and had fallen into a deep sleep; even if he were hungry after waking up once the treatment was finished, it didn't matter right now.

The old sprite, fearing that the surrounding Mushroom Boys trying to hide themselves wouldn't believe it, ran onto Jier's face, patted Jier's large nose, tugged at Jier's lips, and just as it wanted to pull up Jier's eyelid to take a look, a small, pitch-black bird emerged from Jier's right eye.

The two fellows stared at each other; the bird was so frightened it shrank back inside Jier's right eyelid, while the old sprite was so startled it fell backward onto Jier's nose bridge.

"Chitter-chatter, chitter-chatter!!"

The old sprite was startled, and seemingly feeling it had lost face in front of its underlings, it jumped up abruptly and pointed at Jier's right eyelid to interrogate it.

Hearing the chittering sound outside, the tiny black bird also curiously poked its head out from under the eyelid, sizing up the old sprite, who was dressed strangely, acted strangely, and whose very existence was quite strange.

The old sprite asked a couple of questions, seemingly figuring out the Shadow Bird's composition for itself, and then, feeling reassured, began to tease this 'new friend' from the dream.

How could the newborn Shadow Bird be a match for the old sprite? After a few moments, it was lured by a Shadow Mushroom the old sprite had pulled out from who knows where, and amidst the teasing, it jumped out of Jier's right eye.

Subsequently, it was foolishly lured away again by a Shadow Mushroom the old sprite had casually tossed onto the ground nearby; while it was curiously pecking at these attractive Shadow Mushrooms, the old sprite leaped and rode onto the Shadow Bird's back.

The tiny Shadow Bird's wingspan was actually much larger than the old sprite, but its skills were far inferior; once ridden by the old sprite, it could not shake it off no matter what, and the Mushroom Boys who had been hiding nearby rushed out, jumping and cheering to encourage their boss.

The Shadow Bird struggled for a while, and finding no way out, it resigned itself to its fate, nesting on the ground to peck and swallow the shadow energy from the Shadow Mushrooms, while the old sprite waved at its underlings triumphantly, looking extremely proud.

Seeing that the Shadow Bird's body had become much more solid after pecking at the Shadow Mushrooms, the old sprite patted the bird's head, telling the Shadow Bird to fly.

With no other choice, the tiny Shadow Bird, having eaten someone else's food and being unable to shake off this inexplicably strange existence, had no choice but to obediently flap its wings and take flight.

Flap, flap, flap, flap.

After flying a few circles around the soundly sleeping Jier, the old sprite found it boring, because the Shadow Bird still maintained the flight instincts of countless birds, using its wings to flap and fly, when in fact it didn't need to at all. The consequence of this was that it caused jolting during flight, and this jolting made the old sprite feel that this Shadow Bird wasn't even as good as its Giant Snail Shell!

After playing for a while, the old sprite felt bored and jumped down, landing on Jier's stinky feet. Its face immediately turned green, and after spitting twice, it tried breathing through its mouth but felt that wasn't right either—wouldn't that just mean inhaling even more of the foot odor? So, it scrambled away in a panic.

As for those Mushroom Boys, without their boss watching over them, they grew bold and gathered around the dirty cloak Jier had tossed to the side.

To a Human, the grime stained with all sorts of flesh, blood, and other unknown bodily fluids was disgusting and terrifying, but these Mushroom Boys felt these things were incredibly fragrant. When the old sprite was there just now, they didn't dare go up to taste them, but now that their boss had run off, they, unmonitored, crept up to Jier's cloak and carefully brought their mycelium feet forward, bit by bit devouring and digesting that bloody filth.

Jier would surely be shocked when he woke up, because before he had even moved to wash his dirty cloak, it had automatically become clean.

Two Dwarfs were currently striding through a tunnel, both of them panting, yet they dared not stop to rest because a peculiar change had occurred in the Huitou Forest; the two of them needed to go over and scout it out, and report the scouting news to the old Dwarf 'Iron Fist' as soon as possible.

Especially since the changes in the Huitou Forest had occurred after they shut down the Mist Generator on the mountain; before coming, the two of them had suspected whether these changes were caused by shutting down the Mist Generator that had been running for decades.

No one knew, so they needed to conduct a close-range reconnaissance immediately.

The two Dwarfs had prepared for scouting combat, and even prepared for escape, just in case a situation they couldn't handle at all arose.

Soon, the two Dwarfs knew they had entered the underground tunnel network of the Huitou Forest through the markers set up in the tunnels.

"Be careful..." one Dwarf suggested.

The other Dwarf leaned against the wall, panting, and waved his hand: "I know... I know, rather than being careful, let me catch my breath first."

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