MD Ch 2 Part 4

There was a specific action characters in 《Heavenly Demon Tribulation》 performed before self-destructing: raising a hand to their eyes. It was a way of focusing their power at that point before detonating it, taking everyone nearby with them.

The higher the cultivation level, the more devastating the explosion. But the price of self-destruction was not something anyone could bear. For instance, if this body I was in self-destructed, the result would be complete annihilation, leaving nothing behind.

Judging by their intense hatred, what kind of history did these two share?

I felt all my consciousness intensely focused between my eyebrows, then a searing, unbearable pain ripped through me, and my mind went blank.

Boom!

After an unknown amount of time, I slowly regained consciousness, only to be met with the same horrific scene of carnage.

They self-destructed, but I didn’t die?

Crack! Boom!

While I was still disoriented, a deafening thunderclap suddenly roared above me, so loud it made my ears ring. Then, without warning, torrential rain poured down, drenching me to the bone.

As I tried to move, an overwhelming fatigue washed over me, my body aching all over. I struggled to raise a hand to shield my eyes from the downpour, but froze…

My hand was too small.

The hand before me was tiny, its short fingers almost cute if not for the bloodstains. It was undeniably the hand of a small child.

What in the world was going on?

“Chirp! Chirp! Chirp, chirp, chirp!”

Something sharp pecked at my face. It wasn’t forceful, more like a tickle, and it was enough to break me from my fatigue.

The tickling was so intense, it made my whole body squirm. I wanted to laugh, but the discomfort in my chest prevented me. Then, the scene before me slowly faded. Moments later, the downpour and the battlefield vanished completely.

I opened my eyes again, and the familiar dark ceiling of the grand hall came into view. My soul was comfortably back in my body. I seemed to have returned from the dream. My senses registered something pecking at my face.

I turned my head to see what it was, and the moment I did, relief washed over me, bringing tears to my eyes.

It was Ah Jiu.

The Vermillion Bird I remembered from my past life was massive, easily large enough to fill this entire chamber. But here, perched beside my head, was a small, adorable creature.

It was about the size of a puppy, with a small beak and short claws. Soft, fluffy red feathers, patterned with faint iridescent colors, covered its body. Its beautiful, ruby-like eyes were fixed on me.

Seeing that I was awake, Ah Jiu stopped pecking and chirped at me repeatedly. He spread his small wings and fluttered around excitedly.

S-S-So cute!!!

I wiped away the tears welling up in my eyes and looked at Ah Jiu again. Overwhelmed with emotion, I pulled him into a tight embrace, burying my face in his soft feathers.

The Vermillion Bird, a creature of fire, possessed a body temperature far higher than ordinary animals. Holding him close, warmth spread through me from head to toe.

The memory of helplessly watching him enter Nirvana before my eyes had been incredibly painful, a feeling of utter powerlessness consuming me.

Seeing the Vermillion Bird alive and well, so healthy and adorable in this world, felt like a blessing from the heavens.

“My Lord, have you enjoyed this enough?”

The fluffy bundle in my arms spoke in the cool voice of a young boy, a hint of displeasure in his tone.

“Please let me go.”

Huh? I froze, stopping my petting.

Wasn’t he the one enthusiastically pecking at my face just moments ago? Why the sudden change in attitude?

He tilted his head back, looking at me with his crimson eyes, and spoke words that nearly made me spit out blood.

“I merely woke you from your dream, My Lord. You’re getting ahead of yourself. And I’m neither the man nor woman you offer to your Lord, so could you please refrain from getting so excited over a Divine Beast?”

Is— Is this really Ah Jiu? The proud and aloof Vermillion Bird I wrote?

Seeing my stunned silence, Ah Jiu used his small wings to push against my arms, hopped onto the bed, stood up straight, and said,

“My Lord, when did your bed become so cluttered?”

He scratched at the blankets with his tiny claws, his tone suspicious and curt.

“And I’m more comfortable when I can step on that black stone. It’s inconvenient like this.”

“…..”

“Forget it. Let’s talk about something else.”

After grumbling to himself for a while, Ah Jiu sighed and flicked his right wing. I watched curiously as a crimson fruit materialized on the bed.

The moment the fruit appeared, the room filled with dense spiritual energy. With each breath, the energy seeped into my body, clearing my mind.

A familiar, solid red membrane swirled around the surface of the fruit, resembling the Vermillion Bird’s True Fire. The spiritual energy was emanating from within this red membrane. If this was just a fraction of its power, the full force would be unimaginable.

I was so shocked that my heart skipped a beat, rendering me speechless. I knew this fruit.

It was the plump and round Reincarnation Fruit.

When fully ripe, it turned crimson, with fiery flames flowing within. It grew in the Nine-Wheeled Blazing Sun Land in the east, a fruit so rare it might only appear once a century.

[Setting Value – Revives the dead and restores flesh to bones.]

“This is an incredibly valuable treasure. My Lord, I fought off the snake guarding it with all my might and brought it straight to you. But why would that shade-loving Tengshe¹ go to such lengths for this fruit? Its skin was even peeling from the sunlight…”

Ah Jiu’s words faded into the background as my mind raced.

Fear gripped me. This fruit shouldn’t be here. It was meant for Song Qiyuan’s enigmatic master to heal his severed tendons. Ah Jiu wasn’t supposed to find it and bring it to me.

What was going on with this world’s storyline? Was this really the 《Heavenly Demon Tribulation》 I wrote? If the reincarnation fruit was in my possession, where would Song Qiyuan’s master find the cure?

The story, the scenes, the characters… everything was different, a complete mess!

“What are you thinking about?”

Ah Jiu’s clear voice pulled me from my chaotic thoughts.

I came back to myself, realizing my back was drenched in cold sweat. I looked at the adorable Ah Jiu, clinging to a last shred of hope.

“There wasn’t just one, was there?”

Ah Jiu shook his head vigorously.

“There were two.”

“Then what happened to the other one?!”

As expected! There was another one! Then the story hadn’t completely changed. Surely, Song Qiyuan’s master took the other one! A spark of hope ignited within me as I stared at Ah Jiu, awaiting his answer.

But joy and sorrow often intertwine unexpectedly.

“The other one, well…”

Ah Jiu hesitated.

“The snake ate it on the spot.”

!!!

Ate it…

It…

…

My name is Yu Ke, and I am truly an unlucky villain. Destined to be the most miserable villain in history.

So what if it was the Reincarnation fruit? There must be more than just two in the world. Song Qiyuan’s master could find it elsewhere, couldn’t he?

That was naive. If it were that easy to find, why would it be so valuable? The Reincarnation fruit was the protagonist’s first overpowered cheat item, an unparalleled, magnificent, and exhilarating treasure.

It could revive the dead, restore flesh to bones, and was even a top-tier healing medicine, appearing only once every few hundred years in the cultivation world. Moreover, it only grew in its original location. Since the Vermillion Bird and the Tengshe each took one, it would take at least several hundred years for another to grow!

Only half a month remained before Yu Ke would cripple Song Qiyuan and his enigmatic master would take him away. A new sprout wouldn’t appear in that scorching land in such a short time!

Let alone a fruit…