A yellow-winged bird which had Ying Hua found just after she opened her eyes and woke up from fainting. Her body was limp and seemed to have run out of a lot of energy. As she looked around, she saw a place like a cave, with stone walls coiling around her.
"Oh, it turns out that I'm here," she said, having managed to sit down. She had been curled up on the cold, damp ground. The yellow-winged bird that was above her forehead has now flown and landed between her legs. "Did you take me?"
But the bird didn't answer at all. Instead, he just tilted his head as if he didn't understand what she said.
While still holding her throbbing head, she groaned, "I already know everything. You are a magical bird who has been meditating in this tunnel. You are also the one who often communicates with the banyan tree in front of the Qing Palace. I need your help. I need to know how to get the banyan tree to talk to me because it knows where the Black Crown is. I have to get the Black Crown and then I return it to the king of the serpent demon."
The bird didn't say anything.
"I don't want to hurt you," Ying Hua said tiredly. "So, I beg you, make things easy for me! If you want something, you can tell me! I will do anything as long as you want to help me!"
"Any?" Suddenly a man's voice was heard. It came from the yellow-winged bird, which suddenly spread its two golden gleaming wings.
Inside the tunnel, it wasn't completely dark. There was a bright spot of light shining on them from above as if there was a very large hole in the ceiling so that sunlight could enter and illuminate the darkness in the tunnel.
"Yes," nodded Ying Hua, who was almost standing now. But her body was still too weak, so she couldn't help but stagger slightly. "If I can grant it, I will surely grant it. So just say what you want?"
"Your necklace," said the yellow-winged bird matter-of-factly. His eyes were round and black like a very small marble. His beak seemed to have a red tinge at the edges. "I want your necklace. If you will give it to me, I will even ask the banyan tree directly how to get the Black Crown. I could even ask some of my friends to pick it up for you."
'Doesn't he have friends?' thought Ying Hua suspiciously. "I have heard that you have no friends. So, your offer sounds very suspicious. Apart from that this necklace is very precious to me. I save a lot of my life's energy and fate here."
"That's why I want it," he tilted his head as if he was making a joke. "I like things that have a lot of energy. That's why I'd like to exchange the information you need for your necklace."
"I can't do it." Ying Hua now said firmly. "I can't give my necklace to anyone. This is the only thing I have to protect."
"Then I won't help you." The bird smirked.
'Who is he actually? Why is he meditating in the collapse of a temple but he has a very evil heart? He could not have been a monk in his past life. Then who is he?'
Not wanting to give up, Ying Hua still made an offer, "Think about it again! Maybe you want something else. Do you want an abundance of food? Or do you want the females?"
"I am a hermit," he said. "I don't need any of that. I could even fast and not eat for thirty days. I also don't do the mating process even in the mating season. All I need is energy, enormous energy."
"But for what? What do you want it for?"
"To get a human body like I used to be again. I used to be a human, who had to be reincarnated into a bird. I still had a lot of things to do when I was a human, which I couldn't finish now if I were a bird."
"What business is that? Can I help you? If I can do it, then I will. As long as you'll tell me how to communicate with the banyan tree."
"You won't be able to finish my business when I become a human, because I want to be the most powerful being on earth, and even in the universe. I purposely sucked energy from the other beings. I don't hesitate to kill them all to gain power. At that time my power was so great that it allowed me to trick the gods. They consider me a saint because I can bring white energy around me, and I can enter the holy temple. But actually, I am a very sinful human being, who has greed and also very big desire."
His eyes combed her appearance, then smirked. "I know you are neither human nor a demon. You have a holy aura that only gods have. But there's something strange about you. Are you the illegitimate child of a god, who has the mistress of a human?"
"My identity is not important to you." She intended to get up and leave because now she couldn't get help from him. Maybe she could wait until dark until the ghosts had appeared. So, she could ask them.
"Of course, it's important."
Just as she was about to stand up, suddenly a gust of wind hit her, causing her body to bounce, and then hit the ground. She groaned, especially when she saw another wind coming to swirl around her, and seemed to suck all her strength.
"Because I need your energy. If I can find out your identity, then I can find out what methods I can use to seize all of your energy," he said again. Now he had already flapped his wings and then flew in between the gusts of wind that lifted Ying Hua's body. Amid the whirlwind, he entered into it and began to suck energy from her body which was black and white side by side.
"The core of your body is fire and ice. Very interesting. Usually, creatures that have a different body core will experience a disability."
Ying Hua widened her eyes. She screamed as the pain ripped through her body. But now she knew why she was born with a disability. All because of the energy core in her body.
It felt like her skin was being ripped and pulled with great force. Her head felt like it was being pressed and wanted to be crushed. It felt like her heart was ripped out and then exploded right then and there. It felt like her body was destroyed in one hit. Very hurt!
"Help!" Even her voice failed to come out, in the middle of her body which was not bloody but slowly paled and started to shrink. Her skin was flabby and almost dry, she was starting to die, and would probably die soon. "Help!"
***