Chapter 605: Xiao Qi Speaks...
Before, the only sounds that’d come out from Xiao Qi would be the chirps. So now that Xiao Qi could speak the human tongue, how could Bai Yunfei not feel surprised?
Xiao Qi looked seemingly pleased at the stunned expression on Bai Yunfei’s face. Flapping his wings to fly twice in rotation around the room, he spoke, “Haha, how about it?! I don’t need to use that mental link to talk anymore! I can speak now!! Haha…I can actually speak!”
His voice grew happier and happier as he flew faster and faster. But he soon returned to Bai Yunfei’s side with a slightly dejected trill, “But even though I can speak, I can’t turn into a human!! Aya—how annoying! It took me a lot of effort to get to class seven, and I still can’t turn into a human! Where did I go wrong?! Aren’t even the most senseless of beasts able to transform when they become a class seven?! Why can’t the handsome I be able to do it then? This is annoying!!”
Xiao Qi flapped his wings in annoyance as he spoke while Bai Yunfei listened in surprise. Rather unsatisfied, the bird came to a perch in front of Bai Yunfei who was holding one hand to his head and the other hand out for Xiao Qi to stop speaking, “Hold on hold on….let me get my bearings straight….you can’t transform into a human? What do you mean? Wait…hold on!!”
His eyes flew open as if he had realized something. Like last time, his head snapped back to look up, only to have his head slam against the wall behind him again. Hissing once more, Bai Yunfei ignored the bump on his head to speak to Xiao Qi, “Are…are you saying you’re a class seven now?!”
Bai Yunfei gave Xiao Qi a quick scan with his soulsense. He could sense the abundant amount of soulforce from Xiao Qi, and combined with the energy he felt from their bond, everything was pointing to him that Xiao Qi was an early-stage class seven soulbeast now!!
“You...you actually broke through?!” Bai Yunfei asked in disbelief. “Xiao Qi, how’d you do that? How’d you breakthrough?”
“How I did it?” Xiao Qi flapped his wings once in pensive thought. Hopping around Bai Yunfei’s head, the bird tilted his head to think. “Uwah, I’m not very sure. I just remember killing so many people and feeling my strength grow in that battle. After killing that lightning-type mid-stage Soul King, I felt like I was about to drop dead. But then when that Wu Dijian came and stopped you, I started to heal my wounds right away….
“After that, I felt a large amount of energy enter my body. Not only did my wounds heal up, I…I felt my strength increase again. I began to see a lot of things like the elemental energy that entered my body. I…after that, I felt like something in me broke, and then my energy started to skyrocket after that. Then I broke through.”
“……”
Bai Yunfei’s own memories of the battle was a little hazy, but from what he heard from Xiao Qi, the reason why he broke through was due to his ‘hidden attribute’.
Xiao Qi’s hidden ability to gain experience after killing was something Bai Yunfei was already aware of. But ever since he became a peak late-stage class six, Bai Yunfei felt like this ability had either faded away or had become ‘weaker’. Xiao Qi didn’t seem to grow substantially after killing the early-stage Soul King that ambushed Bai Yunfei outside Casino Jin either.
But now that Xiao Qi made the breakthrough after killing the mid-stage Soul King, Bai Yunfei had to guess that the experience Xiao Qi was getting beforehand hadn’t been enough. It was only after this kill that Xiao Qi was able to amass enough experience to break the limits and become a class seven.
All things considered still, Xiao Qi’s advancement was…a little too simple. So simple it was hard to believe.
A class seven! That was the soulbeast equivalent to a Soul King!!
Many soul cultivators and soulbeasts wouldn’t even have the chance to attain such a level no matter how hard they try. But Xiao Qi was able to do so without consideration and without preparation.
With all the Soul Kings in this world, which one of them aside from the obscenely talented ones didn’t work hard to reach the heights they were at? Soulbeasts especially had it a lot harder than soul cultivators. As blessed as they were with their longer lifespans, most soulbeasts lacked the ability to train under the many imparted styles of cultivation (aside from a select few). Soulbeasts had to work hard and rely on their own experiences—many would need at least a hundred to two hundred or even three hundred years in order to become a class seven.
But Xiao Qi? If he had to count his age, Xiao Qi would be about…five years old at most…
Xiao Qi popped out from his egg shell just four or five years ago. What kind of storm would brew up on the continent of the world heard about that?
……
Despite the sigh Bai Yunfei gave, he was quite happy that Xiao Qi became a class seven. It was truly a beneficial event for the both of them.
“You said you weren’t able to transform into a human?” He asked.
Class seven soulbeasts undergo a drastic transformation at the time of their breakthrough. Even those with sub-par intelligence would become as sharp as humans when they became class sevens, and many of them could take on human form. This didn’t mean to say that soulbeasts preferred to do such, but with humans being the predominant race on the continent, it was prudent to do so. Many soulbeasts were curious about the human world, and so taking human form to travel to their world allowed them to do so without much harm. There were a few soulbeasts though that held disdain for humanity and preferred to stay in their soulbeast form.
According to logic, the ability to humanize should be something that a class seven soulbeast should be capable of. It wasn’t some sort of esoteric secret or skill that one had to learn. It was merely just an inherited ability that came with the breakthrough and normally wouldn’t be limited from certain soulbeasts…
This was of course, the general rule. Each rule had their exceptions, and in this case, there were definitely a few exceptions to this rule. The more primalistic ‘beasts’ were generally incapable of humanizing along with soulbeasts that were generally inferior to others in talent. They couldn’t even become class sevens due to their inability, let alone try to take human form.
In Xiao Qi’s case…
“Is it because Xiao Qi’s a prisma oriole?” Bai Yunfei thought to himself. According to what he knew, there hadn’t ever been a recorded case in history of a prisma oriole becoming a class seven. There were no records, and even for the myriad of years soulbeasts were alive, a class seven prisma oriole hadn’t been known to humans, and neither could they claim to know anything about one…
Perhaps it was exactly because Xiao Qi was a prisma oriole it wasn’t capable of humanizing. Because of the genetic limits of his race, Xiao Qi was only capable of human speech, but not taking human form?
Noticing the dejected look on Xiao Qi’s face, Bai Yunfei decided to not think about it any more in favor of cheering him up. “Haha, there’s nothing you can change about that. If you can’t transform, you can’t transform. Maybe it’s because of your ‘age’? Maybe you’ll have to wait a bit before you become strong and old enough to transform.”
He thought about it for a second longer before adding onto that, “This alone is already pretty good.”
In truth, Bai Yunfei would’ve had a hard time accepting the fact that Xiao Qi was capable of turning into a human. After these five years of being with Xiao Qi, Bai Yunfei was very used to having him as a bird. If he could suddenly turn into a human….Bai Yunfei thought it to be quite awkward just thinking about it.
Probably because he rarely spoke with humanized soulbeasts before.
“Hope I can turn into a human soon—that’ll be more fun for me….” Xiao Qi chirped once to sigh, “But that’s that. Just being able to speak is nice enough, hehe…”
“.....” Bai Yunfei was speechless. Did Xiao Qi really take being able to humanize was something that could potentially be fun?
The fact that Xiao Qi was able to talk now gave Bai Yunfei quite the strange feeling. Xiao Qi had grown quite fast. He had absorbed all the knowledge of the world it was given exorbitantly fast. Despite being only five years old, its maturity was that of a twelve year old human boy around. Like a child, Xiao Qi was a soulbeast that loved to play and was inherently very curious about any new thing he experienced. He was also more carefree about the world and more calm.
But that wasn’t anything bad. That was just Xiao Qi.
Author Note: Xiao Qi is a male as I’ve mentioned before. So for some of you readers, please don’t start dreaming of some sort of dream that Xiao Qi will turn into a young girl or something…
TL Note: Prior to this point, Xiao Qi was referred to with a gender-neutral pronoun meant for animals/non-human entities. Xiao Qi is now being referred to with the male pronoun character.
“Grr….”
A rather pitiful sounding growl came from the side of the bed next, prompting Bai Yunfei to turn his head. He saw Xiao Lan standing there, its eyes staring at Xiao Qi with a look of envy and hope.
At its glance, Xiao Qi laughed and flew around the blue-eyes wyrm’s head. “Haha, how about it? Jealous? I can talk now! Haha, you were bragging that you beat me to the peak late-stage class six level, but look at me now! Haha…”
Bai Yunfei couldn’t help but sweat drop at the bragging going on. As if to console the blue-eyes wyrm, he spoke, “Haha, don’t worry. You’ll breakthrough soon enough, Xiao Lan. Wait until you become a class seven and you’ll be able to talk. Maybe you’ll be able to humanize?”
Its eyes lit up expectantly at that. Nodding, it gave Xiao Qi a quick glance before growling several times. With a flick of its tail, it stalked back to its corner and proceeded to train by itself.
The wyrm must’ve jabbed at a sore point of Xiao Qi, as the bird immediately retorted, “Hmph! Wait until you actually breakthrough before you start talking like that! Maybe you won’t be able to humanize like me!? Let’s see if you’ll eat your words you annoyance…”
Xiao Qi flew up after that, but not before speaking to Bai Yunfei, “You should rest now, I’ll stop bothering you.”
Bai Yunfei smiled at the small banter taking place between the human tongue speaking Xiao Qi and the soulbeast tongue speaking Xiao Lan. Shaking his head, Bai Yunfei sat back to try and do a more in depth study of his current state.
A great battle came with great wounds. Bai Yunfei was very curious to see the full extent of his body and its present state…