The Blue Crow
'This is...' Jekyeong felt it instinctively. He didn't know why, but he craved this blood. He knew on a primal level that he needed it. It was like a dying man in a desert searching for water, but far more desperate.
Jekyeong licked up all the blood-soaked soil around him as if possessed. He swallowed a fair amount of dirt in the process, but he didn't care. After diligently "cleaning" the area for a while, his senses finally returned, as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head.
'Oh, no.' Flustered and confused by his own actions, he suddenly heard an unfamiliar sound from above.
"Snake. Big snake. What are you thinking about?"
It was a soft, chirping birdcall. Normally, it would have passed by as mere background noise, but for some reason, Jekyeong understood it perfectly.
"What?!" Startled, he whipped his head up. A bird was hovering silently above him, its wings beating the air.
Compared to the two monstrous birds he had seen earlier, this one was as small as a hatchling, but it was still quite large compared to ordinary birds. It resembled a crow, though its beak was slightly smaller, and its feathers carried a bluish tint. It also seemed to emit a faint, gentle glow.
Jekyeong narrowed his eyes at the extraordinary bird. "Did you just speak?"
"Yep! I spoke!"
Though a serpent and a bird made entirely different sounds, they were communicating. Jekyeong realized instantly that this was due to the bird. No matter what kind of sound he made, the bird could comprehend it, and at the same time, the bird could make its own sounds understandable to him.
"Who are you?"
"Me? Cheongo! That's my name. Do you even know what a name is?"
"I know."
"Huh? You do?" Cheongo tilted its head, looking surprised that a mere beast would know such a grand secret.
"How are you doing this?" Jekyeong asked.
"Doing what?"
"How are we able to converse like this?"
"We? No, no. I am the one talking to you. I'm special, you see. Only I can converse with foolish beasts like you." The bird puffed out its chest, clearly eager to boast about its uniqueness.
Yet, Jekyeong didn't find the attitude annoying. This bird was the very first creature in this world he could actually communicate with. And while its tone was a bit grating, he had to admit that this bird was far from ordinary.
"Why are you the only special one?"
"Because I'm a special bird! The Seonin ignited me. He even gave me a name. Cheongo! That's my name, and it belongs only to me. Do you have a name?"
'Ignition? Seonin?' He understood the words, but he didn't know their true meaning. Calming his turbulent thoughts, Jekyeong pressed for more. Fortunately, this boastful little bird seemed to love the sound of its own voice. With a bit of gentle coaxing, it began to pour out information as if it had been waiting for this exact moment.
"What is Ignition? It's a good thing! A very, very good thing! Before, I was just a dumb bird who only knew how to eat and sleep. But after the Seonin ignited me, I became smart! Now I can speak, and I can understand. I even got a hobby: preening my feathers. See? Not a single feather is out of place on my wings. Absolutely perfect!"
Cheongo spun in place, spreading its wings wide. The faint blue light tracing a soft circle in the air was both mystical and beautiful.
"You mentioned a Seonin... What is a Seonin?"
"A Seonin? A Seonin is a Seonin! They can do anything. I want to become a Seonin too!"
Cheongo babbled on, claiming that a Seonin could kill a terrifying beast with a single glance and flatten the earth with a wave of a hand. Though the explanation was a bit disorganized, it was clear that a Seonin was an incredibly powerful being. Judging by the sheer awe in its voice, Cheongo deeply revered this figure.
'A Seonin...' Hearing Cheongo's description, the first thing that came to Jekyeong's mind was an immortal. Not the kind of mountain spirit from folk tales who emerges from a pond holding three axes, but the immortals depicted in the Xianxia genre.
Among the web novels Jekyeong had enjoyed in his past life, there were many belonging to the Xianxia genre. In those stories, humans practiced cultivation to become immortal beings—immortal cultivators. The Seonin Cheongo spoke of sounded remarkably similar to the cultivators described in those novels.
'Come to think of it, those two people from earlier fit the bill.' He had been so gripped by primal terror that he had hidden immediately, leaving no time for a closer look. But recalling his hazy memories of that brief moment, the abilities they displayed seemed to align with the supernatural feats of cultivators in Xianxia novels.
Of course, he couldn't be entirely certain. The world-building and descriptions in the Xianxia novels he had read varied wildly from author to author.
'Don't tell me I've been dropped into some Xianxia novel?' Transmigrating into a novel or comic was one of the most common clichés in web fiction. Even among the stories Jekyeong had read in his past life, there were countless "reincarnated into a story" tropes—reincarnating as a slave trader in a game, or a chaebol heir in a trashy soap opera. Could he have become one of those protagonists? He wanted to believe it wasn't true, but the possibility was hard to ignore.
'Whatever the case... meeting this fellow is a stroke of luck.' Even while Jekyeong was lost in thought, Cheongo continued its grand lecture on the greatness of the Seonin, speaking with such pride as if it shared in that glory itself. Jekyeong listened quietly without interrupting. The more the bird talked, the better its mood seemed to get. He had no intention of upsetting his only—and highly valuable—source of information.
"I see. That Seonin truly sounds incredible."
"Of course! Absolutely! The Seonin is the greatest being in the whole wide world!"
Was the Seonin this little bird's master? Jekyeong pondered for a moment before casually probing further. "It sounds like the Seonin treated you very well."
"Yes! He was so good to me. He gave me lots of delicious treats..." The energetic Cheongo suddenly drooped. "But he's not here anymore."
"Hmm?"
"The Seonin. He's gone."
"Gone?"
"Yes. He died."
Cheongo's eyes filled with sadness, and it seemed reluctant to speak further. Sensing the shift, Jekyeong tactfully changed the subject. "That is a pity."
"What's a pity?"
"I would have loved to meet him. If he had ignited me, perhaps I could have become as smart as you."
"Ah!" Cheongo nodded sagely. "That is a pity. It's because you lack fortune. The Seonin told me that I was blessed with great fortune."
After puffing itself up, Cheongo glanced at Jekyeong, rolled its eyes slightly, and added, "Well, but you're pretty smart too. Not as smart as me, of course! But most of the others can't even understand me when I talk to them."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, almost all of them. Unless spiritual nature sprouts within them, beasts are just dumb. Those who have awakened Spiritual Intelligence are incredibly rare. I've barely seen any."
'Spiritual Intelligence.' Another unfamiliar term. When Jekyeong inquired, Cheongo excitedly began to share its knowledge once more. According to its explanation, the awakening of Spiritual Intelligence meant that a naturally mindless creature gained intellect through some external catalyst. It was like planting a seed in barren soil and watching it sprout. The Ignition Cheongo boasted about was one such method, and a beast seizing its own destiny to become a Yo-beast was another.
'A Yo-beast.' The likelihood that this was a Xianxia world, or something very close to it, was growing by the second. Jekyeong wanted to extract more information from Cheongo, but he made sure not to let his intentions show. Even without any prompting, Cheongo naturally spilled useful details. All Jekyeong had to do was nod along occasionally or offer a brief reaction, and the bird would chatter away happily. It was a chatterbox of the highest order.
But as he listened, Jekyeong began to understand the chatterbox's plight. Though Cheongo had awakened its Spiritual Intelligence and could theoretically converse with both beasts and humans, creatures capable of actually understanding its words were exceedingly rare. No matter how eloquent one was, there was no point if the audience was deaf to it. Cheongo poured out its long-held frustration, and through this, Jekyeong learned that there were no other beasts with awakened Spiritual Intelligence in this area. He also discovered that Cheongo had seen humans other than the Seonin.
"Humans... I've seen them across the river. Bad guys! They tried to catch me!"
"They tried to catch you?"
Cheongo nodded rapidly like a woodpecker. "Humans are always like that. They capture beasts even when they aren't going to eat them. Or maybe they do want to eat them?"
Hearing a beast curse humans felt a bit strange to Jekyeong, who had been human in his past life, but that was all. He had already drawn a clear line between his past life and his present one, fully accepting his current reality. To him now, humans were no longer kindred spirits evoking nostalgia, but dangerous threats that could harm him at any moment.
"I saw them across the river. But last time, a whole bunch of them crossed over, so I got scared and ran away."
"Which way is that river?"
"Over there." Cheongo pointed its beak in a certain direction. Jekyeong made a mental note of it, swearing to himself that he would never sleep with his head facing that way.
"Well, I should get going now." After chattering to itself for a long time, Cheongo bid him farewell. Jekyeong had already been growing anxious about staying in one spot for too long, so he carefully hid his relief. This little bird possessed emotions as rich as any human's, and Jekyeong didn't want to offend a creature whose reactions he couldn't control.
Once Cheongo flew away, Jekyeong slithered a short distance before climbing up a tree. Keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings as he moved, he noticed that from a certain point onward, the trees grew larger and their bark took on a deeper, darker hue. He couldn't be sure if this change meant the branches were sturdier, but he decided to climb up and test it. After all, direct experience was his only teacher.
'Hmm...' Resting his weight on a thick branch, Jekyeong felt that this potential bed was sturdier than any he had used before. However, judging by how much it swayed, it wasn't quite stable enough for him to sleep soundly. He silently climbed down and continued in his original direction. As the darkness began to visibly thin, Jekyeong scaled the largest tree in sight. Fortunately, its branches were robust enough to support his weight. It felt sturdy enough to serve as a roost for several days.
'Something is different.' Once settled, Jekyeong realized with surprise that his body felt unusual. He didn't have a watch, but normally by this hour—even after an easy hunt—his body would grow heavy with fatigue. Now, however, energy surged through him as if he had just woken from a deep sleep. He began to trace back how today had differed from his usual routine. The first thing that came to mind was the mystical bird, Cheongo, but it was highly unlikely that a brief chat with it could affect his physical state. That left only one other anomaly...
'That blood.' Jekyeong recalled the two monstrous birds locked in their fierce battle, and the blood they had spilled. He remembered how he had licked it up as if possessed after they departed. 'Maybe I should have asked about that, too.'