Bai Yunfei sat crossed-legged against the walls of the cave. His arms were crossed together to sit against his chest, and his eyes were shut tight as if thinking about something.

“Chirp….chirp…chirp chirp….”

A small multi-colored bird hopped around to and fro, chirping rhythmically as if singing a song.

This was the very same little prismatic birdling that was hatched just a while ago.

Despite being hatched for less than even a day, it was roughly at the same developmental stage as any other bird a month after birth. Its feathers were out in full force and vibrant in color, and it was already showing a great deal of curiosity in the world it was in already. Hopping this way and that, the bird would chirp and peck at the small holes adorning the cave as if to make play.

But it never went beyond three meters away from Bai Yunfei.

“Ugh….I still don’t get it!”

Exasperation escaped from Bai Yunfei’s lips. Even after thinking for so long, he was unable to grasp the reasons behind the hatching of the prismatic oriole.

“Was it because I upgraded it to +14? Or was it because I used the upgrade stone? Or is it because of the nature of the equipment?”

Any possible factor that could’ve resulted in this strange scenario was taken into consideration, but not a single answer could be had.

Countless equipment had been upgraded by Bai Yunfei ever since he first obtained the technique years ago. But even with all of the experience he’d acc.u.mulated up to now, it was only limited to lower tier equipment that were +13 at most, and even then, he was still lacking in experience when it came to using the upgrade stone.

So in other words, he was completely in the dark right now.

If he had to make a wager though, he’d say that it’d have to do with the very nature of the item itself.

It was unordinary one, so it stood to reason upgrading an unordinary item would lead to extraordinary results.

And the fact that there was a very healthy prisma oriole jumping about in front of him served as evidence to that line of thought.

“The…..the egg was definitely dead, but a soulbeast hatched out from it! How does something like that even happen?” Pondered Bai Yunfei, “Did it come back to life somehow?!”

Strange was the inference he came to, but the more he thought about it, the more everything made sense….

An egg that had lost its chance to give life, yet able to be upgraded like any other equipment. And what followed after that was a ‘resurrection’ of life within the egg. It was possibly due to being caused by the upgrade stone, or because it was +14, or even another factor unknown to Bai Yunfei.

Whatever the case, the egg was no longer a piece of equipment, or even an egg anymore.

The absorption of his soulforce and elemental fire may as well have been the factors that led to the soulbeast egg coming coming back to life and hatching a soulbeast into the world.

“In the end….did the upgrade really succeed?” Bai Yunfei gloomed, “If it did….where is my +14 equipment then?!”

No matter how dissatisfied he felt about the egg, losing the egg just like that was even more hurtful to him.

“It was +14!! A +14 piece of equipment! I never even got to see the +14 effect….”

Sobbing at the loss of such a chance, Bai Yunfei continued to cry to himself in despair, “My +14 equipment….my +14 equipment, my +14 soulbeast egg, my egg, my….”

“Chirp chirp!!”

At some point when he was musing to himself, a chirp snapped him out from his thoughts. When he looked up, he saw the little prisma oriole tilting its head to look at him from its perch on his leg.

“Hold on…!!”

A thought suddenly struck Bai Yunfei, “Just hold on! You just came out from that egg didn’t you? And didn’t you absorb all of my soulforce in order to hatch yourself? Doesn’t that mean you should be super powerful?!”

The possibility of it being strong sparked renewed interest in Bai Yunfei. Taking the bird onto his hand, he stared expectantly at it.

“Chirp chirp?”

Strangely, the bird didn’t seem be at all frightened. Standing on top of his palm, it continued to stare quizzically at Bai Yunfei, as if excited by his attention onto it.

Thinking about the bird, he lifted a finger to touch at the bird’s head and began to inspect the soulforce in its body.

A moment later, the excitement on Bai Yunfei’s face waned in disappointment. “Mid-stage cla.s.s one, and nothing special about it either. I can’t sense any hidden power, or any ‘inherited’ additional effects…”

He tried again with the Upgrade Technique, but there was no reaction–though that was to be expected.

It was a living bird now, how could it have any ‘stats’?

“Hey, little bird, are you really just an ordinary prisma oriole?” Bai Yunfei spoke, “Your hatching was really cool, so you should have something special about you, right?”

The bird tilted its head again quizzically. Chirping in response to the ‘question’, it flew up to his forehead and began to peck softly at it….

“Tch, be serious!” Bai Yunfei spoke, “You destroyed the only +14 equipment I had and plummeted my strength back down to such a dismal level! If you’re only an ordinary prisma oriole that can’t even break through the cla.s.s six level, shouldn’t you feel a little embarra.s.sed?

“Come on then! Let me see what hidden strength you have!”

Seemingly vexed by not having his expectations met, Bai Yunfei tossed the bird away towards the nearby cave wall!

“Show me your true power!”

“Pow!”

Sailing through the cave, the bird hadn’t even the time to spread its wings before slamming into the opposing wall. It stuck to the walls for two seconds before sliding down, leaving behind a bird-shaped hole from the impact….

“Uh….”

With a sweatdrop on his face, Bai Yunfei watched as the bird struggle back to its feet. It shook its wings free of dirt and then gave him a look of anger….

“Well…er….sorry about that, I didn’t mean to do that….”

He felt a little foolish saying that, but he bowed his head to apologize to the bird.

Somehow, the bird didn’t seem to mind too much. Right after Bai Yunfei apologized, the resentment in the bird’s eyes vanished straight away.

And after that, it began to chirp and hop happily back to Bai Yunfei’s side.

“Well now….”

It’s magnanimous att.i.tude towards himself was surprising to say the least, but it sparked the beginnings of a bond between and the bird.

As it hopped to him, Bai Yunfei extended a hand down, and without another word, he allowed for the bird to leap onto his arm, only to be surprised when it leapt onto his shoulder.

“You want to come with me, little one?” He smiled.

“Chirrppp~”

Even more surprising was how the bird replied to him. If Bai Yunfei didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought that it was replying affirmatively to him with its swings spread out wide.

“Hm….since you can’t be my contracted soulbeast partner, I’ll let you follow me for the time being.”

Despite being only a normal prisma oriole, Bai Yunfei didn’t feel too unhappy about a soulbeast following him. Having a little pet like this wasn’t all too bad, and if it wanted to leave after it matured, then so be it.

“Let’s give you a name then!” Bai Yunfei smiled.

“A prisma oriole has seven colors….so let’s call you Xiao Qi!”

TL Note: Xiao meaning ‘little’ and Qi meaning ‘seven’.