Account

Chapter 37: Account

The bus stopped at the station. Zheng Fa stepped through the doors and followed the map on his phone toward the zoo.

He had looked it up online and discovered that the prefecture-level city he was in actually did have a zoo—though the ratings on the map app were not particularly high.

Tang Lingwu had said it without thinking, but he had taken it to heart.

Earlier, Seventh Young Master had told him that if he wanted to master the Spirit Crane Body, its secret lay in the first volume.

But the two of them had turned that first volume inside out and upside down, yet found no hidden code or cryptic message.

Seventh Young Master felt that since this copy of the Spirit Crane Body was, after all, only a transcription, perhaps some crucial part had been omitted.

But... what if the secret lay within this autobiography?

Of the four volumes of the Spirit Crane Body, only the first had the most content. If one ruled out the possibility that the author was an extremely narcissistic person... well, that was hard to rule out.

If the author had some other purpose besides narcissistically boasting,

then the likeliest part was his account of crossing a thousand mountains and observing a thousand birds while creating the technique. This was the content most closely connected to the martial art known as the Spirit Crane Body.

In the Xuanwei Realm, Old Man Bai had actually been right. The author was definitely a man of immense perseverance, perhaps even a man with something seriously wrong with him.

The Xuanwei Realm was unlike the modern world. Mountains were often the territory of all kinds of powerful demon beasts. Climbing them was usually a nine-deaths-and-one-life endeavor; calling it an extreme sport would not be an exaggeration.

And as for observing a thousand birds...

You wanted to watch birds—but were the birds willing?

How did you know whether they had cultivation? Even if it was merely an ordinary bird, how did you know it did not have demon beast parents?

And considering that the Spirit Crane Body prattled on about entering the Dao through martial arts, it was still only a mundane martial art. Why were you risking your life for it?

So even if someone had the same idea as Zheng Fa, actually testing it would be almost impossible.

But if the Xuanwei Realm could not do it, the modern world made it far too easy!

Zheng Fa arrived at the zoo entrance. It was called a zoo, but in reality, it was just a large park enclosed by fences.

A table with peeling red paint stood at the main gate. Behind it sat a woman in her forties wearing a red armband.

A sheet of paper was pasted to the wall behind her. It read: Admission fifteen.

"Twenty."

Zheng Fa obediently took out the money.

He had come during the noon break between classes, so time was tight. Otherwise, he definitely would have saved those five yuan.

The inside of this zoo was just like the table outside its entrance—it had clearly seen many years.

At noon, there were not many people in the park... and not many animals, either.

The moment he entered, he saw a sign as tall as a person, bearing the words Treasure of the Zoo along with a bright arrow.

Unable to restrain his curiosity, Zheng Fa walked a few steps farther in.

Sure enough, outside a building, he saw a placard that read: Panda.

They even had this?

Excited, Zheng Fa craned his neck to peer into the building. Sure enough, two black-and-white balls of fluff were happily running about and rolling on the ground... barking.

When he looked back, he noticed that beside the large characters for panda on the placard was a tiny character for dog.

Zoo keeper, you're such a dog. Why don't you paint yourself black and white and squat in there instead?!

Deeply wounded, Zheng Fa headed straight for the park's so-called Bird Paradise.

Though he had already lowered his expectations, when he saw a flock of pigeons pecking at food on the ground, then looked at the huge black net overhead,

he still fell into a long silence.

The moment he stepped out of the zoo, he took out his phone and viciously left it a bad review.

After returning to school, Zheng Fa lay sprawled over his desk, feeling a little dejected.

The zoo experience was one thing. More importantly, that net had made him realize a problem—birds could fly.

So whether it was zoos or flower-and-bird markets, they were desperate to raise flying birds like land animals.

Even the birds in the most high-end zoos had probably lost their natural instincts.

Trying to comprehend the Spirit Crane Body through those birds probably would not work.

Inside his desk, his phone vibrated twice.

Zheng Fa quietly took out his phone. An avatar of a little kitten was flashing.

"Who's that?" A large face poked in beside Zheng Fa's head. Wang Chen leaned curiously and gossipingly over Zheng Fa's shoulder, staring at the kitten avatar. "Looks like a girl!"

"Tang Lingwu."

Zheng Fa answered and tapped the avatar.

Tang Lingwu had sent two messages.

The first was a link.

The second was a rather long message: "I saw you said you were going to the zoo? Are you going to look at birds? The zoo in our city is no good, so I found you a few documentaries."

He opened the link. It was a cloud drive folder, with several subfolders inside.

Only after tapping save did he sense that something was off: Wang Chen beside him was staring straight at his face.

His eyes were full of confusion.

"What's wrong?"

"You have Tang Lingwu as a friend?"

"What's the problem?"

"The problem is huge. You got scammed!" Wang Chen said with certainty. "She doesn't even have an account!"

Zheng Fa froze for a moment. "She added me in person."

Wang Chen could no longer hold it in. "You didn't look at the class group chat?"

"I muted it."

Their class had a group chat with no teachers, only students.

But a few people in it were particularly active, chatting nonstop every day. Zheng Fa found it too noisy and muted it outright.

Wang Chen pulled out his own phone, nearly pressing it against Zheng Fa's face.

He opened the class group chat.

This group was strangely, strangely quiet.

The last messages had been sent two months ago.

"Tang Lingwu, I added you. Why haven't you accepted?"

It was one of the boys in their class, someone usually especially active in the group.

"She doesn't have an account," someone named Tang Lingwu replied.

"? Then who are you?"

"I'm her mother."

After that, everyone in the group had seemingly died. To this day, no one had spoken again.

"We already have a new group. I'll add you." Wang Chen could tell from Zheng Fa's expression that he had no idea about this. Lowering his voice, he said, "No idea which idiot invited Tang Lingwu's mom in. That group is finished!"

At last, Zheng Fa understood why Wang Chen said Tang Lingwu had no account. He scrolled back through his chat history with Tang Lingwu. There were only a few messages between them. The very first thing Tang Lingwu had sent him was:

"Medium cup, fifty percent sugar, pearls, no ice."

Below it was another line:

"Make it a large!"

And then there was a red packet.

"You two even drank milk tea together?" Wang Chen clicked his tongue in amazement as he looked through the chat log. He had not seen the two earlier messages and was still asking, "What did Tang Lingwu just want with you?"

"She gave me—"

"The teacher's here!" From the back of the classroom, a righteous soul who wished to remain anonymous spoke in a low voice.

Old Chen appeared at the back door with a stern face. His eyes swept over the classroom before locking firmly onto Wang Chen.

"Wang Chen! What are you doing with your phone?"

Wang Chen stared blankly at the phone in his hand, then turned to look at Zheng Fa.

Zheng Fa held a textbook in his hands, his brow tightly furrowed, so immersed in the ocean of knowledge that he could not pull himself free.

"Look at Zheng Fa! He's studying even during the break. Why don't you learn from him?"

Wang Chen: "..."

Zheng Fa: Those of us who practice martial arts pay attention to seeing in all directions and hearing in all directions—sharp eyes, quick hands, and emergency hazard avoidance.

The videos Tang Lingwu had found were comprehensive—so comprehensive that they were almost excessive.

Domestic and foreign ones, Chinese and English ones.

More than a dozen bird documentaries lay in the cloud drive, leaving Zheng Fa with the happiness of not knowing which to choose.

But...

"Vanished Lords of the Sky—Pterosaurs. Do these things count as birds?"

Zheng Fa frowned, feeling that Tang Lingwu had probably found the wrong ones.

(End of Chapter)