The Demon Bird

Lu Yang's knowledge of the cultivation world was far from complete. Before joining Ask Dao Sect, everything he knew came from a storyteller. In the year since he'd joined, his knowledge of cultivation had grown at an astonishing rate, but none of the books he'd read had explained how to get off an airship.

What kind of book would explain that?

When it came to everyday life in the cultivation world, he still couldn't compare to someone like Tao Yaoye, who'd grown up in a cultivator household.

As for airships, all he knew was that they belonged to the Falling Gold Merchant Guild. Getting off meant jumping, though he had no idea how one was supposed to jump.

The airships brought in enormous sums of money every year, but to the Falling Gold Merchant Guild, they were only a tiny sideline.

The Falling Gold Merchant Guild was the largest merchant guild on the Central Continent, backed by mysterious forces and in possession of countless rare treasures. As long as you had enough spirit stones, you could buy even treasures that existed only in legend and that no one had ever seen, like Buddhist relics, sacred bones from the Demon Realm, and immortal fruit.

Anyone who dared to default on a debt to the Falling Gold Merchant Guild—or entertained the notion of stealing from it—would find warning enough in the several mighty cultivators who had vanished without a trace.

Legend had it that one mighty cultivator, known as the Thief King, mastered the Dao of Space. Stealing another person's storage space was as easy for him as reaching into a pocket. Distance was nothing but a meaningless string of numbers; with a single step, he could cross millions of mountains and rivers, traveling from the far west of the Central Continent to the Land of Eternal Winter.

He had even stolen from mighty cultivators at the Tribulation Transcendence stage.

There was one unspoken rule among thieves: never steal from the Falling Gold Merchant Guild.

The Thief King had originally followed the thieves' ancestral code, avoiding any dealings with the Falling Gold Merchant Guild. But as his fame grew, countless renowned masters joined forces to hunt him down, yet couldn't find so much as a corner of his clothing. Gradually, he began to think those mighty cultivators were nothing special. He'd already surpassed the ancestor of thieves—why should he keep following that rigid old code?

He arrogantly declared that he would steal the Falling Gold Merchant Guild's treasure that very night.

Everyone assumed that either the Thief King would use his mysterious mastery of the Dao of Space to steal the treasure without a sound, or a great battle would break out inside the guild, with the Thief King facing off against the mighty cultivators behind it.

No one expected that nothing at all would happen that night. From then on, the Thief King never appeared again. He vanished without a trace.

Lu Yang's embarrassment lasted only a moment. When it was time to jump, the strangers didn't have time to keep watching him.

Everyone opened their paper umbrellas and leaped down, one after another.

Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye moved too.

High above, the strangers' open umbrellas looked like sesame seeds from a distance. Lu Yang was different: he pulled the cord behind him, and his parachute burst open with a bang, standing out against the sky.

Normally, at such a height, Lu Yang would have been nervous.

But right now, he couldn't spare a thought for that.

This was too embarrassing.

Fortunately, everyone was headed to different destinations. Only Lu Yang and Tao Yaoye were going to Taiping Township.

As soon as they arrived, the township head greeted them warmly, as if he'd known they were coming.

"Immortals, you've finally arrived. The way you jumped down from that airship was truly extraordinary."

Lu Yang opened his mouth, but in the end, he didn't ask how the township head knew when they would arrive.

"My name is Lu Yang, and this is Tao Yaoye. We're both disciples of Ask Dao Sect. The mission description of the demon bird wasn't very detailed, so please tell us more about it, Township Head."

The township head had originally prepared a welcoming feast. He'd planned to have a couple of rounds of drinks, give them some local specialties once they were tipsy, and then explain the matter of the demon bird. This was how things usually went when someone came from above to handle a task.

He hadn't expected the two of them to be so decisive. Delighted, he praised them inwardly. As expected of disciples from an immortal sect.

Tao Yaoye sized up the township head. He was in the late stage of Qi Refining. He hadn't laid a good foundation in his early years, and his spiritual power contained plenty of impurities. He had no hope of reaching Foundation Establishment and was an ordinary cultivator without anything remarkable about him.

At the mention of the demon bird, the township head's face clouded over. Taiping Township had few visitors to begin with and was rather isolated. Now that word of the demon bird had spread through the surrounding area, even traveling merchants were unwilling to come near.

He'd reported the matter to Qu River Commandery, but they were short-handed. Since the demon bird wasn't hurting anyone, they'd told him to wait until they had the time to send someone to Taiping Township.

That wait had already lasted twenty days.

"It happened about twenty days ago. Tailor Feng came running into the street, shouting that a man-eating monster had come to his house. He said it was terribly powerful."

"The neighbors were frightened when they heard. A monster that ate people was no small matter. There are only around thirty cultivators in Taiping Township, and I'm the strongest among them. I'm also the township head, so Tailor Feng brought the neighbors to see me."

"Before you exterminate a monster, you have to learn the facts. So I asked Tailor Feng, 'You say the monster eats people. Who did it eat?'"

There was a big difference in how dangerous a monster was depending on whether it had eaten a person. Humans were the spirits of all things, born with awakened minds. Once a monster had tasted human flesh, it would crave that taste and eat a second person, then a third... bringing calamity to the whole region.

"Tailor Feng said, 'I don't know who the monster ate, but it can talk. It must have eaten people—that's why it can speak.'"

There was indeed a folk belief that monsters could speak and take human form by eating people, but it was nothing more than a rumor that had grown in the telling.

Cultivation wasn't that simple for the Demon Race. To speak human language, they had to refine the transverse bone in their throats. They had to be at least in the late stage of Qi Refining.

"Tailor Feng said the monster was all bright colors. At first, he thought it was just a bird that had gotten lost in the mountains. The demon bird sat behind him watching him sew, without moving at all. Then it suddenly spoke, and Tailor Feng was so frightened he ran straight out of the shop."

"Since Tailor Feng couldn't give me any useful information, I told the others to wait at a distance while I sneaked closer on my own. That's when I saw the demon bird."

"The demon bird had bright, lustrous feathers and vivid red markings around its eyes. You could tell at a glance that it wasn't an ordinary bird. What ordinary bird would dare flaunt itself so ostentatiously?"

"The demon bird spoke and asked me, 'Who are you? Where is Zhang Guanjia?' Its tone was rather urgent."

"I was puzzled. Zhang Guanjia was a cultivator from our township, at the third level of Qi Refining. His cultivation was mediocre. How could he have any connection to a demon beast?"

"At the time, I tried to relax and look as harmless as possible. I politely asked, 'May I ask what business the Demon King has with Zhang Guanjia?'"

"The demon bird didn't answer. It flapped its wings and flew out of the tailor shop."

"After that, the demon bird flew around Taiping Township, eating grain from the fields and speaking in human language. It didn't eat anyone, but who wouldn't be afraid after seeing a monster? So everyone has been living in fear these past few days, terrified that the demon bird might suddenly turn savage and gobble us all up in one bite."

"Have you fought the demon bird? How strong is it?" Lu Yang asked.

The township head shook his head. "That demon bird spends all day in the air, appearing and disappearing without a trace. It's hard to find."

"Besides, I can't tell what level it's at. That means it's at least at the same seventh level of Qi Refining as me. I'm worried it has no intention of hurting anyone, and that if I rashly attack it, I'll only make things worse and provoke it."

Lu Yang nodded. The township head's actions made sense.