Golden Peng

Li Xuan couldn't help but show a hint of delight.

After all, Mount Taixuan had grown increasingly quiet.

The first batch of living beings had all left, if they were going to leave at all.

Those who stayed had extremely poor aptitude.

They couldn't take human form.

After all these years, they had long since died of old age.

And the spiritual energy here was thin and scarce.

So the new creatures born within a radius of several thousand li were even more pitiful.

They were nothing more than ordinary animals.

So Li Xuan felt both anticipation and joy in his heart for this little creature that was about to be born.

The eggshell trembled, and the cracking sounds went on without end.

Before long, the egg suddenly split open at the top.

A golden beak quickly poked out, chirping incessantly.

But there were no strange signs in heaven and earth.

Much less a Shaping Tribulation.

The golden beak kept pecking.

Soon, a fluffy, pale-yellow bird's head emerged completely.

Li Xuan blinked, looking rather surprised.

Was this the Golden-Winged Great Peng?

Why did it look like... a giant chick?

Although they had come from the same egg.

The aptitude of the Golden-Winged Great Peng and the peacock was worlds apart.

Of course, the Golden-Winged Great Peng was no slouch.

But compared with the grand spectacle of its big brother descending into a Shaping Tribulation the moment he was born, it fell far short.

Li Xuan sighed and thought to himself.

A chick about the size of a goose, covered in pale golden down, born right out of the egg...

No, a Golden-Winged Great Peng!

It struggled with all its might and finally squeezed completely out of the eggshell.

Chirp, chirp... chirp, chirp, chirp.

Well, even its calls sounded like a chick's...

The little chick... ahem, the Golden-Winged Great Peng!

After chirping happily a few times,

it turned and began pecking at its own eggshell.

As it swallowed the shell,

its body began to grow, bit by bit.

More and more down sprouted across its body.

Gleaming with golden light, it finally began to look a little like a Golden Peng.

A moment later, it had eaten all the eggshell.

The Golden-Winged Great Peng had grown to the size of a pony, though it was still very young.

With no eggshell left to eat, the Golden Peng chirped.

It turned to look at Li Xuan, then hurried over to the lotus platform.

It circled the platform, chirping as it went.

Its mind had awakened, but it couldn't speak.

Still, Li Xuan could understand what it was saying.

Perhaps, after being together for so many years, they had developed a bond of the heart.

The Golden Peng was calling, "Father, Father! I'm so hungry!"

Li Xuan beckoned, and the Golden Peng flew up onto the lotus platform.

At once, it happily flung itself into Li Xuan's arms, chirping nonstop.

For nearly two hundred thousand years,

the most familiar scent and aura the Golden Peng had sensed inside its egg

had belonged to the living being before it.

That aura made it feel safe, warm, and happy.

Li Xuan reached out and rubbed the Golden Peng's head, sighing inwardly.

The Golden Peng's intelligence was probably about that of a three-year-old child.

It still needed to cultivate diligently and grow up slowly.

Then Li Xuan flicked a finger.

Several pills and a drop of Divine Phoenix Essence Blood flew out.

He had given Divine Phoenix Essence Blood to his eldest, Kong Xuan.

Naturally, he couldn't show favoritism to his second son, the Golden Peng.

As soon as the Golden Peng saw the pills, it chirped excitedly.

It stretched out its head and pecked them all up.

But when it looked at the drop of Divine Phoenix Essence Blood, its eyes filled with confusion.

It could sense a familiar aura from the essence blood.

Yet that familiar aura also seemed extremely strange.

Tilting its head, the Golden Peng thought for a moment.

Then it pecked sharply and swallowed the Divine Phoenix Essence Blood.

Once the pills and essence blood entered its belly, its newborn hunger vanished.

A deep sense of contentment and warmth immediately spread through its body.

The Golden Peng chirped twice and looked at Li Xuan.

Then it closed its golden eyes in contentment.

It sank into a deep sleep.

Li Xuan looked at the Golden Peng sleeping in his arms and shook his head helplessly.

He turned and placed it on the Thirty-Six Grade Creation Green Lotus Platform, beside himself.

Then he formed a hand seal and closed his eyes.

Li Xuan continued cultivating.

Time flowed on, bit by bit.

In the blink of an eye, another twenty thousand years passed.

Li Xuan hadn't been lonely during those twenty thousand years. In fact, he had been a little annoyed...

The Golden Peng was far more rambunctious than the peacock!

The main difference was that Kong Xuan's mind had fully awakened at birth.

He had already been as intelligent as an eight- or nine-year-old child.

But the Golden Peng... was only three or four.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

A chubby, half-grown child,

with his hair tied into a topknot and a ragged grass skirt around him,

was laughing loudly as he raced up from the foot of the mountain.

He was gripping the tail of a giant python hundreds of zhang long and several zhang thick with both hands.

When he reached the foot of Mount Taixuan, he called out for praise, "Father! Father! Look what I caught! Let's eat it!"

Though the giant python was tens of thousands of times larger than the child,

the terrifying aura of its natural predator emanating from him left it trembling and weak.

Apart from pitiful hisses, it didn't even dare struggle.

It let the child drag it around as if it were taking a dog for a walk.

Ever since the Golden Peng took human form seventeen thousand years ago,

the living beings within hundreds of thousands of li of Mount Taixuan

had suffered one calamity after another over the past ten thousand years!

Countless creatures had been devoured or killed by the Golden Peng!

This python had simply been out of luck. The Golden Peng had caught it.

As the Golden Peng grew, he had finally learned to show filial devotion to his father.

He wanted to share a meal with him, so he had dragged the python all the way back.

Li Xuan looked at the Golden Peng below the mountain and sighed helplessly.

He said gently, "Sigh, it hasn't had an easy time either. It cultivated for several thousand years to reach its current level, and it's not far from becoming a Profound Immortal and taking human form. Don't torment it."

The giant python nodded repeatedly, tears filling its eyes.

It looked at the little demon, and all it could do was plead.

It had been cultivating peacefully in its cave.

Who could have known that a Golden Peng would suddenly drag it out by force?

What had it ever done to deserve this!?

It was trembling all over...

It had taken thousands of years to cultivate. It didn't want to be their dinner...

The child pouted and shouted, "But I want meat! Father! I want meat!"

Li Xuan felt helpless...

This was another way the Golden Peng differed from the peacock.

The peacock was proud. As long as you submitted to it, it wouldn't do much to you.

But the Golden Peng loved to eat.

Even for the sake of satisfying its appetite,

it would kill weaker creatures and devour them.

That difference was in its very nature and couldn't be changed by anything.

So Li Xuan couldn't do much about it.

He could only teach it that even if it wanted meat,

it must never kill indiscriminately, and it must never torture its prey.

The law of the jungle meant the strong survived. The Golden Peng needed to eat meat.

Naturally, he couldn't forcefully stop it, or he'd be far too softhearted.

But this giant python was on the verge of becoming a Profound Immortal and taking human form.

It would be a real shame if it died in the Golden Peng's jaws today.

So Li Xuan said gently, "Let it go. I have something even better for you to eat."

"Really!?"

The child was overjoyed.

He raised both hands, swung the python around in a wide circle a few times, and hurled it over a hundred li away.

Then he grinned and ran over to the lotus platform.

He circled around it and called excitedly, "Father, what tasty thing?"

Li Xuan beckoned, and a large drop of essence blood filled with a violent aura flew out.

It was Qiongqi Blood Essence.

The moment the child saw the Qiongqi Blood Essence, his eyes lit up, his golden pupils full of delight.

"Father! What is this good stuff? Hurry, give it to me! Give it to me! Please, Father!"

The child kept jumping up and down, unable to climb onto the lotus platform.

He could only keep reaching out and calling to Li Xuan, brimming with excitement.

Li Xuan said, "You can have it, but you must remember: don't kill indiscriminately for meat. Understand?"

"Got it, got it!"

The child kept jumping up and down. Who knew whether he had really taken it to heart?

Li Xuan nodded and tossed the Qiongqi Blood Essence in his hand over.

The child was ecstatic and caught it.

He laughed happily and gulped it down.

Actually, even if you did kill indiscriminately, I wouldn't care as long as you didn't do it in front of me. I'm not exactly a good person...

Seeing the Golden Peng happily eating, Li Xuan thought to himself.

At that moment, in the eastern sky,

several figures suddenly appeared.

Powerful auras whistled through the air.

Li Xuan's brows shot up, but he soon relaxed.

He rolled his eyes and muttered, "A bunch of ingrates. You actually know how to come back? You're not here to ask for help again, are you?"