Ferocious Birds

Da Zhuang, his skin dark as charcoal, grinned foolishly, nearly drooling as he hurried forward. "This is the biggest bird's nest I've ever raided. I've never seen eggs this big in my life." "Heh, that's right. Raiding a nest like this is a real achievement." Pi Hou was all skin and bones; when he smiled, he really did look like a mountain monkey.

"Beautiful!" Little One, Shi Hao, blinked his big eyes, his long lashes fluttering as he gazed at the three fierce-bird eggs. They were smooth and lustrous, glinting with specks of light. Unable to contain his delight, he wanted to pick one up and examine it closely. He was the youngest, and his curiosity ran deep.

Da Zhuang stepped closer, but the moment he reached out to touch one of the giant eggs, he cried, "Ow!" His arm went numb and tingly, as if he'd been shocked.

"What happened?!" the other children cried in alarm.

The speckles and patterns on the jade-green eggshells shone brilliantly, like twinkling stars. They were beautiful, and a mysterious power seemed to flow through them.

"How powerful! The Green-Scaled Eagle is descended from the Primordial Demonic Bird. Even though its bloodline has long since grown impure, some broken runes have still been passed down in its life imprint." Little One studied Bone Text every day and could now see what was going on. His big eyes fluttered as he spoke crisply, like a little adult.

The children were both shocked and delighted. The stronger the fierce bird, the rarer its hatchlings and the nobler their bloodline. One day, they might be able to protect the village, perhaps even rival the Sacrificial Spirit.

"It's just the speckles on the eggshells giving off light. Be careful not to touch them. Put the eggs in the hide bags—we need to leave quickly." Shi Lin was levelheaded and urged them on. They had no time to waste. The Green-Scaled Eagle would be back soon!

Clearly, they had come prepared. Each of them had brought a hide bag, and they quickly opened them and carefully put the fierce bird's eggs inside. There were three jade-green eggs, each as large as a washbasin. Except for Little One, the other three each hoisted one onto their backs.

"Great! I can't believe we actually pulled it off." Er Meng was grinning so hard that a snot bubble nearly formed at his nose.

Pi Hou grinned too. "Stone Village will have powerful fierce birds guarding it now. The chief and Uncle Lin Hu will definitely be impressed with us."

"Ow!" Da Zhuang stumbled and nearly fell, but Shi Lin caught him.

The fierce bird's nest was lined with Golden Silk Grass, which was very soft. But hidden among it were a few scales gleaming with a cold, metallic light. Shi Dazhuang hadn't noticed one beneath his foot; it pierced right through his shoe, leaving a little blood on his sole. Luckily, it had only scratched the skin.

"What sharp scales!" Little One, Shi Hao, gathered up a few Green-Scaled Eagle scales. Each was as big as a baby's palm and glinted coldly.

"These must be scales from a mature fierce bird. No wonder they're so extraordinary. I bet even a several-hundred-pound broadsword would have trouble splitting one!"

The children didn't dare linger. They hurried down the cliff face like geckos, reaching the ground in no time. They wiped away their sweat and breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Well? Did you get anything?" A crowd of children gathered around them.

"We did it! We raided the nest and got the eggs! Hahaha..." Er Meng burst out laughing.

The children opened the hide bags and peered inside. When they saw the basin-sized eggs, shimmering with mysterious, clear light, they all gasped in amazement.

"Wonderful! We did it!"

"These eggs were laid by a powerful fierce bird. Stone Village will have flying battle beasts now!"

"Let's go!"

Overjoyed and excited, they bounded through the stone forest like a pack of little mountain beasts, moving with astonishing speed. Before long, they were out of the forest, having made it out before the Green-Scaled Eagle returned.

"This went so smoothly. I think that big bird is heading back to its nest. We'd better hurry!" Shi Lin said.

The forest was dense, with fallen leaves piled a foot deep beneath their feet. The ancient trees soared into the sky, blocking out the scorching sun. Old vines wound around the giant trunks like Chi Dragons, and the roars of beasts could be heard in the distance, shaking the mountains.

Fortunately, they weren't far from Stone Village and were still in a relatively safe area. They hadn't ventured into the range of the dangerous beasts deep in the mountains.

"Almost there! Put your backs into it—we'll run all the way to the village!"

The children were excited, but they also felt uneasy. After all, that was a Green-Scaled Eagle, a beast that made even the village's strongest adult men wary. They had managed to steal its entire clutch of eggs, and it felt almost unreal.

Suddenly, a cry rang through the sky, sharp enough to pierce gold and shatter stone. Its terrifying force made the children's eardrums ache.

"Bad news! The Green-Scaled Eagle is back! It must have noticed the three eggs are gone. It's going to go berserk!" one child cried.

"Run!" Little Shi Hao's eyes were bright. Through a gap in the branches, he spotted a patch of shadow wheeling in the sky and heading toward them.

High above, the wind howled. A giant bird cast a huge shadow over the forest as it plunged toward them. Its whole body gleamed with a cold, blue-green light, and its murderous aura was astonishing.

Now the other children saw it too. A giant bird was swooping toward the forest from afar, moving incredibly fast, like a star crashing down—fierce and terrifying.

"Mother of mine, that's one enormous bird! Run!"

The children cried out in fright. The bird was huge, seven or eight meters long, with a wingspan of fifteen meters. Its body was covered in blue-green scales that glinted like cold metal, and its murderous aura was overwhelming!

The children bolted, relying on their knowledge of the forest to race toward the densest thickets and evade the fierce bird, whose scales flashed with a cold light.

Boom!

Dozens of towering trees were smashed apart by its iron wings. Branches and leaves flew everywhere, fragments swirling through the air. It plunged down like a creature cast from steel, smashing through anything in its path.

It was a terrifying sight. The children screamed, their faces pale as they fled at top speed.

This colossal beast was terrifyingly powerful. Its iron wings struck the sky and destroyed everything in its way. Its scales glinted with a chilling light. With a single dive, it had ravaged half the forest, sending broken wood and leaves flying.

It was too powerful. Its body was as hard as iron, and its wings were like broadswords. It could probably smash a mountain in half. The trees couldn't stop it.

It resembled a giant eagle, but not a single feather grew on its body. Its scales were densely packed and gleaming, as though it had been cast from molten iron. It radiated a force that shook the soul.

Its hooked beak was black, gleaming, and sharp, more than half a meter long. Blood from a fierce beast still clung to it, so it had clearly just returned from a hunt. Its talons were even more terrifying, glinting with a frigid light. Nearly a meter long, they could easily tear a giant elephant apart.

There were also feather-like protrusions on its head, but they weren't feathers at all. They were long, thick, razor-sharp bone spikes, like a row of horns, capable of easily ripping open the chest and belly of a large beast.

This was the Green-Scaled Eagle, its body covered in cold blue-green scales and filled with boundless strength. It seemed forged from steel as it swept across the forest, treating the towering trees as if they weren't there.

Boom!

Amid the rumbling, whole swathes of towering trees snapped. Many of them were so thick it would take more than a dozen people to encircle them. The Green-Scaled Eagle plunged straight through, its iron wings smashing every obstacle. Branches and leaves littered the ground.

With a thunderous crash, a huge boulder blocked its path, but it smashed right through it. Sparks flew and rocks exploded in every direction. Stones weighing hundreds of pounds crashed all around, breaking many trees. The force of it was astonishing.

Every child's scalp prickled with fear. The Green-Scaled Eagle was far too powerful. If that boulder hadn't stopped it, several of them might have been killed just now.

After destroying a large swathe of forest, the Green-Scaled Eagle soared back into the sky and circled overhead. Its eyes flashed like lightning as it coldly watched the children below, preparing to dive again and hunt them down.

"The village is just ahead! Hurry!" the children shouted.

"We won't make it! It's too fast. There's no way we can reach the village!" Pi Hou cried, baring his teeth. A stone that had been blasted their way had grazed his arm, tearing off a large patch of skin. Blood streamed down it.

"There's a deep cave over here! Let's hide inside!" Little One, Shi Hao, shouted to the others.

They fled across the mountainside, dodged a few boulders, and rushed into a thicket of giant vines. Little One slipped inside with a quick squirm, and the other children followed right behind him.

The cave was damp, hidden behind the vines. They could faintly hear the sound of water inside, and it was pitch-dark. The cavern was incredibly deep. Once inside, the children didn't dare stop; they ran dozens of meters farther in before finally coming to a halt.

In the darkness, they could hear nothing but their own ragged breathing. They had run several miles, and all ten-odd children were exhausted. They had been terrified just now. That Green-Scaled Eagle was far too powerful. If it caught them, one swipe of its talons would turn them into a puddle of blood and broken bones.

"Whew, that was close! We were almost done for!" Having narrowly escaped death, they all plopped down on the ground.

"The entrance isn't very big. That fierce bird shouldn't be able to get in." The children relaxed a little, but didn't forget to stay alert.

Their ordeal had been perilous. They had come within a hair's breadth of dying in the forest beneath the claws of a descendant of the Primordial Demonic Bird. Now that they had calmed down a little, a layer of cold sweat covered their backs.

The cave was extremely deep and connected to an underground river. Cold air swept through it. The children looked at one another, troubled. How were they supposed to get back to Stone Village? None of them dared go outside.

"Hey, wait. Little One, how did you know there was a cave here?" Once they'd collected themselves, the children finally remembered that Little One had found them a way out at the critical moment.

"Yiya!" Little One looked a bit embarrassed. Fidgeting, he tugged at his clothes and muttered softly, "Last time, I chased a scarlet bird out of the village and almost got lost. I stumbled upon this place by accident."

The children were speechless. Little One was wonderful in every way, except that he was lively and curious to a fault. Even when he was little, he'd run out of the village several times chasing the chief's Big Yellow Dog. Once he'd grown a little older and stronger, whenever he saw something strange, he'd chase it down to find out what it was.

"Heh, still nursing at three, chasing sparrows, Little Haohao!" the older children teased.

Little One flushed with embarrassment and puffed out his cheeks in anger. "Don't laugh! That bird was as red as blood all over. It looked just like the Vermilion Bird described in the Bone Scripture."

"Cut it out. Forget whether a legendary creature like that even exists. Just a Fire Cloud Sparrow—or one of its descendants—could wipe out a great clan. If that really were a Vermilion Bird, would it have let you chase it? One yawn could shatter a feudal lord's territory!"

"But it really looked exactly like the one in the Bone Scripture—bright red and beautiful," Little One insisted. His tender little hands clenched tightly, and excitement colored his rosy cheeks. His black-gem eyes glimmered in the darkness.

Thud!

Suddenly, a muffled crash startled every child. They turned to see a cold, metallic light flickering at the cave entrance. The Green-Scaled Eagle's head appeared, its eyes chilling and fearsome as it stared at the children inside.

"Good heavens, it's coming in!" Many of the children went deathly pale.

"It's fine. The entrance is too small for it to get in!" Er Meng was as fierce as his name. As he spoke, he grabbed a stone as big as a washbasin and hurled it with all his strength.

Bang!

The stone shot forward with incredible speed, powered by his strength of a thousand jin, and smashed into the Green-Scaled Eagle's head. But it only sent sparks flying with a metallic clang. The cold light gleaming on its blue-green scales didn't even flicker. The stone shattered and fell to the ground.

Everyone sucked in a breath. This fierce bird had skin like copper and bones like iron. It was so powerful it sent a chill through their hearts.

Crack!

With one swipe of its talons, it instantly tore several hundred pounds of rock from the cave entrance, ripping out a huge chunk as easily as a sharp iron hook scooping mud.

The children gaped at it. Could even the cave fail to hold it back?

Crunch!

The sound of breaking rock came again. The Green-Scaled Eagle beat its wings like blades, splitting the cave wall apart. Huge rocks rumbled down as its enormous body forced its way inside.

"Terrifying! Can it split this whole hill open? If it keeps at it, could it really break through the cave and level the place?"

Pi Hou nocked an arrow to his bow. It was a Dragon-Horned Hard Bow, made from the horn of a Dragon-Horned Elephant. It was so tough that usually only adults could draw it. In Stone Village, it was considered the finest material for making bows.

Whoosh!

An arrow shot forth with a fierce, heavy force, swift and powerful as a meteor.

Clang!

To their shock, the arrow struck the Green-Scaled Eagle's head and scraped off a shower of sparks. It couldn't pierce through. Even a hard bow and sharp arrows were useless.

Everyone felt a chill run through them. What could they do? Even a powerful bow couldn't hurt it. They had no way of getting close to fight, and they were trapped in a desperate situation.

"Yiya, let me try."

Little One borrowed an iron spear from an older child. It weighed a good forty or fifty pounds. He ran forward, suddenly accelerated, and then hurled the spear with all his might. It shot through the air like a bolt of lightning, its cold light streaking toward the entrance.

Shi Hao could lift a bronze cauldron weighing a thousand jin. Thrown with all his strength, the iron spear had astonishing penetrating power as it stabbed toward the Green-Scaled Eagle's eyes. The spear cut through the air with a howl, forcing the air to roar around it!

The Green-Scaled Eagle had been contemptuously hunting the children. But now, for the first time, a flicker of surprise appeared in its eyes. It quickly turned its head, unwilling to let the spear strike its eye.

Clang! The iron spear came in at astonishing speed and struck the Green-Scaled Eagle's head with tremendous force. It sounded like two metal plates scraping together, and sparks flew everywhere. The noise was painfully sharp.

At last, the iron spear fell to the ground. But one of the coldly gleaming scales beside the fierce bird's eye had also fallen away, and a thread of blood trickled out, starkly visible.

A shrill bird cry rang out, like lightning striking a person's soul. It began deep and thunderous, then turned piercing and sharp, like a dragon's roar. It was truly terrifying.

The children jumped back in fright, then dropped onto the ground. They hurriedly covered their ears with both hands, or their eardrums might have burst.

Wounded because it had been careless, the fierce bird went berserk. Its eyes were as cold as blades as it fixed its stare on Little Shi Hao. Its huge talons swung wildly, tearing at the cave wall as it ferociously forced its way inside.

Stones weighing anywhere from several dozen to over a hundred pounds tumbled down. Under the fierce bird's talons, they were as brittle as rotten wood. It was widening the cave as it cried out furiously and surged farther inside.

"Oh no! That big bird has gone mad. Is it going to crush all of us with one swipe of its talons?" Pi Hou and the others were horrified. The children were starting to regret their actions. No wonder the adults had never dared act rashly. This fierce bird was terrifying.

"The village is close by. Grandpa Chief and the others will hear the commotion and come to help us," Little Shi Hao said.

"That's right. We'll attack with all our strength and enrage it, making even more noise. The chief and the others will notice us sooner!" Shi Lin spoke up, picking up a huge rock and hurling it at the fierce bird.

The bird's cries grew even more terrifying, shaking dust down from the cave ceiling and sending rocks tumbling. Its massive, scaled body drew closer step by step as it furiously dug through the rock wall.

The children used bows and arrows to target its eyes. The iron spears were left to Shi Hao, Shi Lin, and Shi Dazhuang, the three strongest among them, to throw at the Green-Scaled Eagle's eyes.

Shi Lin picked up a long iron spear weighing sixty pounds. Runes flowed over the palm of his hand, traveled along the black iron shaft, and finally reached the spearhead.

"That's Bone Text!"

"Shi Lin, you learned Bone Text too?!"

The children beside Shi Lin shouted.

Shi Lin recalled:

In the stone house at the heart of Stone Village, the chief, Shi Yunfeng, was teaching Shi Lin the power of Bone Text.

"Little Lin, I'm going to carve a rune into your body. You have to endure it!"

"Okay!" Shi Lin's gaze was resolute.

With that, Chief Shi Yunfeng began.

He waved both hands, and a metallic rune appeared in his palm. Under his control, it flowed toward Shi Lin.

"Be sure to endure it!"

"Mm!" Shi Lin immediately closed his eyes.

Shi Yunfeng waved his hand, guiding the rune into the area below Shi Lin's abdomen.

The rune glowed as it passed through the hide clothing Shi Lin wore and entered his flesh.

"Hm? Why doesn't it hurt?" Shi Lin only felt a little warmth flow into his lower abdomen. Then nothing happened.

"Little Lin, how do you feel?" Shi Yunfeng asked anxiously. Seeing Shi Lin remain still, he thought something had gone wrong.

"Grandpa Chief, I only felt a little warmth, and then nothing." Shi Lin opened his eyes and answered honestly.

"Don't you feel your body resisting the rune?"

"No. The rune entered my body smoothly. There wasn't the slightest resistance." Shi Lin scratched his head.

"Not the slightest resistance? Could you be born with a body suited to cultivation?" Shi Yunfeng exclaimed in surprise.

"I suppose I am?" Shi Lin naturally understood what Shi Yunfeng meant.

So he was a cultivation prodigy, huh! Shi Lin thought.

"Child, let's try a few more times and see if the runes enter just as smoothly every time." Shi Yunfeng was excited.

"Okay!"

Shi Yunfeng transmitted runes into Shi Lin several more times, and each one went as smoothly as the first.

"Looks like you're just like Little One—a fine candidate for cultivating Bone Text! Stone Village has been blessed by our ancestors to have you two!"

The recollection ended.

Shi Lin braced himself and gripped the iron spear tightly. A faint divine radiance shone from its tip.

Whoosh!

Shi Lin threw the spear with all his strength. It shot through the air like an arrow piercing the clouds, swift and fierce as a meteor, aimed at the Green-Scaled Eagle's huge eye.

The Green-Scaled Eagle quickly turned its head, unwilling to let the spear strike its eye.

Clang! The iron spear came in at astonishing speed and struck the Green-Scaled Eagle's head with tremendous force. It sounded like two metal plates scraping together, and sparks flew everywhere. The noise was painfully sharp.

At last, the iron spear fell to the ground. But three of the coldly gleaming scales beside the fierce bird's eye had fallen away, and a thread of blood trickled out, starkly visible.

Wounded again, the Green-Scaled Eagle grew furious. It angrily flipped rocks aside. Under its talons, they were as brittle as rotten wood. As it widened the cave, it cried out and charged farther inside.

Rocks flew and leaves whirled wildly through the forest. To avoid further blows to its eyes, the fierce bird had been forced to back out of the narrow cave several times, completely leveling the surrounding hillside.