Red Clothes could not resist bending down to pick up the feather. Pinching its quill between long, pale fingers, she deliberately gave it a vicious stroke against the grain.
The neatly aligned barbs burst into a disheveled mess.
With a cold laugh, she waved the ruined feather in front of Jin Si.
"Forget it. You can't grow bird feathers as you are now. Beasts and birds are entirely different. Growing long, fine hairs might be possible, though." Jin Si turned to inspect his back, then swung his tail around in front of his eyes. His vertical pupils scanned the soft spines as he pondered how to alter his body.
One glance was enough for Red Clothes to see right through the foolish flood dragon's thoughts.
Folding her arms across her chest, she said coldly,
"Stop racking your brains over nothing. Just change your back and tail fin, and grow some long, fine hairs to fill the gaps. As long as they catch the wind, that'll do." The Black Flood Dragon's eyes lit up. He looked at Red Clothes with admiration and praised her from the heart.
"So clever. Just what I'd expect of a human."
Red Clothes nearly choked out a laugh at that.
The corner of her eye twitched, and she corrected him with utmost seriousness.
"I'm a ghost, not a human."
With that, she rolled her eyes, turned in a swirl of red skirts, and floated away.
Seeing that there was nothing else to do, Xiao Yu flew back to the old pine to continue cultivating.
Jin Si swayed his body as he walked to the cliff's edge and lay down on a familiar rock. Settling his mind, he tried to direct spiritual energy into his back and tail fin.
Spiritual energy slowly seeped into the gaps between