Thinking of the little bird, Xu Qingtong hurriedly looked around for it. He spotted it crouching at the cave entrance, trembling, with blood still dripping from its body. Clearly, it had been injured too.
Without stopping to deal with the aftermath, Xu Qingtong hurried to the entrance and picked up the little bird. It seemed to know he would not hurt it and let him hold it.
Back inside the cave, Xu Qingtong took out a Rejuvenation Talisman. With a surge of magic power, a streak of green light fell onto the bird. It made no attempt to dodge, letting the light wash over it, evidently trusting him completely.
Soon after the Rejuvenation Talisman struck the bird, its bleeding stopped. Xu Qingtong rummaged through his Storage Bag and found an elixir. Using droplets of water from the cave wall, he crushed it and mixed it into a paste, then applied it to the bird's fractured legs. He tore strips of cloth from his clothes and bound both legs to hold them in place before gently setting it on the ground.
Seeing that the little bird was out of danger, Xu Qingtong finally felt at ease enough to clean up inside the cave. The dead snake was roughly ten feet long and as thick as the mouth of a bowl. Apart from a deep wound at its vital spot, seven inches behind its head, the rest of its body was undamaged.
Having worked as an assistant at the Jade Spring Commerce Association for three years, he was very familiar with the materials a snake could provide. Its intact skin was excellent material for crafting armor, its two sharp fangs could be made into weapons, and its gallbladder could be used to refine elixirs.
After working for a while and finishing with the snake, he found a stalk of Scale Flower Grass more than a hundred years old inside the cave. Although this spirit herb was not a Trial item, it was the main ingredient for refining Poison-Dispelling Pills. Given its age, it was quite a substantial gain.
Returning to the entrance, Xu Qingtong discovered that the little bird was recovering quickly and could already stand. He picked it up and examined it closely.
What he saw gave Xu Qingtong quite a shock. This little bird, which looked much like a domestic chicken, actually had two pupils in each eye.
He remembered a passage in one of his father's books of myths: "Shaped like a chicken, crying like a phoenix, with two pupils in each eye, it is called Double-Pupiled... both male and female in one body, born of heaven and earth. Possessed of great strength, it can fight and drive away fierce beasts."
He had always thought it was merely a myth. How could there be a bird with double pupils? Yet he had actually encountered one. He just did not know whether it was the Double-Pupiled Bird described in the book.
According to the book, the Double-Pupiled Bird was benevolent and powerful, often helping people drive off demons and banish evil. It was also deeply loyal and always repaid a kindness.
After some thought, Xu Qingtong decided to let it go, since he did not know whether it truly was a Double-Pupiled Bird. If it was, it was a rare creature born of heaven and earth and might not serve him. Besides, "it must be fed Qiongyu Paste." He had no idea what Qiongyu Paste was, so what could he feed it? And if it was not a Double-Pupiled Bird, what use was there in keeping it?
Having thought it through, he lifted the little bird and said softly, "I don't know whether you can understand me, but you're safe now, and your wounds have healed. Go on, leave!" As he spoke, he tossed it toward the cave entrance.
The bird flew in a circle, then landed back on his shoulder. Greatly surprised, Xu Qingtong tossed it into the air again. Yet after another circle, it returned to his shoulder, gripping his clothes tightly with both claws and refusing to let go.
Xu Qingtong finally realized that the little bird did not want to leave him. Now he was in a bind. He could not drive it away, but he had nowhere to keep it either. If he always had a chicken perched on his shoulder, wouldn't he make a complete fool of himself when others saw him? What was he supposed to do?
While he was caught in this dilemma, the little bird suddenly flew onto his hand. It blinked, squeezing a bead of blood from its eye. The bead fell into his palm but did not spread, remaining perfectly round and gleaming.
The bird lowered its head and pecked his hand, leaving a tiny hole. The bead of blood rolled into it, mingled with his own blood, and vanished.
Then a voice sounded in his mind. "You have accepted my soul blood. From this day onward, you are my master."
Xu Qingtong was startled, but quickly understood that the little bird was communicating with him through divine sense.
He tried to communicate with it. "Are you a Double-Pupiled Bird?"
"Yes, Master."
"Why would you acknowledge me as your master? You're a divine beast!"
"You saved me, Master. Without you, I would already be dead. Besides, you carry an aura that feels familiar to me."
With a thought, Xu Qingtong brought the Seven-Star Bracelet into his hand. Again, he communicated with the Double-Pupiled Bird through his mind. "Is this the familiar scent you mean?"
The Double-Pupiled Bird looked at the Seven-Star Bracelet. "Yes. There's an aura inside it that I smelled when I was born. After I was born, I somehow ended up here."
"That aura isn't here, so I've never been able to grow up. If you hadn't come today, Master, I'm afraid that great serpent would have eaten me."
Xu Qingtong considered this, then said, "There is indeed a desolate space inside this bracelet. An ancient mighty cultivator refined it into the bracelet, but I can't take it out."
"That's all right. I can go inside."
"Absolutely not! It's completely barren in there, with nothing at all. If something happened to you after you went in, wouldn't I be sending you to your doom?" Xu Qingtong hurriedly stopped it.
Then, after a little thought, he said, "Wait a couple of days. I'll put some flowers, plants, birds, and beasts inside to test it. If they survive, you can go in."
Xu Qingtong reflected that the Double-Pupiled Bird was an ancient divine beast. For some unknown reason, a young one had ended up here and had even acknowledged him as its master.
After a pause, something else occurred to him, and he said, "Now that we've formed a master-servant bond, we'll share life and death from now on! Your identity is unusual, so I can't call you Double-Pupiled, lest someone with ulterior motives find out. Today is the seventeenth day of the seventh month, so I'll call you Xiao Qi!"
The Double-Pupiled Bird seemed delighted to hear this and let out a clear, ringing phoenix cry.
"It's getting late. We'll spend the night in this cave. Tomorrow, we'll catch some birds and beasts and put them in the bracelet, then see how things go."
With that, he found a clean spot and sat cross-legged to meditate, while the Double-Pupiled Bird perched on his shoulder.
The next day, Xu Qingtong emerged from his meditation. After a night of recovery, his mind felt clear and refreshed, and the fatigue of the past several days had vanished completely.
He called to Xiao Qi, rose, and left the Mountain Cave. After climbing down the cliff to the hillside, Xu Qingtong collected any pretty flowers and plants he saw into the Seven-Star Bracelet. Before long, all kinds of flowers and plants were piled inside it.
Just then, a startled hare shot up beside him with a whoosh and darted away like an arrow.
"Xiao Qi, catch it! I want it alive!" At Xu Qingtong's command, the Double-Pupiled Bird vanished in a flash. When he looked again, it already had the hare firmly in its hands. No, not hands-in its claws!
For the entire morning, the young man and the bird had the time of their lives, catching plenty of hares and pheasants and tossing them into the Seven-Star Bracelet.
That afternoon, Xu Qingtong returned to the Mountain Cave. Sitting cross-legged, he extended his divine sense into the Seven-Star Bracelet. The little valley was full of pheasants and hares, curiously surveying their unfamiliar surroundings. Not a single one had died.
The flowers and plants, however, seemed a little wilted, probably because they had not been planted.
At the thought of planting them, Xu Qingtong smiled wryly. Merely extending his divine sense into the bracelet would not let him do the planting. He could do it if he sent his primordial spirit inside, but allowing his primordial spirit to leave his body was extremely dangerous.
After some thought, he decided to first draw the bracelet into his body, then send one of his primordial spirits into it.
Xu Qingtong drew the Seven-Star Bracelet into his body, then tried moving one primordial spirit out of his niwang palace and toward his dantian. Although it felt somewhat uncomfortable at first, little by little, the primordial spirit began moving within his body.
A short while later, the primordial spirit entered the Seven-Star Bracelet and began digging holes and planting. Seeing that it had entered successfully without incident, Xu Qingtong breathed a sigh of relief. Taking Xiao Qi with him, he left the Mountain Cave to search for water.
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