Hou Niao settled into the estate. Every day, he studied the Display Technique with the little peacock, meditated before the Ancestral Diagram, or explored Daoist arts with the three old Daoists. When he had nothing else to do, he also took the little peacock around the capital of Pingliang Prefecture to experience the different charms of the human mortal world.
That last activity was truly exhausting. The little peacock found everything about humans novel: their food, drink, amusements, and everyday goods. Whether useful or not, she bought everything in great bundles. Of course, she had no concept of money; someone else did the paying. After just a few days, she had bought enough to open a general store.
There was nothing for it—as long as she was happy. His main task now was to keep the little peacock settled, but spending these few days together had only strengthened his resolve to slip away secretly. She was far too clingy, practically a dog-skin plaster that could not be torn off once it stuck. The Display Technique was not her only Divine Ability, either. That made him deeply wary; he had no real measure of what she could do.
For the High Antiquity Peacock Clan, their Ancestral Land naturally could not offer such abundant worldly pleasures. The great peacocks who had attained success in cultivation did not mind, of course. Their ancestors had lived this way for generations, and they had long since grown accustomed to the cold solitude of the universe. But the little peacocks who had only recently come into the world had yet to form their own outlook, and were filled with longing for the dazzling world outside.
According to Kong Li herself, she was the youngest member of the High Antiquity Peacock Clan, and the only peacock born