An Old Human Saying: A Wise Bird Knows When to Yield

In the western reaches of the Magical Beast Mountain Range, deep within a dense forest, a colossal tree towered over a mountain peak. Amid its crown, a wooden house resembling a palace had grown naturally.

Many more treetops extended around the wooden house, forming a crisscrossing platform.

Stone tables and chairs stood on the platform, surrounded by blooming flowers and fluttering butterflies. Hundreds upon hundreds of birds circled the wooden house, calling out.

Everything had once been in harmony, but now an uninvited guest came striding through the air from afar, shattering the tranquility.

The newcomer wore a fitted red outfit. His features were delicate, with a heroic bearing between his brows. Who else could he be but Xiao Yan?

Boom-!

Without hesitation, Xiao Yan unleashed a pressure comparable to that of a Four-Star Dou Zong expert. It instantly spread around the wooden house.

"Hiss! What terrifying pressure! When did someone like this appear in the Magical Beast Mountain Range?"

Inside the wooden house, a strange bird lay perched atop a pile of medicinal herbs. Xiao Yan's pressure startled it awake, and it spoke in terror.

Its expression then changed drastically. It hurriedly spread its wings and tried to escape, flying straight for the exit to the side. It moved like a flash of light, so fast that no one could catch it, whether alive or dead.

But... just as it burst out of the other end of the wooden house, its vision suddenly turned red.

A slender figure abruptly blocked its path, staring at it with a smile on his lips.

Xiao Yan waved in greeting and slowly stepped through the air toward it, stirring ripples in the tranquil world. Lifting the strange bird's pointed beak, he said calmly:

"There's an old human saying: a wise bird knows when to yield. Have you heard it?"

"My name is Xiao Yan. I'm a Dou Zong expert and a seventh-grade alchemist. I'm looking to establish a faction. Would you be willing to become my partner?"

The youth held out his hand. Though his words were polite, his eyes made no attempt to hide the way they appraised the strange bird's body.

It was clad in feathers of nine colors, with what looked like a phoenix crown adorning its head and talons like divine weapons. The mere presence spilling from its body twisted the void into a domain of hurricanes. It truly was a peerless ferocious bird.

"What! A Dou Zong! A seventh-grade alchemist!!!"

The Deadly Mad Bird's pupils contracted at his words, and it could not help crying out in alarm. It too examined Xiao Yan, thinking in astonishment:

So young? How could he have reached that realm? This must be fake, right?

Even an old monster like me, who has lived for a hundred years, has only barely reached the level of a sixth-order Dou Emperor!

At that thought, the Deadly Mad Bird sensed Xiao Yan's power again and abruptly lost its will to fight.

It understood that it could no longer escape the other party's grasp.

The gulf between a Dou Emperor and a Dou Zong was like an impassable chasm. It was simply not a difference it could overcome.

"Senior, spare my life! This junior is willing to surrender and serve you for the rest of my life!"

The Deadly Mad Bird clearly knew its own limits better than the Amethyst Winged Lion King. It immediately landed on a treetop and prostrated itself, not daring to move.

Xiao Yan was suddenly taken aback. Then he burst out laughing. "You're much more sensible than the Amethyst Winged Lion King. Back then, that fellow insisted on making me slap her before she'd listen. But you went and surrendered straight away."

The Deadly Mad Bird trembled even harder at those words.

It had not expected the Amethyst Winged Lion King to have fallen victim first. It seemed its choice had indeed been wise.

"Get up. I'm not such an unreasonable fellow. As long as you can promise to remain loyal to me, there will naturally be pills as your reward."

Xiao Yan slowly descended to the top of the treetop. The currents around him swept up the green leaves nearby, making them sway with a loud rustle.

To make the Deadly Mad Bird serve him wholeheartedly, Xiao Yan naturally would not rely on force alone. Instead, he directly used the Amethyst Winged Lion King as his calling card and said with a smile:

"Even though the Amethyst Winged Lion King spoke insolently to me, I did not get angry. Not only did I spare her life, I even refined an Emperor's Extreme Pill for her. I wonder what sincerity you can show me?"

"What did you say? The Lion King got an Emperor's Extreme Pill!"

The Deadly Mad Bird could not help exclaiming. Merely thinking of the benefit the Amethyst Winged Lion King had received brought a glimmer of jealousy and desire to its eyes.

The Emperor's Extreme Pill ranked among the best Sixth-Grade Pills. After taking one, a Dou Huang expert could raise their Dou Qi cultivation by one to two stars. Its appeal to the bird went without saying.

"Senior, is what you say true?"

The Deadly Mad Bird spoke excitedly, flapping its wings wildly, its eyes full of anticipation.

"Absolutely true. Moreover, there is something I need your help with. The alliance is currently short-handed. If you can recruit more experts to join, I will reward you handsomely."

With his hands behind his back, Xiao Yan strode past the Deadly Mad Bird, leaving it with those meaningful words.

Immediately afterward, he took a step and vanished into the distant void to search for other targets.

"Recruit experts, and be handsomely rewarded..."

Left alone and bewildered in the wind, the Deadly Mad Bird muttered to itself and fell into deep thought.

The other party had neither harmed it nor failed to offer a lavish gift like the Emperor's Extreme Pill, and he had also displayed such powerful soul strength. He was probably a highly accomplished alchemist indeed.

In that case, joining his alliance was not a bad choice.

This senior needed allies, so it could give him exactly what he wanted and thoroughly annex the territories of the seven or eight nearby Fifth-Order Magical Beasts.

As long as it offered up those territories as a pledge of allegiance, along with the few Fifth-Order Magical Beasts under its command... presumably, he would not treat it poorly...

"All right, let's do it!"

After thinking it over for a moment, the Deadly Mad Bird quickly made its decision. It then rose, flew high into the sky, and let out a piercing cry.

"Screee-! (Everyone, follow your king into battle! Conquer the surrounding territories!)"

The sound rang through the heavens and spread in every direction. The entire forest soon answered.

Roar-! Awooo-! Hiss-!

The roars of different Magical Beasts rose and fell. Birds and beasts poured out of the treetops, pythons writhed beneath the forest canopy, and wolf packs raced along the lakeshores, all summoned by the Deadly Mad Bird.

At that moment, the entire forest boiled over.

Meanwhile, Xiao Yan had already crossed into the heart of the forest and arrived above a swamp to the east, where he abruptly stopped.

Pinching his nose, Xiao Yan stared down and said, feeling somewhat nauseated, "What a disgusting smell. Do Magical Beasts really live here?"

Lowering his gaze, he soon got a clear look at the scene.

Purple mist rose on every side, shrouding the ground in gloom.

A foul stench filled the swamp's edge, where miasma swirled and countless human and animal bones lay scattered across the ground. Filthy, twisting currents constantly washed over them, corroding them into a pool of pus.

This was the third forbidden zone of the Magical Beast Mountain Range: the Death Swamp.

It was said that Yun Shan, once the empire's strongest expert, had encountered a Peak Dou Emperor-level Magical Beast here-the Nether Snake King. In the end, both had suffered grievous injuries.

Now, decades had passed, yet the place remained dangerous, and no one dared set foot in it.

Smelling the rot rising from the place, Xiao Yan frowned slightly. He was not particularly accustomed to this environment, but he had no choice except to brace himself and press on.

The youth clenched his hand, abruptly blasting a current of air through the space around him. At the center of the swamp, it swept up countless pillars of frigid water, revealing a passage.

"Hiss-!"

Just then, a strange cry suddenly rang out.

Xiao Yan looked toward the sound and saw a tail about a hundred meters long writhing at the bottom of the swamp. His gaze followed it along the body to its far end.

The youth looked closely. There, halfway up a barren mountain in the distance, a giant python abruptly opened a pair of blood-red eyes and locked them firmly on his.

Crack... crack!

The earth split apart with a series of sharp reports. The giant python's thousand-meter-long body rose from the ground and slowly slithered toward the youth. In a low voice, it said, "Human expert, why have you come?"

At those words, Xiao Yan's expression instantly turned grave.

It was not just him. Even Yao Lao, inside the Storage Ring, had a moment of panic in his eyes.