Chapter 156

The food on the plate smells amazing.

From seemingly ordinary fried eggs to rich and flavorful stews, every dish made his mouth water.

Like Sylvan, the giant eagle he brought perched in the corridor, its eyes fixed on the food on the golden platter, its mouth practically watering.

The Gray Elf's expression was perfectly synchronized with the giant eagle's.

Xie Juanhan originally intended to raise his Yuri Berry wine and say a few words of toast to welcome the guests who had come from afar.

Seeing this, he and Telingewei exchanged a glance and had no choice but to start their meal early.

"Praise be to the Star Spirit." Sylvan made a praying gesture, picked up his knife and fork, and said to Xie Juanhan and Telingewei, "This food smells wonderful."

After saying that, at the two dragons' repeated invitation, Sylvan smiled shyly, quickly cut a small piece of fried egg, and put it in his mouth.

The Star Spirit.

This was the first time Sylvan had ever tasted such a rich and delicious fried egg.

One side of the fried egg is crispy and golden brown, while the other side is soft and runny.

The finely seasoned salt perfectly brought out the aroma of the fried eggs.

The aromas of eggs, milk, and oil blended together in Sylvan's mouth.

Sylvan squinted his eyes after eating the fried egg.

If even a simple fried egg is this good, the rest of the food must be even more delicious!

With that thought in mind, Sylvan couldn't wait to cut off a small piece of sausage and stuff it into his mouth.

The sausage had an irresistible, complex flavor unlike any sausage he had ever eaten before.

The taste is different, and the texture is different too.

This sausage is bursting with juice, crisp yet bouncy; it's hard to imagine what kind of animal meat it's made from, or why it's so unique.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei both stopped eating and looked at this swift yet elegant guest.

"By the Star Spirit, your food is absolutely delicious!" Sylvan's eyes sparkled. "I've never tasted such delicious food before!"

As he spoke, Sylvan forked another piece of pickled vegetable to cleanse his palate.

Even these pickled vegetables are exceptionally sour, fragrant, and crunchy!

It has none of the pungent or sour taste that comes from over- or under-fermentation; it's so delicious it's almost miraculous.

The pork chops on the side were also delicious.

Sylvan recognized the meat of this Demonic Beast, which was known for its toughness and fattiness.

But the steak on his plate was not hard to chew at all. On the contrary, it was tender and juicy, with a unique blend of milky and fatty aromas that created a rich and layered flavor.

Sylvan swore that when he arrived with Simurgh, the two adults had almost finished preparing dinner.

It's hard to imagine that for this family, this was just an ordinary meal.

Compared to the various thoughts hidden in Sylvan's heart, his giant eagle was much more unrestrained.

The giant eagle squeezed among the fluffy creatures, pecking and nibbling quickly at every bit of food in the feeding bowl.

It moved so fast that even Griffin, when secretly racing against it, was at a disadvantage.

"Tap tap tap." The giant eagle quickly finished all the food in the feeding bowl and happily squinted its eyes.

At this moment, Harper and the others' food bowls were still full.

The giant eagle turned its head, its eyes darting around.

Upon seeing this, Harper and the others remained silent and immediately buried their heads in their food, quickly devouring the mountain of food and leaving a small dent.

A clear sense of regret was evident in the giant eagle's eyes.

Hearing the noise, Telingewei silently stood up and filled the giant eagle's feeding bowl with another portion of food.

The giant eagle raised its head, chirped at Telingewei, and then unceremoniously buried its head in the food bowl and began to eat happily.

Even Nibote only ate one bowl of food, while the giant eagle ate three bowls.

After finally finishing dinner, Xie Juanhan asked Harper and the others to play with the giant eagle, while he and Telingewei invited Sylvan into the study.

Sylvan truly lives up to his reputation as the Gray Elf most adept at theory.

After looking at Xie Juanhan's manuscript, he quickly pointed out a section. "I'm good at these parts."

Xie Juanhan was overjoyed. "Great! I only understood this small part."

Xie Juanhan pointed to one of the questions with his fingertip. "It's the part of the Feini Conjecture that overlaps with the Minghe Theorem."

Xie Juanhan quickly began discussing it with Sylvan.

Telingewei went outside and brought out some Kthorn tea, gently placing it beside the two of them.

Sylvan has a unique understanding of space, Xie Juanhan likes this new Gray Elf very much.

They were supposed to invite Sylvan to stay in town.

With Sylvan's consent, they eventually invited him to stay in their study so they could discuss things at any time.

Sylvan stayed at their house for the time being.

The giant eagle Simurgh that he brought also temporarily stayed with Harper and the others.

Xie Juanhan found the name "Simurgh" strange. According to legend, Simurgh is a golden-red bird of wisdom.

Although this giant eagle is a level four Demonic Beast, it doesn't seem to have much of a connection to the legendary bird of wisdom.

Its feathers, in particular, were a dull gray, lacking any golden or reddish sheen.

He felt that Sylvan must have hoped that his giant eagle would grow into "Simurgh," which was why he named it that.

When the topic came up in his spare time, Sylvan shook his head. "It's not an expectation. Our priests say that Simurgh has Simurgh's bloodline, and if it grows up, it will become a true bird of holiness and wisdom."

Suspicion flickered in Xie Juanhan's eyes.

The giant eagle had been staying at their house for several days.

It followed Harper and the others, eating the water plants at the bottom of the pond, the tender shoots of the Golden Vine Pumpkin, and the small flowers of the Star Berry.

This guy was focused almost entirely on the food; he didn't seem to have any intelligence at all.

Soon, Xie Juanhan was proven wrong by his own thoughts.

At the time, they thought the giant eagle and the furry creatures got along very well.

That day, the furry creatures fought a fierce battle with the giant eagle.

Harper and Haxi, each carrying a wingtip of an eagle, came running over, chirping, and angrily went to complain to Xie Juanhan and Telingewei.

Xie Juanhan listened to the chirping sound for a while, and his head started spinning. He finally understood what was happening.

--That giant eagle, it steals insects!

It turns out that early this morning, Harper and the others found bird droppings that the giant eagle hadn't buried in the toilet.

They were a little disgusted, but considering the giant eagle was a guest, they still offered to help, trying to bury the bird droppings with ash.

With their help, they discovered that something was off about the giant eagle's droppings.

There were insect shells inside.

It refers to the remaining outer skin of an insect after it has been eaten and digested.

In the past, Harper and the others probably wouldn't have paid any attention to it.

However, in the past two years, they have learned a lot of hunting skills, and their observation and intuition have improved considerably.

No matter how they looked at it, they believed that the insects the giant eagle ate were probably insects they had raised.

Strangely, the number of insects in the insect basket hasn't decreased recently.

The Companion Beast chirped as they checked the accounts, then remembered something else.

--The giant eagle just fought with the Tuonai'er Demon Bird two days ago.

Nobody knows how they started fighting.

When Harper and the others arrived, the Tuonai'er Demon Bird were already locked in battle with the giant eagle.

Numerous Demon Bird fought their way from east to west, stirring up countless clouds of dust.

The Tuonai'er Demon Bird extremely fierce.

The giant eagle looked somewhat guilty. Despite its combat strength being far superior to that of the Tuonai'er Demon Bird, it still fought the Tuonai'er Demon Bird for a long time.

At the time, Harper and the others were struggling to separate the two Demon Bird and didn't take the matter to heart.

After all, the Tuonai'er Demon Bird is known for its strong territorial instincts.

It's perfectly normal that they don't like the new giant eagles that have entered their territory.

When Harper and the others saw the insect skin in the giant eagle's droppings again today, they immediately realized something was wrong.

Instead of immediately confronting the giant eagle, they secretly followed behind it.

After tracking the giant eagle, they finally figured out what had happened.

It turns out that when the giant eagle separated from them early in the morning, its first step was to find their insect-rearing baskets.

Once found, the giant eagle used its wings to open the lid, poked its head inside, and skillfully rummaged through the insects to eat.

It specifically targets plump, mature insects, then plucks them out one by one and eats them.

After finishing eating, it used its beak to mess up the insect basket, covering it with leaves, fruit peels, pine needles, and other debris to prevent it from being discovered.

Harper and his friends haven't noticed it all this time.

After all, the giant eagle only eats the biggest and fattest insects; the larvae are left in the basket.

After the giant eagle finishes its meal and digests its food briefly, it will enter the Magic Forest.

It will search through the trees one by one, looking for white insects that look similar.

Once it has collected enough insects, it will carry them back and, when the other creatures are not paying attention, sneakily stuff them all into Harper's insect-raising basket.

Although Harper and his friends kept insects in an attempt to feed the Tuonai'er Demon Bird, the birds themselves didn't eat insects and didn't have much patience.

When they scooped out the insects to feed the Tuonai'er Demon Bird every day, the birds saw that the insects looked similar and didn't notice that the insects had been switched.

Only the Tuonai'er Demon Bird noticed that the insects they were eating were different.

This kind of Demon Bird is rather unintelligent, lacks true consciousness, and is unaware that the giant eagle has secretly switched the insects.

They were simply instinctively smelling the scent of their prey on the giant eagle.

Therefore, every time they see a giant eagle, they become enraged and beat it up.

"Chirp chirp!" Harper and the others complained.

Haxi, in particular, clung tightly to the tip of the giant eagle's wing.

The giant eagle remained obediently perched in place, like a hen incubating its eggs, ignoring Harper and the others' calls.