“Eat slower, eat slower...”
Amidst the constant repetitions of a voice full of pleasant surprise, Li Fan swallowed all the shattered eggshells into his belly.
A scorching energy surged from his stomach and coursed through his entire body.
The power was remarkably pure. Li Fan, who had still been tottering and unsteady on his feet a moment before, was hopping and skipping after just a brief moment.
“Whoa... as expected of a divine bird's descendant! Truly incredible. Born just a moment ago and already walking on his own! Doesn't that mean it won't be long before I can ride him and fly?”
Ignoring the chattering voice beside his ear, Li Fan walked gloomily over to the water's edge and looked at his reflection.
“Fucking hideous!”
A strange bird without a single feather grown, covered entirely in bare red flesh, appeared in Li Fan's view.
“Senior Brother Zhang, I actually kind of miss you.”
“Hanging out with you, at least I was a true disciple of the Purple Cloud Sect. Now, in this newly unlocked map, I'm not even human anymore—I've reincarnated into this dumb bird.”
Perhaps influenced by the strange bird he possessed, Li Fan's thoughts were unusually lively and restless, quite unlike his ordinary calm and composed state.
“Good bird, grow up fast...” The ceaseless chatter sounded again, irritating Li Fan even further.
Yet when a red plant resembling both insect and grass was thrust in front of Li Fan, it instantly banished all his annoyance to the back of his mind.
With a single snap, he snatched it and gulped it down in a few quick bites.
An unspeakable feeling of satisfaction immediately rushed into his heart, much like the exhilarating delight of unexpectedly acquiring a wonder of Heaven during Qi Condensation, or forming a core through a hundred methods in the Foundation Establishment stage.
In almost an instant, it stripped Li Fan of his capacity to think.
Leaving behind only a floating, blissful blankness of consciousness, drifting across an ocean of pure joy.
Only after a long while did that euphoria, as intoxicating as ascending to immortality, slowly fade.
Li Fan gradually regained his ability to reason.
Yet the impact brought by that red cordyceps still lingered in his mind, unforgettable.
Even as he savored the lingering taste, greed inevitably welled up.
“What the hell is that thing?”
Li Fan was shocked, yet he couldn't stop himself from gazing eagerly toward the owner of the voice.
“Don't look at me like that! This Thorn Cordyceps was something I barely managed to scrape together a single stalk of. Now that you've eaten it, there won't be any more for quite a while!”
A young boy, looking only around twelve or thirteen years old, scratched the back of his head and apologized with an embarrassed expression.
“Gone?” A sharp surge of disappointment and fury flared up.
In a fit of pique, Li Fan scrambled up onto the top of the boy's head and kicked wildly.
Instantly, the boy's neatly combed hair was reduced to a messy bird's nest.
The boy wasn't angry at all; he simply tilted his head and grinned foolishly.
Li Fan grew even angrier, and simply decided to treat the top of the boy's head as a nest, settling down right there.
“Heehee, little fellow, don't be mad. Even though there's no more Thorn Cordyceps, our Beast Taming Sect's mountain gates have countless secret realms and spiritual mountains, with far too many good things! You definitely won't go hungry! Come on, I'll take you to find something to eat right now.”
With that, the boy tossed out a feather.
The feather shone with white radiance, and moments later, an elegant, remarkably stately red-crowned crane appeared before him.
The boy skillfully straddled the red-crowned crane, wrapped his arms tightly around its neck, and shouted, “Little Red, let's go!”
The immortal crane let out a resonant cry, flapped its wings, and soared high into the sky.
Up in the heavens, the wind howled.
The boy didn't forget Li Fan on his head, shielding him tightly with a hand to keep him from being blown away.
From time to time, he channeled over a trace of familiar, warm energy to help stave off the chill of the high altitude.
With the help of this gentle energy, Li Fan's agitated emotions slowly settled.
Seizing this rare opportunity, he analyzed his situation in the Fallen Immortal Realm this time.
“The vessel I possessed this time is rather unusual.”
“A strange bird that struggled out of an eggshell.”
“Mm...”
“Quite novel.”
“Unlike possessing a cultivator, where I could maintain my own thoughts, possessing an exotic beast means my moods and disposition are influenced by the beast. I can barely control myself and act on instinct.”
“It isn't a negative emotion, but the natural disposition of this creature itself. That's why the Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Incantation, which had previously worked without fail, has proven useless for the first time.”
“Unless I manifest my true body and invoke the method of Blue Flame, it seems impossible to break free using my current means.”
“This seems to be the ancient Beast Taming Sect.”
“The young boy beneath me should be a disciple of the Beast Taming Sect. Earlier, while I was inside the eggshell, the gentle energy sustaining my life and helping me break free was released by him.”
“Is this the beast-taming method of the Beast Taming Sect? While aiding the beast's growth...”
“It can also strengthen the bond between both sides.” After sensing it briefly, Li Fan pondered to himself.
Though Li Fan had tormented the boy under the drive of a furious nature, the boy was, in truth, a parental figure to this possessed bird.
As the one experiencing it firsthand, Li Fan understood very well where the bird's anger originated.
Aside from an unsatisfied appetite, it stemmed mostly from the conflict between the recurring feelings of dependence on a human and the instinctive will inherited through its bloodline.
Instinct told the bird that it shouldn't be so close to a human.
Yet it could not control the emotions welling up within.
Hence its irritable behavior.
“The Beast Taming Sect indeed has some ingenuity.”
“I wonder if there are any other effects.”
Musing to himself, Li Fan crouched on the boy's head and peered downward.
The strange bird's eyesight far surpassed that of humans; even from above the clouds, everything on the ground was crystal clear.
Among the rolling mountain ranges, terraced spiritual fields were distributed in tiers.
Several cultivators drove strange beasts with bovine bodies and equine faces to plow the fields.
On a nearby peak, numerous structures stood scattered like stars.
Further in the distance, there seemed to be a tall tower.
A faintly familiar yet dread-inducing aura radiated from it.
“Just ahead is the fire-attribute spiritual field.”
“Everyone says you're the descendant of a divine bird and fire-natured by birth. Eating lots of things like Scarlet Essence Leaves and Profound Fire Fruits definitely can't go wrong—they're sure to do your body good!”
The boy chattered with a grin.
“It just so happens that for some reason, the senior brothers have all been very busy lately. Sneaking you here to grab a bite shouldn't be any problem.”
After flying for a long time, the newborn Li Fan felt drowsy once more.
“Whatever you say...”
Using claws that had grown slightly hardened, he gently scratched at the boy's hair, signaling him to transfer more energy over.
Li Fan yawned and was about to doze off again.
Just at that moment, a tiger's roar resounded through the sky, jolting Li Fan awake.
Looking up, he saw a blue figure standing atop a monster with a tiger's body and a human's face, sweeping in from the distance.
It whistled overhead and vanished in the blink of an eye, heading who knew where.
The slipstream and gale kicked up in its wake left the red-crowned crane beneath the boy wobbling to keep its balance.
Yet the boy showed not the slightest resentment. Instead, he cheered excitedly, “Look! It's Senior Brother Lu Ya! That spirit beast beneath him with a tiger's body and a human face is said to be the descendant of a water divine beast—super powerful! Less than ten years after being born, it's already comparable to a Golden Core cultivator!”
Chapter 315