The bird fairy was dressed as a handsome young gentleman, with hair as black as lacquer, a face as fair as jade, and a white feather cloak that further accentuated his extraordinary celestial bearing.
Wei Dong blinked his goose eyes, secretly observing the bird fairy through eyelashes made of white crane feathers. Soon, an illusion unfolded like a tide, with purple clouds swirling before him, a beautiful landscape unlike anything in the mortal world. Above, a fairy rode a white crane and flew away carefree, leaving only the fairy's flute music in the azure sky.
Wei Dong was stunned, struggling to break free from the illusion, the strange and beautiful flute music still lingering in his ears. Wei Dong touched the goose head on his neck: "Why is the White Crane Prince dressed as a human?"
"When I speak with humans, I naturally appear as one," the bird fairy said, gently fanning himself with a snow-white feather fan.
Wei Dong hadn't expected that the other party would see through his illusion and recognize his human identity.
"There were clearly two people, so why did only one come?" the bird fairy asked.
Wei Dong felt there was no need to hide anything from the immortals, so he told the truth: "My companion and I split up; she went to the python spirit."
"You intend to give my feather to the python spirit?"
"We wouldn't dare," Wei Dong chuckled. "The feather is still with me, but we have to give the python spirit an explanation, because it's been secretly following us all this way."
Wei Dong recalled his and Fang Fei's discovery at the inn—the number of snake-headed people around the inn was increasing. Considering they had seen snake-headed people along the way, they realized the python man had been sending people to follow them.
Therefore, they decided to risk splitting up.
Fang Fei took the other feathers to see the python man, while Wei Dong disguised himself, carrying realgar to avoid the snake-headed people's pursuit, and went to the Joyful Green Pavilion to find the Bird Fairy.
"You'd better quickly remove all those wild duck feathers from your head," the Bird Fairy said gently, fanning herself with a feather fan, unable to bear looking at the prickly "ugly bird" before her.
So, Wei Dong removed the wild duck feathers he had used for disguise from his head: "Young Master White Crane, we came here to find a fragment of a New Year's picture woodblock print. Who knew we'd go through so many twists and turns? Now that python spirit wants to use your feathers to find a pure human, to refine a pure human heart to offer to the Roc," Wei Dong's voice was hoarse, "We...we didn't want our kind to suffer, so we risked coming to find you."
"What can I do to help you?" the bird immortal said in a completely indifferent tone.
Wei Dong removed the last wild duck feather stuck to his face: "You are a deity, perhaps you know where the fragment is..."
"The New Year's picture woodblock print was made by humans, only humans know its whereabouts." The bird immortal picked up the teacup in front of him and took a sip of tea.
Wei Dong looked at the small teacup in front of him. Although he was a little thirsty, he gave up, because the small bowl of the teacup couldn't even hold half a goose's beak. Wei Dong suddenly felt a pang of irony .
He was a human, yet he had a goose's head; the person opposite him, whether a deity or not, whose original form was a white crane, was now sitting there sipping tea like a human. Truly, all beings were turned upside down. Looking at the entire Lion Camel Kingdom, wasn't the same way? "The Pure Human is in the Lion Camel Kingdom," the Bird Immortal suddenly said. "Where in the Lion Camel Kingdom?" Wei Dong quickly asked. The Bird Immortal remained silent, slowly waving his fan, and only uttered three words: "Human yet not human." "Could it be that the Pure Human isn't human?" Wei Dong was bewildered. The Bird Immortal only smiled and remained silent. "At the rate the monsters of the Lion Camel Kingdom and Lion Camel Ridge are eating people like this, I'm afraid everyone in the world will be eaten up." A terrifying thought arose in Wei Dong's mind: when the Pure Human becomes non-human, wouldn't there be no one left in the world? "The power of all beings is inconceivable," said the bird fairy. "The matters of life and death are beyond our comprehension." "..." "The power of dragons is inconceivable," the bird fairy added. "The dragon and snake might be able to help you; just give them my feather." Wei Dong: Why is she getting so hung up on "inconceivable"...? Before Wei Dong could even process what was happening, the bird fairy stretched out her arms, seemingly to yawn, but those arms transformed into enormous white wings. In the blink of an eye, the bird fairy had become a white crane and flew out the window. By the time Wei Dong caught up to the window, the white crane had already become a tiny dot in the azure sky. Seeing the feather fan still on the table, Wei Dong put it away and left the room. When Wei Dong arrived breathlessly at the meeting place with the python man, he found Fang Fei and the python man staring at him in surprise. Fang Fei: "Why are you here?" Wei Dong: "We agreed to come together, but you arrived first and I haven't even asked you yet!" Fang Fei: "..." The python man looked at Fang Fei: It seems Lady Dongfang's dream of monopolizing the dragon pearl is out of the question. Fang Fei rolled her eyes at the python-man, remaining silent, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw Wei Dong flick his sleeve, seemingly scattering a white feather among the others. Wei Dong's movement was so natural that the python-man didn't notice. Wei Dong deliberately asked, "After it's done, don't forget your promise." The python-man smiled, "Of course, my dragon clan always keeps its word." "Of course," Wei Dong cleared his throat and said, "Dragon power is incredible." The python-man looked at Wei Dong with a hint of surprise, as if he couldn't quite believe that Wei Dong had said those words. "How long will it take for Young Master Dragon to identify that feather?" Fang Fei asked. If the python-man had to examine each feather one by one in front of his eyes, then there really wouldn't be enough time. Both of them had clearly heard the timer, which meant that more than half of the time had passed; seven hours had gone by, leaving only six hours to use. But the two of them still hadn't made any progress. "This is simple, true gold fears no fire." The python-man smiled, and half of his purplish-red snake tongue emerged, along with a small fireball. Wei Dong instinctively pulled Fang Fei away, trying to shield her with his body. Fang Fei, however, was unfazed, even tugging at Wei Dong's sleeve, annoyed that he was blocking her way. The small fireballs spat out by the python landed on the pile of feathers, quickly igniting into flames of various colors. The flames emitted smoke of different hues—some strangely fragrant, some foul-smelling, and some so pungent they made people cough. But the indescribable smoky smell quickly dissipated, as the feathers burned rapidly, turning to ashes in just a few minutes. Only one snow-white feather remained unaffected by the fire, seemingly alive, soaring high into the air and flying towards a certain direction in the city. In a flash, the python-man narrowed his eyes and instantly followed, his entire body transforming into a giant snake, soaring through the air, relentlessly pursuing the feather. Wei Dong stood on tiptoe, craning his neck to watch, until it disappeared from sight, then turned and rubbed his neck.
Wei Dong and Fang Fei exchanged a glance, then both couldn't help but gasp in amazement. They had been so focused on following the python's movements that their necks had unknowingly stretched out incredibly long—longer than a real goose's neck, according to body proportions.
"My god, we've both been awakened to our animalistic instincts," Wei Dong exclaimed.
"It's demonic instinct," Fang Fei corrected him coldly.
Wei Dong continued excitedly, "You know what? I almost flapped my wings and flew away just now!"
Fang Fei whispered, "Me too."
Wei Dong, however, felt increasingly fearful: "Will we slowly be assimilated into real goose demons?"
Fang Fei: "Don't worry, even if we become goose demons, we only have six hours left."
Wei Dong: "..."
As darkness fell, the giant python swam back down from the sky.
After landing, the python transformed back into its male form, its face now beaming with excitement: "Found the place! It's Old Pig Butcher's place!"
"Old Pig Butcher?"
"Old Pig Butcher is the biggest butcher in Lion Camel Kingdom; almost all meat merchants get their supplies from him," the python man knew the two goose demons had only recently arrived in the city, so it was understandable that they didn't know Old Pig Butcher. "Whenever demon soldiers hunt down humans, they're almost always sent to Old Pig Butcher for slaughter." The
two were quite uncomfortable hearing this, but Fang Fei still said, "So, Old Pig Butcher has a lot of people waiting to be slaughtered. How do you know who the pure human is?"
The python man smiled, "I have my own way. I'm grateful for your help in this matter, so I'm giving you this dragon pearl from my ancestor as a token of my gratitude."
Fang Fei stepped forward and took the box containing the dragon pearl, but then heard the python man quickly recite a line of poetry in her ear: "Chang'e should regret stealing the elixir, her heart yearning for the blue sea and sky every night."
Fang Fei didn't understand what he meant at first, but asked, "When you're refining the pure human heart, can we go and watch?"
"That's your problem," the python-man said calmly. "You give me the feather, I'll give you the Dragon Pearl. Our deal is done. You can go see it if you're interested, but there's no agreement between us anymore. If you do anything to hinder my actions, I won't be polite."
Wei Dong ignored the python-man and opened the treasure box first: "Let's see if the Dragon Pearl is real."
The Dragon Pearl inside the box was as red and shiny as agate, surrounded by a thin, almost imperceptible layer of rosy mist.
"Farewell forever." After saying this, the python-man disappeared.
Fang Fei told Wei Dong about the poem the python man had quoted: "I don't think it said that. I remember a fairly famous poet wrote those two lines."
"It should be a poem by Li Bai, I think the title is 'Chang'e'!" Wei Dong was especially happy that he actually remembered the poem. "Anyway, it means that Chang'e regrets secretly eating the elixir of immortality for two people, and as a result, she's spending her days alone on the moon."
"..." Fang Fei then realized that the python man was reminding her not to be too selfish, and that the Dragon Ball should be shared by the Oriental Goose couple.
Fang Fei broke the Dragon Ball in half: "Shall we each have half?"
"Sure!" Wei Dong picked up half and put it in his flat mouth to eat.
"Why are you eating so fast? What if it's poisonous?!" Fang Fei wished she could pry the half of the ball back from Wei Dong's throat.
Wei Dong smacked his lips, savoring the taste of the dragon ball, and mumbled, "The bird fairy already said that dragon power is incredible, and that we should just give the feathers to the python; maybe it can help us."
Fang Fei, without a second thought, was about to put the remaining half of the dragon ball into her mouth when Wei Dong stopped her. "There's no rush to eat it. Wait a minute, see how I react after I finish. You can eat it if I'm okay."
Fang Fei looked at Wei Dong, unsure what to say.
Wei Dong, however, launched into a long explanation: "The Bird Fairy gave us some guidance. First, the python is useful to us; now that I think about it, it's probably to help us find the Pure Man. Second, the Bird Fairy used a term, 'non-human,' which I don't know what it means. I can understand if we're not human, since we've both seen it—you're a fish, I'm a dog—but if the Pure Man isn't human, then what is he?"
Fang Fei ignored Wei Dong's awkward explanation and simply said, "Let's hurry to Old Pig Butcher's place! Maybe the python man is already there."
According to the python man, the Pure Man is in Old Pig Butcher's slaughterhouse. They really need to hurry; the Pure Man might be slaughtered by Old Pig next.