"Actually, we've been pretty clueless the whole way, we haven't had any plans at all." Wei Dong sat by the window on the second floor of the inn, leaning out to shine the white crane feather on the pedestrians on the street.
"We can only follow the NPCs for now." In Fang Fei's mind, the old woman they met on Lion Camel Ridge was the first NPC, and the python man they met after entering Lion Camel Kingdom was the second.
Fang Fei suddenly remembered that in the illusion created by the white crane feather, she was a directionless deep-sea fish, slowly moving forward on the boundless seabed—the more inexplicable the fragments, the more unsettling they were.
"What did you see with the feather?" Fang Fei couldn't help but ask curiously.
Wei Dong watched for a while before losing interest: "Whatever the animal's head looks like, that's what I see. For example, that wild boar spirit, I see a wild boar rooting in the ground for food in some deep mountain; and those two rabbit spirits, I see two rabbits digging holes on the grassland—it's really strange, they are what they should be, but why aren't we human?"
"..." This question remained unanswered in Fang Fei's mind. Was her own world her inner world? Or her past life's experiences?
"But yours is quite accurate. Don't you like diving? You've become a 'fish that swims all day long.'" Wei Dong said, still using his feathers to observe the pedestrians on the street.
"This thing has something to do with hobbies?" Fang Fei felt that no matter how profound the question, it became very commonplace and ordinary when it came to Wei Dong. —It was as if someone brought him a plate of particularly precious and special ingredients, and he simply added scallions and stir-fried them into a big pot of dumpling soup.
"Anyway, I've become a dog constantly struggling to make a living," Wei Dong said with a touch of emotion, moving the feather aside and looking at Fang Fei. "You know what? Watching that dog put the food it found into its bowl reminded me of how every month after I get paid, I have to give the lion's share to my mom, and after I get married, I'll have to give the lion's share to my wife… No wonder that dog is so thin…"
"…" His tragic backstory had been turned into a little anecdote.
Wei Dong held the feather up again, letting out a series of startled "quack quack quack" cries.
Fang Fei leaned her goose head closer: "Quack?"
"It's nothing, it's just that snake-headed one over there," Wei Dong pointed to a slightly thin, snake-headed man, "I just saw it molting, and it was quite unsettling."
Wei Dong didn't finish his sentence: It seems TV dramas are all made up; real snake molting isn't as beautiful as Bai Suzhen's…
"Should we still contact that python man?" Fang Fei sat back down at the table, her tone serious.
Wei Dong closed the window and put away the white crane feather. "You don't want that python man to find the Pure Human, do you?"
"I can't accept that the heart of my own kind being refined and offered to the Roc."
"Well, we're not the same kind as them. I think a true Pure Human is almost at the saint level."
Fang Fei glared at Wei Dong and continued, "I even think that the Pure Human might know the whereabouts of the fragment. However, the Pure Human is definitely in grave danger if he comes to the Lion Camel Kingdom, so whether or not we should find the Pure Human is really a dilemma."
Wei Dong scratched his goose head, feeling that he wasn't smart to begin with, and now with a bird's head, his brain capacity was even smaller. "Let's learn from the big boss and draw a diagram to analyze it. Three cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang."
"We're two."
Wei Dong put the white crane feather on the table. "The bird fairy's feather counts as one too."
To draw a diagram, you need paper and pen. Wei Dong took out a notebook from his bag, but couldn't find a pen for a long time.
Fang Fei found an inkstone on the table in the inn, dipped it in water and ground it, then randomly picked out a large feather from the pile of feathers: "Let's use feathers dipped in ink to write."
Wei Dong saw that she handed him a great bustard feather, took it, dipped it in ink, and felt awkward: "This is a bustard feather, I have a feeling I'm going to write a masterpiece like 'Jin Ping Mei'..."
"..."
Wei Dong proactively changed to a pigeon feather, dipped it in ink, and began drawing in his notebook. With a few strokes, he created a three-dimensional fragment of a New Year's woodblock print. A question mark was drawn on the fragment: "Our ultimate goal is to find the fragment. Currently, our only gain is a bird fairy feather that can find the Pure One. Using this feather, we have the following options—"
Wei Dong used a quill to draw a feather, then listed several branches: "One is that we ditch the python man and use the feather to find the Pure One ourselves; the second is that we hide the bird fairy feather and temporarily give the other feathers to the python man, so we don't go to the end of the road and can still communicate with him; the last is that we give him all the feathers and see if he finds the bird fairy feather and has a faster and easier way to find the Pure One."
"But, once the python man finds the Pure One, the Pure One's life will be in danger," Fang Fei said.
"Then let's reject the third option for now," Wei Dong crossed out the option with the Pure One's heart drawn on it.
Both of them actually leaned towards the second option. Although it lacked creativity, it at least considered various aspects.
"The python man might be a good thing for us: he might be able to find pure humans, or he might be able to make connections with the upper echelons of the Lion Camel Kingdom. Besides, he's been here for many years and should have some social connections," Fang Fei further analyzed. "Also, he promised to give us a dragon ball after it's done. I wonder if that thing will actually be useful to us."
With no other team members offering suggestions, Fang Fei felt forced to say a lot, and for a moment, she felt unlike herself. At that moment, she noticed Wei Dong staring at her intently, as if he had discovered something new.
Fang Fei stopped talking, coldly staring at Wei Dong, her expression as if to say: If you keep staring at me like that, I'll beat you up.
Wei Dong looked for a while before turning his gaze away, fiddling with his eyes for a long time. "Fang Fei, I've discovered a really good method."
"..."
"I thought of it when I was drawing a feather just now," Wei Dong pointed to the feather he had drawn in his notebook. "A complete feather is made up of many tiny hairs, just like the veins of a leaf. I was thinking, are these tiny hairs like the eyelashes of that bird fairy?
"Then, while you were analyzing it just now, I secretly plucked a little hair from the bird fairy's feather and placed it where the eyelashes are, and as a result, I saw your original form again!"
Fang Fei's expression shifted between grim and relaxed, until she finally didn't know what expression to use. "
I've discovered that you can only see another side of someone when you're focused. If you relax, it's no different from your normal perspective," Wei Dong plucked a small feather and gave it to Fang Fei. "We can try to use some glue or something to cut this shorter and stick it on our eyelids like a woman applying false eyelashes."
"..."
Fang Fei placed the tiny feather on her eyelashes, avoiding Wei Dong's gaze, and looked directly at the pedestrians outside the window. Sure enough, she clearly saw the true form of a wolf-headed man—a strong black wolf in the mountains tearing apart a person, its head inside the person's abdomen, emptying the stomach, then raising its head, its entire head stained red with blood.
Fang Fei felt uncomfortable and looked away: "In 'Journey to the West,' did Tang Sanzang and the others enter the city?"
"Luckily not. At Lion Camel Ridge, Tang Sanzang was captured by the demons of the Green Lion and White Elephant. The two demon kings then informed Dapeng, planning for the three brothers to share Tang Sanzang's flesh."
Fang Fei asked, "Why would eating Tang Sanzang's flesh grant immortality?"
"Because Tang Sanzang is the reincarnation of Jin Chanzi, having been a good person for ten lifetimes."
"Who is Jin Chanzi?"
Wei Dong spoke of this as if he knew it all by heart: "Jin Chanzi was the second disciple of the Buddha. Regarding the meaning of Jin Chanzi, some say that the shedding of the cicada's shell itself signifies rebirth."
At this point, the two seemed to have thought of something at the same time.
Wei Dong said, "In 'Journey to the West,' the three demons' goal was to eat Tang Sanzang's flesh, but since we entered this world, we haven't heard of any monks from the East going on a pilgrimage. Instead, the python man repeatedly mentioned 'a pure human heart.' Could it be that 'a pure human heart' and 'Tang Sanzang's flesh' mean the same thing?"
"Regardless of whether 'a pure human heart' has the effect of immortality, it's something Dapeng wants," Fang Fei said, expressing her thoughts. "Does this 'pure human' allude to Tang Sanzang?"
Wei Dong blurted out, "If that's the case, we can't hand over the pure human!"
Perhaps in Wei Dong's mind, Tang Sanzang and Sun Wukong from 'Journey to the West' were forever the unshakeable side of justice.
Fang Fei looked at Wei Dong, seemingly having never seen him so resolute before.
"Tell me, what would it be like if Boss Mu analyzed today's situation?" Wei Dong scratched his head.
"I can't guess." Fang Fei felt she was a bit far removed from Mu Yiran's way of thinking.
"What if it's President Shao?"
"I can't guess either."
"What if it's... Ke'er?"
Fang Fei thought about Ke Xun, who was also an action-oriented person like herself, and for a moment she couldn't figure out whether that person would choose to follow the python man or go straight into the palace to observe the roc.
"Ke'er's ideas are often unexpected; he often finds new clues by taking unconventional approaches…" Wei Dong's beady eyes suddenly lit up. "I've realized we seem to have overlooked a clue."
Fang Fei's mind was already racing. She planned to first get her hands on the python man's dragon ball, then increase her demonic power and rally all the lesser demons in the city to help find the fragments…
Fang Fei blinked her goose-like eyes: "What clue?"
"As we just said, we're three cobblers now!" Wei Dong picked up the white crane feather. "Since the bird immortal could leave behind a feather, then the bird immortal himself must be in the Lion Camel Kingdom!"
After Wei Dong said this, Fang Fei also felt that this idea was very feasible, but she didn't want to praise him directly, so she said, "The bird immortal himself is not only in the Lion Camel Kingdom, but also in the Joyful Green Pavilion in the Lion Camel Kingdom."
Indeed, this whole pile of feathers was found by the madam's people. The owners of these feathers were either the girls or the guests of the Joyful Green Pavilion.
That means that the bird immortal might be a sex worker, or he might be a client.
"What a free-spirited immortal!" Wei Dong laughed heartily.