Song Ciwan stood in the courtyard as Chi Hua Fairy said, "Your goose can be gradually fed meat to enhance its Qi Blood."
"It's the same for humans. If you have strong Qi, even low-level Little Demons will be intimidated."
"You must not harbor any fear. Otherwise, your weakness will only fuel its strength, allowing the Demon to become a true menace."
...
Just as she said this, Chi Hua Fairy suddenly paused. She frowned slightly, her gaze drifting toward the city center.
A light breeze swept by, and Chi Hua Fairy soared into the air.
The pre-dawn darkness had passed, and a faint crimson glow now suffused the eastern sky. With her silk sashes and robes fluttering, Chi Hua Fairy looked every bit a celestial. With a simple point of her hand, a crimson flame ignited beneath her feet.
She rode the crimson flame high above the city and flew into the distance, leaving cries of astonishment from the mortals below. "The Fairy is flying!"
"Immortals really can fly! I... I wish I could fly, too!"
"Fairy, please, save me! My family is in trouble, too! It's horrible here, boohoo..."
But Chi Hua Fairy flew too fast; she could not attend to every voice from the mortal world below. Just as the morning glow broke through the clouds, her figure vanished over the horizon.
Standing under the eaves, Song Ciwan gazed up at the morning sun, and for a moment, she couldn't help but feel a surge of admiration and longing.
'I can't fly, either. I want to learn how to fly!'
Unfortunately, her Power was still insufficient. Flying was something that could only be achieved after reaching the Qi Refining Stage, at the very least.
Refining Essence and Transforming Qi, Qi Refining and Divinity Transformation, Refining Spirit and Returning Void, Refining Void and Merging Dao. Right now, she was only at the Qi Transformation stage, and she still had a long, long way to go.
Although she had obtained the Heart Method mantras for the Sutra of Sitting and Forgetting through the Heaven and Earth Scale, only the mantras for the Qi Transformation Stage were complete. For the subsequent stages, she only had a general outline of the Cultivation Technique.
To be more precise, of all the Cultivation Techniques and Daoist Techniques she had obtained through the Heaven and Earth Scale so far, only the elementary portions were complete.
Song Ciwan had a vague feeling this was perhaps because the items she had traded were of an insufficient level. That, combined with the limitations of her own cultivation realm, meant that the Heaven and Earth Scale's abilities were also being restricted.
She hugged the Big White Goose, gently stroked its back, and then set it down. She then fetched a small first-aid kit from her room, which contained her usual remedies for sprains and bruises.
Song Ciwan began applying medicine to the Big White Goose. It had lost a lot of feathers and was covered in numerous small cuts.
As she tended to his wounds, Song Ciwan couldn't help but start nagging him. "Big White, we humans need to know our limits, and the same goes for geese, all right?"
'Ahem, you could learn a thing or two from your master's style of lying low and grinding for power! I'm the perfect role model, am I not?'
The Big White Goose: "HONK HONK HONK!"
'Oh-ho, still not convinced!'
Not only was he unconvinced, but he even flapped his wings and turned his head, putting on an aggrieved expression.
Seeing him acting so cocky even with half his feathers missing, Song Ciwan didn't know whether to laugh or be angry. Of course, her heart ached for him as well.
"All right, all right, I know you were trying to protect me..." Halfway through her sentence, Song Ciwan paused. 'What Chi Hua Fairy said makes perfect sense. The demon infestation in the city is getting worse, and ordinary people can't be sure they'll live to see the next day. Geese are good watch animals... His fighting spirit is a bit reckless, but what if I trained him to be an assassin-type warrior...?'
Song Ciwan smiled. "Big White, I'm not saying it's bad that you can fight, but we need a strategy. You have to use your advantages! You have wings, don't you? You need to work on your positioning. For example, when that giant cockroach shows up, you can fight like this..."
What Song Ciwan didn't know was that while she was busy schooling her goose behind closed doors, someone in the heart of the city was also talking about him.
In the center of Su Yang City stood the City God Temple. At this very moment, the temple's rear hall, normally closed to the public, was open and receiving guests. One after another, figures in all sorts of attire flew down and landed at the hall's entrance.
These figures all shared one thing in common: they were all Cultivators who had achieved a measure of success in their Cultivation!
For instance, a Martial Artist had to be at least an Innate Expert, a Cultivator had to be at least in the Qi Refining Realm, a Scholar had to possess at least three feet of Talent, and a Buddhist Cultivator had to be at least an Iron Bone Arhat...
These great figures, whom ordinary people would rarely ever see, were now gathered in one place. All eyes fell upon the main seat in the rear hall, where they listened as the Lord City God—personally appointed by imperial edict—sat in his official chair, slapped his thigh, and started cursing his head off.
That's right, the Lord City God was cursing up a storm.
This Lord City God, tall and powerfully built, resembling a mighty warrior from afar, was using his booming, bell-like voice to curse out everything and everyone he could think of.
"Damn it all! That son of a bitch! May their ancestors for eight generations...!"
"You wanna cause trouble, is that it?! The moment Laozi gets here, you all start causing trouble for me! You think my Clear Light Mirror is out of commission, so every damn ghost and ghoul crawls out of the woodwork!"
"That's why I have to rely on all of you! Right, those of you who took the initiative to hunt demons last night, come on up! Take these tally tokens and go to the Demon Refining Platform to claim your rewards..."
Hey, the moment rewards were mentioned, the expressions of everyone below changed instantly. If nothing else, the smiles on their faces were bound to be a little more sincere.
Otherwise, coming all the way to the City God Temple just to hear the Lord City God curse up a storm would be rather awkward, wouldn't it?
The Lord City God stopped cursing and began discussing the city's worsening demon problem with the crowd. Passively waiting to get hit before fighting back was not a sustainable solution, he said, and he asked the assembly if they had any good strategies for dealing with the demons.
Some suggested hunting down well-known Demons in the area and eliminating a few to display the might of the Human Race. Others proposed recruiting local Martial Artists to expand the night patrol teams, suggesting that offering Elixirs as rewards would surely encourage people to sign up enthusiastically.
Chi Hua Fairy said, "The greatest harm from this demon infestation is how difficult it is to defend against. Low-level Little Demons are elusive, and with so many mortals and so few Cultivators, it is difficult for us to provide timely aid. Why not encourage mortals to raise poultry and livestock that possess some spirituality, such as geese or dogs?"
She then mentioned the Big White Goose she had encountered earlier. "It was only a common goose, and even though the Lianfei Demon Beast had already been grievously wounded by me, the fact that this watch-goose could fight it for several rounds means it did a fine job protecting its master. Quite impressive, really."
Chi Hua Fairy's words immediately piqued the crowd's interest. Someone asked, "Oh? And where did you encounter this goose, Fairy? Don't mortals usually use dogs to guard their homes? I had no idea geese could do it, too."
Chi Hua Fairy replied, "When dealing with Insect-type Demon Beasts, are geese and roosters not superior to dogs?"
As for where she had encountered the goose, Chi Hua Fairy did not answer the question. She only said, "You can buy geese at the East Market. If any of you are interested, you can go and take a look."
Tch. Who had that kind of time on their hands? Running all the way to the East Market just to see if a goose could really guard a house?
The crowd's interest quickly waned. The Lord City God at the head of the hall, however, took note of this folk anecdote and immediately had his scribe record it in the Su Yang Chronicles.
After thoroughly lecturing her goose at home, Song Ciwan left for work.
Holding her umbrella, she walked through the thin layer of snow covering the streets and alleys, hearing the sounds of neighbors weeping in sorrow and sighing in lament.
Others were fraught with worry, murmuring to one another that in all their decades of life, they had seen fewer and fewer people but more and more demons. How was anyone supposed to go on living like this?
Song Ciwan made a point of passing by Aunt Jin Hua's house and saw that her family didn't seem to have suffered any misfortune. Clearly, they hadn't encountered any demons last night.
Demons had run rampant in the city last night, and while many people had encountered them, the city's large population meant that even more people hadn't. And people, well, they'd always rather see someone else suffer than suffer themselves. As long as they didn't experience the pain firsthand, life could go on.
The entire city gradually came back to life. As Song Ciwan walked and observed, her mood slowly began to improve.
When she reached the Demon Refining Platform, she found it was especially bustling with activity today.
Of course, the commotion was at the front gate. Song Ciwan was heading to the Washing Room and took the small side door at the back. She didn't even have a chance to get a clear look at what all the excitement up front was about before she was stunned by the sight of the Demon Corpses being brought in—piles and piles of them.
The city's demon plague last night was a windfall for the Demon Refining Platform today.