Chapter 67 Keeping Birds

Liangzhou City, Jianguo Road Residential Compound.

Holding a thrush birdcage, Zhou Qing walked slowly along the path toward his usual spot for basking in the sun.

Today, that fortune-teller—or rather, the divination practitioner Liu Guishan—had come again, attracting everyone's attention as usual.

The entire path was packed with people queuing up for fortune-telling. The bustling commotion and the near-pious gazes reminded him of the crowds seeking blessings before divine statues in temples of the past.

Faced with power transcending the ordinary, people would always choose to support it. Hundreds or thousands of years ago, there had also been many who witnessed his traces and gathered like this at his feet, with quite a few wanting to erect statues and stele for him to publicize his deeds.

At first, he found this rather interesting, but as it happened more and more often over time, he grew bored. Moreover, the high-ranking officials and nobles in various places would requisition corvée labor from the common folk just to erect a statue for him, and in the end, it was the ordinary people who suffered.

Because of this, he had always declined similar requests ever since. These superficial things were of no use to him, but the common people could truly have their farming disrupted by such forced labor. Matters concerning people's livelihoods were naturally far more important than formalistic worship.

He bypassed the dense crowds waiting before the fortune-telling stall and walked toward the locust tree in full bloom. In the blink of an eye, he noticed that someone was already sitting beneath the tree.

The man looked to be in his fifties, wearing a somewhat faded tweed suit and shirt, with a jujube-wood walking stick placed beside him and a foreign-language book in his hand. At a glance, he bore quite the air of an intellectual from the previous century.

On the tree branches beside him hung a full four bird cages. Each cage was of a different style, yet all were exquisitely crafted. The birds inside were a lark, a Java sparrow, a canary, and a mynah, respectively. Every single one of them had sleek, glossy feathers, showing they were tended to with meticulous care.

This man was named Shen Muqian, formerly a professor at Liangzhou University in the city. After retirement, he spent his elderly years in this Jianguo Road residential compound, and his main hobbies were raising and walking birds.

Professor Shen had dedicated his entire life to academia, and now he brought that academic spirit into his hobby as well, forming a set of effective theories. He was an expert figure in the residential compound's bird-keeping circle.

When Zhou Qing first arrived here a few months ago, it was from him that he had heard about various bird-walking theories, which led him to join in. At least within the realm of bird walking, Shen Muqian's attainments were far higher than his.

"Oh, if it isn't little Zhou? Out walking the thrush again?"

Noticing his arrival, Shen Muqian, who had been lowering his head to read, looked up, pushed up his presbyopic glasses, and shifted his gaze from him to the cage in his hand.

"Let me see... Oh, the thrush you've been raising lately is really nice, quite spirited."

Shen Muqian looked at the thrush in his cage and reached out to tease it. "This thrush is coming into prime condition quite fast. After walking it for only a few months, its performance is comparable to what others get after walking theirs for several years. Truly a good bird."

"However, judging by its feather color, the nutrition from your feed is still a bit lacking. Beginners at raising birds are all prone to this—feeding too monotonous a diet so the bird's nutrition can't keep up, and it might fall ill later on."

"From now on, besides millet and such, give it some fruit too, things like apples will do. People need a balanced diet, and birds are the same."

Shen Muqian chatted away eloquently there. Having been a professor all his life, he was used to guiding students. Whenever he saw someone else's birds, he always felt compelled to offer a few critiques.

Zhou Qing nodded slightly. Although Shen Muqian was somewhat prone to playing the teacher, he had indeed provided him with a lot of experience.

Just as Shen Muqian had said, when it came to raising birds, he was indeed a beginner.

Though he had kept company with a phoenix for a very long time, when he first picked up the phoenix, it was already a mature demonic entity that had learned to be self-sufficient and take care of its own livelihood. For several centuries, he had barely managed it at all, let alone "raised" it.

After all, he truly had no intention of taking in a demonic entity at the beginning; he had only reluctantly agreed back then because he couldn't resist the phoenix's repeated pleas. Who could have known that the bird would end up following him for nearly a thousand years afterwards.

In his memory, that phoenix was initially utterly timid in nature. When it first followed him back to the Immortal Alliance, several cultivators practicing demon-taming arts brought their own demonic entities over to have a look. Some of those entities were even inferior to it in cultivation, yet every time, they could scare it into trembling all over.

Yet just such a timid mouse of a bird had remained by his side throughout the following millennia—from plains to high mountains, from mountain forests to cities, from sects to battlefields. There were no lack of nine-death-and-a-lifetime dangers among them, but wherever he was, the bird would always follow.

There was a period when he went into a prolonged seclusion, hiding away in mountain forests for over a hundred years without seeing a soul. The sole object of communication by his side was only the phoenix. To relieve his boredom, that bird even self-taught human theatrical tunes, occasionally performing them for him to see, bringing a rare touch of warmth to those lonely days.

During these years of entering the mortal world, he found that quite a few people held similar sentiments.

In this current era, many people disliked socializing and had no longing for romantic love, yet instead preferred the company of cats, dogs, or other animals.

Those animals were not spirit beasts, nor could they even speak, yet they brought a comfort surpassing even that of many human beings. Many people walked out of the depths of depression because of their companionship, and when they passed away, it brought grief no less than the departure of friends and family.

All things possess spirit, and all things belong to the mortal world—this was his realization regarding this matter.

The so-called mortal world consisted of human joys, sorrows, sorrows, and delights, but these emotions were not a human monopoly. In certain aspects, the bonds formed by these non-human creatures were even deeper than those among humans, and their very existence constituted the mortal world.

It was precisely because of this that he kept this present thrush. Thus, habit was truly a wondrous thing; he had simply grown accustomed to having a bird accompany his side.

"Right, little Zhou, tomorrow is the weekend again. Any plans?"

Zhou Qing pondered slightly. "I'll go on a tour around Mount Qi."

When he went to find Yuan Tiangang a few days ago, he had heard the phoenix's current whereabouts from that old friend. That little crimson bird that used to follow him timidly had now become a supreme demon emperor reigning supreme over the demon realm, having established a kingdom of her own.

The vital essence of living beings constituted the mortal world. Outside the human realm, the phoenix had constructed a unique mortal world, which was beneficial for him to condense his divine soul, and thus he developed some interest in visiting the demon realm.

According to what Yuan Tiangang had told him, tomorrow—which was the twenty-fourth day of the ninth lunar month—was the day the demon kingdom held its annual flower-viewing assembly. He intended to take this opportunity to go there, see what kind of demon kingdom had been built under that bird's command, and witness such a different mortal world.

"Mount Qi? The Mount Qi to the east? That's a good place." Shen Muqian nodded. "The scenery is nice and there are few people, except that it's a bit far. Are you planning to join a short-distance tour group?"

"That won't be necessary."

Zhou Qing lifted the birdcage to the side and smiled. "I happen to have an 'old friend' over there."