Chapter 403 : Crazy Spending
The lark's sudden rigid fall startled its owner, who hurriedly caught it and began examining it.
He had raised this bird for many years, and at first, seeing the entire bird stiff as if dead, the owner was instantly overcome with distress. But before this distress could be fully expressed, the owner watched as the rigid lark in his palm suddenly flipped over and stood up again, lively and energetic. It appeared cautious, though, poking its head around as if searching for something.
The owner then shifted his attention from the lark and realized that the "bird friend" he had just encountered had vanished. He cradled his lark and looked around the street for quite some time, not knowing when the other person had left.
By now, Jiang Mo had already walked far away and finally couldn't resist extending her eager hand toward the lark on her shoulder.
The bird reacted extremely quickly, flapping its wings to turn around and landing on Jiang Mo's other shoulder. Simultaneously, Yun Qingyue's voice transmission sounded in Jiang Mo's ear: "What are you doing?"
Jiang Mo smiled sweetly, seemingly in an excellent mood, and voice-transmitted back: "Ah Yue released a blood pressure earlier?"
As fellow divine beasts, even of different species, Jiang Mo hadn't missed Yun Qingyue's release of bloodline pressure to intimidate the other lark—though her Senior Sister was a rational person, occasionally she would show childish behavior due to her physical form. That action was clearly protecting her food! As for who she was protecting, Jiang Mo didn't believe her position in her Senior Sister's heart was inferior to a spirit stone.
Yun Qingyue immediately fell silent. The lark slightly turned its head away, whether from embarrassment or annoyance was unclear. Then, caught off guard, it was petted by Jiang Mo on the head, and upon realizing this, angrily pecked at her.
The White Tiger had tough skin and thick flesh, but the Swan Goose's peck wasn't gentle either. Jiang Mo quickly retracted her hand, narrowly escaping.
The human and bird playfully bantered, with no immediate plans to leave Cloud Stream City—the sect had reacted quickly, and the situation would likely change before long. Although the Swan Goose was still young with insufficient combat power, and Jiang Mo had no intention of bringing her Senior Sister into dangerous situations, they both had intricate connections with the sect and couldn't help but care and pay attention.
After discussing, they wandered around the city and finally chose to stay at the best inn in the city.
When booking a room, Jiang Mo straightforwardly told the innkeeper: "I need one superior room."
The innkeeper saw nothing unusual in this and arranged for an attendant to show them to the room.
Yun Qingyue, however, felt somewhat awkward. Being close together in the wilderness was fine, but sharing a room always made her uncomfortable. She wanted to ask Jiang Mo why she had only booked one room, but then realized that booking a separate room for a bird would seem strange.
In the end, Yun Qingyue said nothing and followed Jiang Mo as the attendant led them to their room. When she peeked inside, she was relieved—this was indeed the best inn in Cloud Stream City, and this was the finest room in the inn. The entire room utilized spatial folding to make it extremely spacious. An exquisite screen divided the inner and outer areas, with a wardrobe and bed inside, guest chairs outside, and a chaise lounge in the corner.
With Yun Qingyue's current size, she could actually sleep anywhere, and sleep wasn't even necessary for cultivators. But seeing the spacious room, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
After showing them to the room, the attendant asked: "Does the guest have any further instructions?"
Jiang Mo's gaze swept across the room, seemingly satisfied with the layout, and she waved dismissively: "Nothing else. You may go. I want to rest for a while, so don't disturb me. I'll call if I need anything."
Hearing this, the attendant didn't linger and immediately withdrew, leaving only the human and bird in the room.
Jiang Mo didn't sense any awkwardness in the atmosphere and called to Yun Qingyue: "It's been a long time since we've stayed in a normal room or slept in a normal bed. Now that we're not short on money and don't need to rush around, let's take a good rest."
As she spoke, Jiang Mo had already circled around the screen and fallen onto the spacious, soft bed.
Yun Qingyue had no interest in lying flat with her, and immediately flapped her wings to fly away. However, before she could fly off, she felt a force from behind. Looking back, she saw that Jiang Mo had grabbed her tail.
With a "snap," something seemed to break in her mind. The Little Swan Goose in lark's clothing became furious—no one could touch her feathers, especially her beautiful tail feathers. There were only a few of them, and what if one was accidentally pulled out? How dare this little tiger be so rough? Pecking her bald would be too lenient!
After her body became smaller, even if her rationality remained, her personality and behavior were inevitably influenced by her physical form. Just like the Little White Tiger who had once clung to her Senior Sister and acted cute, now the Little Swan Goose was enraged...
Jiang Mo had instinctively reached out to keep her from leaving, but accidentally grabbed the lark's tail. She immediately realized her mistake and let go as soon as she caught the bird. She swore she hadn't pulled out even half a feather, but the lark was clearly provoked. It turned its head and pecked fiercely at her hand, and was even preparing to follow up with more pecks to give her a head full of bumps.
This development completely exceeded Jiang Mo's expectations. While dodging the attacks, she hastily apologized: "I'm sorry, Senior Sister. I was wrong, I was wrong. I shouldn't have touched your feathers. Please don't be angry anymore..."
The address of "Senior Sister" ultimately recalled Yun Qingyue's rationality. She paused, though the entire bird was still in a puffed-up state, its body expanded by a whole circle—of course, with the lark's appearance and size, even when puffed up, it couldn't look fierce. On the contrary, it looked adorably angry, and the fluffed-out feathers looked so soft and fluffy that it made one want to reach out and stroke them.
Jiang Mo thought so, but this time she truly didn't have the courage to stroke the Swan Goose's feathers while she was angry, so she had to give up.
༻༺❀༻✧⋆｡°✩☽༓☾✩°｡⋆✧༺❀༻༺
The place where Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue were staying was called Heavenly Tower. Below the third floor was a restaurant, while above the third floor were guest rooms. A barrier was set at the dividing point, which both blocked noise and prevented diners from going upstairs and disturbing the guests.
Overall, the environment was quite pleasant, so Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue continued to stay there.
Apart from daily feeding and cultivation, Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue spent most of their time in the restaurant below the third floor. They didn't use private rooms but sat in the main hall, occasionally staying there for an entire day.
This wasn't without purpose. From the second day of sitting in the main hall, the two gradually heard a lot of news.
For instance, the Crimson Blood Sect and Nine Abyss Sect were at war... Of course, this news was outdated and would be ridiculed if mentioned.
Another example was the Nine Abyss Sect's conspiracy to overthrow the cultivation world... This was a hot topic. Recently, a rumor had swept through the cultivation world, detailing the Nine Abyss Sect's conspiracy with apparent credibility. But after the information passed through several channels, the originally somewhat believable news was exaggerated several times, immediately becoming dramatic and even absurd. In the end, it was hard to say how many people still believed it.
Yet another piece of news was that due to internal conflict, all three sects had sent emissaries to the Harmony Sect seeking alliance... Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue already knew this, so they were very interested in any follow-up, but unfortunately, there was none. As the news circulated, various versions emerged, making it seem as if the Harmony Sect had split into three, allying with each of the three sects.
And yet one more piece of news was that the righteous path seemed to have learned of the demonic path's internal conflict. Normally, the righteous path would not interfere in such conflicts, but this time they appeared to have other intentions... Of course, this information was also incomplete, only mentioning that the Xuanqing Sect had taken the lead in uniting with the Tiandao Sect and Buddha Sect. Whether this was true remained unknown, and what the Xuanqing Sect intended to do by contacting the two sects was even more of a mystery.
༻༺❀༻✧⋆｡°✩☽༓☾✩°｡⋆✧༺❀༻༺
Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue stayed at Heavenly Tower for almost half a month, listening to various news throughout this time. These reports weren't static, with new information arriving from time to time, so both were willing to waste some time each day listening to gossip.
Fortunately, regardless of how the news spread, events didn't seem to be developing in a negative direction—at least not for the other sects. Only the Nine Abyss Sect was caught off guard by the information suddenly released by the Harmony Sect. How the demonic path viewed the Nine Abyss Sect's actions was hard to say, but once the news was out, the righteous path had an excuse to eagerly intervene in the demonic path's internal conflict.
So Jiang Mo and Yun Qingyue heard the latest news: due to Zhu Baiyi's timely return and the Xuanqing Sect's apparent intention to lead the righteous path's intervention, the Nine Abyss Sect's leader had weighed the pros and cons and actively sought reconciliation and compromise with the Crimson Blood Sect.
Unfortunately, by the next day, they heard new information with two different versions that led to the same outcome.
One was that the Crimson Blood Sect's leader was unwilling to reconcile and had rejected the Nine Abyss Sect's peace offering. The other was that the Celestial Demon Sect, seeing the opportunity to profit from the dispute slipping away, had unwillingly stirred up trouble between both sides, preventing reconciliation.
In short, this internal conflict hadn't ended but showed signs of escalating.
Yun Qingyue always listened very attentively, with a serious expression, and would turn to consume spirit grass and fruits with even more vigor. She clearly wanted to recover her strength as quickly as possible. Even the spirit stones that she had initially been reluctant to try, she later washed and put in her mouth—only after eating did she realize that the texture of spirit stones wasn't bad at all. It was like eating pastries, one at a time without issue, melting instantly in the mouth without fear of choking.
With the frantic consumption of spirit stones, the Little Swan Goose was spending crazily, and her cultivation was rapidly increasing. One day, when she returned to her original form in their room, Jiang Mo counted and suddenly discovered that her sixth tail feather had grown out.