While waiting for the hawk to laboriously make her way back to him, Avery did his best to reassure her and convince her he was not secretly a big devil waiting for her to come closer so he could devour her soul.

It was too late for her to regret anyways, her detour had already crushed any hope she had at catching up to the caravan, but he knew better than anyone else that logic could not always control emotional reactions.

“Since we are going to journey together, I cannot keep calling you little girl forever. Tell me your name, little girl.”

Still very reluctant to give out her personal information, she answered very succinctly and threw the question back at him.

“I’m Audrey, mister spirit. What about you? Who are you? How did you become a spirit? Are you a cultivator? Is being a spirit fun?”

Despite how charming he found her curiosity, Avery found that some of her questions were inconvenient for him to answer. As someone who had dedicated their eternal life to pursuing the supreme Truth, he was very reluctant to lie. The truth and the Truth were different things, but they were not completely unrelated either, so the higher the cultivation, the less likely it was for someone to lie or deceive juniors.

He obviously didn’t want to come clean and tell her his identity either, so he simply gave a vague response and changed the subject.

“Call me Avery. I became a spirit as a result of wrongly using a skill, and only woke up not long ago, so I am not clear about my new existence. Now tell me, what do you know about cultivation?”

“Um, I just know it is a way to use blood to communicate with our ancestors and ask them to give us some of their powers. Oh, and my ancestor is the Wayseeker Thunderbird, so if I could reach him, then I would become very powerful!”

Seeing how confident she was in her ignorance, Avery had to restrain himself to not start lecturing her on the true mysteries of blood qi. He promised himself he would teach this new protege of his soon enough, and skipped straight to the relevant topic.

“That's not exactly it, but I supposed saying that you will use blood to gain the powers of your powers is not too far from the truth. However, the ramifications of the path you will follow are extremely great, so it should be considered carefully.”

“Since you are a female hawk, be it physically or spiritually, you are most suited to cultivate the lineage of the Vermilion Bird. Unfortunately for you, this old necklace only contains the blood essence of the Azure dragon bloodline, so you will have to make a choice.”

“Vermilion bird, Azure dragon, what are those? Do I have to choose one of them as my ancestral totem?”

Avery didn't know what an ancestral totem was, and was surprised that she seemed not to know about the four divine beasts. It wasn’t hard to understand what she meant, but it seemed he had some misconception on the common knowledge of this era.

He wasn’t quasi-omniscient in this form, so he had prepared throughoutly for his stay in this world, like learning all the languages in use or listing any clues that might lead him to discover the Elder’s plan. Other than that, however, he had intentionally restricted his knowledge, believing that would help him train his mentality.

“You can think of it that way. Under normal circumstances, I would recommend you stay true to your lineage and choose to follow the Vermilion bird. Unfortunately, that way, the blood essence I have can only be used as a source of energy. If used well, it will make your cultivation go ten times faster, but that is all. You will still have to cultivate them from scratch, and it will take at least a few months before your first transformation, when your wing will be healed.”

“On the other hand, while you are not as suitable for the path of the Azure dragon, choosing it will let you maximize the benefits of this impure dragon blood. With my help, we can even do a blood transfusion, directly letting it infect and replace your own blood, instantly letting you achieve your first transformation. However, following that, any future progress will become much more laborious, requiring more time and effort.”

Audrey had already forgotten to be suspicious, too busy trying to understand what he was saying, and what she should choose. She asked many questions, understanding this was a very important matter, but not quite grasping what each option meant.

“Mr. spirit, you know so many things, you must know what I should choose, right?”

Avery blinked, surprised at her sudden demonstration of trust in him, but he knew there was no right answer.

“In the end it all depends on how ambitious you are. If you are aiming to reach the top of the world, to dominate the heavens and attain godhood, and are ready to risk your life for it, then it is best to take the path of the Vermillion Bird. Take your time, find a way to survive in this desert for a few months while you build yourself a steady foundation.”

“Otherwise, if you simply want to cure your wings, and rush your way to the level of powerful cultivators, knowing that you will face many obstacles if you want to go further, then accept the calling of the Azure Dragon, and be reborn.”

The hawk pouted before brightening up, having come up with a new idea.

“What about cultivating the power of the Wayseeker Thunderbird? He is my ancestor, so he will probably like me! And he is very strong, probably stronger than that Vermillion Bird, so isn’t he a better choice?”

Not wasting a single second, Avery ruthlessly shot down that idea in a dismissive tone.

“That would be a most foolish choice, for you would be forsaking both the instant benefits of the dragon's blood as well as the long-term stability of the path of the Vermillion Bird. Not to mention that I do not have any cultivation techniques relating to this thunder hawk.”

Downcast and unconvinced, Adrey felt she had been insulted and decided to sulk in protest for a moment. That moment passed almost instantly, as she once again got excited at the idea of repairing her wing and flying through the air.

Avery watched her quietly, letting her think in peace. He patiently answered all of her questions but decided against offering any more unsolicited advice. This had to be her choice, and he couldn’t influence her too much, despite how uncomfortable he found it to let a small child make such irrevocable decisions.

The sun was setting when the flightless bird finally reached the necklace she had left behind, resolutely grabbed it with her talons and exclaimed in a loud voice.

“I chose the Azure Dragon!”

She was still unsure of her choice even as she announced it, but she convinced herself it was the correct option. She had no interest in dominating the world. All she wanted was to be healed. Besides that, the most important factor was that she was already very hungry, and could see no source of food she could catch in these barren plains. Now, her only chance of survival was to accept the baptism of dragon blood, and hope it would cure her crippled wing, allowing her to hunt and feed herself.