Mei laid on the floor in her room, bored.

She turned to stare at the Feng Shen ring. Come to think of it, where in the world was the bird? It had been more than a day, but he still wasn't back.

A day ago...

In the skies, a blur of azure and green shot through the air so fast, it had a trail of fire behind it. The blur in question was naturally, Feng Shen. Without a passenger, he was free to fly many times faster.

"At last!" he thought. "Being stuck in that stupid ring gave me so many cramps..."

While Feng Shen did not in any way resemble a predatory bird ignoring his massive size, right now, his eyes were like that of a hawk. He stared intently at the scenery below that rushed by, searching for something...

Moments later, a devious glint appeared in his eyes. Immediately he halted, sending his divine sense down.

"Senior brother Xiang Zi, please don't take my nuts! The winter months are coming, my wife and son will be starving without them!"

"You lot are cultivators, starving for a bit won't kill you! Think of it as tempering your will!"

Down below, two metre long brown squirrels faced each other on a tree.

One of them was strangely muscly for a squirrel and had a haughty look on its face, while the other was skinny and looked quite nervous. The haughty look on Xiang Zi, the muscly squirrel was however outmatched by the sheer arrogance on Feng Shen's face as he swooped down.

In one swift motion, Feng Shen shot down, reaching his target in less than half a second. A lone toe of his slammed onto the segment of branch between the two squirrels, making it explode into countless fibrous fragments and causing violent gales of wind to gush.

The two squirrels shrieked as they jumped away, landing on other branches. The looks on their faces were replaced by fear and caution as they stared at the bird, who was now floating in the air without even flapping his wings.

"Hey, you!" Feng Shen turned to Xiang Zi.

"M-me?"

"Who else? Rat, were you stealing from this other rat?"

"W-we're squir-"

"Tree rats then! Were you stealing from the skinny tree rat?"

The muscly squirrel looked around anxiously, not sure entirely sure what was going on. Why was this massive bird with such a terrifying aura butting into their business? Just his luck to meet an eccentric expert...

"Senior bird, I wasn't! I was-"

"Senior bird!" the skinny squirrel interrupted with a squeak. "He was going to rob me!"

Xiang Zi glared at him, making the squirrel pale.

"Unacceptable! As a virtuous cultivator, how can I let something like this happen? Skinny rat, I will bring justice to you!" Feng Shen put on his best heroic look.

A virtuous cultivator? Xiang Zi was filled with shock.

In the past, he had seen a virtuous human expert from his tree. The bald man in yellow robes had a faint but pleasant smile plastered to his face, and a warm and gentle aura despite his incredible cultivation base.

Which part of that eccentric was virtuous? With that arrogant look and the vicious aura, the bird was more akin to a thug! The skinny squirrel was taken back as well, but quickly stuttered words of thanks.

"Senior, this is a misunderstanding..." the muscly squirrel started.

"Nonsense!"

Feng Shen proceeded to hit the frightened Xiang Zi a few times with powerful gusts of wind, leaving him covered in soon to be bruises

"Now take me to your stash so I can reimburse the skinny rat!"

"Senior..." the skinny squirrel stammered.

After seeing Xiang Zi like that, he felt a bit bad. The two had known each for a while after all, and had only recently gotten into conflict.

"Thank you for your aid senior bird, but Xiang Zi hasn't actually stolen from my stash yet. Is it possible for you to let him off? He-"

"Bah, the intention is what matters! Now take me to your stash, muscle rat!" Feng Shen let out a cold snort.

Xiang Zi was stunned for a moment, turning to stare at the other squirrel. He trembled for a moment, feeling a bit guilty.

There was a burrow that led into a chamber good distance underground, made of neatly carved stone. Feng Shen sensed a few spell formations and traps along the way, but before Xiang Zi could disable them, he simply walked through them with brute force.

The muscly squirrel was rather dismayed. He was hoping the bird wouldn't be able to go in considering his massive size, but it simply shifted into a smaller size. No... shifted wasn't the right way to put it. It was more like the bird was somehow distorting space to make itself take up less space. What incredible cultivation base did he have in order to perform such a feat? The squirrels couldn't help but shudder.

Feng Shen nodded at the sight of thousands of nuts stashed inside. He reached out and bit on an acorn pulsing with green veins. Then he spat it out and made strange gagging sounds.

"Disgusting! How do you squir- rats eat this stuff? There's no way I can take this with me!"

The two squirrels were speechless. By now, they were completely sure the bird wasn't here to enact justice but just to rob Xiang Zi.

Eventually, the bird left on his own, taking only certain nuts and seeds, much to their relief. Xiang Zi turned to the other squirrel.

"He Tao, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have threatened to take all your nuts."

"It's fine, I'm at wrong too. I shouldn't have plucked all those leaves off your favourite tree."

Feng Shen spent the rest of the day and night stealing from "villainous" animals and people. He looked into his storage space, filled with a massive pile of miscellaneous food items and nodded, satisfied.

Whenever Senior Han decided to head out of the sect, he would always make sure to stock up on random things he took interest in. His master was aware of that naturally, but only told him he shouldn't steal from innocent people, which the bird took literally.

As he sat on the canopy of a large tree and preened his feathers enjoying the afternoon sun, he felt a strand of divine sense reach him.

"Feng Shen, it's about time to head back to the sect! Come back as fast as you can!"

The bird made a few disgruntled sounds. After preening for a few more minutes, he took off into the air and flew towards the city slowly.

He took his time, flying only at the speed of 50 metres per second. But after a few hours, he felt a strange fluctuation and stopped, looking around. Not too far, there was a massive shroud of invisibility.

It wasn't enough to stop the bird however, pierced immediately by divine sense.

Inside, around a hundred strange humans were carrying a gigantic cage with a dragon sneakily! Seeing it's poor state, Feng Shen widened his eyes.

"Unbelievable! These humans are utterly vile!"

After flapping around for a bit, a strange chuckle came from the bird as a look of greed appeared in his eyes.