Under the cold winds of autumn, in the midst of a forest of blue, a little sparrow hopped around aimlessly.

Just moments ago... he had been evicted out of his mother's nest. And with a teleportation talisman at that! To think she'd go as far as stealing from humans...

Little sparrow furrowed his feathers angrily.

Back in the nest, his parents nagged at him constantly to make a nest of his own and find a mate... but why did he have to? Little sparrow enjoyed flying freely and playing around, foraging for various nuts and seeds.

Besides... he had no confidence in his nest building skills...

Setting aside weaving twigs and grass together, Mother sparrow had done most of the work on the nest, padding it with spirit beast fur! For such a pampered little bird, sleeping in a nest of twigs would be a nightmare!

But how was he supposed to get any? After all... he was just still at the Mist Condensing stage... Spirit beasts were far too dangerous.

Back in the nest, Father sparrow had been in charge of teaching him cultivation.

Though... it wasn't exactly particularly detailed.

Unlike humans, spirit beasts often had innate cultivation techniques. Each of them were born with the instinct on how to absorb qi and the methods to advance. After all, if they required manuals to cultivate, much like humans... it would be safe to say the wilds would be rather devoid of any flora and fauna with cultivation.

Still, it helped to know which realms of cultivation there were.

Mist Condensing.

Rain Shroud.

First Cloud.

Golden Skies.

Sparrow Ancestor.

Such were the cultivation realms of the Cloud Sparrow, which differed from that of humans and other spirit beasts.

Despite the name "Mist Condensing", what Cloud Sparrows were condensing was still very much qi. Little sparrow asked his father why none of the names seemed all that relevant to the realms themselves, but was told not to question it. Truly, the profundity of the cultivation world ran deep.

Little sparrow looked around the surrounding forest, hoping to find a clue home. But it was a strange forest he didn't recognise. The leaves of the trees were a translucent milky white covered in splotches of blue that almost resembled paint, and he couldn't recognise any of the grasses on the ground...

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

To think leaves could be a colour so strange...

Little sparrow thought he would be frightened, but to his surprise, he was welling with excitement. Such a mysterious looking place... The adventurous little bird wondered what he would find in such a place.

He hopped over to a strange seed of sorts, with a glossy brown shell. Looking up, he could see they grew from those strange blue trees. As he ran his claws over it, the hard shell made a clacking sound. Was this like a walnut? He loved walnuts!

With a glint in his eye, the sparrow grabbed a nearby pebble with his claws, taking to the skies. He channelled his internal qi, winds swirling around him.

Stone Bullet!

With a loud cracking sound, the stone slammed into the seed with perfect precision, demolishing the shell... along with what was inside. Oops... The shell was much more brittle than he expected.

Cloud Sparrows with low cultivation lacked in offensive magic. After all, strong gusts of wind weren't exactly lethal. Still, with a little ingenuity, there were still ways for them to fight.

Little sparrow flew down and pecked what fragments were left. Hmm... not bad.

The bird continued to smash the seeds open and feasted, until a strange dizziness overcame him. An old memory of his mother teaching him not to eat unidentified nuts and seeds came to him... before he lost conciousness.

...

"Meow. Meow..."

What was that... strange sensation...

Little sparrow finally came to, only to realised he was in the jaws of some massive beast! With a panicked chirp, he riled the winds around him, blasting himself free!

"Mreowwwwww!"

The horrible beast flew into the distance, almost crashing into a tree but landed nimbly on its feet. To think such a huge monster could be so agile! It was covered in white fur and had long whiskers. Most striking however were its blue eyes with slit-like pupils, which glared at him. It arched its back, its long tail standing straight up as it made a hissing sound.

The little sparrow was prepared to fight back, until it saw a blue collar around the beast's neck, a golden coin attached to it.

Whatever that monster was... it was a pet of a human! While he had never seen that many humans, his father told him to be careful of injuring animals with collars around their neck, for that was a sign they were owned by humans.

Humans were very dangerous and the last thing any spirit beast wanted would be to anger them! They often lived in huge groups and were apparently very good at revenge? Really... what had his parents been thinking, stealing a teleportation talisman? Or had they just been lucky enough to find one a human had dropped? He hoped they wouldn't get into trouble.

The beast lunged at him, but little sparrow flew high above, out of reach. Hmph! Stupid land monster.

"Chirp chirp chirp!"

He let out taunting chirps as he flew just out of reach. The beast snarled before running off.

After a moment of consideration, little sparrow decided to follow it. His father had always told tales of the strange, massive nests humans built, almost as if they were making caves of their own. He was always warned of the dangers of humans, but in the end, they were land animals, so as long as he didn't land, it would be safe!

Filled with curiosity, he couldn't help but want to see those nests for himself.

Soon, he arrived at the human town.

Huge boxes of stone and wood with slopped tops blanketed the area, the ground entirely stone. Some of the boxes were stacked, seemingly as tall as trees! Flying high above, little sparrow saw the stone ground and countless nest boxes reached into the distance. To think they could turn such a huge area into a nest!