Little sparrow flew to the top of one of the many "human boxes", peering below.

Under the afternoon sun, he could see many strange creatures walking around on two feet. They had hands like monkeys, but stood perfectly upright, unhunched. Long manes of hair sproutsed from the heads of some, yet others had short head manes. Yet, despite their similar bodies, some had strangely coloured skin, some had fur and some had feathers! Were all of these humans, or were they different animals?

Little sparrow could not understand why each of them looked so different. Back in the forest, all the humans he saw had skin with weird patterns, keeping them hidden amidst the grass.

As he watched curiously, to his shock, one of the humans suddenly tugged at its upper skin, pulling it off and revealing peach skin below! Little sparrow chirped in alarm.

A suddenly realisation hit him. The humans weren't actually that different from each other. All of them were hairless, but they all wore a layer of something on their body. Were they cold without fur or feathers?

Humans were much stranger than he expected!

As he flew over the human settlement, a strange sight caught his eye. A small human with a short head mane, probably a hatching, was tossing strange crumbly bits. On the ground, many many pigeons were pecking away at them!

"Haha! Hao ke ai!"

The small human made strange noises as he tossed more and more of the strange bits.

Crumbly... little sparrow was suddenly reminded of the strange seeds he ate, crumbled from the violent stone bullet. Were "crumbles" poisonous? He knew those humans were bad, like father used to say! Little sparrow grew worried. Back in the forest, before he was evicted, he had tried to make friends with some pigeons. He felt like they were very silly birds, and he could never understand any of the strange cooing sounds they made. And... they often ignored him... and pooped all the over the place. Still, he was slightly fond of them.

"Chirp chirp! Chirp!"

Little sparrow flew from above, making warning calls, but the pigeons ignored him.

The human made more "haha" noises, pointing a finger towards him. Was it trying to use magic on him? Scared, Little sparrow quickly flew away, hiding atop one of the nearby box nests, where he rested for a moment.

Hungry...

It had probably been a few hours since he was unconscious. In the end, small animals needed to eat quite often. Only at the Rain Shroud stage would he be able to sustain himself with solely qi.

The human settlement was blanketed in strange scents. Unlike most non-spirit birds, Cloud Sparrows with their command of Wind had surprisingly strong noses, though it was mostly related to what they liked to eat.

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...

Walnuts? He could smell them!

Little sparrow took to the air, carefully navigated across the many boxes, following the trail. The scent wafted from one of the many boxes, right from a square opening it had. Peeking inside, there were no humans inside. Were they out?

He flew over excitedly, shooting through the air... only to crash face-first into something.

"Chirp!" he cried out in pain.

It was some kind of invisible wall? these humans were too cunning! Little sparrow angrily scratched at it with his claws. The wall suddenly began to move, startling him as he hoped away. The wall could be slid to the side? How strange...

Finally entering the human nest, a wooden square standing on four legs caught his eye. Several "cocoons" of wood were placed on the square, the fragrance of nuts clinging to them. Little sparrow flew over excitedly, pecking at the wood. Hmph, did they think a puny casing of wood would protect the walnuts? Little sparrow flung the walnut "cocoon" into the wall at maximum speed, immediately smashing the wood into countless fragments... along with the walnuts inside.

Little sparrow tilted his head. Maybe he needed to learn some self control...

"Xiao guo! Ni zai gan shen me?" a human voice echoed.

Hearing footsteps, little sparrow grabbed another of the cocoons in a panic, trying to fly out of the square opening... only to crash into the transparent barrier again. He didn't slide it open far enough!

"Aiya! Zhe niao na li fei lai de?"

As a human with a long head mane rushed into the room, calling out in surprise at the sight of him, little sparrow kicked panickedly at the transparently barrier before finally sliding it aside. With his haul of the walnut cocoon, he finally flew out, just as the human tried to grab him.

Too dangerous...

Little sparrow felt a little ashamed. Blinded by greed, he had been just as silly as a pigeon...

He should probably fly far away before the humans took revenge for the theft of their walnuts. He didn't want to be eaten by those scary bipeds! Wait...

Flying to a distant tree, the starving sparrow finally landed, resting his weary wings. Along the way, the cocoon seemed to have loosened. Little sparrow realised the wooden thing had a lid that could be opened, a little like the nests trapdoor spiders made. He always thought it was funny to poke at their nests with blades of grass and watch them pop out their nests lids open, only to flee at the sight of a "mighty sparrow".

He popped the lid open with a peck.

Inside the walnuts had been already been cracked open, the flesh ready to eat. A strange white powder was stuck to them. It looked a little like mould, but little sparrow couldn't smell the stench they had. He peered at it cautiously before giving it a peck.

The white layer... was sweet?

Little sparrow was in awe. His whole life, he had thought only berries could be sweet. Those humans sure had interesting tricks...

And he had enough of these "berry" walnuts to last for days! For a moment, he forgot his fear of the humans and feasted happily.

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The night grew cold, insects chirping in the midst of grassy fields.

Back at the house little sparrow ransacked, a woman was talking to a tall young man in long blue robes.

"So, you saw a sparrow of sorts fly out of your window, stealing a jar of walnuts. And, it had already smashed another jar into smithereens?"

He reached to the wall, where a small dent could be seen from the jar's impact, feeling its shape.

"Yup. That's the work of a spirit beast isn't it?" a glint appeared in her eye.

The man chuckled.

"Alright, take your reward." he handed her a bag of coins to the grinning woman before leaving.

As he walked amidst the dark streets, save for a few lit windows, he stared at a nearby signboard.

[Spot any spirit beasts? Report it to one of the nearby sect guards for a reward of 50 Juan!]

While spirit beasts didn't often attack, the Black Steel Sect had sent several cultivators to each mortal town in their region. It was better safe than sorry, and the good impression from protecting mortal towns would win them admiration, helping them recruit talents.

The man, Xuefang grinned. While the notice was placed to help protect the town, ultimately, the guards in charge could benefit as well. Though, some annoying people would try to fake spirit beast sightings. But back at the woman's house, there was unmistakably signs of wind qi lingering.

"To think I'd find a Cloud Sparrow here of all places..."