Chapter 5

Shaking her sore arms, Kong Bi felt that petting peacocks was indeed a physical job. After finally sending them away, she stood up and patted the grass debris on her body. After going back to have breakfast, she returned to the peacock garden.

The lawn in the park had not been taken care of for a long time, and the environment was natural. Given the habits of green peacocks, which were similar to those of chickens, it was not difficult for them to dig up some small insects to eat. However, the range of activities in the zoo was bound to be inferior to that in the wild, so Kong Bi still brought some fruits and rice for them to eat.

While they flew over to eat, Kong Bi carefully observed that this group of green peacocks consisted of three male peacocks and eleven female peacocks, among which one male peacock was a sub-adult individual without feathers.

The green peacock is worthy of being called a dragon bird or a green phoenix. Even if you watch it from a close distance, you can’t find fault with it. The light blue eye area looks like a layer of eye shadow, and the brown stripes above the eyes look like eyeliner, which makes them look indescribably charming when they turn their heads slightly.

The leading female peacock is undoubtedly the most gorgeous among them. For a monster, even a young monster who has just stepped into the monster path, it is impossible to lack food and drink. With sufficient nutrition, it is inevitable that the body is strong and the feathers are beautiful.

It doesn’t seem to be very hungry. It pecked a few bites and then stopped eating. It kicked the white peacock who was watching the other green peacocks eating outside with envy into the room. The other green peacocks looked up and saw that it was the boss who let it in, so they ignored it.

Seeing this, the female peacock flew to Kongbi with confidence and chirped excitedly.

“My Lord!”

Kong Bi was embarrassed for a moment: “Just call me Director.”

“Director King!”

It seemed to have mistaken “Director” for a name. Kong Bi gave up on correcting it, figuring that no one else would understand anyway. Instead, she asked, “Do you have a name?”

The female peacock tilted its head, and after a moment, flapped its wings: “Huājiāo! (Sichuan Pepper)”

Kong Bi: “……?”

Kong Bi, who was ready to give the other party a name, didn’t expect it to have a name. After all, monsters living in the wild usually use the language of the tribe and don’t need a name, not to mention that animals should not have the concept of ‘Sichuan Pepper’. In other words, this name was given by humans?

When Kong Bi was casually telling Ye Zhou that maybe they used to live here, she didn’t expect her words to come true. Her mood became complicated, and she asked Huajiao.

According to Huajiao’s story, Kong Bi finally understood. It turned out that Huajiao’s mother, Peanut, used to live here and gave birth to Huajiao. However, among Peanut’s offspring, only Huajiao was an outstanding bird who was enlightened and became a spirit, and was taken into the Shiwan Mountains by the previous king.

The method of enlightenment is a common ability possessed by adult demons. The shrimp soldiers and crab generals often seen in TV dramas are enlightened by great demons. However, this method of enlightenment completely sacrifices future potential. The demons enlightened in this way can only linger in the cub stage for their entire lives, and their intelligence is impaired.

Even so, for ordinary animals, this is a step up to the sky.

Huajiao was obviously enlightened by a more sophisticated method of enlightenment. Rather than enlightenment, it is more like “awakening”. The former is forcibly opening intelligence, while the latter is guiding the inherent spirituality of the animal, like preaching. Naturally, spirituality greatly increases, and there may be a possibility of going further on the path of demons.

It’s not surprising that a great demon with such abilities could live for three to five hundred years. Kong Bi couldn’t understand how the zoo ended up in her hands. Was it because the previous player of the game and was eliminated for failing a task, or was they simply tired of it?

At least, Kong Bi hadn’t encountered any particularly dangerous tasks while playing the game before. At most, some small demons would choose to leave because they were dissatisfied with their living environment, and there wasn’t even a demon challenging the demon king’s position. So Kong Bi couldn’t figure out what could have caused the previous “player” to give up their business and even let all the demons in the zoo go.

According to Huajiao, the demon king at that time personally sent away all the animals kept in the zoo, and the green peacocks were the last batch. However, among this group of green peacocks, except for Huajiao, there were no adult peacocks. After all, the lifespan of ordinary green peacocks is only a dozen years. Apart from Huajiao, a little demon who has a hundred-year lifespan because of becoming a spirit, the other members have been replaced several times.

Green peacocks rarely leave their territory. The thirteen peacocks brought by Huajiao were all quite spiritual and willing to follow it. Only the white peacock, a genetically mutated ugly peacock, was taken away by Huajiao out of pity.

The white peacock, which is not ugly in the eyes of humans, is difficult to be favored by its kind because its feather color is neither rich nor bright.

Huajiao, whose back feathers were stroked by Kong Bi, squinted comfortably and asked after a while: “King, how big is your territory?”

“Uh…” Kong Bi blinked, then said, “I’ll take you to familiarize yourselves with the environment.”

As a responsible boss, Huajiao immediately became energetic and howled at the peacocks who had almost finished eating: “Little ones! Get up and patrol!”

“Doo hoo! Doo hoo!”

The green peacocks immediately responded one after another, gathering around.

Green peacocks are highly social creatures, mostly moving and sleeping together. However, it’s rare to see them respond so readily to a call like Huajiao’s, which made Kong Bi feel a little strange. She dismissed it as an illusion and first took them for a tour around the peacock garden before heading out. Peacocks are animals that can be free-range. No matter where they wander during the day, they will return to their territory to sleep at night. Therefore, many zoos choose to free-range peacocks, but generally, they free-range blue peacocks.

But Huajiao is a monster. With it, there is no need to worry too much. The fighting power of a otaku is equivalent to that of a big goose, and Huajiao, as a monster, at least has the power of several geese. It is not a big problem for it to go out for a stroll when there are few people.

After guiding Huajiao to find the way, it immediately promised: “Don’t worry, my king, leave the patrol to me in the future! I will definitely not let any strangers step into your territory.”

“……Well, there’s no need for that,” Kong Bi scratched her head. “As long as the people who come here don’t get close to you, you don’t have to worry about them.. They’re here to… uh, they’re here to…”

“I know, I know, they’re here to pay us tribute.” Before Kong Bi could explain, Huajiao immediately interjected, “My mom told me.”

Kong Bi hesitated, wondering if she should correct this perception. After thinking about it, she gave up. Green peacocks are naturally cautious, and the noise and commotion of the zoo, along with the many eyes staring at them, would make them anxious. If changing the narrative could alleviate their concerns, then it wasn’t a bad idea. Besides, humans wouldn’t understand what they were saying anyway…

Thinking of this, Kong Bi nodded without any burden: “Yes, that’s it.” After a pause, she added, “But if someone wants to come over and pull your feathers, just scare them, but it’s best not to use your claws.”

Hua Jiao nodded, and then asked in confusion: “Why do they want to pull my feathers? Is it because they don’t have any?”

Kong Bi nodded: “Yes.”

“How pitiful, they don’t even have feathers,” Hua Jiao immediately sympathized, “I can give them my fallen feathers.”

It was stunned for a moment, because it suddenly realized that Kong Bi didn’t have feathers either.

After hesitating for a while, Huajiao said, “My king, I can give you all my fallen feathers!”

“…No need,” Kong Bi said to Huajiao’s sympathetic eyes, “I have feathers.”

“Isn’t the king bald?”

Huajiao immediately pecked the green peacock that opened its mouth: “What nonsense are you talking about in front of the king!”

Kong Bi covered her face: “…I really have feathers.”

She couldn’t help but sigh, and had to change back to her original form in front of them.

“!!!”

The green peacocks were instantly stunned. They had never imagined their king would have two different appearances. After all, aura couldn’t be faked, nor could voice. The attraction from their bloodline made them feel instinctively close to Kong Bi, even if they couldn’t appreciate her human appearance. But all of that paled in comparison to what they were seeing now.

That slender neck, those mesmerizing feathers, the golden-emerald sheen in the light, all of it was enough to captivate any peacock.

Most importantly, she was so strong!

Such a massive physique would make any male peacock feel ashamed of themselves. How incredibly strong must she be to possess such an enviable form?

Huajiao was completely captivated, and couldn’t resist moving closer. Then… it spread its tail feathers.

Kong Bi: “……?”

Although female peacocks don’t have the elaborate tail coverts of males, their main tail feathers are the same. When faced with danger, female peacocks will also spread their tails to intimidate enemies. Their emerald green tails look like small, adorable fans. The elegant, long legs paired with a small, spread fan created a kind of charming contrast. However, compared to male peacocks, female peacocks rarely spread their tails for display.

“My king! My king! Can I sleep with you tonight?”

Huajiao looked very excited, its tail feathers shimmering with golden-emerald iridescence in the sunlight.

Was it asking for a chance to be intimate?

Kong Bi couldn’t help but shudder, even though she knew that wasn’t the intention.

Green peacocks spread their tail feathers for various reasons: courtship, intimidating enemies, showing off, and also making friends. Huajiao’s current display was for friendship, meaning, “Look how beautiful my feathers are! Don’t play with them, play with me, I’m the prettiest!”

But Kong Bi still refused mercilessly, “I like to sleep alone.” After a pause, she quickly changed the subject, “Let’s go, let’s go back.”

She flapped her wings and flew up. Huajiao disappointedly folded its tail feathers and followed. After a while, it regained its composure. The rules of the animal kingdom were simple: only those who could win in a fight could reason. And the size difference between them was too great. After Kong Bi refused, Huajiao didn’t even think about resisting.

It looked back at its group and saw that the white peacock had fallen behind again, so it had to fly back.

Because of their tail feathers, male peacocks have poor flying ability. The heavy tail often forces them to land and rest after flying a short distance, the strong and healthy ones are fine, but the white peacock, which is malnourished and separated from the group, naturally can’t keep up. As a result, it is more likely to be ostracized within the group.

Seeing this, Kong Bi also landed and transformed back into her human form to prevent the straggling from happening again, and sent them into the peacock garden before leaving.

She didn’t feel any strain when flying, so she really hadn’t thought about the flight situation of other green peacocks. But in fact, green peacocks, after all, belong to the pheasant family, and their flying ability is not particularly outstanding.