22: Birdsong and flowers

Luo Chen was stunned; he really hadn't expected the exquisite and beautiful Colorful Sound Spirit Finch in front of him to suddenly say such a thing.

Before he could say anything, the little bird seemed to react, scanning Luo Chen from top to bottom. "So you're that shopkeeper or whatever? You look pretty average."

Its tone wasn't polite at all. Luo Chen clenched his fists and ignored the Spirit Finch, instead silently calling out to the system in his mind.

"This is the Shop-Protecting Spirit Beast reward? I can see it's a spirit beast, but are you sure it can protect the shop?"

The sound of static electricity crackled in his heart, as if even the system had fallen into some sort of lag.

"Although there are partial differences in the personalities of contracted beasts, it will absolutely obey the host's commands one hundred percent."

The Colorful Sound Spirit Finch waited for a long time, and seeing that the shopkeeper wasn't paying attention to it, it hopped around in frustration. "Hurry up and prepare some spirit beast meat for this Great Lord; this Great Lord is hungry."

After hearing the system's guarantee that the beast would absolutely obey his commands, Luo Chen curled his lips into a meaningful smile.

"Hands behind your head, squat down."

As soon as Luo Chen's command was given, the Colorful Sound Spirit Finch's physical reaction was clearly much faster than its mouth. While still flying in mid-air, its wings—shimmering with various colors—neatly clasped behind its head, and even its straight legs bent slightly, performing a standard 'hands-behind-head squat' right there in mid-air.

'Thud.'

The dull sound of a heavy object hitting the ground echoed on the second floor. Luo Chen could even feel the floorboards shake. He looked at the Colorful Sound Spirit Finch in surprise, not expecting its tiny half-meter body to have such great weight.

"Holy crap! You bastard, why are you giving random commands? Didn't you see I was still flying?"

Hearing its energetic voice, it was clear that falling from mid-air hadn't caused it any harm at all.

"Shut up." This was the second command Luo Chen gave it, and his ears instantly became much quieter.

Luo Chen rubbed the space between his eyebrows. "Next, I'll ask and you'll answer." Without waiting for it to react, Luo Chen asked his first question, "Where do you come from?"

The silenced Colorful Sound Spirit Finch only then realized it could speak, but the words it spoke were not under its own subjective control. "I don't know."

Although he had anticipated this result, Luo Chen couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. It seemed the entity behind the system had prepared for this long ago.

"How old are you?"

"Two thousand three hundred and forty-two years old."

"What was your original Rank?"

"****"

He didn't know what it said; it turned directly into a blurred segment of tones. Luo Chen couldn't understand what it meant.

"Say it again."

"****"

It was the same blurred noise. It seemed this was also information not permitted to be disclosed.

"Why did you become a Shop-Protecting Spirit Beast?"

"To break through."

"What does being a Shop-Protecting Spirit Beast have to do with your breakthrough?"

"I don't know."

Luo Chen was exasperated. Fine, that was as good as saying nothing.

Luo Chen proceeded to ask some other questions, but basically obtained no useful information; it was either 'don't know' or answers that were vague and irrelevant.

"Move freely."

Only then did the Colorful Sound Spirit Finch lower its wings from its head, and the entire bird 'whooshed' up from the ground.

It flew up and down in front of Luo Chen, looking like it was eager to say something to him.

"Speak." Luo Chen lifted the silence command.

"Your grandmoth—"

"Mute."

The Colorful Sound Spirit Finch had only managed to say three words before happily receiving the 'Mute Gift Pack' gifted by Luo Chen.

"As a Shop-Protecting Spirit Beast, I have the following three requirements for you: first, no foul language; second, disguise yourself as an ordinary spirit beast in front of customers; third, do not step outside the boundaries of the pet store without my permission.

Otherwise, don't even think about speaking again in the future. Nod if you agree."

The Colorful Sound Spirit Finch looked at Luo Chen for a long time before reluctantly nodding. Its tiny eyes rolled around shifty-eyed, who knew what bad ideas it was cooking up.

Seeing that it had agreed, Luo Chen lifted the silence command. "Cough, cough." Two light coughs came from the Colorful Sound Spirit Finch's mouth as it confirmed it could make a sound.

Only then did it look at Luo Chen and say, "Great Lor... I'm hungry, is there any spirit beast meat to eat?"

Luo Chen was somewhat speechless; this guy asked for spirit beast meat as soon as it arrived, truly not treating itself as an outsider. A single catty of spirit beast meat cost several thousand spirit coins, and the better ones might even cost over ten thousand.

That wasn't something his newly started small shop could afford, or rather, the only ones in the entire Qingyang City who could afford to eat it were probably those few King-Rank Beast Masters.

Therefore, Luo Chen rejected the Colorful Sound Spirit Finch's request without hesitation. "No."

The Colorful Sound Spirit Finch gave a human-like sigh. "Then fierce beast meat should be fine, right?"

Internally, the Colorful Sound Spirit Finch was also lamenting that it would one day be reduced to eating low-grade food like fierce beast meat.

Fierce beast meat ranged from several hundred to over a thousand spirit coins. This time, Luo Chen didn't refuse again but nodded in agreement.

He sent a message to Luo Yang, asking him to buy some fierce beast meat and bring it to the shop, then returned to the first floor to act as a heartless shop-keeping machine.

However, unlike the morning, there was now an exquisite and beautiful avian beast, the Colorful Sound Spirit Finch, on the checkout counter table.

Its brilliant and colorful feathers constantly attracted customers who wanted to pet it. Whenever it wanted to use its wings to swat away these customers' 'groping hands,' it was glared into place by a threatening look from Luo Chen, allowing some bold customers to pet it back and forth.

Luo Chen was full of satisfaction; judging solely by the Colorful Sound Spirit Finch's appearance, it was indeed a good mascot for attracting customers.

The Colorful Sound Spirit Finch, on the other hand, had a face full of despair, feeling like it was no longer pure.

...

Zhang Heng was a third-year student at Qingyang No. 1 Junior High School. Because it was currently the time for the high school seniors' College Entrance Examination, their classrooms had been requisitioned, and they naturally received a week's holiday.

In his spare time from his busy studies, he liked to visit beast-taming shops to get in touch with beasts in real life.

He heard from his friend that Chenyang Pet Store had been renovated and reopened, so he took advantage of his break to come to the shop and see if there was anything novel.

Just as he walked into the shop, he saw a crowd of people gathered around the checkout counter, not knowing what in the middle had attracted so much attention.

He quietly stood on his tiptoes, but only saw a dense pack of heads, completely unable to see what was being surrounded inside.

With his height of 1.65 meters, trying to squeeze in was indeed a bit difficult. Zhang Heng gave up the idea of joining the commotion; wouldn't it be better to observe which beasts were in the shop?

He silently hoped in his heart that he could encounter species he hadn't seen before.