"Because the sunlight there was just right. The sun was about to set, and that spot near the South Heaven Gate of the 13th Heaven could catch a sliver of its lingering rays. It was very close to the sky, so the temperature was much warmer than in the mortal realm."
Ming Lou said, shaking his wings, and a lot of pure white feathers fell to the ground.
Yue Zhiyin seemed accustomed to it. Seeing him shake off his feathers, he instinctively squatted down and sorted them out one by one.
Then he collected a small handful and put them in his pocket.
Qi Yu peeked into his pocket and, upon seeing it filled with feathers, his eyes widened in shock. "There are so many feathers! It feels like enough to make several quilts. Senior Brother, what are you collecting so many feathers for?"
The primary purpose of the feathers on the wings of the Winged Tiger tribe was for flight, not for warmth.
Collecting so many feathers seemed rather pointless.
"I'm just collecting them for fun because I have nothing else to do. I thought I could make various small trinkets with them later. These feathers might look ordinary, but they're very vibrant when held up to the light."
"Look."
As Yue Zhiyin spoke, he picked up a feather and held it up to the light.
Qi Yu leaned in to take a look.
Indeed.
The feather turned into a myriad of colors, and the base of the feather was gradually becoming transparent.
"Is it that dreamy?" Wang Lan Qing craned her neck to look, then glanced at the feathers on Ming Lou's wings beside them. After comparing the two, a doubt gradually arose in her heart. "But when they were on your wings, they didn't look like this at all. Why do they look so strange after being taken off? It's like a rainbow has been left on the feathers."
"This is just a spiritual power inherent to my race," Ming Lou explained. "This spiritual power is hidden within our feathers. When the feathers fall, they transform into beautiful rainbows in mid-air. However, with the speed of the wind, the feathers will gradually turn into dust and disappear in the air."
Ming Lou spread his wings proudly as he said this, then folded them back and returned to his human form. "Do you understand? This is just a little bit of romance our race is born with. Our wings have a molting season once a year. During this season, the feathers on our wings will grow and fall off simultaneously. The falling ones are the old ones, and the new feathers that grow will naturally push them out."
As Ming Lou spoke, he reached back and touched his wings again. Sure enough, another batch of feathers rustled down.
Qi Yu examined them closely, picked up a few, and decided to seal them with spiritual power later to make them into hand gestures or shuttlecocks.
Si Qing stroked his chin and watched them. "Let's finish the idle chat. It's time to get down to business. Senior Brother, let's go and check on your clan. Let's see how many people the Dragon tribe is short of. After dealing with the former Heavenly Dao's followers, many of them were members of the Dragon tribe. The Dragon tribe was already short on people, and this has been a major blow."
Qi Yu heard this and also looked worried.
The Dragon tribe was probably the one with the fewest offspring. Taking the West Sea Dragon King and his wife as an example, they only had one son, and he wasn't very talented.
"To be precise, the Dragon tribe used to be quite numerous," Yue Zhiyin couldn't help but fall into reminiscence. "I remember when I was young, my father told me that he had many Dragon tribe companions when he was a child. I don't know when it started, but the number of Dragon tribe companions gradually became fewer and fewer, until finally, many Dragon tribe companions began to die one after another, leaving only those with stronger constitutions."
Yue Zhiyin paused and then turned his head to explain, "Of course, I think the phrase 'leaving those with stronger constitutions' is probably an excuse. After all, in their era, there were no Dragons with weak constitutions; those with very weak constitutions couldn't even break out of their dragon eggs."
"Many existences have predetermined fates. I always feel that the reason for the drastic decrease in the Dragon tribe's population back then, when they couldn't even break out of their dragon eggs, was that someone must have secretly done something. But so many years have passed, and there's no way to verify it."
Qi Yu had only been listening from the side without speaking. What he was thinking was that the person who could cause the Dragon tribe's population to continuously decrease, to the point of near extinction, could only be one person.
That would be the former Heavenly Dao.
The former Heavenly Dao, like her, governed all living beings in the world.
It wasn't impossible for her to secretly employ means to drive the Dragon tribe to the brink of extinction, but...
Qi Yu then thought, Chen Xi and Yan Hua had lived for such a long time. If such a situation had truly occurred, how could the four of them have remained indifferent to the Dragon tribe's plight?
Qi Yu remained lost in thought because of this matter.
After a while, when everyone else was busy with their work and she had some free time, Qi Yu specifically sought out Yan Hua and voiced her suspicions about the Dragon tribe.
Yan Hua was sitting under the old locust tree, drinking hot tea. In his hand, he held two chess pieces, black and white.
Qi Yu looked at Yan Hua. Seeing his calm and unmoving demeanor, she couldn't help but press further, "Master, why aren't you speaking? Don't you know when the Dragon tribe started to decline?"
Yan Hua didn't look at him. After a long while, he slowly said, "I have been living in the Immortal Realm for a very long time and have long since detached myself from worldly affairs. Detached from worldly affairs doesn't mean people don't tell me things; it means I cannot receive any news from the outside world."
"But you took us two as disciples later, and you still came out of the Immortal Realm, didn't you?" Qi Yu felt he seemed a little unhappy after saying this, so she quickly added, "I don't mean to pester you relentlessly. I'm just curious. If you don't want to say, then don't."
After saying this, Qi Yu walked to the opposite side, picked up a white chess piece, and joined him in playing chess.
Yan Hua remained silent, merely placing chess pieces on the board.
Chen Xi, unlike his usual self, did not nibble on melon seeds. Instead, he turned his head and looked at Yan Hua with a worried gaze. Seeing that Yan Hua remained silent, he lowered his head and squatted there, picking at his fingers.
Si Qing looked at Chen Xi and immediately noticed the change in his expression.