Liu Tang and DongFeng were on the bus stop and were waiting for the bus to arrive. Liu Tang smiled at his co-worker, but the latter was too occupied on his phone.
"Why do you keep watching little men on your mobile phone?" Liu Tang asked. "And why do I need to carry this silver toilet paper roll?"
"First of all, that is a tin foil. ShuChun brought it a while ago, but we didn't get to use," DongFeng replied without looking at Liu Tang. He was still too immersed in his phone.
"Why do you keep watching those little people, then?" Liu Tang asked. "You didn't answer that question yet."
DongFeng groaned and took off his headphones, "Because I'm learning how to do stuff."
"Learning?" Liu Tang tilted his head to the side. "You can learn things on your mobile phones? I thought you'd have to study in educational institutions to do so?"
"Those are degrees," DongFeng said. "These are just MeTube videos. I need to learn how to properly assemble and disassemble a gun so I can be ahead of everyone in class."
"Oh," Liu Tang formed an O with his mouth. "Can I learn how to renovate a shop using my mobile phone?"
"You can just call it a 'phone' and yes, you can," DongFeng said. "I really don't want to talk to you, so please stop talking to me. Just open your MeTube app on your phone. I saw you watching cat videos last week, so I know you have it."
It was just in time for DongFeng to finish his rant that the bus arrived. The man ran inside and chose a seat that had another person beside him so Liu Tang would be forced to sit somewhere else.
Upon realizing this, Liu Tang scoffed and chose the seat across DongFeng. He took out his mobile phone and opened the MeTube app that DongFeng told him about.
"How to renovate a shop," Liu Tang searched. He was now better at using his phone after learning on his own. At first he was still confused because he didn't know what anything meant.
That was until he asked DongFeng for helped and the latter helped him with the basics of using his phone. He was now too immersed in it that he didn't realize that his stop was already coming up.
"Hey," DongFeng called out. "Aren't you getting off?"
"Getting what?" Liu Tang asked.
"Your street is coming up," DongFeng pointed out. "You should go or else you'll walk for half an hour trying to get home."
"Oh, oh," Liu Tang immediately exited the bus. He waved his hands at DongFeng who was expressionlessly looking at him and then turned back to his phone.
"What is wrong with that guy?" Liu Tang asked. "He's so cold to me. I could never know why."
As he walked home, Liu Tang couldn't stop the feeling that someone was watching him. He continued to walk down the street until he heard a car silently following behind him.
He stopped his steps and the car also stopped, making him sigh, now knowing that the car was following him. He continues to walk until he reached his apartment building. The car stopped right in front of the building, but then he realized that this car was the one that Yuan owned. The police was still after him even when they were finished their interview with him.
"What do they want with me now?" Liu Tang groaned in frustration.
Whoosh.
He turned around to see that the car had vanished. His eyebrows scrunched in confusion. Even if the car would drive straight to the road in full speed, he should've been able to hear the engine. But he didn't. It was like they just vanished.
"Help!"
Liu Tang heard Yuan's voice from above. When he looked up, he saw a giant creature was hovering in the air, the car was gripped by its claws.
"Liu Tang!" Jiang Shen yelled. "Can you please help us?"
"That's a giant bird!" Liu Tang pointed out. "How am I supposed to help you?"
"Do anything, please," Jiang Shen pleaded. "We can't die here."
This was a Pixiu, a creature of gigantic size that are attracted to shiny things such as gold and silver. It has a head of a dragon, a body of a lion, and a pair of strong wings attached on its back.
Its personality was harmless unless shiny objects are involved. Since the car had a silver color, the Pixiu was attracted to it.
"You can jump off the car," Liu Tang said. "Hurry!"
The Pixiu had its grip on the car and it was going to take flight. Liu Tang didn't know what else to do until he remembered what DongFeng gave him.
"The foil," Liu Tang whispered to himself. He immediately took out the foil from his backpack and shone his cellphone screen towards it.
The reflection from the foil attracted the Pixiu, making it drop the car and drive straight to Liu Tang instead.
"Now, it's coming after me!" Liu Tang gasped. He rolled to the side and let the Pixiu take the foil. After it ripped the moment its sharp claws made contact with it, the creature shrieked.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"No, don't!" Liu Tang yelled. "Pixius are harmless creatures. They're just big and likes shiny things."
"I guess it's too late for that." Yuan was trembling as he fired his gun at the creature. He was shooting through the shattered glass pane of his car window, but his bullets didn't even leave any marks on the Pixiu, making him shake even more when the creature was now facing him.
It was approaching him, slowly making its way to the car. It was growling and the wings on its back were spread wide, showing its anger towards the man.
"Why did you even fire?" Jiang Shen scolded. "Now it's gonna come after us again."
"Jump!" Yuan yelled. He leaped from the window and so did Jiang Shen just in time for the creature to take the car with it and fly into the skies, leaving the three men in the street, all shocked.
"What the hell was that?" Jiang Shen gulped. "H-How…"
"It was a Pixiu," Jiang Shen said. "It's a creature that takes shiny objects and eats it. It doesn't excrete what it eats and use those to charge its power. That's why your bullets can't harm it."
"But how did that creature get here in the first place?" Yuan asked. This was something that Liu Tang can't answer because it will reveal his identity.
Evil spirits and mystical creatures are attracted to cultivators because of the Qi they possess. Qi, for these creatures, are sweet in scent and in taste, that was why they were going after cultivators.
"Tell him," Jiang Shen said to Yuan, confusing Liu Tang. "If you don't, I will."
"Why?" Liu Tang asked. "Do you know something?"
"This isn't the first mysterious case that we had," Yuan confessed. "Just like Quan Rui's case, there are still several more in the files that doesn't make sense."
"And since you know about the Pixiu, we figured you know something about these cases," Jiang Shen said. "Will you help us?"
Liu Tang did not hesitate to say yes. The police officers looked at each other, wondering why would Liu Tang immediately accept the offer.
They just didn't know that this was a key for Liu Tang to gain Qi. Now he can cultivate faster.