Feng Lei Yu was sitting near the top of a tree flanked by nearly a hundred other hawks and owls, and hundreds of sparrows. She didn't know if it was her animal instincts or woman's intuition, but she felt like something was going to happen today and had gathered all the spiritual birds in preparation. She personally didn't like working with the other beasts of the forest, but the situation had forced her to so. For generations, the other beasts of the forest were notorious for raiding their nest to consume eggs and their young, but that's the law of the beasts. On the other hand, humans would kill indiscriminately: sometimes for food, other times in defense which was fine. What bother her was their desire to kill her kind to use their corpses for pills, artifacts, or talismans. The lower level cultivators didn't bother her too much since they tend to use everything, but too many times she saw higher level cultivators kill a bird, take a few parts, and leave the rest on the ground. Since then, she had made a name for herself of returning the favor by hunting humans at lower levels, and dropping the remains off next to the fortress city in the same condition.
Spiritual birds would come and go quickly as they would deliver the latest information. She was watching a crow fly away when she sensed a sparrow making its way to her swiftly.
"Ancestor Feng", it saluted with its wing, "The humans have left the city."
"Good, good, good", she smiled viciously, "Return to your place, I will reward your tribe later."
The sparrow flapped its wings, leaving her alone, but Feng Lei Yu wasn't paying attention to it anymore as she sent out a series of tweets and chirps. Soon, the whole forest was full of birds transmitting the message, and the land bound beasts started moving, ready to intercept the humans.
Feng Lei Yu took flight, and soon she located the other four leaders of the top tribes, as well as, the leaders of the smaller clans as well. The massive flock of birds formed around her, but she quickly gave the order for them to form around their leaders. They had appeared as a huge black cloud, but when she gave the command, the 'cloud' split up into several smaller ones.
It didn't take long for the cultivators to come into view, as two flying warships appeared with hundreds of cultivators circling them using flying artifacts.
"Brave of them to bring their ships out", Feng Lei Yu bellowed, "You know what to do. They want to avoid fighting on the ground against the four legged beasts. Don't let their wishes come true."
All the spiritual birds screeched and chirped in response as Feng Lei Yu tilted her wings, and headed straight for the flying ship. The 'clouds' of birds immediately followed, and their arrival was greeted by shields being deployed around the ship. She could feel the senses from two cultivators lock onto her, so she casually imbued her wings with wind and sent wind blades towards both Nascent souls as a greeting. The flying cultivators initiated combat with the hawks, owls, falcons, crows, and others as both sides finally began the battle.
Feng Lei Yu wished to cull a few the lower level cultivators herself, but with two Nascent souls watching her, it would be stupid to try now. The beginning of the battle was somewhat boring as lower level cultivators and younger spiritual beasts were testing each other and trying to gain advantage. All it took was one action for everything to ramp up, an owl was able to surprise a Qi Gathering realm cultivator. The man was knocked out his flying artifact causing the others to recklessly attack, and soon the was filled with man and birds alike falling to the ground.
Feng Lei Yu could sense the decreasing numbers of both sides, but she couldn't afford to pay attention to it. Not only was she dodging attacks drone the Nascent souls and their warships, but she had confidence that the spiritual beasts on the ground would kill survivors who fell.
After awhile, Feng Lei Yu was getting concerned, her role during this battle was to keep her targets busy. The other four were supposed to working together to damage or destroy the flying boats, forcing the humans to retreat. Finding the opportunity, she descended to find out if the others ran into trouble when she was greeted by a sight that not only shocked her, but the two Nascent souls who was chasing her as well. On the ground, there were thousands of glowing spheres of various sizes holding man and beast alike.
Feng Lei Yu quickly scanned the area before discovering three men with masks on standing in an open space. The two Nascent souls had also stopped, and looked in the same place. She blinked but when her eyes opened, two of the men were gone when she heard something appear behind her.
"Who are you and what have you done here?", the Nascent soul that used Lightning shouted at the two masked men.
"Please stop your attack", the masked man closest to the Protectors requested, "My master has a proposal for you to consider."
"What nonsense is this…", the Nascent soul that used metal Qi started to reply when the masked man unsheathed his sword.
Before anything else could happen, a bright light swept around nearly hitting both the humans and Feng Lei Yu before the masked man returned the sword to its sheath. The two Nascent souls drew their own weapons, a spear and a sword, before a loud sound garnered everyone's attention. Everyone on the battlefield with the exception of the three masked men turned to the warships flying in the air. The shields and protective formations had been cut, and now the ships were vulnerable. Unfortunately, the two Nascent souls had seen too many improbable things at this point, and the two masked men threw small spheres at them. When the spheres hit, barriers formed around the cultivators, and they fell to the ground.
Feng Lei Yu realized what had happened, these three men had used these artifacts to capture everyone, so she focused her attention on the two closest.
"Puppets!", she exclaimed, "Then the third man on the ground must be the controller."
She had faced cultivators that utilized puppet techniques several times before, and she knew the best chance to stop powerful puppets was to attack the controller.
Feng Lei Yu charged towards the third masked man standing in the clearing as fast as she could. Just as she was about to reached her target, the main threw out talismans.
'Talisman array!', Feng Lei Yu was scared as she clashed with the shield that just formed. She flapped her wings to try and escape, but before she was able to turn around something hit her back. Colorful energy surrounded her as she found herself captured just like everyone else.
Feng Lei Yu prepared to burn her blood essence in a bid to break through when suddenly, her breathing slowed and her mind felt hazy.
'The air is poisoned inside the formation', Feng Lei Yu realized before her eyes closed, and she started snoring.
Fang Shi was looking around at what had happened before giving an order to the two puppets.
"Gather all the capture spheres, load them onto the flying ships, and let's head back to the shop", he said.
Within a half hour, two now unusual looking ships started moving towards the pavilion. Since there wasn't enough room to hold all the spheres, Fang Shi had the spheres float and they tied them to the railing. Now the flying boats looked decorated for a festival with all the colorful spheres floating above them. Soon, the flying boats arrived at the pavilion, and Fang Shi had the puppets bring the two Nascent souls and five Ancestral beasts to a private room in the tea house.
Fang Shi had formations trapping the seven of them shrink down to form the shapes of the imprisoned.
"Place the two protectors in seats", Fang Shi commanded the puppets, "As far as the spiritual beasts, they can't fit in seats like this. I'll see if they want to change to their human forms once they wake, or if they choose to stay in their natural forms for this discussion."
The two puppets complied creating a strange scene. Fang Shi and two men sat at the table as a deer, hawk, bear, lynx, and fox laid on the floor.
"System, prevent our guests from creating trouble and then wake them", Fang Shi said.
The room became noisy as the sleeping 'guests' woke up. As predicted, once they realized they were in a strange room with an unknown young man, they all immediately tried to attack him. Thanks to his foresight, Fang Shi was able to quietly sip his tea as his 'visitors' all realized they were as weak as mortals.
"Welcome to the Heaven & Earth pavilion", Fang Shi said while ignoring their attempts to use their Qi or blood essence, "I don't mind waiting for much longer for everyone to understand the situation, it would be nice if you could sit with me for a conversation."
Without the ability to use Qi, both Protectors Jin and Lei gave up their attempts to attack.
"That tea smells divine, young man", Protector Jin stated, "Would it be possible for this old man to order a cup?"
"Of course", Fang Shi replied, "First allow me to introduce myself. I'm Fang Shi, owner and manager of the Heaven & Earth pavilion. Please use this to make your selection."
Fang Shi hand an artifact to Jin Tianxuan with a quick explanation of how to use it. The five beasts were still pacing the room trying to find a way out.
"Seniors, the sooner we can speak, the faster I'm willing to release you", Fang Shi tried to negotiate with them.
"Boy, release us immediately…", Tie E started to threaten him.
"Or what?", Fang Shi cut the bear off, "You will attack me?"
Tie E went silent before his form began to change.
"Superb choice, senior", Fang Shi complimented the bear, "Take these robes, and get dressed behind that divider. Then you can join us at the table while we wait for the other to do the same."
Tie E complied with Fang Shi's request, and after another twenty minutes, the other beasts finally followed the bear's example. Fang Shi was evaluating everyone at the table with the easiest to read being a woman that had been a hawk.
"Now, first let me apologize", Fang Shi started to speak once everyone had been provided refreshments, "Both sides here have had their lives interrupted by my master's decision to build his store here. As the owner, he felt responsible for the conflict that had arisen for this choice and wanted to resolve things peacefully."
"Why did this senior decide to build here in the forest?", Gu Ling Wang inquired.
In response, Fang Shi narrated his experience in fortress city upon his arrival causing the two protectors to frown. They normally wouldn't care about the testimony of a Mid level Qi Gathering realm cultivator, but this time it had costed them. By offending a cultivator that could oppress Nascent Soul realm leaders, they had kicked a steel plate.
"They made you unhappy, so you took our land from us?", Feng Lei Yu was furious.
"Do you have the strength to complain?", Fang Shi countered.
He was aware that he had caused this, but in his memory, this kind of world always operated on the belief that the strong made the rules.
"Anyways", Fang Shi continued when he didn't receive any more responses, "My master had already claimed the spot, but everyone can still benefit from this arrangement."
Fang Shi finished his tea, opened the door, and invited everyone to follow him. The Protectors of the city and the ancestral beasts had both heard reports from their subordinates about this place, but seeing was believing. The tour wasn't different than any of the previous ones as the two sides marveled at everything the store had.
Finally, Fang Shi led the group to the cultivation hall. Before they entered the hall, the protectors and beasts got a reminder of the power behind this pavilion as they witnessed the floating spheres still holding their kind captive. Once inside, Fang Shi introduced the artifacts to the seven of them.
"Seniors, now that you understand what these artifacts do", Fang Shi spoke, "I would like to make a proposal. I would like to able to offer my goods and services to everyone without causing further conflict between each side. To resolve any current issues between you all, I would suggest we hold a grand battle inside the secret realm here. This realm is special as only your mind can travel to it, but you receive the benefits of anything to comprehend inside. I believe I have demonstrated the ability to provide top class resources, so there shouldn't be a reason to continue to fight over Tianbao city's resources. Also, I'm fairly confident that my store is the fastest and safest way to advance levels. How about everyday, I will allow equal numbers from each side to enter, and seven days from now I'll arrange a battle inside the secret realm. Since anyone inside the secret realm can battle to their hearts content without suffered deviation or backlash, it's the perfect opportunity for you to face each other at your strongest."
At first, both sides were reluctant to agree, so Fang Shi gave a suggestion, "Take a few hours to experience the realm yourself. Then you can make an educated decision."
The seven agreed, and climbed into the advanced cultivation pods. Hours later, after trying out the different games, everyone agreed to the match. Fang Shi returned the flying boats and the subordinates to each leader before opening shop. Most of the beasts and people quickly left after hearing what happened, but a few stuck around to the explore the new business.
As the leaders left the pavilion to prepare for the competition, Fang Shi gave them a reminder that sounded more like a warning, "My master will be watching, so keep your followers in line. I have no control of his actions if he discovers that his word was ignored and the violators will be punished by him personally."