Building a sect from scratch.

"Name? Race?"

As Zheng Qian asked the question, he casually pulled out a notebook and a rolled-up pencil.

This is the notebook she keeps on hand to record the various NPCs who interviewed at Wutong Interactive Entertainment. She originally wanted to ask about the basic information of this bird demon, but seeing its non-violent non-cooperation and its angry and humiliated expression—who knows how a bird could have such an expression on its face—she was speechless.

She approached the bird demon, impatiently tapped its beak twice with a rolled-up pencil, making a thumping sound, and said, "Why are you glaring at us! You should thank us! Especially this one next to me, look, it's her!"

As Zheng Qian spoke, he pointed to the [Three-Year-Old Crawling Tower Guardian] and continued, "It was someone else who found the spirit beast pouch that was trapping you, and it was also someone else who paid to help you break the seal. Otherwise, your original master had died, and you would have starved to death inside sooner or later!"

The bird demon was stunned for a moment, but then became even angrier. It opened its mouth and tried to breathe fire, but because the anesthetic suppressed its demonic power, it could only spew out a few pitiful sparks and a wisp of gray smoke. It even choked itself and coughed several times, which was both pitiful and funny to watch.

The surrounding players burst into laughter, some even wandering around taking screenshots to make memes.

The strange bird was laughing so hard its feathers stood on end. It couldn't help but retort defiantly, "I didn't beg you humans for help! Go ahead and send me back in there if you dare! Bah!"

"Sure, pay me back first! Hey sis, how much did you pay Old Wang to break the seal on the spirit beast pouch again?"

As Zheng Qian spoke, he asked about the story of "crawling and guarding the tower at the age of three".

[Three-year-old crawling to guard the tower] She was a little afraid of the strange bird's ferocity, but even more afraid of losing her fifty yuan. Zheng Qian's intervention was a lifesaver! So she looked at Zheng Qian gratefully and whispered, "Fifty yuan! Fifty yuan! That's so expensive!"

"Did you hear that! Fifty yuan!"

Zheng Qian tapped the strange bird's beak again with the rolled-up pencil, emphasizing, "Paying back debts is a matter of course! Especially since this is your life-saving money! You're not only ungrateful, but you also have this attitude! You have no animalistic virtue! No demonic virtue!"

Unexpectedly, these words enraged the bird demon, but its impassioned rebuttal targeted the least important detail in Zheng Qian's entire statement—

"I am a Bifang! Not some kind of beast!"

“Alright, alright, Bifang, Bifang,” Zheng Qian casually wrote a few words in his notebook, then continued, “No matter what you are, it’s only right to pay back debts, isn’t it?”

The Bifang bird blushed slightly, but its feathers concealed its embarrassment, so no one could tell. Its tone softened considerably: "Hmph! Fifty yuan? I'll just give it back to her!"

"Very good! It seems you're a reasonable demon after all!"

Zheng Qian nodded in satisfaction before explaining, "Fifty yuan isn't too much. According to our Wutong Interactive Entertainment's salary standards, with your qualifications, the base salary will be ten yuan a month. If you have good acting skills and know how to transform, which can save our production team's special effects budget, your salary will at least double, and even over a hundred yuan won't be a problem. In that case, you can pay off your debts in just a month or two!"

One player finally realized Zheng Qian's intentions and immediately became unhappy: "Hey! Sister, your ulterior motives are obvious to everyone! You're just trying to trick it into doing illegal work at such a low cost?" Zheng Qian retorted: "What do you mean by 'low-cost illegal work'! Please ask around, the wages we at Wutong Interactive Entertainment pay are already considered high! And we don't discriminate against demon cultivators or humans, the working environment is super friendly! Finally! Wutong Interactive Entertainment has a business license! How does that make it illegal work? Be careful, I'll sue you for defamation!"

Another player seized the opportunity to persuade the Bifang Bird: "Hey fellow Daoist! Don't listen to them! Come to our Sheyi! You can be our mascot! You can make money by performing! Blue Star Live gives you a 20/80 split of tips! Super generous! Earning over a hundred a day is not a dream!"

When the other players saw the huge "Gugu Chicken Community" tag above the speaker's head, they immediately started complaining with disdain: "Pie in the sky, huh? Everyone knows your Gugu Chicken Community is the most shady! You recruited a bunch of hairy demon cultivators to do some kind of demon cultivator live stream every day, making it like a zoo! Charging admission is one thing, but you even limit the number of tickets! Bah! Indecent! Where are your morals? Where are your bottom lines? Where are the tickets!?"

"enough!"

After listening for a while, the Bifang bird roughly understood the situation.

Although I don't know why, it seems that these human cultivators from different factions are all strongly recommending them, trying to make them submit, just to pay off some fifty yuan debt!
But humans are always treacherous and cunning, so we certainly cannot agree to that!

Having made up its mind, the Bifang bird angrily declared, "I will not submit to any of you! And I will absolutely not sign any slave contract!"

As it spoke, it even tried to raise its head, adding with a mixture of grief and indignation, in a truly heroic tone: "You're wasting your time! I will never yield! You can forget about it!"

Upon seeing this, the crowd fell silent for a moment, then erupted into various bursts of laughter and吐槽 (tu cao, a form of online commentary/criticism).

"I'm dying of laughter! Does this silly bird have some kind of paranoia?"

"He's seriously ill, hahaha!"

"It looks like a Puxin person! Oh no, it should be a Puxin demon! Even the furry creatures in the neighboring Chiyuan Cave aren't as dramatic as it, hahaha!"

A kind-hearted player, though also speechless, explained, "Please! Who forced you to sign any slave contract! Get this straight, your previous master—or rather, the person who captured you, the cultivator you had a grudge against, whatever! Anyway, the one who stuffed you into the spirit beast pouch and is already dead!—wasn't even from our sect! Their sect has already been wiped out by us, and this is now Taiyin Sect territory! Our Taiyin Sect has rules against slave contracts, so no one will sign one with you. If anyone does, you can sue—hey, isn't that what we call 'suing' in our game?"

As he spoke, the kind-hearted player asked the players around him for confirmation.

The other players nodded in agreement, and one who knew the details added, "That's right! It's about filing a lawsuit. You can report it through the game's system interface, but it seems that if it's a native NPC, you'll have to go to the Taiyin Palace to find the Enforcement Elder!"

The Bifang bird, however, was not easily convinced. It snorted coldly and said, "Hmph! You don't need to use sweet words! If you really forbid slave contracts, why did you trap me here as soon as you came out?"

Zheng Qian spread his hands and said, "Isn't this to get you to pay back the money?"

The three-year-old crawling tower guard, who was crouching behind Zheng Qian, poked its head out from behind her shoulder, nodding like a chick pecking at rice, and whispered, "That's right! That's right! I've been saving up for so long with great difficulty!" (End of this chapter)