Hou Niao was in the bamboo forest beneath the volcano, watching the mountain bamboo blossom in the flowering pavilion.
Throughout this month, only a very small amount of bamboo had died after blooming, which was just the beginning. The next two months would see the mass death of rouge bamboo, along with the emergence of new shoots breaking through the soil. Due to cultivation reasons, a massive wave of life cycles was set to occur during this period.
There was no movement in the crater of the volcano, only the intermittent strong and weak emissions of smoke that signified the volcano's activity level, but Hou Niao did not sense any signs of human manipulation. It might indeed not be manipulated, or it could be that his realm was too low.
More and more rouge bamboo began to die; blooming was their last and only flourish in life, a transient glory.