Old man Fan Guo spent most of the long flight dreaming of his chicken. He remembered the way it felt when they trained together, or when he attended the occasional event, proud disciple by his side. They both drew stares wherever they went and the whispers always went, like master, like disciple..

His mighty cock was truly resplendent, capturing the hearts of both men and women alike as they fawned over its majesty. Indeed, many arguments had been resolved simply because of it.

Then he had gone and lost it.

“Damn troublesome fowl will be the death of me.”

He slowly brought his flying sword to a halt as he hovered over the tiny village that was his destination. It was a quaint little place, serene and isolated. Also completely unremarkable in every single way. Except for one.

Fan Guo knew without a doubt that his first disciple had spent time in this isolated backwater. He had no idea why the rooster had bothered, or what his motives were, but finding him had been a priority since he disappeared nearly two years ago.

Still, it was a testament to how good the old rooster was that it had taken Guo so long to find his signature. For that, he was not sure whether to be proud or frustrated.

After searching the village with his senses as thoroughly as he could, he found himself leaning towards the latter. Further attempts yielded him no results, and he eventually had to give up. Brilliant as his disciple was, not even that rooster was good enough to fool such a thorough scan.

There were two things he was sure of, as he left the village.

The first was that his disciple, Xie Sun, had spent at least a few months in the village. The strength of his spiritual presence was simply too strong for anything else, even though it was clear there had been attempts to hide it.

The second was that said disciple had left the village months ago, something that increased his frustration even further. He was about to leave and go take out his annoyance on some faraway mountain range when something caught his attention. From the outskirts of the nearby forest, a short distance from the town, pulsed a faint energy signature that made his heart flutter.

For a moment, he thought he had found his disciple, and his cold heart skipped a beat. Then reality asserted itself and disappointment washed over him. Though the presence felt slightly similar to his disciple’s, it was clearly different. Still, it was interesting enough to catch his attention. So he headed to the forest, careful to hide his presence as he approached.

To say he was surprised by what he found would be putting it lightly. The moment he got to the spot, he was greeted by the bizarre sight of a small rooster that felt completely mortal holding its own against a newly ascended shadow panther. He watched in fascination as they fought, and the chicken kept coming back, refusing to back down even with a broken wing. He saw the moment bird claws met panther eyes and knew the fight was over even before the big cat ran away whimpering. For the first time in a while, a true smile touched his face, and Old Man Guo shook his head.

“Damn old fowl,” he cursed under his breath.

He finally understood what had happened. Xie Sun had always intended for him to find the village. But the crafty rooster made sure he was long gone before that happened, not wanting to be found for whatever reason. He knew about Guo’s project though, so he raised a replacement.

“Damn old fowl expecting me to just accept it.”

Perhaps this was his karma for always objectifying his spirit beasts. The cursed old housekeeper had warned him about that. He turned to stare at the passed out rooster with a shake of his head. He could simply leave it there. It was not his disciple and he had no obligation to it. But that was just wishful thinking. His disciple truly knew him well.

So he watched the clearly intelligent fowl as it slept through the night, unaware of all the predators that Guo scared off. All while the ambient qi in the air flowed towards the rooster, healing its wounds at speeds that a newly awakened should have been incapable of.

At that point, the old man reckoned he could not afford to leave the chicken even if he wanted to. It was clear that he had truly awakened, which meant he already satisfied all the requirements for discipleship. Plus, there were so few truly awakened spirit beasts, it would be a waste to leave one to die.

And so, resigned to his choice as he was, Old Man Fan Guo sat in the air and waited for his new disciple to awaken.

----------------------------------------

Xiao Ji awoke with a start.

He felt the sun’s rays peeking through the forest canopy and jumped, thankfully resisting the overwhelming urge to crow. It was clearly long past his usual time for getting up, given the sun’s intensity, which meant it was too late for the daily wake up call. Even without that, he had never particularly fancied crowing, and doing so in a hostile forest seemed like a good way to invite predators he could not handle.

At that thought, memories of the fight last night flowed into his mind, gripping his heart with fear. He took a few moments to calm down and convince himself that there was no hostile creature stalking him anymore. At least he hoped not.

He immediately turned his attention to the wing that had been ruined in the fight and blinked again. He could clearly remember how ruined his side was just last night, and even the memory made him wince. So he was understandably shocked to see it looking like nothing ever happened.

“Marvellous, isn’t it.”

The voice that interrupted his musings came from above him and immediately sent him into a light panic. It was clearly a human, given the language, though he spoke in a way that vaguely reminded him of his uncle. Something about it sounded easier to hear than what he was used to from the villagers.

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Looking up revealed something that shocked him to his core. Floating in the air a few metres above him was a man sitting on a sword, his legs dangling from the side. With a head full of white hair and a face covered in what his uncle told him were wrinkles, the man fit perfectly with Xiao Ji’s vision of a human that was close to the end of its life.

There was just one small problem.

Humans that were considered old moved slower and were noticeably weaker than the rest of them. He had gotten chased by a few humans with very wrinkled faces and they were never a threat. Merely a way to amuse himself with people he was sure could never catch him. Old humans were weak and slow.

Yet he knew somehow that if the man above him wished to catch him, he would have no hope of escaping. He was reminded of his uncle’s fanciful stories of faraway places with humans and other beasts that could break mountains and move faster than he could see. He had dismissed them before as simply strange stories the older rooster told for amusement. It would not have been the first time. Yet as he stared at the old man floating in the air with no wings, he wondered whether some of those tales were true.

A part of him screamed unfairness and jealousy. Though he was a chicken and therefore denied the gift of flight, he still thought it an exclusive privilege of birds. Yet now a human had done yet another thing his species could not do. Even without feathers and wings.

His eyes never left the man the entire time. For his part, the human simply sat there staring back at him, seemingly without a care in the world. One of the lessons his uncle had taught him floated to the front of his mind.

‘One day, Ji, you might meet someone whose strength is as vast as the ocean. Someone that is so far ahead of you that standing against them is hopeless. When that day comes, you must show them utmost respect and be as careful as you can.’

He had rarely seen the old rooster as serious as he was that day, so even though he had not really understood the message, it had stuck with him.

From the moment he laid his eyes on the strange flying man, Xiao Ji finally understood what his uncle had been trying to say. If the man wanted him dead, there would be no escape. So he bowed in respect, thankful of the fact that his uncle had repeatedly drilled the proper greetings into him.

“This humble servant greets the immortal master,” he said as clearly as possible.

The man stared at him hard, his lips tugging down in a movement he recognised as a frown. Ji felt his heart speed up slightly. A frown usually meant annoyance, something he did not want the old man to feel. Had he offended him somehow?

“Ah, It seems you cannot speak empire standard yet. I should have expected that. Unfortunately, I never bothered to learn whatever chicken language Sun came up with.” He scratched his beard lightly before asking. “Can you understand me?”

Without any other way to reply, Xiao Ji nodded. His uncle had told him it was a good way to signal affirmation since he could not speak. He had noticed it enough times while observing the humans to confirm that was true.

“Good. We will take care of your speech issues when you properly break through to the first realm. For now, you will accompany me home so that we can discuss your discipleship and cultivation path. In the meantime, try to look inside yourself, you might be surprised by what you find.”

Ji took a moment to process everything the man said. He did not understand most of it, to be honest. What struck him the most however, was the mention of discipleship. His uncle had explained what it was in one of his many lessons. From what he understood, the man would agree to train and provide for him in exchange for being at his mercy.

After thinking hard for a while, he still could not come up with something the man would want to teach a fowl like him. He briefly fantasised about learning to fly on his own accord before dismissing that. He had no idea what the old man used to fly, but he doubted it was something he would be willing to teach a mere chicken. He also was not sure if it was a good idea to even trust the man, regardless of whatever he said.

A memory came to the forefront of his mind, he remembered his uncle talking about humans and beasts that could flatten villages. The look in the rooster’s eyes when he spoke of it was what brought him up short. Seeing his healed wing and the old man floating, he wondered if perhaps, his uncle had not been telling simple stories.

Xiao Ji wished to become as large as he possibly could and maybe find his uncle one day, for he never believed the fowl was actually killed all those months ago. As he thought, he admitted the truth to himself. He would likely not last the week in this forest, given how close to death he’d come just on the first day.

Even if he did, there was no direction for him to go. He knew no way of reaching any of his goals. Meanwhile the old man seemed unsurprised by his healed wing. He even talked of making Ji capable of human speech.

So, though going with a human into a discipleship was not his ideal choice, it truly seemed like his best one. Especially when the man seemed to have implied that he knew his uncle. That was an opportunity he could not afford to miss.

His mind made up, he finally thought about what the old man said. He couldn’t understand what ‘look inside yourself’ was supposed to mean. Perhaps it was a human thing? Then again, it was the exact kind of nonsense his uncle would say. As he was thinking and trying to attempt it, something appeared in front of him suddenly, nearly scaring him half to death.

[All requirements for unlocking the system have been met. Welcome to the Great Dao.]

[You have unlocked the Dao of Chicken]

He moved back, trying to put space between himself and the strange writing that floated in the air in front of him. The words seemed to follow him, the distance from him unchanging regardless of how much he moved. Now that he actually thought about it, he faintly recalled something similar happening just before he slept off after the previous night’s fight.

Looking up at the old man showed him nothing. The human merely smiled at him and waved, offering no additional advice.

Though his instincts wanted him to either run away or fight the strange words in the air, he controlled himself. He was not one of his hatch siblings, ruled only by their base instincts. Instead he put his mind to work.

Firstly, he noticed that he could actually read the text. It was written in the language his uncle had taught him. Empire Standard if the old man was to be believed. He was not sure what that actually meant, but he did not question it.

The text said something about requirements being met. He had no idea what those requirements were. Nor did he know what the ‘system’ that he had apparently unlocked was. The other things were even more confusing. Great Dao? Dao of Chicken?

So from what he knew, he had done something that fulfilled certain criteria he was unaware of. That led to the unlocking of a ‘system’ that likely had something to do with his species since it said Dao of Chicken. Or maybe it was just a small part of the Great Dao.

Whatever it was, the old man likely knew more about it, though he had no way to ask. The text still floated in front of him even after her finished reading it. Turning his head to the side did not work. Neither did shutting his eyes. For some reason it was visible even through that. It was actually starting to scare him.

‘Go away,’ he screamed at it internally.

The words disappeared at the thought, to his utmost surprise. Before he could celebrate however, more words replaced it.

[For unlocking the System as a mortal before the age of one, bonus experience has been given.]

[Trait options improved]

[Please choose one of the following traits:]

[Piercing Crow]

[Flying Spurs]

[Royal Crown]

[Force of Mind]