Chickens were prey more often than they were not.

It was a truth Xiao Ji had long come to accept, much as he disliked it. His uncle would point out that they were predators to insects, worms and even snakes. Yet it never changed the truth. There were simply too many animals that saw them as food.

He had managed to change that, his newfound cultivation letting him stand his ground against predators that should have been superior to him. He was no longer prey.

Or so he had thought.

As he desperately tried to avoid the panther’s strikes, he realised that perhaps he had changed less than he thought. He was still a chicken after all.

His mind went back to his trait. His last hope.

[Force of Mind] technically gave him the power to affect the world, but that was something he still could not truly understand, given how vague it was. There were a few times when he thought he’d done something, but they were never concrete enough to be sure. Yet it was now his only option.

So he tried to reach inside himself. From all he had heard, traits were supposed to be intuitive to some extent. Ruo Long talked about how natural it felt to breathe out fire for the first time.

With little else left to try, he focused on the feeling of his trait, that strange feeling that appeared vaguely when he practised qi control, and gave in to it.

Nothing happened at first, and his dodges merely became more frantic, making him panic more. That panic soon gave way to calm, however, as he felt something click. His trait, which was previously passive, went from a vague feeling to being at the front of his mind.

What happened next was something he could not quite explain. The moment he felt the click, he knew he was using his trait actively. It felt like he was suddenly in tune with the world in a way that he could not explain.

Its effects, however, were much clearer to him. The panther, previously moving a lot faster than he could follow, slowed suddenly, making it much easier to dodge. Before he could feel joy, however, he felt a strange tiredness wash over him and knew his time with this ability was limited. Which meant he needed to act fast.

A simple jump launched him to the panther’s face, his claws reinforced to the maximum. He could see the cat’s attempts to dodge, but alas, the effects of his traits was not easily overcome.

His claws met the eyes of his target easily, before it could shut them. Unlike the last time, where he had to use all his effort to try squeezing, the eye of the panther parted easily when he met them.

That was where he met an unfortunate problem: his claws were too short. He punctured the panther’s eyes, but couldn’t actually get to the brain, which would kill it. He was not confident in it running away without hurting him if it survived ,and he doubted he would be in good shape when the skill ran out.

Which meant the shadow panther had to die.

He tried what he did with the wolves and attempted to cut the throat open, but for some strange reason its skin seemed tougher there. He also saw the shadows start to shift and the panther’s movements getting slightly faster. He was running out of time.

Fortunately, a few more slashes with his spurs seemed to do the trick. He was thankful for his Master’s exercise at that moment, because repeatedly slashing the throat of a standing panther with his spurs required him to push his body’s aerobatics.

He eventually got too weak to continue and felt the panther return to normal. Thankfully, all that achieved was letting it fall to the ground choking. The dizziness overtook him at the sight of his vanquished foe and just like his first victory over a shadow anther, he felt the world go blank. Not before he had one last thought though.

And so the predator became prey

*

Xiao Ji woke up to find his surroundings pleasantly warm.

That was the first thing he noticed. The second was the headache.

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A raging fire burned in his head, and it was all he could do to avoid crying out in pain. He lay curled up on the ground for the next few minutes, trying to weather the pain as well as he could. It was nowhere near what he felt that day, and it subsided within a few minutes, much to his relief, leaving only a dull throbbing in the background that could be easily ignored.

When he was sure he felt well enough, he stood up and finally checked his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that he was not in the forest.

It should not have been a surprise, given the warmth that he felt. He was certain the forest would not be so cosy, given his time he spent there, at least.

He found himself in a rood. It was a plain room, with no furniture and little except for a piece of cloth that was spread out on the floor. There were no windows, though the room had a light crystal, much like his own.

He thought back to the first time he had seen one and the surprise he had felt when he knew there was no fire. He was truly an ignorant chicken back then.

It only took a moment to realise he was back on the mountain top. He was not sure what exactly it was, but he suspected it was some combination of general room design and the ambient qi that tipped him off.

The door was closed, so he went to try opening it. Unfortunately for him, it was not like most of the doors in the house that opened with a simple infusion of qi. This one seemed to have manual controls.

Controls that were built for humans.

He sighed. The pain of being a chicken in a world built for bigger species.

Fortunately for him, he did not need to wait for a long time as the door opened shortly after his awakening. Mei, her face full of worry, stepped in with a plate of food that tickled his senses. It also brought his hunger to the forefront

“Hey Ji,” she greeted, forcing a smile.

“Hello Mei,” he returned absentmindedly, his attention still on the plate.

How many hours had he slept for, he wondered. Perhaps the use of his trait was also part of the reason he was so hungry. He remembered the feeling of having his energy drained towards the end.

The moment Mei set the plate in front of him, he wasted no time, barely even looking at the food before digging into it. He vaguely noted some of the seeds and insects in the plate, but most of his attention was on devouring everything he could.

It was filling, with some amounts of qi, not too different from the spirit worms he so loved. These were just as good, in all honesty, and he was really glad for Mei’s food preparation skills. He could not even believe he had once seen cooking as largely unnecessary,

“Are you satisfied?” Mei asked the moment he was finished.

He almost replied that he was not, before his stomach caught up with his taste bugs and pointed out that he was indeed satisfied. He answered in the affirmative instead, to which Mei just nodded and then sat down on a chair she brought out from a spatial storage, most likely.

“How are you feeling, Ji? Be honest.”

Mei’s expression was serious as she asked, so he took some time to check how he felt, trying to see if there were any issues.

“I feel fine. Surprisingly so. There was a headache when I woke up, but even the dull throbbing disappeared while I was eating.”

The relief on her face was clear to see, and he noticed her relax a bit as tension left her shoulders.

“You have a few hours of rest before you’re called. Master was impressed by your performance. He has a few questions.”

“He was watching me?”

For some reason the prospect did not cross his mind, though it made a lot of sense when he thought about it.

“Of course he was. You’re a Beyond grade awakened and that forest had things that could definitely kill you. There’s no way he’s going to lose you.”

He knew his Master valued him for his grade, but it felt a little uncomfortable to be so blatantly reminded of it. Felt too close to the villagers for comfort.

“How are the others,” he asked, changing the topic.

“Ruo Long defeated the bear and is spending the night protecting the victims of the bandit till tomorrow morning. Qian Shi is still on her hunt.”

The mention of Ruo Long having to complete the mission alone made him shake his head. He should not really have expected anything different though. Not from his Master. At least he had some idea of how long he had spent sleeping. Mei seemed to imply it was still the night of the same day. He supposed it could be worse.

“Do you need anything else?” Mei asked.

He noticed the subtle but still present signs of worry on face. It seemed she did not fully believe he was being truthful about how he felt.

“Not that I can think of. I’m really fine, Mei. You don’t need to worry. It wasn’t my first fight against a shadow panther. Plus, I’ve finally made some progress with my trait. If anything I’m excited.“

She did not seem fully convinced,

“That was not just any shadow panther, Ji. It was pure-blooded. Not to mention its cultivation was close to the peak of Qi Condensation.”

The mention of pureblood was enough to make him pause. The first shadow panther he fought was an evolved one. Meaning it had gone from being a mortal animal to being a shadow panther, either by some fortune, eating qi filled meat, or unknowingly absorbing qi from a high density environment,

It was capable of cultivation, but like Ruo Long, it was weaker than an equivalent pure-blooded shadow panther and had limited potential if it could not find a way to purify its bloodline.

Purebloods, instead, were spirit beasts that were born from parents with pure bloodlines. They were rare and generally much more powerful than evolved beasts. They were often born intelligent too, and he was glad his underestimation of the panther’s intelligence had not ended badly. The difficulty of what he did increased in his eyes. As did the power of his trait. It also made him understand why Mei was so worried.

He managed to convince her he was fine after some time, and she finally took her leave, giving him some time to rest and think about what happened. Not that he needed the rest much.

A few hours later, there was a knock on his door, bringing the message he was expecting.

His Master was finally summoning him.