They had been flying for hours.

Xiao Ji lost count of how long they’d stayed in the air, the landscape had changed from lush grass to dry deserts. They were currently flying over a vast body of water.

An ocean or a sea, if his uncle was to be believed.

He remembered the numerous kinds of fantastic places his uncle had mentioned to him. Now that he saw some of those places, and it was all he could do not to jump in excitement at them.

The old man had closed his eyes since the beginning of the flight and refused to answer any of his questions. Even when he tried to ask about his status. Thoughts about the status had occupied his mind for the past few hours, interspaced between his moments of awe at the surroundings.

The lack of knowledge frustrated him, honestly, and he wished they would get to their destination quickly. So he could at least receive some information.

Parts of it, like mentions of his name and race, were clear. Though he was rather annoyed that even the system recognised him as Xiao Ji. He would grow bigger than any chicken ever and prove both the system, his uncle, and the old man wrong! But first, he had to figure out what exactly cultivation was. He tried to understand what cultivation stages and techniques meant but came up blank every time.

So he instead tried focusing on the surroundings

‘At least I'm not getting bored.’ Hopefully.

The water soon ended and they came across what he thought was a city. His uncle had told him about places where lots of humans gathered. Like a village, but much bigger.

He had found it hard to imagine what hundreds of thousands of humans would look like. The sight below him blew his imagination apart.

Massive structures, greater than he thought possible rose through the air, reaching heights that rivalled the tallest trees in forests. A vast sea of buildings littered the earth, stretching as far as the eye could see. Outside, he could see people moving about in numbers far greater than he had ever come across. He noticed dogs, chickens, and a few other animals at the outskirts of the city, but saw less and less of them the farther in they got.

By the time they flew over the middle of the city. There were barely any animals. He saw the occasional cat, but only humans really walked around, which was a far cry from the village where practically every house had at least a few animals. They quickly left the city behind, and a part of him was surprised that the old man had paid such a vast city no mind at all.

Soon though, he saw something that was truly fantastic. A roar shook the air when they had left the city in the distance and a few moments later, one of the most terrifying things he had ever seen came into view. A mighty scaled beast with wings that could likely cover a large part of his old village flew towards them.

Xiao Ji felt fear unlike he had ever known.

The old man instead continued closing his eyes, speaking only in a casual tone.

“Go back to your roost dragonling. Shen Yang would be annoyed If I harm one of his spawn.”

The voice that replied was deep and terrifying. Ji was not sure he would have survived without the old man protecting him somehow.

“Who are you, a mere human that dares to call ancestor Shen Yang by his name.”

“Well. This humble human’s name is Old Man Fan Guo. And he will be eternally grateful if the mighty dragon would give him permission to pass.”

Ji was not particularly skilled in giant flying reptile facial expressions, but even he could see the look of panic that crossed the dragon’s face. He stared in awe as the mighty beast bowed to the old man.

“This humble dragonling greets the great elder Fan Guo. This junior has eyes but cannot see Mt Tai.”

Then the mighty beast fled, leaving an open path. And a very confused chicken.

The rest of the journey was smooth. They passed a few smaller settlements, each still larger than his village. Eventually, they came to a large rock that dominated the skyline. He thought back to his uncle’s geography lessons, thankful now that he actually paid some attention. The massive elevation that went higher than any structure he had ever seen could only be a mountain. He was a little confused by the fact that there was no white on its surface. His uncle had mentioned snow in his lessons.

At the top of the mountain sat a massive compound with several buildings, the tallest of which towered far above the rest, likely comparable to the highest tree in the forest he passed.

They landed gracefully, and in another incredible display, the sword disappeared into nothing the moment they alighted. The old man, his new master, did not elaborate on it. At that point, Ji was getting used to the human’s refusal to explain anything.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“Welcome to your new home,” were the only words he got before the man took off at a brisk pace that the chicken struggled to match.

The weather was warm, even this high up, which was nice. The floor was hard and totally unyielding, unlike the soft sand he would have preferred. He looked around and saw the same material all around, which made him wonder what he would eat. He doubted such hard floor would contain any worms. He hoped his new Master would have thought of that. Though the odds of that seemed rather low.

When they got to the front of the massive building, the door swung open to reveal what he looked like a human woman. He squinted at the figure. It was sometimes slightly confusing to tell male and female humans apart. Especially when the female wore clothes that looked like what a male would wear.

The new woman smiled widely and gave what he recognised as a human bow.

“This disciple greets her Great Master Fan Guo!”

“Oh stop teasing this old man, Mei,” Fan Guo scoffed.

“This disciple would not dare tease her Great Master. Especially not in front of my new junior brother.”

The woman, Mei, had a smile on her face when she said that. Her tone was suspiciously similar to his uncle’s when the old rooster wanted to make fun of him. At that moment, Ji actually felt a strange sense of kinship with the old man.

“Enough of that. We do not need to give our newest disciple the wrong impression now.”

His master’s tone was stern, and the woman nodded and mumbled a quiet apology, much to Ji’s surprise.

They went inside after that, each content to stay quiet as they walked past the seemingly endless amount of rooms in the house. He was relieved when his Master stopped at a door and turned to him.

“Welcome to your new home. This will be your room until I say otherwise.”

The door opened to reveal a room that was plain, with the exception of a rectangular wooden structure in the centre. It looked vaguely similar to some of the ‘beds’ that also stood in the middle of the rooms in his previous home. He thought back to the times he spent sneaking through villagers’ homes with fondness. They had definitely revealed a lot about human customs to him. They also left him with a lot of questions.

Like, why they needed the beds in the first place. He turned to his new Master inquisitively, trying to communicate his question through eye contact. A tactic that proved unsuccessful, much to his annoyance. The old man simply walked out of the room and beckoned on him to follow.

Their destination, this time, was a little more interesting. The next room they entered was full of what he quickly identified as scrolls. The entire village only had very few of them, something he had worked hard to confirm. They were also smaller and a lot more worn than the ones he was currently looking at. The old man stretched out his hands and three scrolls flew out to land softly on them. Ji was only mildly surprised, already getting jaded from so many impossible displays in such a short time.

“Do you know what these are?” the old man gestured to him and received a nod in response. “Good. they will be taken to your room and you will read them and follow their instructions. You will not come out of your room until you have achieved the goals included there. When you are done, simply call for me and I will answer.”

With that said, his Master simply vanished after giving the scrolls to Mei, leaving him alone with the her.

“Had a long day, eh?” she asked, perhaps reading the look on his face.

He briefly wondered how she could even understand his expressions but quickly dismissed it. There was a good chance she knew his uncle. If so, it was not surprising that she could read him. He simply nodded. His inability to communicate with the people around him had never really bothered him in the village, but it was different now. He was with intelligent people who not only knew he was intelligent, but also had information he needed. Not to mention the fact that they clearly had some relationship with his uncle and seemed intent on searching for him.

The thought of humans genuinely trying to find his uncle for purposes other than food was truly strange. Even now, a part of him still worried they planned to kill him in his sleep or something equally nefarious. The more reasonable part pointed out that they would not have needed such elaborate pretence for that. Plus the strange existence of the system traits were points in their favour.

Xiao Ji stared at the woman who looked at him with something that could be mistaken for genuine concern and nodded his head. He seemed to be doing that a lot since he met Old Man Fan Guo, but that was to be expected given his inability to cultivate.

“You can speak if you want,” the human woman said, much to his surprise. “I assume Sun Sun taught you the language he created. Master Guo might have been too proud to learn it, but I was curious.”

He nearly chuckled at the nickname. He suspected his uncle was not a fan of it.

“Hello, Mei,” he said carefully.

“Hello Xiao Ji,” the woman replied with a smile. She still spoke empire standard, but that was expected, her ability to understand him was more than enough.

He almost jumped when she replied. A part of him truly doubted her ability to understand his uncle’s language. For the first time in months, he finally had another intelligent creature that could understand the words he spoke. Of course he would have much preferred if it was another chicken and not a human woman, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Do you know what Master Fan Guo wants me to do with these?” he asked. “Is it something related to cultivation?”

“I would assume he wants you to study them very well. From their titles, they will indeed introduce you to cultivation. It's safe to say he expects you to have broken into the first stage at least.”

“First stage,” he asked, still unsure of what cultivation actually was.

“He would not be pleased if I told you anything. Just read the scrolls they will contain all the information you need. Now come let us go back to your room. Try to remember the path we’re taking.”

Ji resigned himself to just reading the scrolls and followed behind Mei as she led the way to his new room, scrolls in hand. He tried to follow her advice, and found that remembering the road they took was surprisingly simple. It was as if his memory had been improved. His mind wandered back to the trait he had received: [Force of Mind].

Perhaps the system and its rewards were going to be more useful than he thought