Xiao Ji stood in a large room, thankfully free of stench. Opposite him stood the strange human that was now his master.

Master Fan Guo.

For a full minute, man and chicken stared at each other, neither willing to break eye contact first. The rooster was not worried, for he had won many staring contests with humans back in his village. The fact that they thought him a dumb bird made it even more fun when they became unnerved.

As predicted, the man was the first to break eye contact, choosing to speak instead.

‘“Xiao Ji,” the man spoke softly, using that name that Ji hated, yet the universe seemed to love. “Why are you in the second stage of the Qi Condensation Realm?”

Ji tilted his head at that. The question caused him no small amount of confusion. His Master had come almost immediately after he left the room and thankfully got rid of the impurities with a snap of his fingers. After that he had taken them to their current location, a fairly large and plain room with no openings save for the door they entered through. Instead of explaining or at least asking about his experience, his Master had proceeded to stare at him for a minute then ask him an even more confusing question.

Truly, his Master was just like the stories his uncle told him about when he was younger. Perhaps they were actually based on the old man, now that he thought about it.

He stared at his Master without blinking Though he had entered the Qi Condensation Realm, he was still and unable to speak Empire Standard, which left him with little options to answer the old man's question.

“Of course you cannot answer me.” The old man sighed. “I will teach you Empire Standard in a few moments. But first, do you understand what you have done?”

Ji shook his head, still fairly confused about what point his Master was trying to make.

“You spent less than a full day in your first cultivation session. In that time, you not only managed to enter the Qi Condensation Realm, but to break into the second stage. I suppose that old fowl wouldn’t have picked you up for no reason.”

There was a certain gleam in the old man’s eyes that almost made him shudder, and he had to remind himself that this was his master, not a villager who wanted to use him to fill his pot.

A long narrow object with an almost ethereal green gleam materialised above the man’s palm. Ji wondered if he would ever be able to do something like that with such casual ease. The thought filled him with some excitement.

“This is a jade slip. Inside it is a technique that will let you speak with qi. You have already shown your cultivation prowess, so I will assume this should not be difficult for you. Simply direct some of your qi into the slip and it will activate.”

He dropped it in front if Ji after that and then promptly left the room, leaving the rooster alone with the technique.

Truly like his uncle’s stories.

Figuring out how to put the qi into the slip was a lot easier than he expected. The hours he had spent trying to retain as much qi as possible likely helped to improve his qi control, something he was currently thankful for. He might have gotten a breathing technique that was perfect, but that would not have helped him to activate the technique.

As it was, a few minutes of trial and error was enough to get qi into his meridians and direct it to the his mouth. Then he picked the jade up with his beak, passing the qi from his tongue to the slip. The sensation of the technique activating was so jarring that he nearly dropped it.

Not for the first time, he wished the old human that was now his Master would explain things more.

Xiao Ji was not sure what exactly to expect when he activated the technique. Perhaps a kind of scroll that would open up. Or even lines of text in his vision like the ones the system used. What he did not expect, however, was for information to flood his brain directly, showing him how to move the qi to create words with qi.

Reading the scrolls had given him a vague idea on the limits of the earlier cultivation realms. He was almost certain that the technique should have been beyond his ability to achieve. Yet for some reason, he was able to get it working in what seemed like a fairly short period of time. There was certainly something happening behind the scenes that he did not know. Not that it was surprising. His Master would not have given him a technique that was far beyond him after all.

Now that he though about it though… From what he had seen, that was the exact kind of thing the man seemed to love.

[You have learnt the technique - Voice of the Wind(Sky)]

He blinked and closed the message. That seemed useful.

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“My name is Xiao Ji,” he said through the technique and nearly jumped.

For the first time in his life, he could actually listen to words that he spoke with a voice that was his. At least technically. From what little he understood of the technique, it used qi to manipulate the air to produce sounds and carry them to people around him. He could even choose who he wanted to hear him and exclude others. In theory at least. His qi control was not quite good enough for that yet.

He dropped the jade slip on the table and looked around the room.

No sign of his master.

The door was thankfully open, so he left the room hoping he could find Mei. He was hungry and so far, there had been no signs of any thing he could eat lying around. He walked around for a while before realising he had no idea where he was going. So he instead did what felt like the wisest thing to do.

He screamed.

His Master had shown the ability to sense him from wherever he was. There was a fairly good chance that Mei could do something similar. Or at least he hoped so. At the very least, it was unlikely she was not a cultivator. He received no answer after a few minutes, which was worrying.

Around him were walls that stretched high up and seemed endlessly long. His Master had picked him up and ran to the strange room at speeds far too much to comprehend. Which meant he had no way of knowing which route he had taken.

He screamed again. And again.

When he was sure no one was going to listen to him, salvation appeared in the form of his Master who was looking grumpy enough to worry him. If he was not so hungry, at least.

“What is the meaning of this?” the man said, his stern tone reminiscent of one he’d heard from a few angry villagers. “Why are you screaming like a pathetic animal?”

To say those words did not sting a little bit would be a lie, but he was mostly too hungry to care much.

“I don’t know the path back to my room. And I am starving. Since I haven’t come across anything I can eat from the ground, I was hoping there would be an arrangement. Perhaps with Mei.”

The old man looked at him for a long moment, then let out a sigh.

“Damn fowls are going to be the death of me,” he muttered under his breath before walking away.

Ji rushed to follow him, struggling to keep up with the punishing pace set by his clearly annoyed master. They walked past a dizzying amount of corridors and doors, with him struggling to take note of the route they took. He thought he succeeded, but was not particularly confident in remembering it for a return trip.

Finally, they came to a large door and stopped. They only stood for a few seconds before Mei appeared.

“For what reason has the Great Master come to see this humble servant,” she said with a bow.

Her words were humble and her tone polite, yet from the old man’s reaction, Ji suspected there was more to it. It was likely some form of the teasing he mentioned when they first arrived. Or maybe he was simply reading too much into human interactions.

“I have been made aware that my disciple has not eaten in many hours. Even after breaking through to the second stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. I do not believe that is good for his health. So for the peace of everyone in this house, I would ask you to feed him.”

Ji did not miss the way Mei’s eyes widened slightly at the mention of his breakthrough. That was a human expression he had come to connect with surprise. The thought that he was a prodigy even for awakened, was pleasant, if a bit arrogant.

“Of course, Great Master,” Mei said, then turned to him. “You poor thing. Sorry Master forgot you had to eat. I’ll get something for you. I stocked up the moment you got here. Plus, you’ll get to meet the others at dinner!”

She spoke about the others with enough excitement to get him interested. And also slightly nervous. Did she mean other cultivators?

“The others?” he asked with his new technique.

“Master already gave you the language slip? Great! Now you’ll be able to communicate too. The others are the rest of the awakened. Well, only two of them for now.”

Huh. So there were others awakened. That was not terribly surprising, to be honest. Considering his uncle at least. It did mean his Master controlled a powerful resource. His uncle’s lessons on human politics came to mind. That was something he could worry about later though. His current priority was food. He was interested in what Mei meant by ‘stock’.

“Come lets go. I’m sure Qian Shi is already waiting for us. She’s been really excited to meet you.”

They left the room, and once again, he took care to try remembering the paths they took. It was a little easier this time, as their destination was not far. They stepped into a large, airy room with what looked like a large piece of circular cloth in the centre.

“Welcome to the dining room,” Mei said. “This is were we all eat.”

Ji was not listening to her though. His attention was on one of the corners of the rooms. Or, more accurately, the large black dog that sat there, big enough to make Ning almost look like a puppy. The memory of Ning, the local village dog, biting his hatch brother’s head off was still fresh in his memory.

So when this much larger dog barked in his direction and ran towards him, his flight instincts acted before his brain did, and he was already on his way out of the dining screaming. His panic riddled brain largely agreed escape was the best option in that situation. Hopefully Mei would be able to calm the dog before it could catch up to him.

Alas, it was not to be. Xiao Ji was a hungry chicken. Though he had just broken through, he current level was still barely above mortal. So when he was faced with the task of running away from a dog multiple times his size and speed, he did not get very far.

Shortly after he started running, he felt something large touch him lightly. That was, unfortunately, enough to interrupt his run and send him crashing to the floor. As he stared at what was likely to be his death, he saw Mei in the distance. Though she was a little far, it almost looked like she was laughing.

So the plan was to feed him to their dog all along? So much for listening to humans, it seemed. Just as he prepared to get up and stand his ground, the dog opened its massive maw. Large enough to swallow him whole with teeth that could cut him into pieces with ease, no doubt.

And then it pounced.