Sighing, Mei stood with the chicken as they faced a field, mixing up various materials into the soil.

No other chickens were in sight, all enjoy time in the mansion. Behind her, the old hag paced around in an impatient manner, but with the chicken nearby, she kept silent.

"I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Most of us... we're not really that accepting of humans, haha."

Well... not that Mei could blame them. She wouldn't like to talk to people that ate her folks after all.

"Er, too much Crystal Limestone! They won't grow well that way!"

The chicken hurriedly mixed in a few other minerals and ashes.

After about an hour of hard work, the field was prepared. Mei reached for a nearby bag of seeds on a cart full of farming supplies, but the chicken hurriedly stopped her.

"Ah! Not yet! We need to wait for the lime to take its effect first."

"Eh?"

Mei felt a little embarrassed. Honestly, she had no idea what the chicken was even doing mixing these into the soil. The most she did was to mix manure in the soil back home, and perhaps some spirit stone dust when growing spirit herbs.

Wait no! Why was she embarrassed? She was planning to stop farming entirely!

Hearing the soft laughter of her inner demon, she grimaced. Grrrr...

"We actually only obtained this field quite recently. The previous owners were growing crops that thrived in more acidic soil, so we need to adjust the soil accordingly. We won't be planting here until a few months later."

"Wait, does that mean we won't need to plough any more fields?" Mei was overjoyed.

"...well. We do own multiple fields."

Mei: ...

"It's enough for today though! Let's return."

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

Mei ate greedily from a bowl filled with spicy tofu and vegetables. It was very spicy... so much so that she was huffing air to cool her mouth to no avail, but it didn't make it any less delicious.

Meanwhile, the chicken ate from a bowl of fried centipedes with the same spicy sauce.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it." the chicken said.

By the time Mei wordlessly polished off her food, the chicken's bowl was still half full.

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"Can I try one of those?" she asked.

"Eh? You want to try one?" the chicken said in shock. "I thought you humans were squeamish about these..."

"I wasn't from a well off family, so I'm not picky."

"Sorry... these are very expensive... Ah!"

Mei snatched a centipede leg that had dropped onto the table.

"You aren't eating this, are you?" she smirked.

Chicken: ...

It was very crunchy, with a strange, vaguely bile-like bitter taste, but it also had an incredibly rich flavour. It was twice as tasty as the tofu!

But what struck her more was... the influx of qi! Just from such a tiny piece, she absorbed enough qi that she would otherwise have taken 20 minutes to absorb. Eating that entire bowl, what was that? A month of non-stop cultivation?

Mei was awestruck. Damn. Was this how Wang Wei and the other cultivated so fast? Food was more terrifying than she thought...

"Nevermind." the chicken sighed.

The animals here sure ate well...

After the meal, the chicken took Mei to overlook a cliff. The farms were on a mountain, overlooking vasts forests. In the distance, she could see the sect buildings, though they were the size of ants.

While she was done for the day, she wasn't due to return until more than an hour later, so the chicken took her to sightsee.

"Hey, Nei Xiang." Mei couldn't help but speak up.

While talking earlier, she asked for the chicken for its name.

"Hm?"

"Is it... stifling to live here? Knowing you might be butchered one day?"

Nei Xiang jumped in shock.

"Er, sorry! I wasn't thinking it through..." Mei waved her hands in a panic. "A bit rude."

While she didn't like the other chickens very much, she had gotten a little attached to this much nicer bird.

"Haha... Don't worry, it's not anything like that. The sect doesn't butcher spirit animals, I'm not sure if you heard." the chicken said. "I'm a little shocked you were bold enough to bring it up through!"

Ah. Mei thought Yang Ning and Senior Han's reasoning not to eat spirit animals had nothing to do with the sect.

"So they just farm regular animals elsewhere?"

"Nah, they don't. It's not exports either, if you were wondering." Nei Xiang sat in a roosting position. "Well, it's supposed to be a sect secret but..."

A secret?

"It'll just be between us. Don't tell anyone, alright?"

"Okay..."

"The source of the sect's meat is... quite sinister. Generally, the rules of virtuous sects don't allow for meat since it hurts karma. Especially since cultivators don't even need to eat."

Sinister? Mei gulped.

"But I heard during the founding of the sect, the sect master imported demonic trees from another realm! Corpse Hand trees. Morbid sounding, isn't it?"

Mei nodded.

"Apparently, instead of having bark, they just have smooth black wood. And they never grow any leaves! From a distance, they can look like the hands of monsters sticking out of the ground because of that..." Nei Xiang shuddered. "They get their energy by cloning animals cells in flesh pods, to make flesh puppets. Then they control the puppets to hunt and kill animals, which they then skewer on their branches!"

Mei: !!!

"They even make their puppets scream in the voice of the original animal, so their friends rush over to help and get eaten!"

Indeed... these trees did sound right out of nightmares.

"If what I've been told is correct, the sect feeds these trees compost and uses them to produce flesh puppets, which are then butchered for meat. It's technically humane, but it's kind of gross, isn't it?"

Mei nodded with a weird look on her face.

"Wait." she suddenly thought of something. "Why is this even a secret? It might be a bit freaky, but if it was told, then the disciples here can just eat without worrying about karma, can't they?"

"Well... I guess no one knows for sure. But I heard some say he wanted the disciples to make the decision themself, as a test of sorts." Nei Xiang had a thoughtful look. "But there's also another rumour that's spread amongst us spirit animals. It says the sect master is probably just a meathead who wasn't willing to give up meat, so he travelled all across dimensions to find an alternative but was too embarrassed to admit it. Haha, funny one, isn't it?"

Mei: ...

"By the way, how many disciples have you told this to?" she asked.

"...honestly? I lost track..."

So much for keeping a secret.