v4c23: Noticed (Patreon)

A great, vast consciousness began to coalesce, chasing something it hadn’t felt for a very long time. It was the work of nearly a month to even get this far, even as the being gave thanks every day.

It moved slowly, sluggishly, for pulling itself together from thousands of Li away was a great task… but what had caught its interest demanded attention. Normally, a lesser spirit would have handled this feeling—a garden spirit or perhaps, at most, the Spirit of the Shrouded Mountain. Lesser existences, part of a greater whole that aided in regulating the Great One’s Dragon Veins, in accordance with Natural Law.

But the greater part of the whole had noticed this tiny ant and his feelings, mostly because there was a touch of familiarity in the little one’s Qi.

At first, the Great Consciousness was confused as it tasted the pure and earnestly offered Qi. This one was not eligible for the path, for the greatest and most important of contracts. He still desired his long life, and he still wished for power.

Yet he was still not expecting some manner of power for spending his Qi so freely, inadvertently going through the first motions of the Contract.

It was almost nonsensical… but it was also intriguing. So the Great Consciousness watched as the little one acted—appreciating the love this little one was showering it with.

He exalted in his work, meditating while moving and tending to his charges. He was so small and cute and earnest—but what was familiar about him was gnawing at the Great One. It pulled more and more of itself together… until a mass of it began to congeal.

It needed to think, and a head was good for thinking, no?

The mass of Qi grew a head. A body followed that, then limbs, then clothes, until there was at last a woman standing on top of a mountain peak that was deep underground, everywhere and nowhere at once.

She was statuesque, like the great Howling Fang Mountains themselves—she would have towered over most men by hand lengths. Her silver hair was done in the most popular style of the village girls here, braided and covered by a handkerchief. Her clothes were noticeably thick, built to ward off the chill along with her red, fur-lined cloak.

She was majestic, stunning, and foreboding all at the same time, for her face held an unforgiving sternness to it.

The Howling Fang Mountains, which had also been given the name of Jiguang by a dear friend who had taught her how to be herself long ago, opened slate gray eyes that held points of twinkling light within them: gold, silver, and every precious stone under the sun.

She looked up and considered the young man, this time with actual eyes. His physical body in the material, yet also part of his spirit that was within her domain. She briefly contemplated pulling the man fully into her world so that she could get his measure, but decided against it for the moment.

She searched his feelings and his intent, and was surprised. Again, he held nothing but praise in his heart, giving of himself freely.

It had been a very, very long time indeed, since she had felt this last.

The spirit blinked. “The Breath of Life?” she whispered. The technique required a deep understanding of the cycles of the world. Of the moon and the sun, and even the invisible breath of each province and the planet itself.

His breath was slightly off—not timed correctly with hers, but the fact that he had even gotten this far on his own was… unprecedented.

He was interesting. Very interesting. It was almost a shame that he was not ready to turn to her path. It had been ages since her last dear friend had passed and completed the contract. She looked at him and sighed, tasting his power. The light of the moon, with undertones of the sun and a small, almost invisible strand of gold—

Jiguang realized why the young man felt familiar.

He contained a fragment of an earth spirit. And not just any earth spirit, either.

Of the Azure Hills.

Jiguang felt a spike of murderous rage that this disgusting creature held within him part of her fellow disciple’s corpse. A portion of her dear sibling, all of them created as they were by the Great Ancestor Shennong as part of his dying will, a safeguard against the beasts that stalked the space between worlds.

His Qi was close. So close. He had delved too far in his actions, and now… now she might be able to affect him.

She cursed herself. Without a Connected One, she was slow. Glacial. Her Qi was tied up elsewhere, and even if she threw all her power against this bastard, there probably wouldn’t be enough of it here to slay him.

But maybe she could tease out that strand of gold. He was connected deeply enough that that may have been in her power.

She grabbed it, to pull it out, to rescue what little remained of Azure Hills—

What felt like a forehead slammed into Jiguang’s own, followed by what felt like a little girl spewing expletives at her for daring to touch what was hers.

Jiguang staggered backwards at the intense feelings within the gold.

The spark was given willingly.

There were emotions within the spark of her fellow disciple. Warm fondness and caring. Too fresh to mean anything else but…

Jiguang sat there for a moment, which felt like an eternity.

She would have to check herself. The Dragon Veins connecting The Howling Fang Mountains to the Azure Hills were still sundered and ripped apart. Some by whatever had happened when the locusts had ruled the land, and some by herself—a preventative measure to stop her own Qi from endlessly draining into a bottomless pit.

It would again be the work of months to check those veins, to see if the drain was still present… but Jiguang could not deny the truth in front of her.

Azure Hills was still alive. Still alive, and they loved this little mortal enough to disobey their Master on how their powers were to be used.

The sun rose as she pondered, and the young man kept up his steady, kind work, never once stopping or resting. He loved every moment of his work… but his breathing was still off. Not quite there—but the fact that he was already improving was fascinating.

She pondered his work for another moment, before coming to a decision. He had done her a great service in inadvertently giving her this information.

And that… that could be paid back with a boon. Nothing to give him any real power, just a little nudge in the right direction. He would not remember her when he awoke from his trance… but that was how things should be.

She reached up and pulled him further into herself so she could give him proper instruction. The little wisp that was in her world became more and more solid… and then Jiguang froze.

She stared at the man’s spirit form. His soul, his true appearance.

She stared. And stared. And stared some more.

“A chicken?!”

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Zang Zhong was in a good mood when he finished his meditations that morning. He had successfully suppressed his cousin again—and lorded it over all his lessers.

Truly, it had been a wondrous party.

He would even forgive Bi De for fraternizing with his cousin, in return for the idea with the herbs. Besides, even though his watchers hadn’t heard what they were talking about, Bi De had obviously charmed them… and then ignored their advances.

Really, the man had insulted Fengfeng by not even accepting her invitation! Perhaps Bi De’s proclivities were to the other side of things?

Zhong shrugged. He didn’t really care. That just meant more women for him. Bi De would continue to be suppressed under his thumb, aiding him while not achieving anything himself, and everything would be perfect.

He decided to walk through his garden, just to complete his wonderful mood. The sun was well risen and shining down. It was sure to improve the appearance of the Five Colour Dew Herbs that were left. With a grin, he opened his back doors and strode into his garden with a smile on his face. His resources were flourishing and they would soon be able to be refined, to further assist his rise.

He noticed movement, out of the corner of his eye, and a flash of red hair. It seemed his servant was already doing his job. Zhong smiled.

He would just needle him slightly today. He was a kind and magnanimous man—

He froze when he came across Bi De.

Bi De was moving and meditating at the same time… and he was restoring his Qi from the air itself.

Zang stared blankly at Bi De’s sheer efficiency. Zang could get perhaps a tenth of the benefit that Bi De was out of the air—his body simply couldn’t use such miniscule quantities. If he had to recover his Qi in an emergency, he would have to tear it out of the plants and wither this entire grove. All that would be left would be husks, husks that would take years to regrow.

And even then he wouldn’t have been able to use all of it. He would have had to discard most of it, unable to convert it into anything useful.

Bi De was using everything. The wood, the water, the earth, the metal, and the fire. Each breath he took extracted everything, and lost him nothing, while somehow not disturbing the world around him.

It was as if he was subsisting off air alone, as those in the upper end of the Sky Realm could. They did not need to eat or drink for decades at a time, even centuries if they were deep into their meditations.

And Bi De was doing it while moving. While moving and gardening—he was growing his power.

Zhong felt his eye twitch.

This… this was meant to suppress him, and it was doing anything but.

He felt a bit of blood trickle from where he was biting his lip, and he felt slightly lightheaded. Something spasmed inside of him.

Zhong—Zhong needed to meditate.

To recover his equilibrium.

He marched back inside, his good mood well and truly ruined.

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“Your services are no longer required,” the head servant told Bi De. “The Young Master will be entering two months of seclusion, and all nonessential servants are banned from his presence.”

Bi De nearly scowled. Just as he had finished the garden! “I see—wait. He’s not to be disturbed for two full months? Is he not the head of the Inner Disciples?”

“Of course he isn’t to be disturbed for the entire time—be grateful he is so skilled that he merely has to cultivate for two months! I swear, you peasants don’t know how true cultivation works,” the head servant scoffed.

… that is very inefficient, Bi De thought to himself. He wondered what had prompted the sudden change in the man.

Well, he would have to go and see the rest of his companions and share with them his knowledge—as well as his new breathing technique. It was most effective!

He took a deep breath of the pure mountain air. It was incredibly refreshing.

Despite the removal of his garden, he was in a pleasant mood as he wandered down the mountain. He hoped his fellow disciples were having similar luck.

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Yun Ren stared at the masked and veiled people surrounding him as he sat at a desk in an underground storage room.

He had had a bad feeling ever since the dude who was sitting across from him told Yun Ren to follow him for another job.

“So… uh, what’s this all about, if ya don’t mind me askin’?” Yun Ren said cautiously. ”This ain’t some demonic cult, or a weird sex thing, right?”

All of the veiled men just kept staring at him.

Yun Ren swallowed thickly.

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HFM Chan got woken up and now knows that Tianlan is still alive.

Big D just got hack mode for Qi regen.

Zhong nearly suffered internal devation.

Yun Ren is shitting himself.

Find out what happens next time on Beware of Chicken!

Editors: Ayje, Oshi, Brandon “Philosophysics” Zhang-Leong, Aaron “Pastafarian” Sofaer, Massgamer.