Su Xiaobai's eyes tearing up from the sheer beauty of it.
The chicken had sacrificed herself.
To save him...
He began to fall.
Unconscious.
Drained.
Descending like a fallen war god who just witnessed his favorite snack beco a martyr.
On the ground, the team stood frozen.
They had just watched… a chicken die for its master.
The lightning illuminated not just the sky, but sothing deeper—
Their souls.
"…Did a chicken just… take a lightning strike for him?" Shi Yan whispered, half-conscious.
Deng Lei wiped a tear from one good eye. "She didn't have to. She chose to." He teared up. "That… that was loyalty."
"Catch him—soone catch him!" Nalan Yufei shouted, already running forward with tears in her eyes, toward the falling masterpiece that was Su Xiaobai.
Yu Feng hesitated, visibly conflicted, before running forward, preparing to catch the falling Su Xiaobai with both hands and maybe so awkward emotions.
And above them, still in the sky—
The lightning kept striking.
Over. And over. And over.
The charred body of Miss KFC floated mid-air like a scarecrow refusing to die, being hit by bolt after bolt of heavenly fury.
And it still. Did. Not. Fall.
She was enduring.
Taking the wrath of the heavens.
"Ka—Boom!"
"SHIIIIK!!"
The sound tore across the sky—a shriek so transcendent, that even the trees considered ascending.
It was the scream of a chicken…
No.
Not a chicken.
Sothing more.
Down below, even the invincible brute Ku Rong froze.
The man who once headbutted a Jade Rhino into a coma blinked slowly, muscles tense, eyes narrowed.
"…Is this chicken… cultivating?"
With visible hesitation, he dropped to one knee.
And saluted.
"Respect."
Deng Lei, still dripping blood, followed.
Neither of them fully understood what they were saluting.
But they felt it.
A sacred awakening. A divine roast sizzling in the oven of heaven.
Above them—Miss KFC hovered midair, caught in the throes of a celestial lightning-gasm. Her body trembled, not with fear, but gluttony.
She wasn't resisting the lightning.
She was devouring it.
Feathers once dark and scruffy snapped straight, glowing like polished dark obsidian veins laced with purple electric athyst. Each bolt that struck her only fed her hunger.
The lightning scread to escape.
But she refused.
She drank deep.
An endless vortex of pride.
And then—
She changed.
Pop!
The first shift ca with a deafening boom as her stubby wings exploded outward in a flash of blinding violet, stretching into sleek, blade-like feathers. Not the feathery chaos of a farm bird, but the aerodynamic precision of a storm-born predator.
Her body elongated, the fat compacting into a slender, elegant fra, scales glowing along her legs, and her claws morphing into razor-sharp lightning hooks.
Her tail flared into three gleaming feathers, each trailing arcs of lightning Qi like cots.
And her neck—once awkwardly stubby—now curved with regal elegance, crowned by a rising crest of electric-white plumage.
Eyes no longer round and googly.
Now?
Slit pupils glowing with stormlight, watching the world like a bored goddess stuck in a low-tier realm.
She was no longer Miss KFC.
She was—
The Violet Thunder Crane.
A five-ter celestial bird streaked with crackling energy and unbothered arrogance, floating midair like she just heard soone call her "chicken" and was still deciding whether to incinerate them.
And then—
She moved.
FWOOOOOM!!
Like a divine cot, she descended, wings tucked, trailing arcs of violet and white across the night sky.
BOOM!
anwhile—
Su Xiaobai was falling.
Unconscious, and glowing faintly.
And below him—
Yu Feng ran, hair flowing, arms outstretched, tension exploding with romantic rescue buildup.
She was one step away.
One. Fucking. Step.
When it happened.
FWOOOOOOOOOM!!
A sonic boom ripped through the air as the sky above them blurred into a streak of purple and white.
Miss KFC—no, now the Violet Thunder Crane—descended like a divine airstrike.
Yu Feng reached up—
And the crane body-blocked the entire mont.
THUD!!
Su Xiaobai's limp body landed perfectly on her back, cushioned by feathers still crackling with lightning Qi.
The bird didn't flinch.
Didn't even ruffle a feather.
She just turned her massive neck—slowly, ominously—toward the wide-eyed Yu Feng, who had been mid-sprint, one hand outstretched, face slapped raw by the shockwave.
The crane's massive eyes glowed, lightning shimred around her like divine contempt.
Yu Feng stared, frozen.
"…Crane?"
The Violet Thunder Crane narrowed her eyes.
"Ba-gawk."
But this ti—
It sounded like a thunder god yawning.
"…?"
"…What is this thing?"
The rest of the crew ca running—so limping, so staggering—staring up at the celestial bird like they'd just seen an ancient beast evolve into a poultry-shaped demigod.
But then their eyes drifted downward.
To Su Xiaobai.
Lying peacefully on the crane's back.
Perfectly fine.
Not a scratch.
Not a bruise.
Not even dirty.
He was just unconscious—glowing faintly from post-dragon-beam spiritual exhaustion, like soone who'd passed out after a particularly energetic sword-fairy night session.
Next evening…
Su Xiaobai awoke coughing, face buried in what felt like fabric.
He blinked blearily, lifting his head.
It was a piece of cloth, laid out under a crooked groove. Not quite a bed, not quite a blanket. Sowhere between "field dressing" and "rug."
He sat up slowly, groaning.
The mist was still thick and humid, a foul mist curling through the muddy swamp, saturated with that sa decaying, choking corrupt Qi. It reminded him of sothing.
Zhu Qing.
That damn lady.
She'd told him this place would help him grow his Undead Warlords, said the land was rich with death energy.
What she didn't say was that the Death Qi was actually bootlegged corruption mist—the spiritual equivalent of trying to level up by snorting poison.
Even Ku Rong, who had spent the entire ti sitting in the swamp like a spiritual rock with rage issues, had made zero progress.
They needed pure Death Qi.
This? This was toxic garbage juice with delusions of grandeur.
Su Xiaobai sighed, rubbing his temples.
And then he noticed—
Smoke.
Not from battle.
From cooking.
Not far off, a small fire crackled, and the rest of the squad sat around it—chewing at, grumbling, and looking like survivors of an expedition led by a monkey.
For a brief second, Su Xiaobai wondered if it had all been a dream.
But no.
That silver glistening at?
Earth Dragon.
They were barbecuing the boss.
Deng Lei was now rocking a prosthetic arm that looked like soone jamd a puppet limb onto spiritual circuitry. Su Xiaobai had no idea those even existed.
Shi Yan was covered in bandages, cradling his half-reconstructed shoulder like a dramatic hero from a tragic romance.
Lan Tian had a bandage on his forehead like he'd lost an argunt with karma.
Yu Feng was missing her arrogance. That alone told him things were serious.
They were alive.
Barely.
But alive.
"So much ti passed?" Su Xiaobai muttered.
Then he heard her voice.
"Are we still heading toward Forbidden City?"
Nalan Yufei sat on a crooked log, chewing on a chunk of dragon at like she hadn't almost peed herself mid-battle. Her voice was flat, but her eyes were tired.
The others looked grim.
Silent.
Lan Tian looked like he was deep in existential math.
"If we're not walking," Soone added, "you wanna fly there or what? Hmph."
BANG!
"Aw!?"
Nalan flinched as sothing smacked her on the head.
Then her at was snatched right from her hand.
CHOMP.
She spun, ready to murder soone—
Only to freeze.
"You—ah? You're awake!"
It was Su Xiaobai.
He stood behind her, still shirtless, still glowing slightly, casually chewing the dragon at like he hadn't just vaporized a monster and slept for 12 hours.
The energy around the camp shifted instantly.
Nalan's tone flipped 360°, transforming from annoyed tsundere to polite sect junior in under a second.
The others?
They stared at Su Xiaobai like he had just personally unlocked the Dao of Luck and won a divine lottery.
He raised an eyebrow.
"…Why are you idiots looking at like that?"
Was this not the part where they were supposed to be thanking him?
He had, after all, saved their lives.
Defeated a rampaging silverback Earth Dragon.
Destroyed the sky.
Got electrocuted.
And got saved by a chicken.
But instead?
They looked at him with envy.
Like he was the one who stole their scene.
Like he was the one who got picked by the heavens.
Su Xiaobai frowned.
"I vaporized a dragon for you."
Still no applause.
Only quiet chewing.
And side-eyes.
"…You're all ungrateful villains," he muttered, biting deeper into the stolen at.
Reviews
All reviews (0)