Beware Of Chicken-Novel

Yin sat on the top of the house, her body soaking in the rays of the sun.

She took a deep breath, then let it out, calming the restlessness that was inside her as the preparations for departure went on all around her.

She breathed in, then out.

… why did she have to be so damn nervous about this? It was just a bit of lightning! Wa Shi had struck her over a thousand times by her own request! She could handle it.

But the thing that made her hesitate was her own doubts. She would endure the tribulation, that wasn’t the problem… it was whether going through that tribulation would fix anything. If being human would help her find her passion. It was the beginning of a reinvention of herself—but she still had no clue what she should do after.

Yin sighed and opened her eyes. Maybe… maybe she should take Tigu’s advice and talk to people about it?

Yin noticed Master Jin was sitting on his porch with his feet in the river, idly strumming his ‘ban jo’. Yin licked her lips and descended from the roof, landing beside the big human. He always felt nice, warm, and safe. Master Jin turned to her as she settled in beside him.

“Hey, Yin. What's up?” he asked, noticing her strange mood.

Yin was never really good at beating around the bush, so she just… told him.

By all accounts, she should be entirely content. She led a charmed life now. She never went hungry, she had friends, and she got to do whatever she wanted.

But… she had no purpose. No demon to hunt down for justice, no foes to defend against, no orders to follow. It seemed… meaningless, compared to her existence before. Oh, she enjoyed what she was doing, a lot of the time. She loved the flowers in the glass house and helping her Shifu, but the drive was gone. And even at her happiest, there was still some hollow feeling in her chest.

Master Jin set his ban jo aside and turned to her, giving her his full attention. “I see. Can you tell me more?” he asked, his eyes soft.

Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt

So she explained her problem. Her lack of passion. Her restlessness. Her lack of specialty, so unlike everybody else’s natural… expertise.

Tigu’s sculptures. Shifu’s pottery and glass. Wa Shi’s food. Ri Zu’s medicine. All of these were acts of passion and purpose. Even Chun Ke, who on the surface appeared to be the least driven of them all, moved with a purpose and surety that put all others to shame.

Yin? …Yin had nothing.

She didn’t know when she had moved to Master Jin’s lap, and she didn’t know when he started weaving his fingers through her fur.

“Let me let you in on a secret,” Master Jin said after she had finished relaying to him her woes. “I know what you’re going through. The restlessness. The aimlessness. I had no idea who or what I wanted to be in life—if I was going to be any good at anything at all. It’s like… you’re sick, in a way. You feel empty, even when you should be happy. You go through the motions, but meanwhile, nothing changes.”

Yin paused and turned to look up at Master Jin. She almost didn’t believe him for a second. He always seemed so calm, and… like the others. So passionate. But she saw it. She heard the pained wistfulness in his voice.

Even Master Jin… he had once suffered as she did now?

She normally called him Master Jin simply out of respect. He had taken them in; he had given Yin and Shifu everything and returned to her Master his bright, beautiful spark.

But that day, she had called him Master, and meant it.

The others, too, had listened to her and spoken of how they had found what they loved to do.

Xiulan said.

Then he went back to chewing his cud placidly.

It had been warm. So warm, like the sun blazing in the sky so high above. They had spoken with honest consideration and concern, as Tigu said they would.

And then, finally… finally, she went to speak with her Master.

Yin smiled and leaned into Shifu’s embrace. When she opened her eyes again, they were set and ready.

And to do that… well. It was easier to get around with a human form. Tigu had proved that.

She rose with the dawn—and delved into a world made of gold.

The place was unfamiliar, yet familiar. Like she had been here many times before. The grass smelled familiar, and the entire place had… a safe feeling. Like she was with an old friend.

The next thing she noticed, besides the feeling, was the noise. A series of muffled curses accompanied a squealing, twanging—it sounded exactly like the Healing Sage’s first attempts to play Master Jin’s ban jo.

The young girl coughed and stood, the ban jo disappearing into nothingness.

“Oh? Hello, Yin.”

” The words were said with a whisper that Yin thought she wasn’t really supposed to hear.The Earth Spirit puffed up again. “Be grateful for Big Sister Tianlan’s work!”

“...You certainly don't’ waste any time, do you?” the Spirit asked after a stunned pause.

Yin froze at the statement.

“That place isn’t my home,” Yin bit out reflexively.

The Earth Spirit laughed, her smile bright and cheery, before her face turned serious.

“On the south hill, there is a stone. For a thousand thousand years, it has taken in the light of the sun; not once has it known the darkness of the depths. I have known it since I was not myself, that stone, undaunted by the rain or the snow or the ice, it has stood the test of time. It has within its core a fragment of fire that was not wholly consumed by my breaking. It is old and weary, but it still burns. Take a piece. Weave it with glass, fire, and gold… and then, rise again on the next day, in the form you take.”

The words resonated and reverberated through the enclosed space like an ancient spell, imprinting themselves into Yin’s mind.

Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm

“Thank you,” Yin whispered.

“The rest is up to you now, little star.”

The stone was a simple, unassuming thing. It looked like any other rock. It was an old, craggy piece of granite, resting on the hilltop. But Yin knew this was the one.

With the techniques Huo Ten taught her, she carefully removed a piece of the stone. Then, she went to her Master’s forge and ignited it with her Qi.

From there, things went hazy. For the entire day, she worked that piece of stone, drifting as if in a dream. She inlaid it with the fruits of her Master’s labours, and with the bounty of the earth.

It was hot, hard work. Even in her trance she could feel the heat, as her Qi swirled around that little piece of stone from her new home, drawing the fire and the light of the sun from it.

When the blaze of light erupted from the forge, burning and purifying, part of her rebelled against it. The voice within her screamed that this was wrong, that this was the opposite of what she was supposed to be doing.

Yin didn’t care.

She filled herself with the warm sun, driving away the last dregs of cold darkness that had rested in her bones since she could remember it.

Delicate fingers gripped the talisman around her neck, and Yin stood, rising up, and up, and up, utterly dwarfing her previous form.

She staggered to the burnished bronze disk they used as a mirror, and looked at her reflection.

Long, silver hair. A noble, regal face, the kind in paintings of demure women. Two small, almost circular eyebrows.

And the mark of the sun on her forehead, fading into invisibility even as she watched.

Yin grinned, and in a perfect melodious voice suited for poetry and whispered words, there was a jubilant shout.