C1 The Day Before

Yin Kai slowly swept the ground. With each sweep of his broom, the air picked up and moved around in a perfect manner. Only an experienced hand could do so, and he was well experienced.

As the sun and moon circled in the sky above, the dust rose and fell as he cleaned the various pavilions of his sect: the Martial Fist Temple. As a smaller sect, it could be counted somewhere between second and third-tier. As he swept the sweat from his heavy brow, he continued on his weekly task.

As he finished the final pathway, he smiled. A hard day's work had served its just rewards.

Yin was 16 yeards old. Three years ago, he had been admitted to the Martial Fist Temple. The Temple would only accept those younger than 14. Barely making the cut, Yin had begun his path of cultivation.

However, he had encountered a problem: his near abysmal aptitude. This resulted in his cultivation, after three years, only ever reaching the Body Formation Great Stage, 0th small stage.

Yep, he was screwed.

Each stage of cultivation had 9 small stages. The first large stage, Body Formation, was followed by Qi Opening, and then Qi Transformation, Qi Fusion, Immortal Opening, Immortal Ascension, and True Immortal stages respectively.

Recognizing that he was unable to cultivate at the same speed as his fellow peers, another problem arose. At the Martial Fist Temple, acolytes were required to participate in fist fights.

All acolytes were required to accept at least two challenges from their peers every week. Each challenge could only be given to someone three levels lower than you or higher.

You could challenge as many people as you wanted, but fatigue was real.

Luckily for himself, Yin Kai was one brutal child. Since the fights were limited to those at the 3rd Stage Body Formation, and most of those suckers were tiny, he tended to win.

While others learned the Sky Sweep Fist, his hairy fingers learned the Double Finger Eye Spear.

When others learned the Punctual Kicking Method, his hairy legs learned the Soaring Sidekick Sutra.

While others learned the body-formation stage scrolls, sutras, methods and techniques, his hairy self was conducting new poisons.

When others learned the Wild Gut Punch, his hairy ass learned the Cherry-Picking Sidestep.

Through his discipline and hard work, and diligence towards the sect, he found a job within the Temple that was available to a select few. His undefeatable record might have had something to do with it, but hey. Such is life.

By helping to raise chickens for the sect, a chicken keeper was able to keep a few eggs for himself. Yin Kai could then also use these chickens to protect him during the required fistfights.

While defensive and offensive artifacts were against the rules, soul attacks weren't. It was just that the acolytes at the Body Formation stage couldn't use them yet.

So, theoretically, controlling a spirit chicken with your soul wasn't quite against the rules.

Unfortunately, after three years of virtually no progress, he was about to be demoted from an outer acolyte. With this loss of status, he would no longer able to keep his job.

Luckily, he managed to land a secondary job ahead of time: by cleaning the sect's lands, and helping some at the coops, he would be able to stay on at the sect as an elder acolyte.

He also managed to earn some gratitude from the chicken keepers, including every now and again a fertilized egg. He continued to raise his personal stock, selling to the sect now and again for added profit.

After going back to his modest house, he walked towards the cages in his backyard. Yin had made them himself by using a clay mold, heat, and some pieces of metal he had found.

As he looked around in Cage 03, he saw all the chickens squabbling over something. He smiled, as they probably had found a choice bug. Whichever chicken ate it might have a chance to mutate. Although, with that being said, the chance was so low he didn't even bother to look.

He checked the other cages. He had been selling the eggs in exchange for spiritual herbs to raise his chickens' cultivation and his poison prowess.

Theoretically, humans could eat the herbs directly, but the impurities in them kept said humans from being fully able to fully digest them without impurities being added to their cultivation.

Everything was ship-tight. Tomorrow he may lose his chicken pavilion responsibilities, but at least he had room to move forward.