Chapter 192: Rooster
Within the room, a small Origin Crystal was spinning in the air, radiating Origin Energy everywhere. The Origin Energy was channeled through Origin Formation inscriptions before entering the body of a large rooster.
The rooster clucked, obviously in pain. If it weren’t for the fact that Su Chen was constantly using Recovery Medicines to keep it alive, it would have died already. Even so, the unceasing stream of Origin Energy invaded the rooster’s body, causing it great suffering as it groaned and crooned.
Because he had no Origin Energy Extractor, Su Chen could only use the Origin Crystal as a substitute.
A mid-tier Origin Crystal was used on a common rooster. If word got out, surely all who heard would have clucked their tongues at the waste.
Su Chen, however, didn’t care.
Research burned money, after all.
Once he had expended all of the energy within the Origin Crystal, it disintegrated into a fine powder. Su Chen released his grip and stared at the rooster, saying, “This should be good enough.”
“Just like that?” Danba stared with some suspicion at the rooster.
Su Chen had basically simulated one of the Origin Energy Temple’s baptisms. Of course, it was much cruder than the original given the substitution of a mid-tier Origin Crystal for the Origin Energy Extractor and the simplified Origin Formation Disk in place of the sprawling Origin Formation inscriptions. But Danba just couldn’t wrap his head around how any person, even a genius, could recreate a simplified version of the Origin Energy Temple only a day after obtaining the Origin Formation inscriptions.
The target of this experiment was a rooster.
It wasn’t that Su Chen hadn’t wanted to find a better target; it was that Su Chen’s simplified Origin Formation could only handle the power from a mid-tier Origin Crystal, and a mid-tier Origin Crystal could only be used to strengthen a rooster or an equivalent lifeform. In that sense, baptisms with Origin Energy were extremely wasteful, but since the Origin Energy Extractor pulled Origin Energy straight from the environment, it was much cheaper than burning condense Origin Crystals.
As such, even though Su Chen could recreate the Origin Energy Temple, both the scale and the payoff were not worth it. It was only useful for running experiments, really.
“It seems like there isn’t much change,” Danba said.
“Wait a minute. Don’t be in such a hurry,” Su Chen said.
Just as he spoke, the rooster tilted its head back and began to crow before it pecked the iron cage surrounding it.
The cage had been fashioned from normal iron bars. Even though it wasn’t particularly strong, no rooster could possibly peck its way through the cage.
However, at this moment an inconceivable scene appeared. The rooster’s peck slammed into the cage, blowing the iron bars open.
The rooster shot out of the cage, flapping it wings at full force. The flap of its wings had become powerful enough to actually be an attack, and it flew into the air.
Su Chen and Danba turned to look at each other and said simultaneously, “We did it!”
Even though the rooster could fly, it was obviously limited by its natural form and could only levitate at low altitudes, so it landed back in the courtyard after flapping its wings a few times. However, it began to strut around arrogantly. Occasionally, it would peck, leaving behind holes in the ground.
It seemed like it was barely powerful enough to be considered a Vicious Beast of the lowest tier.
Even though using a mid-tier Origin Crystal to form a lowest-tier Vicious Beast was a colossal waste of resources, Su Chen and Danba couldn’t have cared less - successfully replicating the power of the Origin Energy Temple meant that Su Chen could already control the key principles behind the Origin Energy Temple. The only thing keeping him from actually recreating it was that he didn’t have the resources.
To Su Chen, who was only interested in the principles behind it and not recreating the temple itself, this was not that important.
The success of their research made both Danba and Su Chen excited. This kind of excitement caused Danba to forget the offenses between the two of them that had occurred in the past. Instead, he and Su Chen began to execute the next phase of the research.
Yes, Danba had become Su Chen’s helper at this point.
To Danba, Su Chen’s world was mysterious and vast. Even if he couldn’t do what Su Chen could do, Danba still hoped to increase his own experience and understanding by interacting with Su Chen more. Truly smart individuals would always jump at opportunities to learn and gain more knowledge.
In other words, you had to have both knowledge and smarts in order to be considered intelligent.
The two of them immersed themselves in their research, quickly losing track of time and everything else.
Of course, they also overlooked the rooster.
It was just a rooster, after all; there was no reason to pay it any particular attention. It was long gone by this point anyways.
Halegy was one of the bazaars at Gullan Castle. People primarily traded survival necessities here, so usually only the lowest-status Ravager commoners, farmers, and servants were found here.
As per usual, Halegy was bustling with activity today. Ravagers everywhere were doing business.
Even though the Ravagers were used to plundering and robbing others, there was still some order when they dealt with each other. However, these Ravagers seemed more like they were fighting with each other instead of haggling. Killing intent was written all over their faces.
“How much for this blade?”
“Twenty bone coins.”
“That’s too much. I’ll give you ten.”
“Get the hell out of here.”
“You dare curse at me? Courting death!”
Bang!
They began to fight just like that.
Scenes like this were extremely common and would occur every so often, but most of the time it didn’t result in any big problems. Usually, they would go their own separate ways after fighting. The Ravagers were used to fighting all the time. In their eyes, fighting was also a form of negotiation. The person that won could usually propose a low price, and if the other party didn’t agree, they would continue to be beaten. It was obvious that Ravagers valued doing these with brute force. No matter how smart you were, if you didn’t have the strength to back it up, it would be hard for you to even buy anything.
At this moment, a crowd of Ravagers were engaged in such negotiations when they suddenly saw a rooster walk in.
Yes, the rooster swaggered in like someone with his hands stuck in his pockets. This scene would have given any human an extremely uncomfortable sensation.
Unfortunately, this scene was not seen by humans, but by a Ravagers.
The Ravagers always reacted in a simple and direct manner. The eyes of the Ravager who saw the rooster first lit up.
“A rooster!” he howled as he charged forwards to try and catch it.
According to societal rules, a chicken not kept in a cage had no master, so it belonged to whoever caught it. Even if the master came by to claim it, they would need to fight first in order to determine ownership.
The Ravager had placed all of his attention on keeping away other Ravagers, so he didn’t notice the rooster’s reaction at all.
The rooster was swaggering forward. When it saw the Ravager leaping at it, it seemed to quiver slightly.
Yes, just like a human would if it was startled by something.
Then, it raised its claw.
It kicked out with its single tiny claw.
An instant later, a shocking scene unfolded. The Ravager that had pounced was sent flying by just a single chicken claw.
This huge lunk of meat arced over the crowd of Ravagers watching.
He turned immediately to look at the chicken as soon as he had landed on the ground. The chicken immediately turned around and bolted.
Any human would probably have detected the strangeness of the situation by now and wouldn’t be so quick to make a move.
However, the Ravagers were much more likely to act instinctively, and in the tens of thousands of years they had been raising chickens, no one had ever needed to be cautious of them.
In other words, caution was a rare quality amongst the Ravagers in the first place, so all of the Ravagers immediately tried to capture the rooster when they saw it trying to run.
The rooster was badly startled, and it began to flap its wings as it zoomed forward.
Even so, this speed was not something that flight alone could deal with. To some lifeforms, running was actually faster than flying.
Some of the quicker Ravagers were closing in rapidly, swatting at the low-altitude rooster as they yelled, “It’s mine!”
The rooster almost seemed like it was about to be swatted down when it suddenly turned around and planted its claw on one of the Ravager pursuers, sending him flying as it flapped its wings, using the momentum to slam into another Ravager and planting its claw on him as well. After sending that Ravager flying, it landed back on the ground.
“Cluck! Cluck!”
The rooster clucked twice before it turned around, preparing to swagger off.
Unexpectedly, the Ravager it had kicked earlier raised his hand and grabbed the rooster by its claw, yelling, “Let’s see how you’re going to kick me now!”
The rooster was enraged. It pecked his hand hard, and the Ravager howled in pain. His hand was broken by this peck, and the rooster easily extricated itself.
This scene stunned everyone present, and they finally realized that this rooster was not normal.
However, this was only the beginning.
The rooster was obviously angry now, possibly because it had been enraged by its pursuers.
It didn’t try to escape. Instead, it turned around and charged at the crowd of Ravagers.
It had actually taken the initiative to charge forwards.
“Courting death!” the Ravagers howled as they swung their arms in the air.
Your beak and your claws are powerful, but do you really think that makes you special?
The rooster charged aggressively. Just as everyone was about to press the rooster to the ground, it suddenly launched the feathers on its body in a wide spread, causing its speed to suddenly increase as the feathers shot everywhere, piercing the Ravagers like little arrows and turning them into feathered pincushions.
They realized that the rooster might not be very powerful, but they were all low-status Ravagers, so they themselves weren’t very powerful in the first place.
The rooster screeched and shot all the feathers on its body, leaving it totally naked.
It descended, fluttering its wings. It glanced at its totally naked body and tilted its head back, screeching. Then, it continued its rampage through the bazaar.
Its talons repeatedly slammed into the ground, leaving behind talon imprints on the ground.
The Ravagers continued to chase after it through the bazaar, causing bangs and crashes as the rooster and its entourage destroyed various stands and shops set up in this place.
As they watched the rooster scuttle back and forth amongst the market, all of the Ravagers felt like they were going to go insane.
What kind of rooster was this? How could it behave so unnaturally?
They had never seen a rooster as powerful as this before.
No one had seen a Vicious Beast like this before, but it was far too powerful just to be some domestic fowl.
Despite the suspicions in their heart, however, they still had to capture it.
Finally, the rooster was captured amidst the incredible chaos it had caused.
Perhaps because it was tired from struggling for so long, the rooster’s head dangled slightly, as if it was now weak and without strength.
No one knew what to do with it when they saw this.
One of the Ravagers used his intelligence and yelled, “We should give it to His Majesty.”