Rise of the Wang Clan: Starting with a Portable Farm

Chapter 253: Phoenix Tail Chicken

The two Qi Condensation juniors stared at the distant forest, their eyes wide with envy as they felt the residual aura of the second-rank spirit beast. They didn’t dare speak out of turn to Wang Hao, silently returning to their task of felling timber to construct a temporary base camp.

Wang Wencai was equally envious. He couldn’t help himself. “Fifth Brother, are spirit beasts difficult to raise? I wouldn’t mind having one.”

“It depends entirely on the depth of your pockets,” Wang Hao replied, not taking his eyes off the distant peak. “If you are willing to drown them in resources, you can push a beast to the second rank in twenty or thirty years. With excellent natural aptitude, some can reach it in a decade.”

He cast a sidelong glance at his younger cousin. “Focus on your puppetry. If you can successfully craft a second-rank combat puppet, you won’t ever lack the Spirit Stones needed to raise a beast.”

Wang Wencai offered a sheepish smile. It was true; ever since reaching Foundation Establishment, he had let his personal training slip. In his defense, taking over as a Hall Master during the clan’s massive expansion had left him with little free time.

“Wait here and keep a low profile,” Wang Hao instructed. “If any Demon Beasts wander close, conceal yourselves. Do not engage. I’m going to monitor the situation.”

While he trusted Yaya’s combat prowess, he refused to leave anything to chance.

Wang Hao completely masked his aura and used Sword Riding to slip silently onto a neighboring peak, giving him a perfect vantage point of the southern mountain.

Yaya, however, had no concept of stealth. The moment it landed on the southern peak, its aura flared like a beacon. The Phoenix Tail Chicken sensed the intrusion instantly.

With an earsplitting crow, the massive bird dropped from the canopy of a towering iron birch tree, its eyes locking onto Yaya with lethal intent.

The Phoenix Tail Chicken stood nearly twenty feet tall, dragging a tail that stretched another thirty feet behind it. Its plumage was a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of colors, each feather pulsing with a faint, deadly spiritual light. It was a walking armory; those feathers were highly prized for crafting armor-piercing arrowheads.

Yaya was roughly the same size, but that was where the similarities ended. Yaya was squat, covered in pitch-black feathers, and sported a stubby, unimpressive tail. Side by side, it was the literal embodiment of an ugly duckling facing a majestic swan.

The Phoenix Tail Chicken’s eyes dripped with undisguised contempt.

That look of sheer, arrogant mockery was all it took to ignite Yaya’s temper.

Quack!

Yaya shrieked and launched the first strike. The Phoenix Tail Chicken didn’t hesitate; its territory had been violated by this hideous, waddling insult. It charged.

Neither beast bothered with elemental attacks. This was personal. They clashed in a flurry of beak and claw, engaging in brutal, close-quarters physical combat.

Yaya had one goal: it wanted to rip every single one of those pretty feathers out by the root.

The Phoenix Tail Chicken possessed razor-sharp talons, built for eviscerating prey. Yaya, on the other hand, had webbed feet—clumsy and blunt by comparison. Furthermore, fighting on the ground neutralized Yaya’s aerial maneuverability.

However, years of Wang Hao feeding it a bottomless diet of high-grade resources and flesh had forged Yaya’s physical body into something monstrous. Its raw muscular density and skeletal toughness far exceeded a standard Middle Grade, second-rank beast. That brute strength easily bridged the gap in anatomical weaponry.

The two birds tore into each other, exchanging gouging pecks and slashing kicks, neither willing to yield an inch.

Within moments, both were covered in deep lacerations, their blood spraying across the forest floor.

Because Yaya was pitch black—save for the golden crest running down its neck—the blood didn’t show. The Phoenix Tail Chicken was not so lucky. Its pristine, kaleidoscopic plumage was shredded into a ragged mess, the vibrant colors stained a sticky, matted crimson. Its majestic aura was utterly ruined.

Yaya seemed immensely satisfied with its handiwork. Seizing an opening, it planted a webbed foot directly into the chicken’s face, bruising its eye. Using the recoil, Yaya launched itself backward, taking to the sky. It circled overhead, unleashing a series of rhythmic, mocking quacks.

Now, the Phoenix Tail Chicken was the one blinded by rage. It had humored the ugly duckling in a brawl, but the time for games was over.

The chicken snapped its left wing forward. Several glowing, fire-infused feathers detached and shot toward Yaya like flaming javelins.

Yaya simply banked in mid-air. With a flap of its own wings, it fired two thick arcs of silver lightning. The lightning intercepted the fire arrows, instantly neutralizing their spiritual energy. The once-deadly feathers turned to charred ash and scattered in the wind.

The Phoenix Tail Chicken froze, its one good eye wide with shock. Its feather-barrage was its ultimate killer move; it had slaughtered countless rivals with it. Yet, it couldn’t even breach this duck’s perimeter.

Furthermore, the fire arrows weren’t infinite ammo. Every feather fired took days to regrow.

Realizing its ranged attacks were useless, the chicken unhinged its beak and spewed a massive torrent of fire, hoping to roast Yaya out of the sky.

But the flames were slow, sluggish compared to a true aerial predator. Yaya easily barrel-rolled out of the inferno’s path. The fire missed the duck entirely, washing over the forest canopy and instantly igniting the ancient timber.

Watching from the neighboring peak, Wang Hao scowled. This mountain belongs to the Wang family now. I am not inheriting a pile of ash. If a wildfire spread, it would incinerate the natural spirit herbs growing on the ridge.

Wang Hao pointed two fingers at the sky. He channeled his Qi, instantly executing the Rainfall Technique. Heavy, dark clouds materialized above the southern peak, unleashing a torrential downpour that quickly smothered the spreading flames.

Down below, the two beasts were too focused on killing each other to notice the sudden change in weather.

Yaya was simply superior. Its body was tougher, its flight was faster, and its lightning element hit harder. The only reason it hadn’t ended the fight already was pure spite. It remembered that initial look of disdain. It wanted to humiliate the chicken, bleed it out, and torture it to death.

Eventually, Yaya stopped attacking altogether. It merely hovered, effortlessly dodging the chicken’s frantic strikes, letting the bird exhaust itself.

Pushed past the brink of humiliation, the Phoenix Tail Chicken let out an ear-piercing shriek. Every remaining feather on its body puffed out, making it look like a massive, spiky sphere.

It was channeling every ounce of its remaining spiritual energy into its plumage. The aura radiating from its fire feathers was now twice as potent as before.

A desperate final gambit, Wang Hao noted, his hand hovering near his sword hilt. He debated intervening, but ultimately forced himself to stay still. Spirit beasts needed to face the threat of death to evolve their combat instincts. If he swooped in to save Yaya every time a fight got dangerous, the duck would become a pampered pet, not a weapon.

Seeing the chicken’s aura spike, Yaya dropped its playful demeanor. Its golden eyes narrowed, burning with lethal focus.

The chicken unleashed a storm of hyper-charged fire feathers. The speed and kinetic force behind them were terrifying.

Yaya didn’t dare intercept them with lightning this time. Instead, it relied entirely on its aerial agility, weaving and diving through the fiery barrage by mere inches.

Wang Hao watched calmly. An overload state like that was unsustainable. The chicken was burning its Qi reserves at an unsustainable rate; Yaya only needed to survive the burst. Once the chicken’s tank was empty, it was dead meat.

Less than fifteen minutes later, the storm ended. The Phoenix Tail Chicken collapsed, its chest heaving, its remaining plumage dull and lifeless.

Yaya had taken two glancing hits. The fire feathers had grazed its flank, leaving shallow, searing cuts, but to a beast with Yaya’s constitution, they were little more than paper cuts.

Seeing the chicken’s aura crash, Yaya struck. It folded its wings and dove, firing two point-blank arcs of lightning directly into the exhausted bird.

BOOM!

The Phoenix Tail Chicken was blasted off its feet, its body scorched black and instantly paralyzed by the voltage. It couldn’t even twitch.

Yaya landed heavily on the chicken’s chest. It fired two more arcs of lightning into the bird’s skull just to be sure, then clamped its beak down and violently twisted, snapping the chicken’s neck.

From his vantage point, Wang Hao swept the surrounding forest with his Divine Sense. The explosive battle had certainly drawn the attention of the local wildlife, but sensing the terrifying power of the combatants, none of the lesser beasts dared to approach.

Wang Hao engaged his Sword Riding technique and glided down to the battlefield. Seeing the smoking lacerations on Yaya’s flank, he immediately cast the Revitalization Technique, weaving healing energy over the burns to seal them, before tossing a handful of spirit fruits into the duck’s waiting beak.

“Good work,” Wang Hao praised, aggressively rubbing Yaya’s head feathers. “Return to the pouch and rest.”

He recalled the familiar. While Yaya had won decisively, battling another Middle Grade beast had drained its reserves. The Revitalization Technique only stopped the bleeding and sealed the skin; the deep tissue damage would require time to naturally heal. Wang Hao decided he would use Xiao Bai and Wang Wencai for the remaining targets.

He pulled a message talisman from his robes and crushed it, signaling Wang Wencai’s team to advance. A second-rank Demon Beast was a walking treasure trove—meat, bones, blood, and feathers—and it needed to be butchered and sealed immediately before the stench of blood summoned unwanted scavengers.

While he waited for his team, Wang Hao turned his attention to the peak itself. Where there was a spirit vein, there were bound to be rare spiritual herbs hidden in the undergrowth.