The beast loped around the barren tundra, looking for a strong source of food. A long line of scarred barren earth lay ahead of it. It could smell no qi in that area.

*Sniff*

The qi wasn’t right around it either. Shrugging its shoulders it cycled, trying to find another large source of qi. Feathers attuned to the wind as a massive power pushed at it.

Finally an opponent worthy of Fi De.

Pushing forwards, the beast extended it’s head up, waddle flowing in the breeze.

This will be a suitable opponent and a suitable lunch.

The devil chicken extended its wings in an exaggerated stretch and stalked off towards the source of the qi. A newly advanced third realm cultivator.

***

“So do we have guards up on the walls?” Jessica asked.

“The sect usually has had one or two guards, third realm or higher…” Jung gulped, “This one is sorry but we must make do with the weak third realm cultivators. A Nascent soul cultivator, like yourself, would be able to look far afield..”

Jessica held up a hand.

The assembled third realm cultivators all watched in awe. First she had dragged Jung there and named him the second of the scouts, and now she was acting quite familiar with him but she hadn’t heard of the nascent souls ability to hear almost anything?

Grace wasn’t buying it. Cultivators didn’t just show up at fourth level and then miraculously cycled into the fifth easily. There had to be more to it.

“This one did not mean offense elder,” Jung said, scraping the floor.

Hu tapped him on his shoulder, his bald head a contrast to his manly moustache. Grace wondered if he had shaved it to a shine today, or if that was another effect of his water and ice based path. It sure looked gorgeous, by Graces standards.

“What this one thinks he means to say, Elder Jessica, is that when we had fifth level cultivators that were not elders, these took turns watching with their advanced spiritual sense. Even those such as we,” Hu said, extending his arms around the gathering area where Elder Jessica had set up her command post and rocks, “Cannot hope to see as far and must do with our mundane senses as well.”

The crisp cool air turned thick with confusion for a moment.

“So what you are all saying is that the Sect needs more of these Nascent Souls, and more fourth level cultivators to aid in the defense of any potential attacks?” Jessica said.

Grace watched the room almost lose itself.

“Elder sister..”

“If it were so easy to…”

“Fourth realm is a difficult..”

“We cannot just make…”

The Sect Leader wisely let the commotion die down on it’s own before speaking again, this time in a low voice.

“I am aware that it is not easy to cross the threshold, but I expect that if the Sect has been attacked once, that it can and will happen again.”

Grace gulped, and all at once her back seized up.

“But I need to understand how things were done, especially if we want to make any changes, and you know that I will be advancing as many of you to the fourth realm as possible.”

Grace heard a gasp from across the way, the circle of the best of the Sect, all leaned in.

“So let that be your kick in the pants to take some action! I want guards posted along the walls, so if something happens, we can be ready. In the meanwhile, if any of you think you are ready to advance to the fourth realm, let it be known.”

Grace doubted that anyone would be ready, but she was damn sure going to cycle with abandon each night from then one. Of course she already did that, but with the additional promised support that almost certainly would arrive in the form of pills and elixirs? She could arrive at the cusp of the fourth realm within a month, or at least waste her time trying.

It was a lot better than spending her time admiring that waxen moustache, after all.

“Now, I find myself in need of a roster of guards as well as someone to take charge. I understand that this used to be done by an Elder, and it will look favorably upon whoever volunteers for it.”

Grace found herself raising a hand.

Elder Jessica nodded, looking her straight in the eyes. Grace knew that the Elder could strike her down at any moment for any reason, but she was always so calm and collected.

“Junior Disciple Grace. Please select a rotating guard, assign and staff shifts and get some second realm cultivators to help keep watch. After what happened….” Elder Jessica left the words hang in the air for a cold minute, “We don’t want anything like that to happen again.”

“This one is honored, Elder,” Grace said, plastering her face to the ground.

“Now, all of you. Let us walk the walls, and do a nice circuit of the Sect Holdings to make sure that nothing is out of place. Give the Junior Disciple your full attention.”

***

So many delicious smelling cultivators walked along the outer walls.

Is this a delicacy for me? A personal plate served well?

Fi Di watched as they passed trying to pick out which poor cultivator would be his first meal. Inside, the smells of other more crunchy morsels wafted towards his powerful demonic nostrils.

My hunger will not wait. I will select…

Fi Di looked at the closest snack. A bald man with a fur coat.

This shall be …tasty.

***

Jessica sensed the spirit, it’s demonic qi a strong garlic meets kimchi smell hitting her like an open air market. Immediately her nascent soul filtered out all of the other cultivators. It’s uneven breath caught her by surprise.

It was on the hunt.

In between the ragged breaths, she heard sizzles. She pushed her spiritual sense. Was that spit dropping onto the snow and making it immediately evaporate?

As she turned, so did the rest of the disciples with her.

A tiny red chicken stared back at them. An-Yong, the newest of the third realm cultivators, her baby, was the closest person to the chicken.

The flaming chicken.

The flaming …demon… chicken.

Jessica sighed deeper than the time that she realized that tax season was both the best and worst time of her year.

Vultures always showed up to eat a carcass. She should have expected no less.

“Junior Disciple Grace, can you handle this?” She said.

“With pleasure.”

Grace launched herself at the chicken, with five other cultivators taking positions around it.

Jessica realized that she hadn’t seen Grace fight before and this was the perfect time to watch. She settled in to watch.

Grace pulled a spear from her back. Jessica hadn’t even noticed it until now. The long shaft looked to be or worked pine and the tip of the spear was a clear crystal. She moved in and took up a fighting stance.

With her right arm, she held the spear like a baby. She extended her left hand as she lowered into her base. Ice and snow formed around her hands, floating and orbiting.

The fire demon turned and gave her his full attention.

A stream of flame launched forward from the demon towards her. As it closed the distance, Grace surged her cold qi, pulling all of the warmth out of the air.

The flames reached her and then winked out as she caught the line.

Enraged, the demon circled, launching little balls of fire at her.

Fireballs smashed into the newly fixed walls, burning down the wooden portions that kept the walls up. Rocks fell as their support beams collapsed around them.

Scouts dodged left and right.

Junior Disciples pulled up shields of snow and ice. As soon as they came up, half were struck back with errant fireballs.

With each launch, the cultivators around her shuddered as the qi poured out of the chicken. It seemed like an unending source of energy.

Cultivators on the wall dodged as an errant fireball flew at them. One went directly to Jessica and she caught it, absorbing the warmth.

Zero.

The demon couldn’t expend so much energy and keep attacking, could it?

Grace thrust her spear in a flurry of attacks, each deflected by the the nimble wings of the demon chicken

Cultivators dropped in around the fight in a circle, pulling in qi trying to draw it’s attention.

The spear fizzled as the cold cultivator made contact with the flaming wing.

The demon whirled into a frontal assault attempting to bite Graces arm off.

It moved so fast that it blurred the air around it. Still Grace's eyes tracked it and the parried the bite.

Jessica was grateful that her new body could keep track. She wasn’t sure if any of her disciples could.

But Grace could.

Thrust after thrust, the weaker cultivator pushed the demon back. The circle of cultivators opened a pathway for the two to exit. One was struck by a fireball getting thrown into the wall.

No.

Jessica saw an opening and she leapt… she flew to the opposite side, flanking the chicken. She landed like a superhero. The absolute cold swirled around her, moving slower as she landed. Time seemed to slow as everything around her stopped.

The chicken choked, cut off from its exit as the third realm cultivator pushed it towards the fifth realm Elder.

Slow.

It was a long second in between the time that Jessica realized that she was facing down a fourth realm chicken and the time that the chicken realized that Jessica was stronger than her.

“Bok Bok!” The demon said, even as every atom..every molecule in its body slowed down.

“Cluck!”

The demon moved in slower as Grace moved in.

Grace skewered the demon, the only expression on its face was one of complete surprise.

Jessica stopped her technique, immediately cycling in cold qi, to refill her core.

Grace held the spear aloft as the demon died. Then she slowly pushed the carcass off, cleaning the spear on the snow. It had been burned but it kept it’s integrity.

“Anyone for bon chon?” Jessica asked, walking up to the dead beast.

***

It turned out later that one did not simply eat demonic beasts. One broke them down into their components and then used those components in spiritual weapons or treasures.

Jessica had several friends back home that would have jumped at the chance to eat a demonic chicken nugget. They were always asking her to try this or that hot sauce.

She missed it. The people, not the sauce. That she could take or leave. Kimchi would be great but in no way was it missed. The sauce, not the person. Every Korean American friend group had one person affectionately nicknamed Kimchi. And one named Bon Chon of course, it’s what you do. Her Kimchi was a fan of the nearly deadly ghost pepper hot sauce. Jess didn’t need that particular variety of blow out your asshole hot sauce either. There was no room for hot sauce machismo in her new world.

A lot of the third realm cultivators here seemed to subsist solely on pills. In between that and the cultivation, she imagined that they would get dry mouth or have terrible breath after a while.

She watched as the alchemist team slowly took the bird apart chunk by chunk. The feathers went one way as the beast, a three foot tall creature was sawn into pieces. Both sides of the beak were separated and ground into a powder. As Jessica watched, the alchemist team mixed the powders and created a series of qi enhancing pills.

It took them over two hours and Jessica was certain that they were sweating under her gaze. It was entirely possible that none of the previous Elders had actually taken an interest in this whole thing. Why she could write a whole book just on the technique that they were using to put qi into the pills as they breathed natural qi into them.

The end result was a gorgeous red pill that absolutely stank of fire and change. The natural undertones of the qi made her think that this would advance one of her cultivators from the first realm, almost entirely to the second. Or perhaps refill one of the third realm cultivators cores.

She would have to do a few experiments to see if that worked. She could probably use these damn alchemists, once she got the rest of the Sect running smoothly.

As Grace was the junior disciple who had done the most, she should have been allowed to get the first pick of any pills. Instead Jessica was told that usually the Elders took their pick first. To the leaders go the spoils or some such.

Tradition was tradition, Jessica knew, but tradition also was peer pressure from dead people. And so, she gave Grace the first choice and then decided to end that tradition.

Leaders could eat last here. They needed it the least.