Abæus had limped across the field back to his coop to rest, Its four wooden walls creaking under the blows of the cold night wind. He slowly sat down on his soft pile of golden straw, a deep breath escaping from his beak and warming the surrounding area. He had dropped the snake's beast core on the straw directly in front of him as he was getting settled in his broken left-wing hanging to his side was missing a patch of scarlet feathers and the rest still matted with blood. Though his right-wing wasn't any better as the roots of those feathers had turned an inky black but, the burning sensation had begun to dull after eating the snake gall bladder. It had been an exciting and terrible night, but Abæus had lived through it.

He eyed the core cautiously as he nudged it to and fro with his golden beak stained with blood from the night's battle. Abæus stared at the core for a moment longer before deciding to heed Umber's advice and swallow it whole. The core seemed to slither down his through like acrid water before landing in his stomach. An intense sensation burst out from the core as it began dissolving inside of him.

Abæus closed his eyes as he focused on the surge of energy building up inside him. He could feel it passing through his body, causing his veins to swell. He was far calmer this time as he willed the energy to begin flowing through his beast core that gave out a soft hissing sound as the energies combined with flames surrounding his core as it spun, leading the power through his body. It traveled through the seven pools of energy, becoming tamer with each passing cycle.

Time passed by as Abæus focused on refining the energy in the dissolving beast core. A chime echoed out in his mind as the energy had begun rotating through his body fast and fast before crashing into the pool of energy situated at his heart. A sound of shattering glass filled his ears as the dark pool of energy swirled with like a frothing current. The air around Abæus became turbulent as a whirlpool formed above his head, forcibly sucking up the world's energy. It was intermixed with flecks of starlight as a blurry image gathered overhead. This phantom flew around the whirlpool, diving in and out as a cold azure flame wove itself around Abæus. It gave off a sensation of life as his body's broken and charred feathers began to turn to ash dancing within the fire.

Abæus slowly drifted off to sleep, wrapped in the embrace of the starlight flames as his body began to mend under the heat. Thick black blood and oil seeped out from his broken wings as they burnt away, surrounded by the flames. The warmth spread through his whole body, burning out the toxins in his blood and exciting his body to heal itself.

"Abæus, Abæus…." Umbers voiced seeped into his ears, stirring him from his comfortable slumber. His eyes were still hazy from sleep as he crooned his neck to look up into the older roosters gleaming eyes, and for just a moment, he thought he saw a hint of sadness locked within them.

"Good, you are awake now. We have much to discuss," he said before sitting Infront of Abæus, who was still trying to roll back over and straighten himself up. Umber watched as he rolled in the hay before managing to sit upright. Abæus looked over his body and noticed his wounds were gone, but his feathers were again in disorder. The need to immediately groom himself growing more intense every second, but he squashed it down, for now, to listen to Umber.

"What did you want to talk about, Umber," he said.

"There is much you don't know, and not knowing will place your life in danger, young one. This world does not belong to us but to the human. We are of the beast race, but luckily, we are born in a remote area, and the humans of the farm believe us to be a variant evolution of a breed of chicken. Our kind is killed upon discovery in this part of the continent, but there exists a country of beast-men far from here." Umber said.

"So, why are we staying on this farm then if the humans want to kill us." He replied

"This world is dangerous, and we do not have the means to protect ourselves. Plus, a giant chicken traveling would be a very unusual event leading them to realize that we are not animals but beast-men. Umber replied.

"If we are beast-men, then can we transform into a human form," Abæus asked.

"Unfortunately, we are unable to do that because of our peculiar situation," he replied. Umber paused for a moment before he shook out his wing, and a journal fell out of his feathers. He pushed it towards Abæus before getting up to leave his talons scraping against the wooden floor of the small coop.

"make sure to return that to me after you finish reading," his voice echoes as he exited the dwelling back into the morning sun. The journal was bound in thick leather that was smooth to the touch. Abæus flipped to the first page and began reading it to himself. It seemed that the common tongue was ingrained from birth, but so was the ability to read.

"If you are reading this, then I have died, and you were born from the three of us. We were attacked on our travels, and I am already significantly injured. I managed to save the ashes of my two compatriots and follow the ritual so that a new life may be born from their deaths. I fear that my spirit will not be passed on if these children are not born soon. However, to the first that reads this journal, I bestow the name of Ember, and following the name of Umber, as for my reincarnation's name, I leave it up to fate as to not weigh them down with my regrets.

You are of the lineage of the beast-men, The Starflame clan, we originate from the heavenly phoenix and within our veins runs a drop of its blood though it has weakened with time it will never fade entirely, and it allows for our rebirth even in death. I do not have much time or ink left; even what I have is mixed with a bit of my blood too. I leave you all three things within this journal. The first is the ritual to bring life from the ashes of our kind. The second is a rough map of this world. When you are powerful enough, head back to the clan but be cautious as we are not welcomed in this part of the realm, and finally, the basic of cultivation. Since you are not born in the clan, you will be unable to take on your human form till you reach the first stage of forming a demon core."

Abæus flipped through the rest of the journal up to the third part that explained the basics of this world's cultivation. The first realm was split into nine stages and work on purifying the body and forming a strong foundation. This was done by accumulating energy and storing it in the body's meridian, blood, bones, and flesh. The first through third stages accumulated energy within the blood, the fourth through six amassed energy in the body, the seventh through ninth opened the meridians within one's body. The stages can be identified by the speed of natural circulation. Abæus closed his eyes and focused on the energy flowing within his body. He followed the energy through his veins as it passed across his beast core twice in one minute. He was in the second stage of the first realm. A tier two beast-man, the second realm was known as forming a demon core. All of the energy within beast-man's body must be compressed into the beast core along with the formation of one's spirit. This realm was separated into nine stages also, but no more information was available. The only thing was a cultivation manual: Scorching Sun cultivation. It consisted of absorbing the sun's rays during its ascent in the morning and the formation of three pools of energy within the body that act as reservoirs to assist with progression in cultivation.