Chapter 125: Enlightenment Stage Five

However, they didn't seem discouraged at all. Both Liu Yunang and Jiang Youfu were thrilled with the Small Area Cooling Arrays they had just engraved, eager to take them home and test them that night.

While Lin Xiao and his group were still practicing array engraving in the Array Hall, back at the grass hut near the mountain path, Xiao Luan, who had been sleeping on a grass mat, suddenly twitched its wings.

Before long, it gradually woke up.

When its small eyes opened, they seemed dazed and unfocused.

It felt like it had just had a very long dream.

It couldn't remember exactly what the dream was about, but it knew that it had been a comfortable sleep.

Vaguely recalling that it might have learned something in the dream, Xiao Luan couldn't quite grasp what it was.

Turning its head, it noticed its three disciples still lying on the ground. Still groggy from sleep, Xiao Luan couldn't immediately recall why they were on the ground. After a moment of thinking, it remembered that they had decided to imitate humans by lying down to sleep.

Three lazy little chickens, still sleeping even after their master had woken up!

Xiao Luan was furious. It got up and walked over to them.

It didn't notice that its body seemed to have grown larger.

It wasn't until it extended its claw to kick them that it realized its claw was almost twice the size of their heads.

Looking at what had once been a small and cute chicken claw, now a large and somewhat menacing one, Xiao Luan froze.

It flexed its toes experimentally.

It was definitely its own claw.

But how had it gotten so much bigger than its disciples' heads after just one sleep?

Worried about accidentally hurting its disciples with its larger claw, Xiao Luan decided to nudge them with its wing instead.

It first nudged the disciple closest to it.

But with just a light push, the disciple stiffened and turned over completely.

Seeing its disciple's stiff and cold body, Xiao Luan was horrified.

It quickly rushed to the disciple's head, using its wingtip to lift the eyelids and pry open the beak. Then it leaned down to listen for a heartbeat.

The chest was utterly silent.

Confirmed: gone.

Xiao Luan, feeling as if it had lost its soul, slumped to the ground.

How could its disciple be gone…

Panicked, it quickly checked on the other two disciples lying nearby.

The second one was also gone.

But when it checked the third, it found that this one was still alive.

And its heartbeat was strong and steady, clearly healthy.

Xiao Luan was both relieved and saddened. It was overjoyed that one disciple had survived but devastated at the loss of the other two.

No matter how much it thought about it, Xiao Luan couldn't figure out how the two of them had died. The only conclusion it could come to was that the two disciples were too weak, and sleeping on the ground had somehow claimed their lives.

It dug a very large, very deep hole next to the grass hut and buried their bodies inside.

After filling in the soil, it mimicked human behavior by standing in silence in front of their graves for a while.

"Cluck, cluck, cluck."

May we be master and disciples again in the next life.

After paying its respects, Xiao Luan hurried back to the grass hut and squatted next to its only remaining disciple.

Now that there was only one left, it decided to cherish and protect this disciple even more!

Oh right, humans give each other names, don't they? Should it give its precious disciple a name too?

What should it be called… Xiao Luan turned its small head, glancing around.

It saw the big peach tree outside.

How about "Big Peach"?

Big Peach, Big Peach—hmm, that sounded nice!

Xiao Luan was very pleased with itself as it squatted next to Big Peach, watching over its last disciple with a kind expression.

When Big Peach woke up, Xiao Luan would tell it its new name!

Big Peach would be so touched.

As it waited, Xiao Luan got bored and wandered off to the spiritual field to hunt for bugs.

When it arrived at the field, it found a large number of dead insect corpses!

Excited, Xiao Luan flapped its wings a couple of times and happily rushed into this food paradise, feasting to its heart's content.

After filling its belly, Xiao Luan let out a satisfied burp. Looking down at the numerous remaining insects, it decided to take some back to the grass hut.

It returned to the hut, carrying a few insects in its beak. Then it went back to the field to gather more, repeating this process.

Xiao Luan thought, "This way, when Big Peach wakes up, it will have a delicious feast waiting."

As it bustled back and forth, Xiao Luan noticed that its walking speed seemed much faster. Despite all the running around, it didn't feel tired at all—in fact, it felt like it had endless energy!

Its large claws scurried about quickly.

Before long, a small mountain of insect corpses had piled up in front of the sleeping Big Peach.

Due to the thick clouds, night fell early that day.

Although the sun had just begun to set, the sky was already dark with heavy clouds.

Inside the Array Hall, after completely draining Liu Yunang and Jiang Youfu of their spiritual energy and allowing Mo Yuanjiao and Mo Que to recover their energy several times, Lin Xiao finally announced:

"Let's call it a day for our array engraving practice. It looks like it'll rain tonight, so make sure to close your doors and windows properly."

With that, he turned and left the Array Hall.

Seeing him leave, the others reluctantly followed suit.

Just as they were getting the hang of this new skill, everyone's enthusiasm was high.

Mo Yuanjiao sighed, "If only I didn't need spiritual energy to activate the array plate, I'd stay in the Array Hall day and night without leaving."

Hearing this, Lin Xiao turned to him and said, "Focus on your cultivation. Once you reach Qi Refining Stage 5 or 6, you'll be able to independently engrave arrays."

"I will!" Mo Yuanjiao nodded earnestly.

Already at Qi Refining Stage 5, Jiang Youfu silently reached into his pouch, pulling out some roasted beans to snack on.

He wasn't about to tell Mo Yuanjiao that he had tried controlling both the array plate and the engraving knife at the same time earlier. The spiritual energy drain had been so intense that he barely managed to complete the Small Area Cooling Array.

Since Mo Yuanjiao and Mo Que lived in the Guiyuan Mountain Residence, they turned off the main path to head home. Lin Xiao, along with Liu Yunang and Jiang Youfu, walked toward the mountain path.

But as Lin Xiao turned, he noticed the grass hut nearby. Realizing that he hadn't seen Xiao Luan all day, he decided to check on it.

Just as he was about to use his spiritual sense to see if Xiao Luan and its disciples were inside the hut, he was surprised to find that Xiao Luan had reached Enlightenment Stage 5!

Not only had Xiao Luan's cultivation level jumped from Enlightenment Stage 2 to Stage 5, but its body had also grown noticeably larger.

And next to Xiao Luan was a wild chicken that had reached Enlightenment Stage 1.

But hadn't there been three wild chickens following Xiao Luan around before? Why were there only Xiao Luan and one chicken left in the hut?

What had happened…

Lin Xiao suddenly remembered the demon core he had given to Xiao Luan.

At the time, Senior Liao had only mentioned that it could be eaten by demon beasts, but he hadn't gone into much detail.