Waterfall - 165

Near the waterfall, Zhou Fan was forced to make a fire in order to calm the animals down. Otherwise, they would have all attacked him at once.

Once he had gathered sticks and leaves, Zhou Fan started the fire. If the fire was anywhere else, it would have burned an entire planet to ashes before possibly stopping.

Within Zhou Fans manor, however, the fire could only burn the sticks and the leaves as if it was a normal fire on normal wood and normal leaves.

The animals and Zhou Fan sat on the ground around the fire. They did it to dry off, while he just looked at the fire. Although they didn't say a word, Zhou Fan could tell they were angry at him.

The butterfly dried the fastest, while the deer took the longest to dry. Once they were all dried, Zhou Fan led them back to the yard. Before he entered his room, he turned around and spoke.

"You all can sleep wherever you want. There is a cave that way, and a hill that way." Zhou Fan said while pointing.

Before they could respond, he entered his room and closed the door behind him.

"I can't believe he didn't apologize!" The butterfly said with her high pitched voice.

The rest of the animals nodded their heads in agreement before heading off in different directions. The mole went towards that hill, while the deer and the butterfly went to the forest. The fox traveled to her cave following a path, and the chicken slept near the house on the open ground.

In the morning, Zhou Fan opened his door and saw the chicken laying against a wall. He walked up to the chicken quietly and picked him up softly.

The chicken moved slightly in his sleep, but he never woke up. Zhou Fan carried him to the waterfall. The sound of the crashing water woke the chicken up once they arrived. He was surprised to see himself being held like a stuffed animal, but he didn't move.

"Why are we here?" He asked, still in a weary state of mind.

Zhou Fan didn't answer, but walked forwards. As he reached the water, Zhou Fan's feet walked on it like it was ground. The chicken was surprised, but not as surprised as when Zhou Fan walked through the waterfall and entered a cave hidden behind it.

The cave was small, square, and well lit by a lantern on a wall. Besides the lantern, there was only a desk with some papers and a seat.

Zhou Fan walked up to the desk and sat the chicken down on one of the clear spots. "From now on, you are my research partner." He said to the chicken.

The chicken was both surprised and confused, but he nodded his head.

"Once you completely wake up, we will talk about some of the things I've been thinking of." Zhou Fan said.

As the chicken sat there still regaining its consciousness from its sleep, Zhou Fan wrote on some of the papers.

He had started to treat the chicken as both a pet and a friend. He felt that he could keep quiet if he was asked, not that there would be any important secrets.

After a few minutes, the chicken spoke. "I'm awake. What have you been doing." The chicken asked while watching Zhou Fan write on some papers.

"Right now I'm pondering runes, but that's above your knowledge level." Zhou Fan said. "What you can help me with is ideas. You're so stupid that you might accidentally say something that I haven't thought of."

Rather than feeling insulted, the chicken felt somewhat excited at Zhou Fan's words.

He instantly started saying random things despite not knowing how runes worked. As expected, every single one of his thoughts were stupid. For a couple hours, he didn't stop talking and ended the session with zero good ideas.

"Nevermind runes. Just sit there and be good company next time." Zhou Fan said.

The chicken was a little disheartened, but he accepted it easily. By the time Zhou Fan and the chicken left the waterfall, it was 10 am. The other animals had just started waking up from their slumbers.

The fox was the first to wake up. She made her way from the cave to the land. When she arrived, she saw the chicken and Zhou Fan playing a card game. The game was something that had been invented on earth before Zhou Fan had ever started cultivating.

The chicken was picking up cards with his beak and struggling to look at his cards without showing them.

To Zhou Fans surprise, the chicken was actually quite good at card games. He was even better once he got used to it.

As they were in the middle of their 5th game, with the score being 4 -1 and Zhou Fan leading, the fox came to the table and sat on one of the chairs.

The table was circular and newly added. Zhou Fan had created it just minutes ago.

"Can I play?" The fox asked.

"Of course." Zhou Fan said before he explained the rules.

The fox understood the game quickly, and joined in on the next hand. They played for three rounds, with Zhou Fan winning them all, before the deer, the butterfly, and the mole showed up.

They too asked if they could play and Zhou Fan explained the rules. After an hour of playing, Zhou Fan had won 20 times, the chicken won 5 times, the fox won twice, and the deer, the mole, and the butterfly had won once each.

As they kept playing, they got better and better, evening the odds since Zhou Fan wasn't cheating or using any tricks.

They ended up playing all day, with a hundred more games being played. Of them, Zhou Fan won 45, the chicken won twenty, the fox won 15, the mole won 5, the butterfly won 8, and the deer won 7.

In the end, yesterday's incident was forgotten and completely forgiven. They all ate dinner together happily. Zhou Fan didn't even give them a bath afterwards.