Beware Of Chicken / Tropes O to Z

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O-R

• Off the Chart: When the Azure Jade Trading Company show their profits for the year after dealing with Jin, the red line on the main chart goes onto another board nailed to it and almost off that one too.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Elder Ge spits up blood when he hears that the disciple Lu Ri is trying to find, who left the Cloudy Sword Sect because his older disciples beat him up almost to death and robbed him with impunity, is Jin Rou, adopted grandson of Shen Yu "the Unconquered Blade", who had entrusted his old sect with his grandson's training.
  • Chen Li, Inner Disciple of the Cloudy Sword sect, son of Elder Chen, is swaggering with pride when Elder Ge calls him up in front of all the disciples and acknowledges that he has been "trading pointers" with the Outer Disciples to help them improve (read: kicking the shit out of them for fun)... until Elder Ge offers to "trade pointers" with him in exactly the same way.
    Lu Ri noted well the exact moment the statement finished imprinting itself on the young man's mind. The cracking of his facade. The sudden trembling in his Qi. The smug look of superiority faded, replaced with the pale white of abject terror.
  • A common reaction for most Azure Hills cultivators when Jin reveals either his true power or his connection to the Cloudy Sword sect.
  • Vajra the queen bee is happy that her Emperor Jin finally knows she is sapient... until the Empress Meiling plucks her up and asks, if she has been sapient this whole time, why has she been constantly sneaking into Jin's bath? This causes Vajra's whole hive to tremble.
  • Elder Chongyun of the Shrouded Mountain Sect is pummelled with a succession of world-shaking and terrifying revelations that have him almost spitting blood and convinced he's a moment away from death. Bi De's transformation back into a chicken lets him put the pieces together, recognise who Bi De really is, and realise that the Sect really was being audited. Then the Patriarch takes offence at Bi De's presence in the sect tournament — only for an old dishevelled man to appear, stop the Patriarch in his tracks, and reveal himself as an immensely powerful cultivator, immeasurably far above anyone in the Sect. Then the old man mentions that he's connected to Jin Rou — in fact, he's Jin Rou's grandfather, Jin Rou who was attacked by a demon-infested member of the Sect — and to cap it off, the man is Shen Yu, the Unconquered Blade, an Imperial Realm cultivator, possibly the most powerful man in the world, who is famous for never letting a slight go unavenged, and Shen Yu starts talking about how he heard of possible demonic taint and came to make sure any such infestation is torn out root and branch...
    Chongyun barely managed to look at his fellow Elder, the woman’s face so pale she might as well have been a corpse.
  • After hearing that Bi De just threw Ri Zu into a mudpit, Yun Ren howls that Meiling will have his hide if he doesn't get pictures of it.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Bi De wonders out loud, "Why must it always be ancient memories and ancient crystals?" after coming across one for the second time in his life. The first one showed the history of the Azure Hills and the breaking of Tianlan Shan, and the second showed the treacherous origins of the Shrouded Mountain Sect.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: A variant using Ancient Chinese. When Jin finally consciously decides to draw upon all his ability for a Megaton Punch in order to kill Zang Li/Lu Ban, there is so much power being gathered that the world itself begins whispering a quotation from ancient scripture in the ears of everyone present, culminating in the title of the attack.
  'And so the great Ancestor, Shennong, commanded his disciple in the ways of preparing the fields. Till the land. Cut down the trees. Divert the waters—'
  
  [BREAK THE ROCKS]
• Once More, with Clarity: On Jin's departure from the Cloudy Sword sect and his journey to the Azure Hills, his narrative emphasizes his comparative weakness and how he runs from trouble, such as hiding behind the counter from a cultivator Bar Brawl and fleeing from a monstrous Earth-Crushing Devil Serpent. When Lu Ri retraces Jin's steps to try and find him, he learns that the people Jin met have a much more heroic impression of him that showcases his real strength, such as how he caught a giant errant splinter before it could impale the restaurant owner's son (and the owner mounted the splinter on his wall afterward), or how he carried an entire cart and the family in it over his head as he ran away from the rampaging serpent.
• One Degree of Separation:
  • The Twilight Cuckoo's Triumph technique keeps popping up in extremely significant places. Kongming, in ancient times, was taken over by this technique and caused the ancient Azure Mountains to undergo their cataclysm, with only Xiaoshi keeping it from being worse. The same technique was used to take over Zang Li by demonic cultivator Lu Ban, who was the first stereotypical "Young Master" that Jin fought in the Azure Hills and the arc villain of the Dueling Tournament arc. And finally, Shen Yu reveals that the technique that killed Rou Jin (and kickstarted the story) was a technique specifically designed to disrupt the Twilight Cuckoo's Triumph.
  • One of Shen Yu's exploits that Nezan relates to the Fa Ram is him seducing Young Mistress Shuli of the Shrouded Mountain sect, and indeed, when Shen Yu appears to the elders, the Patriarch eventually recognizes him as the man who seduced his aunt.
• One Drink Will Kill the Baby: Meiling is most unimpressed that Jin has produced Orgasmically Delicious spirit mead while she's pregnant.
  Meiling: Jin, my dearest husband, why did you make this, when I can’t have any?
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Elder Xinling is very protective of her beauty, habitually wearing a veil, but when the elders have dinner with Jin, she's not wearing it, and voluntarily plays an instrument for him, because they have all sensed his power and are being very deferential.
  Cho: Didn't she stab Elder Gang for asking for her to play for him, saying it wasn’t for his crude ears?
  Huizong: Yes.
• Opponent Instruction:
  • Tigu so badly outclasses her opponents in the Dueling Peaks Tournament that she starts giving them advice to make the fights more interesting.
  • In general, sparring matches in cultivator society are meant to be an exercise in helping the opponents learn from each other, so they're usually referred to as "trading pointers". Unfortunately, among less scrupulous cultivators, this sometimes becomes a mere euphemism for "let's beat up someone weaker for fun."
    Elder Ge: It is a blessing to receive a pointer from one more powerful than yourself. To witness their technique first hand, and use that knowledge to better oneself.
• Opposing Combat Philosophies: The reason why there are many different cultivator sects. Each has a particular philosophy that inspires and underpins their martial arts styles and abilities.
• Opt Out: Jin's response to the cultivation world. He's willing to admit that it may be partially Screw This, I'm Outta Here.
• Orgasmically Delicious:
  • Several people really like the foods that Jin introduces, partly because he knows how to produce high-sugar foods like maple syrup, and partly because everything he makes is bursting with qi. Xiulan is the worst offender, moaning so passionately when she eats that several characters begin referring to the sounds as ‘Xiulan noises’. Liu Bowu hears her reaction to Jin's latest product and reflects that he "had heard purer sounds coming out of a brothel".
    • It turns out that Xiulan's father does this too- it's just that his are more quiet groans than Xiulan's... less pure noises.
  • When Jin ferments mead from his spirit bee honey, Wa Shi has a taste and immediately attempts to swan dive into the barrel, before being brought to his senses.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Shen Yu had to put down his own son Shen Bu after his arrogance turned him into an empire-shaking monstrosity, which is why he sought out a more humble boy to be his adopted grandson and legacy. Said grandson, Jin Rou, instead takes up farming and begins to follow the Path of Shennong, a path that would mean he'd never become immortal and eventually die one day - meaning that the ascendancy-seeking Shen Yu would eventually have to bury another son, which upsets him greatly.
• Pacifist Dojo: Jin didn't mean to found a sect when he built his farm, but his animals that have become spirit beasts treat Fa Ram that way. Once Jin realizes they're sapient, he begins to actually teach them and his philosophy is far more pacifistic than the vast majority of the cultivator sects in the world.
  Jin: We give to the land, and the land gives back.
  Jin, later: If you break something, fix it.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Posthumous version. Before giving Sun Ken's sword to Xiulan to serve as proof of the man's death, Jin had considered turning the weapon into a plow. Her Sect's elders are inspired by the suggestion, declaring that there could be "no better insult" to the memory of the murderous bandit; they even gift the newly-made plow to Jin as a wedding gift.
• Perilous Marriage Proposal: After San, Liling, and Bao successfully track down an assassin with cultivator backing, and narrowly escape with their lives, San and Bao agree that it's best to move out to Verdant Hill, where they can disappear from the public eye, but Liling wants to know what she's supposed to do.
  San blinked, cocking his head to the side. "Come with us and marry me?" he stated, as if it was obvious.
  Liling paused. Then her face flushed.
  "… I guess I can do that," she whispered.
• Phlebotinum Overload: Meiling tries to use her poison draining technique to draw the demonic qi out of Shen Yu's wounds, but he and his injuries are on a totally different level from her previous patients. The wire instantly turns to dust, the attached medicine is drained and goes inert, and the destination water bucket turns to black sludge. And she barely removed any of the taint, although enough that he's impressed and pleased.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Several of Jin's spirit beasts are still quite small, but their Ki Manipulation grants them vastly superhuman strength, toughness, and speed.
  • Bi De frequently attracts derision from enemies who are unimpressed by the idea of fighting a chicken, until they see what he can do.
  • Yin is a small white rabbit, with all the cuteness that implies, but she is capable of pulling Jin's mammoth rice cart by herself.
  • At one point, Jin muses that his new ox might be stronger than Ri Zu the rat, but he wouldn't bet on it.
• Plague of Good Fortune: The Lord Magistrate of Verdant Hill isn't exactly unhappy to have Jin taking out bandits and feral Spirit Beasts, building roads, and frequently gifting him with luxury foodstuffs, but he is constantly worrying that someday the other shoe is going to drop and Jin demand something crazy in return. And every attempt he makes to pay off some of the debt only results in Jin doing something even more extravagant in return.
• Polyamory:
  • Defied by Jin, who is aware that Xiulan is attractive but intends to be monogamous. Despite the remnants of Rou asserting that they should go for it. Meiling actually seems more open to the idea.
    Pffft. Yeah, right. Xiulan was cute, but I'm not going there. Hell lies in that direction.
  • Ty An tries to imply that Meiling is just a concubine, and that Xiulan has supplanted her as Jin's true wife. Meiling proceeds to ruthlessly take her accusations apart and stomp on them, demonstrating to the village that Xiulan acts more like her servant, and that she is the one who shares Jin's bed while Xiulan sleeps in the guest quarters.
  • Bi De, on the other hand, has an entire harem of female chickens, and has no problem with that. He also doesn't object to multiple sapient females showing interest in him, such as Ri Zu and Yin.
• Post-Victory Collapse: Once Jin successfully negotiates his position with every sect in the Azure Hills after resolving a dispute with the Shrouded Mountain Sect where he punched their Young Master clear into the next province, he ducks into a side room and proceeds to hyperventilate. Then after he gets home and confides everything to his wife, he has a long-overdue sob into her chest.
• Power at a Price:
  • Invoked by Chow Ji to tempt Bi De with strength carrying a hidden curse.
  • The Pact of Shennong offers prosperity, peace, the strength of the earth, long life — but it cuts off all prospects of immortality.
• Power Levels: In this setting, the levels of cultivation go in this order: Initiate's Realm, Profound Realm, Spiritual Realm, Earth Realm, Sky Realm, Imperial Realm, Heavenly Realm. There are five stages to each realm. When Jin left his old sect, he was at the fifth stage of the Initiate's Realm, but is significantly stronger now.
• The Power of Friendship: After winning the Dueling Peaks Tournament, Xiulan decides that instead of just striving alone for power as a traditional cultivator, she wants power to protect others. Her plan to do is to invoke this trope and take advantage of the friendships formed among the younger generation of Azure Hills cultivators during the tournament, eventually forming a mega-alliance of all the sects and independent cultivators in the region who can together use their power for the benefit of others.
• The Power of Love: The cultivation of the Soaring Heaven's Isle is fundamentally powered by passion and love.
• Power Perversion Potential: Not only does cultivation grant superhuman stamina, Meiling's herbal and medicinal knowledge includes a coffee-like energy drink. And they were Insatiable Newlyweds already...
• Pride Before a Fall:
  • Bi De learns this lesson well, almost losing the farm to Chow Ji's tainted promises, and saved by the pigs whom he had dismissed.
  • He in turn teaches it to Tigu, who had thought that his reputation was overblown and that she is the true defender of the farm, but discovers that she cannot land a hit on him if he doesn't let her, cannot penetrate his skin if he does, and can be knocked aside with a single blow of his wings.
• Punctuated Pounding: Elder Ge of the Cloudy Sword sect deals with an Inner Disciple that was bullying and beating up younger disciples under the guise of training, by "trading pointers" with him exactly as he did to his victims.
  Elder Ge: What. [Crack] Are. [Crack] You. [Crack] Learning?
• The Quiet One:
  • Liu of Hong Yaowu isn't said to be mute, so she probably does talk occasionally, but it's never seen in the story. She frequently hangs around Xiulan, or later Babe, and weaves flower crowns to cover them in, but without saying a word.
  • Babe is similarly an ox of few words. We do see him talk once, just a few words, but it's rare, to the point where Jin took months to recognize that he was sapient, because Babe never chose to say or do anything about it. When questioned, he prefers to answer through actions.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: When a gang threatened to rape Liling, the woman who would become Meiling's mother, San was furious enough to give them a beatdown despite not having much training. Liling was impressed.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The Whirling Demon Blade Gang plays this very straight, attracting the attention of the Verdant Blade sect after slaughtering an entire village. There are celebrations across the countryside when the gang is all killed.
• Reaction Shot: A mass one involving the Shrouded Mountain Sect, after the newest Inner Disciple that just had a mind-blowing fight with their Young Master, ascends to the Spiritual Realm and reveals his true form of a rooster, in the middle of the arena.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: A Running Gag is that Jin has become so powerful that other cultivators are able to sense that Jin's animals are cultivators of the Initiate or Profound realms, but they can't gauge Jin himself. Initially when they look at him they notice nothing, as if he was a mortal; when they look closer, or if Jin decides to reveal himself, they don't know exactly what his power level is, but they suddenly feel very small by comparison.
  Xiulan: It was like looking into a lake, and never being able to see the bottom. Like looking at a mountain, and not knowing how much of it was hidden by clouds.
• Readings Blew Up the Scale:
  • Necklace-sized qi sensors made of Heavenly Ascension Stone are used by nobles and guards in the Azure Hills to detect the presence of cultivators. However, such small devices can only handle Qi levels up to approximately the Profound Realm without destructively failing — which, in the low-Qi Azure Hills, is plenty. Until Lu Ri, an inner disciple of the Cloudy Sword sect, comes looking for Jin...
  • Interestingly, despite having considerable power, Jin himself does not have this effect on the sensors, possibly because his power is more subtle and calm. In fact, they may even be unable to detect him.
• Read the Fine Print: Tigu actually does read through the whole stack of paperwork for the Dueling Peaks Tournament registration, which mildly surprises the staff. It's later helpful to her when intervening to stop a fight from breaking out on the street (which would have been against the rules and potentially disqualified the participants).
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Once Elder Ge learns about the Cloudy Sword Sect devolving into a Thug Dojo where the older and more powerful disciples can beat up the younger and weaker disciples with impunity, he assembles the whole Sect, lambasts both the bullies and those that let it happen, beats up the worst offenders, says that the sect has grown arrogant, and declares that it stops now.
• Reassignment Backfire: Zang Zhong resents Bi De's rapid rise, and assigns him to gardening and carpentry work in an effort to humiliate him. Bi De, of course, is quite pleased by such tasks, which resemble farming. And then his selfless efforts draw the attention of the spirit of the Howling Fang Mountains, which sees Tianlan's power in him, realises that she's still alive, and rewards him for the unwitting information by helping him perfect his breathing technique — which results in Bi De being able to replenish his power from the air itself, merely by breathing. Zhong sees him working and gaining strength at the same time, and bites into his own lip hard enough to draw blood, then furiously leaves to spend two months in closed door cultivation.
  Zhong felt his eye twitch.
  He was supposed to be suppressed.
• Recognition Failure: To illustrate just how terrified he is, Nezan weaves a bunch of bombastic illusions about grand monsters, threats and accomplishments like the Lord of the Volcano, the Demonic Sect alliance, or the Unrivaled Hidden Realm Tournament, only for his Fa Ram audience to only recognize the epithets of the ones who defeated them, and note that they were all accomplished by the same man, Shen Yu the Unconquered Blade, whom they just had dinner with.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Tigu and Xiulan become close friends and sparring partners, and face each other in the finals of the Dueling Peaks Tournament. Tigu is wild, fierce, and fights for the thrill of it. Xiulan is calm, graceful, and dutiful. Both of them learn a lot from each other, though.
• Reduced to Ratburgers: Discussed when Tigu starts lining up some of her kills outside Jin's house. The memories of Rou, who was a Street Urchin, include people eating rats, sometimes even as a delicacy, but Jin doesn't intend to follow suit unless he's somehow starving.
• Refusal of the Call: Happens often enough it's nearly a Running Joke.
  • Jin of course, after the transmigrator arrives in his head, decides to become a farmer and avoid all high drama of life in a cultivator sect.
  • The Lord Magistrate of Verdant Hill did quite well in school and could have been posted to the imperial palace had he wished it, but decided that managing a small town and the few surrounding villages would be much more relaxing than the intrigue inherent to the court.
  • Once he realizes they're sapient and view themselves as his disciples, Jin offers to let his farm animals go and live as they wish, to include cultivating and adventure. They all would rather stay with the farm.
  • Xiaoshi also abandoned cultivator life for farming. Unfortunately for him, in this case, The Call Knows Where You Live.
  • Big D/Bi De is called to become the next Azure Emperor by the spirit in the ancient memory crystal. He turns it down. Entertainingly, the spirit in the crystal, Shenguashi, then tries to get anybody who it can speak with to take up the call. So far, nobody has accepted.
    Shenguashi: [after Shen Yu turns down the offer] Whyyyyyy...?!
• Regained Memories Sequence: Tianlan Shan regains many old memories that she had lost when she reaches the Dueling Peaks, leaving her confused and hurting.
• Respected by the Respected: How useful does the Cloudy Sword Sect find the Hong Family's Qi-siphoning formation? Useful enough against demons that they not only agree to put a protective ward around Hong Yaowu, but agree to make the Hong Family and Lin Bao Honored Allies of the Cloudy Sword Sect, which means that if they ever ask for protection, disciples from one of the strongest sects in the entire Empire would come to their aid. Jin describes this as 'basically having the Wrath of God on speed-dial'..
• Restrained Revenge: In the alternate timeline where Jin went to the Soaring Heavens Isle, he comes across two close friends, and learns that Seiyu has nicknamed Bailu Baka-sama, persuading her that it means "Great Lady", when actually it means "idiot". However, when he gets to the bottom of things, it turns out that that was revenge for Bailu stealing the last of the wine that was Seiyu's late mother's final gift. Bailu has a My God, What Have I Done? moment and recognises that in Seiyu's place, she would have killed the culprit.
• The Reveal:
  • Book 3 finally reveals what has happened to Jin, and what broke the earth spirit. He has followed the "Path of Shennong" and inadvertently made a pact with an earth spirit, Tianlan, giving him long life and prosperity, but locking him out of further growth or ever reaching immortality. She previously made a pact thousands of years ago with a man named Xiaoshi, who fought a war against demons alongside her, but the demons took over a formation in order to steal her power, and Xiaoshi broke the formation to stop them — which wrecked the province, damaged everyone's memories, turned the spirit beasts into vicious animals, and drained the land of most of its qi, leaving Tianlan shredded and comatose.
  • Book 4 reveals the true origins of the Shrouded Mountain Sect, particularly how the younger brother of the Lightning Brigade had a Rescue Romance with a fox spirit, tried to steal a cultivation resource from her and got beaten for his troubles, got his older brother to attack the foxes in retribution, and then assassinated both of them when it looked like they were about to make amends. And also how the Sect's Inquisitors quash anyone who might know of the truth, such as Zang Wen or the entire Che family.
• Ride the Lightning: One of the Shrouded Mountain sect's Shock and Awe techniques is their Thunderous Transmission formation, which allows them to move vast distances in a bolt of lightning, deployed from their home base or any of their outposts. Part of why the sect is so feared is that if trouble happens anywhere in the province, one of their Fulmination Squadrons can be on the scene like a literal bolt from the blue.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons:
  • Jin thinks that Zang Li couldn't have been really a Young Master of a respected sect because he seemed too weak. Jin had become much more powerful than he realized and Zang Li is actually a demonic cultivator who's killed and replaced the original.
  • The Elders of the Shrouded Mountain Sect also stumble into this. Upon learning the truth that Lu Ban had possessed and eaten Zang Li, they begin to wonder why Jin (whom they believe to be an active member of the Cloudy Sword Sect) did not simply kill the imposter himself instead of having Lu Ban handed back to them to take care of. They eventually decide that he must have been on the trail of an even more dangerous Demonic Cultivator. Turns out there is at least one nearby; another disciple of Lu Ban's master.
  • Bi De beats up three Shrouded Mountain Sect disciples with just his legs, hands held behind his back while infiltrating the sect in human form. The disciples and observers think he's holding back and being Willfully Weak in order to embarrass and intimidate them with his power. Really though, he holds back from killing them because of Jin's teachings on mercy and restraint. He used only his legs because he's unused to fighting as a human with functional arms and falls back on the legs-only techniques he uses as a chicken.
• Right in Front of Me: A local farmer is amazed that someone married the "viper" Meiling, before noticing that Meiling is in the vicinity and staring at him with a pleasant, venomous smile.
• Rival Dojos:
  • Xianghua's Misty Lake Sect is "enemies" with the Azure Horizon sect, and it's mentioned that there are several others with whom they're less than friendly. During a party at the Dueling tournament, though, it seems that among the younger generation, these rivalries are not set in stone; many of the rivals are seen drinking and partying together (though their elders might disapprove).
  • Even the bigger sects are like this. After the Cloudy Sword and Soaring Heaven's Isle sects work together to crush a demon incursion, their elders are seen needling each other about poaching prominent mortals to be their disciples from each other.
• Running Gag:
  • People thinking Xiulan is Jin's wife and Meiling the maid. Meiling even takes up a tally.
  • People underestimating the people and animals of Fa Ram, especially Bi De, and being shocked when they are proven spectacularly wrong. Bi De is practically becoming a Phrase Catcher with how many people say, "A chicken?!" in sheer disbelief.
    • Another gag that follows are one of the more inured characters seeing the others' shock and telling them, "You get used to it."
  • The recurring Drunken Song of the old whore and the donkey.

S

• Sabotage to Discredit: Fat Han attempts to present his qi formation for assessment by the Shrouded Mountain Sect examiners, hoping to enter service in the Artifact Pavilion, but his formation explodes, making him a laughingstock. Later review of the formation reveals that the only way that could happen is if someone highly skilled were to circumvent the protections around the energy vent and then make a targeted attack on the formation — and then Han remembers that the examiner who failed him did not frown or criticise his failure, but smirked.
• Sapient Eat Sapient: Jin starts worrying about this after he realizes Big D isn't a normal animal, knowing that he previously turned one of the chickens into soup; he's much more careful about the animals he kills for food after this. It gets worse when he finds out about the rest of the animals that are starting to develop sapience. After he learns of the potential sapience of his animals, he makes a point to do intelligence tests for all of them, even the ones not currently showing intelligence.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!:
  • The Cloudy Sword disciple that ended up killing Jin Rou was Chen Li, son of one of the Elders, which was part of why Jin Rou felt like nothing would be done about his situation, thus the practical thing to do would be to leave the sect entirely. Subverted when Elder Ge, who is more senior than Elder Chen, gets wind of the rot in the sect and proceeds to beat Chen Li within an inch of his life while his father watches.
  • Mo Chaoge of the Shrouded Mountain sect, who is of a prominent family within their ranks, decides to try and bump off his squad captain who got injured in a Spirit Beast attack, since it was Chaoge's inattention that let the beast get strong enough in their territory in the first place. Ri Zu, along with Master Lishu of the Medical Pavillion, take exception to this.
• Secret Legacy:
  • Shen Yu, the old man who taught Jin Rou the basis of cultivation, is really a cultivator of great power and status, a Living Legend known as the "Unconquered Blade".
  • Also according to Word of God, Meiling is a descendant of the bloodline of the Heavenly Emperor whom Xiaoshi defeated, characterized by constellation-like freckles and purple eyes.
• Secret Test of Character:
  • Xiulan thinks that a test was Jin's intention when he first set her farming. It wasn't; Jin considers himself a farmer and hadn't yet realised that she thought he was a Hidden Master.
  • After Tigu transforms herself into a human she expresses her desire to travel to the upcoming Dueling Peaks Tournament. However, Jin isn't sure she's mature enough and ready to peacefully interact with normal people and cultivators who aren't familiar with Fa Ram. So he tells her that there will be a test in Verdant Hill to determine whether she's ready. What he doesn't tell her is what the test will consist of, and that it actually started well before their arrival in Verdant Hill: He has her participate in the construction of the road between Hong Yaowu and Verdant Hill, to see how she interacts with the villagers who are already friendly. And then, once they get to town, he discreetly investigates to find out who the most irritating and frustrating people in town are... and sends Tigu on errands that will require her to interact with every last one of them. He only informs her that that was the test after she's passed it.
  • Yun Ren discovers an old grave, with a magical sword lying next to it. Fortunately, his mother taught him that grave robbing is disrespectful to the dead, so he just picks a nearby flower to press as a gift for his girlfriend. The guardian fox spirit later informs him that if he had taken the sword, the fox would have killed him; instead, he's offered a boon.
• Seduction-Proof Marriage: Even when they're merely betrothed, Jin only has eyes for Meiling. He helps her strip another woman naked (a woman noted for her beauty, at that) to provide emergency medical attention, and finds Meiling's cool competence and efficiency more distracting than the patient.
• Serious Business: The Chao Baozi restaurant chain sells meat buns that are guaranteed to be 100% pure ingredients, no filler — on pain of death.
  They took things seriously in that shop.
• Sex Magic: The memories that Jin inherited with his body include just one way to transfer qi to another person. He dismisses the idea of using it to help heal Xiulan, but Meiling is inadvertently awakened as a cultivator on their wedding night.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Tigger, after transforming into a human, is unable to change back, despite trying all sorts of methods. Ri Zu speculates that deep down, she doesn't actually want to. She manages it in an emergency, to escape from being chained up, but shifts back to human again at the first opportunity, and her thoughts indicate that Ri Zu was likely correct; she much prefers her human shape.
• Shock and Awe:
  • A staple of the Shrouded Mountain sect techniques.
  • As well as water control, Wa Shi in dragon form can also launch lightning blasts.
• Shoo the Dog: Jin tells his animal companions to go tend to their own business while he meets with Lu Ri, so that they'll be out of the way if things go badly. Bi De thinks it over, then refuses, promising to stay with him.
• Shotgun Wedding: Downplayed several times.
  • With the amount of time Jin and Meiling have spent together and how close they are — enough that everyone is already assuming that they'll marry — Hong Xian confronts Jin and puts him on the spot, insisting on knowing when he plans to propose to her. However, Jin is prepared for it, already having plans to ask, and they promptly agree on a wedding date.
  • Xiulan's father asks her to send him an invitation to her wedding to Jin, and frowns when she replies that they aren't getting married, but he's just teasing.
• Shout-Out:
  • Jin muses that his knowledge of how to grow rice comes from a manga he read.
    The funny thing is that I learned most of this from reading a manga. Thanks, Shizuko.
  • When Jin first sees Chow Ji, he internally refers to him as an ROUS, and also as an evil Master Splinter.
  • A non-sapient chicken that Jin kills for food is named Bunty.
  • Sun Ken keeps his men mean, but not too mean, "because then they tended to burn, then try to pillage".
  • In response to Sun Ken's Villainous Vow, Bi De states, "So you have chosen... death."
  • When challenging Xiulan at hockey, Jin quotes Morpheus.
    Jin: Come! Stop trying to hit me, and hit me!
  • Just before his wedding, he picks up a new "fully armed and operational" bed.
  • A somewhat stealthy example: After the defeat of Sun Ken Jin suggests, and the Verdant Blade Sect follows through with, beating his sword into a plowshare.
  • When watching his friends throw seeds into the ground with qi, Jin thinks to himself that he's invented martial arts wheat farming. "Now I just needed my next disciples to be a panda and a dude with a pigtail."
  • One of the soldiers whom Xiulan lost was "Hi Shin, and his dream to become a great general."
  • Jin's approach to dealing with children wanting to play with him is to go Large Ham like Gary Oak.
    Jin: Or Blue, if you prefer.
  • When Washy returns as a dragon, Jin affectionately refers to him as "Washdor the Cleaninator".
  • The Dueling Peaks is taken straight out of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with Jin outright comparing it to a video game location when he goes there for the first time.
  • After Jin puts a stop to the fighting at the Dueling Peaks by intimidating the Shrouded Mountain disciples, the leader of the Shrouded Mountain cultivators in Zang Li's entourage mentions in his head that Elders Chongyun and Shenhe have been suspicious of Zang Li's behavior but did not have enough evidence to act.
  • Jin is amused by Chunky carrying a mobile chicken coop, laughing at the idea of a wandering inn.^note This one is actually returning a Shout-Out, after the author of The Wandering Inn congratulated Beware of Chicken and CasualFarmer on achieving the Patreon #1 spot.
  • After Yin transforms into a human and goes around threatening people in the name of the sun, Chunky makes an amused noise that sounds like "Sailor Sun", and Jin even notes that her first hairstyle is Odango Hair. Also, he thinks that her eyebrows remind him of "a certain Ass Pull final boss from a show about ninjas who screamed believe it.".
  • During her research into a possible expedition to the distant south, Guan Chyou identifies a sea captain who has travelled there before, by the name of Dulou Dalu.
  • When Elder Shenhe breaks into his hideaway, the demonic cultivator that has a strong familial resemblence to Meiling smiles and says, "Hell, it's about time."
• The Simple Life is Simple: When you have experience from two worlds, superhuman strength and endurance and can apply your Qi powers to it, it is. Jin notes that if he didn't have cultivator strength and endurance, he'd have killed himself trying to farm on his own.
• Simple, yet Awesome:
  • Jin's scroll of sword techniques, received from his "Gramps" contains only basic foundation exercises, but they're the foundation exercises of a Master Swordsman.
  • The siphoning formation developed by the Hong family. While useful enough to extract poison and venom from humans, it also works on demonic Qi, which means that corruptive Qi can be extracted from a patient without corrupting the cultivator doing the extraction, and using more potent cultivating resources and reagents with the formation increases the effects, making the formation easily scalable. The Cloudy Sword Sect is so fascinated by the formation that they decide to make the Hong family and Lin Bao Honored Allies of the Sect.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Thousands of years ago, a member of the Che family was overheard questioning the events surrounding the death of the sect founder Zang Yong. The new patriarch of the Zang family took offence to the suggestion that he had gained his position improperly, and decreed that the Che family would only ever serve the sect in menial tasks or frontline combat henceforth.
  The Che family didn't even know they had disrespected the Patriarch either—it was purposefully kept secret, and it had been enforced for thousands of years by the Inquisitors? Thousands of years of people killed without recourse because of a slighted old man?
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Yin's human form looks like an ethereal fairy, but every time she opens her mouth, she's crass enough to shock those around her.
• Sizeshifter: Chun Ke can make himself larger or smaller at will. He mostly uses it for playing with children; providing them with shade, carrying them around, or letting them slide off his back into a pool. Oddly enough, he seems to have some sort of Weirdness Censor as ordinary people don't seem to really notice the changes.
• The Sleepless: Cultivators can sleep, and normally do, but qi usage allows them to stay awake for very long periods of time if needed.
  • Jin tries it out, gets to five days without suffering any side effects, and stops the experiment there.
  • Xiulan stands guard outside Meiling's tent during the wedding procession, and is still standing in the same position in the morning, without any sign of tiredness.
• Slow Life Fantasy: Jin Rou is a person from the modern day who finds himself in the body of a cultivator in a medieval China-esque fantasy setting. He immediately leaves the sect he's a part of to avoid the political intrigue, backstabbing, and over-the-top superpowered battles to retire to a quiet life as a farmer. Unbeknownst to him, his use of qi in growing the plants used to feed his livestock has given his farm animals self-awareness and a desire to impress him, resulting in them becoming superpowered qi cultivators.
• Small Name, Big Ego: The Shrouded Mountain Sect thinks it is a powerful and honorable sect. It's undisciplined, decadent, and built on a lie (Their story is that the founder of the sect defeated an illusion-using monster, but it appears that they actually made an unprovoked attack on the fox clan. As is revealed in a later chapter, the younger brother of the sect founder, Zang Zengsheng, had a Rescue Romance with a fox spirit, Su Nezuha, but then betrayed her by stealing an artifact from her clan for his cultivation. Nezuha confronted him and injured him in the process of getting it back, Zengsheng ran crying to his older brother Zang Yong, and things escalated to war from there).
• Snake Oil Salesman: Discussed; if Hong Xian didn't know better (having watched the creation process and independently tested the recipe), he would have assumed that the elixir produced from Jin's "lowly spiritual herbs" must be a variety of snake oil.
  Seven Fragrance Jewel Herb Liquid, grown by a powerful cultivator and then refined through the lightning of a dragon and the medicinal Qi of another powerful cultivator.
  In any other case, it would sound like the creation of a charlatan. If a traveler dared to say that this was the method to obtain the sparkling concoction within, they would have been chased out of town for trying to swindle the population.
• Sneeze Cut:
  • After Lu Ri talks with Elder Ge about finding Jin Rou again, the scene cuts to Jin sneezing.
  • After dealing with several sect elders, all the way worrying that he has absolutely no idea of what he's doing and terrified that one misstep will end with him and the region trampled by cultivators, Jin moans how stressful it is. Back at the Azure Hills, the Lord Magistrate feels slightly better, as if some faraway soul had finally grasped his woes.
• Snooty Haute Cuisine:
  • Jin's maple syrup quickly comes into in very high demand by high-end restaurants, who serve it by the thimble. So when the Lord Magistrate uses an entire cup, it's a clear power play, showcasing not just wealth, but connection to Jin.
  • At the acceptance feast for those candidates who passed the trials to join the Shrouded Mountain Sect, the centerpiece, unveiled with great fanfare and self-congratulation, is gold-grade rice. Yun Ren, infiltrating the sect nearly chokes on it laughing when he realizes by taste that it's Jin's rice, which he's been eating regularly for more than a year.
• Snowlems: The General That Commands the Winter started out as a large snowman that Jin built for fun, but it's heavily implied that it gained sentience. It's later mentioned to have blunted the force of an incoming snowstorm.
  Intent had made him; first as a joke, and yet… he was so much more than his initial conception. For in that joke was a core of belief.. And a spark of power from a little dreamer.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse:
  • Meihua's beauty attracts quite a lot of attention, including that of a cultivator who demands she warm his bed. If Jin hadn't been there...
  • Xiulan is quite an attractive woman, only enhanced by her use of qi — to the point where she has faced unwanted advances from a very young age. Her father actually killed a man who would not take "no" for an answer, a man whom he had previously thought of as a friend, when Xiulan was just twelve.
• So Proud of You: Jin is deeply moved when his father-in-law, at a village festival, smiles at him and tells him, "I'm glad you came north, my son."
• Sparing Them the Dirty Work: When Jin faces a demonic cultivator who needs to be put down like a rabid dog, the lingering partial spirit of Jin Rou offers to take control and deliver the finishing blow so Jin doesn't have to, but Jin internally replies that they'll do it together.
• Spectral Weapon Copy: The Verdant Blade Sect's signature technique, the Blades of Grass, makes a copy of the user's blade. An Ran, a novice, just gets a small and fragile copy, more of a dagger than a sword, but Xiulan, with more experience and power, can make dozens of near-perfect replicas at once.
• Spirited Competitor: Several of Jin's animals develop a taste for combat and proving themselves, but especially Tigger, who joins the Dueling Peaks Tournament just for fun. Notably, while there, she gives her opponents helpful advice in the middle of their fights to make them less boring, and defeats the traps and monsters on the Hill of Torment without bothering to collect the loot.
• Spit Take:
  • Meihua gets Meiling shortly after they've first met Jin, and when Meiling has just had a sip of tea.
    Meihua: So, when is Jin marrying you?
    Meiling: Wha-Uh? Not- Maybe-Nev— Meihua!
  • Meiling and Jin are sharing a bottle of wine when she first finds out that he was a disciple of the Cloudy Sword Sect, and she promptly has a coughing fit.
  • Yun Ren times his strike carefully, waiting for Hong Xiao to question Meiling about her visit to Jin, tease her about the liberties she took with him, and then get himself a cup of water while she splutters.
    Yun Ren: Also, Jin's chicken killed Sun Ken, and we met the Young Mistress of the Verdant Blade Sect.
    The water went down the wrong way.
  • Yun Ren himself later almost chokes when the Shrouded Mountain sect serves a rare delicacy of Gold Grade rice — which Yun knows full well came from Jin. The rice goes down the wrong way as he tries to stop himself from laughing.
  • Defied, with difficulty, by the Magistrate, when he hears that Tigu won second place in the Dueling Peaks Tournament. He does manage to make himself swallow his tea, but it's a near thing, with every muscle in his body clenching.
• Spy Speak: The poem Jin receives from the Shrouded Mountain Sect as part of their reparations is meant as a message to him couched in metaphors and flowery language. They think that he's actually still a member of the Cloudy Sword Sect on a secret mission to the Azure Hills to try to stop a demonic invasion from the Sea of Snow to the north. The poem is meant to convey to him that they realize this, and that they stand with the Cloudy Sword Sect against the demons (and please don't declare us a demonic sect, we didn't know that Zang Li was an imposter, we promise!). Entertainingly, not only is the message based on a complete misunderstanding of the situation, but its meaning flies completely over Jin's head.
• Stereotype Flip: Crosses over with Power Stereotype Flip and Animal Stereotypes in the case of Bi De the rooster and Liang Yin the rabbit. Bi De is a resplendent rooster with gleaming plumage that greets the dawn every morning, but is calm, dignified and respectful (though he was a Cocky Rooster in his youth) and bases his Qi techniques off of the moon and its phases. In contrast, Yin is a small silvery rabbit with appropriate levels of cuteness, but is boisterous, crude and has Qi techniques that use The Power of the Sun.
• The Stoic: Babe the ox is so much of a strong silent type that it takes months for Jin to realise he's awakened as a Spirit Beast. When Jin then proceeds to check if he wants anything, Babe asks only that he be allowed to sleep outside, instead of in the barn, because "the elements purify his spirit".
• Stunned Silence: As Jin and Meiling are jogging home from Verdant Hills, Meiling informs Jin that she is pregnant. Jin is silent as he parses that information and jogs right off a cliff (and then jumps right back up it since he is a cultivator).
• Super Mode: Xianghua carries a boiler full of qi-infused lake water, and when she starts it up, the steam empowers her, making her eyes glow and speeding her up to the point where she can fight Tigu on nearly equal footing. Pushing it too far may cause the boiler to overheat, though, and the supply of water is limited.
• Supernatural Martial Arts: All cultivators and spirit beasts can do this.
  • Bi De has a martial art style inspired by the moon.
  • Yin, a rabbit, has a set of moves based on the sun, and her master, Miantiao, has ones based on glass blowing.
• Super-Scream: Bi De's opening strike against the Whirling Demon Blade gang is a screech that makes several bandits stagger backwards with bleeding ears.
• Super Weapon, Average Joe: Upon being drawn by its Eighth Wielder Xong Yun Ren, the magical talking sword Summer's Sky quickly discovers that he doesn't have a clue what he's doing beyond "stick the pointy end in the other guy". Just as well the sword enjoys a challenge!
  Summer's Sky: Ah. Eighth Wielder's abilities are low. Challenging. Interesting. Approval.
• Swallowed Whole: Pi Pa's techniques and void qi focus on consuming things. She can swallow a human in one bite, or put her fellow disciples in timeout.
• Swiss-Army Superpower: Qi can be used for pretty much anything, from Super-Strength to throwing lightning to helping plants grow. Generally speaking, it reinforces and improves things, but it's also a generic and versatile energy source.
• Sword and Sorcery: Set in a world like this, but focuses more on what it's like to live in a world like this when you've turned your back on the life of a cultivator.
• Swords to Plowshares: After Sun Ken the bandit is defeated, his intelligent sword is turned into a plow to insult his memory, then given to Jin as a wedding present. Being a spirit blade, it's very receptive to qi reinforcement, making it supernaturally effective, and Jin is very pleased with the gift. After considering how Sun Ken must be turning over in his grave, Jin decides to call the plow Sunny and paint it a bright cheery yellow.
• Sympathetic Magic: The Cloudy Sword sect uses a sample of Jin's qi to scry on his current location. The image fills with golden cracks and falls apart before it can resolve, though, presumably due to the influence of the earth spirit.

T-Z

• Take That!: Jin tells Bowu to paint his new farming machines red, because green is the color of assholes who screw you over, followed by mutterings about "bastard deer". Apparently, he has had bad run-ins with John Deere machines in his previous life.
• Taking the Bullet: In the middle of Su Nezuha and Zang Yong's fight, two errant attacks deflected off each other and shot towards an innocent bystander... whereupon both of them jumped to intercept their own blows. This action proved to Zang Yong that Nezuha couldn't possibly be as treacherous as his brother had claimed.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: When Elder Ge learns that the disciples of the Cloudy Sword sect have been "trading pointers" with their juniors a.k.a. beat them half, almost, or in one case to death for fun, he calls them up and tells them that he will now "trade pointers" with them in exactly the same way they did to their juniors, while asking them what they are learning from the experience.
• Tempting Fate:
  • When he first sees the titular "Beware of Chicken" sign, Gou Ren laughs and asks why anyone would fear a chicken. The next moment, a severed hawk's head lands in front of them, killed by Bi De and its eyes plucked out. Yun Ren mocks him about it afterward.
  • Lampshaded by Jin when Meiling says that with all the spirit animals around, they basically have children already, and that having their own "can't be too much different".
    Jin: .... our kid is going to be worse than both of us put together just for you saying that.
  • Lu Ri, upon being tasked with finding Jin and delivering his mail, initially thinks, "How hard can it be?" Several months later, he concludes that the heavens took exception to this. He winds up having to painstakingly weld dozens of underground gangs into an effective and surprisingly moral intelligence network in order to find out where to deliver the mail. When he finally finds Jin and learns that he was eating Jin's maple syrup during his search, he laughs.
  • Lu Ri had previous experience with this. He witnessed a Senior Sister of his sect once stand tall before someone with overwhelming aura, and asked for experience with resisting that so he would never be so weak. She agreed... and apparently spread rumors about him so that every female member of the sect was giving him Death Glares from every angle and trying to smother him with their ki. While he admits it wasn't pleasant, it was what he asked for and thanks his senior sister for the training.
  • At Meiling and Jin's son's naming ceremony, the Lord Magistrate gives his blessings and hopes that he'll be less trouble than his father. Shortly after, Vajra and her hive arrive to pay their respects, bearing gifts like woven grass tapestries and severed mosquito heads.
    Lord Magistrate: That was not a challenge, young man.
• There Are No Therapists: So it's just as well that Jin has stepped away from the trauma and violence. At least Meiling is able to provide good advice and a listening ear for Cai Xiulan, who has led friends into battle and watched them die, though her medical speciality is more in herbalism.
• They Would Cut You Up: Jin explains that this is why he wants Xiulan to take credit for killing Sun Ken; what happens when other cultivators learn about the slayers of such a notorious bandit, and come to find out that it was a bunch of Spirit Beasts - which cultivators often kill for cultivation parts?
  Gou Ren: [scratching Chun Ke's stomach] They take what they want and make pork belly?
• Thicker Than Water: Jin admits that this is why he's willing to forgive his grandfather Shen Yu, who just tried convincing Jin to abandon his cultivation path through fists, that he still loves the old man as family.
• Third-Person Person: Courtesy in Xianxia-land leans toward referring to oneself in the third person, e.g. "This John Smith greets you." Ri Zu, though, is particularly prone to it, even informally; she sometimes says "us", but never "I", and refers to herself as "her".
• Thug Dojo: Although most of the cultivator sects have some guiding wisdom that they are supposed to follow, in practice, some of them simply worship strength and allow the strong and skilled to do whatever they like, including violence to the other students and the general public. The Shrouded Mountain Sect is a straight example, as their motto is "Strength Above All".
  • Interestingly, the Cloudy Sword Sect (Jin's old sect) avert this in principle, and their founders had warned against this exact philosophy: "Kowtow before the mortal that enlightens you, and shun the barbarian who knows only strength of arms." However, the sect had degenerated from its heyday and was becoming one until the fallout from Jin's departure got the Elders to clean house.
• Title Drop:
  • After he sees Bi De start practicing Martial Arts, Jin makes a "Beware of Chicken" sign for his farm as a joke. Newcomers tend to laugh, until they see the chicken bowing to them and opening the door for them, and realize that it's a Spirit Beast.
  • Bi De makes a copy of the sign for the village of Correct Place Eight, after he saves it from wolves.
  • Shen Yu tells Bi De that all the world will learn to "Beware of Chicken" after taking him on as a disciple.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Despite his reservations, Bi De acknowledges that Tigu's transformation into a human has had only good effects on her, helping her relax and get along with others.
• Tournament Arc:
  • The Dueling Peaks of the Azure Hills region hosts a big all-comers organized scrap for the local cultivators, whether sect-backed or independent, every eight years. Cai Xiulan was tasked with victory by her sect (and her father); Tigu enrolls because it sounded fun.
  • The later half of the Shrouded Mountain Sect infiltration arc has the Rising Fist tournament, an intra-sect competition to see who will advance in their ranks.
• Town Girls: The older generation of Hong Yaowu had one such trio of ladies: Nezan Hu Li, the former tribal savage and village hunter (butch), Tang Mei, proper lady of the town (femme), and Liling, street kid turned headman's wife (neither/in between).
• Trademark Favorite Food: Jin has broad tastes, and the Earth-based recipes he introduces are often a hit as well, but the one food he doesn't allow anyone else to steal from him is Meiling's dumplings.
• Training Montage: Big D has one of these, much to Jin's bemusement. He feels a little less bemusement when he realizes that it's working.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Shen Yu is outwardly calm after hearing about his grandson Rou beaten into leaving the Cloudy Sword Sect, but is projecting so much fury that even his contemporary Elder Ge is unnerved.
  • When questioning the Shrouded Mountain Sect disciples involved in kidnapping Tigu, Jin is calm, polite, and also angry enough that his qi and Intent are pressing down on them like a mountain.
  • When Meiling later hears about the incident, she is filled with rage for a moment — and then her mind clears, and is filled with recipes for the nastiest poisons she knows along with several new ideas, and plans to spend some time in her library.
  • Master Lishu doesn't raise his voice after he is informed that someone attacked a patient inside his Medical Pavilion, but he is so furious that the air and plants around him start to dry out.
• Transforming Conforming: Even though Tigu the cat and Ri Zu the rat already had mutual respect as fellow disciples, their relationship becomes much easier after Tigu gains a human form, shedding her instincts to eat Ri Zu; they quickly shift from tense and guarded cooperation to inseparable friends. When Tigu later briefly changes back, she has to quash those instincts again, and notices herself feeling more proud and less bashful.
• Trash Talk: Despite his usual respectful and serious demeanor, Bi De engages in this when fighting Zang Li, possessed by Lu Ban. His opponent's emotional insecurities, despite having considerable raw power, make it a very effective distraction.
  Bi De: Hmph, your power is far below that of my Master's. You are beneath his notice. Look at you, struggling so greatly against just his chicken.
• Tsundere: As a result of her social difficulties, Xianghua leans heavily into an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy persona, frequently mocking or chastising others, but she also shows a good heart. Xiulan originally didn't know what to do with her, but after learning to relax at Fa Ram, she's able to enjoy Xianghua's company and heckle her back.
  Xianghua: You are a fool twice over for your words! I don’t hate it!
• Unable to Support a Wife: Downplayed; Jin waits to ask for Meiling's hand until he's built a large enough house, instead of his initial rushed shack, but it doesn't take all that long, even though what he builds is a manor by local standards.
  Hong Xian: When were you going to ask me for my daughter's hand in marriage?
  Jin: When I had enough food to feed her, enough cloth to clothe her, and a house worthy of her.
• Universally Beloved Leader: The Patriarch of the Verdant Hill. Internally self-centered and self-important, he is still a great ruler out of a pragmatic belief that the best way to get praise and respect is to earn it honestly. When he is tired of the yearly floods cutting into his leisure time, he commissions great canals. When he bribes someone it is seen as a prudent investment in the future and it turns out to be just that. When Meiling stops a plague in its tracks, he is suspected to have summoned her. He also makes sure to remember the names of all his staff, because they like him more when he can call them all by name.
• Unkempt Beauty: Meiling gets dolled up for her meeting with the magistrate's wife, but the makeup doesn't suit her skin tone, it's too obviously covering her freckles, and the dress makes her feel fake. So she scrubs her face off and changes back into her regular clothes — but as a budding cultivator she has presence and self-confidence. Her friend Meihua, widely considered to be an astounding beauty, takes one look and is stunned.
  Meihua: That is very, very unfair, Meimei.
• Unreliable Narrator:
  • Jin states in chapter 1 that the original Jin Rou was killed, and he was shoved into the body, fortunately preserving the original's memories. It's eventually revealed that that's not quite right; their souls have fused together, apparently both half complete and together forming something like an intact whole. While sleeping, they partially separate and can talk to each other, but they recombine and forget while awake.
  • Zang Li, when he talks about his defeat in Verdant Hill, leaves out details like "attempted rape" and "utterly one sided beat down".
  • In-Universe, Jin is quite skeptical about Washy's account of his time in seclusion with the Black Turtle, suspecting (correctly) that he's talking himself up.
• Unskilled, but Strong:
  • Gou Ren has no actual combat training and isn't especially agile, but when roused, his qi hardens around him like stone, making him highly resilient and capable of smashing stone with every blow. He wouldn't win any tournaments that way, but he's a threat not to be underestimated. At one point his fights a cultivator a full Realm higher than him, who is actually forced to dodge because Gou puts enough power into his strikes that being hit or even parrying could be dangerous, despite the overall power disparity.
  • Jin doesn't keep up any serious combat training after leaving the sect, but on those rare occasions where he needs to fight, he has enough qi to make it a Curb-Stomp Battle anyway.
    It was a simple punch. The simplest of punches. The foundation of all cultivators, the first thing all warriors learned. His stance was wide and stable. His fist chambered like it was from a training manual.
    A technique to be practised and refined. Diligently studied and then abandoned, as a cultivator learned better and more powerful techniques.
    Lu Ban did not pause to see what would happen.
    He threw himself backwards as fast as his body could carry him.
• Unsuspectingly Soused: A downplayed example when Jin serves his father-in-law a drink — not of the rice wine he was expecting, but one of Jin's experiments in making vodka. Hong Xian is quite taken aback when his mouthful just about sets his face on fire, but he's able to hold his drink.
  Hong Xian: ... I take it your "distillation" was successful, then?
• Uplifted Animal: Big D gains sapience after eating enough "Heavenly Herbs" (the Qi-infused plants Jin grows around his farm).
  • Other animals around the farm start also showing sapience through either natural means (being born) or eating heavenly herbs on their own.
  • Spirit Beasts in general are this: normal animals who became sapient. And sometimes gain other powers like breathing fire.
• Uptown Girl: Several of the young villagers of Hong Yaowu find themselves courting others miles above their station. Gou Ren and Ty An find matches in the Young Mistress and Master Liu Xianghua and Liu Bowu of the Misty Lake Sect, and on a more downplayed example, Yun Ren finds himself courting Biyu, a crystal carver from Pale Moon Lake City.
• Villainous Valour: Zang Sheng, the Young Master of the Shrouded Mountain Sect. He lives and breathes his sect's motto of "Strength Above All" for better and worse, and while he espouses Social Darwinism to a level where he beat down his younger brother Zang Li to build him back up and relishes the chance to be beaten down by the sect's Patriarch to become stronger, he faces Bi De like an equal, is less insulted that his opponent was actually a chicken than the fact that facing him as a human meant that Bi De was holding back, sees him as a Worthy Opponent once Bi De wins, and is absolutely disgusted when he finds out that one of his sect's founders was a weak, treacherous backstabber.
• Villainous Vow: Sun Ken is a bandit, and the leader of the Whirling Demon Gang. He is an unrepentant murderer, and his gang pillages, kills, and rapes throughout the countryside. After Big D insults him, Sun Ken makes this declaration (and needless to say, he doesn't live to fulfill it):
  Sun Ken: I take what I please from your Great Master! I shall slay his brothers, and rape his wife! I will burn down his home, eat his flesh, drink his blood, and sleep in his skin for daring to mock me so!
• Voice of the Legion: When Lu Ban's control slips, he starts speaking with two voices.
• Walking the Earth: Bi De engages in this in Book 2. His initial motivation was to examine some qi patterns that he'd seen a glimpse of, but he also travels around to gain some life experience, eradicate predators and bandits, and generally get to know the world outside the farm.
• Was It All a Lie?: Che Han questions his friendships after he learns that Bi De, Ri Zu, and "Biren" — actually Yun Ren — were all sent to spy on the Sect and investigate it for demonic corruption. But since he believes that the Emperor would only do that with a good cause, he reserves judgement.
  He wanted to demand the truth. Was their friendship a mere convenience?
• Wax On, Wax Off: Played with. People think that this is what Jin is doing with his farming and the games he plays. He isn't deliberately, but they double as effective training anyway. Largely because he's sinking a lot of qi into the land, which brings the favor of the local Earth spirit.
  Perception. Endurance. Balance. Timing.
  Ha Qi was a multi-layered art. The blades on her feet tried their hardest to throw her to the ice. The speeding stone puck forced her to dodge or block with the stick.
  She was hunted relentlessly, pushed always to the edge and forced to stay there. There was no mortal peril to this, but being hounded by a more powerful cultivator was always thrilling. He had found her limits, like all Great Masters found, and then proceeded to push.
• We Do Not Know Each Other: During Shen Yu's visit to Verdant Hill, he runs into the old crone living there, and immediately recognizes her as the cultivator and diviner Shiyun of the Heavenly Path, and her cat Laoshi the Tiger's Fury. The crone denies this and calls him an old drunk, but Shen Yu can see the nervousness and despair inside her at being discovered, and so decides to correct himself and say that he mistook her for someone else.
• Weirdness Magnet: Lots of cultivators tend to be this. Jin is no exception, to the local Lord Magistrate's annoyance and horror. And to Jin's as he just wants to farm in peace but keeps getting dragged into cultivator bullshit in spite of his intentions.
• We Used to Be Friends: The aftermath of the breaking of Tianlan not only threw the Qi balance of the Azure Mountains out of whack, but it reverted all the Spirit Beasts into savage animals and removed the memory of Tianlan and the Azure Mountains from all living memory. As such, Spirit Beasts and cultivators that once fought shoulder-to-shoulder to defeat the tyrannical Azure Emperor were turned into bitter enemies (such as the adopted human children of "Rumbling" Lord Yao having to kill their now savage Wreckerball brothers) and one of Tianlan's best friends Cai Ruolan going from an opera dancer into a hardened warrior and doing the traditional cultivator acts of draining Tianlan's dragon veins for Qi and power. It's the friends becoming enemies part that hurts Tianlan so much.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: After trying Jin's spirit-honey-based mead, Bowu wakes up the next morning on the floor, resting against a pig, with the events after his first cup being fuzzy. Everyone else (except Meiling who did not partake due to her pregnancy) is in similar states of comical dishevelment, with Xiulan choking Jin out with her legs, Gou Ren tied to the ceiling, and Bi De, Ri Zu and Yin lying in an oven pan covered with cut vegetables.
  He did remember getting carried out to a beehive, so that everybody could praise it and the bees within.
• What If?:
  • The Spacebattles thread details a dark timeline about what would've happened if Jin didn't come to Azure Hills, and it plays the Xianxia story tragically straight: The Wicked Blade would've wiped out all of Hong Yaowu, with Hong Xian sacrificing his life to poison the wolf, leaving Meiling, Meihua and the Xong brothers as the Sole Survivors. When they go to Verdant Hill, Zang Li/Lu Ban would've taken Meihua, and Gou Ren would've died trying to stop him, after which Meiling and Yun Ren would've awakened their cultivation and sworn revenge (and gotten the cat that would've been Tigu from the crone, which Meiling would've named Wuyong ("Useless")). During their training, they would've met Xiulan in her pursuit of Sun Ken, and after tracking the bandits down, Meiling would've poisoned the whole camp with toxic gas, tamed the Crimson Demon Tooth into a scalpel, and vivisected Sun Ken while he was still alive, after which Xiulan would've joined them in an attempt to be their Morality Chain. Meiling's subsequent adventures would've included finding and killing Wicked Blade, finding the spirit crystal and accepting its offer to become Azure Empress, seducing Xiulan, winning the Dueling Peaks Tournament, and tracking Zang Li to the Howling Peaks and the Shrouded Mountain Sect, finding Nezan and the fox clans in the process. When she learns what had happened to Meihua, Meiling would've started poisoning the innocent surrounding villages and committing effective war crimes to both weaken the Shrouded Mountain Sect and draw out Zang Li/Lu Ban. This culminates in a giant final battle with many deaths on both sides (including Nezan) and Yun Ren scoring a Mutual Kill on Lu Ban to save Meiling's life, after which Xiulan would've left Meiling for all the atrocities she had committed on innocents. The timeline would've ended with a broken Meiling continuing her training in Raging Waterfall Gorge. In the main story, during the backstory of Meiling's mother Liling, it gives a nod to that timeline, describing Jin's arrival as a crossroads where the other road led to a world drowned in twenty-eight heavenly poisons.
  • It was mentioned that Shen Yu might've dropped off Jin Rou at the Soaring Heaven's Isle Sect instead of the Cloudy Sword Sect, and some sidestories detail the beginning of this story: he is put on a semi-private island to cultivate, accidentally killed by a couple of Almighty Idiot disciples carelessly throwing around destructive techniques, nursed back to health by Minyan who has to claim him as her and Shen Yu's son to explain the scrutiny, has the two disciples assigned as his personal servants in recompense, develops a dream for freedom, and slowly unlocks the sect's Secret Art of growing new skyships.
• Wham Episode: Volume 2, chapter 85, "The Final Day." After the Dueling Peaks tournament has concluded, Zang Li and his goons from the Shrouded Mountain Sect kidnap Tigu, destroy Loud Boy's cultivation, and leave Rags a bloody heap. Xiulan and Ri Zu stage a rescue attempt where they confront Zang Li, but while that's going on additional goons attack Yun Ren and Gou Ren.
• What If the Baby Is Like Me: Inverted. Bi De has mated and had many chicks with the regular hens, but when none of them show signs of gaining sapience like him, he stops doing so, the idea of only having non-sapient children that would only be good for food not sitting well with him. Chun Ke and Pi Pa share similar concerns; despite both being Spirit Beasts and eventually wanting piglets, they are afraid that Chun Ke's mental damage will mean that their children won't have the spark and will remain mortal animals.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Jin chooses to abandon the path of cultivation, becoming immortal, and reaching heaven in order to instead live out his days on his farm surrounded by friends and family. His grandfather Shen Yu, who was hoping to craft a successor to pass on his legacy to new generations and then join him in immortality, has some thoughts about it.
• Wicked Wasps: Vajra the queen bee was driven from her previous home by "giant demons", with forms like bees but much larger, who exterminated the bees and consumed their brood, fighting a vicious war that the bees lost.^note They could be either wasps, or hornets. After she finds Happiness in Slavery on Fa Ram, though, Vajra is almost grateful to the demons for pushing her to find this new opportunity. Not that she wouldn't immediately slaughter them given half a chance, of course.
• Willfully Weak:
  • When Xianghua decides to take command of the Misty Lake Sect as the new sectmaster, she must face the trial of defeating three Misty Lake Elders to prove her worthiness. She instead decides to defeat all of them, and to leave absolutely no doubt as to her strength, does so without the aid of her Steam Furnace. She succeeds, naturally.
  • Bi De appears, to the onlookers, to be holding back when he fights three Shrouded Mountain Sect disciples with his hands behind his back. On the one hand, he was indeed going easy on them, but on the other hand, due to his native form, he is actually more experienced at fighting with only his legs. It certainly makes an impression on Zang Fengfeng.
• Worf Had the Flu: Shen Yu and the Imperial Army's skirmish with a demonic rift and the horde of demons inside it is a mighty battle involving Imperial-level cultivators, skyships, piloted Jade Armors, mountain-sized Hellforged Demonic Warforms, demonic commanders and earth-shattering techniques, and although the demons are quelled, there are many mortal and cultivator casualties and Shen Yu and his allies leave the battlefield bloodied and injured. As Shen Yu relates to the Emperor later, however, the demonic warforms were half-finished and they had caught the demons with their pants down; if they had waited a few years when the warforms would've been completed, one or more of the Imperial cultivators would have fallen, or they would've lost outright.
• A World Half Full: The world has plenty of problems, but Jin can make his farm and village a little better, at least. And his good influence is slowly spreading outward in the world through his friends and acquaintances.
• World of Badass: Even the animals are getting on the cultivating action. It's only a few chapters in that Jin laughingly (but truthfully - though he doesn't realize it at the time) tells the village children that his chicken is mightier than all of them.
• World of Technicolor Hair: Meiling has dark green hair, and several others are noted to have hair colors that do not occur naturally in humans from our universe, but no mention is ever made of hair dye. Guan Chyou's red hair, on the other hand, is noted to be rare.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: Xiulan isn't, because beauty is enhanced by cultivation refining the body, and her cultivation is not so advanced. However, taking that into account, she's extraordinary. Shen Yu, who has lived a very long time and travelled all over the world, with plenty of womanising along the way, considers her "a stunning beauty."
  A noble face, with plump red lips. Creamy white skin that held a slight, inviting flush. The hint of gold makeup around crystal blue eyes, as pure as the sky. A body that was lush in all the right places— or downright decadent, in the case of her chest.
  For her cultivation, in the Profound Realm… She was the one of the most beautiful women he had ever encountered. There was no fey, ethereal allure. Her body was yet to be refined, and already she was at this level.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • After a string of disappointments, Tigu is thrilled to meet Xiulan's rival, Liu Xianghua, and bursts out laughing after catching a punch to the gut and being flung to the ground.
    Tigu: This is what I've been waiting for.
  • Guo Daxian's pride demands that he be recognized as this, and Xiulan obliges him, drawing on the full power of her Blades of Grass technique, rather than the Cherry Tapping she used on lesser challengers.
  • Zang Sheng can't bring himself to feel that bad about losing to a chicken, not when he'd just witnessed that chicken ascend to the Spiritual Realm right in front of him and match him in power.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Seems to have been a staple tactic of the Dirty Coward Zang Zengsheng. After Su Nezuha, a fox spirit, rescued him and nursed him back to health after a demon attack, he took advantage of their resulting Rescue Romance to keep coming back and learning from her. And after he tried stealing a precious cultivator resource from her and she kicked his ass for it, he ran to his older brother Zang Yong and claimed that the treacherous foxes almost killed him, prompting him to lead his Lightning Brigade against them to avenge his family. And then when it looked like Yong and Nezuha were making amends, he blasted both of them dead from behind, carried his brother's body to the rest of the Brigade while wailing about the foxes, and used that to co-opt the entire group into the Shrouded Mountain Sect.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: The Magistrate persists in expecting Jin to behave like a regular cultivator, which elevates his stress levels through the roof as he agonizes over receiving gifts from Jin, seeing clerical mistakes like incorrect rice prices brushed aside, or learning that Jin is helping to build infrastructure and making plans to stay long-term. He almost doubles over vomiting when he receives a polite invitation to dinner that Jin "seemed concerned" about. Jin, meanwhile, has no idea, merely thinking that the Magistrate is a great guy and that more politicians should be like him.
• You Dirty Rat!: In the first volume, a group of pill-making rats take up residence on Fa Ram, who intend to corrupt Big D into being their stooge. Rizzo averts this, thankfully.
• You Got Murder: Downplayed; it's not lethal, but Jin's letter to Shen Yu, Rou's "Gramps" is filled with horse dung as a prank. Complete with a mechanism that makes it spray outward when opened. Gramps keeps the dung in his storage ring and gleefully returns it when they meet in person.
• You Mean "Xmas": Jin has a great time introducing some Christmas traditions to the Winter Solstice, turning up in the village on a sleigh pulled by antler-wearing pigs, to deliver cookies and gifts to the children. (After checking that it won't be disrespectful to their own solstice traditions.)
  Jin: ...Not too disruptive, I hope?
  Meiling: [shakes head] Joy helps bring back the sun. Joy, colour, fire. Little sparks that the sun can see, even when it's so deep in its slumber.

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