History Literature / BewareOfChicken

* DistractedByTheSexy: The Xong brothers, especially Gou Ren, do try to behave themselves, but they find Xiulan's beauty very distracting. Which doesn't help Gou Ren make a good impression when he does make a serious attempt at courting her, even though he's sincere and actually does recognise her more meaningful good qualities.

** Jin has no idea that all his time investing qi in his farm has acted as highly effective training; his last reference point for his own strength was when he was part of the Cloudy Sword sect, where he was quite mediocre. When enemies flee from him in terror, or break their fingers hitting him, he just assumes that they were quite weak.

* DyingCurse: [[spoiler:Chow Ji]] invokes a plague of rats on the farm with his dying breath;[[spoiler: Ti Gu spends a good deal of her time after that dealing with them, so all it manages to achieve is to feed and train a dedicated rat killer.]] [[spoiler:Jin later overpowers and destroys the curse, unknowingly, as his bond with the land increases.]]

* MistakenForCheating: Guan Chyou is assigned by the Azure Jade Trading Company to fulfill ''any'' need Jin has. He chooses not to take that as far as he could, since he is [[SeductionProofMarriage faithful to Meiling]], but everyone else who knows about Chyou's assignment assumes that he's bedding her (which would be socially accepted since he's a powerful cultivator). This is actually helpful to Chyou, on balance, because it protects her from men who might otherwise refuse to take "No" for an answer, and she deliberately wears her clothing in a style that indicates she's "taken".

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: [[spoiler:As Tigu is preparing to undergo Tribulation in order to achieve human form, the land spirit tries to dissuade her, asking Tigu what is it that she she hopes to achieve by doing so. Both engage in a volley of this trope and the next, both admitting that they seek/sought human form because what they wanted was a closer connection to humans, and acknowledge that despite the inherent physical and spiritual risks, the wish to understand and be understood is ultimately WorthIt.]]

* YouGotMurder: Downplayed; it's not lethal, but [[spoiler:Jin's reply to Rou's "Gramps"]] is filled with horse dung as a prank. Complete with a mechanism that makes it spray outward when opened.

* ManHug: Jin makes plans to give the Xong Brothers their "allotment" after [[spoiler:subduing the Shrouded Mountain sect and rescuing Tigu]].
--> It would of course be manly, with lots of back thumping, but they were ''totally'' getting it later.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Cultivator society basically functions on this principle. The stronger you are, the more authority you have within the sect. Likewise between sects; a stronger sect can give orders to weaker ones. This is played with however in that although cultivators are generally above mortals in the social hierarchy, among mortals there is much more rule of law and power derives much more from tradition or legal authority than violence or the threat of it.

** The Whirling Demon Sword Gang is quite pleased to discover that someone has built a farmstead near their old hideout. A prosperous one, too, and the scout can even hear a woman inside. Time to rape, pillage, and burn! Except that the farm animals include five powerful spirit beasts, who proceed to wreak havoc and slaughter upon the intruders.

* MistakenForBetrayal: [[spoiler:Tianlan has spent thousands of years believing that her Connected One, Xiaoshi, betrayed and broke her. Turns out, he ''nearly'' did, building a formation to let him draw her power into himself to fight the demons, but he realized at the last moment that it would be wrong to turn on her like that. Unfortunately, the demon possessing his vizier chose that moment to show its hand, and had no such compunctions; Xiaoshi had to break the formation, which shattered Tianlan, to stop the demon from simply consuming her and everyone else.]]

--> It was utterly fantastic, although it was accompanied by a feeling I couldn’t describe. A paternal instinct? I don’t know, but whatever it was, I kind of liked it. The feeling was mixed with gratitude that I could be with Meimei every step of the way.

* AWorldHalfFull: The world has plenty of problems, but Jin can make his farm and village a little better, at least.

* EnlightenedSelfInterest: Wa Shi is, above all else, a glutton. However, he is a highly intelligent glutton. He is willing to work hard to ensure the farm's prosperity, because it's what feeds him, and he's entrusted with managing and accounting for their food supplies because he'll do the job well.

* {{Snowlem}}: The General That Commands the Winter started out as a large snowman that Jin built for fun, but it's heavily implied that it became a SnowGolem.

* PowerPerversionPotential: Not only does cultivation grant superhuman stamina, Meiling's herbal and medicinal knowledge includes a coffee-like energy drink.

--> He paused.
--> ''Now he had to [[spoiler:teach the man who was the new power of the Azure Hills how to deal with every other cultivator sect]]!''
-->His stomach churned, as the weight of his newfound goal settled on his shoulders.
-->His face was still blank with a smile.
-->Inside his mind, he screamed in terror.

** Downplayed with Meiling, whose father announces her engagement to Jin without specifically talking to her first, but only after he knows she's interested; he wants her to be happy.

* JustSoStory: The story of why the village known as "The Eighth Correct Place" is named that. Supposedly, the founders were commanded to build the village in its current location by some great lord. However, the area was subject to great floods, and all the buildings were washed away, seven times. Still, the founder, the first Zhang Fei, was determined to comply with his lord's command, and rebuilt the village after every flood. At the beginning, he placed a sign by the entrance of the village that read "The Correct Place" and it miraculously was the only thing that survived every flood. His brother, making fun of Zhang Fei's stubbornness, secretly added the word "Eighth" to the sign. When the great lord came to inspect, he asked about the name of the village, and learning of its hardships, turned the ground to silver, which is how the village both got its name and its silver-mining livelihood. [[spoiler:Besides explaining the local mythology, the story may also hint at the nature and the reason for creation of the province-spanning formation Bi De is investigating. It's later revealed, interestingly, to be completely accurate: The founder was obsessed with complyling with the Azure Emperor's command to build the village there, which was in service of a grand formation used to keep demons out of the province. And the silver in the ground was actually put there by Xioshi, with help from the earth spirit Tianlan Shan, after having a good laugh at the founder's stubbornness. What's even more interesting is that this information survived to the present day, given that the later disaster involving that same formation wiped most people's memories of the Azure Empire in the first place.]]

* KillingIntent: A powerful cultivator can terrify weaker enemies into submission merely by flaring their Qi. Tigu does this by accident at a noodle shop. [[spoiler:Jin can end a battle involving Profound realm cultivators just by turning up.]]