Karma Never Lies (Part One)

Even with the help of numerous cultivators from the Immortal Marsh and a belly full of celestial pills and immortal delicacies, the Giant Rooster still couldn’t return to its original form.

Xu Ya was at her wit’s end.

She looked at A Xi, still unconscious, and let out a deep sigh.

This world—well, it could only be described as a completely nonsensical cultivation realm.

After returning to the Immortal Marsh, Xu Ya had flipped through that so-called broken cheat manual dozens of times.

She even went out of her way to prepare a stack of paper to take notes.

The cultivators had been running around in a frenzy for quite a while because of it. Thankfully, Xu Ya would occasionally bring fried chicken when visiting them for A Xi’s recovery, or progress might have been even slower.

With some free time on her hands, Xu Ya began researching new items for the shop. After the last incident, the original store had been razed to the ground.

Although Xu Ya was a victim herself, she still took out half her savings to compensate the poor landlord whose shop had been leveled overnight.

Despite her busy schedule, she managed to finalize the location for the new store. Without A Xi’s help, things were a bit more hectic, but her aunt was getting more and more adept, and the shop gradually got back on track.

“Junior Sister’s fried chicken is getting better and better. I’ve long since stopped eating mortal food, but I just can’t resist this!” a few disciples chatted while stuffing fried chicken into their mouths with forks.

“Right? I still don’t know how you do it. I once tried to develop an immortal dish that was both delicious and effective, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t pull it off.”

Xu Ya could clearly feel that everyone in Yunmeng Immortal Marsh was becoming more and more friendly toward her. Ever since she opened her shop, people had first questioned her pricing, then doubted the effectiveness of her food. Xu Ya had answered all their doubts with action. Gradually, people stopped keeping their distance. Some even spoke to her with a hint of warmth.

Xu Ya wasn’t a petty person. She gladly accepted the goodwill others offered.

Whether A Xi could return to his original form still depended on their support. As the saying goes, more friends mean more paths. Xu Ya knew well the survival rules of the Immortal Marsh. Someone like A Xi, a mere mortal, wouldn’t have even registered in their eyes before.

In the midst of their laughter and conversation, a box of fried chicken was accidentally knocked to the ground by the crowd of cultivators pressing forward.

There was a moment of silence before Xu Ya immediately moved to clean up the mess.

But one piece of chicken rolled away with a strange determination, as if it had a mind of its own, slipping and tumbling forward.

Xu Ya, hunched over, had no choice but to follow it, weaving her way beneath the long robes of the cultivators.

Up ahead was the area where the Giant Rooster lay.

One of the cultivators realized what was happening and tried to stop Xu Ya from getting closer, but it was too late.

The Giant Rooster, who had been unconscious for ages, suddenly opened its beak and swallowed the rolling piece of chicken.

Everyone froze—Xu Ya, who had been about to pick it up, included.

What… was that?

Xu Ya felt a tickle in her throat, like she was about to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.

System… system?

What was a system? Why had that word suddenly popped into her head?

Before she could dwell on it, her attention was completely captured by the Giant Rooster.

It let out a strange, piercing screech.

The sound was so loud it nearly shattered everyone’s eardrums.

A streak of white light shot in from outside, and in the next second, the light coalesced into Shi Yuzhen, who swiftly pulled Xu Ya into her arms.

No one was surprised by Shi Yuzhen’s dramatic entrance anymore. The real problem now was the Giant Rooster, which had suddenly awakened.

The cultivators were on high alert. Several Culinary and Pill Cultivators were especially nervous. Their combat skills were average at best—what if they got caught in the crossfire?

What happened next caught everyone completely off guard.

The Giant Rooster suddenly deflated like a plush toy that had lost all its stuffing.

No, not just deflated.

A plush toy?

Xu Ya had that thought flash through her mind but had no idea why.

The Giant Rooster, like an overinflated balloon, suddenly lost all its air.

Xu Ya found the thought oddly specific, but it was the only way she could describe what she saw. It was bizarre.

The Giant Rooster rolled over on the spot and dissolved into countless soaked human faces.

With a deafening boom, people exploded out of it, scattering across the floor.

In an instant, the vast courtyard was filled with cultivators and unfamiliar people covered in sticky fluids. The scene was utter chaos.

At the moment the Giant Rooster exploded, Shi Yuzhen cast a spell and whisked Xu Ya away from the blast. With a light step, she landed on a beam overhead and surveyed the scene. “What did it eat?”

Xu Ya was completely dazed. “Chicken cutlet…”

“Your new item?”

Xu Ya nodded.

Shi Yuzhen narrowed her eyes and observed for a moment before suddenly saying, “Xiao Ya, I think you’ve just made a major contribution.”

“?”

The Culinary and Pill Cultivators had spent over half a month trying to find a solution, and Xu Ya had cracked it with just one new item—breaking apart the Giant Rooster’s thousand-person fusion.

How could that not be a major contribution?

The cultivators were dumbfounded.

This new chicken cutlet was something else.

The mess was left to the cultivators to clean up, while Shi Yuzhen took Xu Ya back to the shop via sword flight.

Xu Ya was anxious to help A Xi.

She fed him some of the new product, and just like the Giant Rooster earlier, A Xi’s body began to ooze strange sticky fluids, which dripped everywhere. Gradually, half the liquid on the bed spilled onto the floor, and the feathers on A Xi’s body slowly fell away.

The biggest change was on his face.

That bizarre comb on his head vanished as if it had never been there.

Revealing A Xi’s original, slender, and damp face underneath.

Xu Ya was stunned. Her cultivation had indeed improved significantly during this time, but she had no idea she had developed something with healing properties.

The problem that had stumped Culinary and Pill Cultivators for a whole month had once again been solved completely by Xu Ya’s immortal fried chicken.

Even Xu Ya herself found it hard to believe.

She opened her mouth, seeming like she wanted to say something, to tell someone the good news.

But when the words reached her lips, she forgot.

Shi Yuzhen noticed her subtle reaction and asked.

Xu Ya shook her head as if waking from a dream.

Shi Yuzhen wasn’t so easily reassured. Ever since that time Xu Ya chased after the Giant Rooster and the two of them returned to the Immortal Marsh, Xu Ya had frequently shown this dazed, confused state. Because of that, Shi Yuzhen had been observing her even more closely.

Still, Shi Yuzhen had never felt the same gut-wrenching urgency that Xu Ya had shown when she insisted on leaving back then. Every time she thought of that, Shi Yuzhen’s nerves would ease just a little.

She scrutinized Xu Ya carefully but still couldn’t find anything obviously wrong, so she let it go for now.

A Xi remained in bed for ten days before regaining consciousness.

As for the people who had exploded out of the Giant Rooster, the cultivators arranged for them to be treated in the infirmary. It took over ten days before they could speak normally again.

Under questioning by Zhan Zhengzhen and the others, the truth finally came to light.

It turned out that some time ago, a group of people had suddenly arrived in their village. They rented a shop with generous payments and quickly secured a prime location in the market center.

That’s how the “A-Ya Fried Chicken” shop opened. Its menu looked strikingly similar to the one in Yunmeng Immortal Village, and its effects were said to be just as miraculous. Rumor had it that even ordinary people could extend their lifespan by eating it.

The A Ya Fried Chicken Shop in Yunmeng Immortal Village had already gained fame across the land. Even the current emperor often sent people to buy it, just for a taste of that fried chicken.

But for most ordinary people, it was simply impossible to visit the legendary shop in person.

As soon as the Aya Jia Fried Chicken Shop opened, business exploded. People were chattering non-stop about it, and driven by curiosity, everyone bought some to try.

At first bite, it didn’t seem much different from ordinary food. But after two days, the effects began to show.

Many people started to notice subtle changes after eating the fried chicken.

Take Sister Chen next door, who had been tormented by illness for years. She only took one bite and gave the rest to her little grandson. Just a single bite, and his complexion visibly improved. According to Sister Chen herself, the effects were exactly as advertised.

Soon, more and more similar cases emerged, confirming that the claims weren’t false. Word spread like wildfire.

In no time, the Aya Jia Fried Chicken Shop became wildly popular. The villagers were practically fighting to get their hands on it.

Within less than half a month, due to overwhelming demand, Aya Jia Fried Chicken Shop opened several more branches.

But the good times didn’t last. The first sign of something strange began with Sister Chen—the very one who had been cured after just one bite.

No one could forget the eerie and terrifying scene that unfolded that night.

After curfew, Sister Chen came running out of her house, sobbing and holding her little grandson in her arms.

The child was covered in a thick, sticky golden-yellow fluid, clearly visible to the naked eye. It oozed down and pooled beneath Sister Chen’s feet, almost forming a swamp on the ground.

She stumbled a few steps before falling into the viscous liquid, unable to stand up no matter how she struggled.

Villagers peeked out from their courtyards and, seeing the scene, rushed over to try and pull Sister Chen out of the muck. But the moment they touched her, they were ensnared.

In an instant, they fused with her at an unnatural speed.

One by one, more villagers were dragged into the mess.

The sticky, golden-yellow fluid wrapped around everyone, and from a distance, it looked like a freshly hatched egg.

By the next morning, the entire village had become a ghost town.

Zhan Zhengzhen and a few cultivators assigned to investigate broke out in goosebumps upon hearing the tale.

It turned out that the Giant Rooster had originally hatched from a massive “egg.”

After some cleanup, the cultivators managed to resettle the villagers back into the village.

Shi Yuzhen brought Xu Ya along to the village suspected of being ravaged by the Giant Rooster to feed the monster a new product.

Zhan Zhengzhen and Cai Wenle, on the other hand, went to track down the person in charge of Aya Jia.

Following a trail of clues, they eventually uncovered the group of criminals selling counterfeit fried chicken.

Tracing it back to the source, they discovered it was all orchestrated by the Demon Realm, which had long coveted the status of Yunmeng Immortal Village.

Shi Yuzhen, a once-in-a-century genius, was the living symbol of Yunmeng Immortal Village. Not to mention, Xu Ya’s fried chicken shop had become wildly popular.

The flood of visitors it attracted only made the Demon Realm more desperate, and when they couldn’t expand their influence, they resorted to such underhanded tactics.

But Xu Ya’s recipe wasn’t something just anyone could replicate. In the end, those who consumed the counterfeit product transformed into horrifying Giant Roosters.

If not for the new product Xu Ya had developed, the situation might have spiraled even further out of control.