Got it! Here's a restart of Chapter Four, following the slow-progression cultivation structure and continuing seamlessly from Chapter Three—where Shen Yuan was still living in the village, learning to cultivate slowly using the mysterious Devouring Root Technique, and beginning to show faint signs of something awakening within him.
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Chapter Four: The Murmuring Path
Morning dew clung to the leaves as Shen Yuan sat cross-legged beneath the old fig tree near the edge of the village. The distant sounds of roosters crowing and children laughing felt far away, as if they belonged to another world.
Inside, his body throbbed with discomfort.
He gritted his teeth.
The flow of spiritual energy was sluggish. Even with the Devouring Root Technique circulating the fragmented wisps of qi in his body, his progress was glacial. Level One, Stage One—the most basic level of a Heavenly Root. At this level, even with effort, most cultivators could only dream of reaching the fourth stage of Body Tempering—and that was after decades of struggle.
Shen Yuan was only at the first stage of Body Tempering.
And yet, even that was strange.
He had no teacher. No pills. No treasures.
Just the bizarre, ancient technique that refused to obey common logic.
He exhaled slowly, sweat dripping from his brow.
Then he opened his eyes.
They flashed a faint silver—gone a moment later.
A subtle change.
He didn't notice the small bird that had landed on the stone beside him. Or the fox watching him from the underbrush. The animals in the forest had grown... quieter. The bolder ones came closer. Not out of curiosity—but reverence.
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Back in the village, rumors were beginning to sprout like weeds.
"You hear about the shadow under the fig tree?" an old farmer whispered.
"You mean the one where the fox bowed last week?"
"Bowed? I heard it spoke!"
Shen Yuan, unaware of the gossip, was sweeping the front of Old Man Zhu's hut.
Chores. Manual labor. Repetition. It was his way of staying grounded—human. He didn't want to attract attention. But even that wasn't working anymore.
When he carried buckets of water, they seemed lighter than before.
When he lifted bundles of firewood, villagers stared.
That was when the headaches began.
Deep, pulsing. They came every time he finished cycling his qi. He thought it was just fatigue—until he coughed one night and saw a drop of ink-black blood stain his sleeve.
He blinked. Rubbed his eyes. It was gone.
But it wasn't his imagination.
Deep inside his body, something ancient stirred.
A chaos that didn't belong in this world.
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Three days later, everything changed.
He was in the woods again, searching for herbs when he heard it—a sound like a whimper. Soft. Faint. Not human.
Following it, he came upon a strange sight.
A small creature—barely the size of a kitten—curled beneath a cluster of glowing mushrooms. It had smooth, obsidian-colored fur, two little horns on its head, and bright silver eyes that blinked slowly as it looked up at him.
It looked... weak.
Injured.
A spiritual beast?
No... something different. Shen Yuan felt no danger. No killing intent.
"Are you hurt?" he asked softly, kneeling down.
The little beast didn't answer, but it didn't flee either.
He carefully extended a hand.
It sniffed his fingers once.
Then climbed into his palm.
That was the beginning.
He didn't know that this "small beast" was a Primordial Beast—a creature born once every thousand years, capable of dominating all spiritual life. But because it had just been born, its power hadn't awakened. It looked like a harmless animal.
Shen Yuan thought it was just another oddity.
He didn't know that when it curled up inside his robe that night, it had chosen him.
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Later that night, under the stars, Shen Yuan meditated once more.
This time, the pain was sharper.
He fell forward, coughing. Again, black blood.
His fingers trembled. A part of him wanted to panic.
But instead, he smiled bitterly.
"Still alive…"
Somewhere inside him, his Heavenly Root had begun to change. Slowly. Quietly. That 0.01%—a single droplet of chaotic essence—was enough to begin corrupting the very foundation of his cultivation.
He was still at Stage One of Body Tempering.
But something was awakening.
And the heavens were beginning to notice.
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Would you like to move on to Chapter Five, where the village or surrounding sects begin reacting to mysterious spiritual disturbances and reports of strange beast behavior?