Beast God
Chapter 6: Old Bird

Old Bird's real name was Liu Bufan, an old neighbor of Chen Guan's family who was just over a year older than Chen Guan. The nickname "Old Bird" came from his extraordinary childhood talent with a slingshot - his accuracy was almost supernatural, never missing a bird within a hundred paces. He was quite famous in Chen Guan's neighborhood and often took young Chen Guan hunting for pheasants, turtledoves, and pigeons in the wild woods. 

Later, Old Bird chose to practice archery, hoping to leverage his talent to obtain secret archery techniques and skills to make his name. He indeed demonstrated remarkable archery talent in the academy. Old Bird was among last year's academy graduates who also chose Mount Pingdu Blessed Land as his destination. However, after entering the Blessed Land, all news of him ceased. Over a year had passed without any word - a common occurrence that led his family to assume he had died in the secret realm.

Chen Guan never expected to encounter him here but had no intention of immediately offering help. Instead, he retreated further into hiding, concealing himself behind trees. People often said the "Guan" in Chen Guan's name meant "observing from the sidelines" - not entirely accurate, but Chen Guan indeed disliked meddling in others' affairs, especially when it involved personal risk. 

The Mystical Spirit before them clearly outleveled them both, and Old Bird was no beginner either. Chen Guan didn't believe himself stronger than Old Bird, who had been in Mount Pingdu for over a year without leaving - his level couldn't be low. Without fully assessing the situation, Chen Guan hesitated to act rashly.

Yet Chen Guan didn't leave either. This bizarre Mystical Spirit was something he'd never seen or heard of before - not in academy textbooks nor his own research on Mount Pingdu Blessed Land. It must be at least a Rare-grade spirit, possibly even Epic-grade, and quite high-leveled. If he could find an opportunity to kill it, there might be substantial rewards. After all, Rare and Epic spirits weren't commonly encountered - in areas with many human practitioners, such resources required fierce competition.

As Chen Guan observed, he evaluated the power gap between himself and the spirit, calculating various possibilities. Old Bird scrambled up from his roll only to see the spirit's crimson palm descending upon him with no room or strength left to dodge - despair flooded his heart.

Crack!

A black chill shot from behind the spirit, striking its neck and cleanly severing its head. The momentum continued, embedding the blade into a tree behind Old Bird, who now recognized it as a black cleaver resembling a butcher's knife.

Still shaken, Old Bird saw the headless spirit collapse before noticing a familiar-looking young man and a polar bear-sized white rabbit emerging from behind. 

"Chen Guan..." Old Bird gasped in mixed shock and joy, but before he could speak further, red particles began overflowing from the spirit's corpse, converging like fireflies into Chen Guan's hand and condensing into a blood-red Secret Core.

Chen Guan held the core and immediately gleaned its information through brief meditation:

Secret Skill: Level 1 Blood Palm (Epic)

Requirement: None

Primordial Energy Cost: 1.6

Skill Level: 1

Without hesitation, Chen Guan activated his Longevity Art, absorbing the Blood Palm technique - his first secret skill, and an Epic-grade one at that, an exceptionally rare acquisition. 

Unfortunately, with only 1 point of Primordial Energy capacity currently, he couldn't yet use Blood Palm. Only after advancing to Level 2 and increasing his energy limit would activation be possible. As the crimson core dissolved into particles merging with his body, Old Bird watched enviously though survival took precedence over envy now.

"Chen Guan, what are you doing here?" Old Bird asked joyfully.

"Did you forget? I'm just a year younger - eighteen now. I chose Mount Pingdu Blessed Land today and got teleported here. What about you? If you're alive, why haven't you returned?" Chen Guan countered.

Old Bird's face soured like a bitter melon: "You think I don't want to? There's no teleportation station on this island - no way back."

Chen Guan paused: "This is an island?"

"Yeah, a massive, bizarre one. No teleportation stations, no mainland in sight - probably stranded in some distant ocean. Everyone teleported here gets trapped..." Old Bird finally found an outlet, pouring out his year's worth of pent-up frustrations and experiences.

Old Bird wasn't alone - many first-time practitioners shared his fate, all teleported here exactly one year ago on the same day. Strangely, they found no evidence of earlier arrivals nor subsequent teleportations, making Chen Guan's appearance utterly shocking.

The island's Mystical Spirits were equally peculiar - mostly undocumented types absent from textbooks, with unusually high concentrations of premium-grade spirits. Rare spirits common elsewhere appeared frequently here; Epic-grade spirits weren't uncommon sightings, and Unique-grade spirits might even exist.

Certain mysterious zones on the island potentially housed Unique or even Legendary spirits. However, the island's spirits generally didn't exceed Level 10 - either truly capped there or because survivors couldn't access higher-level areas yet.

Of the hundred-plus practitioners arriving with Old Bird, many perished initially as inexperienced newcomers. Only thirty-some survived the island's harsh conditions. The strongest human survivor had reached Level 10, while Old Bird at Level 7 ranked among the weakest remaining.

"With your archery talent, how did you end up so... disadvantaged?" Chen Guan expressed surprise at Old Bird's poor state.

"Don't ask," Old Bird smiled bitterly. "There's always someone better. Back home, I thought my talent was top-tier - pardon my arrogance, I genuinely believed myself some reincarnated Archery God destined for legend. Then I entered this realm and realized my 'talent' was worthless - so many outclassed me effortlessly. My lifelong archery training got outmatched by others' casual practice."

Chen Guan listened quietly. While he couldn't fully empathize, he recalled stories of supreme talents cultivating for millennia to ascend, only to become nameless celestial soldiers in some monkey-hunting brigade - he could imagine that crushing disappointment.