Great! Here's Chapter Three of your new cultivation novel—set in the village, with a slow-progression tone, some light humor, and the villagers beginning to notice the strange occurrences around the main character:
Chapter Three: Whispers in the Dust
The sun hung lazily over the quiet village of Qinghe, its golden light pouring gently over thatched rooftops and dusty footpaths. Birds chirped, chickens squawked, and a few children chased each other through the fields. Life went on as it always did—calm, uneventful, and predictable.
Except around him.
Ever since that strange boy arrived a few months ago, odd things had begun happening.
Auntie Lin, the elderly herbalist, swore on her dead husband's grave that the wild herbs in the back forest had started blooming two months early. Uncle Bo, the village butcher, claimed the oxen refused to walk past the boy's hut without trembling.
And then there was the matter of the rain.
Three days ago, a sudden downpour drenched the entire village—except for the spot directly over the boy's roof. His straw-thatched home remained bone-dry, not a single drop touching it, while the rest of the village became a muddy mess.
The villagers began to whisper.
"I'm telling you, he's cursed."
"No, no, I heard he's a spirit in disguise!"
"A spirit? He eats rice like the rest of us!"
"Then why did Granny Lu's chicken refuse to leave his house? Eh? It's been sleeping by his door for three days!"
Indeed, Granny Lu's prized chicken, plump and proud, had adopted the boy as if he were one of its own chicks. Every morning, it followed him wherever he went—flapping behind him like a feathery guardian.
Meanwhile, the boy, known simply as Shen Yuan, continued his daily life as if nothing were wrong.
He fetched water, chopped firewood, and quietly studied the strange technique he had unearthed from the scroll buried in the woods. His cultivation was slow—frustratingly so—but steady. Each breath he took, each cycle of qi through his meridians, brought a faint burning pain... and with it, growth.
He could feel his Heavenly Root stir ever so slightly.
He was still at Level 1, Stage 1—a rank so low it barely allowed him to sense spiritual energy. Normally, one at this stage could only hope to break through the fourth stage of Body Tempering in their entire life. But he had already reached the second stage, far earlier than expected.
Not through talent.
Not through hard work.
But because of the Devouring Root Technique.
Each time he practiced it, he felt a flicker—no, a glimpse—of something deeper. As if the world around him whispered ancient truths just beyond his understanding.
Still, no one else knew what he was truly doing.
To the villagers, he was simply the quiet boy who smiled too rarely, whose eyes held too much silence, and who had strange luck with animals. Today, however, that luck became even more noticeable.
While walking through the market path, a group of dogs began following him.
"Hey, those are wild dogs from the hills!" a man shouted.
"They never come near people!"
And yet there they were—silent, respectful, as if guarding a prince.
Even Shen Yuan couldn't explain it.
He looked behind him, watching the animals trail at a distance, ears perked and heads lowered. The chicken clucked aggressively at the dogs as if warning them to stay in line.
"…You're all insane," Shen Yuan muttered, scratching his head.
By the time he reached the edge of the rice paddies, half the village was watching him from their windows.
"Do you think he's some reincarnated master?" one old man whispered.
"Pfft. He's just a weirdo. But... a powerful weirdo."
That night, Shen Yuan sat alone outside his hut, legs crossed, eyes closed.
The Devouring Root Technique spread through his body again, his veins glowing faintly under the moonlight. He didn't know yet that each time he absorbed qi, the technique didn't just empower his own root—it rewrote it, turning it into something entirely unnatural.
Something... that defied the heavens.
A faint wind swirled around him. The chicken clucked once, then settled beside him. The wild dogs lay in a circle around his home like guards of a king. And above them, hidden by clouds, a single thundercloud sparked with silver light.
Somewhere, the heavens had noticed him.
But the boy remained unaware.
For now.
Let me know if you'd like to continue with Chapter Four, or if you'd like to tweak any part of this one!