Branches swayed, leaves fell, insects crawled, and beings of pure malice fought amongst each other on the ground in the depths of a great dark forest, only violence, the course of nature, and darkness being the only thing permanent in such an ever-changing landscape.

And in the endless sea of dark trees that each reaching the height of a skyscraper, one stood out amongst all the rest.

It was another tree of a great height, however unlike those that surrounded it, where they reached the clouds, this one surpassed even the highest that the sky had to offer.

It looked like a mythical world tree, comparable to Yggdrasil so much mentioned in the mythology of northmen of Earth, however height was where the similarities ended. Its trunk was blank, and its leaves grey, it looked too ominous to be considered holy by any mythology in this world.

In the lands beneath, to the earth, vile beasts seem to shudder in fear, those that fought beneath the great tree found themselves scattering from the scene due to what seemed to be an instinctual sense of fear derived from the sheer Yin energy of the creature that was coming forth.

Reaching to the highest clouds, an enormous avian beast climbed the atmosphere with its dark wings while carrying what seemed to be the rotting corpse of a heavenly beast, a Qilin, in its beak.

Upon reaching the top, it came to a structure which seemed to resemble a great nest made of branches the size of actual tree trunks sat on one of the great tree's highest branches.

On the nest itself, there sat a multitude of skeletons belonging to other beasts within the dark forest, however the most notable features were the hundreds of small eggs dotting the landscape.

*Crack*

*Crack*

*Crack*

Several of the eggs cracked open, revealing dark beaks and immature talons pecking past the eggshells, chirping of several birds made themselves known, and for a few minutes, many of them struggled until their heads, their bodies, and then their legs eventually broke free from their pre-mortal chains.

*Thrack!*

Their mother landed onto the other side of the nest, a gust of air snapping each and every one of the hatchlings into attention. Sensing the pure Yin energy emanating from the great bird, they could only assume that this was in fact, their mother, and upon seeing the great boon, a Qilin corpse, being dropped onto the nest from its beak, the hatchlings waddled forth for their meal.

However, as they got close to it, the colossal bird would put its leg forward, blocking the hatchlings from their meal.

"Kwak!" It cried out with a great noise, its sound reaching even the beasts on the earth despite being past the clouds, however its meaning only understood to its children in the nest.

'Only one may partake in this boon.'

And immediately, the hatchlings went to work, pecking on each other, violently thrashing throughout the nest as chaos ensued, the greed of each one driving them forward.

It was in this gruesome scene, specific one amongst the hundreds of hatchlings battling it out that one of the hatchlings, who carried the name 'Mao' stared at the three moons in the sky, and from this instance that he started to undergo four of the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, however not yet acceptance.

The subject of this grief was, naturally – his past life, what he had before he came here to this hellhole that seemed too surreal to be … real.

His first reaction, denial, was something that naturally came to anybody who would ever find themselves in Mao's situation. His dark beak, his wings, and inability to form human sentences surely must have been the result of an overworked mind. Such a thing would only be mere fantasies without a sliver of truth.

But when one of the hatchlings had awakened the ability to conform to the Yin energy surrounding them, using Qi to build up heat in its eyes and shoot it forth towards his siblings just next to him, Mao who had blood splatter to the side of his face, was forced to confront a fact, that being that he had transmigrated into another world.

This is where the anger phase had started to make itself known, his blood boiled at the thought of what he left behind on Earth. He had just passed the gaokao, and had a bright future ahead of him, despite his obsession for a particular game, he checked all the boxes needed for a role-model promising individual.

He worked hard in anticipation for his future, and even had a part time job wherein he saved a good sum of money despite being busy with his studies. He had just made it as a college student, his adult life just only starting, and now he was here!? He could not help but refrain himself from spitting a mouthful of blood and instead cursed the heavens.

Mao was then struck with the next phase of grief, bargaining. He apologised to the heavens for cursing them just seconds earlier, and pleaded with any high existence that he knew of.

'Oh Buddha, Yahweh, Allah …' He prayed to anyone that might have been listening to him, asking why he was sent here, and more importantly for him to be taken back, or at least give him a better transmigration! Why had he transmigrated here, and as a bird no less!?

*Slice* But alas, his pleas went unanswered, and with the reveal that one of his siblings had already achieved qinggong to a proficiency that enabled him to stab his siblings through their heads with his talons by running over them, that he had finally come to the fourth stage, depression.

Mao had gone from a hardworking individual accepted as one who only had a great future in store for him to a pathetic hatchling in what has been proven to be more of a dog-eat-dog world than modern China. The fact that he wasn't even human only increased his anguish. He did not know how he would even thrive as he did not even have thumbs. He was seriously debating on whether or not he should get himself killed on purpose for what would essentially be a reroll.

However, as he looked at the carnage around him, that is when he realised that it was not something that would be possible.

For the simple fact that he was a coward.

And so, without much thinking, Mao ran, as fast he possibly could, away from all this, from the carnage, from the blood …

And from reality.

'Ah …' And eventually, he found himself at the edge of the nest and as he tried to turn back, found himself pushed past the edge, along with many of his own siblings by another one that seemed to have awakened Qi body enhancement.

"Kwak!" (Fuck!) And so his first words came to be, lost in the thin air as he fell to the earth below.