The chicken on the ground was very ordinary. From its appearance, it was just a male rooster.
Perhaps because it had already died, its once glossy, colorful feathers had turned dull and disheveled, while its huge comb was tattered beyond recognition.
Its eyes were open, but they had turned grayish white, without the slightest glimmer.
So this was what death felt like.
Ma Lie could not help thinking this, then noticed that one feather on the chicken's tail was especially unusual.
All the other feathers had lost their color, yet the most eye-catching tail feather remained exceptionally vivid. It did not even seem like a feather that should have belonged to this chicken.
This feather should have been on Phoenix's tail, not on the tail of a dead chicken!
Ma Lie stared fixedly at the feather on the chicken's tail. Suddenly, a chill shot up his spine. His whole body felt cold, yet he did not feel the slightest discomfort.
On the contrary, his body, which had been on the verge of death, began undergoing some incredible changes.
He gritted his teeth and instinctively exerted force. His flesh slipped free from the wooden stake as easily as putty. He fell to the ground, and the flesh on his back rapidly healed. At the same time, one red and one black thread quickly wound around his spine, forming a strange pattern.
"I'm alive?"
"A chicken feather?"
Everything Ma Lie had just done had actually been completed automatically while he was still dazed. Only after coming back to his senses did he realize how unbelievable it all was.
He stepped forward, bent down, picked up the dead chicken, and carefully examined it.
It was an extremely ordinary chicken, its body already stiff. He squeezed its body hard and suddenly felt something foreign