Beware of Chicken
CasualFarmer's web-serial-turned-novel takes the standard cultivation power fantasy, where reincarnated young men climb mountains of qi to become immortal sword tyrants, and asks what happens if the protagonist just opts out. Jin Rou wakes up in a Xianxia world inside the body of a beaten cultivation disciple, walks away from the whole sect-rivalry treadmill, and starts a farm in a quiet valley with a girl named Meiling, an unusually clever rooster named Bi De, and other animals who slowly absorb stray qi and develop opinions. Around them powerful sects keep trying to start the kind of war the genre demands while Jin keeps trying to get the rice planted. The result is the rare epic fantasy that actually feels cozy, gentle without being toothless, very online and proudly unembarrassed about it.
What you might want to know about Beware of Chicken
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A modern guy reincarnated into a young cultivator's body decides he is done with the murder-stairway of immortal sects. He buys a chicken, claims an abandoned farm, and accidentally raises a very smart rooster.
Beware of Chicken is xianxia and progression fantasy rather than strict litRPG. There are no game mechanics or stat sheets, but the cultivation system and character progression draw on the genre. It started as a web serial on Royal Road before traditional publication.
CasualFarmer has published four Beware of Chicken volumes so far, with additional installments in progress. The web-serial version on Royal Road is more extensive than the traditionally published volumes.
Beware of Chicken was written by CasualFarmer, published in 2023 by Podium Publishing.
Beware of Chicken is 378 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Beware of Chicken takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
Beware of Chicken is a standalone novel by CasualFarmer, not part of a series.
Beware of Chicken is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
