Monk

"By the way, why do you keep all these chickens and ducks at your temple?"

"This humble monk must explain, benefactor: we raise chickens and ducks for their eggs, then take them to the market to exchange for money and grain to cover our daily expenses."

"I see."

That meant the chicken thief had effectively cut off the temple's livelihood. And, strangely enough, the thief only ate roosters. Since the hens' eggs hadn't been fertilized, they couldn't hatch into chicks. In the long run, they'd be left with nothing.

"Have you considered buying some roosters or ganders?"

"This humble monk must explain, benefactor: poultry like roosters and ganders are rare here. They're hard to find for sale, and the people who have them aren't willing to part with them."

This was an island with few poultry; chickens and ducks were undoubtedly rare and expensive. Seafood, on the other hand, was so plentiful that people were sick of eating it.

Come to think of it, the thief really was a piece of work.

"Did your Tianling Temple offend someone?" Mu Zibai asked curiously.

Anyone capable of such a deranged act must have had some kind of grievance with Tianling Temple.

Could it be that one of the monks at Tianling Temple had been sneaking around with someone, and that person's partner was using this chance to get revenge, eating only the males to send the temple a message?

Of course, that was just an amusing thought.

Most of the people in this temple were cultivators with cultivation bases. Whoever had stolen the chickens right under their noses without being noticed definitely wasn't an ordinary person.

"Could it have been one of your senior brothers from the temple?"

"Absolutely not. We only eat vegetarian food. If anyone ate meat, we'd spot it immediately," the monk said, shaking his head.

"That's true."

Among a group of vegetarians, anyone who ate meat would stick out like a sore thumb.

"So now you're relying on this one rooster to fertilize the eggs?" Mu Zibai asked.

"We have no choice. I suppose we'll have to sell some chickens and ducks, then go to the market and buy a new batch of roosters." The monk sighed.

"Your Tianling Temple really is poor." Mu Zibai pursed his lips. The island was sparsely populated, and hardly anyone came to offer incense. There was no incense money to speak of.

Looking at the listless rooster, it seemed to have lost all hope in life. Its head drooped; it looked as if its days as a chicken were numbered.

Mu Zibai let out a long sigh and couldn't help thinking, You've had it rough.

Tianling Temple's last hope.

Just then, something occurred to Mu Zibai, and he opened the shop.

[Item 1: Useless Greatsword, Price: 100 points]

[Item 2: I Love a Stick, Price: 1,000 points]

[Item 3: Diamond Vajra Drill, Price: 1,000 points]

[Item 4: One bottle of 1982 'Shuang Wai Wai', Price: 10 points]

[Item 5: One Drift Bottle (might contain a love letter from some lovesick girl), Price: 1 point]

The shop's inventory was always so hit-or-miss. Sometimes not a single good item turned up, and the place would be full of all sorts of bizarre junk instead.

Another day, and nothing good had appeared in the shop.

There was no need to say much about items two and three. If things like these cost a thousand points, they had to be exceptional.

He'd seen plenty of things from his own world appear in the shop, and none had cost more than a hundred points. Yet these two items cost a thousand!

The descriptions for the two items were brief. There was only one line:

Restore your virility! She'll be happy, and so will you.

After buying them, he found that I Love a Stick came in a bottle, while the Diamond Vajra Drill came in a box. The packaging even featured a blonde beauty.

He had no idea how effective they'd be. He glanced at the rooster nearby—the last one left—and wondered what would happen if he fed them to it.

After all, Tianling Temple had treated Wenren Lingmeng for free. Mu Zibai ought to show his gratitude.

He knew the medicine would work. The only problem was that even if it was extremely effective, one rooster alone was probably too weak to handle it.

Mu Zibai took out the Diamond Vajra Drill, poured out a dose, and fed it to the rooster.

"What are you doing, benefactor?" the monk asked curiously. He didn't stop Mu Zibai from feeding it to the rooster; he was simply curious about what the thing was.

"It's good stuff. Too bad you're a monk, so you have no use for it. Otherwise, I could sell you one for a hundred taels of silver." Mu Zibai patted him on the shoulder.

The monk was startled. A hundred taels for one? Was it made of gold? That was outrageously expensive!

He'd never even seen that much money before.

The monk looked more closely, then asked curiously, "Why is that female bodhisattva wearing so little? Isn't she cold? And why is her hair yellow? Why does she look like that?"

The monk's eyes were clear and guileless as he asked his questions. It was obvious he knew nothing at all.

"You're better off not knowing." Mu Zibai patted him on the shoulder.

The monk rubbed his head, bewildered. Mu Zibai didn't explain and simply left.

As soon as Mu Zibai was gone, a flash of light shot from the rooster's eyes. Reborn, it flapped its wings and charged toward the hens.

Mu Zibai walked straight out of Tianling Temple. Outside lay a dense forest, with not a soul in sight.

Usually, the only people on the island were the monks of Tianling Temple, who came out to gather wild herbs. It was afternoon now, and most of the monks were working inside the temple.

Other than them, there were also a few people who came to Tianling Island for sightseeing.

All in all, the island was sparsely populated, so there shouldn't be too much commotion.

He went to the rear mountain and chose a quiet spot. The Qi here was abundant, making it an ideal place to break through.

Mu Zibai sat cross-legged with his hands on his knees and circulated his cultivation method, completing several cycles in succession.

At that moment, the Qi inside him began to swell. The surrounding spiritual energy streamed toward his dantian, and in the blink of an eye, it formed a vortex.

The spiritual energy gathered more and more, as if it had reached its limit. It looked ready to explode. Mu Zibai forcefully pressed the Qi inside him down.

"No wonder they say it's hard to break through without a certain level of physical strength. So that's why."

A wave of pain coursed through Mu Zibai's body. Every inch of his skin ached as if he'd been beaten with clubs. The vital acupoints in his body swelled and throbbed, and his blood vessels felt ready to burst.

"If my body isn't up to the standard, I probably won't be able to withstand this level of pain. If I let the Qi escape, the breakthrough will definitely fail. I might even lose cultivation."

Mu Zibai's breath sank. He forced all the Qi back down, suppressing it with sheer strength.

For the past month or so, Mu Zibai had been taking All-Purpose Great Tonic Soup every day. The shop had also periodically stocked pills to strengthen the body and other miraculous medicines. He hadn't let a single one pass him by.

Though he hadn't broken through yet, Mu Zibai was confident he could take on an expert in the Mystic Armor Realm in a contest of physical strength.

At this point, the odds of breaking through were at least seventy percent.

He took out a Mystic Armor Pill and swallowed it in one gulp. It dissolved the instant it entered his mouth.

The cyan spiritual energy flowed into Mu Zibai's body. Before long, it had spread throughout him.

In the next moment, the spiritual energy flowed outward from within, gradually covering Mu Zibai's body. It gathered into a cyan robe of gauzy mist.

Patterns gradually appeared on the robe, resembling the markings on a turtle's shell.

The spiritual energy inside him slowly transformed into Qi, becoming part of Mu Zibai.

"Now!"