Chicken Coop lv1

Ordinary Half-Spirit Fish were valued in Spirit Fragments, but Ji Yuan's five Half-Spirit Fish had cost him five Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

For no other reason than that he had bought "premium goods."

Once they evolved into Spirit Fish, each would be worth at least fifteen Spirit Stones.

The cheap part was evolution, and the expensive part was evolution too. The [Fish Pond] would not show any bias toward the weak, so naturally, he had to pick the best ones to raise.

The three Green-Yellow Chickens had been even more expensive, costing him a full five Spirit Stones.

After all, Green-Yellow Chickens themselves were tainted with a trace of spiritual energy. Their flesh was greatly nourishing, and they could also lay Spirit Eggs.

Though the chance of laying Spirit Eggs was rather low.

They were estimated to lay one egg every three days, and perhaps only one out of every ten eggs would be a Spirit Egg.

But once one was laid, a single Spirit Egg was worth five Spirit Fragments. Two Spirit Eggs were worth one Low-Grade Spirit Stone.

If they laid more, the Green-Yellow Chickens would soon pay for themselves... or so the Rogue Cultivator selling the chickens had said.

He said that to everyone, but Ji Yuan had actually believed him.

If he had had enough Spirit Stones on him, he would have wanted to buy a few more. After all, probability was something that only applied to other people.

For him... his probability was 100%.

Because the Green-Yellow Chickens he raised could lay one Spirit Egg every day!

After putting all the fish into the Fish Pond, Ji Yuan used wooden boards to piece together a simple Chicken Coop in the backyard. The moment it was finished and he placed the three Green-Yellow Chickens inside, another line of text appeared above it.

[Chicken Coop: lv0]

The condition to upgrade the Chicken Coop required two Low-Grade Spirit Stones, and Ji Yuan happened to have exactly two left.

He also had fifty jin of leftover rice at home.

Before Foundation Establishment and Grain Repelling, even immortals at the peak of Qi Refining still needed to eat the five grains, though most of them took Grain-Repelling Pills.

Ji Yuan looked at the only two Low-Grade Spirit Stones remaining in his hand. Those eighteen had been spent again in less than half a day.

Spirit Stones really did not last through spending.

Ji Yuan shook his head. With a thought, he chose to upgrade the [Chicken Coop].

He watched helplessly as the Spirit Stones in his hand turned to powder. The number behind the Chicken Coop changed from 0 to 1, and the conditions and spiritual effects for the Level 2 Chicken Coop popped up on his panel.

[Chicken Coop lv2]

[Spiritual Effect: Spirit patterns grow on claws, allowing it to scratch up minute amounts of Spirit Soil (1 qian per day), and briefly control spirit birds]

[Upgrade Conditions: Low-Grade Spirit Stone ×50, Chicken Coop made from Centennial Parasol Wood (not achieved)]

Ji Yuan's eyes lit up as he looked at the words on the panel.

This Level 2 Chicken Coop could actually scratch up Spirit Soil!

Wouldn't that complement the [Spirit Field] perfectly? If he had a Spirit Field paved entirely with pure Spirit Soil, together with the panel's effects, Ji Yuan did not even dare imagine how good the results would be.

And that brief control over spirit birds at the end—wasn't that a method exclusive to the Beast Taming Sect...?

When the time came, he would have to replace them with chickens at the spirit beast level. At crucial moments, they could even serve as guards for the courtyard.

It was just that the enormous number of Spirit Stones required to upgrade the Chicken Coop put some pressure on Ji Yuan.

There was no helping it. He could only take it slowly.

After setting up both the [Chicken Coop] and the [Fish Pond], the sky had already darkened. He used the last bit of rice at home to fill his stomach, then lay down to rest in peace.

Once he lay down, he could not help thinking about the road ahead.

He was currently at the Second Layer of Qi Refining and had been born with the Metal-Wood-Water-Fire Four-Spirit Root. In this world of cultivation, Four-Spirit Roots and Five-Spirit Roots were both called False Spiritual Roots.

That was nothing much, though, because every fisherman in Zengtou City had a False Spiritual Root.

Some "children of talent" blessed with all five elements were still huffing and puffing through bitter cultivation. Ji Yuan's Four-Spirit Root was already considered decent.

As for the true seeds of cultivation with two or three spirit roots, they had long since been taken away by the Water Dragon Sect and groomed as the sect's backbone.

Zengtou City had never produced a heaven-defying freak with a single spirit root.

The cultivation art Ji Yuan practiced was also the "Azure Sea Tide Art," which was as common as dirt throughout Zengtou City.

It was a water-element cultivation art. Its name sounded invincible beneath the heavens, but its actual effects were utterly ordinary.

Its sole somewhat special effect was that cultivators who practiced it had spiritual energy that lasted longer than those practicing other arts... but that was a trait shared by all water-element cultivation arts.

Yet which cultivator in Zengtou City did not practice the "Azure Sea Tide Art"?

Once something special became universal, it was no longer special.

He knew pitifully few techniques as well. The only one he had mastered was the most basic Waterball Technique. Even the slightly more complicated Water Arrow Technique worked only intermittently.

There was nothing to be done about that. Whenever the original owner had a little time, he had to think of ways to earn Spirit Stones and go into the water. He simply had not had much time to hone his techniques.

Of course, the main reason was still that his cultivation was too low.

At the Second Layer of Qi Refining, one Water Arrow Technique would drain all the spiritual energy in his dantian.

To recover it afterward would take another half a day.

Under the crushing burden of the Immortal Residence Fee, the Rogue Cultivators in the market had no mind to think about such things.

Things were different now. With a Level 1 [Chicken Coop] and [Fish Pond], he no longer needed to risk going underwater. He only needed to focus on cultivation.

The next morning.

The moment Ji Yuan got up, he went to the backyard. The five Half-Spirit Fish were still in the Fish Pond. Then again, how could they possibly advance every day?

The panel had said it too. There was only a certain probability, and who knew just how high that probability was?

The Chicken Coop, on the other hand, was a different story. After Ji Yuan drove the three hens out, he saw three Spirit Eggs glowing with a soft white light.

He hurriedly took them out, scattered several handfuls of rice for the Green-Yellow Chickens, and rushed into the house.

With Spirit Eggs in hand, of course he had to strike while the iron was hot. He quickly cracked one open and poured the spiritual fluid inside into his mouth. The instant it entered his stomach and he felt that pure spiritual energy, he immediately activated the "Azure Sea Tide Art."

The cultivation art began to circulate, absorbing the spiritual energy provided by the Spirit Egg and guiding it through his meridians into his dantian.

After a while, he finished absorbing one egg. Sensing the extra wisps of spiritual energy in his dantian, Ji Yuan was somewhat delighted.

The Spirit Egg's effects were greater than he had expected!

After consuming three Spirit Eggs, he might be able to use them to break through to the Third Layer of Qi Refining!

Ji Yuan did not dare delay. One egg after another, he absorbed all three Spirit Eggs. His dantian had gained more than a dozen wisps of spiritual energy, yet he always felt that he was still short by that final sliver.

He had originally planned to absorb the wandering spiritual energy between heaven and earth himself, but if he did that, who knew how long he would have to wait?

But then his gaze suddenly fell on the three Spirit Egg shells... Before long, Ji Yuan ground the shells into powder and swallowed them in one gulp.

In the end, they turned into thin spiritual energy and spread through his body.

The gaseous spiritual energy in Ji Yuan's dantian reached its limit. As though it had shattered some kind of shackle, his aura finally strengthened by a fraction.

The Third Layer of Qi Refining—achieved!

Ji Yuan breathed out a mouthful of turbid air, feeling many hidden injuries within his body disperse along with it.

Afterward, he spent another half day stabilizing his cultivation. Only after firmly establishing the Third Layer of Qi Refining did he rise to his feet.

With this cultivation, he was still ordinary in Zengtou City, but at least he could keep up with the main crowd.

Among the cultivators of Zengtou City, the greatest number were at the Third Layer of Qi Refining. After all, the next breakthrough would be the Middle Qi Refining Stage, and the spiritual energy required for that breakthrough was no small amount... With the aptitude of a False Spiritual Root, one could only rely on Spirit Stones to break through.

But on ordinary days, they did not even have enough Spirit Stones to pay rent. Where would they find so many Spirit Stones to improve their cultivation?

Not to mention food, clothing, shelter, and travel—Spirit Stones were needed everywhere.

The original owner had not understood it very well, but Ji Yuan now saw that the Immortal Residence Fee was a method used by the Water Dragon Sect to control the markets around Cloud-Rain Marsh.

Fortunately, these matters had little to do with Ji Yuan now. With the panel, he could basically achieve a small degree of self-sufficiency.

After breaking through in cultivation, he returned to the backyard to practice the Water Arrow Technique.

The Waterball Technique was useless in a real fight; it could not even kill a Spirit Fish. The truly reliable technique had to be the Water Arrow Technique.

By evening, after cultivating bitterly for an entire day, Ji Yuan was just about to rest for a while when someone knocked on his courtyard gate.

He got up and went to open it. The one knocking was Huang Laotou next door.

Seeing Ji Yuan, he asked with a cheerful grin, "Kid Ji, do you want a wife?"