The Yin Spirit Mansion Opened!

"Hm? My lifespan seems to have increased a little."

Wang Ba keenly noticed a detail.

After spending lifespan on the Body-Strengthening Scripture earlier, he had had 125.1 years left.

Yet overnight, it had become 125.3.

Although it had only increased by a mere 0.2 years, it still caught his attention.

All I did last night was read the Yin Spirit Great Dream Scripture. I did nothing else.

Reading naturally couldn't increase my lifespan, so it must have been something before that... could it be the Spirit Chicken?

After turning it over in his mind, only the Spirit Chicken and spirit rice could have produced such a miraculous effect.

After all, it made sense that food rich in Spiritual Qi could prolong a mortal's life.

Although the increase was small, it was still an unexpected delight.

No one would turn down more lifespan.

Wang Ba was naturally no exception. All the more so since he was a major spender of lifespan. Though 0.2 years was little, even a mosquito's leg was still meat!

It seems eating Spirit Chicken with a mortal body isn't such a waste after all.

Besides, I only ate one drumstick. Perhaps eating the whole chicken would work even better.

Wang Ba felt somewhat better.

Only then did he finally turn his attention to the Yin Spirit Great Dream Scripture.

After a night of careful study, although there were still many passages he did not understand and he had yet to cultivate it, he had, broadly speaking, gained an initial grasp.

This cultivation method involves visualizing a "Yin God" between the brows. By visualizing it daily and diligently cultivating for a hundred years, one can open a "Yin Spirit Mansion."

That is the first level of this cultivation method.

Once the "Yin Spirit Mansion" has been opened, it can nurture Yin Spirit power.

With this power, one can conceal oneself on a small scale or veil the heavens on a grand scale, overturning the real and the illusory!

Though it has no offensive capability whatsoever, it is a marvelous means of protecting oneself.

Learning it now would give me another skill to rely on, but there's still one problem... what exactly is this "Yin God"? It wasn't engraved on the gold sheet. How am I supposed to visualize it?

Wang Ba rubbed the short beard on his chin, pondering silently.

After puzzling over it for a long while, he finally settled his gaze on the panel.

Never mind. Since this cultivation method has already appeared on the panel, that means I can master it by spending lifespan.

Besides, this cultivation method seems quite suited to me. Unlike the Body-Strengthening Scripture, it doesn't require nine times as long, only 113.7 years.

113.7 years seemed like a lot, but mastering the Yin Spirit Great Dream Scripture required a hundred years of effort to begin with.

An ordinary person could master the Body-Strengthening Scripture in one year, whereas he had to spend nine years.

A full nine times as long!

By comparison, the Yin Spirit Great Dream Scripture was indeed better suited to him.

After weighing the pros and cons, Wang Ba hesitated no further and tapped "Spend."

[Lifespan -113.7 years!]

A faint sense of weakness rose within his body, as though it had been drained dry in an instant!

The next second.

Wang Ba's eyes suddenly widened.

A crimson lotus mark abruptly surfaced between his brows!

The instant this crimson lotus mark appeared, it rapidly twisted and spread wantonly, like a demon baring its fangs and brandishing its claws.

Yet the spreading crimson mark continued to writhe only between his brows.

In the end, it slowly coalesced into a crimson figure seated in the full lotus position, its face indistinct.

Once the crimson figure had formed, it immediately turned into a streak of crimson light and plunged between Wang Ba's brows.

At the same time.

Wang Ba felt a sudden chill between his brows!

A crimson figure naturally appeared in his mind.

His mind followed it into visualization.

Dimly, he felt the space between his brows rapidly swell and expand, growing ceaselessly!

Until it could grow no larger and expand no further.

He abruptly heard a crisp cracking sound between his brows.

It was like heaven and earth being cleaved apart within primordial chaos!

The space between his brows suddenly opened wide!

Without any guidance, Wang Ba understood in an instant.

A hundred years of effort had been accomplished in a moment.

The Yin Spirit Mansion had opened!

And with the opening of the Yin Spirit Mansion.

Wang Ba felt that heaven and earth had become different.

Everywhere was wondrous, everywhere vivid.

He saw the ants crawling on the window lattice, the hairs trembling on their legs, the densely packed pores on those hairs...

He saw a Spirit Chicken outside the window. It was a rooster, and its scent seemed somewhat different from that of the other Male Spirit Chickens, giving off a trace of yearning, especially when it looked at the hens...

He saw faint mist suffusing the air, red, white, green... countless colors. Yet this mist did not obstruct his vision in the slightest. As though transparent, it was everywhere, but exceedingly thin.

It drifted leisurely through the windowsill, the table, and his body without any obstruction.

Lowering his head, he saw the mist condensing on the little-finger-sized stone in his palm-it was a Lower-grade Spirit Stone of four-tenths quality.

"Is this Spiritual Qi?!"

Wang Ba suddenly understood!

"I can see Spiritual Qi!?"

According to the rumors, those with a Spiritual Root could sense Spiritual Qi and draw it into their bodies, gradually strengthening themselves, gradually growing stronger, and establishing an immortal foundation...

And now, he could actually sense... no, see Spiritual Qi too!

Wang Ba could not help widening his eyes.

Without the slightest hesitation, he raised his hand to grab the mist.

But his palm passed through it without any resistance.

"No, I should be drawing it in!"

Wang Ba hurriedly withdrew his hand and tried to draw the Spiritual Qi toward him.

Yet no matter how he tried, the Spiritual Qi seemed to exist in a world apart from him, passing straight through his body.

This left him so anxious that he scratched his ears and cheeks. How bitter it was to sit and watch the Spiritual Qi slip away.

But he soon thought of a solution.

He hurriedly fetched the clay pot used to stew the chicken. He could clearly see dense, pure-white Spiritual Qi constantly escaping from it.

Without caring whether it was hot or cold, he hurriedly began wolfing down the chicken in the pot.

Then he impatiently looked at his stomach.

There were no surprises.

His stomach was like a chimney, with Spiritual Qi constantly spilling out in all directions.

It still passed straight through his body.

During this process, however, Wang Ba keenly observed that an exceedingly small portion of Spiritual Qi was still being retained by his body.

It then traveled along fine, densely woven, invisible channels to every corner of his body. Some was absorbed by his body, while some gathered in his lower abdomen and lingered briefly before finally surging toward the space between his brows.

Those invisible channels were undoubtedly his meridians.

Unfortunately, he had no Spiritual Root. Even when the Spiritual Qi passed through the Dantian in his lower abdomen, it ultimately slipped away.

Instead, it was drawn in by the "Yin Spirit Mansion."

But the Yin Spirit Mansion could only just absorb the Spiritual Qi roaming within his body. It could do nothing about the Spiritual Qi dispersed through the air.

"I still need a Spiritual Root!"

Wang Ba could not help shaking his head.

If he had a Spiritual Root, he could probably have absorbed most of this Spirit Chicken's Spiritual Qi.

As things stood, the Spiritual Qi he retained probably amounted to less than one percent.

Perhaps because the Spiritual Qi within his body now had somewhere to go, however, it was not long before he faintly felt a touch of hunger.

Rather than being alarmed, he was delighted. He lit the firewood and warmed up the leftovers from the previous night.

Then he ate quite a lot in one sitting.

He ate over half a Spirit Chicken and finished all the porridge made from the leftover rice.

Watching Spiritual Qi disperse from his stomach, Wang Ba tried cultivating the Body-Strengthening Scripture without success, then simply let it be.

After finishing breakfast, he began his chores.

Since there were now so many Spirit Chickens in the farmstead, he did not dare let the chicken-feed deliveryman inside, instead carrying the feed up from below the farmstead himself.

Perhaps because he had made considerable progress in the Body-Strengthening Scripture and his physical fitness had improved greatly, he did not even feel tired carrying a large bucket holding forty or fifty jin of chicken feed.

"Old Hou, I'll only need two buckets of feed today."

Having already become familiar with the chicken-feed deliveryman, Wang Ba casually slipped him a Precious Chicken egg and said with a chuckle.

All twenty-two Precious Chickens had completed their transformation, and their appetites had greatly diminished. He no longer needed so much chicken feed; two buckets were enough.

"Sure! If you need more chicken feed next time, let me know beforehand. The Mountain-Cleansing Office has had more than they can distribute lately. Lao Yang, who manages the feed, has been cursing up a storm every day!"

Old Hou happily accepted the egg. Delivering chicken feed was nothing but hard labor, with little extra to be made, unlike chicken keepers such as Wang Ba. Although they too scraped by, they could at least sell some chicken manure to ease things a little.

If they were lucky, they could even keep some eggs to sell.

Something stirred in Wang Ba's mind at this, and he asked with a show of casualness:

"What kinds of feed have they had too much of lately?"

"Spirit Stone Powder, pill waste, and Discarded Spirit Insects... far too much!"

Old Hou counted them off on his fingers.

"Looks like the immortals have made great strides in their cultivation!"

Wang Ba said with a smile.

Hearing this, Old Hou curled his lip and lowered his voice. "I don't know whether their cultivation has improved, but the immortals have probably all been pretty busy lately. They say the young immortals are going to some gathering. I've heard the stewards at the outer sect's Merit Office have been run off their feet lately."

Wang Ba wanted to ask more, but Old Hou merely shook his head and raised a finger to point upward.

He therefore asked no further questions.

The immortals possessed mysterious means. They might well be able to hear their secret discussions, so they dared not say too much.

Still, an idea occurred to Wang Ba.

The immortals are all busy?

Could there be a little opportunity for me in this?

But he could not think of any opportunity for the moment, so he simply kept slaughtering and eating chickens every day.

Within a few days, he discovered two pieces of good news in succession.