"Cough, cough..."
"Steward, here is this month's tribute. Please check it."
Wang Ba coughed, his face bearing the weak pallor of someone recovering from a serious illness.
Steward Li stuck out his belly as usual and counted the items with his hands behind his back.
When he saw that the two roosters, two hens, and two hundred Precious Chicken eggs were all accounted for, he narrowed his eyes, his face expressionless.
But when Wang Ba coughed and slipped a banknote into his hand, Steward Li's expression instantly cleared like the sky after snow. Beaming, he said:
"You're as generous as ever, my friend!"
"It's only right, only right... cough, cough!"
"This mountain estate is cold and harsh. You must take care of your health, my friend, so you can serve the Sect!"
Steward Li's face was full of concern.
As he spoke, a mysterious smile surfaced on his face. "Do you know what I brought this time?"
Wang Ba's heart stirred, and he blurted out, "Cough... could it be... cough... a book on raising chickens?"
"Look at you! And here I was hoping to keep you guessing!"
Steward Li laughed heartily. Without dawdling, he took a book from his wide sleeve and handed it to Wang Ba.
Then he said solemnly:
"Strictly speaking, servant disciples in the Sect aren't eligible to borrow books. Even stewards have to submit a whole stack of applications..."
Wang Ba heard the string and understood the tune. He hurriedly took the last banknote he had from his pocket and slipped it to him.
He had earned all of this through the hard work of selling chicken manure, and had specifically exchanged his loose silver for banknotes a few days earlier.
"Come now, my friend! What sort of man do you take me for?"
Steward Li casually accepted the banknote, looking displeased. "And to think I considered you a dear friend!"
"Yes, yes! How vulgar of me!"
Wang Ba wore a sheepish smile.
Steward Li was only saying it for show. He tucked the banknote into his robes in satisfaction before giving his instructions:
"You can keep this book for two months at most. After two months, I'll come take it back. Be sure not to damage it or get it dirty!"
"Yes! I guarantee I won't damage it or get it dirty!"
Two months was enough. Wang Ba swore solemn oaths and saw Steward Li off.
Only after Steward Li had left did Wang Ba take the book back into his room.
He did not know whether it was because of the fright he had suffered the previous night, but when he got up that morning, his whole body had felt powerless. He was weak, sweating, and coughing incessantly.
He soon realized he was ill.
Still, he had persevered, finishing feeding the chickens and cleaning up their manure before counting out the full monthly tribute.
In between, he had also heard Old Hou mention something.
"An outer sect disciple gave Steward Mei, the one in charge of the servant disciples, a dressing-down this morning!"
When he spoke of it, Old Hou's face clearly carried a hint of glee at another's misfortune.
"Oh? What happened?"
Wang Ba unconsciously clutched his clothes tighter and asked casually.
"They say this outer sect disciple had business at the Merit Office last night, but apparently a servant disciple tricked him. The Merit Office is to the north, but he went east and missed out on something good. So he came looking for trouble with Steward Mei first thing this morning. You should've seen that old face of Steward Mei's..."
Old Hou vividly described what he had seen and heard, as though he had been there himself.
But Wang Ba's heart jolted at his words!
Last night, the Merit Office, tricked by a servant disciple...
And now that he thought back, the direction he had casually pointed in last night had been exactly east!
There was hardly any need to think. There was almost a ninety percent chance that this was the Sect disciple he had tricked!
As Wang Ba pieced it together, his already weakened body instantly broke out in a cold sweat!
He had no idea how the other man had belatedly realized what had happened.
In any case, once Old Hou left, he hurriedly buried his hidden Spirit Stones even deeper, moved the large vat used to ferment chicken feed over them, and piled it with feed wreathed in Spiritual Qi.
As for the chicken bones and other things he had not cleared away earlier, he burned what needed burning and buried what needed burying.
He did not know whether any Sect disciples would come to investigate, but he had to do his utmost to reduce the risk.
Now, lying in bed and recalling that terrifying scene from the previous night, he still could not help feeling a slight tremor in his heart.
"There shouldn't be any loose ends left..."
Wang Ba murmured.
Then he carefully lifted the book Steward Li had brought him.
He did not know what material it was made of. Though it looked neither thick nor large, it was surprisingly heavy.
What met his eyes were four large characters:
"Notes on Raising Poultry."
Below them were five boldly majestic characters crediting the author: Written by Daoist Jiao Hu.
Wang Ba began casually leafing through it.
He had not held much hope to begin with. After all, no matter how incredible a book was, it could not compare with his ability to transfer lifespan.
Yet as he read on, Wang Ba's eyes lit up.
So there were actually this many ways for ordinary birds and beasts to advance in grade?
This Daoist Jiao Hu wrote in the book that, to his knowledge, there were no fewer than three paths to cultivating an ordinary mundane beast or bird into a graded spirit beast or spirit bird.
The first was to continuously purify the bloodline within it through nourishment from abundant Spiritual Qi, until a breakthrough occurred naturally. This was called "bloodline breakthrough."
There was a prerequisite: among the ancestors in that bird's or beast's bloodline, there had to have been a powerful spirit beast.
If its ancestors had never known glory, advancing through bloodline purification would be very difficult.
The second was "lifespan breakthrough."
As the saying went, one who grew old without dying was a thief; such a thief stole from heaven and stole life.
If a bird or beast could break through the limit of its allotted lifespan, even by the tiniest amount, that was an achievement of stealing from heaven. It would enjoy the blessings of heaven and earth, and naturally advance in rank and grade.
However, treasures capable of producing a lifespan breakthrough were exceedingly rare. Most lifespan-extending treasures could not actually break through the limit of one's lifespan, but instead mostly replenished lifespan already lost.
Furthermore, perhaps due to the restrictions of the laws of heaven and earth, this method could generally only be used once.
When Wang Ba reached this point, he immediately thought of his cheat ability.
A faint understanding dawned in his heart.
No wonder these Precious Chickens had all broken through after he deposited just 0.1 years of lifespan.
It seemed they had taken the path of "lifespan breakthrough."
And after they became Spirit Chickens, no matter how much lifespan he deposited, they never advanced a second time.
This, too, matched what Daoist Jiao Hu had written in the book.
The third method was to awaken spiritual intelligence and break through by cultivating?
Wang Ba looked at the final entry and shook his head.
Awakening spiritual intelligence-such a method did not sound like something he could accomplish at present.
And although "lifespan breakthrough" was the method he used, it was his greatest secret and absolutely could not be exposed.
So the only chicken-raising method I can show others is the first one-bloodline breakthrough!
He turned to the pages covering "bloodline breakthrough."
Soon, surprise showed in his eyes.
For this Daoist Jiao Hu had actually recorded bloodline breakthrough methods for a full eight kinds of birds, beasts, fish, and insects!
"The method of bloodline breakthrough is a great path!"
"Yet simply nourishing them with Spiritual Qi to purify their bloodlines is exceedingly slow! Moreover, different kinds of birds and beasts naturally call for different methods!"
"Thus, through devoted and painstaking study, I have obtained methods of bloodline purification for eight kinds of birds, beasts, fish, and insects. These eight are as follows-"
"Flying Locust, Gold-and-Silver Ring Snake, Yang Tiger, White Carp, Seventeen-Year Cicada, Mysterious Phoenix, Yellow-throated Stone Turtle, Precious Chicken..."
Before you continue