Tendon-Cutting Nematodes!

Wang Ba followed Shopkeeper Lu through the backyard of the Lu Family Grain Shop, past the chicken coops and pigpens, and into a dark room.

The pitch-black surroundings made him grow nervous despite himself.

Could Shopkeeper Lu have discovered the two Spirit Stones on him and be planning to secretly do him in?

At that thought, Wang Ba felt a chill run down his back, and his throat grew even drier:

"Ahem, Shopkeeper Lu, just what are you taking me to see? Didn't you say we were looking at a substitute for Meridian-Passing Grass seeds?"

"Don't be anxious, honored customer. We're here."

Shopkeeper Lu's voice came from ahead.

Then, before Wang Ba could speak, a flicker of candlelight lit up in front of him.

"Shopkeeper Lu, this is..."

Before he could finish, Wang Ba's eyes went wide!

The candlelight illuminated bizarre creatures all around them, writhing with claws and fangs bared. They twisted and turned, each like a tentacle, clinging to the walls, the rafters, the tables...

The entire room was like an enormous nest of horrors!

"Cth..."

Wang Ba cried out.

"What's 'Cth'?"

Shopkeeper Lu sounded puzzled, then explained:

"These are Tendon-Cutting Nematodes, a special kind of first-tier, low-grade Spirit Insect!"

"They like to lodge inside living creatures, boring through meridians and cutting tendons, even though doing so rapidly consumes their already short lifespans... hence the name 'Tendon-Cutting Nematodes.'"

Before his words had faded.

Wang Ba stared blankly as a tentacle twisted down from a rafter onto Shopkeeper Lu's head, then squelched its way into his ear!

Yet Shopkeeper Lu seemed entirely oblivious. He merely furrowed his brow slightly before continuing:

"These insects fear light and like to inhabit human bodies, birds, beasts, fish, insects... hiss... but what they love most are things rich in Spiritual Qi, such as... Spirit Stones."

Shopkeeper Lu took a Spirit Stone from his sleeve and held it in his palm.

The next second.

Wang Ba witnessed an even more horrifying sight!

Shopkeeper Lu's mouth opened involuntarily, and a pitch-black, tentacle-like creature emerged from it. It swiftly slithered along his arm and wrapped itself around the Spirit Stone.

The tentacle kept wriggling over the Spirit Stone in Shopkeeper Lu's palm.

It looked utterly delighted.

Looking at his palm, Shopkeeper Lu's face flickered with disgust and helplessness. He extended his hand toward Wang Ba to let him see more clearly, explaining as he did:

"This is the treasure I mentioned that can help open your meridians and speed up your cultivation of the Body-Strengthening Scripture."

"Quite a few people have used them."

"They're extremely cheap. A hundred cost just two Spirit Stones, enough for ten-odd days of cultivation!"

"Of course... they are a little disgusting."

Wang Ba: "...Heh heh, you certainly have a way with words."

Just a little disgusting?

His hair was already standing on end, and he didn't dare move!

Still, he forced himself to remain calm and asked, "How do you use these nematodes to assist cultivation?"

"It's simple. Just let one burrow inside you, then practice the Body-Strengthening Scripture. You don't need a Spirit Stone to lure it out, either. Usually, after one enters your body, it keeps gnawing at your acupoints and meridians, and its body gradually dissolves, naturally opening your meridians in the process. There is one small side effect, though: cultivation becomes rather unbearably painful."

"Of course, compared to developing a Spiritual Root, all that is trivial."

Shopkeeper Lu held nothing back and was extremely candid.

Wang Ba fell silent for a while, then said:

"Two Spirit Stones for a hundred... that's expensive."

Shopkeeper Lu immediately asked, "Then what do you think would be reasonable?"

Wang Ba recalled his mother in his previous life saying that when bargaining, you should cut the price in half and wait for a counteroffer.

He gritted his teeth:

"Two hundred for two Spirit Stones!"

"Deal!"

Shopkeeper Lu agreed with extraordinary decisiveness.

So much so that Wang Ba was still rather dazed when he walked out holding the gourd containing the nematodes.

Why didn't he even counteroffer?

Were the profits that high?

He kept feeling as though he had gotten a bargain, yet also as though he had lost out.

Watching Wang Ba leave, Shopkeeper Lu finally relaxed the fingers he had clenched white behind his back, his face contorting.

"That hurt like hell!"

Despite the excruciating pain, however, he soon began humming a tune with a broad smile. His odd behavior made even the shop assistant curious.

"Sir, why are you so happy over a two-Spirit-Stone sale? I've never seen you this pleased even selling twenty Spirit Stones' worth."

"What do you know? That hurt me to death just now! But at least I finally unloaded some of these money pits! If that fellow hadn't run out of Spirit Stones, I'd have sold him every nematode here at a discount."

"They've eaten so many of my Spirit Stones!"

"True, that is worth celebrating!"

Carrying a gourd and a packet of Precious Chicken aphrodisiac he had bought at an herbal shop for three hundred taels of silver, Wang Ba returned to the mountain estate.

"One packet costs that much. What a fucking rip-off!"

After that remark, Wang Ba eagerly took out some of the medicine, mixed it with water, and poured it into a male Precious Chicken's feeding trough.

He would test the effects first.

After watching the male Precious Chicken eat it, he waited patiently for a while.

Sure enough, the male Precious Chicken seemed to grow increasingly restless, pacing frequently and flapping its wings. Even though it was not morning, it stretched its neck and burst into crowing for no reason.

The comb atop its head swelled as though engorged with blood.

Wang Ba was overjoyed!

Anyone who had raised chickens knew this clearly meant the rooster was getting fired up!

Sure enough, he saw the Precious Chicken raise its head and puff out its chest, slowly approaching the flock of Precious Chickens with gleaming eyes.

Then it plopped onto another male Precious Chicken and began shaking frantically!

Wang Ba: !!!

You've got the wrong fucking one! That's your brother!

Wang Ba screamed inwardly!

He hurriedly rushed over, intending to pull the bastard rooster off.

But before he could reach it, he saw it climb down on its own, as though it were a sage who had attained complete enlightenment.

"Uh..."

The sight left Wang Ba's teeth aching.

Did it have to be that quick?

Unwilling to give up, he fed another male Precious Chicken.

The result left him flabbergasted. This male Precious Chicken looked around, then jumped straight onto a little rooster...

"I fucking refuse to believe this!"

Furious, Wang Ba simply tossed the fired-up male Precious Chicken into a group of female Precious Chickens and shut it in.

Yet the male Precious Chicken forced its way through the encirclement, jumped onto a boot Wang Ba had left drying nearby, and pumped away furiously...

In the end, Wang Ba could not hold back. He deposited some lifespan into it, planning to slaughter it in a few days.

"Looks like this route won't work either!"

After all that work, Wang Ba plopped onto the stone steps, his face helpless.

He was gradually coming to understand how difficult breeding Precious Chickens was.

The roosters simply wouldn't respond to anything!

No wonder the Sect was so generous, allowing them to dispose of any chickens beyond the required tribute themselves.

They had long since figured out how difficult breeding Precious Chickens was and were merely putting on a show of generosity.

"For now, expanding the flock through breeding is a dead end."

Wang Ba sighed.

That left few paths available.

He could only exchange Spirit Chickens for Precious Chickens, then, after breaking through their lifespan limits, repeat the process.

The advantage was speed, with little need to raise them himself.

But the only problem was that he could not explain why he had so many Spirit Chickens.

After all, although he could conceal himself with Yin Spirit Power, selling too many Spirit Chickens would sooner or later attract the Sect's attention.

"So the problem is back where it started-how do I give this many Spirit Chickens a legitimate origin?"

He had actually wanted to raise something else, such as turtles, which were small, inconspicuous, and long-lived, but unfortunately he had seen none in the Market.

Raising chickens on a chicken farm was also the only method currently available to him that would not draw excessive attention.

Wang Ba looked at the gourd at his waist.

Perhaps his hope of giving the Spirit Chickens a legitimate origin lay inside.

Tendon-Cutting Nematodes!