That was right!
The Tendon-Cutting Nematode!
That was the thought that had sprung into Wang Ba's mind the moment he heard Shopkeeper Lu explain its effects!
Since Tendon-Cutting Nematodes worked similarly to Meridian-Passing Grass seeds, could they also be used to achieve bloodline breakthroughs in Precious Chickens?
Although Tendon-Cutting Nematodes were far less effective, they were cheap!
A full twenty times cheaper than low-grade Meridian-Passing Grass seeds!
With the cost reduced, he could cast a wide net, putting a Tendon-Cutting Nematode into every Precious Chicken.
As long as even one successfully achieved a bloodline breakthrough and became a Spirit Chicken, that would prove this path was viable!
As long as the method worked, however low the odds, he could openly bring out his Spirit Chickens.
He would not even mind handing the method over to the Sect.
If the Sect's tests produced poor results, that could only be a matter of probability and luck.
Fortune was a mystery beyond mysteries; no one could say for certain.
And right now, the most crucial thing was naturally to test whether this method was viable!
At that thought, he did not immediately get to work.
During the day, he carefully selected twenty healthy Precious Chickens, ten males and ten females, marked them individually, and kept them separately.
Only after night fell did he carefully retrieve twenty Spirit Stones from beneath the chicken feed vat.
His heart could not help bleeding. These were twenty Spirit Stones!
Enough to buy more than 130 male Precious Chickens.
After their lifespan breakthroughs, they could provide him with nearly eight hundred years of lifespan!
Enough to let him successfully master the fourth, fifth, and sixth levels of the Body-Strengthening Scripture!
But he also knew very well that even if he mastered the ninth level, it would make no difference in a cultivator's eyes.
A servant disciple without a Spiritual Root would forever be nothing more than a servant disciple.
Without sacrificing the child, he could never snare the wolf!
For the first time, a trace of ruthlessness flashed through Wang Ba's eyes!
He raised the iron hammer.
With all his strength!
Bang!
The hard Spirit Stone remained unchanged, with only a faint trace of dust at its edge.
Wang Ba did not hesitate and continued-
Bang!
Bang!
It was only because Wang Ba lived in this dilapidated estate with no one around in any direction. Had he been in an alley near the Market, he would have been driven away long ago.
But even so.
By daybreak, he had only managed to grind three Spirit Stones into powder.
If his strength and stamina had not increased considerably after practicing the Body-Strengthening Scripture, he would never have lasted the night.
"Unfortunately, the proportion of Spirit Stone Powder mixed into the chicken feed is far too low. Otherwise, I could use the feed instead."
Wang Ba felt somewhat regretful.
He could see Spiritual Qi clearly, so naturally, he could distinguish how little Spiritual Qi was mixed into the chicken feed.
An entire vat containing nearly a hundred jin of chicken feed did not hold even one-hundredth of a Spirit Stone's worth of Spiritual Qi altogether.
Truly putting waste to use.
And a hundred jin of chicken feed was already a day's food for all the Precious Chickens and Spirit Chickens in the entire estate.
Since he had ground out too little Spirit Stone Powder, Wang Ba planned to wait another couple of days and feed them all together, making it easier to observe, compare, and compile experience and data.
"I forgot to ask the shopkeeper how to feed these nematodes..."
Wang Ba slapped his forehead.
After some thought, he still decided to experiment.
He made a point of shutting the door and lighting only a single oil lamp, then carefully wrapped his hand in his clothes and pinched a Tendon-Cutting Nematode out of the gourd.
It was pitch-black, but on closer inspection, he could still make out the fine, dense flagella at both ends and the hideous, gaping mouths lined with split teeth.
Perhaps sensing the Spirit Stone Powder nearby, its body kept twisting and stretching like an earthworm. Wang Ba even felt as though it was preparing to sever its own lower half so it could go searching for the Spirit Stones.
Wang Ba hurriedly moved the jar of Spirit Stone Powder farther away.
Only then did the Tendon-Cutting Nematode settle down, wriggling slowly on Wang Ba's palm.
Even with a layer of clothing between them, the sight made Wang Ba's hair stand on end.
He was truly terrified of such grotesque-looking worms.
So he was indeed a little hesitant.
"Am I really going to put this thing inside my body?"
That was right. He intended to experience the effects of the Tendon-Cutting Nematode firsthand.
Although Shopkeeper Lu's demonstration had convinced him that Tendon-Cutting Nematodes posed no danger to humans.
Whether they could truly open the meridians still remained to be proven.
He was also somewhat curious and wanted to try their effects.
But this challenged not only his physical limits, but his psychological limits too!
Still, judging by Shopkeeper Lu's appearance, having a Tendon-Cutting Nematode crawl into his ear had not seemed to feel like much.
Wang Ba still could not quite make up his mind.
This thing won't crawl into my head and eat my brains, will it?
The thought of his brains being gnawed completely hollow instantly made him want to throw the Tendon-Cutting Nematode away.
"Going in through the head is absolutely out of the question!"
But the human body only had so many openings: eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, navel, and one in front and one behind...
If it could not go through the top, surely he could not... send it through the bottom?
The image made Wang Ba shudder.
It was too beautiful a sight to dare contemplate.
After turning it over and over in his mind, Wang Ba gritted his teeth and used a knife sterilized over a flame to make a hair-thin cut in his finger!
"Hiss! That really hurts!"
This was already the greatest concession a tough guy who did not even dare get an injection could make.
Whether the Tendon-Cutting Nematode smelled blood or had an innate fondness for holes, the moment Wang Ba extended his finger toward it, it eagerly poked its head forward and burrowed inside.
[Target lifespan: 0.2 years]
The next second, Wang Ba's eyes flew wide!
Fuck!
That bastard Lu screwed me!
That single thought flashed through his mind before a wave of almost unbearable pain swiftly engulfed him!
"Fuck!!!"
Under such pain, never mind cultivating-even remaining conscious was extremely difficult.
Wang Ba, whose will had never been particularly firm to begin with, instantly curled up like a cooked shrimp from the pain.
Fortunately, he had prepared a Spirit Stone beforehand just in case. While he still retained a tenuous shred of consciousness, he hurriedly struggled to reach it.
The Tendon-Cutting Nematode soon swam out of Wang Ba's nostril and swiftly coiled itself around the Spirit Stone.
Wang Ba immediately let out a long breath of relief and sat on the ground without caring how he looked, his hand trembling uncontrollably.
He did not know whether it was his imagination, but he vaguely felt that this Tendon-Cutting Nematode really did seem a little shorter.
It did seem to have worked.
"I don't care! However effective it is, I'm never using this method again!"
The mere thought of that unbearable pain made his heart tremble.
No wonder Shopkeeper Lu had been willing to sell the Tendon-Cutting Nematodes at half price. With pain on that level, probably no one wanted them at all.
Only after resting for quite some time did he muster the strength to pry the Tendon-Cutting Nematode off the Spirit Stone and toss it into the gourd.
After some thought, he decided to find a Precious Chicken and test whether the Tendon-Cutting Nematode worked on it.
Of course, he could not waste one either, so he picked a rooster from the twenty Precious Chickens he had selected yesterday, steeled himself, and stuffed the Tendon-Cutting Nematode into its nostril.
Well, when the rooster saw the Tendon-Cutting Nematode, it even instinctively opened its beak to eat it.
Fortunately, Wang Ba was quick and clamped the Precious Chicken's beak shut.
And once the Tendon-Cutting Nematode had successfully burrowed into the rooster's nostril.
Wang Ba immediately retreated two steps nervously, shooed away the surrounding Precious Chickens, and fixed his eyes on it!
Even he could not endure that pain, let alone a chicken.
And chickens were nervous creatures, after all, with domesticated chickens being relatively poor at withstanding stress.
That was why one often heard of thunder frightening chickens to death at chicken farms.
So after the Tendon-Cutting Nematode entered, the Precious Chicken might very well suffer an intense stress response from the immense pain, resulting in sudden death!
This was what worried Wang Ba most about this experiment.
An extremely high casualty rate would not affect his ability to legitimize his Spirit Chickens, but it would still be a loss.
So Wang Ba stared intently at the rooster.
And the rooster seemed to sense something too, turning both eyes toward him.
Man and chicken gazed at each other, the atmosphere unbearably tense.
Ten breaths later.
The male Precious Chicken tilted its head and looked at Wang Ba with curiosity written all over its face:
"Cluck?"
Before you continue