Breeding success!

"Yes, I only received the news yesterday myself."

Steward Li looked rather grim.

"They say a villain broke into Old Sun's residence in the dead of night and brutally tortured him to death! His newly taken concubine and more than a dozen servants were not spared either. They all died horribly!"

"Strangely, the Sect found several Spirit Stones and mundane valuables in Old Sun's bedroom, but the villain hadn't taken them."

Wang Ba listened in alarm. Remembering how Old Sun had looked after him when he first arrived at Mountain Manor, he could not help questioning this:

"Steward Li, that doesn't make sense! Old Sun had reached the Ninth Layer of the Body-Strengthening Scripture. He had nearly a thousand jin more strength than an ordinary person. What mundane bandit could possibly harm him?"

Steward Li hesitated before speaking:

"Judging by the scene, it seems... a cultivator may have been involved."

"A cultivator? An immortal? But why would an immortal attack Old Sun?"

Wang Ba's heart jolted. The first thing he thought of was the gold sheet inscribed with the Yin Spirit Great Dream Scripture that Old Sun had left him before departing.

"I don't know."

Steward Li shook his head. "Whatever the case, Old Sun was a steward of our Sect. Surely the Sect won't let this rest. They'll get to the bottom of it!"

"If you know anything, be sure to tell me."

"Yes, of course!"

Wang Ba nodded repeatedly.

Steward Li seemed in no mood to chat with Wang Ba. Once he had checked the tally, he hurried away with the Precious Chickens and eggs offered as tribute.

He did not even inspect the situation inside Mountain Manor.

Jia One through Jia Six had been carefully hidden away for nothing.

Wang Ba, however, sank into thought.

Old Sun had died violently, with a cultivator suspected of involvement. Had it been chance, or deliberate?

If it had been chance, that was one thing.

But if it had been deliberate, what had it been for?

A grudge?

Or... that gold sheet?

If it really had been for the gold sheet, Old Sun had spent fifty years in the Sect, only for someone to learn of it and come knocking mere months after he returned home. That meant the other party attached great importance to that gold sheet.

And faced with a cultivator's methods, Old Sun, a mere mortal, most likely could not have kept his secrets.

In other words...

The other party might very well already know of his existence!

As Wang Ba realized this, his face instantly paled.

Because that meant it would be dangerous if he wanted to leave the Sect!

The other party would surely lie in wait for him, just as they had for Old Sun!

Of course, this conjecture was not all that reliable. There was even a considerable chance that Wang Ba was merely worrying that the sky would fall.

Besides, Wang Ba did not actually intend to leave the Sect anytime soon.

But he had always been cautious, and this matter still took root in his heart.

Until I form a Spiritual Root, I won't leave the Sect!

In the days that followed, he simply gave all sixteen remaining male Precious Chickens a lifespan breakthrough in one go.

Then he extracted their lifespans and killed and ate them one by one.

Although most of the Spiritual Qi in the Spirit Chickens went to waste, a fair amount was still converted into Yin God Power through visualizing the Yin God.

Within the Yin Spirit Mansion, a second drop, then a third, gradually condensed.

As his Yin Spirit Power grew, his observation of Spiritual Qi became increasingly fine.

He could vaguely discern that, among the twenty Precious Chickens he had fed Spirit Stones, a few seemed to have somewhat denser Spiritual Qi, while the others had changed little.

They had all been fed the same thing, yet such differences had emerged. Clearly, those few Precious Chickens had stronger bloodlines.

With limited resources, Wang Ba simply gave up on some that had shown little change, keeping only the six that performed well. He fed them Spirit Stone Powder again, implanted Tendon-Cutting Nematodes, and waited quietly.

Just like that, three months passed.

Old Hou panted heavily as he helped Wang Ba carry the chicken feed up to Mountain Manor.

"I'm exhausted!"

"Have you heard? Those young immortals from the Sect attended some gathering a while back, and apparently our Sect came in last!"

Old Hou still chatted with Wang Ba every day when he delivered the chicken feed.

Today's topic, however, caught Wang Ba's interest. "I hadn't heard that. Isn't our Eastern Saint Sect supposed to be very strong?"

"Who knows!"

Old Hou shook his head. "Speaking of strength, I heard a big shot from the Sect fought an elder from the Heavenly Gate Sect a while ago. Guess what happened? Ha! He was badly injured! So I'd say the Heavenly Gate Sect is stronger!"

"Shh!"

Wang Ba hastily raised his index finger to his lips.

He had heard Old Hou mention the Heavenly Gate Sect many times. It was supposedly a benevolent sect concerned with the suffering of those at the bottom. It had risen suddenly in recent years, yet remained very mysterious.

But as its influence gradually grew, it seemed to have developed some friction with several local sects.

Given his position and status, Old Hou knew little of the specifics.

Still, from what Old Hou had been saying lately, he seemed quite well disposed toward the Heavenly Gate Sect.

Regardless, praising another sect with which relations were strained while inside the Sect-especially when one was merely a Servant Disciple-was practically courting death.

Yet Wang Ba's caution was unexpectedly met with an unconcerned look from Old Hou:

"How would the immortals have time to listen to us shooting the breeze here!"

"They don't care about lowly Servant Disciples like us! We're all people who'll never cultivate a Spiritual Root anyway."

"Never cultivate a Spiritual Root?"

Wang Ba keenly picked out the key words in Old Hou's remarks.

"You don't know?"

Old Hou sneered. "We've been deceived by the Sect!"

"You've been practicing the Body-Strengthening Scripture too, haven't you? Ha! It's all a lie!"

"If you can't reach the Tenth Layer within three years, you'll never have any hope for the rest of your life!"

"Three years?!"

Wang Ba froze. How could anyone master it in three years?

He knew very well that every method in the Body-Strengthening Scripture required painstaking, steady effort, without the slightest room for neglect.

Unless someone had the ability to transfer lifespan like him. With sufficient lifespan, there was hope of achieving it.

Otherwise, even a thousand years might not suffice, much less a mere three.

At this thought, Wang Ba could not help asking skeptically, "Old Hou, who told you all this?"

"The Immortal Ascension Society, of course... ahem!"

Old Hou's expression immediately grew somewhat awkward. Seemingly realizing that his loose tongue had let something slip, he said evasively, "Well, it's hardly a secret. Plenty of people know!"

"All right, I still have chicken feed to deliver! Let's talk tomorrow."

With that, he hastily jumped onto the cart and drove the donkey cart away.

The Immortal Ascension Society?

Wang Ba narrowed his eyes.

For some reason, Steward Li's corpulent figure inexplicably flashed through his mind.

Several more days passed.

Wang Ba looked at the two Precious Chickens gradually transforming into Spirit Chickens before him, his face filled with delighted surprise. He was overjoyed.

"It finally worked!"

"My idea was right!"

After using up thirty-two Lower-grade Spirit Stones and three gourds of Tendon-Cutting Nematodes, he had finally bred two Spirit Chickens himself!

Although they had not fully transformed yet, with careful tending, they would complete their transformation before long.

This also meant that, with this method as cover, he could finally produce Spirit Chickens in batches without worry.

He could attribute them all to this breeding method anyway.

Ten days later.

Steward Li arrived as scheduled, a trace of astonishment appearing on his fleshy face:

"You actually bred Spirit Chickens?"

"And two of them, at that!"

Wang Ba remained modest and cautious:

"I must thank you for borrowing those books for me, Steward. They happened to contain a method for Spirit Chicken Breeding. I learned quite a bit from studying it, and after several attempts, I was fortunate enough to breed these two."

Always showing weakness was inadvisable. Appropriately displaying his abilities could also make the Sect value him more.

It would also make it easier for him to mass-produce Spirit Chickens and harvest lifespan.

That was why he had deliberately presented both of them.

After all, one might be a coincidence, but breeding two at once was not something coincidence could explain.

Steward Li thought the same.

And as a steward, he knew more.

In fact, Notes on Raising Poultry was hardly a secret within the Sect. Many people had read it.

But the requirements for transforming Precious Chickens into Spirit Chickens had essentially scared everyone off.

What a joke! How much was one Spirit Chicken worth? The Spirit Stones spent breeding one could buy two or three hundred!

As a result, this method of transforming Precious Chickens into Spirit Chickens had become a chicken rib-too little meat to be worth eating, yet a shame to discard.

The vast majority of Spirit Chickens on the market came from reproduction rather than this breeding method.

Precisely because he understood all this, he recognized Wang Ba's value all the more deeply.

Thoughts raced through his mind, and he soon had an idea.

He immediately reached out, seized Wang Ba's arm, and said solemnly:

"My friend, this is extremely important. I'll report it to the Sect right away!"

"But this year's Sect recruitment is coming up, and the elders are all busy. There may not be any news for a while."

"Rest assured, though. You'll get your rewards!"

"Oh, and you'd best not spread word about breeding these Spirit Chickens. Understand?"

With that, he hurried away with the two Spirit Chickens.

Sect recruitment?

Wang Ba fell into thought.

There were generally two ways to join a sect: approach it on one's own initiative, or wait for its regular recruitment.

Wang Ba had taken the former route.

Unfortunately, he had no Spiritual Root, so he could only settle for the next best thing, spending money on connections to enter as a Servant Disciple.

Nearly ten months had passed in the blink of an eye. Looking back now, it almost felt like a lifetime ago.

After a brief moment of reflection, Wang Ba gave it no further thought. Now that he had shown the Sect his value through Steward Li, he could head to the Market and gather Precious Chickens without worry.

This time, he intended to push his Body-Strengthening Scripture up in one go!