Changes!

Wang Ba waited patiently for several days before taking four Spirit Chickens whose lifespan he had drained to the Lu Family Grain Shop in West Garden Market.

Although he showed his true face, Wang Ba still tried to make himself as inconspicuous as possible, only entering once the shop had few customers.

"Oh! Brother Wang, why did you come so late? The Meridian-Passing Grass seeds sold out first thing this morning. Do you still want Tendon-Cutting Nematodes?"

Shopkeeper Lu greeted Wang Ba with particular enthusiasm.

He could hardly do otherwise. Although Wang Ba was a servant disciple, he had visited the shop many times and bought quite a few Tendon-Cutting Nematodes.

He was the only loyal customer who had been talked into buying them once and still willingly returned for more.

With such means, he might not count as a major customer among servant disciples, but he was certainly well-off.

Wang Ba waved his hands repeatedly. "Never mind that for now. Are you still buying spirit chickens?"

"Spirit chickens? Of course! I'll take all comers-the more, the better! What, do you have some?"

Hearing that they were spirit chickens, Shopkeeper Lu hurried around the counter with a smile and took the bamboo basket Wang Ba was carrying.

He lifted the lid, looked inside, and immediately lit up with delight.

"Four low-grade spirit chickens! Good heavens! Brother Wang, did you rob Ding Ten Manor?"

"I'm only a servant disciple. How would I dare rob a manor guarded by immortals? Don't worry, they're absolutely safe!"

Wang Ba laughed and brushed aside Shopkeeper Lu's probing question.

As Wang Ba spent more time in the sect and chatted with Old Hou, he had learned quite a bit of common knowledge.

For instance, the Dingzi Manors were places under the Ten Thousand Beasts Office specifically responsible for raising chickens, and there were over a hundred of them altogether.

The first ten Mountain Manors raised Spirit Chickens and were guarded by Outer Sect disciples.

The others were all tended and managed by servant disciples.

Generally, the lower a manor's number, the greater its resources and the more precious chickens it raised.

For example, Ding Sixteen Manor from before raised four or five hundred Precious Chickens, whereas Wang Ba's Mountain Manor was "Dingbaqi Manor" and had only a little over a hundred in total when Old Sun left.

Of course, the lower-numbered manors generally had to offer more chickens each month, so the pressure they faced was hardly any less than that on the higher-numbered manors.

That was also why Song Lun of Ding Sixteen Manor had eagerly gone around buying precious chickens as soon as he received his compensation.

Shopkeeper Lu had only been joking. Once Wang Ba assured him there was no problem, he smiled, took out some yellow paper, and tested them one by one.

"Brother Wang, don't think I don't trust you. It's the rules!"

Shopkeeper Lu explained.

Wang Ba nodded without objecting, but suddenly thought of Jia Five.

I wonder if that fellow still counts as a low-grade spirit chicken...

"Four low-grade male Spirit Chickens. Tsk, a pity they aren't hens." Shopkeeper Lu shook his head regretfully, though he also knew most people could not bear to sell hens. He looked up and said,

"Brother Wang, we know each other well, so I won't stand on ceremony. For these four spirit chickens, I'll offer three Spirit Stones and three tenths apiece!"

"I don't want Spirit Stones. Exchange all of it for precious chickens!"

Wang Ba said decisively.

"All of it for precious chickens?"

Surprise crossed Shopkeeper Lu's face, but his fingers still flew over the abacus. "All right! I'll give them to you at cost, though precious chicken prices have risen a little lately. Hens are now fifty-seven hundredths apiece, and roosters twenty-one hundredths... That comes to exactly thirty-four, half roosters and half hens. I'll throw in another rooster!"

"I don't want hens, only roosters."

Wang Ba waved his hand again.

Since he intended to barter and make a quick exchange, trading for roosters was naturally more economical.

"Only roosters?"

Shopkeeper Lu froze for a moment, but quickly recovered.

"That makes sixty-two!"

"Throw in two more!" Wang Ba fully embraced the spirit of getting a bargain, however small.

"Two would cost four tenths of a Spirit Stone... Fine. Since you're a regular customer, I'll take a little loss and throw them in!"

For some reason, though, Shopkeeper Lu felt that the scene was strangely familiar, as if he had experienced it before.

Once the transaction was complete, Wang Ba did not hurry to leave. Instead, he asked with interest, "Shopkeeper, could you sell me the technique for raising and breeding these Tendon-Cutting Nematodes?"

"You want to breed them yourself?"

Shopkeeper Lu kept shaking his head. "The method isn't difficult, but let me offer you a word of advice as an older brother. Breeding these Tendon-Cutting Nematodes takes a tremendous amount of time and money. Seeing how many you've bought, I know you must intend to cultivate a Spiritual Root and set foot on the immortal path. There's no need to waste your time on this."

"Thank you for your concern, Shopkeeper. I was only asking. If it really takes too much time, forget it."

Wang Ba said with a smile.

Shopkeeper Lu did not keep it secret, and soon taught him how to raise and breed the Tendon-Cutting Nematodes without charging him any money.

These Tendon-Cutting Nematodes actually nest in the remains of high-grade spirit beasts and only lay eggs once they've eaten and drunk their fill. The spirit beast remains also need replacing regularly... It really is troublesome.

Still, he committed it to memory. If he had the chance, he intended to try depositing some lifespan into the Tendon-Cutting Nematodes as well.

After leaving West Garden Market and making sure no one was following him, he returned to the Mountain Manor.

Afterward, he repeated the process, taking four Spirit Chickens each to East Mountain Market and North Pine Market and exchanging them for over a hundred and twenty more male Precious Chickens.

He did not go to South Lake. The price gouging there was too severe.

It took a great deal of effort and several trips to bring all these precious chickens back.

With that, the number of Precious Chickens at the Mountain Manor suddenly rose to around two hundred and sixty.

Among them were six Spirit Chickens, 202 male Precious Chickens, and fifty-three female Precious Chickens.

There were fewer female Precious Chickens than when he had first arrived, mainly because of the monthly offerings and the insufficient number of newly hatched hens.

The abundance of roosters was only temporary, too.

Considering the potential impact, he deposited lifespan into only sixty of them.

He had eaten a dozen or so spirit chickens over the previous few months. Including the lifespan he had drained, his lifespan had now reached 190.2 years.

Ten days later.

The precious chickens completed their transformation. He harvested them directly, and his lifespan smoothly surpassed 550 years.

Wang Ba had never possessed such an amount before.

Although he was somewhat reluctant to part with it, he still chose to spend it.

[Current lifespan -72 years]

Body-Strengthening Scripture Fourth Layer, complete!

[Current lifespan -144 years]

The fifth layer!

[Current lifespan -288 years]

The sixth layer!

In one go, he had cultivated all the way to the sixth layer!

Feeling the strength brimming within his body, Wang Ba grew even more eager to become a cultivator.

Yet he had no choice but to slow the pace of his breakthroughs.

First, along with the strength brimming through his body came a swelling ache, giving him a vague understanding that although he could rapidly master the cultivation method through lifespan, his body might not be able to withstand it all at once.

He had to slow down a little and let his body adjust before making another breakthrough.

Second, he discovered that the precious chickens available in the markets had recently begun to fall short of his needs.

He had learned this by chance two days earlier while chatting with Shopkeeper Lu during a visit to West Garden Market.

Recently, unexplained outbreaks of Chicken Plague had frequently struck some of the Dingzi Manors, and some of their chicken-raising servant disciples had begun buying precious chickens instead of selling them.

This had caused a shortage of precious chickens on the market and sent prices soaring.

"And that's not all. Quite a few Outer Sect disciples are buying Precious Chickens in bulk, too. I don't have a single hen left now! I have to go looking in other markets, or even buy from rogue cultivators outside the sect. Rogue cultivators won't show us mortals any consideration..."

Shopkeeper Lu poured out his grievances to Wang Ba.

Hearing this, Wang Ba had immediately wanted to buy a batch of precious chickens, but the moment he asked the price, that thought was extinguished.

Even male Precious Chickens had risen to six tenths of a Spirit Stone apiece!

When Wang Ba first sold Spirit Chickens, the purchase price of a male Precious Chicken had been only fifteen hundredths.

Even when he had exchanged spirit chickens for precious chickens not long before, it had only been twenty-one hundredths.

The difference in price was simply too great. Wang Ba had no intention of being that sucker.

After all, to reach the tenth layer smoothly, he still needed at least another 5,100-odd years of lifespan, which worked out to nearly nine hundred precious chickens.

There were still over a hundred male Precious Chickens at the Mountain Manor into which he had yet to deposit lifespan. In other words, he was still eight hundred Precious Chickens short.

If he bought at these high prices, his costs would be frighteningly high.

Besides, bringing out too many spirit chickens at once to trade still wouldn't be very safe. I should wait until prices drop a little. It's not that urgent anyway.

Afterward, he browsed several nearby shops, including an herb shop and a talisman shop.

To his surprise, however, nearly everything in both the herb shop and the talisman shop had sold out.

Only relatively unpopular, inexpensive talismans such as low-tier Spiritlight Talismans remained.

These talismans did not require Law Power to activate, either. Remembering Jia Five, Wang Ba immediately bought a stack.

After returning to the Mountain Manor, he eagerly brought the yellow paper close to Jia Five.

The yellow paper ignited without any wind, and at the same time, a faint white glow rose from it...