"Unless what?"
After waiting a moment and finding that Old Hou had clammed up, Wang Ba could not help asking urgently.
Leaving his words hanging like that-wasn't he just whetting Wang Ba's appetite?
This time, however, no matter how Wang Ba pressed him, Old Hou refused to say another word.
To avoid Wang Ba's questions, he even waved a hand, knowing his own resolve was weak, then flicked his whip and drove the donkey cart away, racing and skidding around the bends.
Wang Ba was so angry he wanted to curse.
Still, he worked to calm himself and quickly sorted through what he had learned from their conversation.
According to Old Hou and Steward Li, the Body-Strengthening Scripture is a carrot dangled in front of all the servant disciples, forcing them to work hard in hopes of gaining a chance to defy heaven and change their fate.
But apart from those who already have a hidden spiritual root, the vast majority are merely scenery, chives waiting to be harvested.
Yet Old Hou seemed to imply there might be a way out.
Recalling the changes in Old Hou lately, and how he had nearly failed to hold him back just now, Wang Ba began to form a vague guess.
Barring anything unexpected, Old Hou should have reached the ninth layer too.
Delivering chicken feed doesn't offer much grease to skim, and he doesn't look particularly wealthy, so it's unlikely he cultivated by consuming Meridian-Passing Grass Seeds.
Then he must have relied on his own talent... But when I first arrived, helping me carry chicken feed left Old Hou panting for breath. Just a few months later, he could carry feed buckets weighing dozens of jin up and down the mountain without his expression changing. With such a huge change in so little time, it's also very unlikely he relied on his own talent!
So there's only one possibility... He received quite a few benefits from the Immortal Ascension Society!
Barring anything unexpected, the Immortal Ascension Society holds the method ordinary people can use to defy heaven, change their fate, and obtain a spiritual root!
But what exactly is this Immortal Ascension Society trying to achieve by inciting and buying off servant disciples?
Ultimately, this line of thought led nowhere, so Wang Ba simply stopped dwelling on it.
He continued eating Spirit Chickens, working hard to strengthen his Yin Spirit Power.
Every day afterward, however, Wang Ba would pester Old Hou, trying to pry something more out of that big mouth of his.
To his surprise, Old Hou became a tightly stoppered gourd in the days that followed. No matter how Wang Ba prodded him, he would not open his mouth.
It seems the Immortal Ascension Society has quite a hold over Old Hou!
Wang Ba looked thoughtful.
And amid those endlessly repeating days, the Sect's recruitment finally began.
That day.
Wang Ba looked up from the manor and saw countless brilliant streaks of light flashing across the daytime sky.
They were beautiful, magnificent, and brimming with a staggering concentration of Spiritual Qi!
Wang Ba watched enviously for only a little while before hurriedly hiding inside his house, fighting the urge to keep watching.
He feared that someone up there might happen to look down at him on a whim.
That alone would probably exhaust all the Yin Spirit Power he had painstakingly condensed.
Steward Li also came by during this time, saying the Sect had issued orders allowing servant disciples to attend the recruitment ceremony to guide the new Sect disciples, carry their luggage, and so on, in exchange for rewards from the Sect.
Wang Ba declined, however, saying he needed to tend to the Spirit Chickens.
"You really aren't going? This is a wonderful opportunity to form good ties with Sect disciples, a chance the Sect has bestowed upon servant disciples!"
Steward Li tried to persuade him.
Wang Ba shook his head. "I'd like to go too, but these Spirit Chickens have only just been raised. I'm worried about hindering their growth, so I can only regret missing the opportunity."
"Besides, even if I form good ties, could that let me cultivate a spiritual root?"
"Well... All right, then. I'll go find some other servant disciples."
Steward Li shook his head lightly, then left.
Life returned to its former tranquility, and even something as momentous as the Sect's recruitment soon became a speck of dust in his memories.
Only occasionally, when Wang Ba visited the Market, would he hear Shopkeeper Lu speak enviously of it.
"There was a servant disciple from your Dingzi Manor-ha! Because he was handsome, an inner sect disciple actually chose him as a personal attendant. Even if he never sets foot on the path to immortality, his status will soar. He's ascended to heaven in a single step!"
"That immortal from the inner sect, uh... was it a man or a woman?"
Wang Ba asked curiously.
"That inner sect disciple was, of course, exceptionally imposing and masculine! Only slightly inferior to my employer!"
"So a man... Tsk, tsk!"
Wang Ba expressed no envy whatsoever toward that sort of meteoric rise.
"Heh, you-with those looks, even if you wanted to become a personal attendant, he wouldn't give you a second glance!"
Shopkeeper Lu teased him, then shared another piece of inside news:
"Apparently, the Sect also recruited a female disciple with a high grade spiritual root this year. She's only sixteen, but her talent is extraordinary. She even drew the attention of an elder, who personally accepted her as a disciple, and she became an inner sect disciple as soon as she joined! Enough to make the rest of us die of envy!"
"A high grade spiritual root..."
A look of longing appeared on Wang Ba's face, but he soon shook his head.
Never mind a high grade spiritual root-he would burn incense in thanksgiving if he had even a low grade spiritual root.
"Back to business. Have your Precious Chickens arrived?"
At that, Shopkeeper Lu could only sigh. "Ah! Don't mention it. A junior brother of my employer forced me to sell him the batch that just arrived. I didn't make the slightest profit!"
"None again, huh."
Wang Ba could not hide his disappointment.
Over the past few days, the Chicken Plague at Dingzi Manor had become impossible to conceal, and the Precious Chickens at several other manors had also suffered.
There was no telling who was fanning the flames in the market, but Precious Chicken prices had soared lately. Even an ordinary male Precious Chicken could sell for eight or nine hundredths of a Spirit Stone, and demand still exceeded supply.
Wang Ba had come almost every day lately, yet had not seen a single one.
He bitterly regretted it. Had he known, he would have taken a little risk earlier and bought more Precious Chickens.
Unfortunately, people had no eyes that could see both before and after. He had not known the Precious Chicken market would change so dramatically all at once, and had missed the chance to snatch them up first.
After thinking for a moment, he asked again, "Then what about Treasure Pigs, Red-Snow Oxen, Wind Sheep, and Colorful Ducks?"
These animals had effects similar to Precious Chickens, but apart from Colorful Ducks, whose requirements were close to those of Precious Chickens, raising the others was like heading south to reach the north.
Wang Ba had been driven into a corner and had no other choice, which was why he wanted to try raising other animals.
After all, breaking through their lifespans worked the same way.
To his disappointment, however, Shopkeeper Lu said he had none of them.
"All gone! Every live one has sold!"
"Oh, right, I still have a thousand or so Tendon-Cutting Nematodes. Do you want them? If you do, I'll bundle them all together and sell them to you cheap."
Wang Ba thought for a moment. "How much for the lot?"
"Five Spirit Stones!"
"One!"
"Done!"
Wang Ba: "..."
Was there really that much room in the profit margin?
He felt he had already bargained the price down to the bone!
What a crooked merchant!
Having cleared out the Tendon-Cutting Nematodes, Shopkeeper Lu seemed in excellent spirits. As Wang Ba was leaving, he held him back, glanced around, and deliberately cautioned him:
"Brother Wang, you'd best go out less for a while. Something seems rather off in the Sect lately. You must be careful!"
Wang Ba's heart stirred. Had the person behind Shopkeeper Lu discovered something wrong?
He hurriedly asked Shopkeeper Lu for advice.
Shopkeeper Lu shook his head. "I don't know either. I've simply been a merchant for many years, and my nose is still fairly sharp. I keep feeling something is wrong. You servant disciples have no one protecting you, so you must be cautious. Whenever unrest has broken out since ancient times, it's always been those of us at the bottom who die the most!"
Hearing Shopkeeper Lu's words, Wang Ba fell briefly silent, then solemnly bowed to him.
Shopkeeper Lu accepted it without demur.
After returning to the manor, Wang Ba resumed his hermit's life, never venturing beyond either door or gate.
He ate Spirit Chickens every day, until he nearly vomited from eating them.
His Yin Spirit Power progressed quite quickly, however, and he had successfully condensed ten drops.
Apart from that, his greatest gain was breeding an upgraded 2.0 version of the Tendon-Cutting Nematodes through lifespan breakthroughs.
[Target lifespan: 1 year]
Unlike the original Tendon-Cutting Nematodes, whose lifespans were only 0.1 years, every one of these Tendon-Cutting Nematodes advanced through lifespan breakthroughs had a lifespan of at least one year.
Testing them with a Spiritlight Talisman also showed that they had all reached first-tier middle grade.
Their speed and the pain they inflicted after burrowing into a human body were both nearly twice or more those of first-tier low grade Tendon-Cutting Nematodes!
The only thing that disappointed Wang Ba somewhat was the extremely poor exchange ratio between the Tendon-Cutting Nematodes and his own lifespan.
On average, fifty middle grade Tendon-Cutting Nematodes could provide him with only one year of lifespan.
Even using up every Tendon-Cutting Nematode he had would provide him with less than thirty years of lifespan.
That was only equivalent to five or six Spirit Chickens.
Compared with Precious Chickens, the Tendon-Cutting Nematodes' only advantage was that breeding them involved far fewer complications.
They only needed to be raised among the bones and remains of high-grade Spirit Beasts, and they would lay eggs once they had eaten and drunk their fill.
Although the subsequent hatching required time and maintained temperature and humidity, it was already incomparably better than having no idea where to begin with the Precious Chickens.
The only regret was that he currently had no bones or remains of high-grade Spirit Beasts.
So he could not breed them.
The peaceful days passed one after another, and everything happening outside seemed completely cut off from him.
Until one day...
Someone tore the roof off his house.
Before you continue