At that moment, Wang Ba's thoughts twisted and turned a thousand times.
He kept to himself within the Sect. The people who knew his name and could put a face to it could probably be counted on one hand.
Steward Li, Old Hou, Niu Yong, and Old Sun.
Even Shopkeeper Lu had always called him Brother Wang, without knowing his name.
Of course, perhaps he did know and simply had never said it.
But regardless, South Lake Market was not close to Dingbaqi Manor, where Wang Ba lived, yet an unfamiliar voice had called out his name at once.
Wang Ba dared not think too deeply about what that meant.
He merely felt an instinctive urge to throw out the version 2.0 Tendon-Cutting Nematode hidden in his sleeve.
He did not know whether it would work. It was one of the few means he possessed that could barely inflict any harm.
But as the Spirit Insect slid down to his wrist, he forced himself to hold back.
First, attacking rashly without knowing the other party's capabilities would truly be unwise.
Second, the person behind him spoke again.
And those words sent a violent shock through Wang Ba's heart!
"You've been in the Sect for less than a year, yet you've already perfected the sixth level of the Body-Strengthening Scripture. To think you actually have a hidden spiritual root."
There was some surprise in the man's voice.
He actually saw through it!
Wang Ba's heart trembled.
Wasn't the Body-Strengthening Scripture supposed to be completely undetectable from the outside?
Why could this man tell?
And why did this man know so much about me?
Who exactly was he?!
As though sensing Wang Ba's shock and confusion, the man spoke again.
His voice regained its cold severity:
"With each level a practitioner of the Body-Strengthening Scripture completes, corresponding subtle changes occur in the body. A Qi Refining cultivator's five senses far surpass a mortal's. As long as the body wasn't obtained through possession, we can tell at a glance."
So that was it!
Wang Ba silently committed this to memory, then hurriedly turned around.
Not daring to pry into the man's appearance or show any disrespect, he hastily bent to bow.
Yet he found that he could not bow down no matter what, as though an invisible force beneath him was stopping him.
"Since you have a hidden spiritual root, there's no need to bow."
The man spoke calmly.
"Yes, yes!"
Despite saying that, Wang Ba remained bent forward and carefully looked the man over.
The man was neither tall nor short, with a cold, stern face and bearing. He wore the white Daoist robe of an Outer Sect disciple, and Wang Ba could vaguely make out a magic sword on his back.
As Wang Ba looked at him, he too was studying Wang Ba.
His gaze was cold and stern, and the surging fluctuations of Spiritual Qi around him almost made Wang Ba feel as though he were suffocating.
His thoughts raced as he cautiously asked, "May I ask what instructions you have for this lowly one, exalted immortal?"
But the man continued on his own. "You went to the Lu Household just now, and you even gave them a Spirit Chicken."
Wang Ba's heart jolted!
Was this Outer Sect disciple watching the Lu Household?!
Otherwise, how could he know that Wang Ba had given the Lu Household a Spirit Chicken? After all, he had only just come out.
Could he be Lu Yuansheng's enemy?
No wonder!
No wonder he had stopped me.
Understanding instantly dawned on Wang Ba. The man had probably set his sights on him the moment he entered the Lu Household!
At that moment, he naturally felt regret, but he immediately suppressed it.
Who could avoid doing things they regretted?
The key was whether they could make amends in time.
He hurriedly explained, "This lowly one previously received Shopkeeper Lu's kindness..."
"No need to explain."
The man's gaze blazed like a torch, as though he had seen through everything:
"You've done well!"
As he spoke, to Wang Ba's surprise, he reached into his sleeve and tossed him an ancient-looking jade ring pendant.
Wang Ba hastily caught it, confusion on his face:
"This... exalted immortal, what is this?"
But the man had already turned and was walking away.
His voice, however, rang beside Wang Ba's ear as though it had physical substance.
"Upheaval is coming within the Sect."
"This is a protective magic pendant. Crush it, and I will come."
"But remember, it can only be used once."
After a pause, he turned his head and said slowly, "My name is Zhao Feng... senior brother Lu Yuansheng once showed me kindness."
With that, he vanished into the distance like a phantom.
A long while passed.
After secretly drawing on Yin Spirit Power to fabricate subtle changes, Wang Ba discovered that none of it was being consumed.
Only then did he wipe the cold sweat from his forehead and let out a heavy breath.
Unlike the last time he had deceived a Sect disciple, this was his first time facing one head-on.
Even though the man seemed to bear him no ill will.
The psychological strain was one thing, but the Spiritual Qi surging all over the man had also exerted immense pressure on him.
Still, though he remained somewhat bedraggled, he was in much better shape than last time.
At least he had not fallen flat on his backside.
More important, however, was the information the man had just revealed.
This Outer Sect disciple, Zhao Feng, seems to have had a close relationship with the late Lu Yuansheng. Otherwise, he wouldn't have specifically given me a protective magic pendant just because I gave the Lu Household a Spirit Chicken. But why hasn't he stepped forward to protect the Lu Household? If an Outer Sect disciple intervened, they shouldn't have fallen so far.
Or does this have something to do with the coming upheaval in the Sect that both he and Shopkeeper Lu mentioned?
Wang Ba was puzzled.
But it put him even more on his guard.
After all, even a lofty Outer Sect disciple seemed deeply reluctant to discuss the coming upheaval and extremely wary of it. If a lowly Servant Disciple like him were caught in it, there probably would not even be any scraps left.
For the first time, an urgent desire to leave the Sect rose in his heart.
The distance stretched empty and hazy.
Wang Ba could not help tightening his grip on the jade pendant...
Seven days later.
Wang Ba stood before a brood of newly hatched chicks in delighted surprise, his face filled with the joy of a loving father.
It was mainly because, two months earlier, Jia Five had bestowed his favor upon Jia Four.
And the three eggs Jia Four had laid after receiving Jia Five's favor had finally all hatched!
All told, these three eggs had taken nearly two whole months!
During that time, Jia Four, a female Spirit Chicken with weak maternal instincts, had even abandoned the eggs several times.
Yet under Jia Five's pecking, she had been forced to settle back onto them.
Fortunately, all three eggs had hatched successfully.
And they had even brought Wang Ba a surprise!
[Target lifespan: 80.2 years]
This was the one with the longest lifespan.
The other two had lifespans very close to that figure as well.
When tested with a Spiritlight Talisman, all of them gave off a grayish-white glow.
In other words, all three newly hatched little fellows were close to middle-grade Spirit Chickens.
"When a middle-grade one mates with a low-grade one, the offspring fall somewhere between middle grade and low grade."
"These three little ones seem a little stronger than their father, Jia Five. After all, they haven't undergone a lifespan breakthrough yet."
"If they do, even if they don't reach high grade, they'll probably come very close."
Holding a homemade charcoal pencil, Wang Ba made detailed notes on paper.
"Jia One through Jia Four, along with Jia Six, count as first-generation Spirit Chickens. Jia Five counts as second-generation, so these three count as third-generation Spirit Chickens."
"The higher the grade of the breeding chickens, the higher the grade of their offspring tends to be. But the roosters' willingness to mate on their own clearly declines, and the difficulty of successfully breeding them rises sharply."
"But in theory, with lifespan breakthrough, I can absolutely keep raising the grade of the Spirit Chickens' offspring through lifespan breakthrough plus rapid breeding!"
"And the only problem with this approach is that the roosters have no desire to mate."
This was an old problem. Wang Ba had recognized this limitation long ago.
But he was helpless against this one problem.
Drugging them, forcing males and females to live together, showing the roosters "erotic paintings," and even tying up female Spirit Chickens and tossing them in front of the roosters...
Wang Ba had tried every sort of sordid trick.
Yet none of it had stirred the roosters' iron-hard hearts in the slightest.
Whenever one or two more proactive roosters appeared, Wang Ba protected them like precious treasures.
Jia One, Jia Two, and Jia Six, for instance.
They were all male Spirit Chickens, but compared with others of their kind, they showed a little more preference for the females.
Wang Ba shook his head and stopped dwelling on it, devoting his efforts to investigating the defenses along the Sect's boundaries.
He had already made his decision.
He would leave the Sect.
Before you continue