Surveillance

"With the first volume of the Bone-Burying Secret Art as bait and the second as the hook... this Immortal Ascension Society certainly knows how to work its abacus."

Wang Ba saw through the intentions of Yu Changchun, the Immortal Ascension Society's manager, at a glance.

But he also knew that simple as this method was, its effectiveness would be downright brutal.

Putting himself in their shoes, if an ordinary servant disciple knew the Body-Strengthening Scripture could not be mastered, then learned of the wonders of the "Bone-Burying Secret Art"...

They would probably throw themselves at it regardless of the cost.

To use a popular expression from his previous life, this was an open scheme.

As long as you remained in the Eastern Saint Sect, were still a servant disciple without hope, and still wanted to set foot on the path to immortality-if you met those three conditions, you would inevitably have to join the Immortal Ascension Society.

Moreover, you would absolutely keep every secret for this organization.

And the crucial question was just what this organization was plotting.

Wang Ba did not know.

But he knew very clearly that their secrecy-the fact that he had not heard so much as a whisper in the Market-was enough to establish one thing.

Their ambitions were enormous!

Still, whatever they were plotting, it no longer had much to do with him.

"In fifteen days, I'll leave through the Underground Passage. Whatever the Immortal Ascension Society is planning will have nothing to do with me."

Wang Ba tossed the palm-sized booklet in his hand, then casually tucked it into his robe.

He did not throw it away.

Mainly because he felt that if the Body-Strengthening Scripture really proved ineffective, this "Bone-Burying Secret Art" might offer a way out.

After some thought, he maintained his disguise with Yin Spirit Power and walked out of the room.

Sure enough, he immediately felt the Yin Spirit Power inside his Yin Spirit Mansion begin spinning rapidly.

Wang Ba could not help cursing inwardly, but he did not immediately return to his room, worried that his unusual behavior would put Yu Changchun on guard.

He pretended to go out for some water, then put on a hurried manner, as though eager to study the "Bone-Burying Secret Art," and returned to his room.

Sure enough, the spinning Yin Spirit Power stopped again.

Wang Ba's expression turned exceedingly grim.

"What does this mean? They're watching me all the time? Are they worried I'll go out and report them? They really are cautious."

At this moment, he finally understood why there was not a single whisper about them in the Market outside.

Clearly, most servant disciples could not escape the lure of the "Bone-Burying Secret Art."

And even if some could, the constant surveillance was enough to snuff out every potential problem.

"In that case, the information Old Hou revealed about the Immortal Ascension Society before seems more like something he deliberately let me draw out of him... looks like they had their eyes on me long ago."

Only now did Wang Ba belatedly realize that some previously inconspicuous details were probably the results of their meticulous arrangements.

"If that's the case, then Manure Boss Niu Yong, and even Steward Li, might also be in their sights! No, they might even have been their people all along. This Immortal Ascension Society... just what does it want to do?!"

This question had surfaced in Wang Ba's mind many times already.

But Wang Ba immediately cast it out of his thoughts again.

Because even knowing their objective would do nothing to resolve the problem before him.

The most important thing now was how to deal with being watched by the Immortal Ascension Society.

If he did not resolve this problem, the society's people might dispose of him before the day he left the sect even arrived.

He did not doubt that possibility in the slightest.

And so, on what seemed an ordinary afternoon, he had quietly encountered his greatest crisis since joining the sect.

One wrong move, and he might die on the spot!

Stay calm! Stay calm! Hah-

Wang Ba drew a deep breath.

He was no longer the greenhorn who had just entered the sect.

Nearly a year of raising chickens, along with his repeated encounters with Outer Sect disciples, had long since tempered his heart, making it much stronger.

He thought it over.

Then he maintained his Yin Spirit Power once more and left the room.

As on any ordinary afternoon, he picked up a broom and shovel and began cleaning the Mountain Manor.

Unlike usual, however, he worked very quickly.

He had no choice. Yu Changchun's surveillance consumed enormous amounts of Yin Spirit Power, and he did not want to waste it.

He cleaned an entire circuit of the Mountain Manor, loaded the swept-up chicken manure into buckets, and carried them outside.

Then he took the broom into Old Sun's Room, seemingly intending to clean it as well.

The instant he entered, Wang Ba's expression darkened.

"The entire Mountain Manor is under surveillance, except for the rooms!"

"Even when I walk outside the manor, it's the same!"

"I have two guesses."

"First, they're probably watching from above the Mountain Manor, looking down, and they can't see through things."

"Second, either they're watching the whole Mountain Manor, or their surveillance shifts to follow my movements. For now, the former seems more likely."

"So under normal circumstances, escaping their surveillance without alerting them is almost impossible."

Wang Ba's brows knitted tightly.

His gaze happened to sweep over the spot where the wardrobe stood, and he froze.

"Huh? How did this place end up like this?"

At some point, Old Sun's Room had become a complete mess.

The old cabinets had actually all been smashed into pieces across the floor.

What startled Wang Ba was that even the old stone-block bed in Old Sun's Room had been broken into chunks of stone by something unknown.

A few spirit chickens, however, were still strolling leisurely around the room.

Beside them lay several badly deformed chicken cages.

"Jia Five, did you do this?"

Jia Five was Wang Ba's first suspect.

After all, compared with the other spirit chickens, Jia Five was cleverer, larger, and stronger.

"Cluck?"

Jia Five tilted its head at him, bewilderment written in its little eyes.

It wasn't Jia Five.

Wang Ba rejected the guess himself. Though Jia Five was a first-tier middle-grade spirit chicken, comparable in cultivation realm to a Qi Refining cultivator,

Wang Ba, who knew Jia Five extremely well, understood clearly that in reality, Jia Five was still a meat chicken with no fighting ability whatsoever.

The prerequisites for being a meat chicken were having no aggression toward humans and no ability to attack them.

Jia Five fit perfectly.

There was no way Jia Five could have the strength to destroy the stone-block bed.

After examining it closely, Wang Ba also discovered that the rubble from the stone-block bed was covered in sharp, short gouges, which looked rather as though a person or beast had clawed them out.

But... what sort of person or beast would come here and lay such a vicious hand on a stone-block bed?

How deep a grudge could they have?

Did they have nothing better to do?

Who on earth had done it?

Until he resolved this question, Wang Ba could not feel safe at all.

"Could someone from the Immortal Ascension Society have sneaked in here and done this deliberately to intimidate me?"

"But that doesn't make sense."

Wang Ba racked his brains.

The spirit chickens around him acted as though they had not noticed his arrival.

The three third-generation spirit chickens, which had hatched a little over ten days ago but grown rapidly after Wang Ba deposited lifespan into them, all approached him curiously.

Their tiny eyes held a hint of intelligence and curiosity.

One little hen even hopped onto Wang Ba's leg of its own accord, backed up a little, raised its rear, and took a dump.

So angry was Wang Ba that he slapped it away.

But although meat chickens had no ability to attack, they were very sturdy.

The third-generation little hen got up as though nothing had happened. Seemingly thinking Wang Ba was playing with it, it eagerly waggled its big bottom and came running back with flaps and hops, jumped onto his leg, then raised its rear-plop, another dump.

Wang Ba: ...

Why was this chicken such a fucking little bastard?!