Training

Recalling that perilous moment not long ago, Wang Ba still felt a lingering chill of fear.

Old Hou actually had a white bone hidden in his sleeve!

With senses beyond those of ordinary people, he had immediately noticed something wrong with Old Hou, as well as the white bone brimming with Spiritual Qi inside his sleeve.

Realizing at once that something was amiss, he had thought quickly and raised the subject of "bone replacement" to distract him, then swiftly found an excuse to return to the Mountain Manor.

Inside the Mountain Manor was the fully grown Jia Seven, whose attacks were astonishingly powerful. Under her peck, even stone was like tofu.

And Jia Seven was no fool. She could just about understand some of Wang Ba's simple commands and was currently the only fighting strength he could rely on.

He had only to wait for Old Hou to barge in, then summon Jia Seven and fight with all he had.

If necessary, he even intended to crush the jade pendant Zhao Feng had given him. At worst, the fish would die and the net would break.

But when the moment came, Old Hou had, for some unknown reason, abandoned the assassination and simply left.

Then a sudden flash of inspiration had struck him: turn their scheme against them by pretending to replace his bones.

The Bone-Burying Secret Art described the bone-replacement process and the consequences of failure in great detail.

Moreover, during his idle conversation with Old Hou yesterday, Wang Ba had asked about quite a few details.

Thus, although faking the bone-replacement process was difficult, Wang Ba had successfully managed it through his understanding of the Bone-Burying Secret Art.

And to make the deception more convincing, Wang Ba really had cut open his little finger with a knife and drawn that formation in his own blood.

Yes, the agonized screams had been real too.

It had hurt so much that tears had streamed down his face.

Of course, he had neither severed his finger bone nor stuffed a chicken bone into the flesh of his finger.

Yin Spirit Power had played an important role in all this.

And the price had been enormous.

Because the deception had been so difficult.

In that brief span of a single incense stick, he had consumed three whole drops of Yin Spirit Power.

Counting what he had consumed over the past two nights, he now had fewer than four drops of Yin Spirit Power left.

But none of that mattered. What mattered was that Yu Changchun's arrival had revealed two important pieces of information.

The place Yu Changchun watches me from probably isn't too far away.

And when Yu Changchun looked at me just now, my Yin Spirit Power circulated nowhere near as fast as before, about the same as with an ordinary person. But when he used the Spirit Beast Bag, it suddenly sped up. If I'm right, Yu Changchun doesn't dare show himself openly inside the Sect either, so he's disguised himself.

In other words, judging someone's identity and strength solely by the consumption of Yin Spirit Power isn't entirely accurate.

For some reason, Wang Ba suddenly thought of Steward Li.

At first, Steward Li had felt like an ordinary mortal to him, but the last time they met, the speed at which his Yin Spirit Power revolved had been no different from when he faced Sect disciples.

Connecting this with the secrets Steward Li had previously revealed, Wang Ba felt his heart turn ice-cold.

Steward Li really is a member of the Immortal Ascension Society too!

Could the Immortal Ascension Society have infiltrated the entire Sect, from top to bottom? Is Elder He really the one behind it?

Who can I still trust here?

He interacted with very few people in his daily life.

But those he interacted with most were undoubtedly Old Hou, Niu Yong, and Steward Li.

Niu Yong had vanished without explanation.

And both Old Hou and Steward Li belonged to the Immortal Ascension Society.

That proportion was truly terrifying the more he thought about it.

He simply could not understand whether the Sect was unaware or had some other plan. Its lower ranks had been riddled like a sieve, yet there still seemed to be no movement whatsoever.

Leave! I have to find a way to leave, fast!

Wang Ba's thoughts churned.

His gaze swept casually over the lower volume of the Bone-Burying Secret Art, only for him to freeze.

There, plainly written on the page, was a line: To replace one's bones perfectly, the best method is to seize every bone from its original owner while they still live and replace one's own bones one by one. Afterward, nourish them with spirit medicines... before long, a spiritual root will develop.

After reading this passage, only two words remained in Wang Ba's mind:

Demonic path!

Yes, only someone of the demonic path could commit such a deranged act.

But when Wang Ba thought it over carefully, it actually made sense.

If it were not the demonic path, how could it allow someone to so easily defy heaven, change their fate, and acquire a spiritual root?

The Body-Strengthening Scripture was upright and orthodox, but among those without a hidden spiritual root, there were probably almost none who could master it.

For mortals seeking to overturn their lot, this was probably the only path.

Yet when Wang Ba thought of the various rare spirit medicines mentioned in the Bone-Burying Secret Art, and even cultivators' bones, he felt that ordinary mortals probably could not bear such good fortune either.

The reasoning was simple. With so many resources, why spend them on Servant Disciples? Would it not be more economical to recruit Qi Refining disciples directly?

Clearly, it was also hard to say what the future held for the Servant Disciples who practiced the Bone-Burying Secret Art.

This only strengthened Wang Ba's resolve to keep his distance from the Immortal Ascension Society.

Not long afterward.

Niu Yong's younger brother came to collect chicken manure.

Wang Ba asked for news of Niu Yong.

"We still haven't found him. Both the Evil Punishment Office and the External Affairs Office sent immortals to search, but none of them found anything. Most likely, he's..."

Niu Yong's younger brother's eyes instantly reddened.

Wang Ba could only offer a few words of comfort.

After finishing his work that afternoon, he tossed all the Spirit Chickens he had slaughtered earlier into a clay pot and carried it into his room. With tremendous effort, he finally managed to eat a quarter of them, at last condensing a drop of Yin Spirit Power.

When he went outside to relieve himself at dusk, he unexpectedly discovered that his Yin Spirit Power was not revolving.

Yu Changchun has stopped watching me?!

Wang Ba froze briefly, then his thoughts raced, and understanding suddenly dawned on him, filling him with delighted surprise.

Although he did not understand why the other man had suddenly stopped watching him, this was plainly an enormous boon.

After all, the feeling of being watched from morning to night was far too uncomfortable.

Wang Ba immediately went to Old Sun's Room and brought Jia Seven out alone.

After feeding Jia Seven a few Discarded Spirit Insects, he thought for a moment, then held one of the version 2.0 Tendon-Cutting Nematodes he was raising up to her beak.

Jia Seven was astonishingly fast. Before the Tendon-Cutting Nematode could dart onto her body, she easily swallowed it in a single bite.

"Smack, smack."

After eating the Tendon-Cutting Nematode, Jia Seven seemed to have tasted something delicious. Her eyes lit up, and she obediently nestled her little head against Wang Ba's hand, rubbing it again and again.

"Cluck, cluck..."

It sounded as though she were calling to him, "Big brother, big brother, give me more, give me more."

Wang Ba hurriedly shook his head. He was getting carried away again.

Then he dotingly fed Jia Seven the Tendon-Cutting Nematodes.

"Go on, eat!"

He did not particularly begrudge them. In fact, he was beginning to understand why Shopkeeper Lu had sold him the whole batch of Tendon-Cutting Nematodes at a discount.

They simply ate too much.

The main problem was that, aside from Spirit Stones and Spirit Chickens, he had no food rich in Spiritual Qi. To keep these nematodes alive, he could only grit his teeth and feed them Spirit Stones.

If not for his lack of high-grade Spirit Beast remains, which prevented them from breeding, he would probably have gone completely bankrupt before long.

Even so, he was finding the cost rather hard to bear, so he simply kept a small portion as breeding stock and used all the rest as snacks for Jia Seven.

Of course, she did not get to eat for free. She had to carry out Wang Ba's commands first.

And to earn nematodes to eat, Jia Seven displayed extraordinary intelligence, perfectly executing several tactical maneuvers, including "peck," "pounce," "charge," "claw hook," and "cover."

Yes, they practiced "cover" especially often.

For a little hen, Jia Seven was already doing her very best.

Wang Ba was not quite sure how people in the Qi Refining realm fought, either, so he could only do his best to bring out the advantages of Jia Seven's body.

Thanks to her outstanding performance, Jia Seven ate a dozen or so first-tier middle-grade Tendon-Cutting Nematodes in succession before finally filling her belly. She jumped onto Wang Ba's thigh, raised her sexy chicken bottom, swayed, and-plop-

A watery dropping landed right on Wang Ba's instep, as promised.

Wang Ba was not angry at all.

What a joke. This girl was now his greatest guarantee of personal safety. Even if she flew onto his head to shit, he would have to put up with it.

When night fell and he stepped outside.

His Yin Spirit Power still did not revolve.

Only then did Wang Ba select another four Spirit Chickens and quietly walk into the night.