Longevity, starting from being a chicken raising servant

“While scavenging the Beasts Room, I happened to find quite a few books and scrolls, and I found a few related to chicken breeding that I thought would be of interest to you,” Yu Changchun said with a smiling face.

He took out a few scrolls from his Storage Bag.

Wang Ba happily accepted the scrolls. Although he was aware that the knowledge recorded in the form of scrolls was hardly noteworthy, to him any additional knowledge about raising chickens could perhaps solve the problem of breeding Precious Chickens.

However, when he looked at the content of the scrolls, it was filled with familiar titles such as “Detailed Tome on Zhen Chickens and Spirit Chickens,” “Illustrated Guide to Spirit Poultry Breeds”…

He had already read these back at Ding 9 Villa from the cultivator with the surname Shi.

Presumably, Shi had copied these scrolls from the Beasts Room as well.

But his interest was piqued unexpectedly by the last scroll, “The Chronicles of the Wind Birds’ Southern Journey,” which he hadn’t seen at Shi’s place.

“How is it? Useful, isn’t it?”

Yu Changchun asked Wang Ba expectantly.

“Very useful! It’s extremely useful!” Wang Ba replied with an impassive face, accepting the scroll with ‘surprise’. He then expressed his regret, “I feel so embarrassed that I didn’t even offer you a cup of tea before you arrived…” “Alt, we are all cultivators, why bother with such trivialities?”

Yu Changchun dismissed the matter and smiled again. He was more than happy to earn Wang Ba’s favor with a couple of scrolls worth only a few Spirit Stones.

He then reached into his sleeve and pulled out two Spirit Beast Bags.

“Those scrolls were just an extra. The main purpose of my visit is to give you these. What do you think? Aren’t they satisfactory?”

After saying this, he handed the Spirit Beast Bags to Wang Ba.

When Wang Ba looked at them, he saw that each bag had almost three hundred Precious Chickens, filling the three-square-meter Spirit Beast Bag.

Regardless of their appearances or conditions, all the chickens were in excellent health.

“Excellent!” Wang Ba nodded repeatedly.

Without any delay, he let the Precious Chickens out one by one, and in no time, a quarter of his chicken farm was filled with them.

“So about the Spirit Chickens…” Yu Changchun began, a satisfied smile on his face.

At this, Wang Ba showed comprehension and quickly assured him, “Don’t worry, predecessor. Everything you need has been prepared!”

After saying that, he rushed to the back of the small wooden shack and brought out ten Spirit Chickens that had been specially bred with Lifespan Rice, tying them together.

But then he thought better of it, removing four chickens and carefully hiding them away.

Carrying the remaining six Spirit Chickens and a bucket of spirit chicken eggs, Wang Ba returned with a hint of embarrassment on his face.

“Elder Yu, I really hate to say this, but the breeding of Spirit Chickens requires time and a large breeding population. The better chicken breeds, with a rich bloodline, will stand out only in a large flock. So, I’ve done all that I can this month. However, rest assured that in at most half a year, I will make up for all the Spirit Chickens that I failed to deliver this time…”

“No problem, no problem!”

Yu Changchun was visibly overjoyed as he inspected the Spirit Chickens in Wang Ba’s hand.

He had initially expected Wang Ba to be able to breed just one or two Spirit Chickens in such a short period of time, but to his surprise, Wang Ba had far exceeded this expectation.

Six Spirit Chickens! Even though they were all roosters, each one would sell for at least four Spirit Stones in the market, even considering his Cultivator status that allows him to buy them for a cheaper price.

After all, Spirit Chickens were not like the chickens reared by the East Saint Sect, wherein they could be bred continuously. These were rare commodities whose price naturally increased as their numbers decreased.

Only the majority of the Tianmen Cult’s cultivators did not know the special uses of Spirit Chickens; otherwise, the price would probably have been even higher.

Just the potential income of 24 Spirit Stones made him feel a lot better about the large amount of Spirit Stones he had spent earlier. And it also raised his expectations for the future.

If Wang Ba can supply him with 20 Spirit Chickens every month, he would be able to earn back his initial investment within a year!

The following nine years would all be pure profit!

Of course, these Spirit Chickens were for aiding his cultivation and not for sale.

And after ten years, thanks to these chickens, he might be able to reach the Foundation Establishment Stage in one fell swoop.

Though it was still a long way off, there was no doubt that his regard for Wang Ba was increasing day by day.

“Don’t worry. I will solve the problem of chicken feed as soon as possible! Just focus on raising your chickens!”

Having received Yu Changchun’s assurance, Wang Ba seized the opportunity to bring up a small request.

“Elder Yu, I visited the market a while back and came across a puppet shop. Since I have a shortage of hands in the chicken farm, I went in to have a look. However, the prices there were exorbitant. Even an ordinary human puppet would cost 20 Spirit Stones…”

“You want to buy human puppets?”

“20 Spirit Stones for a mortal human puppet isn’t exactly extortionate.”

Being a cultivator of the Puppet Dao, Yu Changchun knew the ins and outs of human puppets. Wishing to further deepen his relationship with Wang Ba, he readily shared his knowledge.

“Human puppets can be categorized into Death Puppets and Living Puppets. The former are relatively simpler, but once they’ve been made, they lack any semblance of spirituality and are no different from the deceased. They can only perform simple tasks.”

“As for the latter, they require the willing surrender of the person being made into a puppet. Typically, we cultivators lure ordinary mortal beings with the Bury Bones technique… ha-ha, I indeed deceived you back at Ding 87 Villa. Please forgive me.”

“No, no, not at all. We were just doing our jobs at that time. So, the Bury Bones technique doesn’t have any real value?” Wang Ba quickly waved his hands to show that he didn’t mind.

“Well, it’s not completely devoid of value. Bury Bones is a basic technique in both the Puppet Dao and the Blood Bone Dao, and can genuinely provide ordinary people with a Spiritual Root. However, rather than cultivating a Spiritual Root, it’s more like transplantation. It is a form of robbery, not creation.”

“In order for an ordinary person to possess a Spiritual Root, another person with a Spiritual Root needs to be destroyed. Moreover, these artificially created cultivators face far greater difficulties in their cultivation compared to ordinary people, and it is nearly impossible for them to break through their cultivation level. The notion of using Spirit Beast bones for Bone Replacement is theoretically plausible, but in actuality, it is a dead-end.”

“Maybe consider it a chicken rib.”

“But with that technique, we in Puppet Dao have developed the Human Puppet Technique, substituting processed bone source to replace the real bones of the living, and gradually gain control over the other’s body.”

“And for Blood Bone Dao, it is about smelting the soul into the blood bones, discarding the flesh and blood vessels, and embarking on a path where blood and bones are indestructible and the flesh is immortal. But that’s another matter…”

In three or two sentences, Yu Changchun has explained the mystery of Bury Bones.

However, this is not a secret among the cultivators in the Tianmen Cult, so Yu Changchun didn’t feel any guilt.

Wang Ba felt in his heart that there was no doubt about the way of a Demon Dao cultivator, which they are cruel as could be, but also felt greatly enlightened.

“So mortal human puppets can be made easily by deception, whereas cultivators are not that easy to fool. Only by finding assistance from fellow Soul Dao, confusing the spiritual consciousness, in addition to the costly effort in the creation of bone material, could these puppets be made, hence the high price.”

Yu Changchun concluded at last: “Even if I were to do it, the cost of a mortal human puppet, that is, an active puppet, would be no less than seventeen or eighteen spirit stones.”

“But I don’t have the spare time. I don’t even have enough time for my own cultivation, let alone the energy to do this for sale.”

Wang Ba thought about it: “Does that mean the puppet shop isn’t being too unreasonable?”

“No, no, no!”

Yu Changchun laughed: “Who would work for free these days?”

“Don’t spread this around… In reality, any puppet created by a puppet master, whether ordinary puppet, beast puppet, human puppet, active puppet or death puppets, will always come with some kind of trap.”

With the idea that he doesn’t make a living from this and doesn’t fear having his rice bowl smashed, Yu Changchun had no mental pressure to reveal the trade secrets of puppetry:

“The more merciful ones, only have a countermeasure left to prevent you from going after themselves with the puppet.”

“Those a bit more ruthless, will leave an ‘eye’ on the puppet. As long as you use the puppet, whatever happens around you, they know.”

“Even more ruthless, if you, the master, are killed by another cultivator, the puppet will take your storage bag with him and escape back to the puppet master.”

“Don’t you think this is more profitable than earning a few stones from you?”

Hearing Yu Changchun’s words, Wang Ba felt a cold sweat down his back.

This, these puppet masters are so deceitful!?

If it weren’t for Yu Changchun’s reminder, he could really expose his own secret.

It’s fortunate that he was able to perfectly avoid this pitfall due to his poverty.

But in his heart, he couldn’t help reminding himself that he must never underestimate things.

After all, in the world of cultivators, there are countless bizarre and strange Dharma.

“So, can’t we buy puppets?”

Wang Ba couldn’t help but ask.

“You can buy, find some with a good reputation. The puppets of these puppet masters generally only have a countermeasure. Typically, as long as you don’t take the initiative to trouble them, it won’t affect anything.”

“Or just buy those puppets made by dead puppet masters.”

Yu Changchun shared his insights.

After listening to him, Wang Ba immediately felt that it made sense. Regardless of any traps the dead puppet master left, they would all be meaningless.

Seeing that Wang Ba was very interested, Yu Changchun simply taught him a magical seal:

“This ‘No-Light’ seal can detect some of the tricks left by the puppet master in the puppet’s body, but if the level of the puppet exceeds Stage III of Qi Refining, this seal is useless.”

Despite this, Wang Ba was still very grateful, and almost tearfully thanked him.

Seeing that Wang Ba had already been swayed by his sincere attitude, Yu Changchun couldn’t help but feel smug, then with some advices to Wang Ba, he also left.

Watching Yu Changchun leave, Wang Ba’s expression slowly faded.

Being a menial worker for a year, he’s become quite practiced at wearing different faces.

However, the arrival of these six hundred precious chickens has made him busier. After Yu Changchun left, he spent more than half the day feeding these chickens and cleaning up their droppings.

Since no one came to collect the chicken dung, Wang Ba could only pile it up outside the chicken farm. From time to time, he smelled the scent coming over. Although he is used to it, he still feels uncomfortable.

“Why not, find some time to go to the market and see if there are any spirit plant seeds. After all, these chicken dungs should be used.”

Wang Ba secretly thought.

The sky was getting dark, and he finally finished his busyness. He picked out some spirit rice and cooked up a pot of rice.

He slaughtered a spirit chicken, and with a purchased stove, he specially made a pot of clay pot cooked chicken and added a circle of whole wheat wraps around the edge of the pot.

The wooden pot lid was lifted, and the aroma filled the nostrils.

The spirit chicken taste he usually detested didn’t seem so unbearable anymore.

While he was a menial worker, he didn’t have the time to enjoy the pleasures of the palette. Now, although still impoverished, at least he was not so desperate.

Perhaps it smelled the aroma, the yellow throat spirit turtles in the pool were desperately scratching at the edge of the pool, splashing water, and stacking up in a pile trying to climb out.

The precious chickens were also curiously hovering around the stove with their dull eyes, seeming to peck at any moment with their little beaks.

“Go away! Not a single one of you!”

Wang Ba drove away these party crashers, and enjoyed the rare peace after his busy labors, chewing away their fruit.

After everything was finished, he relaxedly leaned on the wooden bed in the soft moonlight streaming in from the window, casually flipping through the books brought by Yu Changchun.

Emptying his thoughts, he scanned through them rashly.

But when he read halfway through “Note of the Southern Migration of Wind Birds”, he couldn’t help sitting upright.

“Yuanyang Reversing Technique?”