YM778.TV Chapter 85: Lakeside_i
Despite his intense curiosity about what Zhao Feng had left in his side, Wang Ba managed to suppress it. He put the Yellow Throat Stone Turtle into his Spirit Beast Bag.
Then he began to look for a suitable rearing location.
Before long, he found a breezy open area on the shore of South Lake.
“This place is quite suitable.”
Wang Ba looked around and decided to set up his chicken farm here.
Mainly because he was considering raising the Yellow Throat Stone Turtles in the future as well.
Although the Yellow Throat Stone Turtles could survive on land, they were after all semi-aquatic. Living near a water source would be more convenient for them.
Lacking the proper tools, Wang Ba had no choice but to use his Mana to cut down centuries-old trees with his bare hands, and then bury pieces of them to make a wooden wall around the farm.
“These trees are almost like Spirit Plants…It’s a pity that, just like with other plants, you can’t feel any Lifespan energy coming from them. I wonder if that would change if they turned into creatures.”
Wang Ba felt a slight regret.
But he didn’t think much of it and began to get busy.
Having just successfully refined his Qi a few days ago, his reserve of Mana rapidly depleted. After a little bit of work, he sat down cross-legged, taking in and refining the scant Spiritual Energy nearby to turn it into Mana.
Then he would get back up to chop down trees and plant stakes. Whenever his Mana was depleted, he would sit down to meditate again.
This cycle repeated itself.
“If I ever get the chance, I must go to the market’s ‘Cultivation Room’ for a taste of cultivation. It’s too torturous trying to cultivate here!”
Having drained all the surrounding Spiritual Energy and having no choice but to take a break from refining, Wang Ba felt speechless.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have a single Spirit Stone on him at the moment.
While he did have Precious Chickens and Spirit Chickens, he wasn’t planning on selling any of them for now.
It wasn’t until dusk that Wang Ba finally managed to finish setting up the wooden stakes for the outer wall of the chicken farm. He also built a very crude and bare-bones cabin inside.
But it was enough.
He sat in the cabin, facing South Lake.
The moonlight sprinkled on the lake, creating sparkling ripples. However, a pang of hunger broke the rare tranquility.
Feeling spirited, Wang Ba stripped off his clothes and prepared to dive into South Lake to catch some fish.
While he was not a good swimmer, his current physical condition would allow him to dive deep for a long time. Catching a few fish shouldn’t be too hard for him.
But just as he was about to jump into the lake, he noticed that the skin around his side was incredibly smooth, not showing any sign of anything hidden beneath the surface.
Unable to restrain his curiosity any longer, he touched the area.
“Strange… I can feel something round, but it also feels sharp.”
After thinking for a little while, Wang Ba tried to use his finger to gently pick at it. However, he couldn’t get this round object out no matter how hard he tried.
It was as if it was grown on him.
“Why would Senior Brother Zhao suddenly give me this…”
Unable to hold back, Wang Ba began to recall what happened last night.
Senior Brother Zhao seemed to have noticed something after the appearance of the black-robed cultivator. Only then did he slap Wang Ba as if he was leaving behind a dying wish, but in reality, he was placing this strange object in Wang Ba’s side.
And the black-robed cultivator, if Wang Ba guessed right, must be the famous former outer disciple of the Sect, Lu Yuansheng, whom Zhao feng often mentioned.
Thinking of the brilliance in Zhao Feng’s eyes every time Lu Yuansheng was brought up, Wang Ba felt an inexplicable complexity in his heart.
Perhaps for Zhao Feng, he would rather believe that Lu Yuansheng was already dead.
Shaking his head, Wang Ba shook off these useless emotions.
A look of contemplation appeared on Wang Ba’s face:
“This suggests that Senior Brother Zhao knew he was going to die. That’s why he left this invisible object for me. This means that the object must either be extremely important to Zhao Feng, or he believes it’s very important for me.”
“If I can use it… I know what to do.”
A thought occurred to Wang Ba. He directed the little Mana in his Dantian to his palm, then reached for the spot at his side.
Unexpectedly, his attempt proved unsuccessful. He could still only touch it, but not see it.
After pondering for a moment, he transferred his Mana from his body to the spot on his side.
However, his expression quickly turned grave!
The few threads of Mana he had evaporated in an instant as soon as they made contact with the place on his side, as if they had fallen into a deep-sea vortex.
Such a strong suction absorbed all of his Mana in a flash!
However, at this moment, Wang Ba finally saw what was there.
It was a bead.
A dark iron bead embedded in his side, like a protruding birthmark.
Despite its noiseless nature, he could vaguely sense an amazing sword intent resonating from within it.
Just by looking at it once, his eyes were stinging with pain.
If it absorbed enough Mana, Wang Ba could hardly imagine what would happen.
“A Magic Tool? Or something else?”
Amazement filled Wang Ba’s heart.
Unfortunately, his current scant amount of Mana was nowhere near what this bead demanded.
With a sigh of regret, Wang Ba did not linger in his emotions. He quickly walked to the edge of the lake and with a leap caught a few big fish and tossed them ashore.
He cleaned the fish using broken rocks to gut them and lake water to wash them. He scraped off the de-boned meat and directly put it into his mouth.
The fish was sweet and tender, melting in his mouth immediately.
“I hope these fish don’t have any parasites.”
“But I couldn’t feel any Lifespan energy from these fish… Seems like not every animal can be touched to sense Lifespan.”
Under the moonlight, as he chewed on the raw fish meat, he went through the experiences of the past year in his head.
What concerned him the most was undoubtedly his ability to transfer Lifespan, his biggest asset.
Although he found out that this ability actually had many limitations during practice, the fact that he could help Spirit Beasts in Lifespan Breakthrough gave him a lot more flexibility.
However, Wang Ba had also been pondering a question.
Why did he only discover this ability after he joined the East Saint Sect?
In fact, he had been in contact with various living creatures when he was a mortal. Although born into a wealthy family in this life, he was no stranger to manual labor either.
Wang Ba speculated that the creatures such as Precious Chickens and colorful ducks might differ from those in the mountains.
Thinking it through, the only difference he could think of was that the creatures in the mortal world had less spiritual energy compared to ones like Precious Chickens.
Precious Chickens, though still mortal chickens, have spiritual energy in them, approaching the status of spirit poultry and thus becoming the spirit food favored by cultivators.
However, not every exotic beast in the mortal world can make it onto the cultivators’ menu.
He touched many fishes in the lake just now, which also proved this point.
None of these fishes triggered his Lifespan Panel.
At this thought, he suddenly remembered the Yellow Throat Stone Turtles he caught during the day and hurriedly took a few out of his Spirit Beast Bag.
[Target Lifespan: 46.1 years], [39.6 years], [47.3 years], [49.8 years]…
The lifespans varied, but generally maintained around 45-55 years.
This differed from many people’s belief that turtles live hundreds of years.
However, Wang Ba wasn’t surprised. Master Jiaohu’s “Everything about Poultry” mentioned that the majority of ordinary turtles only live three to four decades.
Though forty to fifty years was not long, it was double the twenty years lifespan of Precious Chickens.
“Yellow Throat Stone Turtles breed more easily than Precious Chickens, due to their low intelligence, they are more driven by their animal instincts”.
Wang Ba carefully recalled the details from “Everything about Poultry”.
“The problem is,Yellow Throat Stone Turtles only lay four batches of eggs a year, and each batch has only about four or five eggs.”
“After the turtle eggs are laid, they don’t need the mother to incubate them, but the hatching period is much longer than chicken eggs, they take a full three months to hatch.”
“It has obvious advantages and disadvantages.”
“If I can buy Yellow Throat Stone Turtles in bulk, they could be another source of lifespan.”
After finishing all the raw fish meat in one go, Wang Ba stored the lifespan of all Yellow Throat Stone Turtles into his Lifespan Panel.
Surprisingly, the ratio of lifespan stored in them was similar to the Precious Chickens.
Then he dug a shallow pit with a wooden stick, let some lake water into it, and blocked the turtles’ potential escape routes.
Feeling relieved, he returned to his little wooden house and fell into a deep sleep.
He was so tired today.
Early the next morning, he sent a Sound Transmission Talisman to Yu Changchun, telling him that he had chosen his chicken farming location.
Of course, the talisman was given by Yu Changchun and was said to worth three lower-grade Spirit Stones.
Wang Ba distinctly remembered the reluctance on Yu Changchun’s face when he handed over the talisman.
He was somewhat speechless at this.
A late-stage Qi Refining cultivator, is there a need to be so stingy?
The mountain of chicken feed was soon delivered by Yu Changchun, using his Storage Bag.
“They’re all from my old Purification House. There aren’t many people in our Tianmen Cult that know how to raise them, so it should be enough for you for a while!”
“Umm… Some of these things will spoil if they’re kept for too long,” Wang Ba couldn’t help reminding him.
Yu Changchun’s face instantly turned blank: “Is that so? What should we do?”
“There’s not much we can do for now. We’ll just have to use them,” Wang Ba shook his head. Compared to the East Saint Sect’s well-established chain for chicken raring, demonic sects like the Tianmen Cult’s are probably more into human bone-digging.
Raising chickens was simply too challenging for them.
Feeling somewhat guilty for not being helpful, Yu Changchun hesitated for a moment before taking out five Spirit Stones from his Storage Bag.
“Here… If you need anything else, you can checkout the market.”
After saying this, he probably felt that the spirit stones were too few, so he made some awkward small talk before hurriedly leaving.
Wang Ba looked at the spirit stones in his hand and shook his head slightly.
They were reluctant to spend money, but still wanted results.
However, he had to admit that the five spirit stones, though not a lot, indeed solved his urgent needs.
Had he had an ordinary axe yesterday, he wouldn’t have had such a hard time.
He immediately went to South Lake market, purchasing kitchenware, axe, bedsheets, spirit rice and other supplies with the spirit stones.
As a beginner Qi Refining cultivator now, he still found most mortal items useful, and more importantly, they were inexpensive.
So, after the shopping, he still had four spirit stones left.
When he passed the ‘Human Puppet Shop,’ seeing the puppets with their eyes closed on display made him pause, his eyes filling with desire.
Although these human puppets were puppets, they were all made of living humans, and once triggered, they were no different from living people. They could maintain their consciousness while being unable to refuse any request from their master.
Among them, there were those beautiful Earth cultivators and powerful cultivators.
Of course, their fighting power certainly couldn’t compete with regular cultivators.
Wang Ba thought that although making human puppets from living humans was cruel, if he had a puppet to help him manage the chicken farm, he would have enough time for cultivation.
Converting Precious Chickens into Spirit Chickens didn’t require him to stay at the chicken farm. It was all about storing lifespan.
However, after browsing, he regretfully left.
Too expensive!
Even a puppet made from an ordinary mortal cost a whopping 10 Spirit Stones.
Additionally, a specific magic seal for puppet activation would cost another 5 Spirit Stones.
Wang Ba felt a deeper understanding of how the Tianmen Cult exploited Heresy Cultivators like them.
“Wait, isn’t Yu Changchun a member of the Puppet Dao? Could I ask him to provide a puppet?”
Thinking of this, Wang Ba planned to coax some help out of Yu Changchun during their next meeting.
Leaving the market, he unexpectedly saw a familiar face.
“Is it her? Is she still alive?”