The first piece of good news was that a Rare Fowl hen had laid an egg.
A chicken laying an egg was the most normal thing in the world.
However, upon closer inspection, Wang Ba realized this was no ordinary egg. It was a fertilized Rare Fowl egg.
And the sire was a male Spirit Poultry.
A few days ago, shortly after mastering the First Layer of the Yin Spirit Great Dream Scripture, Wang Ba had noticed one of the male Spirit Poultry acting restless.
He hadn’t expected to actually witness the beast mounting a hen today.
The large Spirit Poultry looked rather out of place perched on the Rare Fowl’s back.
Yet, Wang Ba was overjoyed.
Not long after the act, the favored hen laid an egg.
To Wang Ba’s spiritual vision, the Qi contained within this shell was noticeably denser than that of a standard Rare Fowl egg.
He couldn’t help but feel a surge of anticipation.
What would hatch from this?
A Spirit Poultry? A standard Rare Fowl?
Or perhaps a hybrid—a transitional form between the two?
Of course, there was always the possibility of reproductive isolation, resulting in a failed hatch.
Nothing was certain.
Regardless, Wang Ba got to work immediately.
To prevent the other hungry birds from pecking at the precious egg, he built a separate, enclosed nest for the mother hen.
He then tried to place the male Spirit Poultry in with the other hens, including the two female Spirit Poultry he had raised.
But after seeing a female Spirit Poultry give the rooster a thrashing, he knew he had been hoping for too much.
He could only hope the male would continue to spread his seed among the ordinary Rare Fowl hens instead.
By the time he finished arranging the coop, the sky had turned dark.
As per his new routine, he slaughtered a bird. To minimize the dissipation of Qi, he chose to stew it into a soup.
He cleaned up every trace of the slaughter, burying the bones deep in the earth.
He ate while he thought.
Deacon Li was due to arrive in two days to collect the tribute. Yet, of the twenty-two Spirit Poultry, Wang Ba had only managed to eat eight.
And that was with him pushing his limits, desperately visualizing the Yin Spirit to digest the energy.
That was the second piece of good news he had discovered.
If he visualized the Yin Spirit immediately after eating, he could effectively intercept a portion of the escaping Qi.
The ratio was small—less than one-tenth of the dissipating energy—but it was something.
This intercepted Qi was sucked straight into the Yin Spirit Abode at the center of his brow.
The problem was, the Abode remained silent.
He felt absolutely no trace of the so-called “Yin Spirit Power.”
It felt as though mastering the First Layer of the Yin Spirit Great Dream Scripture had granted him nothing but the ability to see Qi.
Despite the lack of feedback, he didn’t give up.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to burn more Lifespan to upgrade the technique; he simply didn’t have enough. Furthermore, unlike the Physique Strengthening Scripture, the option to upgrade the Yin Spirit Great Dream Scripture had mysteriously vanished from his panel after the breakthrough.
He had to rely on his own hard work, visualizing bit by bit.
Tonight was no different.
After gorging himself on chicken and soup, he didn’t even wipe his mouth before sitting cross-legged to visualize.
In his mind’s eye, he tirelessly sketched the form of the Yin Spirit.
He watched the Qi flowing through his body, rejoicing each time a wisp was intercepted by the Abode. It felt better than earning Spirit Stones.
As the final wisp of Qi was absorbed, Wang Ba slowly exhaled. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
Suddenly, the center of his brow trembled.
He felt it. A single drop of crimson liquid, no larger than a grain of rice, had condensed out of thin air within the void of his Yin Spirit Abode!
“This… this is Yin Spirit Power!”
The realization hit him instantly.
The droplet was tiny beside the seemingly boundless space within his Yin Spirit Abode.
Yet Wang Ba was no less astonished.
Because in the moment the Yin Spirit Power condensed, the knowledge of its function flooded his mind.
“To sum it up… make the false seem true!”
“Using Yin Spirit Power, I can deceive people right under their noses, making something false seem real!”
“In short, it is like an illusion art I can use to deceive others at will.”
“Unless my Yin Spirit Power runs out, people of ordinary attainment cannot see through it!”
“Old Man Sun… where on earth did he get such a profound technique?”
A wave of suspicion regarding Old Man Sun’s identity washed over him.
Even with his limited experience, Wang Ba knew the Yin Spirit Great Dream Scripture was extraordinary. How could a mere mortal like Old Man Sun have possessed it?
He pondered for a moment but found no answers.
He pushed the mystery aside. With this Yin Spirit Power, the problem that had been keeping him awake at night finally had a solution.
He could sell the remaining Spirit Poultry!
A few Spirit Poultry could be concealed, but more than a dozen were too conspicuous. He had to dispose of them before Deacon Li found out.
If he couldn’t eat them, he had to dump them or sell them.
He could not bear to throw them away.
Selling them was dangerous; unloading such a large quantity would attract attention, even if he split them up across different markets.
He had even considered hiding them somewhere deserted or simply throwing them away.
But now? Now he had a way out.
He just needed to use the Yin Spirit Power to change his appearance. He could walk into the market, sell the birds openly, and vanish.
Once the transaction was done, he would revert to his true self.
Unless he was caught in the act, there should be little danger of trouble.
Of course, he could theoretically use the power to blind Deacon Li to the chickens’ existence.
But he didn’t dare risk it.
Anyone who became a Deacon, even in the Outer Sect, must have some exceptional quality. Perhaps Li could see through his disguise.
The risk was too high.
Selling them was the only logical path.
“But first… I need to test it.”
Wang Ba frowned. How to test it? Who to test it on?
He lived in isolation. Aside from market trips, the only people he saw were Old Hou, the feed deliverer, and Niu Yong, the dung collector.
He thought for a moment.
“Those two will have to do.”
He continued visualizing the Yin Spirit.
The droplet in his Abode did not change. Without the spiritual energy he had absorbed over the past few days, visualization alone might take at least a month or two to form a single drop.
He worked until late into the night before falling into a deep sleep.
Early the next morning, he rose to feed and clean the coop.
Not long after, Old Hou’s familiar call echoed from the path below the manor.
He strode down the hill.
When Old Hou saw him, the old man paused, cupped his hands in a respectful greeting, and asked with a confused expression, “Friend, dare I ask if Wang Ba is present?”
Wang Ba smiled faintly. “Wait a moment. I will go call him.”
“Thank you for your trouble,” Old Hou said, bowing quickly with an ingratiating smile, completely unaware.
“No trouble at all.”
Wang Ba turned and walked back up to the manor with purposeful strides. Once out of sight, he immediately cut the flow of Yin Spirit Power.
Then he turned and walked back down in small steps.
He waved at the old man. “Old Hou!”
Old Hou’s face lit up with recognition. He smiled and set down the two buckets of chicken feed.
As Wang Ba took the buckets, Old Hou pursed his lips toward the manor and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.
“Who was that tall fellow with the dark face and brocade robe? I don’t recognize him. He isn’t one of us menial workers, is he?”
“I don’t know either,” Wang Ba whispered back, feigning helplessness. He pointed a finger toward the sky. “He just showed up out of nowhere, asking how the chickens were being fed. I didn’t dare ask questions.”
Old Hou understood at once and gave him a sympathetic look.
He nodded vigorously. “Must be an Immortal.”
“Brother Wang, you’d best be careful!”
With that, Old Hou hurried away in his donkey cart, still loaded with chicken feed.
Wang Ba stood in place, watching the retreating cart, a small smile playing on his lips.
The “dark-faced, brocade-robed man” was, of course, him.
It was a persona he had fabricated in his mind. He hadn’t expected Old Hou to be so thoroughly deceived.
But Wang Ba didn’t let his guard down. He waited.
Later that morning, when Niu Yong the Dung Tyrant arrived to collect the waste, Wang Ba repeated the experiment.
This time, he mentally sculpted the image of a sallow-faced Daoist.
The result was identical.
When Wang Ba withdrew the Yin Spirit Power and appeared as himself, even the usually ill-tempered Niu Yong asked curiously about the sallow-faced Daoist.
“Who was that Daoist?” Niu Yong asked, his eyes darting toward the manor.
“A friend,” Wang Ba said flatly, offering no further explanation.
His secretive, tight-lipped attitude made Niu Yong look at him with new eyes.
This was no informal market for rogue cultivators. It was territory beneath the Eastern Sage Sect’s mountain.
Though this was the outermost area and sect disciples rarely came here, it was still sect territory.
A sallow-faced Daoist appearing here, clearly not dressed as a laborer, was almost certainly a Disciple.
Sect disciples, even those of the Outer Sect, stood far above people like them.
In fact, people like Wang Ba and Niu Yong existed solely to serve them. The chicken farmers of the Ding Section provided Spirit Chow. The Dung Tyrants collected fertilizer to enrich the Spirit Fields that grew the Disciples’ herbs.
The Disciples were their sky. They held the power of life and death.
Realizing this, Niu Yong’s demeanor shifted instantly. The rudeness he usually showed Wang Ba vanished, replaced by a fawning, oily smile.
He fumbled in his robes and shoved several silver ingots into Wang Ba’s hand.
“Brother Wang! With connections like that, why are you still hiding out here? Here, look—the price of chicken dung has gone up these last two days. Here’s an extra ten taels of silver for you.”
“Ah? This… this is too much…” Wang Ba stammered, feigning shock.
“It’s fine, it’s only right! Go keep your friend company. Don’t leave him waiting!”
At the manor gate, Wang Ba watched Niu Yong leave in his manure cart, drawn by a donkey.
He nodded with satisfaction.
“Now I can give it a try!”