“This creature is the Rare Fowl. It is no mortal bird; it possesses spirituality. Mating and reproduction are notoriously difficult, and hatching is equally arduous. Therefore, you must tend to them with the utmost care.”
“Their feed consists of a precise mixture: bran from Spirit Grain, Spirit Bean Cake, crushed Spirit Stone powder, and meal made from Spirit Fish bones. All ingredients must contain a trace of spiritual energy. Occasionally, Discarded Spirit Worms will be delivered for their consumption…”
“Roosters take approximately three years to fully mature. Hens require four.”
“Once mature, a hen will lay a single egg every five to ten days.”
“The monthly tribute quota is strict: two fully mature, robust roosters; two fully mature, robust hens; and two hundred Rare Fowl eggs!”
“If raised properly, there will be rewards!”
“If the tribute falls short, there will be punishment!”
After tidying his room, Wang Ba read the chicken-raising instructions over and over until he knew them by heart.
Only then did he step out of his room.
Old Man Sun and his small folding stool were gone. The old man had seemingly retreated to his own quarters.
Wang Ba had no desire to talk to the old man either.
Following Deacon Li’s directions, Wang Ba left the manor and visited the West Garden Market at the other end of the valley.
This West Garden Market was not a hub for cultivators to exchange magical treasures. It was a marketplace for mortals.
Cultivators had many relatives and friends who could not cultivate. These people followed them into the sect and still needed to make a living.
Thus, the West Garden Market naturally came into being.
Wang Ba wandered through the stalls, his eyes widening in amazement.
Although this was a market for mortals, it was under the sect’s jurisdiction, so some fine things used by cultivators could be found here.
He even saw merchants hawking Rare Fowl, Precious Pigs, and Colorful Ducks.
Unfortunately, Wang Ba could not afford any of them.
Even the cheaper items cost hundreds or thousands of taels of silver. The expensive ones had to be bought with Spirit Stones.
He also saw someone selling cultivation methods.
Of course, those were equally out of his reach.
After half a day in the market, he bought only some cooking equipment, a stove, and some rice and grain.
That small shopping spree completely cleaned him out.
He didn’t have a single copper coin left.
Fortunately, after entering the sect, even a menial worker like him would receive a small regular payment. It would probably cover little more than his basic needs.
With great effort, he struggled to haul his new possessions back up the mountain.
Back at the villa, he found an axe meant for splitting firewood. He chopped some timber, kindled a fire in his new stove, and set the pot to boil.
It wasn’t until night had fully fallen that he finally sat down to eat.
The meal was stark—just plain rice, no side dishes—but after a day of grueling labor, Wang Ba ate with relish.
He had come to terms with it. Since the path of immortality was closed to him, he would work hard in the sect and try to become an Outer Sect Deacon in a few years.
He remembered Deacon Li mentioning it before. While some deacon positions required cultivation, others could be held by capable mortals.
After all, the sect had plenty of odd jobs, and few cultivators wanted to do them.
Once he had status and savings…
Then he could go down the mountain and take a few concubines.
That way, his transmigration wouldn’t have been entirely in vain.
After dinner, he stood up and walked out of the villa courtyard to aid his digestion. Truthfully, he just needed to escape his bedroom; the overwhelming stench of chicken droppings was nearly suffocating.
He genuinely didn’t know how Old Man Sun stood it.
Wang Ba stood in the open air, gazing silently up at the brilliant river of stars spanning the night sky.
Suddenly, a blinding sword light tore through the darkness in the distance, soaring straight into the firmament!
A huge human figure followed, standing in midair with its hands behind its back and letting out a long cry.
The sound reverberated through the heavens.
“My Dao is achieved!”
Heavenly thunder rumbled in response, momentarily dimming the starlight.
A few breaths later, voices rose from every corner of the Eastern Sage Sect, a chorus of congratulations echoing through the mountains.
“I wonder what realm that is…”
Wang Ba looked enviously toward the brilliant lights in the distance. Straining his eyes, he could just make out sword lights and the gleam of treasures converging.
“What a pity…”
Wang Ba lowered his head, the light in his eyes fading into desolation.
The greatest sorrow for a man is to witness a world of limitless splendor, only to realize that none of it belongs to him.
The sight left him without a trace of sleepiness, though he had meant to go back to his room and rest.
Instead, he lit an oil lamp and began to tour the manor, counting the chickens one by one.
It took him a long time to count all the chickens.
Thirty-seven roosters.
Seventy hens.
In the darkness, he could not clearly judge their maturity or how many eggs they were laying. But the numbers immediately put him on his guard.
“This number isn’t right!”
“These Rare Fowl are extremely hard to breed.”
“If I calculate based on the roosters’ maturation cycle… to guarantee the full monthly tribute quota, I need at least thirty-six pairs of roosters staggered across different ages!”
“Similarly, hens take four years to mature. I’d need at least forty-eight pairs to ensure a stable cycle of replacement.”
But right now, the numbers for both roosters and hens were off.
If they were not paired and bred in time, he might be unable to meet the tribute quota in as little as two years.
And the consequence for failing to pay tribute was summarized in one word: Punishment!
The rice paper hadn’t specified what the punishment entailed.
Wang Ba had no desire to find out the hard way.
“No! I need to check the hens’ egg-laying condition immediately!”
A discrepancy in numbers could be managed with planning, but if the current egg production was low, the disaster would be immediate.
Now fully awake and too worried to care about the smell, Wang Ba reached into a corner to catch a hen.
In his previous life, he had learned a trick from his mother for checking poultry. By simply placing a hand between the hen’s abdomen and thigh bones, he could feel if an egg was positioned to be laid.
But what happened next was the last thing he expected.
His hand grabbed nothing but air!
The large hen sprang up and fluttered onto the eaves.
It displayed an agility that was completely mismatched with its clumsy, bulky appearance.
“Cluck cluck…”
Perched high on the eaves, the hen turned its head and cackled down at Wang Ba, seemingly mocking his clumsy technique.
Wang Ba stood there, helpless.
He was a mortal. He couldn’t fly.
Frustrated as he was, he did not dwell on it and turned his attention to another hen.
The result was identical.
Refusing to believe his luck was this bad, he lunged over ten times in a row.
To his utter speechlessness, he failed to catch a single chicken.
It’s not that I’m incompetent, Wang Ba insisted to himself. These Rare Fowl are just too good at running away!
But the reality was undeniable. These Rare Fowl were not ordinary barnyard animals; their speed and strength far surpassed any chicken he had ever encountered.
Unwilling to give up, he tried seven or eight more times. Every attempt ended in failure.
All he had accomplished was making himself stink.
“Stop trying. You can’t catch them.”
An old voice suddenly sounded behind him.
Wang Ba spun around to see Old Man Sun, draped in his patch-covered Daoist robe, shaking his head slowly.
“Sorry to disturb you, Old Man Sun,” Wang Ba said apologetically. “I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d check whether the hens are laying…”
Old Man Sun didn’t respond. He simply walked past Wang Ba to another corner of the coop.
He stretched out a trembling, withered hand.
Then, before Wang Ba’s astonished eyes, his hand darted out like lightning and easily caught a large hen by the wing.
He twisted the bird’s wings behind its back in a fluid motion, immobilizing it, and tossed it toward Wang Ba.
“Practice the Physique Strengthening Scripture more,” Old Man Sun said without expression. “It strengthens your body.”
“Thank you, Old Man Sun!”
Wang Ba hurriedly took the hen.
His feelings were mixed.
He was shocked by Old Man Sun’s hidden skill—clearly, the old man was more than he appeared—but he was also crushed by his own powerlessness.
He couldn’t even catch a chicken.
Yet he had dreamed of seeking immortality and the Dao.
It was a good thing he had abandoned those delusions.
Wang Ba mocked himself bitterly in his heart.
His fingers slid down the hen’s rounded belly…
Suddenly, text floated before his eyes.
[Target Lifespan: 19.2 years] [Current Body’s Remaining Lifespan: 71.7 years] [Consumable Items: None] [Absorb/Deposit?]