章 9: Chapter 9 - Harvest! The third level of the Strong Body Sutra!_1
Back to the villa.
He did not immediately take the Spirit Chicken to the West Garden market.
Instead, he patiently waited a few more days, and only when the market was about to close did he take a male Spirit Chicken to Lu's Grain Shop.
Still the same appearance, but this time, Shopkeeper Lu who was drinking tea recognized him at first glance.
"Please come inside, sir."
Unlike before, Shopkeeper Lu navigated his counter, with a welcoming smile, personally greeting him.
Wang Ba felt somewhat pleasantly surprised.
But he regained his composure quickly.
He took out the rooster from his hand.
Shopkeeper Lu recognized it immediately:
"It's a lower grade Class I Spirit Chicken!"
Having said that, he still pulled out a yellow paper. Wang Ba noticed the subtly drawn mystical patterns on the paper.
It seemed immeasurably mysterious.
Shopkeeper Lu then brought the yellow paper near the struggling Spirit Chicken. The talisman ignited itself without any wind and radiated a hue of grey.
"As I presumed."
"This grey tint... Indeed signifies a lower quality."
Wang Ba nodded, unsurprised by the result.
Seeing no objection from Wang Ba, a smiling Shopkeeper Lu said, "It's a pity it's not a hen. According to today's market price, I can offer you three blocks and four pennies of lower grade Spirit Stones."
Spirit Stones are precious, they are scarcely used even in the West Garden market. Therefore, according to standards, a lower grade Spirit Stone is worth ten pennies.
Three blocks and four pennies of Spirit Stones is, nevertheless, a little more than what Wang Ba asked from the other families yesterday.
Wang Ba naturally preferred this shop.
However, he had other plans and immediately bowed his hand saying,
"Shopkeeper Lu, I don't want Spirit Stones. Could we barter instead?"
"Oh? You don't want Spirit Stones?"
Shopkeeper Lu was slightly taken aback, but then laughed and said,
"That would be the best, not to keep it from you, I am always running short of Spirit Stones. If a customer wants Spirit Stones, it actually gives me a headache!"
The two exchanged smiling glances and unknowingly, their relationship grew a little closer.
After the laughter, Shopkeeper Lu asked,
"What does sir desire?"
Without any hesitation, Wang Ba voiced his demands that he had been contemplating for a while:
"I want to exchange for a batch of Precious Chickens."
"Exchange for Precious Chickens?"
Grooming his beard, Shopkeeper Lu's gaze flickered and he asked,
"I do have Precious Chickens, does sir want to exchange these three blocks and four pennies of Spirit Stones entirely for Precious Chickens?"
"Uhm... Keep four pennies of Spirit Stones. Exchange the rest for Precious Chickens. How many can I get?"
After hesitating a bit, Wang Ba left a little fraction for emergencies.
"Three Spirit Stones... How about this, I will calculate the exchange for sir based on the purchasing price of Precious Chickens."
Shopkeeper Lu took his abacus, rapidly manipulated the beads with his thumb and forefinger.
"This hen, add three pennies two for each Spirit Stone. The rooster, just about one penny five."
"For a pair, it totals to four pennies seven parts of a Spirit Stone."
"I'll bear some loss, how about six hens and seven roosters?"
Wang Ba secretively calculated in his mind.
For the villa, the more hens the better.
Not only do they lay eggs, their spiritual energy is also richer.
But for him at this moment, male chickens are actually more beneficial.
All he needs to do is individually break through these roosters and then individually drain them to collect a large batch of Lifespan.
Then use these Lifespans to transform into the nutrients needed for the Body Strengthening Scripture.
It can barely give a hint of a sense of security.
After getting the chicken rearing scroll brought by Deacon Li, he can plan to slowly and legitimately expand the scale.
It will not attract attention and can also gradually improve himself.
Although it's a bit slow, it is safe.
Thinking about this, he straightforwardly put forth his conditions.
Three Spirit Stones can be exchanged for 20 male Precious Chickens.
He asked for two more.
Shopkeeper Lu appeared uneasy.
"Well... Two males are worth three parts of a Spirit Stone..."
Nevertheless, he was exceedingly pleased in his heart.
After all, the female Precious Chickens were full of spiritual energy and could lay eggs, making them extremely popular, and the profit from selling them was much greater than that of the roosters.
If he weren't aiming for repeat business, he wouldn't be willing to let so many go at the purchase price.
Although this was what he was thinking internally, on the surface he still put on an expression of difficulty.
In the end, he clenched his teeth and said:
"Alright! I feel a deep connection with you, and will take a liberty by calling you my younger brother. Younger brother, I'm not adverse to suffering a bit of a loss! However, next time if there are more spirit chickens, don't forget your elder brother!"
"If I have such good luck again, I'll definitely come to Brother Lu again."
The two of them chatted pleasantly, and soon, Shopkeeper Lu led him into the store.
It was only then that Wang Ba discovered that the place had a hidden world of its own, with a small chicken coop and pigsty built at the back.
After careful selecting those with a high lifespan, he happily carried a huge bamboo basket as tall as a man and left the marketplace.
Before he left, Shopkeeper Lu also gave him a small bag of items for him to look at when he got home.
Wang Ba did not refuse.
Watching Wang Ba's departing figure, Shopkeeper Lu, standing in the doorway, sipped his tea and instructed his boy servant:
"Spirit Chickens are hard to come by. Go and see if there's someone new at Ding Villa."
The boy servant was quite sharp and suggested:
"Sir, why not have someone follow him?"
Shopkeeper Lu slapped him immediately:
"Did you eat bear gallbladders? I asked you to inquire to secure more sources for our goods in the future, not to cause trouble! If this young man has a powerful figure behind him, ten of you won't be enough to atone for our troubles!"
"Go! Just inquire, don't meddle in unnecessary matters!"
"Yes! Yes!"
The boy servant covered his face, not daring to utter another word.
...
He still had to make many twists and turns on his way.
Because Wang Ba chose a great time to go out, he hardly saw anyone on the road.
Even though the first stage of the Body Strengthening Scripture had made him much stronger, carrying twenty-two Precious Chickens over such a long and difficult mountain path still left him drenched in sweat.
Chicken manure seeped out of the bamboo basket and stuck to his clothes.
The smell was hard to bear.
If this had happened before, he would have felt repulsed.
Now, Wang Ba didn't feel anything.
In fact, when he looked at the Precious Chickens, he was even more delighted than when looking at gold and silver treasures.
After all, these Precious Chickens were, in his eyes, walking lifespan boosters!
Once he got back to the manor, without any hesitation,
He immediately put the roosters he exchanged, one after another, into the 0.1-year lifespan storage.
Then, he marked them one by one and let them loose in the manor.
He also ordered the person delivering chicken feed to bring a few more buckets each day.
Eight days later.
"The lifespans of these roosters have stopped growing."
"It's time to harvest."
Wang Ba took a deep breath.
Then he grabbed the Precious roosters one by one to absorb their lifespan!
There were a total of twenty-two, each yielding 55 years!
After conversion, each yielded him 5.5 years, totaling 121 years!
[Current remaining lifespan: 179.1 years]
[Expendable item: Body Strengthening Scripture Stage II, Comprehensive Qualification, Root Bone, requiring a total of 18 years]
Unexplainably, Wang Ba felt as though he had returned to his carefree youth, his body full of vitality.
Looking at the numbers on the panel, a feeling of longevity satisfaction emerged in Wang Ba's heart.
But, he quickly snapped out of this illusion.
"My current longevity is just an illusion!"
"Only when I truly tread on the path to immortality will I have a hope for eternal life!"
Without any hesitation.
[Lifespan -18 years!]
Body Strengthening Scripture Stage II completed!
[Lifespan -36 years!]
Body Strengthening Scripture Stage III completed!
[Current remaining lifespan: 125.1 years]
[Expendable item: Body Strengthening Scripture Stage IV, Comprehensive Qualification, Root Bone, requiring a total of 72 years]
Just when he was about to spend on the fourth stage, Wang Ba hesitated.
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