Chapter 52: Chapter 52 Four Cultivators i
Translator: 549690339
“Had enough?”
The sudden voice startled Wang Ba. As he didn’t have much of the Power of the Yin God and there were Sect Disciples present, Wang Ba had no choice but to stop using it.
He didn’t notice.
He hurriedly looked towards the source of the voice.
He saw a teenager, about seventeen or eighteen years old, in a white robe staring impatiently at him.
“Master Immortal, I’ve seen enough, seen enough,” Wang Ba quickly responded, putting on a smile and bowing repeatedly.
“Well, start working! What are you daydreaming about!”
The teenager in the white robe was ruthlessly direct, pointing at the chicken feed bucket next to him, it was about his height, and began giving instructions:
“Yes, remember to fill this. And this…you should do it every day.”
Forcing a smile, Wang Ba acutely picked up a shovel, ready to shovel the chicken feed by his side into a large barrel for fermentation.
“Hey, hey, hey! Wash your hands first! Don’t tell me you’re planning to dirty this shovel handle!”
The teenager shouted unhappily.
Wang Ba could not help touching the jade pendant that he kept on his body. In the end, he managed to smile again:
“Yes, yes, yes. 1’11 go wash my hands right away.”
He said as he walked towards the well in the villa.
But once again, he drew the ire of the teenager in white:
“We don’t do that here, you should wash outside! Only after you have a clean wash you may come back!”
Wang Ba, who had turned his back to the teenager in white, couldn’t help but take a deep breath and let it out slowly.
When he turned around, his face was once again adorned with a smile:
“Yes, Master Immortal!”
After some trouble.
Wang Ba finally got to work properly.
All the chores related to chicken husbandry were limited, such as feeding, cleaning, inspection, egg collection, and so forth.
But Wang Ba found that the breeding of Spirit Chickens in Villa Ding 9 was much more meticulous.
For example, the spiritual energy content in the Spirit Chicken feed was clearly higher than the feed they used for Precious Chickens.
The difference between the two was perhaps three or four times.
And the list of ingredients was also different.
There were some herbs and minerals that Wang Ba didn’t recognize, as well as some other things he couldn’t describe.
The abundant strength and endurance brought by the Stage IX of the Strong Body Sutra made him work incredibly efficiently.
Even so, it took him quite some time and effort to fill a large barrel with chicken feed and start the fermentation process.
During this process, three more outer disciples returned to the mansion one after another.
Although Wang Ba was busy working, his sharp five senses still picked up the appearance and behaviour of these three disciples.
The first to return was a middle-aged cultivator; he came back from outside, frowned at Wang Ba, who was working, for a while, then went back to the largest room in the middle of the mansion.
The second was a beautiful female cultivator in her twenties. After quickly returning, she glanced at Wang Ba before going straight back to her own room.
The third one was a handsome young man. Although he seemed a bit surprised to see Wang Ba, he returned to his room, said nothing, and came out after a while, strangely enough, helping Wang Ba clean up the chicken manure.
“Finally Elder Qian arranged for someone else to come. If you didn’t come, the few of us in the villa would have fought each other,” the handsome youth seemed to share the same outgoing and outspoken nature as Old Hou. He quickly became friendly with Wang Ba.
“Master Immortal is joking…” Wang Ba quickly replied cautiously.
“Don’t call me Master Immortal, just call me Tao Yi. I’m just a bit luckier than you, having a spiritual root, but this luck is very limited,” seeing that Wang Ba was confused, Tao Yi laughed at himself.
“Look at us. We might seem important, but those who can be sent here to raise chickens are those with poor spiritual roots, sent here to do some odd jobs.”
“Well, I won’t talk much about it. 1 have been with the Sect for nearly ten years and I am still stuck at stage three of Qi refining… Senior Brother Shi, the one who seems a bit older, he is already in his eighties this year. Unfortunately, he is stuck at stage six of Qi refining, unable to progress any further. Considering his age, it’s like he is in retirement here. However, Senior Brother Shi is directly taught by Elder Qian, his ability to nurture Spirit Beasts is definitely top-notch!”
“There’s also a little brat who just joined the Sect this year. The kid, who doesn’t seem to know his own abilities, looks down at everyone through his nostrils. It makes me want to punch him! But you should stay away from him, this Chu brat, he’s sly! Several manual laborers were made cripples because of him.”
“Oh yes, there’s Junior Sister Lin Yu as well. Her qualification is not high, but she’s good at playing tricks. It’s said that she self-recommended herself to someone to gain access to the upper-grade Spiritual Lineage…Ahem, Junior Sister Lin is also back.”
Being quick to react, Tao Yi immediately changed his expression and greeted her with a straight face.
Lin Yu frowned at Tao Yi suspiciously. She had a feeling that they were talking about her, but she didn’t care much for this senior brother who had nothing to offer but a handsome face. She gave him a chilly nod.
Without hesitation, she walked straight to Wang Ba and frowned,
“How come Elder Qian only sent one person here… Anyway, I have only one requirement of you. Collect the eggs of the Spirit Chickens for me every day. If even one egg is damaged, you’ll answer to me!”
Having said that, she quickly left the villa.
One could subtly notice that she seemed to have gone out of her way to dress up.
“Hah! She’s off to benefit from the Spiritual Lineage again!”
Tao Yi quietly laughed.
Wang Ba watched Lin Yu’s receding figure, lost in thought.
It seemed that being a Cultivator was not as relaxing as he’d imagined, as they too faced some challenges.
What interested him more was about another issue: “Master, were the previous laborers really harmed by Master Chu…”
“Just call me by my name. It feels strange when you address me as Master, hmm… Anyway, we originally had four or five laborers to do the work, we didn’t have to lift a finger, but they were tortured by that Chu kid.”
Tao Yi stroked his chin, his eyes reflecting disdain:
“That kid is said to have been a cattle herder. After his Spiritual Root was discovered, he thought he would be able to ascend to the heavens in one step. However, after joining the Sect, he found out he had the lower grade five-elements Spiritual Root, and he was directly assigned by the Sect to raise chickens. It’s probably due to this disappointment that he takes pleasure in bullying the laborers.”
“But don’t worry, Senior Brother Shi also detests that kid. Because there aren’t any laborers left due to him, everyone now has to do the work themselves, losing time for cultivation. Therefore, Senior Brother Shi has already warned that child, he shouldn’t dare to mess with you. But if he does, just come to me, I’ll back you up!”
Tao Yi pledged with confidence.
“Thank you, Brother Tao Yi!”
Upon hearing these words, Wang Ba, whose heart was raised in tension, was finally relieved, and expressed his genuine gratitude.
“Haha! That’s more like it!”
Tao Yi slapped Wang Ba’s arm joyfully. It seemed as if he desperately needed someone to talk to and was happy to have Wang Ba around.
However, Wang Ba didn’t dare to just stand there and chat any longer. The Ding 9 Villa stood on a land area five to six times larger than that of the Ding 87 Villa, constituting a whopping eight hundred Spirit Chickens.
The quantity undoubtedly led to a tremendous amount of work.
This work was originally done by the four including Tao Yi. But with Wang Ba’s arrival, without question, it all fell into his hands.
It was a good thing that he had cultivated the Strong Body Sutra to stage IX, his strength, stamina, and recovery ability far exceeded that of ordinary people. Otherwise, he might not have been able to finish all his tasks.
Even so, when he finally finished cleaning up the chicken droppings, collecting the eggs and making sure everything else was in order, the moon was already high up in the sky.
Tao Yi invited Wang Ba to have a meal, but Wang Ba was curious why a
Qi-refining immortal even needed food.
“A Qi-refining stage is also a mortal, there’s no way they can survive without eating or drinking.”
Tao Yi dismissed nonchalantly.
Wang Ba nodded, gaining a little bit of understanding about the Qi-refining Cultivators.
“How does it feel? Tiring, isn’t it? Feeling like running away?”
Tao Yi teased.
“Hehe, I’m okay.”
Wang Ba shook his head with a laugh. He was indeed tired, but he didn’t want to leave at all.
After all, with so many Spirit Chickens swaying in front of him, how could he bear to leave? He must absorb some lifespan to begin with, right?
Naturally, this was still the Sect Disciple’s territory, so Wang Ba did not dare to make any moves right away. Instead, he quietly absorbed about two years of lifespan from a male Spirit Chicken.
He would watch the reactions of these cultivators tomorrow.
If these outer disciples could detect the decrease in the chicken’s lifespan, then he would honestly do his work in the future, and wait patiently for the opportunity to leave the Sect.
Otherwise, it would indicate that they cannot detect changes in lifespan. In that case, Wang Ba would not hesitate to take advantage.
With the war approaching, he needed to accumulate as much lifespan as possible. It might prove useful someday, and maybe, it could even help him condense his Spiritual Roots earlier…
With a sense of urgency, Wang Ba, exhausted from a long day’s work, finally comes back to Ding 87 Villa..