Chapter 5: Going Back! _1

In the following days, Wang Ba neither extracted nor stored Lifespan.

He was waiting for Old Sun's departure.

Only after Old Sun leaves, could he comfortably do things in the villa according to his own thoughts.

Suppressing his urge to use his powers, he busied himself each day with transporting chicken feed, fermenting feed, feeding, collecting eggs, checking on the chickens' health, and cleaning up chicken droppings.

These chicken droppings were also collected by someone.

About two taels of silver per catty.

Every day, he shovelled out several dozen catties.

The manure tycoon who collected the droppings often hurriedly called out from the foot of the villa early in the morning.

The money from these chicken droppings was split evenly between him and Old Sun, but it was barely enough for their daily meals.

After all, the prices in the market were way higher than those at the foot of the mountain.

At night, he thoroughly contemplated the cultivation of the Body Strengthening Scripture in his bedroom.

Although the effects were not obvious, he gained a lot more understanding of this cultivation method.

Time passed day by day.

Half a month later.

Deacon Li arrived as scheduled.

"Oh? Old Sun has actually cultivated a Spirit Chicken?!"

Deacon Li, swollen with fat, looked at the large hen already put into the cage, his eyes filled with surprise.

"It's not about cultivation, this old man has no idea how it was raised, maybe it's just a coincidence."

Old Sun did not take any credit and stated the facts.

Since Wang Ba couldn't step forward to claim credit, the merit naturally belonged to Old Sun.

Deacon Li was not surprised when he heard this.

The birth of a Spirit Chicken is often filled with coincidences, and there were quite a few similar cases in the past.

"Old Sun, you are too modest, I heard that you want to leave the mountain?"

"Indeed, this old man is already old and wants to return to his roots."

"What a pity, Old Sun. Your experience is a rare treasure for our Ding Villa."

After a simple attempt to retain him, Deacon Li thought for a while then offered, "If that's the case, how about we change the reward? You have spent decades in our sect, and your contributions are enormous. Plus, this Spirit Chicken might enable you to descend the mountain with the status of a deacon."

"Oh?! Can it happen this way?"

Old Sun was taken aback, his eyes filled with unexpected joy.

"The decision of bestowing a deacon title is in the hands of the Elders, and it's not up to me." said Li Deacon, diplomatically.

Old Sun, looking moved, said, "Thank you, Deacon Li. If I could go down the mountain with the title of a Deacon, it would be worth it!"

Wang Ba, who had been silent on the side, hurriedly handed the chicken cage to Deacon Li.

But when his fingers touched the large hen, he couldn't help but being taken aback.

[Target Lifespan: 57.9 years]

"Huh? Why is it 57.9 years?"

Wang Ba showed a puzzled expression.

He clearly remembered that the Lifespan of this large hen was originally 19.2 years.

He had stored an extra two years of Lifespan the night before.

Normally, it should be 21.2 years.

But the figure he saw was 57.9 years.

It more than doubled!

However, he did not have time to think through this confusion.

Deacon Li had already taken over the chicken cage, looked it up and down through the cage, and nodded satisfactorily with happiness written all over his face.

"It's indeed a Spirit Chicken, and it looks in a very good condition!"

"Old Sun, rest assured, with this treasure at hand, this matter should mostly be successful."

After saying this, Deacon Li uttered a few instructions to Wang Ba, and then left swaying his sleeve.

"Wang boy, don't blame me for swapping this reward. You should have seen the situation just now. I couldn't refuse it."

Old Sun turned his head back, the look of gratitude on his face had disappeared.

In its place, was a look of helplessness.

According to the rules of the sect, supplying this Spirit Chicken could exempt one from providing supplies for a year, which would have reduced the pressure on Wang Ba who was taking over the duties.

But now, Deacon Li had taken the initiative to replace this reward with an upgrade to Old Sun's status, which had nothing to do with the villa.

Wang Ba would still have to supply every month.

However, Wang Ba didn't hold anything against Old Sun.

In that situation just now, Old Sun indeed couldn't have made the decision for him,

At this moment, the same question still lingered in his mind.

Why did the Lifespan of the big hen become 57.9 years?

Could it be because he stored Lifespan inside it?

Wang Ba was lost in thought.

But now was not the time to test his hypotheses.

He had to suppress his impulses, continuing as usual with his daily chores of hauling chicken feed, fermenting chicken feed, feeding chickens, collecting eggs…

Utterly worn out.

In the blink of an eye, another half month had passed.

Finally, Deacon Li brought news.

Just as expected, Old Sun's status had been elevated to that of a deacon.

On the day after his promotion, Old Sun, clad in luxurious attire, descends the mountain with his lifetime savings.

Wang Ba accompanies him to the mountain gate.

He was the only one doing so.

Old Sun, looking like a rich man, was laughing, but his laughter carried a certain sadness.

"I've been in the Sect for 50 years, but only you, a youngster I've recently acquainted myself with, came to see me off… What have I lived for…"

Wang Ba didn't know what to say.

All are choices of one's own, blaming others is futile.

Nevertheless, he can't help but shudder at the thought that he would also end up alone, disappearing into oblivion if it weren't for his golden finger.

"Should I …find a partner? To share warmth with one another?"

"Forget it, now is not the time."

Too poor.

It's indeed not the time.

Old Sun took a few steps down the hill, then turned around under Wang Ba's puzzled gaze and came back.

He hesitated before taking out a fire starter from his chest and shoving it into Wang Ba's hand.

Then, without looking back, he hurriedly descended the mountain.

As if he was afraid he might change his mind.

Or as if he couldn't bear to stay a single moment longer in a place that had been the object of his life's hopes, yet ultimately had granted him nothing.

Back at the mountain villa.

At this moment, apart from him, there were only a flock of Precious Chickens in the entire villa.

This oddly gave him a sense of peace and freedom.

Instinctively, he wanted to conduct some experiments on the Precious Chickens.

But he still suppressed his impulse and took out the fire starter Old Sun had given him before leaving.

Fire starters were very common, people in the mundane world would use them to start fires when traveling.

Usually, they are made of crude paper rolled up and stuffed into thin bamboo tubes.

Pre-lit and extinguished, leaving a bit of ember, when needed one need only to blow on it to start a fire.

However, Wang Ba didn't understand why Old Sun would give him a fire starter.

It was as if he had lost a family heirloom.

After some thought.

Wang Ba simply pulled the rolled-up paper out of the bamboo tube, extinguished the remaining ember, and then unfolded the paper.

The moment he unfolded it, he immediately noticed something unusual.

"There... there's a piece of gold paper stuck in here!"

Wang Ba's eyes widened, he hastily unfolded the gold paper and examined it carefully under the sunlight.

To his surprise, he saw the surface of the gold paper was densely filled with tiny characters as fine as a mosquito's leg!

A rough estimate told him there were over 40,000 words!

This was several times more than the Body Strengthening Scripture.

Squinting his eyes, Wang Ba struggled to make out the first few characters.

It was the "Book of Yin God's Grand Dream"!

"A Cultivation Method?"

Wang Ba was taken aback.

He felt somewhat disappointed.

This was because all the immortal sect cultivation methods generally required the existence of a Spiritual Root.

Without a Spiritual Root, you would be ignored.

A scripture like Body Strengthening Scripture was extremely rare.

Therefore, Wang Ba lost interest.

"But… Old Sun is also a mortal, how could he have a cultivation method?"

Driven by curiosity, Wang Ba still squinted his eyes and read through every word laboriously.

Just this took him half a day.

After reading, however, an expression of surprise appeared on Wang Ba's face.

"This cultivation method doesn't require a Spiritual Root!"

"Moreover, it's just like the Body Strengthening Scripture, relying on continuous effort and persistence."

"But there's a big problem with this method!"