This third-generation little hen was wretchedly cheeky, yet in terms of appearance and demeanor, she was clearly a cut above her father, Alpha-Five.

Although Wang Ba was seething with annoyance, he couldn’t resist reaching out to stroke her neck.

The little hen revealed a hint of enjoyment, rubbing her small head affectionately against Wang Ba’s fingers. Perhaps due to the Lifespan Wang Ba had deposited into her, she displayed an unexpected closeness to him.

“Cluck, cluck…”

[Target Lifespan: 111.4 Years]

Seeing the lifespan readout hovering over the little hen, Wang Ba was slightly surprised.

These past few days, his mind had been entirely consumed by his escape plan from the Eastern Sage Sect. Aside from the mandatory chores of cleaning and feeding, he hadn’t paid much attention to the Spirit Poultry.

He hadn’t expected that a third-generation Spirit Poultry, after a breakthrough, would possess a lifespan fully twenty years longer than Alpha-Five’s.

A thought stirred in Wang Ba’s heart. He fished a low-level Spirit Light Talisman from his sleeve and brought it close to the little hen.

Almost immediately, a pure white light, tinged with a distinct trace of green, rose from the yellow paper.

“Middle Grade Spirit Poultry… but extremely close to High Grade!”

Wang Ba felt a mix of pleasant surprise and regret.

As a mere mortal, cultivating a Spirit Poultry to the brink of High Grade was an achievement worth celebrating.

But the regret was bitter. He would be leaving soon. No matter how precious this breeding hen was, he couldn’t take her with him. Her ultimate fate would be to die after he drained her lifespan dry.

What a waste of such a rare specimen.

The thought inevitably led him back to the Ascension Society’s surveillance, and his mood instantly plummeted.

Patting the little hen’s head, Wang Ba lifted her off his lap. He had neither the time nor the mood to play right now.

“How exactly can I evade the Ascension Society’s eyes?”

“And those shattered stones… who created them? Is it connected to the Society?”

“If it’s not them, then who? And if it is the Ascension Society, such wanton destruction doesn’t match their previous cautious approach…”

Wang Ba stroked his beard, which had grown an inch long, and sank into deep thought.

But soon, he felt the little hen hop back onto his lap.

A moment later, a sensation of damp, spreading warmth soaked through his trousers…

Wang Ba grit his teeth.

This damn wretched thing!

He looked down. Sure enough, a fresh, distinct pile of white-and-green chicken dung was plastered to his leg.

Meanwhile, the little hen sat there, holding a pebble in her beak, tilting her head to look at him with an expression of utter innocence and curiosity.

“I’ll slap you to dea—Hm? Wait!”

Pebble?

Wang Ba finally spotted the anomaly. An unbelievable guess flashed through his mind.

He stared in shock. The little hen, balancing on one leg on his thigh, maintained her innocent facade while her sharp beak clamped down. Crack. She effortlessly crushed the hard pebble as if she were cracking a sunflower seed, then swallowed the fragments.

Seemingly unsatisfied, the little hen hopped down from Wang Ba’s lap and bounded over to a larger broken stone block.

Thwack!

In that instant, Wang Ba felt his vision blur.

He only caught a vague afterimage of the little hen pecking the stone.

Then, the solid stone block split smoothly down the middle, as if a red-hot knife had been plunged into frozen lard.

On the cross-section, Wang Ba saw them—dozens of familiar chisel marks.

They were densely packed and looked fresh.

The little hen chirped happily and pecked the split stone again. Snap. The halves were halved again. The new cross-sections instantly bore over a dozen more chisel marks.

It was her!

The destruction in Old Man Sun’s room was the work of this little hen!

Witnessing the scene with his own eyes, Wang Ba finally confirmed his hypothesis.

No, maybe the other two third-generation chicks are involved too.

Wang Ba quickly observed the others.

To his slight disappointment, the other two Spirit Poultry—one male, one female—didn’t possess the terrifying power and speed of the little hen, despite having similar physiques. They picked up pebbles but couldn’t crush them, spitting them out after a few futile attempts.

Clearly, the little hen was a unique anomaly.

“She is biologically a meat-type chicken, yet she possesses combat abilities.”

“Her siblings, from the same clutch, are still standard meat chickens.”

“Could this be… a Mutation?”

Wang Ba stroked his beard, pondering so hard he felt he might pull the hairs out.

He had read about ‘Mutation’ in Daoist Horn-Pot’s Notes on Avian Husbandry.

Daoist Horn-Pot was a fanatic for raising rare birds and exotic beasts. In his quest to research how ordinary creatures could transform into Spirit Beasts, he had conducted massive breeding experiments.

He discovered that when inducing bloodline breakthroughs, there was an infinitesimally small probability of a special change occurring.

Once, a Bi Que bird grew fish-like gills on its chest during a breakthrough.

Another time, a long snake transformed, sprouting wings and gaining the ability to summon clouds and rain.

These changes could be beneficial or detrimental. They were often isolated cases with no pattern to follow. Daoist Horn-Pot termed this ‘Mutation’—a change so divergent it defied tracing.

This little hen had likely undergone a Mutation during her lifespan breakthrough, granting her astonishing strength and speed.

“Consider it an unexpected windfall.”

“I’ll name you Alpha-Seven.”

Wang Ba gently stroked the hen. Alpha-Seven immediately narrowed her eyes, accepting the affection with a look of pure enjoyment.

Wang Ba hesitated.

If she were just a high-value meat chicken, he could grit his teeth and abandon or consume her. But a Spirit Poultry with combat potential? That was painful to give up.

It wasn’t just about breeding value; it was about survival.

A combat-capable Spirit Poultry was effectively a Spirit Beast. Usually, only Qi Refining disciples could control such creatures. For a mortal like Wang Ba to have a Middle Grade First-Tier Spirit Beast for protection… his security would skyrocket.

To abandon her would be a waste of the highest order.

“Forget it. I won’t decide now. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”

“The priority remains the same: Solve the surveillance problem.”

The issue was urgent and imminent.

Wang Ba racked his brain.

Perhaps the surprise of Alpha-Seven had unlocked something in his mind, but a new angle suddenly occurred to him.

My Yin Spirit power can project illusions into the five senses and minds of others.

So… what if I project an image of ‘air’?

If I project ‘nothingness’, would I effectively disappear from their eyes?

If this works, isn’t it basically an Invisibility Art?

Once the floodgate opened, the idea took root. This had potential!

He didn’t act immediately. He ran the scenario through his mind multiple times, checking for logical flaws.

Only when he was certain did he begin to shape the image in his mind.

He grabbed a small bucket, filled it with droppings from Alpha-Five and the others, and walked to the door.

He took a deep breath.

A glint of determination flashed in his eyes.

He carefully eased open the dilapidated door, trying to silence the hinges.

The drain on his Yin Spirit power remained constant. This meant the act of opening the door wasn’t being actively monitored, or at least didn’t trigger a reaction.

He took another deep breath.

His expression smoothed into calmness. His breathing steadied.

He took a step out.

Buzz!

The Yin Spirit power in his mind suddenly spun violently!

The consumption rate doubled instantly!

Is disguising myself as ‘nothing’ too difficult? or are there more people watching me now?

Wang Ba’s mind raced.

But once the arrow is loosed, there is no turning back. No matter the cost, he had to grit his teeth and commit.

One step.

Two steps.

Internally, he was a wreck of nerves.

Externally, his body moved with practiced ease, carrying the bucket of dung toward the disposal area outside the manor.

Even if the Yin Spirit power failed to fool them, they would simply see him doing his chores—hauling another bucket of waste. It was a perfect cover.

But at that exact moment, a Rare Fowl pacing nearby spotted a piece of spilled chicken feed directly behind Wang Ba.

Seeing a clear path to the food, it flapped its wings and launched a charging flight straight at him!

Wang Ba’s face lost all color.