Cultivation in the Qi Refining realm boiled down to two fundamental tasks.

First: The continuous refining and compression of Spiritual Power. Second: The relentless expansion of the Dantian.

The former was the metric by which the ten layers of Qi Refining were measured. Every time a cultivator successfully compressed their entire reservoir of gaseous Spiritual Power into a denser state, they advanced one layer.

After nine successful compressions, the gaseous Spiritual Power would liquefy completely. That was the Tenth Layer of Qi Refining—the threshold to the Foundation Establishment realm.

The latter task—expanding the Dantian—usually happened naturally as a side effect of refining Spiritual Power. However, different cultivation techniques carved out Dantians of varying capacities.

In theory, bigger was better. A larger tank meant more fuel, which translated to a significant advantage in a duel of attrition.

In this regard, the Ren Water Four-Defense Art was actually superior to many common techniques. Because it required a mix of elemental spirits, it forcibly carved out a massive Dantian to accommodate the chaotic energy.

But everything had a price.

A larger tank took longer to fill.

To reach the pressure required for compression, Wang Ba needed to accumulate significantly more Spiritual Power than his peers. This dragged down his leveling speed like an anchor.

This was why Single and Dual Spiritual Roots were revered as High and Middle Grade aptitudes. In a world where lifespan was finite, speed was king. The meta of the cultivation world was simple: “Suppress others with a higher Realm.”

Wang Ba understood this logic intimately.

He also understood his own reality. With his mediocre Four-Spiritual Root aptitude, filling his oversized Dantian and compressing it to break through from the First to the Second Layer would take months of grinding under ideal conditions.

If conditions were less than ideal? Two or three years wouldn’t be unusual.

The more impurities in the root, the harder the Spiritual Power was to control during compression. It was like trying to compress a handful of sand versus a handful of air.

Wang Ba took a deep breath, checked his vitals, and prepared for the long, grueling grind.

Ping.

A translucent light screen suddenly materialized in his vision.

[Current Lifespan Remaining: 3347.9 Years]

[Consumable Items Detected:]

Physique Strengthening Scripture (11th Layer): Requires comprehensive aptitude/Root Bone conversion. Cost: 9216 Years.

Qi Refining First Layer (Bottleneck): Requires comprehensive aptitude/Root Bone conversion. Cost: 1.2 Years.

Wang Ba froze. His heart slammed against his ribs.

A new consumable option?

Breaking the First Layer Bottleneck… only costs 1.2 years?

It was an unexpected windfall.

He had assumed his unique ability—using lifespan to bypass training requirements—was limited to the Physique Strengthening Scripture. He hadn’t expected it to trigger for his Qi cultivation.

But what is the trigger condition? Wang Ba frowned, his analytical mind instantly dissecting the miracle. Why does it appear for some things and not others?

The Yin Spirit Great Dream Scripture had offered a bypass for the first layer (Novice), but the option vanished for the second layer. He had stared at the golden pages for hours since then with no reaction.

The Ren Water Four-Defense Art didn’t have distinct “layers” in terms of technique mastery; it just required compressing energy.

The Yin Spirit scripture is different, he mused. The first layer is simple visualization using intent. The second layer requires sketching the Yin Spirit in the ‘Spiritual Platform’ using Divine Sense…

Wait. Divine Sense.

That was a hard hardware requirement. Divine Sense was a faculty only Foundation Establishment cultivators possessed. It allowed for 360-degree omnidirectional perception.

Hypothesis: The option didn’t appear for the Yin Spirit scripture because I physically lack the organ—Divine Sense—to perform the technique.

Conclusion: The System can speed up accumulation, but it cannot generate new biological functions.

It was just a theory, but it fit the data. He wouldn’t know for sure until he reached Foundation Establishment.

Regardless, a wave of euphoria washed over him.

If this theory held, future bottlenecks—the bane of every cultivator’s existence—might be trivial for him. As long as he had lifespan currency to burn, he could brute-force his way through barriers that stalled geniuses for decades.

For him, success wouldn’t be a gamble. It would be shui dao qu cheng—inevitable, like water forming a channel.

I wonder if this works for the Foundation Establishment bottleneck itself?

Wang Ba shook his head, clearing the distraction.

“Consume.”

[Current Lifespan: -1.2 Years]

Boom.

Inside his Dantian, the gaseous Spiritual Power imploded. It collapsed inward, shrinking to one-tenth of its original volume, yet the energy density spiked violently. The sheer quality of the Qi was leagues above what he possessed a moment ago.

Wang Ba exhaled a plume of white turbid air. He felt satisfied.

My talent isn’t that bad. It only took a year of life to break through.

Compared to the terrifying four-digit costs of the body cultivation techniques, a 1.2-year price tag felt like buying a house for the price of a sandwich.

He sat on his meditation cushion, stabilizing his breath. He began to cycle his energy according to the Second Layer pathways of the Ren Water Four-Defense Art, pulling in the surrounding ambient Spiritual Qi.

A few minutes later, he opened his eyes and frowned.

“The Spiritual Qi density in this Stone Cave Dwelling is dragging me down. It can’t keep up with my absorption rate anymore.”

“I’ll need to move soon.”

Back at the chicken farm.

The Human Puppet was tirelessly shoveling manure with machine-like efficiency.

Wang Ba surveyed the yard, watching the Rare Fowl foraging in the dirt. A sense of satisfaction settled in his chest.

He had considered using the Prime Yang Inversion Technique (Artificial Insemination) to rush another batch of chicks, but abandoned the plan. Yu Changchun’s supply chain for feed was already strained.

Currently, the farm housed roughly 3,600 chickens.

Less than one hundred were genuine Spirit Poultry.

This ratio was a calculated deception. Any Spirit Poultry leaving this farm would have the majority of its lifespan drained by Wang Ba first. Slow growth, but safe.

If Yu Changchun discovered Wang Ba was hoarding hundreds of Spirit Poultry, questions would be asked. Dangerous questions.

But keeping a stock of under a hundred? He could justify that.

“I need a robust breeding stock to ensure genetic diversity and stable production output,” he would say. As the resident expert, his professional jargon usually silenced the laymen.

Wang Ba walked behind the small wooden shack and lifted a heavy black tarp, revealing a hidden coop.

Inside, five young birds stood out instantly. They were significantly larger than their peers.

“Five Middle Grade Spirit Poultry… Phenotype is larger than Alpha-Five, but muscle density seems slightly inferior to Alpha-Seven.”

These five were the result of the fertilized eggs he had discovered earlier. Both parents were Spirit Poultry, so they had hatched as Low Grade stock. After Wang Ba injected them with lifespan, they had all evolved into Middle Grade.

He scanned them with a Spirit Light Talisman. The aura was pure white—lacking the faint green tint that Alpha-Seven possessed.

Genetic potential is lower than Alpha-Seven, he noted clinically.

It didn’t matter. As long as they were Middle Grade, they were compatible mates for Alpha-Seven.

His goal was to stabilize the inheritance of Alpha-Seven’s combat traits. If he could mass-produce combat-ready Spirit Poultry and then use his lifespan ability to power-level them…

The strategic value would be immense.

He separated the five chicks for a closer inspection. They were old enough to sex now.

Two males, three females.

One of the females caught his eye. She looked… different.

“Why are her feathers so… loud?”

She wasn’t fully molted yet, but her plumage was already a riot of color, far more vibrant than the drab earth tones of a standard hen.

Wang Ba isolated her for testing.

Disappointment followed.

Despite her flashy, “li hu shao” appearance, her combat stats were garbage. No aggression, no strength bonus. Just a pretty bird.

Still, he tagged her. Mutations are worth monitoring. You never know.

Feeling generous after his breakthrough, Wang Ba wandered over to the pond to check on the Yellow-throated Spirit Turtles.

These creatures were the definition of sloth.

Their daily routine consisted of eating, sleeping, and stacking themselves into a precarious tower on a floating log to sunbathe.

When they saw Wang Ba approach, they turned their heads slowly, offering him a vacant, wide-eyed “smile.”

Derp.

Wang Ba ran a few tests. The results were underwhelming. Aside from a slightly harder shell and a strong bite force, they were useless in a fight. Their combat utility was effectively zero.

“Waste of space,” Wang Ba muttered.

On a whim, he grabbed one of the turtles and slaughtered it for soup.

An hour later.

Wang Ba sat before an empty bowl, his eyes wide with shock.

The soup was potent.

The moment the meat hit his stomach, it exploded into energy. The Spiritual Qi content was significantly higher than that of a standard Spirit Poultry.

He immediately sat down to refine the energy. By the time he finished, he had condensed a full strand of Spiritual Power.

Not the wispy gas of the First Layer, but the dense, compressed Qi of the Second Layer. One strand of this was worth six or seven of the old ones.

Even more shocking was the effect on his Yin Spirit. The turtle soup had generated five drops of Yin Spirit power.

“Good stuff… this is seriously good stuff!”

He had completely misjudged the asset class. The Yellow-throated Spirit Turtle wasn’t a combat pet or a tank. It was a high-density battery.

Crucially, the turtle meat was far easier to digest than the stringy Spirit Poultry. He could easily consume two or three of these in a single sitting without bloating.

Efficiency calculation: Eating turtles was exponentially faster than meditating in the meager qi of the Stone Cave Dwelling.

The only bottleneck was supply. The turtle population was small, and their feed cost was astronomical. He was currently feeding them leftover chicken scraps and eggs, which wasn’t sustainable at scale.

“I need a cheap, high-energy feed source,” he muttered, glancing around the yard.

His eyes landed on the Black Crystal Peach Tree by the pond.

Thanks to his barbaric application of raw chicken manure fertilizer, the dying sapling had roared back to life. It was now lush and green, a vibrant splash of life against the dirt.

It might bear fruit in a few months, he estimated. But I can’t wait that long.

Wang Ba spent the night at the farm, letting Alpha-Seven and the other elites roam free. The next morning, after a breakfast of Spirit Poultry, he returned to the Stone Cave Dwelling.

Compared to the farm, the cave was quieter and safer for deep meditation.

Dusk was falling, and Wang Ba was preparing to leave for his evening shift at the farm, when a heavy sound echoed through the cave.

Thud. Thud.

Someone was knocking on his door.