Cultivation: I Can Steal Lifespan from Spirit Beasts

What exactly would hatch from the union of a Phoenix Feather Chicken and a Singing White Chicken?

Wang Ba was consumed by curiosity.

Yet, when the shells finally cracked and the wet, chirping life emerged, he was caught off guard.

Normal chicks were born with fluffy, pale yellow down. This hybrid, however, was covered in a dull, ash-gray coat. Aside from the color, it looked like any other Spirit Poultry chick.

Wang Ba followed his standard protocol and performed an immediate inspection.

The result was a pleasant surprise. This gray ball of fluff wasn’t merely High Grade, as he had statistically predicted—it was a Top Grade Spirit Poultry.

“A jackpot.”

He waited a few days to ensure stability before investing his own lifespan into the creature. Once the transaction was complete, fueled by premium feed, the chick’s growth exploded. It seemed to double in size with each passing day.

However, as it grew, Wang Ba noticed something wrong.

It was silent.

Even when starving, pecking frantically at the ground for grain, it never let out a single peep or cluck.

Stranger still was its social behavior—or lack thereof. It lived completely apart from the flock. Even when its mother, Alpha-Nine, approached with her tail raised in a maternal greeting, the chick ignored her entirely. It stood there, staring into the middle distance, looking utterly vacuous.

It was more antisocial than the violent Alpha-Twelve or Alpha-Thirteen.

Its only attachment was to Wang Ba.

Whenever he sat down, the bird would hop onto his thigh, bury its head in his chest, and gently peck at his robes. Wherever Wang Ba walked, a silent gray shadow followed at his heels.

“Another problem child…”

Wang Ba rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. Still, after investing so much time and lifespan, he couldn’t bear to cull it.

Time passed. Eventually, the chick’s voracious appetite leveled off, signaling the end of its rapid growth phase due to the lifespan infusion.

The results were mixed.

To Wang Ba’s disappointment, despite possessing spiritual fluctuations far stronger than the Singing White Chicken, and triggering a Spirit Light Talisman reaction so deep blue it verged on purple, it failed to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm.

And then there was its appearance.

It was… complicated.

Like its father, the Singing White Chicken, it was draped in jet-black feathers topped with a large red comb. But perhaps inheriting a recessive trait from Alpha-Nine, the black plumage possessed a strange, iridescent sheen under the sunlight.

“Is this what they call ‘multicolored black’?”

Wang Ba tried to find amusement in the absurdity. He casually dubbed the new breed: Black Feather Chicken.

Next came combat testing.

Since Alpha-Nine had zero combat ability, the Black Feather Chicken’s offensive capabilities were predictably abysmal. However, its defense was noteworthy.

Alpha-Twelve spent a good while gnawing on the bird but failed to pluck a single feather.

Wang Ba, unable to restrain his curiosity, tagged in the ferocious Alpha-Thirteen. This time, the assault broke the skin, drawing a significant amount of blood.

The reaction—or lack thereof—shocked Wang Ba.

Despite bleeding profusely, the Black Feather Chicken didn’t make a sound. It didn’t flinch. Its eyes remained glazed and empty, staring at nothing. It was as if the creature didn’t realize it was the one being eaten.

“This is useless. It doesn’t dodge, it doesn’t fight back… it’s just a meat shield.”

Wang Ba had held onto a sliver of hope for a hidden talent, but a battery of tests left him thoroughly disappointed.

The final nail in the coffin came during the physical examination.

“No reproductive organs?”

The Black Feather Chicken was neither male nor female.

“No wonder it looks like a rooster but never crows.” Wang Ba realized with a sigh. “Reproductive isolation. Like a mule.”

The mating experiment was a failure. The lineages of the Phoenix Feather Chicken and the Singing White Chicken were too divergent. Even if they produced offspring, the bloodline ended here.

He pulled out his logbook and recorded the data with clinical detachment:

[Subject: Black Feather Chicken]

Grade: Top Grade Spirit Poultry.

Lifespan: Approx. 180 years.

Defense: Slightly higher than Singing White Chicken (Top Grade).

Offense: Negligible.

Intelligence: Severely cognitive deficit.

Reproduction: Sterile.

Notes: Failed hybrid.

In the science of breeding, failure was the norm. Success lay in summarizing the data and adjusting the variables.

While the poultry project stalled, the reptilian division offered better news.

During his inventory of the Spirit Turtles, Wang Ba had the dubious privilege of witnessing a live-broadcast adult film.

The stars: Rice Bucket and the four female Shield-Armored Giant-Headed Turtles he had introduced to the pond three months ago. After the lifespan infusion, the females had all successfully evolved into High Grade Spirit Turtles.

Visually, the slow, rhythmic overlapping of black and white shells at a forty-five-degree angle was far more impactful than the frantic, touch-and-go copulation of the chickens.

Wang Ba watched with purely academic interest, of course.

Rice Bucket worked his way through the harem, moving from one shell to the next, seemingly insatiable. Wang Ba felt a twinge of regret. He wished he had purchased more giant turtles, or perhaps a male one to establish a stable breeding line like the chickens.

“Turtle reproduction is slow,” he mused, “but the stability is superior.”

“I need to source more turtles when the opportunity arises.”

Given the Black Feather Chicken debacle, however, he held low expectations for any hybrids between Rice Bucket and the Giant-Headed Turtles. He would manage his expectations and take it slow and steady.

Wang Ba shifted his focus back to personal cultivation.

His Spiritual Power grew steadily. Since the last conscription, his life had settled into a comfortable, mundane rhythm: feed chickens, feed turtles, cultivate at the Spirit Water Courtyard.

It was peaceful.

Bu Chan continued to visit the farm irregularly to help with the spirit fields, though Wang Ba noticed she would occasionally cast strange, lingering glances at him. He chose to ignore them.

Everything else was handled by his human puppets.

Yu Changchun also visited from time to time, bringing gossip from the sect.

The latest news involved the Profound Talisman Path. Their acting Elder had invited the Sect Master to preside over the ‘Inheritance Talisman Competition,’ a grand event for all qualified talisman masters. The first round of screening was complete, and several talents from the Left Path had emerged—including a cultivator named Yan whom Wang Ba vaguely recognized.

The news from the Eastern Sage Sect front was less festive.

The outpost perimeter was plagued by unknown cultivators scouting and ambushing Left Path disciples. The primary threat was a cold-blooded female sword cultivator known as the ‘Heartless Female Fiend.’

A Qi Refining disciple from the sect’s Joyous Life Path had loudly proclaimed he would “subdue” this female fiend. There had been no news since. Whether he subdued her or was subdued by her remained an open question.

Wang Ba listened to these tales as if they were fiction.

He had long resolved that unless he found a way to break the Spirit-Hosting Bamboo Slip, he would not leave the Heavenly Gate Sect’s territory.

Minimize variables. Avoid trouble. survive.

However, Yu Changchun’s frequent loitering was puzzling. The man was on the precipice of Foundation Establishment. Why wasn’t he in secluded meditation making his final push?

“Fellow Daoist, you don’t understand,” Yu Changchun said, shaking his head. His face, a blur of flesh with a single rolling eyeball, looked particularly ghastly today.

“To achieve Foundation Establishment, one must bring Essence, Qi, and Spirit to absolute Perfection. Only then, with the aid of a Foundation Establishment Pill, can one shatter the bottleneck and forge the immortal root.”

“If any of the three—Essence, Qi, Spirit—are lacking, you risk running out of strength halfway. You fail at the last step. Worse, Inner Demons can invade, causing Spiritual Power to rampage. Best case, you’re crippled. Worst case, you explode.”

Yu Changchun pointed to his distorted chest. “I switched to the Blood Bone Path. My Spirit and Essence-Blood are fused into my skeletal structure. I only need to harmonize my Spiritual Power. The difficulty is lower than standard cultivation, but the final step remains a heavenly chasm.”

“I wander now to calm my mind. To align the trinity within me.”

Wang Ba pricked up his ears.

He was at the eighth layer of Qi Refining. At his current speed, the ninth layer was a year or two away. The glimpse of Foundation Establishment was perhaps a decade out.

He wasn’t sure if his lifespan cheat code would work on a major realm barrier like Foundation Establishment. He needed a contingency plan.

“Dare I ask, Fellow Daoist,” Wang Ba asked cautiously, “can one purchase a Foundation Establishment Pill in the market?”

“Purchase?”

Yu Changchun laughed, the sound wet and raspy.

“Guess how I got mine?”

“The Sect issued it.”

“And why? Because I infiltrated the Eastern Sage Sect. I risked my soul on a suicide mission. Chief Lu carried a thousand bones in his body—I personally hid nearly a hundred of them inside the bodies of living laborers, piece by piece.”

“I was undercover inside the Eastern Sage Sect before Lu even arrived!”

“And for that massive contribution? Two pills. That’s it.”

“So tell me, do you think you can find them in the market stalls?”

Yu Changchun sighed. “If they were for sale, we wouldn’t have dozens of tenth-layer Qi Refining cultivators in the sect waiting like starving dogs. And becoming a formal disciple wouldn’t be so difficult for you Left Path types.”

Wang Ba nodded slowly. The scarcity was artificial and absolute. Even internal disciples had to queue.

After a moment of calculation, Wang Ba asked a probing question.

“Fellow Daoist, hypothetically… if one lacks the pill, but achieves absolute Perfection in Essence, Qi, and Spirit… can they succeed?”

Yu Changchun thought for a moment, then nodded gravely.

“Naturally. It is possible.”

Seeing Wang Ba’s surprise, the blurry flesh on Yu’s face shifted into what might have been a smile.

“If your spiritual roots are outstanding. If you have never taken a pill in your life. If your soul is naturally robust, your essence overflowing, your Spiritual Power profound, and your foundation solid as rock… if you meet all these conditions, then yes.”

“Heh. But let’s be realistic. You cultivate so quickly… dare you claim you’ve never popped a pill?”

Wang Ba’s expression twitched.

“Heh.” He quickly masked it with a look of confusion. “I understand aptitude, but why does taking pills matter?”

“Simple. Foundation Establishment is the evolution from mortal to immortal. The body must be pure, flawless. Taking pills leaves residue—Pill Toxins. These toxins accumulate in the flesh. It is nearly impossible for a cultivator to expel them alone. Too many toxins prevent the Perfection of the trinity. The Foundation Establishment Pill is essentially a violent detergent—it forcibly cleanses the body to allow the breakthrough.”

Yu Changchun’s tone shifted from superior to peer-to-peer instruction.

“But… isn’t the Foundation Establishment Pill also a pill? Doesn’t it have toxins?” Wang Ba asked.

“Of course,” Yu Changchun shrugged helplessly. “So, a foundation built with the pill will always have flaws.”

“But a flawed foundation is better than rotting as a Qi Refining cultivator.”

The single eye suddenly gleamed with longing.

“However… legends say that in ancient times, geniuses comprehended the Dao of Heaven and Earth. They achieved Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment—breaking through without a single pill. A supreme, flawless Dao foundation.”

“Even today, it is said the true inheritors of the great sects never touch pills. They eat only Top Grade Spirit Chow, bathe in spiritual springs, and cleanse their bodies daily. They can achieve Foundation Establishment naturally. It’s a shortcut to the Heavenly Dao method.”

Yu Changchun couldn’t hide the envy in his voice. He sighed, shaking his head.

“But that is a fairytale for people like us.”

“We know pills hurt our future, but we can’t resist the temptation of speed. Like you, reaching the eighth layer so fast… you must have eaten pills like candy, right?”

Wang Ba’s face went stiff.

“Uh…”