Cultivation: I Can Steal Lifespan from Spirit Beasts

Chapter 166: Preparing for Bloodline Breakthrough

“It hasn’t even been half a year!”

Bao Chao’s heart was filled with immense shock.

He considered himself quite talented in the path of Spirit Chefs, yet when he was learning the craft, he had spent a full twenty years on the second step.

Although he knew that Foundation Establishment cultivators had the help of Divine Sense, which must give them an advantage in processing spirit food ingredients, it shouldn’t be this exaggerated.

The key was that Senior Wang’s handling of ingredients was too precise and accurate. Even when casually taking a first-tier spirit beast to process, it was flawless, not inferior to him at all.

However, he knew how much effort he had put into the second step.

Because of this, he felt even more shocked.

He sincerely praised: “Senior’s talent in spirit cooking is simply as if you were born for the path of spirit chefs!”

Wang Ba heard this and didn’t know whether to be happy or not.

Was this meant to say he was naturally suited to be a cook?

But inwardly, he wasn’t surprised by this result.

To put it bluntly, the path of spirit cooking was actually a profession that achieved skill through extensive training and practice.

Plus, he himself was good at summarizing and finding similar processing patterns in different ingredients.

This allowed him to quickly master the second step in a short time.

“You praise me too much, Master Bao. The second step is complete. How should we proceed with the third step?”

Wang Ba calmed his mood and returned to the main topic.

He had specifically called Bao Chao over not to show off in front of him.

Bao Chao pondered slightly: “The third step involves more things again.”

“However, it can roughly be divided into three major categories: utensils, purification seals, and fire control.”

He then seriously explained: “Spirit cooking utensils are the containers needed to prepare spirit food. Different grades of spirit beasts correspond to different grades of utensils, and different types also correspond differently. For example, the processing utensils for spirit turtles and Spirit Poultry are different.”

“Purification seals are the same. Different ingredients and utensils correspond to different purification seals, and even the hand techniques and the frequency of Qi infusion are different.”

“And finally, fire control is very similar to alchemy in some ways, also requiring extensive practice.”

Afterward, Bao Chao explained the specific details to Wang Ba and lent him a complete set of first-tier spirit cooking utensils.

These types of utensils weren’t complex, but because spirit chefs were extremely rare in the cultivation world, corresponding utensils needed to be specially commissioned from artifact refiners, making them extremely scarce.

Wang Ba was currently short on Spirit Stones and temporarily couldn’t afford to commission an artifact refiner.

He immediately took Bao Chao’s spirit cooking utensils and began practicing with Spirit Poultry.

Among these, learning the purification seals was successfully accomplished with the help of the Lifespan panel. Only fire control was somewhat difficult.

After all, his fire spiritual root had been converted and absorbed by the other three elements. Although he could still control some spiritual fire seeds, it wasn’t as effortless as before.

Fortunately, the impact wasn’t significant. After several consecutive days of failure, he finally successfully produced about a small spoonful of Spirit Poultry essence.

Bao Chao tasted it and gave an evaluation: “The purity is already close to sixty percent, very good. It should be that the fire control is slightly lacking.”

Not achieving one hundred percent purity, Wang Ba was somewhat helpless about this, but he knew fire control was a process that required continuous practice and could only be accomplished through diligent cultivation.

He practiced for a few more days. Soon, it was time for the monthly teleportation array opening.

Thinking he hadn’t seen Bu Chan for two months, and indeed being short on funds, he borrowed some Spirit Stones from Bao Chao for the teleportation array fee and returned to the Eastern Sage Sect garrison.

…

Two months without returning to the Eastern Sage Sect garrison.

Wang Ba found that the atmosphere within the Eastern Sage Sect garrison was becoming increasingly tense and filled with deathly stillness.

He didn’t see many cultivators missing limbs on the roadside. Instead, when passing through the market district, he saw many houses in the distant Wood Tower Dwellings and even Spirit Water Courtyard with white funeral banners hanging in front.

Sweeping with his Divine Sense, the once-crowded Stone Cave Dwellings were now nine out of ten empty.

Seeing this scene, Wang Ba sighed softly.

Heterodox cultivators were positioned as expendable items within the Heavenly Gate Sect.

Usually exploited by the Heavenly Gate Sect, contributing their life’s work, they were ultimately sent to their deaths by the Heavenly Gate Sect, burning their last bit of value.

If he didn’t possess some skills needed by the Heavenly Gate Sect, even as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he probably wouldn’t escape this fate.

His desire to leave the Heavenly Gate Sect became increasingly urgent.

He immediately hurried back to the South Lake chicken farm.

From afar, he saw Bu Chan tending to the spirit fields.

Not seeing each other for two months, they were naturally inseparable, but Wang Ba had matters on his mind. He soon handed Bu Chan a spirit beast bag.

“These are Hundred Fragrance Bees. They must collect nectar from a hundred different blooming spirit plants to brew the extremely rare ‘Hundred Fragrance Honey,’ but what I want isn’t this, but the beeswax.”

Although Bu Chan was puzzled, she always obeyed Wang Ba’s words and immediately took the spirit beast bag: “Okay, after this batch of Spirit Rice matures in half a year, I’ll…”

“No, half a year is too long. It must be done as soon as possible!”

Wang Ba seriously stared at Bu Chan, not saying any extra words.

But from Wang Ba’s tone, Bu Chan immediately sensed something. Her beautiful eyes slightly widened, looking at Wang Ba, a flash of shock in her eyes, but she quickly concealed the turmoil in her eyes and nodded heavily.

“Don’t worry, Senior Brother. I will definitely handle it well!”

“By the way, Shen Fu previously sent a transmission talisman saying he had rushed back to complete a mission, but he was blocked by Incense Path people on the periphery and couldn’t enter. He asked how we were.”

Hearing this, Wang Ba immediately thought of that brother-like fellow and nodded: “How is he now? Having been away for so long, with his cultivation speed, he should be close to Foundation Establishment by now?”

“He didn’t say. He just told us not to worry,” Bu Chan shook her head.

Wang Ba wasn’t surprised. Shen Fu was that kind of person, always willing to shoulder everything himself.

But even if Shen Fu really needed his help now, he currently had no solution.

Within the Heavenly Gate Sect, he could ask Bai Yu for help, but outside, Incense Path people wouldn’t recognize Bai Yu.

Helplessly sighing, he asked Bu Chan about the current situation.

Bu Chan said worriedly: “The situation at the garrison isn’t too good. Some time ago, under Elder Lu Yuansheng’s coordination, the Foundation Establishment true cultivators of the Sword Demon and Life-Slaughtering Paths displayed great power and successfully killed Wen Sheng of the Incense Path. They thought they could sweep away the remaining Incense Path remnants, but unexpectedly, two more Incense Path Golden Core True Persons suddenly appeared, killing many of the sect’s True Transmissions. Even Senior Bai Yu was severely injured. If Elder Lu Yuansheng hadn’t intervened in time, he would have died on the spot.”

“Two more Golden Core True Persons appeared?”

Hearing this, Wang Ba immediately frowned and thought of the ‘Myriad God Kingdom’ and Yin Spirit lineage he had learned from Soul Searching the Incense Path cultivator Ji Lin.

Could these two Incense Path Golden Core True Persons be from the Yin Spirit lineage?

Thinking about it, it seemed quite possible.

But Bai Yu being injured again made him somewhat sympathetic.

During the previous ambush of the Eastern Sage Sect, he had been badly beaten by Ye Lingyu’s sudden outburst. At the time, Wang Ba thought he might be killed by Ye Lingyu.

Fortunately, Bai Yu was lucky and narrowly escaped.

This time seemed to be the same.

“What happened afterward?” Wang Ba asked.

“Afterward, aside from Elder Lu Yuansheng occasionally projecting his power from a distance to contain those two Incense Path Golden Core True Persons, the Golden Core Elders within the garrison still haven’t shown themselves, and neither has the Sect Master,” Bu Chan lightly frowned. “I suspect the Sect Master and Elders might be planning something.”

Wang Ba had the same thought, but he didn’t care too much about it.

After roughly understanding the situation, he swept away all the Spirit Poultry, Rare Fowl, and spirit turtles from the chicken farm, leaving only a small number as breeding stock.

In the coming days, he would spend most of his time at the Sword Billow Garrison. On one hand, to practice spirit cooking fire control nearby; on the other hand, he planned to start preparing for the Mountain Moving Ape’s advancement.

Once the Mountain Moving Ape successfully advanced to the second-tier middle grade, he planned to go to the area around the Sword Billow Garrison to find a hidden place to help it pass the Minor Heavenly Tribulation.

If successful, the Mountain Moving Ape might break through to become a spirit beast close to second-tier high grade.

Or even possibly advance to second-tier high grade.

With the Mountain Moving Ape’s balanced offensive and defensive capabilities, once it broke through, even if it remained second-tier middle grade, it could immediately replace the severely specialized Alpha-Fifteen, Alpha-Sixteen, and Azure Water Spirit Turtle, becoming his strongest combat spirit beast.

As for the Psychic Ghost Loach, although it was second-tier high grade, its combat power on land was inferior to Alpha-Fifteen.

After finishing these tasks, he could peacefully research the Yin Food Worm larva’s ability to conceal its own soul aura. Even if it involved some items that needed purchasing, he could trade at the Yan Kingdom ghost market without being so fearful.

After all, a second-tier high grade spirit beast could sweep through most mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators. His safety factor would greatly increase, and he wouldn’t need to be as cautious as before, where even a mid-stage Foundation Establishment slightly plump old man could scare him away.

Thinking of that slightly plump old man, Wang Ba wasn’t panicked.

His speed was so fast that the other party shouldn’t be able to catch up, so that slightly plump old man probably didn’t know he was actually at the Sword Billow Garrison.

Even if he knew, with a rogue cultivator’s caution, he probably wouldn’t dare do anything to him.

Pressing down his thoughts, he went to the market district again, walked around, but unfortunately gained nothing.

The market district sold almost all first-tier treasures, which had no effect on him anymore.

And the sect’s treasure vault, with his status still as a heterodox cultivator, obviously couldn’t be accessed.

After thinking it over, he still brought several jars of Black Crystal Peach Spirit Wine to the Blood Bone Hall to see Bai Yu.

When Wang Ba saw Bai Yu, he couldn’t help but be slightly shocked.

It was clear that Bai Yu’s condition was indeed very poor. Flesh and blood vessels occasionally grew on his facial bones, obviously having partially lost control over his blood bones.

Seeing Wang Ba arrive, the flesh growth immediately became more frequent, not knowing whether it was from happiness or something else.

But seeing Wang Ba take out the Black Crystal Peach Spirit Wine, he slightly nodded, seemingly expressing satisfaction.

Then he drank a jar of spirit wine in one gulp.

After drinking the spirit wine, Bai Yu said: “For the sake of this jar of wine, I’ll still tell you something.”

“Cheng Shu is about to successfully breed a second-tier Top Grade Spirit Poultry.”

Hearing this, Wang Ba was stunned.

“So fast?!”

He immediately changed expression, suddenly realizing something.

“Fellow Daoist means, Elder Lu over there…”

Bai Yu nodded: “Correct. In the past, through my introduction, you got an opportunity to breed spirit chickens together with Cheng Shu and others.”

“This was because Elder Lu also didn’t know who could achieve the goal, so he simply cast a wide net.”

“Your breeding speed isn’t actually slow, but Cheng Shu clearly has deeper foundations.”

“And the sect only needs one cultivator capable of breeding high-grade spirit chickens. So, unless something unexpected happens, once Cheng Shu successfully breeds a Top Grade spirit chicken, the preferential treatment the sect previously gave you will stop.”

“At that time, you probably won’t be able to avoid going to the front lines.”

Hearing this news, Wang Ba’s heart was slightly shaken.

Although he was now a Foundation Establishment cultivator and even mastered a powerful second-tier technique, if he really went to the front lines to face Incense Path cultivators, he had no confidence at all.

After all, even an old-school Foundation Establishment true cultivator like Bai Yu almost died on the battlefield, let alone him.

Moreover, among Incense Path cultivators, there were two Golden Core True Persons.

Once these people discovered he cultivated the Yin Spirit Great Dream Scripture, they would definitely spare no effort to capture him.

So, his danger on the battlefield far exceeded other Heavenly Gate Sect cultivators.

Thinking of these, Wang Ba’s mood became heavy, and he couldn’t help but feel an indescribable sense of urgency.

After briefly chatting with Bai Yu, he immediately returned to the chicken farm.

After instructing Bu Chan, he took several dozen Middle Grade Spirit Stones from her and, just before the teleportation array stopped operating, hurried back to the Sword Billow Garrison.

Afterward, to more conveniently breed the Mountain Moving Apes, Spirit Poultry, and spirit turtles, he claimed a piece of land on the periphery of the Sword Billow Garrison.

After paying a sum of Spirit Stones, this place became his territory.

With a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s methods, building a temporary residence became much simpler. He also bought a first-tier Top Grade array disk to protect the territory.

Then he infused Lifespan into the six later-purchased Mountain Moving Apes.

At the same time, he prepared the materials for the Bloodline Breakthrough for the earliest-purchased future Mountain Moving Ape King.