Cultivation: I Can Steal Lifespan from Spirit Beasts

“It’s… actually fine?!”

Wang Ba frowned, staring at the rooster in genuine disbelief.

It wasn’t that he wanted the Rare Fowl to roll around in agony. He was simply worried that the Tendon-Severing Nematode hadn’t done its job. If there was no reaction, there was no effect. And without effect, a Bloodline Breakthrough was a pipe dream.

He observed the bird for a while longer. Nothing changed. The rooster eventually grew bored of the staring contest and turned to wander off, completely unfazed.

Wang Ba thought for a moment, then blocked the rooster’s path. He pulled out a Spirit Stone and placed it directly in front of the bird’s beak.

The rooster, annoyed by the obstruction, pecked at the stone out of habit.

Zip.

The nematode didn’t shoot out of its mouth. Nor did it exit through the nostrils.

Instead… it shot out of the cloaca at the rear.

The worm landed with a wet splat. Its pitch-black body was glistening, smeared with a distinct layer of chicken filth.

Wang Ba grimaced in disgust, but his eyes sharpened. He noticed something crucial: the Tendon-Severing Nematode was significantly shorter than before.

“It worked!”

Wang Ba let out a long breath of relief.

The nematode functioned by gnawing through blockages in the meridians, dissolving its own body in the process to clear the path. A shorter worm meant it had expended its life force to do exactly that.

Wang Ba didn’t waste a second. He took a portion of the ground Spirit Stone powder, mixed it with one liang of ground Chicken Gizzard Lining, and stirred it into the feed.

He had fasted the twenty test subjects since the previous day, so when the rooster saw the special blend, its eyes lit up. It dove into the trough, pecking furiously.

In moments, the trough was licked clean.

Almost immediately after finishing, the rooster’s behavior changed. It walked over to a corner, tucked one leg up, and buried its head under its wing.

It stood there, motionless. Like an ostrich trying to hide from the world.

Wang Ba monitored it closely. After confirming it wasn’t dead or dying, he decided to let it be.

He proceeded to treat two more Rare Fowl with the remaining Spirit Stone powder and nematodes, marking them carefully. The result was identical: after consuming the medicine, they huddled in the corner, dormant and listless.

…

For the next few days, Wang Ba was buried in work.

His routine was grueling: fermenting feed, feeding the flock, cleaning the coops, collecting eggs. In his spare moments, he focused on culling the flock. Apart from the named roosters—Alpha-One through Alpha-Six—he diligently butchered and ate the excess Spirit Poultry to fuel his cultivation.

After consuming six Spirit Poultry and immediately performing the Visualization of the Yin Spirit, the depleted drop of Yin Spirit power in his abode finally swelled back to the size of a raw grain of rice.

“It seems one drop of Yin Spirit power costs about seven or eight Spirit Poultry to replenish,” Wang Ba noted, recording the data in his mind.

He tossed a dead spirit worm—exhausted from use—into the air.

Snap.

Alpha-Five, who had been loitering nearby, caught the worm mid-air. The rooster flapped its wings happily, swallowing the treat before rubbing its head affectionately against Wang Ba’s thigh.

Compared to the mindless mob of Rare Fowl and Spirit Poultry, Alpha-Five was suspiciously intelligent. whenever Wang Ba worked, the rooster would squat nearby, tilting its head to watch him with unnerving focus.

Wang Ba didn’t mind the company. He had raised Alpha-Five by hand, after all.

In his downtime, he even started training the bird. He taught it simple gestures and voice commands: “Come,” “Down,” “Fly.” It even learned to run back and hide in Old Man Sun’s room on command.

It was obedient and docile—no less intelligent than a well-trained dog.

The only downside was the poop.

It pooped constantly. Far more than any other bird in the manor.

So, Wang Ba bestowed upon it a new title: The King of Poop.

Training the King of Poop became Wang Ba’s sole source of entertainment in the lonely, filthy manor.

After a week of grinding labor, Wang Ba finally finished treating all twenty test subjects. Every single one had been infected with a nematode and fed the Spirit Stone powder mix.

Perhaps the spiritual energy in the powder was too potent for them, because after eating it, every single chicken went into hibernation. They refused to eat anything else.

No matter how Wang Ba tried to tempt them, they remained motionless in their corners.

With twenty birds on a hunger strike, the manor’s feed consumption plummeted. This did not go unnoticed by Old Hou.

“Brother Wang,” Old Hou said, his brow furrowed with concern as he unloaded the sacks. “Why not ask Great Doctor Xu from the Clean Mountain Department to take a look? He’s an old hand at veterinary medicine. When things go wrong in the hundreds of manors in the Ding Section, most people go to him.”

“Thanks, Old Hou. I’ll ask him if I get the chance,” Wang Ba replied, feigning a look of deep worry.

Old Hou didn’t leave immediately. As was his custom, he lingered to gossip. He leaned in, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.

“Speaking of problems… you aren’t the only one in the Ding Section having a rough time.”

“Oh?” Wang Ba’s ears perked up. “Do tell.”

Seeing his interest, Old Hou grew animated.

“I heard Ding Section Fifty-Four has been hit by an Avian Plague. A huge number of birds died! And over in Ding Section Sixteen? Disaster. A Spirit Beast raised by an Outer Sect Elder escaped its pen and went on a rampage. It ate nearly two hundred Rare Fowl in one sitting!”

“Two hundred?!”

Wang Ba felt a phantom pain in his chest. Two hundred Rare Fowl… that’s over a thousand years of Lifespan!

“The plague is just bad luck,” Wang Ba said, shaking his head. “But if an Elder’s beast ate them… surely there was compensation?”

“Naturally!” Old Hou held up a finger, his eyes wide with excitement. “The Ding Section raises chickens for the ‘Myriad Beast Department,’ so even an Elder can’t just brush it off. He sent a disciple to deliver compensation to Section Sixteen. Guess what it was?”

Old Hou paused for effect, but he couldn’t hold it in.

“One hundred Spirit Stones!”

“One hundred!” Wang Ba gasped, playing his part. “My heavens! I’ve never seen that much money in my life!”

Internally, however, Wang Ba was calm. He had possessed over forty stones himself, and if he were willing to take risks, he could have had far more. One hundred was a fortune, yes, but not an unimaginable one.

“Section Sixteen is run by Song Lun, right?” Old Hou clicked his tongue in envy. “That man turned misfortune into a windfall! He’s running around buying up Rare Fowl to restock his coop right now. Even if he buys two hundred replacements at market price, he’ll still pocket a massive profit. That Elder was generous!”

Old Hou nudged Wang Ba. “He might come knocking on your door soon. Don’t forget to fleece him if he does!”

Wang Ba waved his hands frantically. “No, no! My chickens are all sick. How could he possibly want them?”

Old Hou laughed and left.

But Wang Ba’s excuse turned out to be prophetic. A few days later, Song Lun actually showed up.

“Brother Wang, you likely know why I am here,” Song Lun said, bowing politely. He was a man over fifty, dressed in fine robes that clashed with the grime of the manor. “If you have any spare Rare Fowl, I am willing to acquire them at a premium.”

Wang Ba sighed, putting on his most apologetic face. “Brother Song, it is not that I am unwilling to sell. I truly have no spare birds.”

Song Lun frowned, clearly skeptical.

But then his gaze drifted past Wang Ba to the coop behind him. He saw the rows of chickens huddled in the corners, listless, motionless, and looking half-dead.

Song Lun’s frown vanished, replaced by a look of understanding—and slight revulsion. After a few polite words of sympathy, he left empty-handed.

…

A few more days passed. It was time for the monthly tribute.

Deacon Li arrived on schedule to collect the quota. But this time, along with the collection, he brought news that hit Wang Ba like a physical blow.

“Old Man Sun is dead?”