Wang Ba waited patiently for several days. Only when he was certain the heat had died down did he pack four male Spirit Poultry—drained of their excess Lifespan—into a bamboo basket and head for Lu’s Grain Depot at the West Garden Market.

He didn’t wear a disguise, but he kept his head down, blending into the crowd. He loitered outside the depot until the midday rush thinned out, then slipped inside.

“Yo! Brother Wang! You’re late today,” Shopkeeper Lu called out from behind the counter, his face lighting up with a merchant’s practiced warmth. “The Meridian-Unblocking Grass seeds sold out hours ago. You here for more nematodes?”

Lu’s enthusiasm wasn’t entirely fake. Wang Ba might be a lowly Laborer Disciple, but he was a recurring customer who bought high-margin, low-demand items like the nematodes. In Lu’s eyes, that made him a VIP among the rabble.

Wang Ba waved his hand dismissively. “Forget the worms for a moment. Shopkeeper, do you buy Spirit Poultry?”

“Spirit Poultry?” Lu’s eyes widened. “Of course! I take all comers, the more the better. Why? You have some?”

Lu scrambled out from behind the counter, practically tripping over his robes to reach Wang Ba. He lifted the lid of the bamboo basket.

His jaw dropped.

“Good heavens! Four Low-Grade Spirit Poultry?” Lu stared at Wang Ba, half-joking, half-serious. “Brother Wang, did you rob Section Ten?”

“I’m just a humble laborer,” Wang Ba replied with a dry chuckle. “Do I look like I have the guts to rob a farm guarded by Immortals? Don’t worry, the source is clean.”

Lu laughed, accepting the deflection. He knew better than to pry too deep into a supplier’s secrets.

He pulled out a strip of yellow talisman paper. “Brother Wang, don’t take this personally. Business is business. I have to test them.”

“It’s the rules. I understand.”

Wang Ba watched as Lu waved the paper over the birds. He couldn’t help but think of Alpha-Five back at the manor. I wonder if that glutton counts as a Spirit Poultry yet?

“Four Low-Grade males,” Lu muttered, finishing his inspection. He shook his head with exaggerated regret. “Tsk. Pity they aren’t hens.”

He looked up, his expression shifting to one of candid negotiation. “Brother Wang, we’re old friends, so I won’t lowball you. The market is tight. I’ll offer you 3.3 Spirit Stones per bird.”

“I don’t want stones,” Wang Ba cut in. “I want to trade for Rare Fowl.”

“All of it?” Lu blinked, surprised, but his fingers were already flying across his abacus. “Fine by me! I’ll give you the wholesale purchase price. But be warned, Rare Fowl prices have ticked up recently. Hens are at 0.57 stones, roosters at 0.21…”

Clack. Clack. Clack.

“That converts to exactly 34 birds. Half male, half female. Tell you what, I’ll throw in an extra rooster for luck.”

“I don’t want hens,” Wang Ba said firmly. “Only roosters.”

Since his goal was to harvest Lifespan efficiently, roosters were cheaper and provided the same amount of time. Hens were a waste of capital.

“Only roosters?” Lu paused, his abacus freezing. He stared at Wang Ba for a second before shrugging. “Suit yourself. That brings the total to… 62 roosters.”

“Make it 64,” Wang Ba countered shamelessly. “Two more for the road.”

“Two birds is nearly half a stone…” Lu grimaced, pained. “Fine! For a loyal customer, I’ll take the hit.”

Lu shook his head as he finalized the deal. He had a strange sense of déjà vu, as if he had been fleeced by this humble laborer before.

Transaction complete, Wang Ba leaned against the counter. “Shopkeeper, one more thing. Do you sell the breeding method for those Tendon-Severing Nematodes?”

“You want to breed them yourself?” Lu looked at him like he was crazy. “The method isn’t a secret, but let me give you some brotherly advice: don’t bother. It burns time and money. They require High-Grade Spirit Beast bones as nesting material, and you have to replace the bones constantly. If you’re trying to cultivate a Spiritual Root, your time is better spent meditating.”

“Thanks for the concern, I’m just curious,” Wang Ba smiled innocently.

Lu shrugged and handed over a small pamphlet detailing the method for free. It was worthless knowledge to most people anyway.

Wang Ba skimmed it. Needs high-grade bones… eats resources… troublesome indeed. Still, he tucked it away. Maybe he could store Lifespan in the worms later.

Leaving the West Garden Market, Wang Ba checked his tail. Clean.

He returned to the manor, unloaded the birds, and immediately set out again. He repeated the process at the East Mountain Market and the North Pine Market, liquidating the rest of his Spirit Poultry stock. He avoided the South Lake Market entirely—those gougers would skin a flea for its hide.

It took hours of back-breaking labor, but by evening, he had successfully transported over a hundred and twenty more roosters back to the Ding Section.

The manor’s population swelled to nearly two hundred and sixty birds.

Spirit Poultry: 6

Male Rare Fowl: 202

Female Rare Fowl: 53

The rooster population was disproportionately high, but that was temporary. Wang Ba only intended to keep them long enough to harvest.

He selected sixty of the new arrivals and injected them with Lifespan.

His own Lifespan reserves sat at 190.2 years—accumulated from eating over a dozen Spirit Poultry in the past months.

Ten days later.

The sixty roosters completed their transformation. Wang Ba didn’t hesitate. He harvested them all.

[Current Lifespan: 550 Years]

A number Wang Ba had never dreamed of seeing.

He sat cross-legged in his room, took a deep breath, and poured the time into his body.

[Lifespan -72 Years] Physique Strengthening Scripture: Fourth Layer—Completed!

[Lifespan -144 Years] Fifth Layer—Completed!

[Lifespan -288 Years] Sixth Layer—Completed!

In a single session, he blasted through three layers of cultivation.

Power surged through his veins, thick and intoxicating. His muscles knitted tighter, his bones hardened, and his senses expanded. He felt less like a mortal and more like a coiled spring of steel.

But he had to stop.

Alongside the power came a deep, throbbing ache in his marrow. His body was screaming. While Lifespan could force the cultivation level, his physical flesh needed time to adapt to the sudden restructuring. If he pushed to the Seventh Layer now, he might tear himself apart.

“I need to rest,” he murmured, flexing a fist that felt strong enough to crush stone. “Let the body catch up.”

There was another problem. The supply chain was breaking.

During his chat with Shopkeeper Lu a few days ago, he had learned troubling news. An unknown “Avian Plague” was sweeping through the Ding Sections. Panic buying had set in. Other laborers were hoarding Rare Fowl to restock their decimated coops.

“It’s not just the laborers,” Lu had complained. “Outer Sect disciples are buying in bulk too. I’m completely out of hens! I have to beg rogue cultivators outside the Sect for stock, and those vultures don’t give mortals like us any face.”

The prices reflected the chaos. Roosters had tripled in price, jumping from 0.21 to 0.60 Spirit Stones.

Wang Ba did the math and grimaced. To reach the Tenth Layer, he needed over 5,100 years of Lifespan. That was roughly 900 Rare Fowl.

He still needed 800 more birds.

At current prices, buying them would bankrupt him.

“I can’t be the sucker who buys at the top of the market,” Wang Ba decided. “And flooding the market with Spirit Poultry to pay for it would attract too much attention. I’ll wait. The panic will pass.”

With his primary plan on hold, Wang Ba wandered the markets, browsing the other stalls.

To his surprise, the panic wasn’t limited to chickens. Herb shops and talisman stores were stripped bare. It seemed everyone was stockpiling resources for some coming storm.

The only things left were the dregs.

In a talisman shop, he found a stack of dusty “Low-Grade Spirit Light Talismans.” They were cheap utility items, used mostly for lighting or basic detection, requiring no Qi to activate.

Wang Ba thought of Alpha-Five. He bought the stack.

Back at the manor, he found the oversized rooster strutting in the yard.

“Come here, King of Poop,” Wang Ba muttered.

He pulled out a yellow talisman paper and brought it close to Alpha-Five.

Whoosh.

Without a breeze, the paper ignited.

A faint, milky white light rose from the ashes.