Chapter 74: Kang is Thirsty
Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Kang is Thirsty
"Stop right there!"
Chen Mo, who had been sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed in Cultivation, suddenly shot out a Geng Metal Finger, flawlessly striking the ground right in front of the Spiritual Bird.
Kang, who had been running wildly in circles around him, came to a screeching halt. Raising his chicken head to glare at Chen Mo, he looked incredibly angry.
"You have the nerve to be angry?"
Another three months had passed. By now, the four Spirit Chickens had grown to be half the height of a grown man.
After more than half a year of continuous grooming and massaging, Chen Mo’s Vitality Technique had smoothly broken through to the Mastery Realm. The buff from his [Sturdy] Talent had also increased from 20% to 50%.
In just one year, the size of these four Spiritual Birds had reached the standard of those raised for over two and a half years. If he took them to the Marketplace to sell, their price would immediately double, fetching forty taels of Spiritual Sand.
However, Chen Mo didn’t plan on selling them just yet. After all, they could still grow. Once they reached a person’s chest height, they would sell for an even better price.
As for Kang, who had just been yelled at to stop, his growth was truly outstanding. With shiny, pitch-black feathers and a body brimming with explosive power, he gave off a vibrant and formidable presence.
Chen Mo estimated that leaving aside the other three Spirit Chickens—which perfectly fit the standard of normal chickens—this particular one faintly possessed a certain level of real strength. An ordinary Martial Arts master would probably not last a single round against him, though of course, he was still quite a ways off from the Qi Refining First Layer Realm.
He was a Spiritual Bird, after all, and the Demon Beast bloodline in his body was extremely thin. Whether through absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi on his own or relying on a bloodline awakening, the chances of him becoming an Immortal or an ancestral beast were vanishingly small.
"CLUCK... CLUCK CLUCK."
Kang stood his ground, his two clawed feet stamping incessantly. He looked as though he had no intention of stopping whatsoever.
"I told you to go walk the others! Why are you running in circles around me?" Annoyed, Chen Mo pinned the rooster by the neck, struggling for a moment before lifting him into the air.
These days, the Spirit Yellow Rice in the fields had basically matured. Tasks like Rainfall, Weeding, and pest control were mostly finished, so Chen Mo just needed to quietly wait for the rice ears to fully ripen. During this period, he could finally calm his mind and focus on his Cultivation. With two Low Grade Spirit Stones in hand, he was pushing for an early breakthrough to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer!
But Kang had been running laps around him non-stop, frustrating him to the point of distraction. That was why Chen Mo had just taught him a lesson with a Geng Metal Finger.
"CLUCK... CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK."
Kang turned his head to look behind him, and Chen Mo followed his gaze. The other three Spiritual Birds were currently wobbling about, strolling aimlessly.
"Are you saying they move too slowly? That walking them is too boring?" Chen Mo asked.
Kang bobbed his chicken head in agreement.
"Well, then don’t run in circles in front of me either!" With that, he let go.
In the very next instant, Kang vanished in the blink of an eye. A gust of wind flashed by, and a moment later, the other three Spirit Chickens were being pecked so fiercely that feathers flew everywhere. Their previously sluggish movements vanished as they were forced to sprint after Kang.
Of course, their speed was vastly inferior!
"Remember! You’re a Chicken Herder now!" Chen Mo shouted at Kang in the distance.
A swooshing sound immediately followed as the rooster reappeared by his side. He raised his chicken head, looking incredibly arrogant.
"Alright, alright! I remember! I’ll buy you eight or ten little hens next year!"
Whether it was purely luck or if that entire cage had only contained roosters, it turned out that all four Spiritual Birds—including Kang—were male! This left him overflowing with energy and absolutely nowhere to vent it. Perhaps that was one of the reasons he kept running laps around Chen Mo.
As the man and the chicken casually bickered, Kang suddenly let out a loud crow toward the north, then dashed out of the Memory Array with the speed of lightning.
Faced with the Spirit Chicken that had suddenly darted out, Miao Chen and He Zhiping immediately stopped in their tracks. This chicken was raised by Chen Mo. Even if they were given a hundred times more courage, they wouldn’t dare harbor any ill intentions toward it!
"U-um, I’m here to look for your master," Miao Chen asked cautiously.
"CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK! CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK!"
Kang pecked at the ground, then turned his head away with a look of utter disdain. It was as if he was saying that his master was busy!
However, a moment later, Chen Mo appeared from behind them.
"What is it?" he asked. As he spoke, he kicked Kang out of the way, muttering, "Go play somewhere else!"
He Zhiping fidgeted with his hands, while Miao Chen looked hesitant. Just as Chen Mo began to frown, Miao Chen finally spoke up. "Fellow Daoist Chen... I see that the Spirit Rice in your field doesn’t seem... doesn’t seem to have borne many ears of grain..."
Chen Mo glanced behind him.
The fields belonging to these two, as well as Lan Ling’s, were already a sea of shimmering gold. Their harvest this year certainly wouldn’t be bad. However, once they paid their two years’ worth of grain tax, their entire year’s effort would naturally amount to nothing.
Coming to find him now, their motive couldn’t be more obvious. They had been willing to buy seeds from him at twice the price back then, purely in the hopes of securing a good harvest the following year!
But since the start of this year, these two had performed rather mediocrely, so Chen Mo had no intention of helping them with Increased Production.
"Let’s go! I’ll take you to find the Shopkeeper of the Yi Er San Grain Station!" Chen Mo declared, acting as if he was ready to go pick a fight right then and there. "So what if he runs a grain station? Does that give him the right to cheat people? Just because the Shopkeeper is at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer, he can scam us out of our Spiritual Sand? Just because his uncle is a Purple Cloud Peak Elder, he can deceive farmers? Unacceptable! Let’s go! We’ll go together and confront that guy named Song! We’ll make him spit back out our losses."
As he spoke, he grabbed the two men by their clothes, dragging them along as if to leave immediately.
But He Zhiping and Miao Chen—how could they possibly dare?! Setting aside the Grain Station Shopkeeper’s sky-high connections, his status at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer alone meant they had no business causing trouble for him. If they actually went to his door to demand answers, it would be like knocking on the grim reaper’s door—a complete death wish!
"Ah! F-forget it, let’s... let’s just leave it at this."
The two had originally just wanted to get back the extra Spiritual Sand they had paid Chen Mo, but after such a terrifying display, they lost all their nerve! After a flurry of bows and apologetic nods, they hurriedly slipped away.
"CLUCK! CLUCK CLUCK! CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK!"
Kang, who had been running alongside them, skidded to a halt with a smug and triumphant expression.
Chen Mo kicked him and scolded, "What does this have to do with you!"
After this minor interlude, he walked back into the Memory Array. From the outside, although his field was also a sea of golden yellow, the ears of rice on each stalk looked no different from those in the other fields. But once someone stepped closer, it was an entirely different picture! The plump, full grains were tightly clustered together, the heavy rice so dense that it actually bent the stalks downward.
This was exactly why he had deliberately slowed down his Cultivation of the Rainfall Technique recently. An Increased Production of 100% was already making the stalks of the Spirit Yellow Rice struggle to bear the weight. If his Rainfall Technique reached Great Success and his [Increased Production] Talent leveled up again, the Spirit Rice would likely be completely crushed under its own weight before it even finished ripening!
In his past life, Chen Mo had never farmed, but even he knew that if rice stalks collapsed, it could lead to a total crop failure! However, he didn’t take this matter too much to heart.
For now, he should just continue his Cultivation and break through to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer as soon as possible, to see what kind of new Talent he would awaken! Having unlocked two professions, maybe leveling up once would allow him to awaken two Talents at the same time!