Chapter 80: Black-winged Bird
Chapter 80: Chapter 80: Black-winged Bird
"Isn’t the little chick rearing plan great?"
Chen Mo plucked Kang out of the chicken coop and carried the newly arrived cage back into his room.
Compared to the freezing cold outside, it was a completely different world in here.
He sat on a round stool and opened the cage from the top. Without bothering to check if it was male or female, he casually pulled out a chick, placed it on his lap, and began to massage its meridians and stimulate its vitality.
Just like Kang back then, the moment the Spiritual Qi from his fingertips seeped in, the struggling chick instantly quieted down. It lay motionless, allowing Chen Mo to massage it and comb its feathers.
"CLUCK! CLUCK CLUCK!"
Kang strutted quickly beside him, circling both him and the cage.
"These twenty will be your underlings from now on!" Chen Mo said as he swapped the chick for another one. "In the future, you’ll be responsible for everything except feeding them. How about that?"
"CLUCK CLUCK... CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK."
"At least you’re sensible. I haven’t raised you this long for nothing!" Chen Mo reached out and patted the circling Kang, speaking with a smile.
Communicating with this highly intelligent Spiritual Bird didn’t seem too difficult. As long as he explained things clearly, it seemed to understand. Judging from how Kang had successfully "trained" the other three Spiritual Birds, everyday tasks like letting them out for fresh air and herding them back into the coop could all be entrusted to it, except for feeding.
He had originally wanted it to handle the feeding as well, but it was simply too much of a glutton! Letting Kang be in charge of feeding? The other chickens would probably starve to death!
"CLUCK... CLUCK CLUCK."
Kang suddenly stopped in its tracks. It pecked the iron cage with its beak, then pecked the ground.
"What? Didn’t I just feed you before I left?"
It shook its head and gestured toward the chicks in the cage. "CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK."
Chen Mo found it amusing. "You’re saying the food is for them to eat, not for yourself?"
At this, Kang nodded vigorously.
"Why don’t I believe you?"
This chicken had told this kind of lie countless times. Every time Chen Mo fed the other Spirit Chickens, Kang would immediately snatch the newly scattered food. How could the other three chickens compare to its speed? When the others bobbed their heads to peck once, it would bob its head incessantly like a vibrator!
"CLUCK CLUCK... CLUCK CLUCK." Kang looked at Chen Mo with a face full of sincerity.
"Brother, trust me. Really."
"Go play somewhere else!"
Chen Mo ignored it. After finishing the feather-combing for the twenty chicks, he finally grabbed Kang’s head and gave it a massage as well.
With twenty-four Spiritual Birds in total, just combing their feathers once took a full hour. Although the [Sturdy] Talent was powerful, just like his other Talents, it had time restrictions! If he wanted to continue expanding his breeding scale, he would have to sacrifice his Cultivation and farming time.
Fortunately, the Vitality Technique could be upgraded, and the [Sturdy] Talent could be as well. By now, this essential massage Magic of the Fragrance Pavilion had reached the peak of the proficiency stage. It wouldn’t be long before he achieved Mastery, at which point his Talent would have another breakthrough.
One step at a time.
Right now, Chen Mo’s situation was relatively safe and stable, so his need for Magic wasn’t particularly high. The rest would just have to wait until he broke through to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer at the end of this year! When that time came, Cultivation Techniques, Puppets, Magic, Arrays, and so on would all require some dabbling.
Chen Mo set the twenty newly arrived chicks aside, entered the Training Room, sat cross-legged, and began his Cultivation.
Ever since he became a Spirit Plant Cultivator and awakened his first Talent, he had been destined for a life of hard labor. Other than farming and raising chickens, his only other activity was Cultivation.
More than half a month passed in a flash.
The biting chill of spring had faded, replaced by a gentle, refreshing breeze. The newly purchased Spiritual Birds had familiarized themselves with the place. They were now kept in the coop, receiving unified training from Kang.
Judging by their size, they had clearly grown a size larger!
At this moment, Chen Mo shouldered his hoe and headed to the fields to start working.
On the other side, He Zhiping, Miao Chen, and the others had finally survived the winter. Relying on the seeds they had bought on credit from Niu’s Shop, they barely managed to kick off the new year’s planting. Even though they were in the Qi Refining Second Layer, a single insect plague had nearly ruined them, leaving them struggling to make ends meet before the next harvest. Let alone the other Spirit Plant Cultivators in the Qi Refining First Layer?
"Fellow Daoist He, do you think Yi Er San Grain Station has skipped town?"
Earlier, the two had made a trip to the Marketplace, but the grain shop that had "swindled" them of their Spiritual Sand was still closed. Coupled with the seed issue, Miao Chen speculated that the Shopkeeper of that establishment had likely fled in fear of angry Spirit Plant Cultivators showing up at his door!
However, He Zhiping rolled his eyes at him. "Skipped town? Would he be afraid of us?"
"T-That’s true."
With that said, the two of them shouldered their hoes and went down to the fields to work.
Lan Ling walked slowly out of her wooden cabin. Her once delicate and smooth skin now looked somewhat sallow, her eye sockets had begun to hollow out, and her mental state was visibly much worse.
Her Fasting Pills were completely depleted! She hadn’t eaten anything in nearly a month. The bowl of Spirit Rice gleaned from the fields had been her very last bit of food, and even that was completely eaten over half a month ago!
Lan Ling had also gone to the Marketplace yesterday, hoping to get some seeds on credit to plant for another year. But the Steward at Niu’s Shop took one look at her current state and refused. It was painfully obvious that she didn’t even have any Fasting Pills left. If he lent her seeds, he would most likely never get them back!
Trembling, Lan Ling arrived at Chen Mo’s field. These past few days, she would knock on his door every so often, but there was never any response.
"F-Fellow Daoist Chen, could I... could I borrow a few Fasting Pills from you on credit? I... I’ll give you anything."
Chen Mo had noticed her the moment she started walking this way, but he didn’t even look up, continuing to hoe the ground without missing a beat.
Lan Ling trailed closely behind him, muttering continuously, "Help me... I shouldn’t have listened to He... He Zhiping back then. I shouldn’t have..."
"Don’t bother me."
Everyone had their own fate. Why should he lend a helping hand for a disaster caused by the Cyan Yang Sect? As far as Chen Mo was concerned, Spirit Plant Cultivators like Lan Ling—who had zero risk-tolerance and couldn’t survive the tough early years—would likely struggle to ever make any breakthroughs.
"B-Back then, y-you also b-borrowed Fasting Pills from Wang Lixia..."
Upon hearing these words, Chen Mo suddenly stopped. He turned to look at her and asked with an icy tone, "I could pay her back, and I even took care of her Spirit Field for her. What about you?"
"I... I can do that too!"
"You can too? From two acres of Spirit Fields, after deducting taxes and rent, you’d have less than two hundred catties of grain at most. Over two years, that’s twenty-four Fasting Pills. Where are you going to make up the deficit?"
"I... I can rent one more acre, that would be enough."
"Heh." Chen Mo sneered and resumed hoeing the ground.
Behind him, Lan Ling continued to shadow his every step. Her lips trembled uncontrollably; she seemed to have something to say but was torn over whether she should say it.
She was afraid—afraid that once she spoke it aloud, her life would be in danger! But these words might be her only way to get Fasting Pills!
Finally, after a fierce internal struggle, she spoke up: "Over four years ago, I... I saw the Black-winged Bird."