Chapter 124 - 117 Azure Spirit Turtle, Difficult Problemi
The number of eggs laid by the Armored Giant-head Turtles is extremely limited.
Only ten eggs were produced by the four female turtles.
Additionally, the hatching cycle is protracted, typically around three months for a regular Yellow Throat Spirit Turtle.
However, this could be a common problem for high-grade Spirit Beasts’ breeding.
The higher the grade, the harder it is to give birth to offspring.
But when Wang Ba saw the newborn Spirit Turtles painstakingly extend their little black claws from their shells, their small eyes cautiously observing the outside world through the cracks in their shells, he couldn’t help but feel joy from the bottom of his heart.
This is one of his few relaxing moments these days.
Every time he saw the birth of these young and vibrant creatures, he felt a sort of healing sensation.
The eggshell was gradually opened with difficulty.
Newborn Spirit Turtle hatchlings didn’t differ much from ordinary Yellow Throat Stone Turtle hatchlings, as they were weak and moved slower.
However, as the yolk on the Spirit Turtles’ belly button got gradually absorbed.
These hybrid Spirit Turtles quickly revealed their marvelous traits.
Though their colour was still jet black, the patterns on their backs started to become clearer. Wang Ba gently pressed down, only to find out that even though these Spirit Turtle hatchlings were small, their touch resembled iron cubes.
Extraordinarily hard.
Some of the smaller turtles would even spray a slender jet of water from their mouths.
“Is this a combination of the best traits from both?”
Wang Ba was somewhat delighted.
However, not every turtle could spray water jets.
Wang Ba noticed that only three male turtles could do so.
After testing with a Spirit Light Talisman, unsurprisingly, they were all upper grade Spirit Turtles.
He patiently waited for a few days.
After consuming quite a number of Blue Fire Fruits and Spirit Chicken meat, the hatchlings grew rapidly. In a short time, their size increased from fingertip-sized to as large as half a palm.
They also started to change their colour.
The originally black body gradually turned azure.
Male turtles leaned towards blue, while females leaned towards green.
Wang Ba then stored each of them into a Lifespan.
Unexpectedly, the growth period of these hatchlings was far longer than that of other Spirit Turtles and Spirit Chickens.
It took a whole month of wolfing down food.
After a month passed by,
Even the smaller-sized males among these hybrid turtles were as big as a big round table. Even when immobile, they portrayed an intimidating presence.
However, after Wang Ba’s test, he found out that,
In contrast to their intimidating appearance,
Except for biting, tearing, and charging, the hybrid turtles did not have other methods to subdue their enemies.
Even though the speed of their heads shooting out was not slow over short distances, compared to the majority of Spirit Beasts, they still appeared very clumsy.
Of course, their defense was quite impressive.
Even Jia 13 could not peck through these hybrid turtles.
Wang Ba even thought that perhaps even a cultivator who just entered Foundation Establishment stage might not be able to break their defense.
After testing it out, Wang Ba was disappointed to find out that after Lifespan Breakthrough, the female hybrid turtles were still upper grade.
On the contrary, without exception, all male turtles had reached the top grade.
Moreover, unlike the female hybrid turtles, all these male turtles innately controlled the ability to cast Water Style spells.
Compared to Fantong, who is their father, they seemed more adept at casting Water Style spells.
They could even form water waves, carrying them briefly into the air.
Their agility undoubtedly greatly improved.
Wang Ba was extremely delighted, officially naming this new species: Azure Spirit Turtle.
And he noted them down in his journal.
[Azure Spirit Turtle: upper grade/top grade, Lifespan approximately 200 to 240 years, male turtle controls Water Style spells, extremely high defense, the grade is higher than female turtles by one grade, other abilities unknown…]
This is just a preliminary record, with the increase in later sample size, the content will gradually be filled.
Aside from this, the batch of Armored Giant-head Turtles bought later also gradually began to adapt to this environment and began to mate.
In order to ensure the Spirit Turtles have sufficient space to reproduce, Wang Ba had no choice but to expand the chicken coop again, along with the pond.
He even purposely built an artificial mountain and a sunbathing platform in the pond, released a lot of fish, imitating a wild environment.
Looking at the much more attractive pond in front of him, with the little turtles swimming leisurely inside, he felt a strong sense of satisfaction in his heart.
If it weren’t for being in the Tianmen Cult, perhaps raising chickens and turtles, living a natural life and cultivating according to one’s inclinations, is what he really wants.
Apart from this, the Crystal Peach Tree near the pond bore fruit again.
Wang Ba picked all these fruits to brew into Crystal Spirit Peach Wine, waiting to open it after half a year.
However, the good news only ends here.
A headache-causing issue that Wang Ba had always avoided was eventually thrown before him.
The Spirit Chickens… were not selling anymore.
This issue in reality had shown signs of arising half a year ago.
The number of people visiting the chicken coop to buy Spirit Chickens was dwindling.
And it wasn’t solely because of the price issue.
A more critical reason was that the number of Cultivators still cultivating the original Cultivation Methods was falling dramatically.
Everybody was gradually switching to the Cultivation Methods of the Tianmen Cult circulated in the market.
Although the cultivation methods of the Tianmen Cult can be shady, crooked, or cruel…they have a single huge advantage.
And that is the speed of cultivation is too fast.
As long as you are tough on yourself, there are plentiful ways to acquire resources for cultivation.
Such as those female cultivators at Mulou House who uphold the principle of making small profits but quick turnover, their cultivation speed is much faster than those who cultivate in a proper manner, by who knows how much.
Despite their questionable reputations, a cultivator’s weakness shouldn’t be mocked…
It is for these reasons that most people have turned to Demon Dao methods, and a Spirit Chicken, which takes a long time to see results and isn’t exactly cheap, naturally falls out of favor.
In recent months, even Wang Ba’s biggest customer, a cultivator surnamed Yan, no longer comes.
Although there are some minor cultivators who exchange goods from time to time, the quantities of a few, or a dozen or so, don’t amount to many Spirit Stones.
“It seems like I won’t be able to go to Jiantao Station this month.”
Wang Ba sighed.
He has too few Spirit Stones on him. Although he could afford the trip to Jiantao Station, he just didn’t have enough to afford the services of the Spiritual Cook there. So there would be no point in going.
After all, a round trip via the teleportation array also costs quite a few Spirit Stones.
The only thing he was grateful for was that he had anticipated this situation and had already stockpiled nearly a year’s worth of Spirit Chicken essence.
Leaving aside other things, it will be absolutely sufficient for him to cultivate to the Qi Refining Stage IX.
“But, eating into the capital is also not an option. I still have to think of ways to broaden my source of Spirit Stones.”
“As for the market… I can’t expect much more from it.”
He had already been to the spirit beast store in the market. He was prepared to earn less, but sell more Spirit Stones.
However, the store owner of the spirit beast store directly revealed their limit, they will only buy a maximum of one hundred and fifty Spirit Chickens per month.
If he had more, they wouldn’t be able to sell it.
Although they were not afraid that the Spirit Chickens would die, there were very few buyers, and they were not comfortable hoarding them.
Even so, they still pushed the price down to a hundred Spirit Stones for a hundred and fifty lower-grade Spirit Chickens.
Wang Ba could only reluctantly accept.
In the meantime, he didn’t know where Dong Qiyu got his news from, but he came to the chicken farm again and directly asked for two hundred Spirit Chickens, only to be rejected by Wang Ba once more.
When Dong Qiyu left, Wang Ba could clearly feel the suppressed anger in his heart.
But Wang Ba still chose to do so.
He would rather not earn these Spirit Stones and offend the other party than get involved in any entanglements with others.
What relieved Wang Ba was that the face monster he had been worrying about had not appeared since.
However, many free tasks such as ‘killing incense-burning Dao Cultivators’ and ‘killing incense-burning Dao followers’ had appeared on the Heavenly Gate Order.
The rewards were quite generous, especially the Spirit Stones. Killing an incense-burning Dao Cultivator could earn at least two hundred Spirit Stones.
Wang Ba was truly envious.
But after careful consideration, he finally suppressed his inner impulse.
Let’s just take it slow. Even if he doesn’t have Spirit Chicken essence, his cultivation speed in the Lingshui Courtyard isn’t too slow.
However, these days, he didn’t stay in the Lingshui Courtyard, but focused on weeding the spirit field.
Bu Chan was finally about to break through to Qi Refining Stage IV. A few days earlier, she specifically let him know, then went to the Lingshui Courtyard for seclusion.
Since the spirit field is rich in Spiritual Energy, even unnecessary weeds sprout and grow quickly, competing for the Spiritual Energy of the Blue Fire Fruit tree.
Therefore, he had to be diligent and spend more time weeding the field.
Bu Chan wasn’t there, Shen Fu’s injuries were almost healed, so he eagerly went out to do missions again.
So these chores also fell on Wang Ba’s shoulders.
After finally finishing the weeding, his body, which as a cultivator, rarely felt fatigue, still plopped down on the front porch of the small wooden house, rubbing his legs and waist after he was done.
“I don’t know how that girl Bu Chan managed to persist for so long…it’s so tiring!”
He took in everything in the chicken farm and the spirit field outside from a distance.
But the chicken farm lacked a familiar figure, and Wang Ba oddly felt a little unused to it.
In the past, she would be waiting outside the chicken farm to care for the spirit field early in the morning.
When she finished, she would go to the pond to feed the Spirit Turtles.
She would also cook some food for Wang Ba. Even though the main ingredient was the Spirit Chicken Wang Ba disliked the most, she could always prepare food that Wang Ba could accept.
But to say that it was delicious, not so much.
They lived such a plain and quiet life, cultivating without too many dramatic or heart-stirring moments.
But now, after a few days of not seeing her, Wang Ba felt uncomfortable everywhere.
For a while, he unexpectedly didn’t feel like going to the Lingshui Courtyard to cultivate.
He was going to go back into the house to rest, but seeing the disorderly state of the house that no one had tidied up, he felt unexplainably irritated.
He couldn’t resist grumbling:
“Wiry didn’t Bu Chan tidy up the house for me, it’s been five days…”
After he finished speaking, he was the first to be stunned.
After standing blankly for a while, he suddenly vigorously rubbed his face with both hands. After dropping his hands, he still felt quite confused.
This was the first time he was somewhat unsure.
However, for some reason, when he was at the chicken farm, he started habitually looking up at the gate of the chicken farm.
Each time he went to the Lingshui Courtyard, he would also habitually give a glance at the tightly closed door of the cultivation room next door.
“Eight days…”
“Ten days…ten and a half days…”
He suddenly realized that his originally blurry sense of time had, for some reason, gradually become clearer.
And in such anticipation, the door of the chicken farm was finally knocked on.
But when the door was pushed open, to Wang Ba’s disappointment, the person who came was not the one he was hoping to see.
“Yan…?”