Exactly!
It's the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm!
This idea popped up in Wang Ba's mind the moment Shopkeeper Lu described its effects!
If the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm and the seed of the Meridian Grass have similar effects, can it also be used for the Bloodline Breakthrough of the Precious Chicken?
Although the effect of the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm was quite less, it was cheap!
It was twenty times cheaper than the lower-grade Meridian Grass seeds!
After lowering the cost, he can use the 'cast the net widely' method and infest every Precious Chicken with the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm.
If even just one of them completes the Bloodline Breakthrough and becomes a Spirit Chicken, it would prove that this method is feasible!
As long as the method is validated, even if the probability is low, he can proudly show off his Spirit Chicken.
It doesn't matter even if he submits this method to the Sect.
And if the method verified by the Sect is not effective, it can only be a matter of luck and probability.
The saying of Qi and luck, profound and unfathomable, no one can tell.
The most crucial thing for now, of course, is to validate the feasibility of this method!
With that in mind, he didn't start right away.
During the day, he carefully selected twenty healthy Precious Chickens, ten males and ten females, marked them and raised them separately.
Only after nightfall did he carefully take out twenty Spirit Stones from under the chicken feed tank.
He couldn't help but feel the pain in his heart, these were twenty Spirit Stones!
That's enough to buy over 130 male Precious Chickens.
After achieving the Lifespan Breakthrough, he could get nearly 800 years of lifespan!
It would allow him to successfully cultivate the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of the Body Strengthening Scripture!
But he also knew clearly, even if he completed the ninth stage, he would be no different in the eyes of a Cultivator.
A laborer without a Spiritual Root, would always be just a laborer.
No pain, no gain!
For the first time, a ruthless glint flashed across Wang Ba's eyes!
He lifted his hammer.
And used all his strength!
Thud!
The firm Spirit Stone remained unchanged, with only a small amount of dust at the edge.
Wang Ba didn't hesitate and continued—
Thud!
Thud!
If it weren't for the fact that Wang Ba lived in this desolate manor surrounded by wilderness, he would have been driven out if he were in an alley near the market.
But even so.
When the sky began to lighten, he had only ground three Spirit Stones into powder.
If it weren't for his strength and stamina increasing after cultivating the Body Strengthening Scripture, he wouldn't have been able to endure throughout the night.
"It's a pity that the proportion of Spirit Stone powder mixed in the chicken feed is so low, otherwise it could be used as a substitute."
Wang Ba felt regretful.
He could see Spiritual Energy and naturally could tell how little was mixed in the chicken feed.
Even in a huge barrel weighing nearly a hundred catties, the amount of Spiritual Energy is less than a fraction of a Spirit Stone.
Real waste recycling.
And a hundred catties of chicken feed is the total daily ration for all the Precious Chickens and Spirit Chickens in the whole manor.
Because the Spirit Stone powder was so little, Wang Ba planned to feed it after a few days for easy observation, comparison, and to accumulate experience and data.
"I forgot to ask the shopkeeper, how to feed this worm..."
Wang Ba slapped his forehead.
After thinking for a while, he decided to run an experiment.
He deliberately closed the door, only lit an oil lamp, carefully wrapped his palm in his clothes, and delicately pinched a Tendon-Cutting Silkworm from the gourd.
It was pitch black, but if you looked closely, you could still see the tiny cilia at both ends and a series of fierce mouths full of tearing teeth.
Perhaps sensing the Spirit Stone powder not far away, it constantly twisted and stretched, like an earthworm, and Wang Ba even felt as if it was ready to tear its lower half to find the Spirit Stone.
Wang Ba quickly moved the jar of Spirit Stone powder far away.
Only then did the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm calm down and slowly wriggle on Wang Ba's palm.
Even with a layer of clothing in between, Wang Ba felt his hair stand on end.
He was really scared of this strangely shaped worm.
So, he indeed hesitated.
"Am I really going to put this thing into a body?"
That's right, he planned to personally experience the effects of the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm.
Although he had watched Shopkeeper Lu's demonstration and was convinced that the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm posed no danger to humans,
whether it could truly penetrate meridian points was yet to be proven.
He was also somewhat curious and wished to test its effectiveness himself.
But this was not just a physical challenge, but a psychological one as well!
Looking at Shopkeeper Lu, the silkworm crawling in through his ear didn't seem to cause any pain.
Nonetheless, Wang Ba was still hesitant to commit.
Wouldn't this creature burrow into his brain and eat it?
The thought of his brain being nibbled away to nothingness made him immediately want to throw away the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm.
"There's no way I'm letting it in through my head!"
But there were only so many openings in a human body: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, belly button…a front door and a back door…
If it can't go through the top, surely…it can't take the bottom route?
The thought alone made Wang Ba shudder involuntarily.
Too horrifying to even ponder.
After some deliberation, Wang Ba gritted his teeth, sterilized a knife with fire, and made a hair's width incision on his finger.
"Hiss! It truly hurts!"
This was already a great concession from a manly man who couldn't even bear needles.
Whether the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm was drawn by the smell of blood or had a natural preference for holes, it excitedly drilled itself in as soon as Wang Ba extended his finger towards it.
[Target Lifespan: 0.2 years]
In the very next second, Wang Ba's eyes widened drastically!
Dammit!
The Lu bastard fooled me!
This thought flashed across his mind before he was swiftly overwhelmed by a virtually unbearable dose of pain.
"Damn it!!!"
Under such pain, let alone cultivating, even maintaining consciousness was extremely difficult.
Wang Ba, whose willpower was inherently not the strongest, was immediately curled up in the fetal position because of the pain.
Fortunately, he had prepared a Spirit Stone just in case, and while there was a sliver of conscious will left, he fumbled and touched the Spirit Stone.
The Tendon-Cutting Silkworm quickly wriggled out of Wang Ba's nostrils and swiftly wrapped around the Spirit Stone.
Wang Ba heaved a sigh of relief, disregarding his dignity as he sat on the ground with his palm trembling uncontrollably.
He could not tell if it was an illusion, but he vaguely sensed the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm had indeed shortened a bit.
It seemed like it actually had an effect.
"I don't care! Even if it works, I'll never use this method again!"
The thought of that unbearable pain made his heart tremble.
No wonder Shopkeeper Lu was willing to sell Tendon-Cutting Silkworms at half price, with this level of pain, probably no one wanted them.
Only after a good rest was he able to peel the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm off the Spirit Stone and threw it back into the gourd.
After some thought, he decided to find another Precious Chicken to verify whether the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm was indeed effective.
Of course, not wanting to waste, he selected a rooster from the twenty Precious Chickens he'd picked the previous day and, steeling his heart, shoved the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm into its nostrils.
Well, when the rooster saw the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm, it instinctively opened its mouth, intending to eat it.
Luckily, Wang Ba's reflexes were quick, and he immediately sealed the rooster's beak shut.
And when the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm successfully burrowed into the rooster's nostrils,
Wang Ba anxiously stepped back a couple of feet, frightened off the surrounding Precious Chickens, and then stared at it intently!
The pain was unbearable even for him, let alone for a chicken.
After all, chickens, being neurotic animals, possessed weak stress tolerance, especially domesticated ones.
There was often news of lightning scaring chickens to death at poultry farms, which illustrated this point.
Therefore, after the Tendon-Cutting Silkworm entered, the Precious Chicken could potentially have a severe stress reaction due to the significant pain, causing it to drop dead!
This was Wang Ba's biggest worry for this experiment.
If a high mortality rate resulted, although it wouldn't impact his whitewashing plan, it would undoubtedly pose a loss.
So Wang Ba stared intently at the rooster.
And the rooster, seeming to sense something, returned the gaze.
In this face-off between man and chicken, the tension was incredible.
Ten breaths later,
The Precious Rooster, tilting its head and looking curiously at Wang Ba, made a sound:
"Cluck?"