Chapter 116: The Hatchling Eagle Takes Flight (Vote Please)

“By the way, I almost forgot—how much do they eat?” Ye Mo hurriedly asked the little azure fox.

“The newly hatched spiritual eaglets each consume about one jin of spiritual food daily—be it beast meat, spiritual grain, or spiritual beans. Spiritual grain differs from ordinary grain; it’s rich in spiritual energy and its nutrients are no less than those in meat.

Most spiritual beasts eat spiritual grain or spiritual beans, with their consumption varying by species and size. Smaller creatures tend to eat less, while large ones like the demon eagles have considerable appetites.

As the eaglets grow, their food intake gradually increases. A fully grown third-rank spiritual eagle, with its massive demonic frame, requires about ten jin of spiritual food daily—nearly ten times that of an average Qi-cultivating practitioner.

Whether it can break through its bloodline limitations and evolve into a stronger demonic bird depends on its innate talents. Generally, lower-rank demon eagle species can only reach the third rank, with breakthroughs being rare,” A Li explained rapidly.

Ye Mo was left dumbfounded, his face clouded with worry.

A newborn eaglet needs a jin of spiritual beans daily, and once it reaches the third rank, it consumes ten jin of spiritual food each day.

To put this into perspective, one jin of spiritual grain sells on the market for roughly one spirit stone, sometimes as low as half a stone, sometimes as high as one or two.

Moreover, spiritual grain takes up considerable space. Storage pouches are limited in capacity, so transporting large quantities requires ocean vessels, which come with hefty freight costs.

On top of that, sea shipments must be guarded against pirate cultivators, necessitating escorts by cultivators—another significant expense.

When the nine newly appointed city lords of Qingyun Immortal Academy filled their ocean vessels with various goods, Master Kuang Zhen, a Golden Core cultivator, personally led some Foundation Establishment cultivators to escort the shipments.

Otherwise, these Qi-stage cultivators wouldn’t dare to openly traverse the vast ocean routes with large quantities of supplies; it would easily attract the attention of pirate cultivators.

It wasn’t until small teleportation arrays were established in each immortal village, placing them under the protection of Qingyun Main Immortal City, that Kuang Zhen and his group departed.

Because of the high ocean freight costs, the Ao Lai sea region suffers from grain shortages, causing spiritual grain prices to remain elevated.

With three adult spiritual eagles, daily consumption reaches thirty jin of spiritual grain, equivalent to thirty spirit stones—amounting to nine hundred spirit stones per month.

“Raising spiritual beasts consumes that much? Can’t we feed them less? Maybe just a few jin per day?” Ye Mo asked with diminishing confidence, looking at the little azure fox.

“That’s possible, but if the beasts are underfed, they become distant from their owners. Don’t blame me for not warning you. If their affection drops too low, they might betray you and flee to find food on their own,” A Li said, lazily rolling her eyes.

Ye Mo was speechless.

So, underfed spiritual beasts actually run away—more difficult to manage than a spoiled lord.

Such a burden is beyond the means of most. Even slightly impoverished immortal villages would struggle to sustain this.

Moreover, Ye Mo’s newly founded immortal village had no income yet. The scant spirit stones it had came from the spiritual fields of the Ancient Painting Immortal Village.

He had initially hoped that once these three eaglets matured and laid eggs, the eagle cavalry would expand rapidly.

Now, that hope seemed naïve.

Just raising these three spiritual eagles was already a huge burden.

Feeling somewhat disheartened, Ye Mo exited the Ancient Painting Scroll and left the loft, pondering whether to cultivate more spiritual fields in the village to prevent future shortages of spiritual grain.

“Your Lordship!” Within the village, warriors respectfully greeted Ye Mo whenever they saw him.

Suppressing his gloom, Ye Mo nodded in response and soon found himself at the village’s spiritual planting workshop.

It was managed by Mo Ling.

Huang Yi had never studied at the Immortal Academy, but she had a close relationship with Mo Ling and was learning to cultivate spiritual fields there—a livelihood skill.

“Your Lordship, what brings you here?” A female warrior, tidying various spiritual herbs and grain seeds, saw Ye Mo at the entrance and hurried over. She was one of Mo Ling’s chosen assistants.

“Hmm, where’s Mo Ling?” Ye Mo nodded and inquired.

“Your Lordship, Master Mo and Master Huang left early this morning. The spirit island has been thoroughly cleared by Gao Jian and the immortal guards; it’s now very safe, with venomous snakes and ferocious beasts nearly eradicated.

The two masters led people across the spirit island, searching for wild spiritual herbs, grain, beans, and other crops. They’ve already gathered quite a bounty these past few days, which has been transplanted into the village’s spiritual fields,” the female warrior explained, pointing to the spiritual fields behind the workshop.

The spiritual fields in the valley spanned five hundred mu, but only about ten mu had been cultivated so far, with ten warriors using black iron hoes and plows daily to expand the fields.

Ye Mo approached the small patch of spiritual herbs and grains cultivated by the workshop and observed the precious seeds.

The village’s future large-scale planting depended on these.

“When will these wild spiritual grains and beans yield in large quantities?” Ye Mo asked after some thought.

“Wild spiritual grains and beans are annual spiritual plants. Their seed numbers are insufficient in the first year, so planting areas won’t be large. For substantial planting, at least two years are needed,” the female warrior replied.

Ye Mo nodded gently.

It would be one to two years before the Ye family immortal village could harvest its first spiritual grain crop—and even then, yields wouldn’t be abundant, as the village severely lacked cultivators skilled in the spiritual rain technique. Without the nurturing of spiritual rain, spiritual grain cannot thrive.

“Looks like we can’t count on the village producing spiritual grain for at least a year or two,” Ye Mo thought silently.

He could only rely on the single mu of spiritual field within the Ancient Painting Immortal Village to feed these three eaglets. Fortunately, they hadn’t grown large yet and only required one jin of spiritual grain to be satiated.

The single mu of spiritual field in the Ancient Painting Immortal Village was more than enough for them.

Ye Mo quickly calculated.

Beyond feeding the three eaglets, there would still be a substantial amount of spiritual grain left.

He finally felt somewhat relieved.

For now, he wouldn’t lose spirit stones, though he wouldn’t earn any either. With three spiritual eagles soaring in the sky, the Ye family immortal village would surely boast formidable combat power.

The next day.

Ye Mo entered the Ancient Painting Immortal Village again, intending to check on the hatching progress of the little fire crow.

Suddenly, the little fire crow flew over, circling him and cawing excitedly.

“Master, the eagle eggs are hatching! The little fire crow wants you to hurry over,” A Li said eagerly.

“What? They hatched in just one day?” Ye Mo was astonished, his face lighting up as he hurried behind the cottage to the large tree.

He leapt onto the treetop, where three eagle eggs nestled in the crow’s nest.

When a spiritual beast is born, it naturally feels a bond with the first person it sees.

Ye Mo knew this common knowledge about beast taming.

The three golden eagle eggs were cracking open, gently shaking with cracking sounds, ready to break free.

The fire crow cawed at Ye Mo incessantly.

The golden eggs shook more vigorously.

Under Ye Mo’s anxious gaze, one egg’s surface cracks widened until it split open completely.

A bare, newly hatched eaglet poked its small head out, its sharp beak tapping the eggshell. It struggled to wriggle free, exerting great effort before emerging.

Looking up at Ye Mo, its tiny eyes showed confusion. Tilting its head, it studied him briefly, then happily chirped and nestled toward Ye Mo.

“Just hatched, and already palm-sized,” Ye Mo said with a smile, reaching out to stroke the little creature.

“The sound is quite unpleasant, and it’s rather ugly,” A Li chuckled.

After bonding briefly with Ye Mo, the eaglet turned back and swallowed the eggshell fragments, its body shimmering faintly with a golden light, growing stronger.

It then circled the other two unhatched golden eggs, cawing curiously, sensing familiar energy within and trying to peck them.

Ye Mo quickly caught it.

“Little one, don’t be naughty. Those are yours. They’ll hatch soon,” he said with a smile, regardless of whether the eaglet understood.

Before long, the other two eaglets hatched, filling the crow’s nest with noisy chirps.

Ye Mo spent nearly half an hour playing with the three eaglets, nurturing their bond.

At this early stage, the key was to cultivate intimacy with the spiritual beasts to ensure they recognized him as their master, obeyed commands, and were successfully tamed.

During this period, Ye Mo did not plan to take them out of the Ancient Painting Scroll. Until they truly recognized him and were tamed, exposure to others would hinder the taming process.

Ye Mo grabbed large handfuls of spiritual grain to feed them.

At first, he fed them personally; once their bond was strong, he would entrust feeding to A Li, the little fire crow, and others.

Construction of the Ye family immortal village had basically entered a steady phase, with various affairs assigned to designated personnel.

Ye Mo no longer needed to interfere.

His sole personal task was taming the three eaglets.

Several small streets within the village had been paved with stone slabs, with various pavilions and houses lining the roads, gradually forming the village’s outline.

Another ongoing task was cultivating spiritual fields. Only a small portion had been cultivated internally, with Mo Ling leading over twenty warriors in the effort, but much land remained uncultivated.

Due to limited manpower, progress was slow.

Ye Mo once again felt the drawbacks of a small population. His followers raised the issue of increasing the village’s population.

He sent Chang Fei back to Qingyun Immortal City to replenish scarce supplies and to see if they could attract some warriors to the Ye family immortal village.

Within just a few days.

Inside the Ancient Painting Scroll, Ye Mo was astonished to see the three eaglets had grown golden feathers, their wings gradually hardening.

They grew too fast.

A few days ago, they were only palm-sized, eating one jin of spiritual grain daily; now they were nearly a foot long.

“Here, the growth rate of spiritual beasts is as fast as spiritual grain?” Ye Mo exclaimed in surprise.

“Correct. They eat well and sleep well here. Their growth is a hundred times faster than outside. But if they aren’t fed, they can’t grow,” the little azure fox smiled upon seeing Ye Mo’s astonishment.

After a moment, Ye Mo regained his composure.

The three eaglets were already very familiar with him, looking up curiously with eyes full of attachment, happily calling out and flapping their wings, opening their beaks for spiritual food.

Their wings were not yet fully developed; they couldn’t fly.

Ye Mo took them out of the Ancient Painting Scroll to play in the garden of the city lord’s mansion, allowing the village cultivators to become familiar with them.

Upon hearing that Ye Mo had hatched spiritual eagles, the village cultivators grew very interested and gathered quickly.

For a while, the city lord’s mansion became lively and bustling.