Chapter 165: The Golden Eagle Lays Eggs

Ye Mo instructed Ah Zhi to continue planting spirit grain within the ancient painting's spirit field. He then continued reclaiming spirit fields inside the inner courtyard of his Lord's Mansion. By dusk that day, he had reclaimed a full ten mu of spirit fields, all of which were stored inside the ancient painting's immortal village.

Ah Zhi was also full of boundless energy; the spirit fields that Ye Mo had transferred in already contained spirit grain plants growing over half a foot tall.

Aside from setting aside a certain amount of time to handle essential affairs of the immortal village, Ye Mo spent all his time reclaiming wasteland in the back courtyard.

A few days later, Zhang Pengju arrived at the immortal village, and Ye Mo finally took time out of his schedule to receive him.

"So this is City Lord Ye's immortal village. Not bad, not bad at all. To be able to develop an immortal village to this extent in just a few months is truly remarkable."

After arriving at the Ye Family Immortal Village and taking a stroll around to roughly inspect the place, Zhang Pengju could not help but feel great admiration for Ye Mo.

Upon entering the Spirit Eagle Pavilion in the Lord's Mansion, Zhang Pengju's attention was completely captivated by the three spirit eagles.

With Ye Mo personally pacifying them, the three golden eagles gradually grew accustomed to Zhang Pengju, and their hostility toward him slowly faded.

Zhang Pengju intended to stay in the Ye Family Immortal Village for a period of time to stimulate the mating instincts of these three golden eagles, ensuring they would lay golden eagle eggs as soon as possible.

Ye Mo left Ah Shui, who was most familiar with the spirit eagles, to assist with the golden eagle egg-laying process in the Spirit Eagle Pavilion.

As for himself, he returned to continue reclaiming spirit fields. Naturally, gate-guarding cultivators were indispensable, and the remaining Earth-Slave Guards took turns guarding the inner courtyard gates.

Time flew by, and more than ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

On this day, Ye Mo reclaimed yet another mu of spirit field and took out the ancient painting scroll, only to discover that no matter what he tried, he could no longer transfer this mu of spirit field into the immortal village.

Ye Mo was puzzled for a long time.

He had no choice but to return to his quiet room, enter the ancient painting's immortal village, and consult Ah Li.

In the alchemy pavilion, Ah Li was diligently refining second-rank vital energy pills. Hearing Ye Mo's inquiry, it also looked somewhat perplexed.

Ah Li looked around inside the ancient painting's immortal village and said in surprise, "Master, the spirit wood fence of this ancient painting's immortal village can probably accommodate about one hundred mu of spirit fields. Unless the immortal village expands its boundaries, I'm afraid we won't be able to increase the number of spirit fields any further."

"There's no way to increase it anymore?"

"Perhaps only when Master's cultivation reaches the Foundation Establishment stage, and the ancient painting's immortal village becomes an immortal town, will the boundaries expand. By then, the spirit fields should also be able to increase."

"So that's how it is."

Ye Mo surveyed the ancient painting's immortal village.

The entire small immortal village was enclosed by a spirit wood fence. Inside the village were buildings, and almost every inch was planted with spirit fields. Outside the village lay a vast expanse of gray fog.

Gradually understanding the situation, he tallied the number of spirit fields.

"A total of one hundred mu of spirit fields. If they are all planted with spirit grain, taking three days to mature with a yield of thirty catties per mu, that equates to a thousand catties a day. At this rate, it can feed up to one hundred adult third-rank spirit eagles."

After making the calculation, Ye Mo could not help but feel extremely satisfied.

"We can raise up to one hundred third-rank spirit eagles here. Planting spirit grain here will reduce costs to the absolute minimum. When the time comes, an aerial cavalry of one hundred spirit eagles—with such formidable combat power, no immortal village in the Aolai Archipelago could ever hope to resist it!"

After pondering for a moment, Ye Mo shook his head again.

"No, we cannot use all of them to grow spirit grain. The true advantage of the spirit fields within the ancient painting's immortal village lies in their ability to accelerate ripening by a hundredfold. Using them solely to grow spirit grain and raise a large batch of spirit eagles is only a last resort, done to give the Ye Family Immortal Village a unique aerial advantage among Qi Condensation stage cultivators.

However, once we reach the Foundation Establishment stage, the advantage of these spirit eagles will be greatly diminished. Pouring excessive investment into these spirit eagles will yield little practical effect once the immortal village ascends to an immortal town.

I should reserve half of the spirit fields for growing medicinal herbs. One year inside the painting is equivalent to a century in the outside world; the higher the grade of the pill, the greater the age required for the medicinal herbs. Once we reach the immortal town stage, refining pills will no longer require only low-grade medicinal herbs as first and second-rank pills do; the demand for various high-grade medicinal herbs will increase drastically. I must plan ahead and make preparations now. In any case, the longer medicinal herbs grow, the more valuable they become—it can only do good."

Thinking of this, Ye Mo immediately instructed Ah Zhi, "Of these one hundred mu of spirit fields, plant half with medicinal herbs and half with spirit grain. For commonly used medicinal herbs like ginseng, poria, Ganoderma, and Scutellaria—the older they are, the stronger their medicinal efficacy and the wider their uses—we can plant more of them. Some other less commonly used medicinal herbs should also be planted as well."

Ah Zhi immediately agreed.

Growing medicinal herbs was wonderful, especially aged ones, which were also Ah Zhi's favorite food.

Growing spirit grain inside the ancient painting's immortal village was very convenient; all that was needed was to scatter the seeds and let spirit stones provide spiritual Qi to the spirit fields. There was no need to cast the Spirit Rain Spell to supplement the spiritual Qi of the fields.

Having made these arrangements, Ye Mo began to calculate again.

"Now that the ancient painting provides spirit grain, the quantity is sufficient. But how can we avoid arousing suspicion? Raising fifty spirit eagles requires consuming five hundred catties of spirit grain a day. That is no small amount; I must plan this carefully."

"Right, didn't Kong Zhonghai take a spirit grain sub-island from my hands? He still owns several other islands. I can acquire some spirit grain from him. This will not only pull the wool over people's eyes but also relieve some of the pressure on the ancient painting's immortal village. In the future, if the harvest of spirit grain inside the ancient painting increases, we can grow slightly less spirit grain inside and plant more medicinal herbs instead. Either way, they can all be sold for spirit stones."

Ye Mo stepped out of the ancient painting's immortal village, walked out of the inner courtyard gate, and prepared to pay a visit to Kong Zhonghai.

A Tu immediately reported, "Master, Fellow Daoist Zhang from the Spirit Eagle Pavilion sent word with some good news: both female eagles have laid eggs, and he asks you to go over immediately after coming out of seclusion."

"Oh? I'll go take a look."

Joy appeared on Ye Mo's face.

With the ancient painting's assistance, there was no longer a shortage of spirit grain. The only thing needed was to quickly replenish the number of golden eagles. After more than ten days, there was finally good news.

Upon rushing to the Spirit Eagle Pavilion, Ye Mo happened to see the three golden eagles glaring angrily at Zhang Pengju, refusing to let him get close.

"City Lord Ye, you've finally arrived! You must seek justice for me!"

Cold sweat beaded on Zhang Pengju's forehead as he hurriedly pulled Ye Mo aside and said.

"I saw that they had laid eagle eggs and wanted to inspect them to determine their quality and check for any abnormalities. Who would have thought these three fellows would suddenly turn hostile and almost peck me? City Lord Ye, my life is truly miserable! I've painstakingly served these three brothers for over ten days, and this is how they treat me."

Ye Mo could not help but smile bitterly, offering a few words of comfort to Zhang Pengju.

He then used his divine sense to soothe and communicate with the three spirit eagles, and after a difficult effort, he finally calmed the enraged golden eagles, personally retrieving seven eagle eggs from the temporary eagle nest.

The female eagles had never lacked for food and had recently even subsisted on third-rank spirit grain and spirit beans. Therefore, unlike the eggs laid by wild demonic eagles which often included dead or spoiled ones, all seven of these eagle eggs radiated a golden luster and were brimming with vibrant vitality.

Zhang Pengju eagerly took them, inspecting them one by one, and finally said: "City Lord Ye, five of this batch of eagle eggs are viable. The spiritual aura of the other two is unstable; I suggest not attempting to hatch them."

"Why is that? Can't eggs with unstable auras be hatched?"

Ye Mo asked with a puzzled expression.

Zhang Pengju widened his eyes and said loudly: "City Lord Ye, you wouldn't understand. For two female eagles to produce seven eagle eggs is already an exceptional yield. These are spirit beasts, not pigs raised by ordinary mortals that can litter a dozen at a time. These spirit beast eggs must absorb the maternal essence; if too many are born at once, some will be strong while others are weak, and it might even damage the vitality of the mother eagles, severely causing their cultivation levels to drop."

"Is it that serious?"

Ye Mo's expression instantly turned solemn as he reached out to smooth the feathers of Er Jin and Xiao Jin, a worried look on his face.

"Hehe, rest assured, with me here, it won't be much of a problem. Among these seven golden eagle eggs, the City Lord only needs to select the best five for incubation; this way, weakened golden eagles are less likely to occur. As for the mother eagles, as long as you aren't stingy with spirit stones, I will arrange a proper diet for them, and they will recover quickly without any lasting damage to their vitality. In another twenty days or so, they can lay eggs again."

Zhang Pengju chuckled, looking extremely confident.

Ye Mo nodded, feeling a sense of fortune at this moment. If not for Zhang Pengju helping out in the Spirit Eagle Pavilion and letting him manage things himself, he had no idea what kind of mess it would turn out to be.

Unless one specialized in beast taming, it was difficult to master the inner tricks of the trade.

At this thought, an idea struck Ye Mo, and he couldn't help asking: "Fellow Daoist Zhang, would you like to take on another disciple? You may freely choose any cultivator in my entire village."

As soon as Ye Mo finished speaking, Zhang Pengju's eyes lit up with joy.

Seeing this, Ye Mo quickly added a condition: "Provided it is entirely based on voluntary choice, and you are strictly forbidden from unnecessarily pestering female cultivators."

"Bah! Am I, Zhang Pengju, that kind of person?"

Zhang Pengju rolled his eyes at Ye Mo and retorted indignantly, "You make me sound so despicable. Hmph, if it weren't for the sake of these three spirit eagles, I'd pack up and leave right now. A few days ago, a junior sister learning spirit planting at the Spirit Plantation Workshop showed a lot of interest in beast taming and kept coming over every few days to ask questions. Since you're letting me take a disciple, I'll have her come over to do odd jobs; how much she learns will depend entirely on her own capability. By the way, please have a word with Senior Sister Moling and ask her to release that person to me. I can't afford to offend that female demon—she's fierce!"

Zhang Pengju wore a lingering look of fear, clearly having suffered losses at Moling's hands before.

"Alright."

Ye Mo's attention was entirely focused on the eagle eggs, and he agreed immediately.

Throughout this past month, he had been diligently reclaiming spirit fields and was fully aware of all the major events in the immortal village, paying little attention to minor matters.

After playing with the three golden eagles for a while longer and listening to Zhang Pengju enthusiastically lecture on beast-breeding experiences, Ye Mo took the five sound golden eagle eggs, returned to his quiet room, entered the ancient painting's immortal village, and placed them into the fire raven's nest.

He watched as the small fire raven, acting like a brooding hen, happily settled into its nest to incubate the five newly acquired golden eagle eggs.

Standing nearby, Ye Mo carefully calculated how long it would take to gather fifty golden eagles.

Laying eggs once every ten days or so, yielding about three to five each time, and swiftly raising them to maturity within the ancient painting's immortal village before allowing them to breed further—at this rate, the number of golden eagles would expand rapidly.

"Once the Ye Family Immortal Village forms a massive aerial cavalry of thirty to fifty spirit eagles, solely in terms of aerial combat power, we will undoubtedly be the strongest among all the immortal villages in the Aolai Seas. By then, even powerful immortal villages with massive fleets of battle-ships, like the Lou Family Immortal Village, wouldn't dare provoke us lightly. In terms of combat strength, the Ye Family Immortal Village need fear no one. This way, the crisis of being suppressed in military might by other immortal villages will be temporarily resolved."

Ye Mo finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It felt as though a heavy boulder had been lifted from his chest.

However, this alone was still not enough.

Struggles between immortal villages were not just about combat strength. Every other aspect of the immortal village—various technologies and trade—had to be developed to the utmost; the skill proficiency of cultivators and sea-vessels could not lag behind either.

The spirit stones saved from spirit eagles and spirit grain cultivation could be reinvested into these other areas.

Pondering for a long time, Ye Mo finally emerged from the ancient painting's immortal village. With the formidable trump card of the spirit eagle aerial cavalry, his expression carried an extra measure of poise and confidence.