Wang Xiaoqiang brought back the forty-six pheasant eggs he had purchased to the Old Village Committee Courtyard, where he added them to the fifty-two pheasant eggs he had already collected; he now had a total of ninety wild mountain eggs.

Normally, not all of these ninety pheasant eggs would hatch into chicks. Wang Xiaoqiang decided to try incubating them first to see how many would hatch, and during this idle period, he would catch some more wild pheasants.

Wang Xiaoqiang's earliest memory involved the villagers incubating chicks using the hen's body heat, but nowadays, chicken farms use incubators.

Using hens for incubation was rather troublesome; one would first need to feed the hen a mixture of cornmeal and wine to make her half-drunk so that she would dutifully sit on the eggs. This method was not very efficient, whereas incubators were much more convenient, and purchasing an incubator was not very expensive either—only around fifty to sixty yuan each.

Wang Xiaoqiang thought that he would buy two incubators from the county town tomorrow. As he thought this, he rubbed the pheasant eggs with his hand.

Just then, he wondered whether to infuse the pheasant eggs with "Spiritual Energy." Abruptly, the Five Elements Spiritual Spring in his heart swiftly moved to his palm, and then it emitted five streams of heat from the five fingers of his right hand, seeping into the pheasant eggs below.

There were five red streams of energy. Once these energies were injected into the five pheasant eggs beneath his hand, they radiated outward to the surrounding eggs, immediately forming a red net of Spiritual Energy that linked all ninety pheasant eggs together.

Wang Xiaoqiang stared at the red net of Spiritual Energy, feeling somewhat excited and thought that this must be the Fire Element Spiritual Energy. In the Five Elements, the color representing fire was red. The red Spiritual Energy must be the Fire Element Spiritual Energy.

As Wang Xiaoqiang infused the Fire Element Spiritual Energy, the ninety pheasant eggs gradually warmed up and, to his surprise, began to move…

No way! Could the Fire Element Spiritual Energy actually incubate chicks? Wang Xiaoqiang watched the gently moving pheasant eggs with a face full of surprise.

Suddenly, with a soft 'puff' sound, one of the pheasant eggs cracked open and a tender yellow chick poked its head out. This newly hatched chick, unlike the typical frail newborns, looked very strong as its sharp beak pecked through the remaining shell...

Heaven! It hatched so quickly!?

As Wang Xiaoqiang marveled, with two more 'puff' sounds, another two pheasant eggs cracked open, revealing new chicks...

Then...

Puff puff puff puff puff puff...

The sound of eggs breaking was incessant, as more chicks emerged from their shells...

Eventually, with broken shells all over the ground, sixty-three newborn chicks appeared before Wang Xiaoqiang, chirping merrily and creating quite a lively scene. The remaining twenty-seven pheasant eggs remained silent, clearly unfertilized, which was indeed in line with natural reasoning.

But the speed of this hatching was just too astonishing!

Fortunately, no one was around, otherwise, they would have been scared. Usually, it takes 21 days to hatch a chick, but now, in less than five minutes, they had hatched.

Upon reflection, Wang Xiaoqiang felt there was nothing strange about it. In the Five Elements, "Fire" represents the "south" direction, the "summer" season, and the "heart" among the five organs. Considering what these represent, they are all associated with temperature.

Fire in the Five Elements symbolizes temperature, so using Fire Element Spiritual Energy to "hatch" pheasant eggs made perfect sense. Moreover, since fire governs ritual and is quick in nature, it was not hard to see why the Fire Element Spiritual Energy could hatch the chicks so quickly.

After placing over sixty tender yellow chicks into a large basket, Wang Xiaoqiang called Old Yellow Dog over and instructed it to watch over the chicks to prevent them from being harmed by wildcats or weasels.

Old Yellow Dog wagged its tail and then lay down in front of the basket. It was becoming more obedient, and Wang Xiaoqiang felt that the dog's intelligence had improved significantly. Indeed, throughout the day, Old Yellow Dog hardly left the basket's side and did not harm the chicks.

Big Black and Little Hei grew quickly. In just a month, their bodies had almost doubled in size, their heads now surpassing Wang Xiaoqiang's knees. Since Wang Xiaoqiang had infused them with Spiritual Energy, the two creatures not only grew fast but also became particularly obedient, just like Old Yellow Dog. Though they were young, they seemed to understand Wang Xiaoqiang's commands.

When he spoke, they acted.

Now with over sixty chicks, Wang Xiaoqiang was not satisfied. To build a Chicken Farm, naturally, he would need hundreds or thousands of chickens; otherwise, he really had no interest in pursuing it.

Wang Xiaoqiang was about to go up Mantou Mountain to catch wild pheasants, and he took Big Black and Little Hei with him to stretch their legs, as they were always cooped up in the yard, which was no good for even the best dogs.

That day, he gathered around ten pounds of cornmeal from home, mixed it with half a bottle of white wine, packed it in a woven bag, and, armed with a slingshot and steel balls, set off for Mantou Mountain with Big Black and Little Hei.

Mantou Mountain was bare. Aside from wild pheasants and some wild birds, other animals almost never visited Mantou Mountain, so there was no need to worry about wolves or wild game catching them.

The mountain path on Mantou Mountain was gentle, and climbing was not difficult. In the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Wang Xiaoqiang had climbed to a plateau halfway up the mountain. Looking out over a large empty space, he felt it was a good spot to capture wild pheasants.

He took some cornmeal out of the bag, scattered it over the ground, then continued climbing from halfway up the mountain to the peak. Along the way, he frequently saw wild pheasants flying out from the bushes. The summit was also a smooth, flat area where Wang Xiaoqiang repeated his trick and scattered some cornmeal.

Then, he returned along the same path to the midway plateau, where he saw about ten wild pheasants pecking at the cornmeal. Seeing that they were eating enthusiastically, he did not disturb them. Instead, he kept Big Black and Little Hei from moving rashly, and they hid nearby, quietly observing for a while.

In less than the time it takes for a cigarette to burn, the ten wild pheasants had eaten their fill and began to stagger as if about to topple over.

That was when Wang Xiaoqiang commanded Big Black and Little Hei to catch them.

Although the two Tibetan Mastiffs were young, they were extremely agile and fierce. They pounced and pinned down a wild pheasant, lightly biting its wing to break it before moving on to another one. They quickly subdued nine pheasants. When the last pheasant tried to flee, Wang Xiaoqiang shot it down with his slingshot.

After capturing all ten pheasants, he tied them up with rope, strung them together, and tied them to a small tree, with Big Black watching them while Wang Xiaoqiang took Little Hei to the mountain peak.

When man and dog reached the flat land at the summit, they saw fifteen or sixteen wild pheasants lying there, seemingly asleep, clearly having indulged in the wine-spiked cornmeal.

Though down one combatant this time, because the group of wild pheasants was heavily intoxicated, capturing them turned out to be even easier than last time, and he captured all sixteen wild pheasants.

What surprised Wang Xiaoqiang was just how many wild pheasants were on Mantou Mountain. There had never been so many before, but he quickly realized why this was happening. Nowadays, with the village's able-bodied labor force going out to work and Liu Chunxiang's husband, Wang Baoshan, having been killed by a wild boar, hunting had completely disappeared from the neighboring area.

With virtually no one coming up to the nearby peaks, Mantou Mountain had become a paradise for wild pheasants. Although it was relatively desolate compared to Great Green Mountain, the grass seeds and surface insects on Mantou Mountain were the pheasants' favorite food, resulting in their abundance. This turned out to benefit Wang Xiaoqiang.

In one day, Wang Xiaoqiang captured forty-two wild pheasants, and only after it grew dark did he transport them back to the Old Village Committee Courtyard in batches. He rushed to do this before night fell for fear of being seen. If others noticed such a bounty, Mantou Mountain would become bustling the next day, likely sparking a mass wild chicken-catching movement.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.