West of Black Wood Village lie continuous terraced fields.
Beyond these terraces stretches the chain of hills known as Black Wind Mountain Range for dozens of miles.
At the outskirts of Black Wind Mountain Range.
Lu Qingfeng, with a bamboo basket on his back, a woodcutter's knife in his right hand, and a dicine hoe carved out of black wood in his left, was exploring the dense forest.
Here, the weeds grew rampant and the trees stood towering.
The thousand or so people of Black Wood Village lived by farming, daring not venture into the Black Wind Mountain Range. Even at its fringes, human footprints were scarce.
Lu Qingfeng moved with the lightness of a swallow, often crouching down. Monts later, he'd rise, placing the muddy dicinal herbs into his basket.
Now, it wasn't just White Atractylodes and licorice, but also Yellow Ginseng, Mountain Ginseng, and other herbs beneficial for cultivation.
Dusk fell in a flash.
The basket was nearly full of herbs, weighty and substantial. If not for the arduous training Lu Qingfeng maintained these past days, he would have been exhausted.
Glancing at the sky, Lu Qingfeng prepared to return.
The setting sun gave way to a dimming world.
In the forest, the chorus of insects and birds sang vibrant tunes, even livelier than those of Black Wood Village.
Suddenly.
Lu Qingfeng's ears twitched. Amidst the chirping and squawking, he heard rustling noises. Sothing was approaching him, and quickly at that.
"Run!"
Lu Qingfeng hastened his pace, rushing back towards Black Wood Village.
In the evening, within the Black Wind Mountain Range, Lu Qingfeng wouldn't dare to engage with any ferocious beasts.
Even though he had cultivated his Inner Breath, reaching the First Level of the Fetal Breathing Realm.
"If not for the significant changes to my physique from practicing the Barbaric Bull Fist, with my current cultivation level, I could have killed a juvenile wolf with a single punch!"
Cultivating Inner Breath ant a comprehensive enhancent of his physical fitness. His reaction ti, speed, strength, and constitution were incomparable to before! And should he train in martial arts, he would be even fiercer.
It was just unfortunate that he couldn't train normally during this period. Upon practicing the Barbaric Bull Fist only once, his fists would swell to the size of sandbags, visible to any discerning eye.
Lu Qingfeng wouldn't risk danger for the sake of a re common martial art.
But now!
The rustling noises grew nearer, and Lu Qingfeng, no longer concerned about making noise, picked up speed.
His palms, gripping the dicine hoe and woodcutter's knife, were starting to sweat.
This was his first taste of danger since entering Black Wind Mountain Range. Close to Black Wood Village, masters from the Returning to Truth Sect would co every year to deal with threatening wild beasts, even demon beasts.
Yet the creature in pursuit felt like a thorn in Lu Qingfeng's back, a palpable sense of threat.
Whoosh!
The sound of slicing air raised his hackles.
Lu Qingfeng halted and whirled around at once. A flash of red and a burst of cold light before him. He felt a sudden chill across his chest, followed imdiately by a sharp pain.
His hemp cloth was torn to shreds, his chest sporting several deep lacerations, from which blood gushed!
Then—
The red flash struck again!
"Die!"
Sensing the threat of death, Lu Qingfeng's feeble Inner Breath circulated, and he swung his woodcutter's knife with all his might at the red blur!
Thud!
The knife connected, sending the red flash that was about to pounce on Lu Qingfeng plumting to the ground.
"Squeak, squeak!"
A small red creature resembling a raccoon lay injured, paws still shimring with fresh blood.
Lu Qingfeng's blood.
There was a terrifying wound on the Red Fox creature, as long as a palm, inflicted by Lu Qingfeng's knife strike.
The Red Fox, wounded by the knife, was slamd to the ground, unable to move for the mont.
Its small face was wrinkled like a ball, its watery eyes looking pitifully at Lu Qingfeng.
"Die!"
Lu Qingfeng, clutching the woodcutter's knife, brought it down with a ferocious chop, smashing the small face of the Red Fox into an indistinguishable ss, devoid of any remaining life.
"Huff, huff!"
Having killed the Red Fox, Lu Qingfeng collapsed, gasping for breath.
"Hisss!"
Inhaling sharply, the rising and falling of his chest aggravated his wounds, sending piercing pain through Lu Qingfeng.
The Red Fox's speed was fast, and fortunately, its claws had only raked across Lu Qingfeng's chest. Had they hit his neck, his life would likely have been forfeited in the Black Wind Mountain Range.
"To strike with lethal intent, such a vicious little beast doesn't deserve my pity!"
Lu Qingfeng glanced at the gorily disfigured Red Fox, casually stemming the flow of blood from his wounds, then struggled to stand. Not daring to linger, he hurried back to Black Wood Village.
Thanks to the cover of nightfall, Lu Qingfeng's disheveled state went unnoticed by the other villagers.
Back in Black Wood House, Lu Qingfeng finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Big brother, what's wrong?"
Lu Qingyu was cooking a wild vegetable porridge and rushed over to support the staggering Lu Qingfeng.
"Nothing, a mountain cat scratched . Close the door."
Lu Qingfeng had Qingyu bolt the door, then seated himself on a stool.
"That damned mountain cat!"
Lu Qingyu's eyes filled with tears as she glanced at her brother's blood-soaked chest wound.
"It's a minor injury, nothing serious."
"Fetch the small millet grass and Bai Lihua powder from under the bed."
Lu Qingfeng soothed Qingyu, giving her instructions.
She hurriedly brought the two herbs, treating Lu Qingfeng's wound while tears rolled down her cheeks.
"It's really okay, doesn't Qingyu hate it when people cry?"
"Co on, give a smile."
Lu Qingfeng's pain twisted his smile, but he managed to console her until the tears stopped.
"You're not allowed to co back this late again!"
Lu Qingyu blew on the wound, then looked up at Lu Qingfeng indignantly.
"Okay, okay."
"Big brother will co back earlier in the future."
Lu Qingfeng hurriedly said.
In fact, this ti he had indeed acted recklessly!
In the past, when he ventured into Black Wind Mountain Range, he had only skirted the periphery, always returning by dusk. But as of late, having harvested most of the herbs on the outskirts, he found himself delving deeper and returning later and later.
He thought nothing of it until today, when he suffered a bloody disaster.
Fortunately, he had never taken Lu Qingyu with him into the Black Wind Mountain Range. Otherwise, being distracted by looking after her, they might both have perished in the wilderness.
"That Red Fox may be fast, but it isn't strong in attack. Otherwise, the consequences would've been unimaginable."
Lu Qingfeng comforted Lu Qingyu as the stinging pain from the dicinal powder on his wound brought him to his senses.
That night,
Lu Qingfeng was nagged by his sister for a long while until, out of sympathy, Lu Qingyu finally allowed him to lie down and sleep.
...
Ti flows like a river, ever fleeting.
After beginning cultivation, one loses even more sense of ti.
In a daze,
It had been two months since Lu Qingfeng's sixteenth birthday when he first encountered the virtual ga "Primordial". Due to not realizing the difference in the flow of ti between the ga and reality, he had not played for two months.
"Two months just to barely generate Inner Breath and advance to the First Level of the Fetal Breathing Realm!"
"At this rate, reaching the Ninth Layer of the Fetal Breathing Realm would take several years, if not longer!"
Cultivation inevitably becos more difficult as one progresses.
Just stepping through the entrance had taken Lu Qingfeng two months, and that was after already having so experience in the ga. He did not want to imagine how long it would take to generate Inner Breath without the ga.
Lying on his plank bed, Lu Qingfeng summoned his attribute panel.
Na: Lu Qingfeng [True Body]
Race: Human
Faction: None
Title: None
Cultivation: Postnatal Fetal Breathing Realm First Level
Level: 1 (0/5)
Inner Breath: 1/1 (Quality: Basic Level)
Life Span: 16/68
Root Bone: 1
rit: Unknown
Karma: Unknown
Cultivation Technique: Yellow Court Scripture First Layer (Not Entered) [Features: Derivation Technique (First Layer); Mastery over Various Techniques (First Layer); Karma Removal (First Layer)]; Fla Sun Scripture First Layer (Entered) [Derivation in Progress];
Magic Techniques: None
Divine Skills: None
Equipnt: None
Alchemy: Alchemy Introduction (Small Success) [Derivation in Progress]
The changes to the attribute panel were minor: aside from the increase in cultivation and level by one, the appearance of the Inner Breath attribute, and Alchemy Introduction advancing to Small Success.
Like cultivation techniques, Alchemy Introduction was also classified into stages: Not Entered, Entered, Small Success, Great Success, and Perfection, although there were no layered divisions.
In the last two months, Lu Qingfeng had gathered and processed herbs in reality, gradually mastering Alchemy Introduction. This was akin to the increase in proficiency level, reaching the stage of Small Success.
Achieving this stage ant not only faster herb processing but also a better quality of the final product compared to the stages of Not Entered or Entered.
Of course,
Just two months in reality would not have been enough for Lu Qingfeng to advance Alchemy Introduction to Small Success.
In "Primordial", although the ga character was still in 'rebirth' with the growth process incomplete, Lu Qingfeng could log into the ga and enjoy a hundredfold ti difference.
So now—
"Log in to 'Primordial'."
Lu Qingfeng connected to the login ring in his mind and entered the ga.
His consciousness floated in a body soaking in the Rebirth Pool, unable to move.
But his thoughts were unrestricted, and he kept revisiting the brief life-and-death struggle with the Red Fox and the process of cultivation and processing herbs earlier that day.
He repeatedly went over Alchemy Introduction and Fla Sun Scripture, seeking a deeper understanding.
Eventually, feeling groggy, Lu Qingfeng closed his eyes, resting in the ga. Upon waking, he would repeat the process.
After several iterations, when he had fully integrated the day's cultivation and herb processing with Fla Sun Scripture and Alchemy Introduction, and there was nothing new to gain, he turned to reciting the Yellow Court Scripture.
With poor aptitude and unable to cultivate the Fla Sun Scripture in the ga for the ti being, Lu Qingfeng made no progress with the cultivation technique. However, Alchemy Introduction did not depend on aptitude, it required only ti and effort to improve.
Thanks to the ti difference, he was able to advance Alchemy Introduction to Small Success in reality within a re two months.
As for the Yellow Court Scripture.
This was a Daoist Ancestor Level Cultivation thod, a top-level technique in the ga. Its efficacy was not yet apparent, and he could only grasp so understanding of the 'Derivation' feature, with insufficient experience value to make further progress.
But Lu Qingfeng did not neglect it.
Every day in the ga, he spent a substantial amount of ti reciting the Yellow Court Scripture. In the short term, there were no effects, and he didn't expect any long-term gains either.
However, Lu Qingfeng wouldn't give up on this cultivation technique, if only because of its association with the Yellow Court and the Daoist Ancestor.
He didn't know how many tis he had recited it, until feeling a call from reality prompted Lu Qingfeng to exit the ga.
A night had passed in reality, but in the ga, he had spent a full forty days!
"The ti difference is indeed useful."
"If it weren't for an accident causing the death of my ga character, I could have accomplished much more in these two months."
Lu Qingfeng logged off from the ga with a hint of regret.
In these two months, sixteen years had gone by in the ga!
Yet each night, Lu Qingfeng had spent:
Forty days in the ga for one night in reality. This added up to more than six years over two months.
"Nonetheless, these six years were precious, even if I could only think and was unable to move or cultivate."
Lu Qingfeng opened his eyes to see that it was already broad daylight.
"Big brother, you're injured. Just rest at ho today!" Lu Qingyu woke Lu Qingfeng, leaning over the bed, checking his wounds.
"Alright."
Lu Qingfeng had intended to do just that. The sixteen-year ga cycle was nearly over, and he estimated he could start playing again by late morning.
"This ti I can stay in the ga for a few more days, using the ti difference to see if there's a quick solution to the issues with Returning to Truth Sect!"
...
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