The lump of flesh, mixed with medicinal elixir, fell into the river, and the surrounding schools of fish were immediately drawn over.
Li Qiuchen casually scooped a hand into the water and pulled out a two-foot-long crucian carp.
The four- or five-jin crucian carp struggled twice in his hand, then gradually went limp.
Fresh vitality flowed through his palm and into Li Qiuchen’s internal organs.
In that instant, he even faintly felt as if he had already tasted the delicious flavor of the fish.
This was the seventh day since he had escaped Songlin Village and regained consciousness by an unknown river.
Whether he wanted it or not, the Medicine Master’s blessing had already fused with his physical body.
Blessings, too, had their ranks. The blessing he had received far surpassed the level of Granduncle’s.
This was not conjecture, but a fact visible to the naked eye.
According to the cultivation method passed down through his family, a cultivator had to sit in meditation and enter stillness, absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the body, circulate it through the minor and major heavenly cycles, cleanse the marrow and temper the bones, and cast off the shackles of the mortal flesh.
But the Medicine Master’s blessing had directly altered his constitution. There was no need to sit in meditation at all; the spiritual energy of heaven and earth would gather on its own. Of course, if one insisted on cultivating personally, it would also produce twice the result with half the effort.
Back when Li Qiuchen had not yet begun cultivating, he had been able to see with the naked eye where the crayfish spirit’s life essence lay. Now, with the Medicine Master’s blessing, after observing where the crucian carp’s life essence was, he could absorb the vitality contained within it as easily as he had just done.
Cultivating this way was simply too easy.
So it was no wonder that the old ancestor Li Jingyun had spent so much space in his book explaining the true nature of the Medicine Master’s Great Dao, lest later generations misunderstand.
Human nature could not withstand temptation.
Since strength could be increased so simply, who would still be willing to cultivate earnestly? Half a day of meditation could not compare to the cultivation gained from scooping up a single fish.
Thus, it was hardly surprising that the Medicine Master’s believers of the past had become street rats that everyone shouted to beat.
Granduncle clearly did not have this ability. Even though the book Jingyunzi had always been in his hands, he might not necessarily have understood its true meaning.
Li Qiuchen suspected that the grade of the blessing he had received was enough to rival that old peach tree.
Given time, once he achieved some success in cultivation, he should also be able to find some remote, impoverished place and build a pigpen…
That thought was far too dangerous.
I want to practice something proper!
As a transmigrator, Li Qiuchen knew very well that there was no such thing as a free lunch. The free things under heaven were the most expensive of all. A blessing like this, which seemed to require no price at all—could anyone dare say it would not need to be repaid in the future?
He did not want it, but he had no choice.
In just seven short days, under the influence of the Medicine Master’s blessing, Li Qiuchen had already been remolded from head to toe.
Now, standing by the river, he could no longer recognize the person reflected in the water.
Every morning when he woke up, he could smell a foul stench coming from his body, and sheets of dead skin would peel away from him.
The child in the reflection now did not look at all like a village brat who played with mud after peeing in it. With red lips, white teeth, fair skin, and tender flesh, he looked more like a pampered young master raised in the city.
Was this right?
Many people in Songlin Village cultivated, but at most, they gained some strength, stopped falling ill, and extended their lifespans a little. He had never heard of anyone becoming more beautiful after receiving a blessing.
Of course, Li Qiuchen’s strength had increased as well. Over these seven days, he felt his strength growing greater and greater, and it had more or less reached the level of an ordinary adult. His eyesight had also improved; with a single glance, every movement in the surrounding mountain forest was laid bare before him.
According to Granduncle, the three of them had already reached the age to take root and sprout.
They had merely lacked a cultivation method, like seeds in the earth reaching their season but receiving no fertilizer or water.
Now that they had begun cultivating, they swiftly broke through the soil and grew vigorously.
But why was he not growing muscles?
What was the point of cultivating his face? Was he supposed to rely on his looks to make a living in the future?
In theory, as long as he followed the river downstream, he would eventually find human habitation. But Li Qiuchen was in no hurry to leave the mountains.
Conditions in the mountains were indeed harsh, but what if he ran into another pigpen?
He had only just begun cultivating and had no real means of protecting himself yet.
Although the wolves, tigers, and leopards in the mountains were also dangerous, after receiving the Medicine Master’s blessing, he could control himself to emit an aura of plants and trees, blending into the forest and causing those fierce beasts to lose interest in him.
Yesterday, he had encountered several wild wolves that had come to the riverside to drink. Those wolves had shown no hostility toward him at all. Perhaps in their eyes, he was just a walking head of cabbage.
Li Qiuchen had a rather cautious personality.
In order to escape Songlin Village, he had secretly planned in the dark for two full years, and neither Granduncle nor the old peach tree had harbored the slightest suspicion of him.
Now, he did not mind spending another two years as a savage in these old mountain forests. Once he had thoroughly understood the family cultivation method, he could go out and roam the world.
Another advantage of staying in the mountains was that he could gather medicinal herbs.
The Li family’s cultivation method required the assistance of medicinal pills, and these boundless mountains were a natural medicinal garden, free for him to harvest as he pleased.
Ordinary mountain folk who wanted to dig up an old mountain ginseng would have to spend no small effort searching carefully through the mountains. But relying on his family’s inherited Yin-Yang Dharma Eyes, combined with the Medicine Master’s blessing, Li Qiuchen could easily find those rare medicinal herbs and spiritual plants amid shrubs, weeds, and rock crevices.
Some herbs he recognized, and some he did not, but that did not matter.
As long as he pulled them out and held them in his palm, he could directly absorb the medicinal power within them. Even if they carried some toxicity, it was of no consequence to the Medicine Master’s blessing; any harm done to his body would soon recover.
It was far too convenient.
Li Qiuchen sighed with emotion inwardly.
This sort of blessing was like a phone and the internet. Once one touched it, there was no going back.
Although he did not intend to leave the mountains for the time being, he still needed to understand the situation within them.
When formulating his escape plan, Li Qiuchen had once asked Boss Guan to draw him a map.
In this era, there were no satellites in the sky, and Boss Guan was not a professional surveyor either. The map he drew looked as if it had been gnawed by a dog; it was impossible to tell what was where.
But no matter what, it at least outlined the general directions.
The mortal dynasty of this world was called Great Chu, and it already had several thousand years of history. Its territory was vast beyond measure—one could say, in the most literal sense, that under the whole heaven, all was the king’s land, and to the shores of the land, all were the king’s subjects.
The heartland of Great Chu lay in the Nine Provinces of the Central Plains. Beyond the Nine Provinces were the four borders of east, south, west, and north. Beyond the four borders was the boundless and vast primordial wilderness, where human traces were few and far between.
The place where Li Qiuchen was now located was within Yunzhong County of the Heishui Garrison Command in Great Chu’s northern border.
Even within the northern border, Yunzhong County lay toward the north. Its climate was dry and cold; for at least six months of the year, heavy snow flew and the land froze solid. Two thousand li north of Yunzhong County, after crossing the Heishui River, was the far northern primordial wilderness.
It was said that over there, accumulated snow never melted all year round, and ten-thousand-year glaciers covered the earth. The environment was extremely harsh, making it difficult for ordinary people to survive.
Songlin Village was located northwest of Yunzhong County, amid boundless mountains.
The entire mountain region stretched for a thousand li and had no specific name. The mountain roads were rugged and difficult to travel, human presence was scarce, wolves, tigers, and leopards ran rampant, and even the power of the authorities usually found it difficult to reach deep inside.
That was why an oddity like Songlin Village had been able to come into being.
A village of more than three hundred households—Li Qiuchen had grown this old without ever seeing anyone from the authorities come to collect taxes. Perhaps the government did not even know there was a village here at all.
So it was now very difficult for him to determine his exact location.
Li Qiuchen broke off a straight tree branch to use as a walking stick, shouldered his bundle, and followed the river downstream.
He traveled by day and cultivated by night. Several more days passed.
That day, he arrived in a mountain stream and found that the scenery here was beautiful, the spiritual energy rich, and medicinal herbs densely distributed in the surroundings. It looked like a decent place to settle down.
Just as he was planning to find a suitable place to stay, he suddenly raised his head and saw something strange stuck in the cliff wall.
Li Qiuchen’s eyes lit up. Could this be the kind of divine artifact written about in novels, one that an ancient big shot had accidentally dropped into the mortal world during a battle?
How did that saying go again?
Ah, right. This object is fated with me!
But when he looked more carefully, he was greatly disappointed.
It was a strip of crane.
The measure word was not wrong. It was a white crane with its beak stuck into the cliff wall… How to describe this shape? Did you know kingfishers? The sort of silly bird that flies too fast and, with one careless mistake, nails itself to a tree, cosplaying as a sunny-day doll.
It was in exactly that pose. Who knew how long it had been hanging there? It had already shriveled into a dried strip of bird.
Li Qiuchen stood below and looked at it for a long while, not knowing how to evaluate the situation.
Could it be… that it really was an ancient divine artifact, only its owner had deliberately forged it into this appearance?
Otherwise, how were you supposed to explain it? A pig hit a tree, and it hit a rock? Its beak went in and it could not pull it back out?
Perhaps because it heard footsteps, the white crane hanging from the cliff wall suddenly trembled. Its two claws swayed weakly, as if indicating that it was not quite dead yet.
Should he save it?
To be honest, Li Qiuchen did not especially want to, because he could not understand the origin of this posture.
What decent bird would pose like that?
Legend said that in ancient times, there was a great general who was inspecting his camp at night. On the road, he saw a tiger and was greatly shocked, so he hurriedly drew his bow and shot an arrow. When he went to look the next morning, he discovered it was only a rock, and yet his arrow had actually sunk into the stone and could not be pulled out.
His was a fake tiger. You were a real tiger!
And taking a step back… it had already starved into a strip, so there was not much meat left on it.
Li Qiuchen hesitated for a long while, then began moving stones.
Once the stones beneath his feet were stacked to more or less the right height, he climbed up, grabbed the white crane’s head, and gradually exerted force with both hands.
However, that beak was as if it had been glued in place with 502 superglue. It did not budge in the slightest.
After several fruitless attempts, Li Qiuchen picked up a stone, aimed it at the beak, and smashed it down hard.
The dying white crane instantly widened its eyes, flapping its wings and struggling madly.
Once, twice, three times… crack!
The long, slender beak finally snapped. The white crane fell to the ground with a thud, opened its mouth, and let out a shrill scream.
“Gaaah—!”