The smoked meat he'd scammed was long gone. Later, he'd set traps and caught some wild rabbits, squirrels, and once even a wild boar—only managing to kill it with great difficulty.
Now, that too was completely gone.
He'd been eating fish from the river for three months. Now, he felt like vomiting at the sight of fish.
Surviving in the wilderness wasn't beautiful at all.
A melodious crane cry drifted down from the sky as Gaga Pig beat its wings and landed gracefully.
The white crane's beak had healed.
By common sense, a bird's beak was a non-renewable component—once damaged, it couldn't be repaired. But this world didn't care much for common sense.
Of course, the reason it had recovered so quickly was entirely thanks to the delicious medicinal broth Li Qiuchen brewed every day.
Li Qiuchen had never imagined that the body-tempering medicinal broth he brewed according to the prescriptions in the book would actually be useful for birds too.
At the time, he'd simply been operating on the mindset that he couldn't hog the misery all to himself, tricking Gaga Pig into drinking the medicine with him.
The stupid bird had been tormented to the point of losing all will to live, even losing quite a few of its feathers.
But unexpectedly, its beak had actually slowly grown back bit by bit.
With its beak healed, it had regained the ability to feed itself, and that ridiculous gaga laughter was heard no more.
Li Qiuchen had thought it would fly away, but in the end, it stayed.
A healed beak didn't mean a healed brain.
Given this stupid bird's intelligence, Li Qiuchen couldn't help asking one day, "You haven't forgotten where your home is, have you?"
That single sentence made the proud white crane lose its composure on the spot, retaliating with a frenzied flurry of shadowless kicks aimed at Li Qiuchen.
Actually, Li Qiuchen had an even bigger question. He really wanted the stupid bird to perform again—just how had it impaled itself into the stone wall back then?
Logically speaking, even if stone mussels could turn to stone, it would only happen underwater. Why had it been stuck on the wall?
Inconceivable.
But he also knew that for the white crane, this was the most taboo topic and darkest history.
Whoever asked would die.
"Let's go catch another wild boar tomorrow."
Li Qiuchen made the suggestion.
Actually, he didn't want to catch a wild boar. He just wanted to find an excuse to continue staying in the mountains to cultivate.
If a person didn't push themselves, they would never know where their potential lay.
Although compared to himself two and a half months ago, he had already improved significantly.
But Li Qiuchen didn't have a status panel in his head. He had no idea exactly how much he'd improved.
What if he was still a weak nobody and ran into a heretic cultivator or an immortal sect dandy young master the moment he went out, getting casually crushed to death?
The white crane shook its head vigorously.
No.
"Then what do you want to eat?"
The white crane nudged its beak toward the sack beside them.
It wanted to eat human food.
You're a bird! Have some awareness that you're a bird!
Li Qiuchen was torn with grief. This bird was ruining his Dao heart.
"Go down the mountain to get some cornmeal?"
"Gaga!"
It nodded vigorously, shamelessly ga-ing out loud.
"Can you have some ambition!"
The white crane spread its wings and gestured for a while. If he hadn't spent so much time with it, Li Qiuchen really might not have understood what it meant.
Get some fresh cornmeal... no, fresh corn cobs.
It wanted to gnaw on corn.
You'll never amount to anything in this life.
Li Qiuchen decided to give it an even uglier nickname in his heart. He'd call it Gaga Bangbang Pig.
...
Cultivators had to learn to balance work and rest.
Going down the mountain to steal corn cobs was an excellent activity beneficial to both physical and mental health.
Gaga Bangbang Pig seemed to have an inexplicable obsession with cornmeal.
Seeing how excited it was, Li Qiuchen really couldn't bear to tell it that at this time of year, the corn in the fields might not even be two feet tall.
Spring came late in the Northern Territories, so farming started late too.
Songlin Village's fields at least had the bonus of an apothecary's blessing to guarantee their yield.
As for the crops fertilized with purely natural farmyard manure in the mountain village below, that was hard to say.
They followed the river down to the lakeside.
Li Qiuchen wondered if he might see the Song father and son here.
Harvesting stone mussels really did depend on individual ability. Without the ability, there was nothing you could do about those things.
They were all naturally born and earth-nurtured. Li Qiuchen had no intention of monopolizing them.
If they truly had the ability to extract pearls, then this fortune rightfully belonged to them.
In the end, he didn't see any sign of the Song father and son by the lake—only a lone, large tree.
A bad premonition immediately rose in Li Qiuchen's heart.
He had an excellent memory. Two months ago, there hadn't been any such tree by the lake.
Even if it was newly grown, could it have grown this large in two and a half months?
This made him think of some rather unpleasant things.
"Gaga, what do you think?"
A shadowless kick came flying.
Gaga your sister's gaga!
The white crane glared at him viciously and, without another word, spread its wings and took flight.
How to look? Fly over and look!
This stupid bird's thinking had always been this simple. Li Qiuchen genuinely felt that it was truly a miracle it had survived this long.
"Gagagaga—!"
See? Something had indeed happened.
The white crane had just landed and taken one look when it cried out in terror, flapping its wings frantically, nearly falling into the lake on its rear.
Li Qiuchen stood on the mountain and waited two minutes. After confirming that apart from being frightened, the stupid bird had no other problems, he carefully approached.
Then he understood why the stupid bird had been frightened.
From afar, a tree; up close, a person.
And it was an acquaintance from a brief prior meeting.
It was that mountain traveler Song Laosan who had been invited by Jiao Potian.
His entire body had grown into a tree—or rather, one could say a tree had grown out from within his body.
His body was completely fused with the tree. If one didn't look carefully, they wouldn't be able to make out the human head on the trunk at all—they would only think it was a strange wooden gall.
Hiss...
Li Qiuchen sucked in a cold breath and said to the white crane, "This has nothing to do with me. I've been hiding in the mountains cultivating for these past two months. You know that."
The white crane wore a completely baffled expression.
Of course it has nothing to do with you. What kind of nonsense are you spouting?
I'm afraid of mud falling into my trousers—unable to wash away a false accusation.
This thing was all too familiar to Li Qiuchen.
Wasn't this a spirit root?
There was no one else here now. Didn't he look like a suspect?
No good. Before anyone else discovered this, they had to leave quickly.
Li Qiuchen turned to flee, but the white crane bit his hair and shook its head wildly, indicating for him to go to the village and look.
I'm not going! If we see an old peach tree at the village entrance, neither of us will be able to escape!
Li Qiuchen was filled with fear, but unfortunately the stupid bird was also stubborn and refused to let go. In the end, he could only compromise.
Lying on the mountaintop and looking into the distance, the village didn't seem to have any abnormalities.
He didn't see any strange peach trees.
Li Qiuchen let out a sigh of relief. He had the stupid bird fly into the air to keep watch for enemies, while he himself took advantage of the dim light to sneak into the village on tiptoe.