Chapter 21: Hard Years of Cultivation in the Mountains

Call Break Heaven’s physical quality was so good that it surprised even Li Qiuchen.

This made him momentarily suspect whether the guy had trained in prison.

Despite being poisoned, he alone managed to wake up and sprint back to his lair overnight.

Now, after drinking a full bowl of medicinal cuisine specially prepared for him by Li Qiuchen, he could still cling to life, wriggling back and forth on the bed like a cabbage worm, desperately trying to escape the nightmare.

If they were to fight head-on, Li Qiuchen estimated the odds were three to seven, meaning he’d be chopped into seven pieces in three seconds.

Therefore, when it’s time to be cowardly, you must be cowardly.

The main difference between humans and animals is that humans have brains.

Don’t always think about fighting and killing; learn to use your brain to solve problems.

Reaching out and pressing down on Call Break Heaven’s face, the Palm Thorn pierced directly through his eye socket, and surging vitality instantly poured into Li Qiuchen’s body.

That feeling of being hot all over, as if he possessed boundless strength with nowhere to vent it, appeared once more.

Fortunately, I’m young now, and the person lying on the bed isn’t a woman, otherwise this Cultivation Technique could easily lead to strange thoughts… Wait, no need to think, it’s already strange.

Li Qiuchen sighed silently in his heart. Although his motivation for eradicating the bandits was based on justice? Yes, it was justice.

But by any standard, this method was completely that of an Evil Cultivator.

Casually tossing Call Break Heaven’s corpse aside, Li Qiuchen began to loot.

There was nothing valuable in the mountain stronghold. Call Break Heaven’s private stash was hidden right beneath his butt… or rather, beneath the bed. Lifting the bed board revealed piles of gold and silver wrapped in rags.

Unfortunately, there was no Storage Pouch.

How can a person Cultivating Immortality not have a Storage Pouch? Call Break Heaven, you have such an awesome nickname, don’t you use a Storage Pouch when you go robbing? Even the villagers next door can share fusion technology, look at how pathetic you are.

Li Qiuchen was deeply disappointed.

After searching for a long time, he found barely over a hundred taels of silver and a few taels of gold—less wealth than his Great-Uncle’s home.

Of course, Songlin Village was a den managed by Great-Uncle for many years, so it definitely couldn’t be compared to bandits who had only recently taken to the hills like him.

Besides this gold and silver, there were also a few incomplete book pages.

My careful planning over many days wasn’t in vain; a good item finally dropped!

Li Qiuchen quickly picked it up to look, discovering it was a Martial Arts Secret Manual torn from some unknown book.

This Secret Manual was called the “Tiger Embracing Technique.” According to the description, it was a Grappling Technique that could lock down the opponent’s Internal Energy circulation, specifically provided for jailers to Cultivate, used to subdue fierce bandits and maniacs in prison.

Hmm… I suppose it’s better than nothing.

Having it is better than not having it.

Putting away the Secret Manual and the gold and silver, Li Qiuchen walked outside the door.

The entire mountain stronghold was already deathly silent.

White Crane was covered in blood, standing under the moonlight, its sharp Aura like a precious sword freshly drawn and drinking blood.

It wasn’t used to killing the first time, but by the second time, there were no signs of psychological issues whatsoever.

The only flaw… was its chipped beak, which looked a bit comical and ruined its imposing presence.

“Shall we go home?”

Li Qiuchen asked tentatively. White Crane turned its head and nodded slightly.

The mountain bandits were exterminated. The remaining Mountain Guests were merely seeking wealth; no matter how lawless they were, they wouldn’t resort to slaughtering a village.

With all future troubles eliminated and this trip yielding great rewards, it was time to go back.

Li Qiuchen was still very curious about the world outside the mountain, but he knew clearly that with his current meager abilities, he was far from ready to wander out there.

Crossing mountains and ridges, it took a few days, and the man and the crane returned to the small cabin in the mountain stream.

After tidying up the items brought back from the trip and harvesting the mature herbs in the Medicinal Plots near the entrance, Li Qiuchen began the next stage of his Cultivation work.

Now he had a complete iron wok, allowing him to decoct finished Medicinal Pills according to the Prescriptions recorded in the classic of scenic clouds, instead of having to eat the raw herbs directly as before.

That’s not a person; that’s a mule.

The Cultivation Technique recorded in the classic of scenic clouds only contained two parts: Body Tempering and Pupil Technique, lacking specific Martial Arts Moves—thinking about it, this was normal. After all, the Old Ancestor achieved Cultivating Immortality; an Immortal could make you drop dead with a glance, so why bother learning those useless Martial Arts Moves?

But Li Qiuchen didn’t have a safe Cultivation environment provided by a Family. Before his Physique was tempered to a non-human Realm, he could only learn some self-defense Martial Arts Moves to preserve his life as much as possible.

The “Tiger Embracing Technique” seized from the mountain stronghold was called a grappling skill, but it actually leaned more toward tripping, throwing, and wrestling techniques. It also included parts for Body Tempering and strengthening bones and blood, which might explain why Call Break Heaven’s Physique was so unusual.

During the wrestling process, Internal Energy is channeled into the opponent’s joints to cut off their Internal Energy circulation, followed by suppression using superior strength—if superior strength isn’t available, then it’s Coordinated Combat involving multiple people, charging together without talking about Jianghu morality.

This was completely a Cultivation Technique tailor-made for jailers. Its advantage was simplicity and ease of learning, but its disadvantage was a lack of future potential.

Li Qiuchen made a simple Wooden Dummy by the river and dedicated one Shichen every day to practice according to the Cultivation method in the Secret Manual.

One Shichen might not seem like much, but it wasn’t because he was lazy; it was because he was busy.

This trip down the mountain was somewhat of an eye-opener, yielding many gains. He needed to settle the thoughts and insights in his mind as much as possible to improve his Cultivation efficiency.

He also had to go out searching for herbs, open up new Medicinal Plots, harvest and process the herbs, and use the large wok to decoct them into Medicinal Soup.

Eating raw herbs actually tasted quite good. Besides the normal bitterness, there was a fresh, woody fragrance. Many herbs could be eaten directly as wild vegetables, and if dipped in some Thick Sauce, they would be a delicacy.

But the Medicinal Soup that came out after processing these herbs and boiling them together could only be described with one word: shit.

Every day, when forcing himself to drink the Medicinal Soup while pinching his nose, Li Qiuchen felt life was meaningless.

When will these days ever end?

He originally wanted to emulate the Seniors of the Stealth Cultivation World mentioned in books: resolutely refusing to venture out until achieving results in Cultivation.

But this idea was too naive.

The first time, he only lasted a month before he couldn’t endure the loneliness and emptiness of the mountains.

After wandering out and returning, he originally thought he could last longer this time, at least starting with half a year of Secluded Cultivation.

But reality was simply too cruel.

After persisting in Cultivation for two and a half months and forcing himself to drink countless pots of Medicinal Soup, Li Qiuchen could no longer feel any joy in life.

It could be described as worse than death.