Chapter 6 Two Months

West of Black Wood Village, there are the continuous terraced fields.

Beyond the terraced fields are the Black Wind Mountain Range stretching for dozens of miles.

The outskirts of the Black Wind Mountain Range.

Lu Qingfeng carries a bamboo basket on his back, his right hand holding a chopping knife, and his left grasping a medicine hoe carved from black wood, exploring in the dense forest.

The area is overgrown with weeds, and the trees are tall.

The over thousand inhabitants of Black Wood Village live off farming, and no one dares to enter the Black Wind Mountain Range. Even just the outer area is rarely visited.

Lu Qingfeng is as agile as a swallow, occasionally squatting down. After a moment, he stands up and places the dirt-coated herbs into the bamboo basket.

Now, not only White Atractylodes and licorice, but also Yellow Ginseng, Mountain Ginseng, and other beneficial cultivation herbs are collected.

It soon becomes dusk.

The bamboo basket is nearly filled with herbs, heavy laden. If not for Lu Qingfeng's relentless training recently, he would have already been out of strength.

Seeing the sky darken, Lu Qingfeng prepares to head back.

The sun sets in the west, casting dim light over the land.

The sounds of insects and birds are more vigorous than in Black Wood Village.

Suddenly.

Lu Qingfeng's ears twitch; amidst the sounds of insects and birds, he also hears rustling noises. Something is approaching him rapidly.

"Run!"

Lu Qingfeng quickens his pace, rushing towards Black Wood Village.

At dusk within the Black Wind Mountain Range, Lu Qingfeng dares not to confront any fierce beasts.

Even though he has already cultivated Inner Breath, reaching the First Level of Fetal Breathing Realm.

"Barbaric Bull Fist is too conspicuous after training, otherwise with my current cultivation, a punch could at least kill a young wolf!"

Cultivating Inner Breath, his physical quality is comprehensively enhanced. Reaction, speed, strength, physique, none could compare to before! If he had learned martial techniques, he would be even more fierce.

Unfortunately, he can't train properly lately; his only Barbaric Bull Fist would make his fists as big as sandbags once trained, obviously exposing him to those who could see.

Lu Qingfeng would not risk it for just an ordinary martial technique.

But now!

The rustling noises grow closer, and Lu Qingfeng, no longer concerned about making noise, runs faster.

His hands gripping the medicine hoe and chopping knife are sweaty.

It's his first time encountering such danger since entering Black Wind Mountain, which is close to Black Wood Village. Every year, high-level masters from the Returning to Truth Sect come here to handle larger threats from wild beasts, even demon beasts.

But the pursuing beast behind gives Lu Qingfeng the sense of a threat dangling over his shoulders.

Whoosh!

A sound pierces the air, raising the hair on Lu Qingfeng's body.

Immediately stopping and turning, a flash of red light followed by several glints of cold light appears before him. Lu Qingfeng feels a chill on his chest, then intense pain.

His coarse cloth chest is shredded, and his chest is clawed, leaving deep bloody marks with blood gushing!

At that moment—

The red light flashes again!

"Die!"

Feeling the threat of death, Lu Qingfeng channels the weak Inner Breath within, swinging the chopping knife full force towards the red flash!

Bang!

The knife feels heavy upon contact, the red flash aiming for Lu Qingfeng is struck by the chopping knife, slamming it to the ground from mid-air.

"Ya Ya!"

This is a small red beast, resembling a mountain marten, its claws still shimmering with fresh blood.

That blood belonged to Lu Qingfeng.

On this Red Fox beast, there is a terrifying wound as long as a palm, inflicted by Lu Qingfeng's chopping knife.

The Red Fox beast is injured by the chopping knife and heavily smashed onto the ground, unable to move for the moment.

Its small face scrunching up, teary eyes look pitifully at Lu Qingfeng.

"Die!"

Lu Qingfeng, holding the chopping knife, fiercely swings it down, smashing the Red Fox beast's face looking up into a bloody mess, leaving no signs of life.

"Huff, huff!"

Having killed the Red Fox beast, Lu Qingfeng collapses to the ground, gasping heavily.

"Hiss!"

As he gasps, the movement tugs at his wounded chest, causing him such pain that he inhales sharply.

The Red Fox beast was fast, its claws fortunately grabbing Lu Qingfeng's chest. Had it grabbed his neck, his life might have ended in the Black Wind Mountain Range.

"To strike with such a lethal intent, such a ruthless beast is not deserving of my pity!"

Lu Qingfeng glances at the bloodied Red Fox beast before him, casually stopping the bleeding from his wound. He then struggles to stand up, not daring to stay longer, and hurries back to Black Wood Village.

Fortunately, the darkness of night covers his miserable state, preventing other villagers of Black Wood Village from noticing.

Safely back in Black Wood House, Lu Qingfeng finally breathes a sigh of relief.

"Big brother, what happened?"

Lu Qingyu was boiling wild vegetable porridge and seeing Lu Qingfeng stagger back, hurriedly runs over to support him.

"It's nothing, just scratched by a mountain cat, close the door."

Lu Qingfeng asks Qingyu to close the door tightly, then sits on a stool.

"Damn mountain cat!"

Lu Qingyu sees the bleeding wounds on his brother's chest, nearly bursting into tears.

"It's a minor injury, nothing serious."

"Go get the small millet grass and Bai Lihua powder from under the bed."

Lu Qingfeng comforts Qingyu, ordering as he speaks.

Lu Qingyu quickly fetches the two herbs, treating the wounds on Lu Qingfeng's chest while shedding tears.

"Really, it's nothing. Doesn't Qingyu hate when others cry?"

"Come on, smile."

Lu Qingfeng, in pain, chuckles and coaxes Qingyu until she stops crying.

"You're not allowed to come back this late anymore!"

Lu Qingyu blows on the wound, then looks up at Lu Qingfeng and says sternly.

"Alright, alright."

"Big brother, come back earlier in the future."

Lu Qingfeng hurriedly said.

In fact, this time he really was reckless!

Usually, when he went in and out of the Black Wind Mountain Range, he would only stay around the perimeter and return by dusk. However, these past few days, he had almost cleared out the herbs on the perimeter and unintentionally went much deeper, coming back later and later.

He thought it would be fine, but today he met with a bloody disaster.

Fortunately, he had never brought Lu Qingyu to the Black Wind Mountain Range with him; otherwise, in his distracted state, the siblings might both have ended up lost in the wilderness.

"Although the Red Fox beast is fast, its attack power is not strong, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable."

Lu Qingfeng comforted Lu Qingyu, the severe pain caused by the medicinal powder on his wounds made him vigilant.

That night.

Lu Qingfeng was nagged by his sister for a long time until Lu Qingyu, feeling sorry for him, finally let him go to bed.

...

Time flows like water, always fleeting.

After starting cultivation, he felt even less aware of the passage of time.

In a blink.

It had been two months since Lu Qingfeng turned sixteen and first encountered the Primordial game.

Because he hadn't noticed the difference between the game time and reality in time, it had also been two months since Lu Qingfeng had last played the game.

"Two months 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, or even longer!"

Cultivation inevitably becomes more difficult as one progresses.

Just entering the threshold had taken Lu Qingfeng two months, despite having some experience in the game. He dared not think how much time it would have taken without the game to generate Inner Breath.

Lying on the bed, Lu Qingfeng brought up the attribute panel.

Name: 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)

Life Span: 16/68

Root Bone: 1

Merit: Unknown

Karma: Unknown

Cultivation Techniques: Yellow Court Scripture First Layer (not entered) [Features: Derivation Technique (First Layer); Domination of Laws (First Layer); Karma Removal (First Layer)]; Flame Sun Scripture First Layer (entered) [Deriving];

Magic Arts: None

Divine Skills: None

Equipment: None

Alchemy: "Alchemy Introduction" (Small Success) [Deriving]

The attribute panel hadn't changed much, except for a rise in cultivation and level by one stage and the appearance of the Inner Breath attribute, along with the advancement of "Alchemy Introduction" to Small Success.

"Alchemy Introduction", similar to cultivation techniques, has stages like unentered, entered, Small Success, Great Success, and Perfection, without layer divisions though.

Over these two months, Lu Qingfeng collected and processed medicinal materials in reality, gradually mastering "Alchemy Introduction" – essentially improving his proficiency to reach Small Success.

Upon reaching this stage, not only was the speed for processing herbs faster, but the quality of the processed herbs was also far superior to that at the unentered and entered stages.

Of course.

Just two months in reality were not enough for Lu Qingfeng to elevate "Alchemy Introduction" to Small Success.

In the Primordial game, even though his character was still 'reborn' with incomplete growth progress, Lu Qingfeng could log into the game to enjoy a hundred-fold time difference.

At this time—

"Log into "Primordial"."

Lu Qingfeng communicated with the login ring in his mind to enter the game.

His consciousness lingered in a body soaking in the Rebirth Pool, unable to move.

However, his thoughts were unrestricted, continuously recalling today's brief life-and-death encounter with the Red Fox beast, as well as today's cultivation and handling of herbs.

He then pulled up "Alchemy Introduction" and "Flame Sun Scripture", repeatedly pondering and understanding them.

Until his head felt somewhat groggy, Lu Qingfeng closed his eyes to rest in the game. After waking up, he repeated the process.

After several cycles, until today's cultivation and handling of herbs were fully integrated with "Flame Sun Scripture" and "Alchemy Introduction" and new insights ceased, he would then recite "Yellow Court Scripture".

Lu Qingfeng's aptitude was poor and he temporarily couldn't cultivate "Flame Sun Scripture" in the game, so there was no progress in cultivation. However, "Alchemy Introduction" was not affected by aptitude; as long as he put in the time to think, progress was always possible.

It was precisely through leveraging the time difference that Lu Qingfeng, in just two months of real-world time, had advanced "Alchemy Introduction" to Small Success.

As for "Yellow Court Scripture".

This was a Taoist Ancestor Level cultivation technique, among the top-tier techniques in the game. Currently, no effects could be discerned, and of its various features, only the 'Derivation Technique' provided some clues, but due to insufficient experience, its true nature remained unknown.

Lu Qingfeng was not negligent.

Every day in the game, he spent a substantial amount of time reciting "Yellow Court Scripture". There were no immediate observable effects and no guarantee of long-term gains.

But even just for the sake of "Yellow Court Scripture" and the name of the Taoist Ancestor, Lu Qingfeng would not give up on this cultivation technique.

He recited it countless times until he felt someone calling from reality, prompting Lu Qingfeng to exit from the Primordial game.

One night had passed in reality, but Lu Qingfeng had spent a full forty days in the game!

"The time difference really comes in handy."

"If it weren't for the accidental death of the game character, I could have accomplished much more in these two months."

Lu Qingfeng exited the game, feeling somewhat regretful.

In these two months, a total of sixteen years had passed in the game!

And Lu Qingfeng spent every night in the game:

One night in reality, forty days in the game. Two months added up to over six years.

"However, these six years, although only spent thinking without being able to move or cultivate, were still extremely precious."

Lu Qingfeng opened his eyes, seeing that it was already bright outside.

"Big brother, you're injured, rest at home today!" Lu Qingyu woke Lu Qingfeng up, leaning over the bed checking his wounds.

"Okay."

This was also what Lu Qingfeng had in mind. The sixteen years in the game were nearly over. By his calculation, he should be able to log back into the game this morning.

"This time, I can spend a few more days in the game, using the time difference to see if I can find a way to deal with the Returning to Truth Sect in a short time!"

...