novelraw Chapter 21: Years of Arduous Mountain Cultivation
Chapter 21: Years of Arduous Mountain Cultivation
Xiao Tian's physical constitution was good to a degree that even surprised Li Qiuchen.
This made him once unable to resist suspecting whether the guy had practiced something in prison.
Both poisoned, he alone could wake up and run wildly through the night back to his lair.
Now having drunk a full bowl of medicinal cuisine Li Qiuchen had specially prepared for him, he could actually persist without dying, writhing back and forth on the bed like a vegetable caterpillar, very hard trying to break free from the nightmare.
If it were a frontal battle, Li Qiuchen estimated he and Xiao Tian were three-seven odds—in three seconds he'd be chopped into seven pieces.
So when you should be cowardly, you should be cowardly.
The main difference between people and animals was that people had brains.
Don't always think about fighting and killing. Learn to use your brain to solve problems.
Extending his hand to press on Xiao Tian's face, the Palm Spike directly penetrated his eye socket. Surging vitality instantly poured into Li Qiuchen's body.
That feeling of whole-body heat, as if he himself possessed tremendous strength with nowhere to vent, appeared once again.Good thing I'm young now, and it's not a woman lying in bed. Otherwise this cultivation method would easily make people think crooked thoughts...
Wait, no need to think. It was already crooked.
Li Qiuchen silently lamented in his heart. Although his motive for exterminating mountain bandits was out of justice? Right, it was justice.
But this technique, no matter by what standard it was judged, was thoroughly and completely evil cultivation.
Casually throwing Xiao Tian's corpse aside, Li Qiuchen began looting.
There weren't any valuable things in the stronghold. Xiao Tian's small treasury was hidden under his butt... accurately speaking, under the bed. Lifting the bed boards, inside were piles of gold and silver wrapped in rags.
Unfortunately, there was no storage bag.
How could cultivation not have a storage bag? You Xiao Tian, with such an awesome nickname, when going out to rob, didn't you use storage bags? The neighbors could share nuclear fusion technology. Look at you, how did you end up like this?
Li Qiuchen was very disappointed in his heart.
He rummaged for quite a while. All told, it was just over a hundred taels of silver and a few taels of gold. Not as wealthy as Grand Uncle's house.
Of course, Songlin Village was a base Grand Uncle had operated for many years. Naturally it couldn't be compared to this bandit who'd just turned outlaw less than two years ago.
Besides this gold and silver, there were also several incomplete book pages.
I didn't waste my painstaking planning for many days. Finally dropped good stuff!
Li Qiuchen quickly picked them up to look. He discovered this was a martial arts manual torn from who knows what book.
This manual was named "Tiger Embrace Technique." According to the description above, it was a type of grappling art that could lock the opponent's internal power circulation. Specially provided for jailers to cultivate, used to subdue fierce bandits and violent criminals in the prison.
Hmm... could only say better than nothing.
Having it was better than not having it.
Putting away the manual and gold and silver, Li Qiuchen walked out the door.
The entire stronghold was already a scene of deathly silence.
The white crane, body bathed in blood, stood under the moonlight. Its fierce momentum was like a treasured sword that had just been unsheathed and drunk blood.
The first time killing people it still wasn't adapted. The second time, no psychological problems could be seen at all.
The only flaw... was the incomplete bird beak. It looked somewhat comical, destroying the imposing manner.
"Go home?"
Li Qiuchen tentatively asked. The white crane turned its head and nodded slightly.
Mountain bandits had been exterminated. The remaining several mountain guests were nothing more than seeking wealth. No matter how lawless, they wouldn't massacre a village.
Future troubles eliminated, this trip again had full harvest. It was time to return.
Toward the world outside the mountains, Li Qiuchen was still very curious. But he knew clearly in his heart that with his current meager abilities, he was still far from reaching the degree where he could go out wandering.
Crossing mountains and ridges, spending several days' time, one person and one crane returned to the small house in the mountain stream.
Putting away the things brought back from this trip out, and after harvesting the medicinal herbs that had matured in several medicinal gardens at the door, Li Qiuchen began entering the next step of cultivation work.
Now he had a complete iron pot. He could refine finished pills according to the medicinal formulas recorded in "Jingyunzi," instead of having to directly eat raw medicinal herbs like before.
That wasn't a person. That was a mule.
The cultivation method recorded in "Jingyunzi" only had two parts: body tempering and ocular arts. There were no specific martial arts moves—thinking carefully, this was also very normal. After all, the old ancestor had cultivated to immortality. If an immortal glared at you once, you'd kick the bucket. Why would they need to learn those useless martial arts moves?
But Li Qiuchen didn't have a safe cultivation environment provided by his family. Before his physique was completely trained to an inhuman realm, he could only learn some self-defense martial arts moves to preserve his little life as much as possible.
The "Tiger Embrace Technique" seized from the stronghold, although called a grappling technique, actually leaned more toward leg-tripping and throwing techniques. It also had parts for training the body and strengthening bones and blood. This might be the reason Xiao Tian's constitution was different from ordinary people.
In the process of throwing, inject one's own internal power into the opponent's joints, cut off the opponent's internal power circulation, then suppress with superior strength—if there was no superior strength, then coordinate with multiple people in combat. Everyone rush up together. Don't talk about any jianghu righteousness with him.
This was completely a cultivation method specially customized for jailers. The advantage was simple and easy to understand. The disadvantage was no prospects.
Li Qiuchen made a simple wooden training dummy by the river. According to the cultivation method on the manual, he specifically allocated one hour every day for practice.
One hour seemed like not much. Not because he was lazy, but because he was busy.
This trip down the mountain could also be considered seeing some of the world. Harvesting quite a lot. He needed to precipitate the ideas and insights in his mind as much as possible to improve his cultivation efficiency.
He still had to go out looking for medicinal herbs, clear new medicinal gardens, pick and process medicinal herbs, and boil them into medicinal soup with the big pot.
Eating raw medicinal herbs, the taste was actually still pretty good. Besides normal bitterness, there was also fresh woody fragrance. Many medicinal herbs could be directly eaten as wild vegetables. If you could also dip them in some soybean paste, that would be heavenly delicacy.
But after these medicinal herbs were processed and boiled together, the medicinal soup that came out could only be described with one word: shit.
Every day when pinching his nose and force-feeding himself medicinal soup, Li Qiuchen felt life wasn't worth living.
When would these days ever end?
He originally also wanted to imitate the realm seniors in books. Without cultivating results, resolutely not go out walking but this idea was still too naive.
The first time, he only persisted for one month before he couldn't endure the loneliness and emptiness of the mountains.
Going out to wander in a circle and returning, he originally felt this time he could persist even longer. At least he could enter closed-door cultivation for half a year as a starting point but reality was truly too cruel.
Persisting in cultivation for two and a half months, forcing himself to drink down countless pots of medicinal soup, Li Qiuchen could no longer feel the slightest happiness in life.
Could be said to be worse than death.