novelraw Chapter 33: A Small Horse Can't Pull a Big Cart
Chapter 33: A Small Horse Can't Pull a Big Cart
The ancients said, a small horse can't pull a big cart.
After Li Qiuchen took the first Spirit Gathering Pill, he deeply realized his own weakness.
As well as the cruel fact that the stupid bird's cultivation far exceeded his own.
After the white crane ate the Spirit Gathering Pill, it absorbed heaven and earth spiritual qi for a full twelve hours, swelling up like a balloon, yet still bouncing around energetically.
Being a glutton was also a kind of talent.
Li Qiuchen didn't have this talent.
The moment heaven and earth spiritual qi surged into his body's meridians, he felt like he was the egg in a plate of egg fried rice.
Fried to pieces.
The operational efficiency of the Qi Drawing Formula was directly boosted tenfold. All forty-eight thousand pores across his body simultaneously opened, frantically seizing the heaven and earth spiritual qi within a hundred zhang radius, violently surging it into his meridians.
Li Qiuchen's consciousness barely maintained for less than the time of one incense stick before he could no longer control his body. Pine branches tore through his flesh and burst out, growing vigorously at a speed visible to the naked eye.Before long, his body was almost completely lignified, growing into a human-shaped pine tree.
In this moment, Li Qiuchen finally had a flash of understanding.
The spiritual roots Grand Uncle spoke of truly existed.
The seed that old Daoist Fang Hong planted in Song Laosan's body might not necessarily have been meant to harm him.
The essence of the Medicine Master's blessing was life, not humanity.
In nature's vast ecological chain, the lower an organism was in the chain, the faster it grew.
Grass on the distant plain, withering and flourishing with each year, wildfire cannot burn it all, spring wind blows and it grows again.
A bamboo shoot could grow two zhang in length in a single day and night.
A pair of tigers could bear at most two or three cubs in a year.
Humanity's position in the ecological chain was similar to tigers.
In other words, their life form was relatively stable, advanced, and not prone to change.
Absorbing life energy from plants and trees was indeed a shortcut in cultivating the Medicine Master's great Dao but plants and trees grew too quickly. Under the Medicine Master's blessing, they could easily replace human flesh and blood itself.
In a daze, Li Qiuchen felt a wave of killing intent approaching.
He vaguely saw the white crane spread its wings, countless feathers transforming into sword light rushing toward him.
Stupid bird! Don't farm me like a monster!
The sharp feathers severed countless branches. Li Qiuchen didn't feel pain, but rather felt much of the burden lifted, and his consciousness gradually regained clarity.
Plants and trees had no spiritual intelligence and couldn't be allowed to grow wildly.
Ultimately, he still hadn't been able to convert this heaven and earth spiritual qi into his own cultivation, instead becoming fertilizer for the plants and trees.
Li Qiuchen restrained his thoughts and controlled the Qi Drawing Formula to continue operating.
Once, twice, three times...
Not knowing how long had passed, when the morning's faint light once again illuminated the hill, Li Qiuchen finally opened his eyes and awoke from cultivation.
Countless withered branches and leaves rustled off his body. Of course, this set of new clothes had also been stretched full of holes, turning back into beggar's rags.
A cool breath slowly circulated within his spine. Countless roots so tiny they were imperceptible to the naked eye grew from the bone gaps, intertwining and connecting together.
The Dragon Court's Thirty-Three Heavens, now successfully reforged to the third layer.
A trace of green light flashed in Li Qiuchen's eyes. He raised his palm and lightly pushed toward a distant tree. A half-foot-long wooden spike shot out from his palm like a flying sword, directly piercing through a tree trunk as thick as a rice bowl.
Just this one Spirit Gathering Pill had allowed him to successfully refine qi into his body, entering the early Qi Refining realm.
That violent heaven and earth spiritual qi had already been refined by him into true qi, stored within his body.
Li Qiuchen simply estimated that with his current true qi, he could support firing eighteen Palm Spikes.
This spell's power was comparable to the white crane's flying feathers. In other words, he now possessed the ability to instantly kill eighteen ordinary people.
I'm invincible!
Li Qiuchen stood up, and as soon as he raised his head, he met the white crane's gaze.
The stupid bird looked at him like looking at an idiot, raised its wing and lightly swept. Two or three nearby trees of similar thickness directly snapped in half.
Where does this inexplicable competitive spirit of yours come from, Gaga Stick Pig!
Li Qiuchen said helplessly, "During these days we've been delayed taking medicine and cultivating, the county troops should have already been dispatched. Should we go out and take a look?"
"Ga!" The white crane nodded in agreement.
It was also now brimming with confidence.
Putting away the beggar's clothes and changing into a spare set, Li Qiuchen led the white crane out of the mountain ravine to the nearest village.
Wisps of cooking smoke, ethereal immortal qi...
Seems like there's no activity?
"Perhaps they went to other places first."
Actually, Li Qiuchen didn't know where the county seat was now either. In this era, there was no Baidu Maps. Besides being quite familiar with this area of Crotch Mountain ravines, he really didn't know what the outside world was like.
One person and one crane crossed mountains and ridges, revisiting several of the villages they'd explored before.
Without exception, they only saw Medicine Master followers racking their brains struggling with tree roots. As for troops from the county seat, they didn't see a single hair.
"This doesn't make sense. How many days has it been?"
Could it be they were delayed on the road? Or did Jiang Tingyue's letter not get delivered?
It couldn't be that they were waiting until the three-month period drew near, when Mohe the Perfected Being and all the Medicine Master followers gathered together to hold some kind of conference, then catch them all in one net at that time, right?
Li Qiuchen thought for a long time and could only think of this reason.
Counting the time, it was actually about right.
There were still many Spirit Gathering Pills remaining, but Li Qiuchen didn't plan to take them consecutively in the short term.
The medicinal effect was too good. It had given him psychological trauma.
Jiang Tingyue said to take one pill at least every three days, probably deducing based on his own standards.
Li Qiuchen felt even eating one pill per month wasn't very safe. He needed to settle things properly.
Or, find a cultivation method more advanced than the Qi Drawing Formula in the "Locust Tree Chapter."
This thing's grade was too low. It was like having a bird's stomach at a buffet, only able to feast one's eyes but not actually eat much.
Seeing the three-month period already approaching and still no word from county troops, Li Qiuchen returned to the village where old Daoist Fang Hong was located.
He still didn't know what this village was called... Even if he knew, it wouldn't mean much. Small villages like this in the mountains had randomly chosen names full of local flavor.
Seeing Li Qiuchen again, the old Daoist was overjoyed.
The main reason was that the peach tree root had actually been planted alive by him, leaving him without half a doubt about Li Qiuchen's identity.
The "Eastern Yi Wood Grand Formation" in the village, when Li Qiuchen had initially deceived him into creating this thing, he hadn't even considered whether it could actually work. Yet it had really been connected together.
The peach tree root under the persimmon tree had now sprouted into a seedling six or seven inches long. Each emerald green leaf was full of life's breath. Getting close, one could even smell a faint exotic fragrance.