novelraw Chapter 45: Preparing Early for Winter
Chapter 45: Preparing Early for Winter
Time passes unmarked in the mountains.
When the first yellow leaf fell, Li Qiuchen was startled to realize autumn had already arrived.
Once qi entered the body, one could avoid cold and heat.
Li Qiuchen wasn't very sensitive to temperature changes, just like the plants and trees in this mountain forest. If they withered at the slightest chill, they couldn't possibly survive here.
The northern frontier had four distinct seasons, but spring, summer, and autumn were all extremely brief.
When autumn leaves fell, morning dew had already transformed into frost covering the ground.
The white crane limped out of the house and raised its head to look at the geese arranged in formation in the sky.
As the climate turned cold, migratory birds migrated south.
Cranes were the same but its injuries, after a month of recuperation, still hadn't recovered completely.
Although it could now stand and walk, wanting to fly like before was still somewhat difficult. It would experience symptoms of chest tightness and shortness of breath.If nothing unexpected happened, it probably couldn't leave this year.
Li Qiuchen, as usual, inspected his medicinal garden.
Over this past month, he'd searched everywhere and transplanted back quite a few fruit trees. For instance, common hawthorn, persimmon, ground cherry, wild grapes... These were all preparations for storing winter provisions.
Now various wild fruits had already filled the branches, a riot of purples and reds, quite beautiful to behold.
Of course, these fruits also attracted quite a bit of attention from wild boars and bears.
If it were right after escaping from Songlin Village, Li Qiuchen truly would have had no solution for wild boars and bears. But now if these things dared come steal food, they were adding to his meals.
He'd already accumulated several hundred jin of wild boar cured meat at home, along with several wild boar hides. Li Qiuchen planned to find time to go down the mountain to the village to exchange for some cornmeal.
Since autumn had already arrived, that also meant pine nuts, hazelnuts, and other nuts had ripened and could be appropriately collected. He planned to spend the remaining time reorganizing his little nest again, trying his best to make it able to withstand winter's cold winds and blizzards.
Turning a circle and coming back, Li Qiuchen saw the white crane standing by the river, looking up at the sky with a face full of melancholy and loss.
Walking to the white crane's side, Li Qiuchen asked softly, "How about I take you south?"
The white crane looked at him and tilted its head slightly.
A small child, a lame bird, going south?
If its injuries had recovered well, that would be fine.
Setting out on the road in this condition, it would only become Li Qiuchen's burden.
It was a bird that cared about face, and always had been.
"Then stay and prepare for winter."
Li Qiuchen wasn't the sentimental type. He immediately changed his thinking and began researching the winter problem.
"By the way, you really won't freeze to death?"
Li Qiuchen had grown up in these mountains since childhood and knew very clearly what winter was like.
Thirty to forty degrees below zero was normal, not the limit. When the white-hair wind blew, it truly was "a thousand mountains where birds have vanished, ten thousand paths where human traces are extinct."
No solitary boat—the river surface would freeze three feet deep.
The white crane looked somewhat uncertain. As for whether it could endure this winter, it also seemed to lack confidence.
"We could consider building a kang."
After thinking for a long time, Li Qiuchen proposed a suggestion but building a kang was skilled work, and the project wasn't small.
He didn't dare guarantee he could finish building the kang before winter's first snow arrived.
Might as well just make do and dig a cave.
Li Qiuchen didn't know the skill of building kangs, but his pit-digging skills had been honed to perfection.
This was thanks to his persistent efforts over the past half year gathering medicine all over the mountains, transplanting, and cultivating.
Normal people needed to use pickaxes to dig pits. He directly manipulated plant roots to pierce into the soil. With a light tug, the earth loosened.
On the basis of this existing shelter, dig out two rooms and one pit... no, two rooms and one hall. Theoretically speaking, no big problem.
The excavated dirt could perfectly be used to build another layer of exterior wall to resist the severe cold.
The white crane looked at the floor plan Li Qiuchen drew on the ground, then used its claw to draw another pit hole beside it.
"What for?"
The white crane turned its head and gestured toward the river with its beak.
"You want to dig a pond to eat live fish in winter?"
"Ga!"
"I think you look like a fish!"
Li Qiuchen was so angry he nearly laughed out loud.
Really daring to make any demand. Still wanting to raise live fish at home—why don't you just say like Senior Jiang, get a hot spring at your own place?
"If you want to eat fish, we can fish at the lake then. We can break open the ice surface and fish."
The white crane tilted its head and thought for a long time, reluctantly agreeing to this compromise suggestion.
Having drawn the blueprint, Li Qiuchen began allocating work.
In terms of engineering, he was responsible for loosening soil. The white crane was responsible for digging holes. Anyway, its flying sword was idle, so it could perfectly be put to use.
In terms of collecting food, the white crane was responsible for fishing and hunting. Li Qiuchen would go out to collect pine nuts and hazelnuts.
Additionally, they needed to collect some dry grass to make simple straw mats to provide basic cold protection measures for his medicinal garden.
Although herbs in the mountains weren't afraid of wind and cold, if they could have a warmer environment, who would want to be buried in snow drinking the northwest wind?
Time passed day by day like this.
Autumn was even shorter than imagined.
Half a month later, Li Qiuchen's expanded two-room-one-hall semi-underground shelter finally took shape. The completely dried fruit and cured meat had all been transferred to the cellar. Just as he was bending down to mix mud and build walls, he suddenly felt a coolness on his head.
Cold autumn rain mixed with scattered snowflakes drifted down.
They say each autumn rain brings a chill. This autumn rain fell for a full three days. Mountain floods erupted, river water surged, and the water level in the mountain ravine rose two feet.
Outdoor temperature plummeted to near zero.
Li Qiuchen hid in the shelter roasting by the fire while calculating in his heart that it was time to make a trip down the mountain to exchange the wild boar hides and herbs in his hands for other daily necessities.
In a daze, he saw a figure in white robes walk before him. In his ear, he heard a young woman's soft whisper, "The Mountain God requests your presence."
The Mountain God's invitations always came so unexpectedly.
Could something have happened down the mountain again, requiring us to run errands?
Li Qiuchen was one hundred percent willing in his heart, because the benefits Senior Jiang gave were substantial and real.
During this past period of time, after thorough preparation, he'd taken the third Spirit Gathering Pill and successfully cultivated the Dragon Court to the tenth heaven, which was the middle Qi Refining realm. His own physique and ocular technique had also strengthened.
He could clearly feel that with each pill taken, the Spirit Gathering Pill's medicinal effect was weakening.
From the first time when Li Qiuchen completely couldn't control it and nearly went into demonic deviation, to taking it the third time, he could already control the speed of absorbing spiritual qi and actively adjust it.
This was a normal situation.
On one hand, his cultivation had improved. On the other hand, as long as it was a pill, there would be drug resistance.
Even so, this bottle of Spirit Gathering Pills could guarantee Li Qiuchen would smoothly advance to the Qi Refining great perfection realm, equivalent to being directly guaranteed Foundation Establishment.
Really couldn't ask for more.
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