I Outworked the Entire Cultivation World-Chapter 64 - 54: [Revised] Yuebai’s Diary (1)

[Ox Year, April 3]

The cave entrance is sealed as it was, with a protection array set up.

I chose a place sheltered by mountains to build a bamboo house, with bamboo forest on one side and wild grass on the other. The Grass and Wood Technique at the Third Layer is very efficient for weeding.

The Grass and Wood Essence Pearl is used to feed the Ice Armor Beetle King, and grass ash is accumulated. When the bamboo house is built, it can be used to fertilize the spiritual field.

This site is unsuitable for growing Spiritual Grain, but Spiritual Grain could be tried. Grandfather’s storage bag still has many seeds.

Besides the Fasting Pill, I also purchased Spirit Rice, Spiritual Vegetables, and dried demon beast meat. Saving a bit, it could last a year.

One must not be content with the current situation or be complacent; there must be a sense of crisis.

Daily cultivation schedule is as follows:

Meditation from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM, boxing at 3:00 AM, talisman painting at 5:00 AM, chopping bamboo and building the house from 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM.

1:00 PM carve Divine Mechanism Stone, 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM practice martial arts and spells, 7:00 PM study array dao.

9:00 PM observe thunder, practice the xun, keep a journal, read and relax the mind.

Combine movement and stillness, diligent without cessation.

...

[Ox Year, May 9]

The bamboo house is completed. I have opened two plots of land in front of the house, fenced them, and planted Fire Thorns and Ice Thorns, one on each side. Tomorrow the land will be developed for growing Spiritual Grain.

Cultivation and divine sense are improving steadily, talisman making is becoming more proficient, but carving the Divine Mechanism Stone has not been successful.

The Fierce Thunder Body Refining Technique is gradually reaching a good level. Combining it with the Five Elements Returning to Truth Skill, the body becomes increasingly robust, and even without sleep, I feel energetic.

The Broken Water Three Blades has reached small success, and the Chasing Star Step has reached great success.

Thanks to Ye Shiming’s experience, both the Chaotic Soul Technique and the Burning Hundred Spear Technique have reached the peak of the Great Achievement Realm; to enter the Grandmaster Realm, I still lack a bit.

Among the five daoist techniques, the Sharpness Technique has reached the peak of the Third Layer, encountering a bottleneck.

Today, I decided to rest.

A shelf has been built in the bamboo house to organize grandfather’s belongings and book scrolls.

Besides some seeds, grandfather left behind a hundred volumes of mortal classics and historical texts, as well as over a dozen book scrolls related to artifact refining and farming.

The books and seeds are the best things left to me by grandfather, more precious than those magic artifacts and spirit stones.

Discovered a good recipe for winemaking, with wild fruits all over the valley, it’s perfect for practice. When winemaking skills are proficient, I’ll brew spiritual wine.

Grandfather’s storage bag contains Four Seasons Berry Seeds, Ninth-Grade Spiritual Fruit, which matures each season and is excellent for brewing spiritual wine.

The book scrolls and jade scrolls given by Xie Jingshan are very diverse, piled up on the bamboo shelf, totaling over two thousand volumes, encompassing the Six Arts of Cultivation and various miscellaneous entry-level skills.

Music Dao, Insect Scripture, Medical Skill, Corpse Ghost Demon Path, Puppet Mechanism, and even methods for tailoring shoes, disguise, and voice-changing, and so on.

Found a book titled "Practical Array from Beginner to Burial," with a strange name but detailed content.

Another book titled "Five Elements Escape Talisman," with five types of talismans for escaping, very interesting, kept close for study.

The room is filled with the fragrance of books, and I am very happy.

Unexpectedly, it did not feel like a place to suffer, but rather a blessing from the Heavenly Dao, allowing me to focus my mind and cultivate with dedication.

The only distress is having no company, only Little Green to talk to all day.

Fortunately, I have Little Green to accompany me.

...

[Ox Year, May 30]

Curse those rats!

The Thorn Fruit was about to ripen, and when I returned from observing thunder, I found most of it gnawed by rats.

In a fit of rage, I found the rat hole. At the Great Success Peak of the Chaotic Soul Technique, I played it, the rats went berserk and killed each other, wiping them out entirely.

The rat corpses were buried in the newly developed spiritual field as fertilizer. In the rat hole, I found some spirit stone fragments and spiritual fruit seeds.

Referenced books to identify them, among which were a few Ninth-Grade spiritual gourd seeds, planted in the corner of the house, perfect for storing spiritual wine when matured.

Array study needs to be accelerated; besides rats, there are other little beasts in the valley. Though not grade-entering demon beasts, their destructive power must not be underestimated, and measures must be taken to protect the spiritual field.

Currently, arrays can only rely on talismans or spirit stones. Spirit stones have many uses and should not be wasted, so I’ll try with talismans first.

Found "Ten Methods of Talismanic Paper Making" in the house, one method uses spiritual bamboo for papermaking. The bamboo in the valley is weak in spiritual energy. It’s unclear if it will work.

Anyway, I’ll go to the bamboo forest every day and use the Cloud Rain Technique to water it, let’s see how it goes.

If successful, there will be no worries about talismanic paper.’

However, the stock of talismanic sand is not much. At my current speed of painting talismans, it will only suffice for a year’s use.

...

[Ox Year, June 16]

Repeated failures in arraying with talismans, indeed the study of array dao is hard!

The small beasts around seem to have communicated with each other. At night they arrive in groups to steal from my fields.

They even fight fiercely over the ownership of spirit plants, completely ignoring me, the owner of the spiritual field.

Too outrageous!

Luckily, I have another method.

Yesterday, I successfully carved a Divine Mechanism Stone. I plan to emulate the scarecrow method of deterring crows, by making a puppet to stand in the field and deter these small beasts.

Making puppets is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Every component is very intricate, requiring careful polishing.

I’ve been thinking that I just need it to make noise to deter small beasts; it’s not necessary to be too complicated.

But then I thought, since we’re exerting effort to create it, only deterring small beasts seems like a waste. If it could water the spiritual field daily by itself, wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Let’s give it a try!

...

[Ox Year, August 2]

Father, I’ve brought shame to our Woodworker Family.

It took over a month, and the puppet I created is too hideous to look at; I want to dismantle it, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

Though ugly, it exudes intimidation. Placed in the field, it swings its eight arms, and the small beasts dare not come near.

The puppet has the Divine Mechanism Stone as its core and requires my Divine Sense to control its movements.

From reading Puppet Mechanism Technique books thoroughly, I’ve discovered that for the puppet to move on its own, it needs an injection of Beast Soul to execute simple commands.

Beast Souls can only be found in demon beasts of Ninth Level or above, which are nowhere to be found, so I must give up.

Additionally, the two rows of poems on Little Green can be merged into ink, transforming into words to communicate with me. It has initially mastered this method, and the first word it said to me was... ugly!

My puppet could make Little Green speak, so it wasn’t a waste of effort.

But who says a puppet can’t have eight arms?

...

[Year of the Tiger, January 10]

I nearly died and only truly came back to life today.

It happened three months ago, on the day I was watching the thunder by the cliff.

My Sharpness Technique had been at the Third Layer peak for a long time, and I felt enlightened, so I tried to make a breakthrough by the cliff.

The moment I broke through, the sharpness attracted thunder, piercing through the Yin Mountain Great Array Barrier and striking me.

If not for the barrier dissolving ninety-nine percent of the power, I would have been dead.

Even so, I lay by the cliff for a month, paralyzed below the neck, and blind in both eyes.

I want to live; I don’t want to die!

Before coming here, I spent a fortune buying the best healing pills. Fortunately, I had the puppet given by Moh Baichun with me.

I used my Divine Sense to control the puppet to open the Jade Ring, so I could take the healing pills, fully operate the Fierce Thunder Body Refining Technique mental method to digest the thunder elemental power within me.

Holding onto a single breath, I pulled through, seeing nothing but white due to blindness.

During my blindness, I couldn’t read, make talismans or practice arrays, or train martial arts.

Besides meditating and cultivating, I couldn’t do anything, initially panicking, crying, fearing helplessly, hiding in the room in constant trepidation.

Later, I convinced myself that in the Cultivation Realm, there must be a way to regain sight, as long as I do not give up.

I began to perceive my surroundings through my Divine Sense, from blurry outlines to increasingly clear perception.

Picked up the spear and firewood knife again, listened to the wind to determine positions, continued practicing martial arts.

Thunder continued endlessly day and night, making it extremely challenging to decipher positions by sound, but I won’t give up.

Day in, day out, farming and cultivating just like usual.

Except for the Jade Scrolls, I can’t read, which leaves me restless; only fellow cultivators know this hardship.

Elder Lii’s words proved accurate: the Heavenly Dao favors the self-reliant.

Today, after practicing the Fierce Thunder Body Refining Technique, spiritual energy surged, reaching the Qi Cultivation Fifth Layer seamlessly, and my sight suddenly returned.

I didn’t cry tears of joy; my heart merely felt a slight ripple, for this ordeal made me increasingly peaceful at heart.

...

[Year of the Tiger, January 15]

Today is the Lantern Festival, I tied Little Green to a stick, wandered around the valley, and it felt like celebrating the holiday.

The Spiritual Wine is brewed well, tastes good, but unfortunately, there’s no one to share it with.

Holidays enhance the longing for dear ones; I made lanterns from the bamboo paper I created and released them, expressing my longing for them...

These past days, reflecting on the day struck by thunder and examining my physical condition, I’ve gained unknowingly.

Fortune hides within misfortune, and tribulations eventually yield rewards.

My body underwent four changes.

First, the eye power, unlike in the past when it couldn’t catch the thunder’s light, the lightning’s speed seems slightly slower to my eyes, allowing identification of small lightning flashes, and it no longer appears blinding.

Second, in body refining, strength has increased; my skin can withstand the Wind Chasing Spear’s impact, and the spear bears Armor-Breaking Runes. Only full activation can tear through the skin; one strike of thunder equals one year of hard work in body refining, making me tempted.

Third, the Sea of Consciousness, pondering about the origin of thunder daily, enlightened me, a streak of thunder now exists within the Sea of Consciousness.

Fourth, in spell, rain accompanies thunder, gold creates water, which in turn spawns thunder, thus combining Fourth Layer Sharpness Technique with Third Layer Cloud Rain Technique, using Thunder God Sense as the guide.

Initially deemed a fairy tale, daily attempts and contemplation of operational principles indeed led me to create a spell.

Gathering clouds to produce rain, rain as sharpness, thunder exploding upon landing, continuous for three to five breaths without disappearing, its power impressive, I named this spell ’Cloud Thunder Break’.

The Talismanic Sand supply is critical; maybe I should venture out. However, I haven’t dug up a single Spirit Stone, and the few I brought can’t be exposed; buying Talismanic Sand poses a dilemma.

...

[Year of the Tiger, February 2]

Someone is sabotaging the array at the entrance. If I don’t return, this will be my final entry!