Yellow Court Daoist-Chapter 6 - Two Months

West of Black Wood Village lie continuous terraced fields.

Beyond these terraces stretches the chain of hills known as Black Wind Mountain Range for dozens of miles.

At the outskirts of Black Wind Mountain Range.

Lu Qingfeng, with a bamboo basket on his back, a woodcutter's knife in his right hand, and a medicine hoe carved out of black wood in his left, was exploring the dense forest.

Here, the weeds grew rampant and the trees stood towering.

The thousand or so people of Black Wood Village lived by farming, daring not venture into the Black Wind Mountain Range. Even at its fringes, human footprints were scarce.

Lu Qingfeng moved with the lightness of a swallow, often crouching down. Moments later, he'd rise, placing the muddy medicinal herbs into his basket.

Now, it wasn't just White Atractylodes and licorice, but also Yellow Ginseng, Mountain Ginseng, and other herbs beneficial for cultivation.

Dusk fell in a flash.

The basket was nearly full of herbs, weighty and substantial. If not for the arduous training Lu Qingfeng maintained these past days, he would have been exhausted.

Glancing at the sky, Lu Qingfeng prepared to return.

The setting sun gave way to a dimming world.

In the forest, the chorus of insects and birds sang vibrant tunes, even livelier than those of Black Wood Village.

Suddenly.

Lu Qingfeng's ears twitched. Amidst the chirping and squawking, he heard rustling noises. Something was approaching him, and quickly at that.

"Run!"

Lu Qingfeng hastened his pace, rushing back towards Black Wood Village.

In the evening, within the Black Wind Mountain Range, Lu Qingfeng wouldn't dare to engage with any ferocious beasts.

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

"If not for the significant changes to my physique from practicing the Barbaric Bull Fist, with my current cultivation level, I could have killed a juvenile wolf with a single punch!"

Cultivating Inner Breath meant a comprehensive enhancement of his physical fitness. His reaction time, speed, strength, and constitution were incomparable to before! And should he train in martial arts, he would be even fiercer.

It was just unfortunate that he couldn't train normally during this period. Upon practicing the Barbaric Bull Fist only once, his fists would swell to the size of sandbags, visible to any discerning eye.

Lu Qingfeng wouldn't risk danger for the sake of a mere common martial art.

But now!

The rustling noises grew nearer, and Lu Qingfeng, no longer concerned about making noise, picked up speed.

His palms, gripping the medicine hoe and woodcutter's knife, were starting to sweat.

This was his first taste of danger since entering Black Wind Mountain Range. Close to Black Wood Village, masters from the Returning to Truth Sect would come every year to deal with threatening wild beasts, even demon beasts.

Yet the creature in pursuit felt like a thorn in Lu Qingfeng's back, a palpable sense of threat.

Whoosh!

The sound of slicing air raised his hackles.

Lu Qingfeng halted and whirled around at once. A flash of red and a burst of cold light before him. He felt a sudden chill across his chest, followed immediately by a sharp pain.

His hemp cloth was torn to shreds, his chest sporting several deep lacerations, from which blood gushed!

Then—

The red flash struck again!

"Die!"

Sensing the threat of death, Lu Qingfeng's feeble Inner Breath circulated, and he swung his woodcutter's knife with all his might at the red blur!

Thud!

The knife connected, sending the red flash that was about to pounce on Lu Qingfeng plummeting to the ground.

"Squeak, squeak!"

A small red creature resembling a raccoon lay injured, paws still shimmering with fresh blood.

Lu Qingfeng's blood.

There was a terrifying wound on the Red Fox creature, as long as a palm, inflicted by Lu Qingfeng's knife strike.

The Red Fox, wounded by the knife, was slammed to the ground, unable to move for the moment.

Its small face was wrinkled like a ball, its watery eyes looking pitifully at Lu Qingfeng.

"Die!"

Lu Qingfeng, clutching the woodcutter's knife, brought it down with a ferocious chop, smashing the small face of the Red Fox into an indistinguishable mess, devoid of any remaining life.

"Huff, huff!"

Having killed the Red Fox, Lu Qingfeng collapsed, gasping for breath.

"Hisss!"

Inhaling sharply, the rising and falling of his chest aggravated his wounds, sending piercing pain through Lu Qingfeng.

The Red Fox's speed was fast, and fortunately, its claws had only raked across Lu Qingfeng's chest. Had they hit his neck, his life would likely have been forfeited in the Black Wind Mountain Range.

"To strike with lethal intent, such a vicious little beast doesn't deserve my pity!"

Lu Qingfeng glanced at the gorily disfigured Red Fox, casually stemming the flow of blood from his wounds, then struggled to stand. Not daring to linger, he hurried back to Black Wood Village.

Thanks to the cover of nightfall, Lu Qingfeng's disheveled state went unnoticed by the other villagers.

Back in Black Wood House, Lu Qingfeng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Big brother, what's wrong?"

Lu Qingyu was cooking a wild vegetable porridge and rushed over to support the staggering Lu Qingfeng.

"Nothing, a mountain cat scratched me. Close the door."

Lu Qingfeng had Qingyu bolt the door, then seated himself on a stool.

"That damned mountain cat!"

Lu Qingyu's eyes filled with tears as she glanced at her brother's blood-soaked chest wound.

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

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

Lu Qingfeng soothed Qingyu, giving her instructions.

She hurriedly brought the two herbs, treating Lu Qingfeng's wound while tears rolled down her cheeks.

"It's really okay, doesn't Qingyu hate it when people cry?"

"Come on, give me a smile."

Lu Qingfeng's pain twisted his smile, but he managed to console her until the tears stopped.

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

Lu Qingyu blew on the wound, then looked up at Lu Qingfeng indignantly.

"Okay, okay."

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

Lu Qingfeng hurriedly said.

In fact, this time he had indeed acted recklessly!

In the past, when he ventured into Black Wind Mountain Range, he had only skirted the periphery, always returning by dusk. But as of late, having harvested most of the herbs on the outskirts, he found himself delving deeper and returning later and later.

He thought nothing of it until today, when he suffered a bloody disaster.

Fortunately, he had never taken Lu Qingyu with him into the Black Wind Mountain Range. Otherwise, being distracted by looking after her, they might both have perished in the wilderness.

"That Red Fox may be fast, but it isn't strong in attack. Otherwise, the consequences would've been unimaginable."

Lu Qingfeng comforted Lu Qingyu as the stinging pain from the medicinal powder on his wound brought him to his senses.

That night,

Lu Qingfeng was nagged by his sister for a long while until, out of sympathy, Lu Qingyu finally allowed him to lie down and sleep.

...

Time flows like a river, ever fleeting.

After beginning cultivation, one loses even more sense of time.

In a daze,

It had been two months since Lu Qingfeng's sixteenth birthday when he first encountered the virtual game "Primordial". Due to not realizing the difference in the flow of time between the game and reality, he had not played for two months.

"Two months just 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, if not longer!"

Cultivation inevitably becomes more difficult as one progresses.

Just stepping through the entrance had taken Lu Qingfeng two months, and that was after already having some experience in the game. He did not want to imagine how long it would take to generate Inner Breath without the game.

Lying on his plank bed, Lu Qingfeng summoned his attribute panel.

Name: Lu Qingfeng [True Body]

Race: Human

Faction: None

Title: None

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

Cultivation: Postnatal Fetal Breathing Realm First Level

Level: 1 (0/5)

Inner Breath: 1/1 (Quality: Basic Level)

Life Span: 16/68

Root Bone: 1

Merit: Unknown

Karma: Unknown

Cultivation Technique: Yellow Court Scripture First Layer (Not Entered) [Features: Derivation Technique (First Layer); Mastery over Various Techniques (First Layer); Karma Removal (First Layer)]; Flame Sun Scripture First Layer (Entered) [Derivation in Progress];

Magic Techniques: None

Divine Skills: None

Equipment: None

Alchemy: Alchemy Introduction (Small Success) [Derivation in Progress]

The changes to the attribute panel were minor: aside from the increase in cultivation and level by one, the appearance of the Inner Breath attribute, and Alchemy Introduction advancing to Small Success.

Like cultivation techniques, Alchemy Introduction was also classified into stages: Not Entered, Entered, Small Success, Great Success, and Perfection, although there were no layered divisions.

In the last two months, Lu Qingfeng had gathered and processed herbs in reality, gradually mastering Alchemy Introduction. This was akin to the increase in proficiency level, reaching the stage of Small Success.

Achieving this stage meant not only faster herb processing but also a better quality of the final product compared to the stages of Not Entered or Entered.

Of course,

Just two months in reality would not have been enough for Lu Qingfeng to advance Alchemy Introduction to Small Success.

In "Primordial", although the game character was still in 'rebirth' with the growth process incomplete, Lu Qingfeng could log into the game and enjoy a hundredfold time difference.

So now—

"Log in to 'Primordial'."

Lu Qingfeng connected to the login ring in his mind and entered the game.

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

But his thoughts were unrestricted, and he kept revisiting the brief life-and-death struggle with the Red Fox and the process of cultivation and processing herbs earlier that day.

He repeatedly went over Alchemy Introduction and Flame Sun Scripture, seeking a deeper understanding.

Eventually, feeling groggy, Lu Qingfeng closed his eyes, resting in the game. Upon waking, he would repeat the process.

After several iterations, when he had fully integrated the day's cultivation and herb processing with Flame Sun Scripture and Alchemy Introduction, and there was nothing new to gain, he turned to reciting the Yellow Court Scripture.

With poor aptitude and unable to cultivate the Flame Sun Scripture in the game for the time being, Lu Qingfeng made no progress with the cultivation technique. However, Alchemy Introduction did not depend on aptitude, it required only time and effort to improve.

Thanks to the time difference, he was able to advance Alchemy Introduction to Small Success in reality within a mere two months.

As for the Yellow Court Scripture.

This was a Daoist Ancestor Level Cultivation Method, a top-level technique in the game. Its efficacy was not yet apparent, and he could only grasp some understanding of the 'Derivation' feature, with insufficient experience value to make further progress.

But Lu Qingfeng did not neglect it.

Every day in the game, he spent a substantial amount of time reciting the Yellow Court Scripture. In the short term, there were no effects, and he didn't expect any long-term gains either.

However, Lu Qingfeng wouldn't give up on this cultivation technique, if only because of its association with the Yellow Court and the Daoist Ancestor.

He didn't know how many times he had recited it, until feeling a call from reality prompted Lu Qingfeng to exit the game.

A night had passed in reality, but in the game, he had spent a full forty days!

"The time difference is indeed useful."

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

Lu Qingfeng logged off from the game with a hint of regret.

In these two months, sixteen years had gone by in the game!

Yet each night, Lu Qingfeng had spent:

Forty days in the game for one night in reality. This added up to more than six years over two months.

"Nonetheless, these six years were precious, even if I could only think and was unable to move or cultivate."

Lu Qingfeng opened his eyes to see that it was already broad daylight.

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

"Alright."

Lu Qingfeng had intended to do just that. The sixteen-year game cycle was nearly over, and he estimated he could start playing again by late morning.

"This time I can stay in the game for a few more days, using the time difference to see if there's a quick solution to the issues with Returning to Truth Sect!"

...