Taoist Antecedent of the Yellow Court - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Two Months

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

To the west of Blackwood Village, there were legions of terraced fields.

Bordering these terraced fields was the Blackwind Ridge, which stretched for dozens of miles.

At the outer ring of the Blackwind Ridge on this day…

Lu Qingfeng was carrying a bamboo basket and a hatchet in his right hand and a hoe carved from Blackwood in his left, as he explored the dense forest.

Here in this majestic area, weeds ran riot and trees were lofty.

The more than 1,000 people who had settled in Blackwood Village lived by farming. No one had ever been bold enough to enter the Blackwind Ridge. Even at its periphery, traces of human activity were rarely seen.

Lu Qingfeng’s body felt as light as a swallow, as he squatted down and got up, harvesting herbs that came out of the ground with dirt still on them and put them into his bamboo basket.

Now, he was not only harvesting Bai Zhu and licorice, but also medicinal herbs like Polygonatum sibiricum and Panax Ginseng that were beneficial for cultivation.

Dusk arrived in a flash.

The bamboo basket had almost been filled with medicinal herbs. It was weighty. Had it not been for Lu Qingfeng’s continuous cultivation over this period, he would have collapsed already.

As he looked at the sky, Lu Qingfeng prepared to go home.

The sun was setting, and the sky was getting dark.

The sound of insects and the songs of birds in these woods were far more vibrant than what was possible to hear in Blackwood Village.

All of a sudden…

Lu Qingfeng’s ears twitched. Amid the melody of insects and birds, he heard a rustling noise. Something was approaching him, and it was fast.

“Run!”

Lu Qingfeng sped up and quickly raced toward Blackwood Village.

At nightfall and, what’s more, in Blackwind Ridge, Lu Qingfeng wasn’t bold enough to confront any wild beasts.

Despite the fact that he had already grasped Chi Control and ascended into Level 1 of the Fetal Phase, coming face to face with wild beasts was a dangerous gamble.

“The changes in physical gestures for cultivating in the Bullock Fist are too immense. Otherwise, with the cultivation stage that I’m in, I could at least smash a wolf pup to death with one punch of the Bullock Fist!”

Having mastered Chi Control, his physical qualities had undergone an all-around improvement. His agility, speed, strength, and physique were nothing like they had been before. If he had practiced physical martial arts, he would’ve been even more ferocious.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t cultivate normally during this period of time. The only technique that he had access to, the Bullock Fist, if he had cultivated it, his fist would have become as huge as a sandbag, and anyone with discerning eyes would have exposed him.

Lu Qingfeng wouldn’t risk him life for an ordinary martial arts technique.

However, at this moment…

The rustling sound was getting closer and closer, and Lu Qingfeng was running faster and faster, paying no attention to any commotion he might cause.

His palms holding the herb hoe and the hatchet were sweating.

This was the first time he had encountered any danger in the Blackwind Ridge. The ridge was close to Blackwood Village, and every year aces from the Truth Sect would come and deal with the beasts or even monsters that posed a threat.

But the beast that was chasing Lu Qingfeng was evidently scaring him because it seemed to be getting closer and closer to his back.

Swoosh!

A sound broke through the air, causing Lu Qingfeng’s sweat glands to freeze up.

At that moment, he stopped and turned around, and a red figure flashed across his eyes and a few specks of chilling light exploded in his face. Lu Qingfeng felt cold in his chest, followed by severe pain.

The linen clothes on his chest had been clawed into pieces, and a few deep, bloody wounds appeared on his chest. Blood was pouring out everywhere!

At this moment, the color red flashed in front of him once again!

“Go to h*ll!”

Lu Qingfeng felt the threat of death was near. The faint Chi in his body surged, and, with all his might, he swung his hatchet at the flash of red!

Bam!

His hand struck. The flash of red that was about to pounce on Lu Qingfeng was stuck by the hatchet, and immediately smashed into the ground as it dropped from mid-air.

Squeak!

It was a tiny red creature that resembled a leopard cat. Its paws were still glittering with crimson blood.

The blood belonged to Lu Qingfeng.

On the red leopard cat’s body, there was a gruesome wound that was as long as a human palm. It had been inflicted by Lu Qingfeng using the hatchet.

Being hacked by a hatchet and violently smashed into the ground, the red leopard cat wasn’t able to move for a moment.

Its tiny face looked wrinkled as it looked up at Lu Qingfeng with a pair of pitiful and teary eyes.

“Die!”

Holding the hatchet in his hands, Lu Qingfeng raised it up high and dropped it down, killing the red leopard cat, depriving it of its vitality once and for all.

“Hooh, hooh!”

Having killed the red leopard cat, Lu Qingfeng collapsed on the ground gasping for breath.

Pssk!

While he was gasping for air, a movement at his chest opened up his wounds. It was so painful that it caused Lu Qingfeng to gasp in pain.

The red leopard cat was fast. Fortunately, its sharp claws landed on Lu Qingfeng’s chest. Had it been on his neck, he would probably have had to end his life here on Blackwind Ridge.

“It straight-up wanted to kill me! Why would such a vicious little creature be worthy of my mercy?”

Lu Qingfeng glanced at the mutilated red leopard cat lying on the ground in front of him, casually stopped his blood from flowing where possible, and struggled to his feet. Not bold enough to linger one more second, he hurried back to Blackwood Village.

Fortunately, concealed by the dark of night, Lu Qingfeng, who was in a rather bad condition, wasn’t noticed by any of the other residents in Blackwood Village.

After returning to the Blackwood shack, Lu Qingfeng felt relieved at last.

“Qingfeng, what’s happened to you?”

Lu Qingyu was cooking wild vegetable porridge. When she saw Lu Qingfeng returning staggering, she quickly ran forward to help him.

“I’m all right. I was scratched by a mountain cat. Close the door.”

Lu Qingfeng asked Qingyu to shut the door, then sat down on a stool.

“That cursed mountain cat!”

When Lu Qingyu saw the seeping wound on her elder brother’s chest, she was so anxious that tears were about to fall from her eyes.

“It’s nothing, just a small wound. Get the Eyebright and Thyme Power from underneath the bed.”

Lu Qingfeng comforted Qingyu and instructed her at the same time.

Lu Qingyu quickly brought the two medicinal herbs. She was crying as she treated the wounds on Lu Qingfeng’s chest.

“I’m really okay. Don’t you despise people crying the most? Come on, give me a smile.”

Lu Qingfeng was in so much pain that his mouth twitched. After he gave Lu Qingyu a good coaxing, she stopped crying.

“Don’t come back so late ever again!”

Lu Qingyu blew at the wound, then raised her head and spoke to Lu Qingfeng angrily.

“Fine, fine. I’ll come back earlier,” Lu Qingfeng said quickly.

The truth was, he had really been reckless this time.

In the past, whenever he visited the Blackwind Ridge, he only lingered around its periphery and would return before the sun set. But, in the past few days, as he had already plucked up most of the herbs at the outer ring, he had gone in a lot deeper without realizing it, and the time he would come out from the woods was getting later and later.

Initially, he thought he would be fine. But little did he know that he would run into a bloody disaster on this very day.

Fortunately, he didn’t take Lu Qingyu with him when he went into the Blackwind Ridge. Otherwise, if he’d been distracted, perhaps both of them would have perished in the wilderness.

“Although that red leopard cat was fast, its attacks weren’t that strong. Or else, the consequences could’ve been disastrous.”

Lu Qingfeng comforted Lu Qingyu. The intense pain caused by the medicinal powder stimulating his wounds had made him wide awake.

This night…

Lu Qingfeng had been nagged by his sister for quite some time. In the end, he was only allowed to lie down and go to bed because Lu Qingyu felt that he was in terrible shape.

…

Time was like flowing water, and it was flying by.

After coming into contact with cultivation, the flow of time seemed unnoticed.

In a trance…

It had been two months since Lu Qingfeng turned 16 and came into contact with the online game “Primitive”.

Due to him not discovering the time difference between the game and reality at the very beginning, Lu Qingfeng had not been able to play the game for two months.

“I’ve barely gained Chi Control and ascended into Level 1 of the Fetal Phase in two months!”

“According to this speed of progression, it’ll take me at least several years or even longer to reach Level 9 of the Fetal Phase.”

Cultivation would inevitably become more difficult as one progressed.

Lu Qingfeng spent two months just to move from Unblooded to Novice. Besides, this was under a circumstance where he had already experienced it once in the game. He couldn’t imagine how long it would have taken him to give birth to Chi Control without the game.

Lying on the bed, Lu Qingfeng called upon the Attribute Panel.

Name: Lu Qingfeng [Real Body]

Race: Human

Faction: None

Title: None

Cultivation Stage: Level 1 of Postnatal-Fetal Phase

Level: 1 (0/5)

Chi Control: 1/1 (Grade: Preliminary)

Destined Life Span: 16/68

Innate Talent Level: 1

Merit: Unknown

Karma: Unknown

Technique: Yellow Court Classic (Unblooded) [Property: Ability Upgrade (Level 1); Commanding Power (Level 1); Karma Nullification (Level 1)]; Scorching Sun Classic (Novice) [Updating]

Magic: None

Abhijna: None

Equipment: None

Pill Refining: Fundamentals of Pill Refining (Expert) [Updating]

The Attribute Panel hadn’t changed much, except for the Level gain of 1 at Cultivation Stage and Level and the appearance of the Chi Control attribute. Plus, he’d advanced from Novice to Expert in Fundamentals of Pill Refining.

Similar to techniques, proficiency levels in the Fundamentals of Pill Refining were divided into Unblooded, Novice, Expert, Master, and Apex. The only thing different was that it didn’t have Levels.

During the past two months, Lu Qingfeng had collected and handled medicinal herbs in reality, gradually mastered the Fundamentals of Pill Refining, also known as the improvement of proficiency, and reached the proficiency level of Expert.

After reaching this level, not only could he handle the medicinal herbs at a faster pace, but the quality of the handled medicinal herbs would also be better than when his skill level was at Unblooded and Novice.

Most certainly, a mere two months in reality wasn’t long enough for Lu Qingfeng to improve his Fundamentals of Pill Refining to the Expert Level.

In “Primitive”, although his avatar was still Reincarnating and his growth wasn’t completed, Lu Qingfeng could still log into the game and enjoy the 100 multiple time difference.

Just like at this very moment.

“Log into ‘Primitive’.”

Lu Qingfeng communicated with the log-in ring in his mind and entered the game.

His consciousness wandered in his body, which was immersed in the Pool of Reincarnation and unable to move.

His mind, however, wasn’t restricted. He constantly thought of the brief battle of life and death he had had with the red leopard cat today, his cultivation during the daytime, and the process in which he handled the medicinal herbs.

Then, he brought up the Fundamentals of Pill Refining and Scorching Sun Classic to go over them in his mind once again.

Then his head started feeling a little heavy, and Lu Qingfeng closed his eyes and rested in the game. When he woke up, he once again repeated the above process.

He repeated it several times until he had completely merged what he’d comprehended in his cultivation during the day and when he was handling the medical herbs with the Scorching Sun Classic and Fundamentals of Pill Refining. When he couldn’t grasp anything new, he turned to recite the Yellow Court Classic.

Lu Qingfeng was untalented, and, for the time being, he couldn’t cultivate in the Scorching Sun Classic. Hence, his skill level in it wasn’t progressing at all. However, for the Fundamentals of Pill Refining, it had nothing to do with innate talent. As long as one was willing to spend time on it and really put the nose to the grindstone, one would always improve.

It was through the time difference that Lu Qingfeng was finally able to advance to the Expert Level in the Fundamentals of Pill Refining in only two months in real time.

As for the Yellow Court Classic…

This was an Antecedent grade technique and the greatest of techniques in the game. As of now, he couldn’t see any use for it yet. Of all its properties, he only kind of understood the Ability Upgrade property, and, due to his lack of experience points, he couldn’t achieve anything in it for the time being.

But Lu Qingfeng didn’t just put it aside.

He would spend a lot of time reciting the Yellow Court Classic every day. And, although he hadn’t seen any effect in the short term, in the long run it wasn’t clear whether he would gain anything either.

However, even if it was just for the Yellow Court Classic and the title of Taoist Antecedent, Lu Qingfeng would not let go of this technique.

After chanting it for an unknown amount of time, until he felt someone calling him in real time, only then did Lu Qingfeng exit “Primitive”.

After one night in real time, Lu Qingfeng had already spent an entire 40 days in the game!

“The time difference sure is handy.”

“If I hadn’t accidentally killed my avatar, I could’ve accomplished more things in these last two months.”

Lu Qingfeng exited the game with some regret.

In these two months, a whole 16 years had passed in the game.

And Lu Qingfeng spent every night in the game.

A night in reality was 40 days in the game. Combining all those days of the two months, it was more than six years.

“Although in these six years, I can still only think, but not move and cultivate, they have still been very precious.”

Lu Qingfeng opened his eyes and saw that the sky was already bright.

“Qingfeng, you’re injured. You should rest at home today!” Lu Qingyu woke Lu Qingfeng. She was lying on his bed and inspecting his wounds.

“All right.”

This was what Lu Qingfeng thought as well. Now, 16 years in the game was about to pass. According to his calculations, he could start the game once more in the morning today.

“This time, I can spend a few more days in the game. With the help of the time difference, let me see if I can find a way to wrap up the Truth Sect in a short amount of time.”

…