Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

When Li Yao woke up, he heard the rushing sound of a waterfall from outside the wooden window. The damp air was mixed with the sweet scent of the mountain and the river. He struggled to open his eyes, and the first thing he saw was a dark beam as well as dried fish, pickled meat, and oiled pig skin hanging on it.

He moved his body softly. The bamboo bed below was creaking, implying that it had been used for many years and was on the brink of collapse.

A pair of grass shoes were placed on the ground. They were both tight and soft and were extremely comfortable to wear, like he was on a grassland barefooted. His very toe was bouncing in joy.

On his body, there was a rough, gray jacket that seemed to have been soaked and dyed by grass juice before it was dried in sunlight. The clothes were filled with the scent of sunlight and plants.

Li Yao warmed up his swollen body and observed his hands and limbs carefully. At first glance, there were no issues. However, dozens of new scars that had recently incrusted were added to his body. Those scars were so vividly made that he could even sense the flesh being pulled by the skin, like some ants were crawling inside his body.

But his Cosmos Rings were gone.

The Cosmos Rings that stored all his crystal suits, magical equipment, crystal bombs, and the Colossus were gone. Below the rough clothes, he was entirely naked, not carrying anything with him.

Li Yao did not panic. He sat cross-legged on the bamboo bed and thought for a while. Then, he loosened his belt and looked at his groin.

As he expected, it was not his genitals. Professor Mo Xuan was certainly capable of constructing a vivid virtual world by devoting the computational ability of the ‘Gai’-level super crystal processor as well as himself. He could even perfectly copy the data of Li Yao’s face, hands, and body posture that he secretly captured in the real world.

However, there was no way that he could spy on what Li Yao’s genitals looked like. So, he could only use a standard template.

But for a man, even a blind one, could he not know what his penis looked like?

This was a virtual world, which seemed to be vivid and life-like, but because of the fatal loopholes, it was not worth mentioning at all if it was seen through.

Li Yao played with it for a while, and it was immediately congested with blood and expanded. The feeling of tightening little by little was very real, but it was nonetheless slightly different from his past experience. Any man who had been through puberty would be able to instantly tell the difference.

This is false. My body is still in District 01 of Hundred Flowers City under the thorough protection of my Colossus. There’s no way that Professor Mo Xuan can invade the Colossus for the time being. Therefore, he found a way to launch mental attacks and dragged my soul into his Spiriters’ Realm.

Although he was lost in the Spiriters’ Realm, he was not panicking. Mental attacks were always double-edged swords. During the collision of souls, it was very possible for the enemy to be injured by their own attack in their carelessness.

Wanted to trap him in the Spiriters’ Realm? It all depended on if Professor Mo Xuan had such powerful computational ability, mental power, and soul power!

Li Yao fastened his belt and jumped off the bamboo bed. Then, he observed the tiny wood cabin with great interest.

The wood house was decorated in a very shabby way. Other than a bamboo bed, the only furniture was a twisted desk.

A cloak was hanging on the wall that was smeared with yellow mud. Besides the wooden box in the corner of the room that was washed dustless, there were no other objects.

Although the room was simple, it was quite pleasant nonetheless. Li Yao looked out the window, noticing that the hut seemed to have been built close to a waterfall. He could vaguely see the cliff that was filled with vines as well as water that was splashing out of the waterfall.

A lizard craned its neck from the window and looked at Li Yao. Then, it quickly retreated and vanished into the vines.

Merry songs were coming from somewhere far away through the door. Taking a deep breath, Li Yao opened the door abruptly, only to see a mountain village that looked like an unworldly paradise.

The village was located inside an enormous basin, surrounded by cliffs that rose high into the clouds. Above the cliffs, there seemed to be dense primitive forests. Even the sky was covered by thin mist. The clouds were so low that one seemed able to touch them as long as one reached for them. They added to the mysterious and delightful aura of the village.

The hut that he was in had been constructed at the highest place in the mountain village. To his left was a waterfall that looked like clouds, which smashed into a clear, transparent pool on the ground zigzagging through the village as a river. Dozens of waterwheels had been established on the two sides of the river. The diligent, lighthearted farmers were singing songs while stepping on the waterwheels to deliver the sweet water from the river to the farmland. There was no telling what season the virtual world was in, but the rice ears were so full that they were about to explode. The fragrance of the rice flowers filled the air, as intoxicating as the most delicious wine in the world.

Men were working around the waterwheels, and women were working in the land. The toddlers who had only just learned to walk were half walking and half crawling, playing with the gurgling hens at the rice drying field at the edge of the village. There also seemed to be a small school at the end of the village, from which the sound of book-reading was spreading out. The clouds were too thick for anyone to see through what was behind them. The roads on the mountains were as twisted as the zigzagging river in the village.

Although he knew that everything was false, Li Yao could not help but feel that his virtual heartbeat had slowed down.

This virtual world was more delicate and captivating than the public Spiriters’ Realm in the base of the Tinder Plan. It seemed that this was Professor Mo Xuan’s real capability to construct virtual worlds!

“Ah, you are awake!”

Li Yao turned around, only to discover a girl around fifteen years old who was looking at him full of delight with a basin of fragrant roasted escargots in her hands.

The girl was dressed like a common village woman, too. She was wearing rough clothes and a pair of high-heeled clogs. There was not the slightest make up in her fair face. The vigor of youth and the innocent expression on her face were enough to resolve all the wariness and hostility. She put the roasted escargots on a desk below the roof that was right against the waterfall. Then, she blew at her fingers quickly because the tray was too hot. While rubbing her ears, she said with a smile, “Don’t be hasty. The dinner will begin as soon as grandpa is back. It’s been raining for quite a few days. Today, the sun is finally out. Grandpa said that we would have dinner outside, and we don’t need to be cramped in the room anymore.”

Li Yao stared at her for a long time. Although he was eighty percent sure that she was a… Deviant Spirit, he could not tell the difference between her and a real person at all. He simply frowned and said, “I…”

“You don’t remember anything now?” The girl blinked her big eyes and pointed at the top of the cliff. “You fell down from right there, with dozens of bleeding wounds all over your body. It was terrible. My grandpa saved you. I thought that you would be dead for sure at that time!

“It was half a month ago. You have been running a fever and speaking nonsense during the half month, talking about wars, fighting, and killing all the time. Are you a soldier? I’m told that wars happen in the world outside every day. Is that true?”

The girl was apparently a passionate chatterbox. Instead of waiting for Li Yao to answer, she simply waved her hands and went on. “This place is Peach Blossom Village. It may look unappealing right now, but when the peach blossoms are all out in February and March, the scenery here is really beautiful!

“The seniors in the village told me that our ancestors lived in the outside world before, but it was too chaotic and dreadful, and everybody was killing each other.

“Later, our ancestors found this place, and a lot of people have moved here since. Let me think about it. It’s almost a thousand years now. In the past hundreds of years, a lot of soldiers have fallen off the cliffs when they were hunting other people or when they were hunted, just like you. Then, none of them were willing to leave after they came here!

“Zhao Laosi’s family on the east side of the village and Lady Lin’s family on the west side both had great, great grandfathers who fell off from the cliffs ages ago.

“Judging from the wounds all over your body, you must have fought a lot of wars and killed a lot of people outside. That’s too bad. Why don’t you stay here and live with us, too? The days here are peaceful and wonderful!

“What’s your name, or have you forgotten it? It doesn’t matter if you have. My name is Ah Luo, not the ‘Luo’ in tianluo (escargots), but the Luo in tengluo (vine) and luobo (carrot)! But I make the best roasted escargots in the world. Grandpa is not back yet. You can take a couple of them first and just throw the shells into the pool. Hehe!

“There’s another dish. I’m going to bring it here now. Sit here and wait for me!”

The girl ran to the kitchen with a smile, her clogs leaving clicking sounds on the stone road.

Li Yao walked close and looked at the desk. Four dishes were already placed on it. Other than the roasted escargots, there was a bowl of tofu stew, a tray of fried fish with pepper, and a tray of fried cabbage with oiled pig skin. The dishes looked rather simple and shabby, but they were indeed fragrant and enticing. Li Yao could not help but feel that he was drooling.

The clinking sounds of clogs echoed again. Ah Luo fetched a very deep fictile tank carefully. The intense fragrance of chicken soup was coming from inside.

Li Yao had never seen such fine chicken soup in the real world.

Ah Luo was apparently very proud of her skills. She smiled innocently and looked at the foot of the mountain. Then, she shouted delightedly, “Ah, grandpa is back.”

An old farmer with a hood walked slowly to the middle of the mountain, barefooted and in rough clothes, with two bundles of firewood on his back. The clothes were tied with simple grass rope, and he carried an enormous wine calabash in his hands.

The mist grew thicker and thicker, and his hood was flickering in and out of view. But the energetic eyes below the hood that were as innocent and passionate as those of a young man were not concealed at all.

It was exactly Professor Mo Xuan.

Very soon, Professor Mo Xuan, who was dressed like an old farmer, returned to the hut. Laying the firewood at the back of the house, he massaged his back and went back to the wood desk, putting the wine calabash in front of Li Yao.

“This village is too shabby for such a rare honorable guest. Do forgive us,” Professor Mo Xuan said with a smile. He poured the wine that was as dense as sugar into cups, as if there was infinite of it in the wine calabash.