Relying on the Mountain to Eat from the Mountain

He thought of this, leaping up at once and springing toward the world where the sunlight shone down.

"Thud!"

He passed through the sunlight and the projection of the other world, crashing into the top of the hall.

Chen Shi landed, rubbed his head, and looked up.

The sunlight came from another world, as if by following the sunlight one could enter that other world.

He sprang up again, his palm passing gently through the sunlight, yet that sunlight and the other world were like illusory bubbles—visible yet untouchable.

It seems the time and space in the temple are not another realm, but rather a mysterious power within the temple that lets me see another world, allowing the sunlight and moonlight of that world to shine in.

Ever since he began transforming his true blood, his appetite had surged enormously. Whether it was the medicinal cuisine made by Grandpa or the meals cooked by Granny Sha, he finished them all down to the last bite, yet grew hungry again shortly afterward.

He grew hungry so fast that in two days he lost five or six pounds.

He had originally weighed only sixty pounds, and losing five or six pounds made him appear even more emaciated and frail.

Chen Shi knew he had reached a critical stage as well.

The first step in forging the sacred embryo was to transform the true blood.

When humans were still in their infancy, the blood flowing in their bodies was true blood—pure and requiring no cultivation. Infants did not breathe through their mouths and noses, but instead connected to the maternal body via the umbilical cord to breathe, which was called embryonic respiration. The qi required for this respiration was transmitted into the infant's body through the mother's blood, and after being filtered by the mother, the qi was free of impurities.

This was congenital true qi.

After birth, however, breathing through the mouth and nose and inhaling the turbid qi of the mortal dust was acquired qi. From then on, the body gradually grew heavy and turbid, and the congenital true qi within grew scarcer and scarcer. By old age, the congenital true qi would be exhausted, leading to death.

Practitioners of evil arts often performed blood-transfusions in their old age, injecting the blood of youths into their own bodies to make themselves young again—this was using the congenital true qi in the blood of the young to supplement their own congenital true qi.

Worse still were those who refined the purple river cart—harvesting the placentas of pregnant women and refining the blood of unborn infants to supplement their own bodies and delay aging.

Chen Shi's rapid hunger was also a form of tonic: drawing upon the subtle essences of food to replenish his congenital true qi and forge true blood.

Ordinary food, however, only contained the subtle essences of the five grains, and the energy stored within was pitifully meager. Grandpa's medicinal cuisine, on the other hand, contained complex medicinal potency that was well-suited for absorption.

Yet Chen Shi was cultivating so quickly that the subtle essences in his food could not keep up, forcing him to begin consuming his own muscles and internal organs to forge blood.

If he failed to replenish himself with enough food, he would instead "starve to death"!

The faster one cultivated, the faster one starved to death!

Chen Shi had no choice but to slow down his cultivation speed, because most of his day was spent eating and searching for food.

The ducks at Grandma Yuzhu's house were being harassed by him to the point where they could barely lay eggs; the watermelons in Old Lady Wuzhu's melon patch were picked clean with hardly any left; the fish in the Yudai River had also decreased by more than half over the past few days; and he even frequently timed his visits right at mealtimes to head straight for Gangzi Village, where Granny Sha now got a headache the moment she saw him running over.

Chen Shi even contemplated using himself as bait to catch a Great Gu and taste what it was like.

He was too hungry.

On this day, Chen Shi came to the Mountain Lord Temple. After cultivating for a short while, he felt extremely hungry. He stayed a little longer, and the sensation of hunger grew even more intense.

Panicking from hunger, he hurriedly went out, intending to find some game or wild fruit to line his stomach. This mountain, however, was a newly grown one; apart from the large trees in the temple, there were no other plants on the mountain, and even animals refused to approach it.

Chen Shi had no choice but to walk down the mountain path. By the time he reached those plump babies among the forest, he was already dizzy and faint from hunger. He persisted in taking a few more steps forward when the world suddenly spun, and he tumbled to the ground with a thud.

In his haziness, he saw the blue sky and white clouds, feeling as though he were lying flat, yet the moving leaves and flowers told him he was in motion.

He was truly too hungry, and lapsed into unconsciousness once more.

He knew not how much time had passed before Chen Shi hazily opened his eyes again. It seemed he saw the delicate and pretty face of the stream maiden, but it quickly turned into the aged visage of Granny Zhuang.

"He's awake! He's awake!"

Granny Zhuang's voice came over. Chen Shi felt the sensation of hunger recede slightly, and his vision gradually cleared, allowing him to realize that he was lying inside Granny Zhuang's tree hollow. There were mushrooms inside the hollow, emitting a faint, serene glow.

The stream maiden sat quietly to one side, and those chubby, simple-minded babies were also crowding around the bed, staring with round, dark eyes and looking at him with concern.

Granny Zhuang was currently grabbing a plump baby, tugging his hair, and picking several crimson fruits the size of fingertips from his head—hurting the baby so much that he opened his mouth and wailed.

Chen Shi rolled his eyes, seeing that the red fruits on the heads of the other plump babies had become much sparser; they must have all been plucked before.

Granny Zhuang smiled and said, "You starved and fainted; the little fruits carried you here, and Stream Maiden helped you boil a bowl of fish slice porridge, but you were hungering too fast for it to hold. Old me saved you with a Ginseng Grass Fruit."

Chen Shi stood up, feeling that the sensation of hunger was completely gone, and quickly thanked them.

The stream maiden's face flushed crimson, and with a low laugh, she drifted away gracefully.

The plump babies came before Chen Shi. Some hopped onto his knees, their expressions solemn as they earnestly chattered away and instructed him in babbling tones—presumably telling him to eat on time—before they too departed.

Chen Shi watched them go, thanked Granny Zhuang once more, and was about to walk outside when his feet suddenly staggered and he nearly fell over.

Granny Zhuang grinned and said, "The medicinal potency of the Ginseng Grass Fruit in your body has just reached your stomach and hasn't circulated through your whole body yet, so you have no strength. Rest a moment before you go."

Chen Shi had no choice but to sit back down.

Oddly enough, the Ginseng Grass Fruit he ate was not much, yet it gave him a sense of satiety. The Ginseng Grass Fruit in his stomach began to digest, transforming into waves of heat that surged throughout his entire body, bringing an indescribable comfort.

"What was that Ginseng Grass Fruit the granny gave me?" Chen Shi asked.

Granny Zhuang seemed rarely to have spoken with people in the past and was unaccustomed to chatting. Only when Chen Shi asked did she say, "It's the fruits of the little fruits."

Chen Shi grew even more curious: "What are the little fruits?"

Granny Zhuang said, "The ginseng in the mountain forest are several thousand years old. The Ginseng Grass Fruits are the fruits they bear. A single one can save a person's life. You were too hungry, so I gave you a few extra."

Chen Shi was startled. Those plump babies were several thousand years old?

He couldn't tell at all.

"Granny Zhuang, do you know of the Mountain Lord Temple?" Chen Shi thought for a moment and inquired.

"I know. It's the place you've been going to these past few days. Not long ago, it and that mountain arched up from beneath the ground, growing this tall overnight—much faster than I grew."

At this, Granny Zhuang revealed a look of envy.

She grew rather slowly.

Chen Shi's spirits lifted, and he smiled. "The Mountain Lord Temple bursting out from underground shows that it was right here before, only to sink underground later. Then, has Granny ever seen the Mountain Lord Temple of those days?"

Granny Zhuang thought carefully and shook her head. "I have never seen it. From the time of my memories, that place was always a flat expanse; the mountain only appeared a short while ago."

Chen Shi was taken aback.

Granny Zhuang was the largest tree he had ever seen, and she likely already possessed several thousand years of tree rings.

Yet Granny Zhuang was merely a new branch that sprouted from beside the tree stump after her main body died!

Her main body was even more ancient!

Doesn't this mean the sinking of the Mountain Lord Temple underground occurred before Granny Zhuang was even born?

How ancient would that have been?

"My main body should have been destroyed six thousand years ago."

Granny Zhuang pondered and said, "I should have grown my body six thousand years ago."

Chen Shi hurriedly pursued the question: "Does Granny have any memories from before her main body was destroyed?"

This was the first time Granny Zhuang had encountered such a question. She tried hard to recall, but suddenly her expression shifted slightly, revealing terror as her body involuntarily trembled and her voice grew hoarse: "Fire! So many thunder-fires! They severed my body! It burned over!"

Trembling all over, she shrank into the corner, as helpless as a little girl.

Chen Shi hurried forward to comfort her.

To make even Granny Zhuang feel such terror, it seems the upheaval six thousand years ago was no trivial matter. Could this be related to the Mountain Lord Temple sinking underground?

Chen Shi pondered, but quickly cast this question to the back of his mind. I'm only a child of a dozen or so years old; why should I bother with the affairs of these adults?

The medicinal potency of the ginseng fruit was indeed formidable—truly a divine medicine capable of bringing the dead back to life and reviving withered bones. However, after eating those ginseng fruits, Chen Shi grew hungry again half a day later.

The ginseng fruit has stronger potency than Grandpa's medicine, but only to a limited extent, Chen Shi thought to himself.

Two days later, the old Chen family had been eaten into poverty, and Huangpo Village had been eaten into poverty as well.

Even Granny Sha of Gangzi Village was eaten out of house and home by Chen Shi.

The way Granny Sha looked at Chen Shi these past few days was no longer the gaze of a doting mother toward a well-behaved son, but rather that of a debt-collecting bane.

If I keep freeloading like this, the villagers will starve to death along with me.

Chen Shi reflected on himself; he couldn't sit idly and eat away their store—he had to let the crops grow a bit so they could harvest the next batch. Thus, he decided to head into the mountains to hunt.

The black snake Xuan Shan coiled atop a peak of Ganyang Mountain, looking out into the distance. A rain had just fallen, and at this moment the clouds and mist in the mountains parted to reveal clear skies—truly fine weather.

It exhaled a breath that turned into clouds, only to be scattered by the wind.

Suddenly, the mountain valley shook violently as a beast the size of a small hill charged out of the forest.

That was a Feng Xi.

When a wild boar lived past fifty years and grew to eight hundred pounds, it was called a Xi and could already be considered a spirit beast.

A Xi possessed a huge head and a small body with astonishing brute force; even a ferocious bull would be sent flying if rammed by one.

As for a Feng Xi, it was a wild boar that had lived for over a hundred years. Its head occupied two-thirds of its body, its bristles were like sharp spikes forged of steel, and its tusks were like elephant tusks, capable of splitting mountains and shattering rocks with infinite brute force.

The Feng Xi charging out from the forest was not even considered exceptionally large, standing nine feet tall at the shoulder—more than two feet taller than an adult—with tusks over two feet long and as thick as an arm. Tossing aside multi-thousand-pound boulders and knocking over several large trees was effortless for it.

Yet right in front of this Feng Xi was a tiny figure, grasping the beast's two tusks with both hands and actually locking in a contest of strength with it!

That figure was none other than Chen Shi. He was so thin he was skin and bones, but his strength was preposterously great—it was just that his stature was truly too tiny compared to the Feng Xi.

Man and boar wrestled in a test of strength. Chen Shi was pushed all the way out of the forest by the Feng Xi; it wasn't that his strength was lacking, but rather that he only had two legs, and the ground could not bear the force transmitted from his limbs, causing him to be pushed backward while plowing furrows into the earth.

"When it comes to strength, you are no match for me!"

Chen Shi roared aloud, his arms exerting force as he wrenched the Feng Xi's two thick tusks. Bending his waist and putting his might behind it, with a thunderous boom, he pitched the colossal beast head over heels onto the ground!

The Feng Xi tried to flip over and get up, but Chen Shi unleashed his strength, pinned the pig's head down, and smashed open the Feng Xi's skull with a few punches!

The Feng Xi convulsed a few times and stopped moving altogether.

Chen Shi hoisted the mountain of meat that was the Feng Xi onto his shoulder and moved with the speed of a flying bird, heading straight for a nearby mountain stream for fear that if he walked any slower, he would starve to death.

The black snake Xuan Shan gazed into the distance from afar, watching Chen Shi busy himself by the stream.

It did not interfere in these matters.

Survival of the fittest; in the past, it too had had an era of consuming flesh and blood, and had also hunted other spirit beasts.

It simply watched Chen Shi.

By the stream, Chen Shi neatly skinned and cleaned the spirit beast Feng Xi, categorizing the cuts meticulously into small ribs, large ribs, kidneys, offal, cartilage, ears, head meat, trotters, and hams.

He also chopped down several large trees, setting up the parts suitable for roasting on racks, while placing the parts suitable for stewing into the large pot he used to boil his own food.

—He had even moved the cauldron the old Chen family used for boiling medicine over here.

The fatty meat on the Feng Xi was set up over pine wood to render out golden grease, and he sprinkled coarse salt while brushing it onto the roasting small ribs.

He knows how to eat much better than I did back then, Xuan Shan thought.

It continued to watch Chen Shi. He was currently brushing oil onto the roasting small ribs, and the first table-sized piece of roasted rib meat was already done.

Although the Feng Xi was a spirit beast, it had a heavy gamey odor, and its flesh was coarse and hard to chew.

Fortunately, Chen Shi had been tempering his physical body these past few days, and his teeth and jaws were growing stronger by the day, so eating it posed no problem.

Especially where it was roasted crisp and golden-brown—not only was there no gamey odor, but with a single bite it gave a crunchy snap, and the outer-crisp-inner-tender grease burst forth in his mouth, moisturizing all eight thousand taste buds on his tongue until every single one secreted saliva in an instant. Truly, it was a moment of unbridled indulgence.

There was spiritual energy within the flesh and blood. The moment it fell into his belly, that spiritual energy burst forth, transforming into nourishment to nourish Chen Shi's internal organs, and the sensation of hunger was instantly reduced by a wide margin.

Seeing this, Xuan Shan, having subsisted on wind and dew for three thousand years, suddenly felt somewhat hungry.

After a moment, Xuan Shan watched as Chen Shi lifted the hind leg of the Feng Xi and walked toward it.

This hind leg had already been roasted until the outside was crisp and the inside tender. Fearing it might be too large to roast through or absorb flavor properly, Chen Shi had sliced deep grooves into the hind leg, rubbed it with coarse salt, and stuffed it full of the fragrant leaves of various plants, marinating it thoroughly.

Xuan Shan sniffed the rich aroma wafting from the Feng Xi's hind leg, and three thousand years of feeding on wind and dew actually made its mouth water slightly.

—Thanks to the Alliance Leader tipping of Huahuang Changge, boss is handsome!

Everyone, check your pockets to see if there are any extra monthly tickets; the new book period needs your monthly tickets to nurture it~