Lie Low and Hibernate!

It was the dead of night.

Ox Ridge Settlement was pitch-black, without a single light in sight.

Old Man Yu carried an iron shovel and a cloth sack, braving the cold wind as he quietly made his way to one corner of the Spirit Field.

After making sure no one was around, he began digging. First, he shoveled away the loose topsoil, then took the best layer underneath.

It was easy to foresee that the Spirit Rice in this patch would grow worse next year.

Fortunately, the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster was coming soon, and it would help the Spirit Field recover.

He would just have to spread a little more fertilizer over the dug-up spots next year.

Compared to helping the Rare Species sapling in his home grow stronger, Old Man Yu thought this small loss was entirely worth it.

He made four or five trips like that before clearing away the traces on the Spirit Field's surface and quietly returning home.

After closing the door, Old Man Yu looked up. The moon had already been completely swallowed by dark clouds.

"There's no moon tonight. I wonder if you'll be able to cultivate."

Old Man Yu muttered to himself, but still climbed onto the wall to look at the sapling, which seemed to have sprouted from the bottom of a square, dried-up well.

During the day, he had used the angle between the wall and the sapling to build thick stone walls along its other two sides.

In other words, he had built the sapling a perfectly square little house.

And to keep it from feeling cramped, he had made the space larger on purpose—about four or five square meters.

The only thing left was the roof. Since the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster had not yet arrived, and he was afraid of hindering the sapling's growth, Old Man Yu had not immediately covered it with the thick wooden boards he had prepared.

It was certainly strange to have a stone house appear in his courtyard, but he had deliberately raised this section of the wall quite a bit, just enough to hide the sapling's topmost branches and leaves.

Even without the boards on top, no one could see it from outside.

Besides, he planned to lock the main gate tomorrow, and even block it with stones. He would not let anyone else in.

If some fool really climbed over the wall and discovered the Rare Species sapling he had protected layer upon layer—

Then Old Man Yu would have no choice but to play the part of a Tribulation Cultivator.

After all, what decent person would climb over his wall?

At that moment, as he watched the sapling in the little room stretch its branches and leaves, all his earlier weariness vanished.

Perhaps it was because he had given it a name, or because he had cared for it so attentively over the past few days. Whatever the reason, he felt an inexplicable closeness to the sapling before him.

It was almost like looking at his own child.

But...

As if he had remembered something, Old Man Yu's face darkened. He gazed into the distance, toward New Moon Blessed Land.

It was already so late. By now, his three sons should have entered the Blessed Land and settled in.

He wondered whether anything had changed inside the Blessed Land this year.

Fortunately, after everything that had happened, all three of his sons had grown noticeably. That was his greatest comfort.

At that moment, Yu An was "hiding" in the little room, cultivating with intense focus.

Fetal movement was a long process. Sensing the pulse of heaven and earth once did not mean he would never need to sense it again.

In fact, at this stage, he needed to sense it continually, deepening his connection with the pulse of heaven and earth. The deeper his realm, the greater the benefits he would gain.

At the very least, Yu An felt that his soul was constantly growing. In the half year before, he had bathed in sunlight every day and absorbed nutrients from the earth, yet his growth had still been painfully slow, with almost no visible progress.

But ever since he had sensed that pulse and broken through the shackles of cultivation, his growth had advanced by leaps and bounds.

The Spirit Stones provided by the Yu Family certainly deserved some credit, and the soil in the Spirit Field helped him as well.

But the most important thing was the growth of his soul.

Though this growth was invisible, he could feel it clearly.

And as his soul grew, Yu An could control his tree body better and absorb more nutrients from the Spirit Stones and Spirit Field soil.

That was why most of Yu An's attention was immersed in cultivation each day.

Especially with the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster about to arrive. If he did not work harder now, it might soon be too late.

As for whether he could continue cultivating after the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster struck, Yu An was not sure.

From what he had learned from the Yu Family, plants in this world generally fell into dormancy during winter, hiding all their vitality away.

But those were ordinary plants and trees. The Yu Family had no way of knowing what happened to Rare Species.

Everything they knew about Rare Species had come from hearsay.

Yu An had never experienced the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, so he was just as uncertain. Only that vague shudder from the very source of life told him that this winter would be a hard one.

Even for a Rare Species like him.

That was why he had to cultivate with all his strength before the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster arrived. Every little improvement would increase his chances of survival.

He had also watched Old Man Yu build the little house for him. Perhaps because he had been human in his previous life and still retained a soul in this one, he did not feel any aversion to the little house.

If anything, it gave him a faint sense of security.

Even if the stone house would be utterly useless against the Insect Race, having that layer of protection was still better than having none.

If only he could control all his roots and pull himself out of the soil, transforming into a Treant that could run around. Then he would not mind moving somewhere else—preferably digging a hole in a mountain and hiding deep in its heart.

He would still have to face the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster's invisible, intangible power to strip away life from thin air. But at least a thick mountain would shield him from the biting wind and help him avoid the Insect Race.

It would be a bit cowardly, but it was safe.

As long as he survived the first few Black Annihilation Wind Disasters and grew to Juvenile Stage Three—the equivalent of the human Qi Refining realm—then awakened a Divine Ability, he would finally have what it took to establish himself in this world.

As a Rare Species with a lifespan far longer than a human's, practically a long-lived creature, even lying low for decades would mean nothing to him.

Because his goal in this life was immortality.

As long as he achieved that goal, lying low while he was weak would not be called cowardice. It would be called biding his time!

Old Man Yu watched for a while, then quietly jumped down from the wall. He closed the bedroom door as well, opened the hatch leading to the cellar, and tossed the cloth sacks piled in the room one by one into the cellar. Finally, he jumped in after them.

The oil lamp in the cellar had been burning the whole time. Old Man Yu took out a Spirit Stone, picked up a sack of soil dug from the Spirit Field, and went into the tunnel.

Before long, he emerged into a space formed by countless roots.

He crushed the Spirit Stone with practiced ease, then scattered the soil evenly. As he watched the roots absorb it rapidly, a smile spread across his face.

"Eat up. Eat your fill."

Elsewhere, in the Blessed Land, the three of them had only just finished settling in. Their faces were all etched with deep exhaustion.