Too dangerous.
What if he ran into a blind Dragon Clan or Phoenix Clan member who slapped him down?
The other party would certainly be struck dead by Great Dao Divine Lightning, but the Origin of Merit he'd painstakingly accumulated and couldn't bear to spend would definitely be depleted by a huge chunk.
Lu Changsheng, who pinched every penny, would never do something that cost him eighty thousand to kill a thousand enemies.
"Forget it, forget it. I'd better go check on my precious orchard first. The outside world is too dangerous. It's more reassuring to stay home and tend my fields."
After a round of self-comfort, Lu Changsheng ambled down the passage in his cave abode toward the back.
He had cleared out the rear half of the cave abode and turned it into a spiritual field of roughly a hundred square meters.
This was also the area he'd protected most carefully, with more than three hundred layers of defensive arrays.
The soil in the field was spiritual earth that had absorbed a trace of spiritual energy. He'd secretly dug it up and brought it back after two little demons outside had fought each other to the death.
Its quality was nothing special, but it was good enough for growing low-tier plants.
He pushed open the stone door, and a faint, sweet fragrance greeted him.
In the spiritual field, a dozen or so plants grew here and there.
On the left stood several Red Sun Fruit Trees bearing small red fruits. On the right was a small patch of Starlight Grass with leaves shaped like stars. In the corner sprawled an almost-dead vine whose name he didn't know.
He'd cautiously collected all of these near the low mountain during the early days after his transmigration.
They were all Low-grade Innate Spiritual Roots of no particular value. Some weren't even innate and could only be considered acquired mutant spirit herbs.
If the true great powers saw them, they probably wouldn't even bother bending down to pick them up.
But in Lu Changsheng's eyes, this was his entire fortune.
"Tsk, tsk, they're growing pretty well."
Lu Changsheng strode over to a Red Sun Fruit Tree, his legs spread wide.
Three red fruits, each the size of a baby's fist, hung from the tree, giving off a faint warmth.
"Mm, by my reckoning, after three thousand years, this batch of Red Sun Fruits should be perfectly ripe."
He carefully stretched out a wing, plucked one, wiped it on his feathers, and took a bite.
It was crisp and sweet, its juices bursting in his mouth before turning into a faint stream of warmth that flowed into his belly.
"Ah, that hits the spot."
Lu Changsheng narrowed his eyes, savoring the taste of the spirit fruit.
Though the spiritual energy it provided did nothing for his rock-solid cultivation, it could at least satisfy his appetite.
In these dull years of the Primordial Land, that was already a rare pleasure.
After finishing the fruit, he carefully spat the seed into a nearby hole, then raked some spiritual soil over it with his claws.
"One seed, one more tree in the future. Generation after generation, inexhaustible—that's what you call sustainable development."
Lu Changsheng nodded, pleased.
After inspecting the orchard, he drew a bucket of spring water rich in trace amounts of spiritual energy and watered all the spirit plants. Only then did he amble back to the front hall of his cave abode.
Standing before the heavy stone door covered in countless array patterns, Lu Changsheng furrowed his brow.
The same feeling of helplessness he'd had upon waking from his cultivation earlier welled up again.
"Three thousand years without the slightest progress. If I keep hiding away like this, my cultivation will be stuck at the Heavenly Immortal realm for good."
He knew all too well that the waters of the Primordial Land ran deep.
In this era, a Heavenly Immortal wasn't even qualified to be cannon fodder.
When the Dragon-Han First Tribulation truly erupted and the three clans' war shattered the Primordial Continent, forget this Nameless Low Mountain—even the area around Mount Buzhou might not be safe.
What if a Quasi-Saint-level powerhouse self-destructed nearby, or several innate treasures clashed here?
Could his eighteen hundred or so layers of arrays really hold up?
Even if his Origin of Merit could keep him alive, once his Daoist grounds were destroyed, all the belongings he'd accumulated would be gone.
And being forced to take a beating while spending a huge amount of merit was worse than being killed.
"I can't just sit here and wait for death anymore."
Lu Changsheng's gaze gradually grew resolute.
Looking at the heavy stone door before him, covered in countless array patterns, Lu Changsheng's gaze was more resolute than ever.
He stepped forward with his left claw.
Then he took a step.
After that, he pulled his foot back.
"No, I can't go out there with nothing on. What if a remnant of some Fierce Beast happens to be crouching right outside?"
Lu Changsheng shook his head. The trace of resolve he'd just summoned to go outside was instantly crushed by the caution etched into his bones.
He could go out.
But he had to make every possible preparation.
For someone following the Dao of Cowardice, preparing to go out and an ordinary Primordial Land creature simply deciding to leave were two entirely different things.
He turned and followed the passage back into the depths of his cave abode.
First, he had to take stock of his belongings.
Lu Changsheng went to the storage room he'd carved out himself.
There were no spatial treasures here that could hold entire worlds, like the ones great powers used to store entire universes in tiny mustard seeds. There were only simple stone jars he'd hollowed out of rock.
He opened the first stone jar. Hundreds of Red Sun Fruits were neatly stacked inside. He'd saved them from every harvest over the past several thousand years, unable to bring himself to eat them.
"Though these Red Sun Fruits aren't anything special, they do contain a trace of pure Yang energy. If I carry them with me, they might come in handy to counter poison if I run into miasma or toxic fog—or serve as rations to restore my strength."
He carefully picked out the hundred best-looking fruits, put them in a Jade Casket he'd carved from scraps of Century-Old Profound Jade, and tucked it close to himself.
The second stone jar was filled with all sorts of broken metal and junk he'd picked up while wandering over the mountains all these years.
There was a flying sword broken in half, a shield split by a long crack, and several fragments of magical treasures so damaged that their original forms were impossible to make out.
"This heart-protecting mirror is broken, but it seems to be made of Deep Sea Profound Iron. It might just barely withstand a Heavenly Immortal's strike..."
"There's still a trace of faint Gengjin energy on this broken sword. If I run into danger, I could throw it as a hidden weapon. Maybe it'll scare someone off."
Lu Changsheng rummaged through the pile of junk like an old man who made a living collecting scrap.
It took him a full half month to pick out a few broken magical treasures that were still somewhat usable. He hung them beneath his golden feathers, outfitting himself like a walking scrapyard.
After all that, Lu Changsheng returned to the White Jade Meditation Cushion in the center of the cave abode.
"My gear's more or less ready, but my cultivation is still too pathetic. Before I leave, I'll try one last time to enter seclusion."
"What if... what if the Great Dao suddenly opens its eyes and lets me reach enlightenment?"
Clinging to this unrealistic hope, Lu Changsheng slowly closed his eyes and calmed his mind.
He emptied his thoughts, forcibly shutting out the jumble of distracting notions in his head, and began drawing in the spiritual energy outside.
He activated the Spirit Gathering Array in the cave abode to its limit.
The already-scarce Xiantian Spiritual Qi around him was forcibly drawn in by the array, gathering into wisps of white mist that flowed through Lu Changsheng's mouth and nose and into his body.
But the moment the spiritual energy touched the meridians within him, the golden flames representing Great Dao Merit automatically moved to protect their master and flickered faintly.
Hiss—
The Xiantian Spiritual Qi that had entered his body was instantly repelled by the domineering Great Dao Merit. It evaporated and streamed straight back out through his pores into the air.
The only energy left in his dantian was a few negligible traces, refined through countless trials.
"Again!"
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