Meals and Lodging Included, Umbrella-Sized Lingzhi

That said, after Yibao got the ball rolling, Wu Chu began thinking as well. In this Primordial World, was there any safe way to earn more Merit Power?

This Primordial World had the Heavenly Dao, Merit, karma, innate foundations... Nearly every living being sought the Dao, struggled across the sea of suffering, and searched for a path to transcendence.

There truly were great powers who eventually transcended and became saints and ancestors. Unfortunately, although Wu Chu knew the paths those great powers had taken, he couldn't replicate them.

Of course, it was also possible that the paths to transcendence taken by those great powers had nothing to do with how films and novels described them.

After all, to him, this was now a real mythical world.

The ancient myths and legends of the Primordial World recorded by people in another world might differ greatly from the myths of this world.

And in this mythical world where innate foundations mattered, he simply couldn't compete in terms of birth.

Otherwise, he wouldn't still be holed up here trying to survive in the wilderness. After all, there should still be plenty of ownerless spiritual treasures in the Primordial World of this era.

Though he didn't know exactly where those spiritual treasures were, if things were truly as films and novels described, he had some vague idea where certain supreme treasures might be. For example, the Primordial Gourd Vine, or Treasure-Dropping Money...

But with his current strength, he had no way of claiming them.

Would farming earn Merit?

Wu Chu stroked his chin, and various inventions surfaced in his mind.

From clothing, food, shelter, and transportation directly tied to daily life, to firewood, rice, oil, salt, music, chess, calligraphy, painting, brewing wine, stir-frying tea, making paper and books, inventing writing...

At the thought of inventing writing, Wu Chu couldn't help looking at Yibao. He suddenly wondered whether Yibao had been able to manifest a physical form because of those words. Or perhaps the phone's intelligent system had provided the Heavenly Dao with a reference model for operation?

Otherwise, Yibao couldn't possibly have manifested in her current form!

Thinking it over carefully, Wu Chu realized that if he slowly developed through farming, there were actually quite a few ways to gain Merit in a farming-oriented path.

As for climbing the technology tree, with his shallow knowledge of math, physics, and chemistry, Wu Chu knew it would be useless. Thinking about it, he could only regret not studying harder back in school. Otherwise, perhaps he might have been able to forge a different path in this world.

You never realize how little you know until you need it!

But if he did that, then what would become of the future great figures of the Human Clan...

Wu Chu felt somewhat sorry for those future sages of the Human Clan. If he harvested the Merit from the farming path now, what would those great Human Clan sages do in the future?

Besides, the Human Clan had yet to appear. The Merit Power that could be gained from farming was actually limited, such as the fire-drilling, clay pottery, oil refining, and stir-frying he had already appropriated...

If the Human Clan existed in this era, then the Merit earned from those inventions should have been far greater than it was now.

The times weren't on his side. What could he do?

Wu Chu sighed toward the heavens and gradually gave up the notion of taking shortcuts to harvest Merit.

He was merely a mortal. In this world filled with danger at every turn, it would already be good enough if he could safely live out this life. Wasn't thinking about all that nonsense just making himself a joke?

He should let nature take its course!

Wu Chu shook his head, poured a bowl of warm plain water, and drained it in one gulp. Then he shouldered his crude hoe and began clearing weeds and repairing the path.

Everything else was empty talk. He should keep improving his living conditions!

"Yibao, play some music!" Wu Chu asked as he swung his hoe. "Oh, right. Playing music now consumes your Merit Power, doesn't it? Is it a lot?"

"The consumption isn't much. You could even say it's negligible." With a thought from Yibao, songs Wu Chu had saved on his phone began playing.

Amid the music, Wu Chu nodded and swung his hoe.

Who knew where Little Moon Spirit had gone to gather mushrooms? Wu Chu became so tired that he ran back to the little wooden hut and slept for a while. When Little Moon Spirit still hadn't returned, he could only eat some shrimp meat and continue repairing the road.

The valley was four or five hundred meters deep and probably a little over a thousand meters wide. It was narrow within and broad outside, shaped like a funnel. Viewed from beneath the floating clouds, it looked like a triangle.

From where he lived to the depths of the valley, he had to make a turn, and the distance was at least six or seven hundred meters. After all, that giant tree alone was already two or three hundred meters in diameter.

Using this Heavenly Tree as a reference, the valley wasn't very large.

But using himself, a human, as the reference, the valley was actually quite large.

To keep the dirt road from becoming muddy and impassable in the rain, once he had leveled it, he planned to find stones to pave it and turn it into a gravel road.

This was actually quite a large project for Wu Chu, but he had nothing else to do now. Who told him he didn't know how to cultivate?

Perhaps because his constitution had improved, whether it was digging the latrine with his hoe before, excavating the cave, or repairing the road now, his hands hadn't developed any blisters.

And the amount of time he could work had increased as well.

At first, he would feel sleepy after going more than ten hours without sleep. But now, he could already stay awake for thirty or forty hours.

Although compared to the creatures of this world, he was still far inferior.

But in Wu Chu's own view, he could clearly feel his changes. He could feel his constitution constantly growing stronger with time. Perhaps this improvement was extremely slight, even insignificant to other beings, but the joy in his heart still showed plainly on his face. Even the Little Wolf Cub, which had gotten so bored it was playing by pouncing on butterflies, no longer seemed quite so annoying to him.

Huh?

When had those butterflies appeared?

Wu Chu came back to his senses and looked at the butterflies dancing among the flowers. Each one was at least the size of a palm, while the larger ones were even as big as bamboo hats.

Their colors were dazzlingly bright, yet among the flowers, they were genuinely hard to spot unless one looked carefully.

Their bodies were light, and even when their thin wings fluttered, they made no sound at all.

The bored Little Wolf Cub was yapping at the butterflies lingering among the flowers, stretching out its little paws and kicking its short legs as it bounced up and down.

But at that moment, the Little Wolf Cub suddenly froze. It turned and began yapping toward the giant tree, then ran toward Wu Chu.

A massive blue-gray wolf slowly emerged from the direction of the giant tree, its cold eyes fixed ahead. It moved silently on light steps toward Wu Chu.

Seeing the giant wolf, at least two or three meters tall and five or six meters long, lower its wolfish head and walk slowly toward him on thick paws, Wu Chu couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath. His body trembled slightly, his scalp tingled, chills ran down his back, and cold sweat instantly broke out.

Fortunately, the Little Wolf Cub bravely stood between Wu Chu and the giant wolf. It crouched low and growled, its protective stance warming Wu Chu's heart. He hadn't been feeding it for nothing all this time.

Yibao also appeared on Wu Chu's shoulder, anxiously clutching his collar.

The giant wolf growled at the Little Wolf Cub, and the Little Wolf Cub yapped right back.

Wu Chu looked at Yibao and asked, "Do you understand what they're saying?"

Yibao's expression turned a little strange. She nodded and translated, "A Qiu seems to be of the same kind as this giant wolf. This giant wolf seems to want A Qiu to return to the pack with it, but A Qiu refused. It said meals and lodging are included here, and it's very comfortable..."

"..."

Wu Chu asked, "Did A Qiu really say that?"

Yibao let out an ah. "Primordial Language is broad and profound, but that's roughly what it means."

Soon, the giant wolf sat down as well. Its golden eyes looked at Wu Chu as it let out a series of whines, seemingly speaking to him. At the end, it stuck out its tongue and licked its lips.

"What is it saying now?"

"It says it wants meals and lodging included too!"

"..."

Wu Chu really wanted to sternly reject such a lazy proposal, but in the end, he still asked, "Can I ride it?"

After the giant wolf learned from Yibao what Wu Chu meant, it thought for a moment. Perhaps it felt that it had come here for the ideal life of free meals and lodging, only for this fellow to want to ride it. After roaring furiously, it turned around and stalked away in a huff.

After that close call, another busy "day" passed. Just as Wu Chu was preparing to return and rest, Little Moon Spirit floated back while carrying a cloud.

Within that cloud came the sounds of flapping wings, struggling, and clucking chickens.

On top of the cloud was a pile of mushrooms in all sorts of mixed colors. Their sizes also exceeded his understanding. The smallest were fist-sized, the medium ones as large as buckets, and the biggest...

Wu Chu stared at a Lingzhi resembling an umbrella, unsure what to say.

He had heard that Lingzhi became woody or rotted after growing too long, that there was simply no such miraculous thing as hundred-year Lingzhi or thousand-year Lingzhi.

Yet here, Wu Chu saw a peculiar Lingzhi. Even after Little Moon Spirit put away the cloud, mist still curled around the surface of its cap.

Wu Chu guessed that the thin mist might have condensed from spiritual energy.

In a world filled everywhere with Primordial Spiritual Energy, something like this really wasn't too strange. Besides, this was a mythical world.

Biology, physics... These common principles probably didn't work in this world.

After all, long-lived species were things that violated natural biology.

Riding clouds and mist also violated the laws of physics.

But the problem before Wu Chu now was: how was he supposed to eat this Lingzhi?