Monsters Must Lurk in the Lake

The night breeze rustled, lake waves lapped gently, starlight swayed, and the fragrance of flowers drifted through the dark on the wind. Even sitting inside the house, he could smell that faint floral scent.

Amid the faint fragrance and wavering starlight, Wu Chu sat in the little wooden cabin. After realizing he couldn't draw any lessons from Little Moon Spirit, he brooded for a while before discussing things with Yibao.

They discussed how he could cultivate as well.

Since he couldn't learn from others, he would have to forge a path himself. The Daoist cultivation theories on Earth followed the path of "Refining Essence into Qi, Refining Qi into Spirit, Refining Spirit Back into Void."

It was said that Taishang had passed down this path to the Human Sect. The Yellow Court Classic described "essence, qi, and spirit," with passages such as: The three grades of superior medicine are spirit, qi, and essence.

And since he was now an ordinary human rather than a native creature of the Primordial World, although taking this route seemed a little less impressive, it was still a viable path.

Yet even so, he had no idea where to begin.

In the end, the two reached a conclusion: the foremost requirement for developing an effective cultivation method was sufficiently powerful spiritual strength.

If one's spiritual strength wasn't powerful enough, one couldn't achieve "inner observation" or "outer observation," much less draw external spiritual energy into the body and circulate and refine it within.

Inner observation meant seeing where the meridians within one's body lay. Only then could "qi" circulate through the body, allowing one to find a way to refine essence into qi.

Outer observation meant observing what the spiritual energy outside actually was. Only then could one use external spiritual energy to nourish the body and strengthen one's own magical power.

Perhaps other cultivation methods didn't require this prerequisite, but for someone who knew nothing and wanted to create his own cultivation method, it was indispensable.

Although Little Moon Spirit no longer needed to use meridians to circulate her magical power, before she took human form, her magical power had still circulated through her meridians.

So if one didn't know where one's own meridians were, or which things in the outside world were spiritual energy, how could one guide them through the meridians? How could one refine them into magical power?

Only after solving that problem would he need to consider how to refine spiritual energy and convert the energy of the outside world into magical power suited to his own attributes.

However, for Wu Chu, even the first step was something he didn't know how to carry out. He had thought of meditation, Yoga, visualization methods...

But he only knew their names. He had never studied them before and had no idea how to practice them. He hadn't even truly understood the underlying theories.

The big one and the little one simply stared at each other, completely at a loss.

In the end, Wu Chu could only smile. "Forget it. Let's just let nature take its course! Maybe as my physique improves, my spiritual strength will increase too?"

Yibao nodded, resting her chin on her hand as she pondered.

Wu Chu climbed out of bed, scooped up a ladle of water with a bamboo spoon, and rinsed his mouth, but still felt that his mouth and teeth weren't properly clean.

Come to think of it, he'd been brushing his teeth with leftover grass leaves or plant ash these past few days.

A few casual swipes like that naturally couldn't clean his entire mouth.

Watching Wu Chu brush his teeth with plant ash and a chewed-up little branch, leaving his mouth covered in black ash, Yibao smiled. "Master, why don't you make some bamboo salt?"

Wu Chu sighed. "Making bamboo salt would waste too much salt. No one knows how long we'll have to stay here. What if we can't find rock salt in the future? How will we eat then? Although we've collected and filtered quite a bit of salt already, we still need to conserve it. But we could try making a toothbrush, so I don't have to chew branches every day."

Yibao smiled. "Where will you find bristles? Are you going to use your own hair?"

Hearing that, Wu Chu reached up and touched his long hair. He had been in this world for so long, though from this world's perspective, only half a day had passed. Yet his hair was already nearly covering his ears. Although he washed it often, without shampoo, it looked quite greasy, as though it could never be properly cleaned.

"That wouldn't be a bad method." Wu Chu gave a bitter smile. "But if we can find palm trees, it'll be much easier. I could even learn how to weave a palm-fiber raincoat in my spare time!"

Yibao suggested, "You could ask Little Moon Spirit about that. She should know whether there are palm trees around here."

"She's cultivating right now, so we shouldn't disturb her. But come to think of it, how does Little Moon Spirit brush her teeth? Has she never brushed them in all these years? That can't be right! Her teeth look so white and pretty..."

Wu Chu shook his head and opened the wooden door. What he saw made him pause: Starlight and Moonlight drifted over the enormous lake, forming several faint yet gigantic funnel-shaped clusters of light.

Wu Chu stared blankly at the spectacle, and then his eyes gradually widened.

Clearly, many creatures in the lake were devouring the starlight and Moonlight, causing them to gather so densely that they formed nearly tangible funnel-shaped masses of light.

The light clusters danced in the wind, looking exceptionally dazzling.

Monsters must lurk in the lake!

Wu Chu sighed inwardly and gave himself a mental pat on the back for having been so cautious before.

After watching for a while, Wu Chu returned to the cabin. He poked around in the Fire Pool a few times, used bamboo tongs to pick up a nearly extinguished piece of charcoal, and placed it beneath the outdoor stove. He lit a fire and prepared to simmer himself some meat soup.

Although he wasn't particularly hungry yet, he still needed to eat something.

Compared to the daytime, there seemed to be nothing much to do during the long night.

Especially without Little Moon Spirit beside him, Wu Chu didn't dare go far. Even when he went to the cellar to retrieve some meat, he had to be extremely careful not to get bitten by mosquitoes or insects.

After bringing back some dried shrimp meat, Wu Chu went over to check on the chicken coop. Several wild chickens were lying in the coop asleep. When the light from his phone's flashlight hit them, they immediately clucked and flapped their wings as they charged at Wu Chu.

Seeing that, Wu Chu turned and left, jogging all the way back to the wooden cabin.

Bzzzz...

As Wu Chu lit the outdoor stove and simmered his soup, the irritating—and to him, terrifying—buzz of mosquitoes sounded beside his ears.

He waved his hand a few times and instructed, "Yibao, keep an eye out. Don't let your master get bitten by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes in the Primordial World are so huge that if one bites me, I might die. I don't want to die as miserably as Turtle Spirit Holy Mother."

Yibao looked speechless. "Master, if you happen to encounter that vicious female mosquito now, then even if you don't want to end up like that, it won't make any difference!"

Wu Chu smiled. "That female mosquito was born in the Blood Sea. At this point, she probably hasn't even taken human form yet! There's no way she'd leave the Blood Sea and appear here."

After the shrimp soup was ready, Wu Chu used leaves as padding and carried the clay basin back into the cabin. Then he picked up a piece and put it into the bamboo bowl in front of Little Wolf Cub.

At the sight of food, Little Wolf Cub's drooping tail immediately perked up and wagged wildly at Wu Chu. It didn't seem all that different from the Huskies in his memories.

But when he remembered how the little fellow had bravely stood in front of that giant wolf some time ago, that act alone made it somewhat different from those Huskies that were useless at everything.

After dinner, Wu Chu picked up a piece of bamboo and prepared to make a toothbrush.

Just then, a somewhat urgent wolf howl came from the distance. Hearing it, Little Wolf Cub, who had been lying on the floor, instantly stood up. It raised its little head, pricked up its ears, and listened quietly. Before long, it darted out the door and began howling toward the distance, its voice childish and utterly lacking the bearing of a wolf.

"What happened to it?"

Wu Chu looked at Yibao and asked.