[Cultivation: Early stage focuses on building a solid foundation, middle stage on steady progress, and late-stage growth is stable and sustainable. Note: Choose with caution if you lack patience.] [Superpowers: Immediate results, explosive growth in the middle stage, and mastery through insight in the late stage. Note: No restrictions; growth path is fixed.] [Enhancement Type: body tempering in the early stage, body tempering in the middle stage, body tempering in the late stage. Note: Physical enhancement; do not choose if you fear pain or hardship.] [Magic: Meditation in the early stage, meditation in the middle stage, meditation in the late stage. Note: You must memorize magic spells; do not choose if you have a poor memory.] [Mecha: Guns and artillery in the early stage, machinery in the middle stage, mecha in the late stage. Note: Scientific research path; avoid unless you are an academically gifted specialist.]
Five shimmering balls of light flew over. Ye Fei looked at the label that appeared on each one and chose cultivation without hesitation.
What child of China didn't dream of becoming an immortal?
Besides, its late-stage growth path was stable and sustainable.
As for building a solid foundation early on and maintaining steady progress in the middle stage, those probably just required patience.
Ye Fei considered himself reasonably patient.
[Selection complete. Evolution path: Cultivation.] [Cultivation foundation: Spiritual roots. Activating spiritual roots...] [Spiritual root activation complete: Metal spiritual root 3, wood spiritual root 2, water spiritual root 3, fire spiritual root 3, earth spiritual root 2.] [Cultivation foundation unlocked. Complimentary technique: Spirit-Guiding Art.]
A series of notifications appeared, and Ye Fei's consciousness finally returned to his body.
[Spirit-Guiding Art: Guides spiritual energy into the body. A basic cultivation technique.]
The Spirit-Guiding Art was simply a method for absorbing spiritual energy during cultivation. It was the foundation of cultivation.
[Name: Ye Fei (ID: Snow Mountain/0099-5111-1111) Race: Human (Cultivation Practitioner) Talent: See Through Cultivation realm: Not yet initiated Cultivation technique: Spirit-Guiding Art Health Value: 96 Stamina Value: 98 Energy Value: 97 Combat power: 3 (Below an ordinary person) Equipment: Five-Piece Warmth Set (Warmth +25, defense +2, speed +1) Pet: Qingxue (Level 5 Snow Fox cub), loyalty 100, combat power 25, Sharp Claws and Sharp Teeth, speed, burst Inventory 3/11: Level-One Blood-Replenishing Pill ×3, Level-One Spirit-Replenishing Pill ×5, fox meat ×6 Survival points: 2]
The Gene Evolution Fluid had been used up, but as Ye Fei looked at his Personal Panel, his combat power was still 3.
Apart from the Spirit-Guiding Art and his uninitiated cultivation realm, everything else seemed unchanged.
Oh, right. There was an extra label after "Human" in his race information.
Cultivation Practitioner...
A Cultivation Practitioner who hadn't even gotten started...
Although he had known that choosing cultivation meant slow growth at first, he still felt miserable now.
Especially when he opened his eyes to find that it was morning again and that he had received a Friend Information message.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Senior, you're cultivating!!! Um, can I ask why your combat power is still 3 even though you're cultivating? I don't mean anything by it, seriously. I'm just curious.]
The message had just arrived. His Junior Schoolmate on the other end had probably just woken up too and checked his friend list while he was at it.
Just curious, huh...
Ye Fei felt certain that if this guy were standing in front of him, he would see him laughing-laughing at how his cultivation had amounted to nothing.
But he still had to reply. After all, this was the only friend he had added.
[Me: Cultivated a whole lot of nothing. Got nowhere.]
Ye Fei mocked himself first.
As for whether the other guy laughed, he could do as he pleased. Ye Fei couldn't see him anyway.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Don't worry, Senior. Maybe it's because you've only just started cultivating. Work hard, and your stats might go up later.]
The reply came quickly, but the words offered Ye Fei no comfort whatsoever.
[Me: You can buy Gene Evolution Fluid in the Points Mall for 500 points. Take a look yourself when the time comes. Right now, I can only hope hard work will pay off.]
Ye Fei didn't waste words. Before the other guy even asked, he told him how he had gained the Cultivation Practitioner label.
If he came asking at a time like this, aside from having a laugh at how unimpressive Ye Fei's Cultivation Practitioner status was, he probably wanted to know how to get that label himself.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Don't worry, Senior. Once I've saved up 500 points, I'll cultivate with you. But I still have to say, you've really been hiding your abilities! Five hundred points-I haven't managed to save that much even now!]
His junior said he would follow in his senior's footsteps, and they would cultivate together when the time came.
Still, the figure of 500 points shocked him.
How had someone with 3 combat power saved up 500 points? Ordinary good luck wasn't enough to explain that.
But he only mentioned it in passing. Ye Fei didn't explain how he had earned them, and he didn't press him.
After grumbling about how unreliable Cultivation Practitioners were, Ye Fei got out of bed and resumed his daily chores.
"Yip?"
After Ye Fei reached out and picked her up, Qingxue the Little Fox raised a little paw and patted his hand, finally confirming that this human really had returned.
"I'm back. It's all right now..."
Ye Fei stroked the little fox's head with his fingers. He hadn't been able to see what happened to him during his evolution, nor did he know whether anything unusual had happened in that time.
Judging by the little fox's expression, something probably had happened. But since they couldn't talk, he had no way of finding out.
"Yip~"
Qingxue the Little Fox jumped onto Ye Fei's shoulder and lay down obediently, not in the mood to play for the moment.
Her silly human had disappeared for so long, but he was finally back...
"I'll stew some fox meat this morning. I wonder how it'll taste. Hopefully it won't be bad."
He had finished all the rabbit meat, so fox meat was his only option for stew that morning.
He cut two pieces of meat into small chunks and put them straight into the pot to stew. The house didn't have much energy left, but it was still enough for a day or two.
Today, he would probably have to go out and chop wood again, working hard to earn some survival points.
Having grown used to eating meat, he didn't particularly want to go back to gnawing on bread and drinking cold water.
[Cabbage (Seedling stage): Temperature too low. Growth rate -50%.] [Tomato (Seedling stage): Temperature too low. Growth rate -50%.]
Both kinds of seedlings in the vegetable patch had sprouted leaves, but the reduced growth rate left Ye Fei feeling helpless.
He had used the Gene Evolution Fluid yesterday morning, so naturally, he hadn't been able to do the evening cleaning.
Just missing that one evening's yard sweeping had allowed the accumulating snow to lower the temperature in the yard, slowing the growth of all the plants.
Of course, that only applied to the vegetables. The trees were growing as usual and had now reached two meters, making them a little taller than Ye Fei.
[The snow in the yard has been cleared away. The chill has dissipated, and the plants have resumed normal growth.]
There was no reward, but the notification made Ye Fei breathe a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, clearing the snow was enough to restore the temperature. Otherwise, he had no idea when he would get to eat vegetables.
Still, the temperature was so low. If he could raise it, would the plants grow even faster?
But raising the temperature or building a greenhouse was something he could only daydream about for now.
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