A year had passed since Li Xingkong started farming. For him, life that year had been simple and fulfilling.
Every morning, he got up, ran experiments, tended the fields, exercised, and studied the theoretical knowledge of the Qi Refining stage.
He had few acquaintances on Prisoner Continent and no social ties to maintain. Over the year, apart from driving into the city to buy daily necessities, he never set foot outside his farm. No one contacted him online, either. At most, his parents got in touch once a week, and he would let them know he was safe. His days passed quite uneventfully.
Many people could not stand the quiet. They liked the warmth and bustle of human life, the noise and excitement. Li Xingkong was different. He thoroughly enjoyed his solitude. When he was alone, his mind was full of thoughts about his future. He did not have to socialize or worry about anyone else.
People came into this world alone when they were born, so they were lonely by nature. Even with family and friends at their side, it was hard-one could say almost impossible-to find someone who could fully empathize with them. Even the people closest to them had lives of their own.
Putting everything else aside, even if someone spent all day beside their family, they would still spend half the day alone-in their dreams, there was only themselves, and no one else could enter.
So after being alone for a long time, a person might instead come to enjoy it.
Only occasionally would Mike return to the farm to visit, give Li Xingkong a hand, and do a little farmwork. Whenever he did, Li Xingkong would prepare a whole table of dishes to welcome him.
Ever since Mike sold the farm and moved into the city, his physical condition had changed greatly. Before, he had at least done some work and managed to stay in shape. Now that he lived in the city, having nothing to do every day was driving him stir-crazy. He watched television at home until he zoned out and was bored out of his mind. It was as if he had been eating pig feed, swelling straight up like a balloon.
Finally, three months after selling the farm, he drove back and offered to help Li Xingkong out. He did not want any pay; he just wanted to move around more. He was used to working and really could not get used to sitting idle.
He was also one of Li Xingkong's few friends. Although he was much older than Li Xingkong, the two got along very well. Mike did not ask what Li Xingkong was doing in that mysterious underground room, nor did he concern himself with whether Li Xingkong got married.
Whenever Mike came, he also brought Li Xingkong some fresh news, about things like gang wars and political party struggles in the city. That gave Li Xingkong, who stayed cooped up at home all day, some idea of what was happening in the outside world and kept his home from truly becoming a peach blossom utopia.
Throughout the year, Li Xingkong had not stopped his material-gathering experiments for a single day. After blasting away day after day, he was now short only the final material. All the others had already been collected.
As for the theoretical knowledge of the Sun and Moon Qi Refining Method, he had basically learned the bare basics. He had only learned its structure and how to use it; he was still wrestling with the principles.
In terms of an ordinary person's abilities, that meant he had now mastered opening and closing Word and Excel, and starting and shutting down Windows and Linux.
The system had also told him that, at this stage, he should focus on learning to construct it first. As for the underlying principles, it would be better to wait until after Foundation Establishment to tackle them.
After Foundation Establishment, his brainpower would be beyond comparison with what it was now, and he would learn many times faster.
"God of Wealth, bless me. May opening the box bring good fortune."
After offering three sticks of incense as usual, Li Xingkong began another day's experiments.
He had not learned much else from the experiments over the past year, but he had grown used to hunger and malnutrition. Anyone whose body was drained dry by the system every day for a year would get used to it too.
In the system's words, he was now basically immune to his appetite.
People were born with desires, and resisting those various desires was an indispensable part of the path of immortal cultivation.
After paying his respects to the God of Wealth, Li Xingkong pressed the detonator in his hand as he usually did. Perhaps because he had just gotten up, there was little energy in his eyes.
After the boom, Li Xingkong followed his usual routine and glanced into the secret room, then turned to go wash up and get to work.
Then he found that he could not move.
"What's going on, system?"
His body was no longer under his control and had begun heading down into the secret room.
"What's going on? What else could it be? Have you lost your mind?" the system shot back at Li Xingkong. Rarely, there was a note of delight in its voice too.
Li Xingkong caught on and instantly perked up.
"Holy crap, we got a material!"
"This is the last one, right?" All the exhaustion of the past days seemed to have been swept away. Although he was not in control of his body, his joy still showed in the smile on his lips.
"It's finally going to be complete!" The system also let out a long breath.
After searching the secret room and finding the final material, the system relinquished control, and Li Xingkong took his body back.
He climbed out of the secret room and gathered all the materials he had collected over the past year.
What he held in his hands was the fruit of a year's labor. He had spent time, worn down his body, and spent money over the past year, all for these bottles and jars that he could carry in one hand. It had been no easy feat.
The method the two of them used to produce the materials was comparable to a lottery. When they succeeded depended entirely on chance, so collecting all the raw materials in about a year was already a stroke of great luck.
"So I can start cultivating next, right?"
Li Xingkong was beside himself with joy.
"Next, I need you to gain forty kilograms," the system said.
"Huh?" Looking at his weight of around 120 jin, Li Xingkong was a little stunned. "Gain forty kilograms? How long would I have to eat for that?"
Getting from 120 to 200 jin would take quite some time.
"There's no other way. Your body doesn't have enough energy to support me through the creation of spiritual qi." The system was helpless too. If Li Xingkong's body were a little stronger, it could complete the task at this stage.
"There's another way." Li Xingkong thought for a moment, and he really did come up with a solution.
"I'll buy a ton of glucose and inject it directly into my veins. It'll be like a power bank. Do you think that'll work?"
The system gave Li Xingkong a few looks. His studies over the past few years really had not been in vain.
"Yes. As long as there's an energy supply to maintain the possession state, it'll work."
Without delay, Li Xingkong ordered a ton of liquid glucose. He also got some medical equipment for infusions.
Then he tidied up the secret room, cleaning it, sterilizing it, and vacuuming out the air, all to keep the environment inside from affecting the creation of spiritual qi as much as possible.
After that, while waiting for the goods to arrive, Li Xingkong began eating nonstop, all so that once everything was ready, the operation could succeed on the first try.
The next day, the materials he had been waiting for finally arrived. Li Xingkong also began the most crucial moment of the past year, and of his more than ten years of study.
He went down into the secret room, where he had already put all the materials together.
Li Xingkong sat down at the table and took a deep breath. Even with his control, he could not calm his heart.
"I'm the one doing it. What are you so nervous about?" The system was somewhat puzzled. Li Xingkong only needed to watch the whole time, so why was he so nervous?
"This is excitement, excitement!" Li Xingkong said. "My hands are shaking right now."
"Don't panic. Just watch." The system spoke rather casually, not nervous in the slightest.
"How come you don't look nervous at all?" Li Xingkong did not understand. "You're a system. Does that mean systems never make mistakes?"
"Do you get nervous when you play with kindergarten building toys?" The system was dismissive.
"Uh, well, no, I don't, but this isn't a kindergarten toy!"
Li Xingkong found it hard to imagine what kind of person would regard him as a kindergartener. But on second thought, as far as the system was concerned, he really did seem to have just finished kindergarten.
"I'm leaving it to you! You have to succeed."
After calming down for a while, Li Xingkong cleared his mind and body and was ready to begin.
"No problem. The lesson in constructing spiritual qi begins now."
The system took control of Li Xingkong's body and began working.
Since all the materials were particle-sized, this operation should not have been carried out by a person-or rather, it should not have been carried out with Li Xingkong's current body. What they were doing now was an unorthodox approach.
Then again, in all the time he had spent learning from the system, only the theoretical knowledge had been systematic. By now, there had been scarcely any practical work that was not done the unorthodox way.