A Living Natural Phenomenon
"You're right. I really am afraid of dying."
Looking at the red-haired ghost god still gradually taking shape behind Li Boyang, the big black dog finally lowered his head.
"Using your own shadow to bear Ruifu's curse-what a truly brilliant idea..."
"If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, it would have been hard to believe..."
"That you actually cultivated a genuine ghost god in less than three short years."
A faint smile curled at the corners of Li Boyang's mouth, and he waved away the ghost god's shadow behind him.
"I owe much of that to the ghost god from three years ago. He gave me a great deal."
"And you helped quite a bit too. Otherwise, I really wouldn't have been able to transfer the Ominous Deity's curse completely."
Not believing a word of Li Boyang's nonsense, the big black dog merely bared his teeth and sneered.
"Then you ought to thank the Nine Chapters on the Secrets of Divination first..."
"If that woman knew you were using her life's work to research ways to cultivate ghost gods, she'd be so furious she'd come back to life and kill you with her own hands."
At this, Li Boyang merely turned the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron slightly, making no attempt to deny the big black dog's words.
"That witch only met an ominous end in her later years because she was too merciful, didn't she?"
The big black dog immediately raised his head and stared fixedly at Li Boyang for a long while before giving an easy smile.
"Trying to worm information out of me again?"
"But you're right. That woman was just too full of false benevolence and righteousness. That was why she died so miserably in the end."
"If you really want to know how that woman died, let me out. I promise I'll tell you everything I know."
Li Boyang curled his lip disdainfully and did not take the bait.
"Martial force... you may choose not to use it, but you can't afford not to have it."
"That ghost god three years ago, and your existence, both taught me that lesson deeply."
"If the day ever comes when you really can escape this place, I advise you to run as far away as you can."
"After all, I'm different from that witch."
"I won't go to great pains to seal you away somewhere and then quietly wait for you to see the error of your ways."
The smile on the big black dog's face instantly froze. He could hear the resolve in Li Boyang's words.
Besides, their years together had made the big black dog keenly aware of the difference between Li Boyang and that woman.
Compared with that naive woman, Li Boyang's thinking was far too mature-so mature that the big black dog sometimes even wondered whether he was an old ghost who had lived for tens of thousands of years.
"Let's talk about today's lesson instead!"
The big black dog changed the subject with considerable awkwardness, no longer even looking Li Boyang in the eye.
"I've successfully separated the flow of Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi from my own Primordial Qi..."
"Just as you said before, for innate divine beings like us, even without the help of Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, our physical bodies can produce enormous amounts of Life Primordial Qi."
"I tried to refine my Life Primordial Qi and channel it into my meridians and Dantian."
"But Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi doesn't seem to like me doing that. It always surges into my Dantian along with it."
Li Boyang likewise examined the big black dog's condition earnestly with the Heavenly Eye between his brows and asked thoughtfully.
"Why must you separate Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi from Life Primordial Qi?"
"You aren't an ordinary creature to begin with. In essence, you're actually closer to Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi..."
"Perhaps Life Primordial Qi is the accidental byproduct, and Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi is the kind of Primordial Qi that truly suits you?"
Hearing Li Boyang say this, the big black dog first froze, then retorted.
"That's different!"
"To use that woman's words-I must first be human, and only then a shaman."
"No matter what I was before I was born, or what I'll become after I die..."
"Here and now, the me standing before you is a genuine living being, not that unknowing, unfeeling Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi."
"Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi may possess unimaginable might, but I am the master who controls that power."
"If I let that Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi scatter my own Primordial Qi and surge into my meridians..."
"I have a premonition that I'll become a natural phenomenon in this world-a living natural phenomenon, an existence that no longer possesses a body."
Flying Peak, Mountain God Temple.
By the time Big Girl climbed down the sheer cliff, it was already noon.
After looking around several times and finding no sign of Li Boyang.
Big Girl's eyes immediately darted, and she ran without hesitation toward a small courtyard beside the Mountain God Temple.
The little courtyard lay to the right of the Mountain God Temple and occupied roughly a fifth of the entire temple's grounds.
Compared with the main hall in the front courtyard and the rear courtyard leading to the back of the mountain...
This courtyard looked more like quarters prepared for the temple keepers and priests who lived at the Mountain God Temple.
But ever since Li Boyang and Big Girl moved into the Mountain God Temple, this courtyard had become their residence.
Or, more precisely, it had become a place Li Boyang used specifically to make and experiment with all kinds of tools.
Saws, planes, chisels, rulers, hammers, ink-line reels, axes, drills, nails, pliers, files, iron anvils, iron plates, bellows...
Silk thread, hemp rope, needles and fasteners, long poles, bricks, bolts, wooden boards, long cabinets, ceramics, oil lamps, stoves...
Along with those oddly shaped things whose purposes were unknown.
Everywhere she looked were little tools and trinkets Li Boyang had made over the past few years.
In a corner beside the yard, discarded molds made from wood, mud, and sand could also be seen everywhere.
But the most eye-catching thing was still the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron in the very center of the courtyard, with flames perpetually burning inside it. That was the most precious treasure here.
From her initial astonishment to her present familiarity.
Big Girl had come to more or less understand what Li Boyang was doing, and occasionally even volunteered to lend him a hand.
To Big Girl, Li Boyang seemed like a combination of the carpenters and blacksmiths in the nearby towns.
Besides making ordinary tables, chairs, benches, blades, spears, and arrowheads, Li Boyang also designed stranger, more novel things.
In fact, those ingenious creations, whose craftsmanship rivaled nature and opened her eyes to something new, were a major reason Big Girl willingly and patiently helped Li Boyang.
A beautifully crafted folding knife with a distinctive butterfly-like design...
An iron toad that hopped on its own once its spring was wound...
A building-block puzzle cube that could be freely rotated...
Her little brother's head seemed filled with an endless supply of wondrous ideas, always bringing Big Girl all kinds of surprises.
Unfortunately, her little brother was clearly not satisfied with those small objects and was constantly pondering how to create bigger, more wondrous things.
After all, she had spent three years helping Li Boyang.
Big Girl knew that her little brother had actually designed many things long ago.
But limitations in material hardness and the sustainability of power sources had kept them from ever being realized.
Big Girl could just about understand material hardness.
Wasn't it simply a matter of having enough metal that was hard enough?
Among the many metals, copper undoubtedly had the best toughness.
Iron, the hardest, was the most difficult to obtain among all the ores and metals.
Every time Deception Rabbit passed through Li Household Village, he brought her little brother some bronze and iron ingots, which barely managed to meet his daily needs.
Power sources alone lay entirely beyond Big Girl's understanding.
All she knew was that the lamp oil occasionally used in the village probably counted as one kind of power source.