Chapter 22 | Cultivating Through a Game, Becoming Unstoppable

Seeing that there was no more drama to watch, the crowd dispersed before long.

“That Chen Jingui is truly a god-damned vixen of a shrew! A coarse household through and through, just like you’d expect from a butcher’s wife.”

The man with slanting eyes kicked a pastry box on the ground and snarled viciously:

“And that Eldest Girl of theirs—she can’t be any good either! Refusing to save someone in desperate need, how could she possibly be decent?

In my view, all that talk about catching demons and exorcising ghosts is just deceitful nonsense!”

“Exactly! That Sister Ye is no better. Seeing her uncle and aunt arrive at the door, not only did she not invite us in for tea, she wouldn’t even say a single word to help us.”

The woman huffed a few times and spat at the main gate:

“At such a tender age, she dresses so flirtatiously, caked in powder and rouge with the mannerisms of an entertainment girl. Who knows whose concubine she’ll end up being in the future!”

The husband and wife had originally intended to come under the banner of visiting relatives. As long as they stepped inside and delivered the gifts, even if Chen Jingui wanted to back out later, it would be too late.

Yet who could have expected that Chen Jingui wouldn't even let them through the door, tearing away all pretenses of civility right to their faces?

The man brushed the dust off his clothes and grumbled at his wife:

“Listen to yourself. If it weren't for your loose tongue back then offending this coarse, troublesome woman, would we really be stuck out here unable to even enter the door today?”

“Oh, brilliant, Ji Wencai! I’ve been married to you for all these years and bore your children, and now it’s my fault?”

The woman grabbed his sleeve, refusing to back down: “If it weren't for that dead father of yours causing trouble, would I have been reduced to begging Chen Jingui?

I’ve clashed with her since childhood, yet today I had to thicken my skin and beg her...

You—you! I might as well go home, find a strip of white silk to hang from the beam, and die to end it all!

At least that would make way for you and those little vixens over in Nanqiao Ward!”

“What kind of rubbish are you spewing!”

The man glanced at the passersby, feeling as though everyone was staring at him. Feeling humiliated, he snapped:

“If you want to quarrel, wait until we get home! Right now, we should think about how to solve this mess first.”

The more the woman thought about it, the more embarrassed she felt. She gave him a hard shove, turned on her heel, and stormed off:

“What else can we do? Besides burning more gold and silver paper garments, paper ingots, and candles to appease your dead father, do you have any other ideas?

Don't tell me you actually want to burn a junior down there to keep the old man company so he stops tormenting our dreams every night?

Those are my own flesh and blood! You might be willing, but I certainly am not!”

Hearing this, the man with slanting eyes suddenly stopped in his tracks, an epiphany dawning on his face.

Indeed, while he couldn't bear to sacrifice his own offspring, someone else’s child would do just fine.

Best of all, it would be even better if they were related by blood. Perhaps on account of that, his old father would let him off the hook?

...

Nan Zhi had little interest in what was happening outside the room.

Her game character sat cross-legged on the couch, the experience bar above her head steadily rising.

Nan Zhi noticed that as her cultivation time increased, the number of green motes of light swirling around her body gradually multiplied.

She opened her inventory, where the 《Moon-Worshiping Breathing Method》 obtained from the red fox lay inside.

【Do you wish to cultivate 《Moon-Worshiping Breathing Method》?】

【Cultivating multiple methods simultaneously will reduce cultivation speed. Please consider carefully, Cultivator.】

Cultivating at the same time would reduce cultivation speed?

Nan Zhi was somewhat surprised.

Wait.

A bold idea suddenly surfaced in her mind.

【Do you wish to cash out 《Moon-Worshiping Breathing Method》, Qi-Supplementing Pill ×1, Qi-Supplementing Pill ×1, Blood Supplementing Pill ×1, Blood Supplementing Pill ×1?】

Nan Zhi swiftly clicked confirm, waiting with nervous anticipation for the mysterious courier delivery to arrive at her doorstep.

“Squeak, squeak.”

The treasure-seeking mouse curled up at her feet suddenly started pawing around, its short snout nudging frantically:

“Squeak squeak squeak! Squeak squeak squeak!”

Nan Zhi pinched its large ears:

“Corn, what's with this reaction? If you're hungry, there's rat food. If you need the bathroom, there's cat litter. No doing your business outside.”

—In the end, the treasure-seeking mouse had successfully settled into her home. Thanks to the all-powerful online shopping platforms, rat cages, rat food, and specialized foraging grass were all readily available for purchase.

This flying rodent loved eating corn, which was how it earned its rather casually chosen new name.

“Squeak squeak squeak! Squeak squeak!”

Corn stood upright on its hind legs, cupping its front paws toward Nan Zhi in a bow before hopping up and down anxiously, as if trying to hint at something.

Following Corn’s gaze, Nan Zhi looked back and discovered a familiar-looking pile of items sitting right where she had just been seated.

A purple-covered, hand-stitched book and four delicate porcelain bottles.

Nan Zhi slowly turned her head and glanced at the tablet resting on the coffee table. “...So the game isn't even pretending anymore, is it?”

Before, it at least kept up appearances by delivering things in a courier box. Now, it was even better—an outright airdrop right in front of her!

...

Seeing a cultivation method manual from the game appear in reality with her own eyes gave Nan Zhi an illusory sensation of crossing time and space as the dimensional wall shattered.

Granted, this dimensional wall had never been intact to begin with.

Although Blood Supplementing Pills and Qi-Supplementing Pills differed by only a word, their appearances were vastly different.

The former consisted of pinky-sized red pellets with a faint scent of sweet osmanthus, while the latter strongly resembled Liuwei Dihuang pills, carrying a heavier herbal aroma.

—Nan Zhi hadn’t dared to use the hemostatic grass and Qi-Supplementing Pills she previously cashed out from the game, locking them all inside her bedroom cabinet.

Even if a thief broke in, they would never fathom why she kept so many medicine bottles and wild grass in her bedroom.

As for this 《Moon-Worshiping Breathing Method》?

Nan Zhi attempted to flip it open. On the very first page was a drawing of a slender yet majestic nine-tailed fox.

Strangely, the fox was lifelike, every single strand of fur rendered in vivid detail.

Though motionless, its narrow fox eyes slightly arched, gazing at Nan Zhi with a faint smile, its gaze overflowing with the affectionate warmth of an elder looking after a younger generation.

Nan Zhi felt as though struck by something. She stared blankly at the fox for a long moment, only to see what felt like countless lantern-slide visions flashing before her eyes:

In ancient times, it was a battlefield of primordial beasts. A great war between the dragon and phoenix clans caused the heavens to collapse, the earth to split, and catastrophic floods to surge across the realm.

Countless frail living beings struggled to survive, desperately searching for a way to attain the Dao.

Amidst the hazy chaos, a human powerhouse emerged. Holding a wooden cord in their left hand and compass and square in their right, accompanied by a giant nine-tailed fox, they finally held back the raging floods and delivered the common folk from ruin.

That giant nine-tailed fox possessed gentle eyes, its entire body as pure and flawless as snow.

Every time the full moon rose, it would bow reverently toward the moon from afar. With every breath in and out, wisps of Moon Essence transformed into mist.

This mist swirled around the giant fox, eventually condensing into four newly formed giant tails.

A fox with thirteen tails.

Nan Zhi snapped her eyes open, several diagrams newly implanted in her mind.

As if engraved into her consciousness, she instinctively knew how to breathe in the moon essence to cultivate.

By now, she also understood the origin of this cultivation method.

—In ancient times when Great Yu tamed the floods, the Tushan Clan had accompanied his side.

The Tushan Clan followed Great Yu to pacify the lands of the Nine Provinces and govern the realm's mountains and waterways, ultimately attaining the Great Dao and transforming into a Thirteen-tailed Sky Fox.

This breathing method was passed down by the Tushan Clan.

She just didn’t know why she, a human, had also earned the Tushan Clan’s recognition.

“No wonder the game warned to choose carefully. So this was the real reason.”

Nan Zhi looked down at the book in her hands. As though having traversed countless eons of time, the book had weathered beyond recognition.

At her gentle touch, the book disintegrated into dust, scattering in midair.

Outside the window, the night was deep, and the moon hung high. Pure, bright moonlight bathed the mortal realm, gentle and embracing like a mother's embrace.

Should she cultivate it?

Presumably, no sane person would pass up such a tremendous opportunity.

Following what was recorded in the manual, Nan Zhi immediately mimicked the white fox, facing the brilliant moon, breathing in and out to slowly ingest and exhale the lunar essence.

At first, she felt a bit awkward, much like a beginner practicing yoga, feeling uncomfortable no matter what.

Yet gradually, as the moonlight illuminated her entire body, she felt as if soaked in warm water. Nan Zhi actually fell asleep while maintaining her moon-worshiping posture.