Chapter 54: My Journal (Part 1)

[Title: Chronicles of Cultivation]

[Year of the Ox, Third day of April]

I sealed the entrance just as it was, setting up protective formations.

I chose a place sheltered from the wind near the mountain to build a bamboo house. One side faces a bamboo forest, the other faces wild grass. The Grass and Wood Technique in the third layer is quite effective for weeding.

I fed Grass and Wood Essence Pearls to the Ice Armored Beetle King, accumulating grass ash. Once the bamboo house is built, it can be used for cultivating spiritual fields and fertilizing.

This place is not suitable for growing spiritual rice, but I can try spiritual wheat. Grandfather's storage bag still has many seeds.

In addition to Qi-refining pills, I also bought spiritual rice, spiritual vegetables, and dried demonic beast meat. It's a bit economical, enough to last for a year.

I cannot be complacent; I cannot be lazy. I must maintain a sense of crisis.

My daily cultivation schedule is as follows:

- Midnight and Ox hour: Meditation

- Tiger hour: Boxing

- Rabbit hour: Drawing symbols

- Dragon hour to Noon: Cutting bamboo and building a house

- Snake hour: Carving on the Divine Machine Stone

- Monkey and Rooster hour: Practicing martial skills and techniques

- Dog hour: Learning formations

- Pig hour: Observing thunder, practicing the xun (musical instrument), recording the journal, reading books to relax

Combine movement and stillness, be diligent without interruption.

...

[Year of the Ox, Ninth day of May]

The bamboo house is completed. I plowed two plots of land in front of the house, enclosed them with fences, planting Fire Thornbushes and Ice Thornbushes on each side. Tomorrow, I'll cultivate the barren land and plant spiritual wheat.

My Cultivation and spiritual awareness are steadily growing. Talisman Making is becoming more proficient, but the engraving on the Divine Machine Stone has not been successful.

The "Mad Thunder Body Refining Technique" is improving, combined with the "Five Elements Return to True Technique," making my physique stronger. I am energetic every day, even without sleep.

"Three Strikes of the Severed Waters" is nearing completion, and "Chasing Stars Steps" has reached mastery.

Based on the experience of Ye Shiming, both "Chaotic Soul Record" and "The Blaze of a Hundred Spears Technique" have reached the pinnacle of perfection. To reach the Grandmaster realm, only a hair's breadth remains.

The five spells have also reached the third level, with the "Edge Sharpness Formula" reaching the peak of the third level, facing a bottleneck.

Today, I decided to take a rest.

I built a row of shelves in the bamboo house, organized my grandfather's relics, books, and jade slips.

Aside from some seeds, my grandfather left behind a hundred volumes of worldly histories and collections, along with more than ten books and jade slips related to alchemy and farming.

Books and seeds are the best things my grandfather left me, more precious than those magical tools and spiritual stones.

I discovered a good recipe for brewing alcohol. With abundant wild fruits and grains, it's perfect for experimentation. Once I master the brewing technique, I can make spiritual wine.

In my grandfather's storage bag, there are seeds for Four-Season Berries and Ninth-Grade Spiritual Fruits, ripening every season. These are perfect for brewing spiritual wine.

The books and jade slips given by Xie Jingshan are diverse, stacked on the bamboo shelves. There are over two thousand volumes, covering the basics of cultivation, the six arts, and various introductory methods of miscellaneous studies.

Divination, insect cultivation, medical arts, ghost and demon arts, puppet mechanisms, and even clothing and disguises are included.

Found a book titled "Practical Formation Techniques from Entry to Burial," with a strange name but detailed content.

Another book, "Five Elements Escape Talismans," contains five types of talismans for escaping. Quite interesting, I'll keep it for study.

The room is filled with the fragrance of books, and I am delighted.

Unexpectedly, I didn't feel that coming here was to endure hardships but rather a gift from the heavens, urging me to focus on cultivating without distractions.

The only discomfort is the lack of companionship. I can only share my thoughts with Little Green every day.

Fortunately, I still have Little Green as company.

...

[Year of the Ox, Thirtieth day of May]

Damn mice!

The Thornfruit is about to ripen, and as I return, I find that most of it has been nibbled by mice.

In a fit of anger, I found the mouse hole, played the perfected "Chaotic Soul Record," and the mice came out in a frenzy, attacking each other and wiping themselves out.

I buried the mouse corpses in the newly cultivated spiritual field for fertilization. In the mouse hole, I found some residual spiritual stone fragments and spiritual fruit seeds.

After comparing with the books, I identified a few seeds of Ninth-Grade Spirit Gourd. I planted them in the corner of the house, and they will be perfect for making spiritual wine when mature.

The study of formations needs to be accelerated. Apart from mice, there are other small beasts in the valley. Though not high-grade demonic beasts, their destructive power should not be underestimated. I must find a way to protect the spiritual field.

Currently, I can only rely on talismans or spiritual stones for formations, and spiritual stones have many uses, so they shouldn't be wasted. I'll start with talismans.

I found a book called "Ten Methods of Making Talisman Papers" in the house. One method uses spiritual bamboo for paper making. The bamboo in the valley has weak spiritual energy, and I'm not sure if it will work.

In any case, I will go to the bamboo forest every day to water it with the "Cloud and Rain Technique" and see if it works.

If successful, there will be no shortage of talisman papers.

But the inventory of talisman sand is not much. At my current speed of crafting talismans every day, it will only last for a year.

...

[Year of the Ox, Sixteenth day of June]

I faced repeated failures with talisman formations. Learning the Dao of Formations is truly challenging!

The small beasts in the vicinity seem to have communicated with each other. Every night, they come in groups to steal from my field.

They even fight fiercely over the ownership of spiritual plants, not putting me, the owner of the spiritual field, in their eyes at all.

This is too much!

Fortunately, I have other ways.

The engraving on the Divine Machine Stone was successful yesterday. I intend to use the scarecrow method of deterring crows to create a puppet standing in the field to intimidate these small beasts.

Making a puppet is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Each part is very intricate and requires careful polishing.

I'm thinking that I only need it to make some noise and scare the small beasts, so it doesn't need to be so complicated. But then I think, since I have to put effort into making it, it would be a waste to just scare the small beasts. If it can water the spiritual field every day by itself, wouldn't that be wonderful?

Let's try it out!