The spring breeze carried a hint of coldness.
Chen Xia walked slowly along the small path in the mountain valley, carrying an old hoe over his shoulder, ambling along unhurriedly.
Chen Xia had finally found the most suitable way of life for himself.
Farming.
He did not eat, just watched the crops ripen and the fruit trees grow, which allowed him to have a deeper understanding of the passage of time.
It was better than meditating for a decade or two, then coming out and not knowing what had happened in the meantime.
Besides, farming was not boring either. Chen Xia was currently researching how to graft watermelons and garlic together, so that even without a knife, one could eat garlic-flavored watermelons.
If successful, it would probably become one of the most useless inventions, but who knows, maybe someone would acquire the taste for it.
Chen Xia put down the old hoe on his shoulder and sat at the door of the small house he had built, looking at the various crops stretching across the land.
The small tree outside the house had grown this year, putting out new buds and tender leaves. The fruits were slowly growing and ripening on the branches.
Chen Xia came back to his senses.
The sky had already darkened.
Many days had passed.
Now he often sank into observing the plants grow and lost track of time. When he woke up, he wouldn't know how long had passed.
The half-grown fruits hung heavily on the weighed down branches.
Chen Xia shook his head and picked up the hoe, walking into the house.
Over the past decades, he had made a very outrageous decision.
He put all his points into Luck.
As a result, his Luck directly reached forty, higher than his Strength, and he even unlocked an achievement.
Lucky Dog.
[Lucky Dog: You're a one in a million existence. In big events you will gain the favor of luck, in small events you possess absolute good fortune!]
After some testing, Chen Xia understood what was going on.
The less the event impacted him, the luckier he was. But for events with major impact, he would gain the favor of luck.
For example, sometimes when Chen Xia was digging the soil, he would dig up gold. But the gold was useless to him, so that was a case of absolute good fortune in small things.
As for the favor of luck in big events, Chen Xia thought this was probably equivalent to dealing critical hits.
For example, if he was fighting fiercely against an equal opponent, and originally he could only exert ten percent of his strength, as a result he would be able to exert twenty percent due to the favor of luck.
This was gaining the favor of luck.
So now Chen Xia was adding points to Luck, also with the intention of stacking crits.
As long as Luck was stacked high enough, and the proc rate was stable enough, then crit would become his actual strength!
Chen Xia stretched lazily and sat on the bed, taking a deep breath, calming his mind, and began cultivating the Profound Chaos Scripture.
The early stages of this cultivation method required condensing Profound Chaos Qi, only then could one inscribe Daos within the body. Each Dao represented a mystic art.
They were divided into five elements and yin-yang.
The five elements did not need much explanation, they were commonplace.
But the yin-yang was interesting. Yin represented illusion, and yang represented reality.
Among the yin illusory Daos, there was one Chen Xia was interested in, called Nether Realm of Oblivion.
Its effect was to pull a cultivator below the Great Vehicle realm into it and force them into a one-on-one duel. After casting the art, only when one side died would it dispel.
Chen Xia nicknamed it opening a room.
And this seemingly fair mystic art had an extremely unfair setting.
The host could gain a thirty percent power boost from the opponent.
The key point was that not only did I want to open a room, I also want to rob you.
It was indeed a very powerful Dao, also very suitable for a ferocious fighter like Chen Xia who liked to duel one-on-one.
But inscribing this Dao within the body was extremely difficult, requiring three thousand Profound Chaos Qi, and it had to be written stroke by stroke, neatly and evenly, without the slightest deviation.
Only this way could the Dao be considered completed.
Chen Xia had only condensed thirty Profound Chaos Qi at the moment, still very far from the three thousand Profound Chaos Qi required to inscribe this Dao.
But he was not in a hurry either. His rate of improvement was already much faster than others.
Now in the world, apart from the old immortal who was still in secluded meditation, there was no one worth noting to Chen Xia.
But this old immortal didn't need too much attention either. Based on Chen Xia's current pace of improvement, even Upper Realm cultivators couldn't compare to him, let alone this old immortal.
The last time an Upper Realm cultivator descended, he said that the highest cultivation in this world was at most Foundation Establishment.
That meant the old immortal was also at the Foundation Establishment realm.
A cultivator who still hadn't reached the Golden Core after more than two hundred years really wasn't worth Chen Xia's concern.
His Great Turtle Breathing Art was close to complete mastery now. At most thirty more years until reaching the Golden Core. When his Golden Core was complete, who in this world could surpass him?
But Chen Xia didn't have any ambition to dominate the realm either. He was too lazy for that. He just wanted to live well by himself. Everything else could wait.
Also, he really had never set foot in the jianghu so far, always living in seclusion. No one came to bother him in these deep mountains and old forests, perfect for quiet cultivation.
Chen Xia sat calmly and rubbed his cheeks, then began circulating the Great Turtle Breathing Art. These cultivation methods all required time to accumulate and comprehend, with each session lasting several days.
Fortunately Chen Xia had ample time.
The fruit harvest was very good this year, but Chen Xia did not pick any. It was better to just leave them hanging on the tree.
After this year he would stop adding points to Luck, and continue boosting Strength instead. As for Spirit, there was no hurry. He could add to it after Strength was enough.
A capable man should be strong.
He exhaled a breath of turbid air and picked up the hoe enchanted with rust, ambling out of the house, thinking to go tidy up the barren land.
Just as he walked out of the house, Chen Xia looked up at the heavily laden fruits on the tree.
The bright, translucent fruits were hanging, exuding vitality.
Unknowingly, the sun and moon cycled.
The first day passed.
The fruits showed no change, still hanging on the branches, weighing down the whole tree.
On the second day, there was light rain.
The fruits were covered in raindrops, appearing even more crystal clear, like the most beautiful eighteen years of one's life.
The fifth day.
The fruits had fully ripened, as glossy red as rouge, nestled among the green foliage, extremely eye-catching.
The fifteenth day.
The skins of the fruits started to wrinkle, and the color was no longer as vibrant. They swayed as if about to fall.
The thirtieth day.
The fruits dropped to the ground, skins ruptured, sunk into the mud. Their exterior was no longer the previous vibrant red, but an aged wine red.
The ninetieth day.
The fruits were gone, leaving only freshly turned earth behind.
Two months had passed.
Chen Xia still stood in the same spot, unmoving. His expression was blank, as if lost in thought about something.
The seventh month.
The leaves on the small tree started turning yellow, drifting down and soon piling up on the ground.
The third year.
The small tree had grown bigger, comparable to the surrounding trees, though not particularly impressive.
The wooden house Chen Xia stood in front of already showed signs of decay, with ants frequently crawling out from the crevices.
These were traces of time's passage.
The tenth year.
The small tree had become a big tree, bearing who knew how much fruit over the years. It was in its prime.
Here, time exerted its power, imperceptibly changing everything.
Twenty years.
The wooden house completely collapsed. Chen Xia stood in the ruins, still staring at the tree. His expression was no longer bewildered.
He was very clear about what he was doing, just didn't feel like moving.
Perhaps he had become obsessed.
But he wanted to see it through.
See the whole life of this tree, and observe the power of time that was most unfamiliar to him.
Chen Xia's lifespan was infinite, with no end in sight. So previously, he never truly understood the feeling of time's flow.
Watching this tree now, he first grasped the passage of time.
Thirty years.
The tree rings on the big tree began to spread. It had officially entered its long life cycle.
Forty years.
The big tree finally became an old tree, deeply rooted in the forest.
Fifty years.
The old tree blossomed.
Fifty-one years.
The tree was chopped down.
Chen Xia stared blankly at the lumberjack in front of him, not knowing what to say.
The lumberjack also saw him and scratched his head with a silly grin.
"I've been eyeing this tree for a good few years now. It's suitable for lumber, so I waited specifically until after it blossomed before chopping it down. Little brother, if you want some too, I can give you a share."
Chen Xia was silent for a while. He could tell the lumberjack was sincere, so he was not angry with him. He shook his head.
"No need, you take it."
The lumberjack smiled and said, "Little brother, you look unfamiliar around here, not a local right?"
Chen Xia nodded. "I'm from the south."
"That's quite far, but I've never been far away myself, haha." The lumberjack picked up his axe and looked at the lowering sun, reminding Chen Xia, "It's getting late..."
"Young man, you should hurry out of here. This mountain forest is too desolate, and dangerous beasts may appear at night. If you like, you can come down the mountain with this old man," said the woodcutter.
"No need for that," Chen Xia shook his head. "I have learned some martial arts of the jianghu, known as the Great Martial Pine. I do not fear wild beasts."
Seeing Chen Xia's response, the woodcutter did not persuade him further. He hoisted the split logs onto his shoulders and strode down the mountain with heavy steps.
Looking at the tree stump where the old tree once stood, Chen Xia gained another insight into the passage of time.
No matter how long one's lifespan, if killed, one will still die.
With a sigh, he approached the stump to observe the annual rings and was about to lament.
[Opportunity: You have gained an elementary insight into time. Basic mastery of time attained.]
A brief prompt sounded in Chen Xia's mind. A transparent white flashed through his eyes, indicating his elementary grasp of time.
Chen Xia furrowed his brows. The prompt told him he had gained insight into time, yet he did not feel he had comprehended anything.
What does it mean to gain insight?
That being killed leads to death?
Chen Xia shook his head, confused. As his gaze drifted, he noticed a flower bud blossoming.
Suddenly, he had an idea. The transparent glow reappeared in his eyes.
Everything around him seemed to slow down.
The birds were motionless, the falling leaves frozen in midair.
Only the flower bud moved at tremendous speed.
Blooming, spreading pollen, withering, falling.
The life cycle of the flower passed in but thirty breaths at astounding velocity.
The transparency left Chen Xia's eyes.
He still did not understand time.
But he could use it.
That was enough.
Perhaps it was the work of opportunity, enhancing his insight.
To the point where even Chen Xia did not know what he had comprehended, yet he could still use it.
Chen Xia did not dwell on it further. He patted down his light green robe and leisurely made his way out of the mountain forest.
With no home left and the tree of enlightenment felled, he too had to leave the mountain.
However, Chen Xia felt that even if the woodcutter had not cut down the tree, his enlightenment would have ended soon regardless.
At his current realm, he could sustain enlightenment for fifty or sixty years at most. Any more would be too much to digest, and counterproductive.
This was like a child only being able to eat so much before becoming full. Eating just enough allows them to grow, but overeating leads to stomachache.
Chen Xia felt he had eaten his fill, about eighty percent.
That was good enough.
Some things should not be pursued to perfection, else it becomes self-torture.
Leisurely, he descended the mountain, allocating all his points into strength.
His original strength of 35 instantly rose to 85.
More than double.
As a result, Chen Xia initially struggled to control himself, easily sinking into the earth with each step as if it were snow.
Fortunately, he adjusted quickly, only leaving three craters in the mountain before gaining control.
Truly a welcome improvement.
It was just past winter, welcoming the early spring. The climate was still rather cold with frost on the trees.
The frost would need to thaw before true warm spring arrived.
In the imperial city, the snow had just finished melting, bringing a rare sunny day.
Huang Qingyue had swapped her padded jacket for a goose-yellow skirt, pruning the flowers she had planted outside.
To be precise, it was a potted peach tree sapling, waiting for its flowers to bloom.
Huang Qingyue gently cleared the snow off the peach tree before lazily watering it.
Her disposition had become rather lazy and unhurried, no longer tense or anxious.
Perhaps influenced by a certain someone?
Huang Qingyue was uncertain herself. She knitted her brows and turned over the soil to stimulate the tree's growth.
Stretching with a yawn, she stood before the peach tree, lost in thought.
Based on a normal human lifespan, she would be considered a granny now, right?
Yet she lacked any signs of aging, still as youthful as a maiden in her twenties.
Undoubtedly this was thanks to the Profound Chaos Manual, having refined fifty wisps of profound chaos qi and greatly increased her lifespan.
However, unable to transcribe the manual, her strength was nothing impressive.
Currently, she was at the pinnacle of masters in the jianghu, comparable to Zuo Feiyang, Jiu Qiansui and the like.
Still lost in thought, the peach tree before her suddenly sprouted branches and blossoms, blooming vibrant peach flowers.
"What are you thinking about?"
An inquisitive voice full of laughter.
Huang Qingyue was startled frozen. Hearing the familiar voice, tears immediately welled up as she hurriedly turned to look.
A figure in light green robes crouched atop the wall, smiling at her.
"Long time no see."
The tears Huang Qingyue had been holding back could no longer be contained, streaming down her face. Through blurred vision she looked at the figure and asked the question that had been on her mind.
"Why didn't you take me with you when you left?"
Chen Xia still smiling, answered, "Because I said we would meet again."
Huang Qingyue kept dabbing her eyes with her sleeve but the tears would not stop. She complained with an aggrieved tone,
"But I didn't think it would be so long."
Still crouching on the wall, Chen Xia casually leaned his head against one hand, gently laughing reassurance,
"But you're still young, aren't you?"
Huang Qingyue pouted, muttering, "I'm already a granny."
"To me, you're still the young maiden from back then," Chen Xia replied, the smile never leaving his lips.
Huang Qingyue also smiled amidst her tearful laughter.
The peach blossoms behind her bloomed even more vibrantly.
Huang Qingyue suddenly understood.
It was not the flowers blooming upon Chen Xia's return, but rather his return that brought the blossoming flowers.
Not just the peach blossoms.
But the blossoming of her heart as well.