Chapter 105: New Home

Chapter 105: New Home

In the evening, Shang Yunduo returned with a pile of bamboo poles. As soon as he got off his flying sword, he asked, "Senior, it's so late. Why didn't you come looking for me?"

"..." Pei Jie opened his eyes from inside the cabin, glanced at him, and said nothing.

Shang Yunduo put down his building materials—the bamboo poles—and quickly started pulling things out. "I drove away the demon beast that lived here and plucked all the spiritual herbs around its cave."

Pei Jie hummed in acknowledgment. He knew—not only him, but probably all the demon beasts in the vicinity knew that this place had changed owners, and the new owner had just finished "patrolling" his territory.

"Oh, right." Shang Yunduo handed Pei Jie the piece of wood he had picked up from the cave. "The entire cave burned down, and this is all that's left. What is it?"

Pei Jie took it, but couldn't tell anything through the charcoal. He brought it to his nose and sniffed. "Mind-Clearing Wood?"

Shang Yunduo: "What's that?"

Pei Jie returned it to him. "It can nourish your spiritual sense. Wear it; it will benefit your cultivation."

Shang Yunduo was taken aback. "There was a piece of wood in the cave, this big—wasn't it all Mind-Clearing Wood? Did I burn it all?"

He gestured to show Pei Jie the size, staring at him eagerly.

He hadn't really burned all the valuable stuff, had he?

Pei Jie: "Only the core of the wood is useful. Getting a piece like this from a tree is already good."

Of course, if it were the whole tree, it would be even better—it could be used to make beds, couches, or other furniture, nourishing the entire cave dwelling.

But since it was already burned, he decided not to tell him.

"That's good." Shang Yunduo was relieved from the regret of "burning two billion." He also brought the piece of wood to his nose and sniffed; it really had a faint, refreshing scent. With a sharp crack, he broke the piece in two. "It was hard to burn, but I didn't expect it to be so brittle."

Pei Jie: "..."

Shang Yunduo compared the two pieces and handed the larger one to him. "Here."

"..." Pei Jie looked at it and accepted it. "What are you doing with so much bamboo?"

Shang Yunduo: "Building a house!"

But what was on the ground couldn't really be called "so much." He caught on—right, spiritual sense. Pei Jie didn't need to follow him; he could see today's activities through his spiritual sense.

No wonder Pei Jie hadn't come looking for him!

Shang Yunduo immediately cheered up. "I cut a lot! I'll go bring back the rest!"

As for how to build the house, Shang Yunduo had no experience. He had brought back the bamboo but hadn't figured out how to construct it yet.

In the evening, they still had to stay in the cabin.

After dual cultivation, Pei Jie sat down to meditate. Shang Yunduo lay beside him, not sleepy for the moment, so he got up, took some paper and a brush, drew a few simple floor plans like stick figures, and showed them to Pei Jie, asking which method of building would be better.

Pei Jie looked at the round and square wall layouts. He really couldn't see any difference worth choosing. "As long as it blocks the wind and rain, that's fine. Don't spend too much effort on it. We won't be staying long."

Shang Yunduo: "Yeah, I wouldn't know how to make it complicated anyway. We'll live here one day at a time; it's not much work."

Pei Jie thought for a moment and chose the square one; it looked easier to build.

Shang Yunduo: "Alright, that's the one!"

He put away his things, practiced the Freedom Sutra twice, then reviewed the Illusion Art once before preparing to sleep.

His cultivation speed was faster during the day, while Pei Jie's was the opposite. However, Pei Jie's cultivation efficiency was high throughout the day, whereas his own—perhaps due to bloodline or natural talent—wasn't as effective when meditating at night as when sleeping.

Pei Jie only occasionally slept with him for a while; most nights he continued cultivating.

Shang Yunduo lay down next to Pei Jie, secretly glad that there was only one bed in the cabin. Pei Jie sat here to meditate, and he slept here too, so even with different schedules, they didn't have to be apart.

When they started building tomorrow, he would make the bedroom small too, with only one bed.

Having secretly planned this, he didn't know that Pei Jie had no intention of sleeping separately.

The dual cultivation technique wasn't effective only during dual cultivation; they were complementary in yin and yang, so cultivating together benefited both.

Theoretically, the closer the distance, the better the cultivation effect. Pei Jie didn't mind sitting next to him either. However, after Shang Yunduo fell asleep, he would always end up touching Pei Jie with an arm or his head, regardless of the season. Pei Jie would put him back, but soon he would roll over again. Over time, Pei Jie got used to it and simply borrowed his body to circulate spiritual energy together.

It was unclear whether it was due to prolonged dual cultivation or Shang Yunduo's complete trust in him, but even while asleep, his spiritual power offered no resistance to Pei Jie's. At first, Pei Jie held his hand while meditating; later, he discovered that as long as a part of their bodies touched—or even without touching—he could circulate spiritual power together with him, approaching spiritual communion.

If Shang Yunduo noticed anything, he was still vague about it and didn't think much of it. He just assumed that after Foundation Establishment, even sleeping was more effective than during the Qi Refining stage. He woke up every day full of energy, as if he had cultivated all night.

Even better, he could see Pei Jie before sleep and see him again when he woke up—every day started off beautifully.

When he woke up, Shang Yunduo hummed a tune while building the house. Originally, he only wanted to make a fence wall and a simple square room. But as he built, he couldn't resist running off to cut trees, saw boards, and gather stones for the foundation.

He first leveled the ground, dug trenches, used wooden boards for walls, set wooden posts as beams and pillars, built a roof, then inserted bamboo outside the walls for aesthetics, and laid flooring in the rooms.

Wood needed to be dried before use, but Shang Yunduo couldn't wait to sun-dry it, so he simply dried it himself.

Other people cultivated by sparring, dueling, or going out on adventures. But him? He used the Seven Baleful Fire to toast wood.

Pei Jie was momentarily speechless watching him.

Well, burning anything is still burning. At least he was burning something. How could that not be considered practice? So he simply let Shang Yunduo do as he pleased.

After the house was built, Shang Yunduo was afraid it wasn't sturdy enough and might collapse, so he patiently drew several types of protective talismans and pasted them everywhere.

Now, even if a demon beast came and rammed the wooden-bamboo house a few times, it probably wouldn't collapse.

At this, Pei Jie: "..."

In any case, he had practiced drawing talismans.

By the time Shang Yunduo placed the furniture inside, the small house—far exceeding his initial expectations—really looked like a proper home.

There was a bedroom, a guest room, a study, an alchemy room, a qin room, and also a kitchen, a washroom, and a storage room.

Shang Yunduo also moved stones to pave a practice area in the courtyard, specifically for training in Body Techniques and the Seven Baleful Fire Art, to avoid accidentally breaking or burning the house.

Around the house, he laid small stones, and around the bamboo fence, he transplanted some flowers and spiritual plants.

However, even the hard mountain rocks couldn't withstand his beating and burning. To prevent the stones he had worked so hard to bring from being reduced to gravel, Pei Jie suggested he change his practice target.

Shang Yunduo: "Change to who?"

Pei Jie: "We have plenty of neighbors."

Shang Yunduo was taken aback. But weren't he and Pei Jie the only two people for hundreds of miles around?

Huh? Neighbors?

Monsters?

Shang Yunduo: "I'm gonna go fight beasts?"

Pei Jie nodded: "Start with the third-order beasts. If you win, loot their dens. If you lose, practice escaping when things go south."

Shang Yunduo: "..."

So that's why we moved here?

Think about it—on the path of cultivation, you can't just work in isolation. Those sect disciples could spar and train within their sects, with lots of internal and external competitions and trials. He could spar with Pei Jie, but their sparring was more like Pei Jie giving him one-on-one guidance, which was different from real trials and combat.

Guess we're neighbors, then.

Pei Jie was right. Whether he won or lost, he'd come out ahead either way. He'd just treat it as accumulating combat experience.

In these mountains, besides third-order beasts, there were also fourth-, fifth-, and even sixth-order ones. Just in case, Shang Yunduo put on Pei Jie's defensive ring again and stashed the flying ship away, so if danger arose, he could slip away—better safe than sorry.

But to provoke third-order beasts, his own Sword Flight was enough. Their levels were about the same; whether he could win was another matter, but running away was more than enough.

After preparing properly and choosing a target, Shang Yunduo finished his morning cultivation as usual, checked everything he needed to bring, patted his waist pouch, and shouted "I'm off!" like he was going on a spring outing, then went out to mess with the neighbors.

Pick the low-hanging fruit first—he chose the Dark Armor Ox, which had the smallest territory and the lowest cultivation.

Dark Armor Ox loved eating spirit grass and occasionally some bug-type monsters. Its largest prey was no bigger than a rat. Every day it patrolled its territory, and it used almost all its brainpower to plan what to eat today, tomorrow, and the day after.

It had to remember which patches of spirit grass grew fastest—could eat tender shoots every ten days—and which grew so slowly that it could only eat a few leaves every half year. Missing a few blades wasn't a big deal, but if it ate too much and killed the spirit grass, it'd be a bad trade.

It took a lot of work to get to know a territory that could exactly sustain it, so it only occupied the area it could manage.

The nearby beasts all knew that the Dark Armor Ox was good-tempered, but never steal spirit grass in its territory—it knew every single blade!

If caught, the usually good-tempered Dark Armor Ox would go berserk. Once it went crazy, it'd forget all the numbers in its head, and then get even crazier. It'd chase the thief at full speed until it either ran out of steam or trampled 'em.

When enraged, the Dark Armor Ox's mind was filled with fury, and it would even dare to charge into the territories of fourth- and fifth-order beasts.

Shang Yunduo naturally did not know any of this.

He only knew that grass-eaters were generally safer than meat-eaters.

For his first practice, it was better to find a grass-eater.

The Dark Armor Ox was lying beside a spirit grass, trying to recall when it had last eaten it and whether it was time to eat it now.

Before it could finish calculating, suddenly a strange-looking creature crashed down from the sky and landed right next to its spirit grass. The already delicate leaves quivered from the wind of his landing, and the fragile stem looked like it was about to snap.

The Dark Armor Ox stood up abruptly and snorted at Shang Yunduo.

Where are you from?!

Get lost!

Shang Yunduo couldn't understand its snorts, naturally, but even though he sensed its anger, he was confused.

After all, this was its territory; beasts naturally had strong territorial awareness, so of course it was pissed at him barging in.

He even wondered if he had disturbed this big ox, that looked like a mini elephant, from its afternoon nap.

Shang Yunduo politely said, "Hey, Ox brother. We're kind of neighbors, uh, wanna spar?"

Its grass!

The Dark Armor Ox didn't give a damn about his babbling. It stomped its hooves, lowered its head, and charged at Shang Yunduo with its thick, sharp horns.

Author's note:

The mountain neighbors are about to have some lively times ahead [dog head]