Half a month later, in Shi Village.
"Come on! E'meng! Push a little harder, E'meng!"
In the Martial Arts Practice Square of Shi Village, Shi Heng, dressed in animal-skin clothes and trousers, was arm-wrestling with a little boy named E'meng. E'meng had just turned six, and his arm strength was in the upper tier for children his age.
A circle of young boys had gathered around the two, shouting to cheer E'meng on, while aunts and matrons squatted about in various spots, cracking melon seeds and watching the fun.
"Oh! E'meng lost!"
E'meng slammed his fist onto the stone table, unconvincingly muttering in loud protest:
"It's not fair! Brother Heng's hands are a whole circle bigger than mine, I couldn't get any leverage. Let's go again!"
"Xiao Heng has only been here for half a month, yet he's already as strong as little E'meng. He's improving really fast! Stop making a fuss, E'meng."
Three layers of villagers surrounded the table inside and out—mostly those who hadn't gone out hunting, predominantly the elderly, the weak, women, and children.
Shi Village itself only had a little over three hundred people. The hunting team alone took sixty or seventy of them, to say nothing of the children. Since they couldn't go out into the mountains and the village space was small, they spent every day tossing about in this open area of the Martial Arts Practice Square after finishing their meals.
Now that they had finally managed to catch this weakling newcomer Shi Heng, testing their strength against him to assert dominance had become a daily staple.
Who would have thought that after not even a few good days, Shi Heng's strength would shoot up by leaps and bounds, leading to today's scene where E'meng lost the arm-wrestling match.
"That's right! I still remember when he first arrived, he'd pass out after barely saying two words. Back then, I thought my daughter was definitely not getting married to him. But now he looks pretty good and solid. At this rate, if he trains for another half a month, he can join the hunting team. I'll ask him about it another day," an aunt remarked.
As soon as the arm-wrestling match ended, Shi Heng beat a hasty retreat. He kept feeling like those aunts and matrons were giving him strange looks...
Inwardly, he felt a surge of triumph: starting today, I am invincible among those under five years old!
Little Tot excluded!
Over the past half a month, Shi Heng had successfully integrated with the villagers. The people of Shi Village were honest and kind-hearted, making them not at all difficult to get along with.
During this time, thanks to the villagers' relief aid, Shi Heng didn't have to worry about going hungry. One family would send a bit of meat today, and another would send some vegetables tomorrow; the only problem was that he felt a bit embarrassed.
As for asking Xu Qi'an or Ning Yi for help, he would rather die than do it—the group leader still had his pride, after all.
Shi Heng knew very well that the martial power level of Perfect World was terrifyingly high, and even with mental preparation, he still found his jaw dropping at the villagers' sheer physical might from time to time.
This only hardened his resolve to condition his body. Every morning he would start by following the villagers in their morning exercises, and after half a month, his progress was rapid, his muscles gradually bulging.
The village had equipment specially designed for testing strength. Anything under a thousand catties was measured with stones, while anything heavier used a bronze tripod.
Three hundred catties of arm strength.
Half a month later, Shi Heng was already able to lift a three-thousand-catty giant boulder in the village.
As far as Swallowed Star was concerned, this was already at the level of an elementary trainee. But in the village, Shi Heng was at best in the same tier as youths like Pihou and Shimeng, so he naturally didn't escape being the butt of the villagers' jokes. Of course, he didn't mind—who told him to have been knocked out with a single slap in the beginning anyway?
He didn't take a free ride either. He asked Luo Feng for a few advanced hunting technique and agriculture books to use as a breakthrough point. Today he would argue until his face turned red with the adult hunting team, and tomorrow he would chat with the village women and matrons about how to plant wheat and vegetables.
He steered clear of medicinal herbs; the plants and herbs differed across worlds, so they held no reference value whatsoever.
Before he knew it, the villagers had accepted this thin, frail young man.
As evening approached.
"Dad and Uncle are back!" It was Pihou who spoke, playing at the village entrance with his little companions.
A group of people emerged from the mountain forest at the entrance of the village, led by Shi Linhu and Shi Feijiao. The one who had knocked Shi Heng out initially was Shi Feijiao, the second-in-command of the Shi Village hunting team, second only to the leader Shi Linhu.
Both men possessed an arm strength of five to six thousand catties and were on the verge of breaking through to the Blood-Moving Realm (Early-Stage).
"Wow! So many prey! There's even a Dragon-Horned Elephant, a Fire Rhinoceros, and a Mixed-Blood Fierce Beast! Uncle, every time you went out hunting these past two weeks you've brought back so much game—you guys are amazing!" A group of little kids saw the hunting team returning to the village and rushed over.
"Haha, we aren't quite sure ourselves either! Ever since the little Shi lad entered the village, our hauls in the mountains have been bountiful every single time, and we've even run into solitary fierce beasts on multiple occasions. This time we were only in the mountains for two days before coming back—he might just be our village's lucky star!" Shi Linhu roared in his booming voice, loud enough for the entire village to hear, though the small settlement only had about three hundred people to begin with.
Upon hearing this, the young male villagers nodded in agreement as well: "That's right! These past two weeks, my body has felt so relaxed, and the morning exercise effects are extremely obvious. I feel like in another year or half, I can go deep into the mountains with the hunting team."
"And the wheat in the fields—these past two weeks have been completely different from previous years; they've been growing exceptionally fast!" said the aunt in charge of tending the wheat fields.
"Indeed, we old fellows have felt it too. Our ailments have improved over the past half a month, and our bodies have gotten better." The clan elders could also sense the changes taking place both within the village and in themselves.
Standing off to the side, Shi Heng blushed. It was his first time encountering a scenario where several hundred people praised him all at once. Yet, he also felt a warm glow of happiness inside; after all, he was gradually blending into Shi Village, and the better the villagers lived, the happier he felt.
By this point, Shi Heng had also figured out the effect of Ziyun. To put it colloquially, it was like having a buff aura applied.
Shi Village Luck +10!
This wasn't just reflected in one specific aspect, but rather provided an all-around acceleration—anything within the borders of Shi Village that benefited the community would undergo positive changes.
"All right, stop blocking the way here! Go haul the prey up to the altar!" It was the patriarch Shi Yunfeng who spoke.
Scores of giant beasts were piled one by one onto the sacrificial altar, and patriarch Shi Yunfeng led the villagers in a joint prayer. Shi Heng stood among them as well.
The purpose of the prayer was to seek the protection of the Sacrificial Spirit. Every time the hunting team went into the mountains or returned to the village, this ritual had to be performed.
A hunting tribe's meat supply came from the great mountains. However, fierce beasts and giant birds in the mountains were still manageable; if they encountered ferocious beasts and vicious birds resulting in casualties, it would spell utter disaster for a settlement in the Great Wilderness. Thus, performing sacrifices to beg for the Sacrificial Spirit's protection was also a way to find peace of mind.
Every single day for the past half a month, Shi Heng had gone to take a look at the Willow Deity's wooden stump. He felt deeply ashamed of his naive thoughts from half a month ago; the notion of an age gap spanning three eras was something only bold and audacious readers would dare to entertain. Although his strength had grown rapidly over the past fortnight, it still fell miserably short. Once he immersed himself in this reality, he truly understood the sheer terror lurking within it.
He knew that the Willow Deity was undergoing Nirvana during this period, absorbing the essence of divine remains deep underground. By the time Little Tot was three and a half years old, he would be able to effortlessly slay Spirit Transformation and Inscription Realm cultivators, which meant the Willow Deity was most likely in the Array Formation Realm, though probably not yet a Venerable—the battle of the four great divine beasts involved carrying the village and fleeing.
Comparing this to the combat videos Luo Feng posted in the chat group, a Perfect World Array Formation Realm expert was equivalent to a Domain Lord level being in Swallowed Star, placing them a tier higher even than Xu Qi'an. However, the Martial God path on Xu Qi'an's side possessed its own unique characteristics.
Fortunately, the Willow Deity belonged to the benevolent faction; otherwise, he probably would have kicked the bucket on his very first day of transmigrating.
The sacrificial rites proceeded to completion. The able-bodied men rolled up their sleeves, whetted their blades, and began butchering the giant beasts while the women and children assisted on the side. The clan elders held clay jars to catch the essence of the beast blood.
"Hey! Ha!" Little Tot waddled up close, imitating the grown men's grips as they hacked at the meat. His tiny hands chopped at a nearby giant beast, instantly setting off roaring laughter among the villagers.
Little Tot's small face flushed red, and taking some berries given to him by Shi Fu, he scampered off into a nearby house.
The butchering of the beast meat went on for quite a while. With the whole village turning out, everyone received a corresponding share of meat based on their household size to take back for sun-drying, pickling, and storage.
After all, Shi Village had been passed down for who knew how many years. Though a vast amount of its heritage had been lost, oral traditions ensured that Shi Village never lacked salt, possessing methods to extract it from deep brine wells.
There was also a river a mile away. As the saying went, "enter not deep forests, cross not raging rivers." The village elders constantly admonished the children never to run off and play by the riverside; the aquatic domain was far more perilous than the mountain forests, so they dug their own deep wells for drinking water to guarantee a secure source.
Shi Heng had not yet experienced the winter of the Great Wilderness, but he reckoned it would be quite similar to conditions in the Northeast back in his original world.
Storing food thus became a necessary measure for every household, especially since everyone lived a precarious, hand-to-mouth existence in this barren, deeply-gashed expanse of the Great Wilderness mountains.
Shi Village had not entirely cut off contact with the outside world. Villages in the Great Wilderness were anywhere from scores to hundreds of li apart. The Little Gushan Town mentioned in the original text lay a hundred li away from Shi Village, but the deeper one went into the mountains, the greater the dangers, which also forced tribes into a form of isolated existence where making a single trip out could take a year or half.
The sun was about to set. Carrying nearly two hundred catties of beast meat, Shi Heng returned to his stone house and began preparing for the evening meal. A large iron pot was set upon the kitchen stove; Shi Heng tossed a handful of dry firewood into the firebox, struck a spark with a flint, and sliced off twenty catties of fierce beast beef to make a dish of braised beef.
No matter how long Shi Village's heritage endured, it was still constrained by its surrounding environment, making food preparation exceedingly simple.
As a modern man, however, there was simply no way Shi Heng could accept that, so he had asked the members of the chat group to send over some seasoning red packets, receiving a massive pile in return.
Physical items in the chat group could be temporarily stored, possessing a unique holding space that would keep them preserved indefinitely unless extracted.
Everyone in the village knew that the meat dishes Shi Heng cooked were exceptionally fragrant. Lacking an immediate excuse, Shi Heng simply claimed he had found some seasonings near the village, which had now run out.
"Come and taste the exclusive craftsmanship of this group leader—braised beef made from wild fierce beast beef. Have a bite in the group first."
*Ding... The group leader sent a group red packet.*
Xu Xin claimed your red packet.
Ning Yi claimed your red packet.
Xu Qi'an claimed your red packet.
Bai Yuekui claimed your red packet.
Ever since four new members joined, the chat group's search interface had continuously displayed "searching" with no new worlds found. It seemed that finding a world across the boundless Sea of Chaos was exceedingly difficult indeed.
After half a month of groping and confirming that the chat group was harmless, Luo Feng—feeling somewhat uneasy about leaving Xu Xin by herself—pulled Xu Xin into the group. After all, in the original work, due to Luo Feng's oversight, he had failed to communicate with Xu Xin during the period when his new body was being gestated, leading her to mistakenly believe Luo Feng had died and resulting in a suicide attempt after childbirth.
Shi Heng's seasonings came courtesy of Xu Xin, though Ning Yi had contributed a bit as well.
They said that men who loved their wives would prosper; this was being vividly demonstrated here.
Each group member could only pull one person in. Neither Ning Yi nor Xu Qi'an had pulled anyone in—as two men running dual harems, they both knew what their situations were. Bai Yuekui's situation was also complicated, so she hadn't pulled anyone in either.
"Thanks for the food, Group Leader. It's not bad, very tasty, and eating it leaves my body feeling all warm." *Qianfeng Xuxu* was Xu Xin's nickname. She was an ordinary person, and since fierce beast meat contained vital essence, the effects were immediately obvious to a mortal after eating it.
"Right. You're pregnant right now, so eating meat containing vital essence is beneficial for the baby too, but you shouldn't eat too much," Shi Heng quickly typed. If Xu Xin ran into any trouble from eating this, Luo Feng would probably skin him alive.
"Delicious. I haven't eaten anything like this since the Cataclysm happened," Bai Yuekui praised.
"It's almost bedtime over here... You're dropping poison late at night like this? And you two, stop praising him—his culinary skills are way off. Such a waste of good beef, utterly squandering heaven's gifts!" Ning Yi complained with a mixture of amusement and annoyance.
"Shi Heng, the Heaven's Will over on my end wants you to send a few live ones, preferably with runes... I only gave it a single bone in exchange... and it even said there would be a heavy reward." Xu Qi'an wore a speechless expression.
"Emm... No live ones, and our village is short on food, so we don't have any to spare right now. I'll catch some for you after a while. What reward did it mention?" Shi Heng said with a light chuckle.
"It didn't say, just claimed it would be a good thing for you. Who knows what devious scheme it's cooking up again."
"No capacity for it, we'll talk later! By the way, has the Lighthouse sent Mark and the others out to scavenge in the Australian continent yet?"
"Not yet, which means the animation you provided hasn't started yet. The beef you gave me is helping me too! After finishing it, I feel my strength has increased a bit, and I even have a vague sensation of my lifespan being extended, though it's very faint. If my spiritual perception weren't strong, I probably wouldn't even have noticed it." After finishing her meal, Bai Yuekui sat cross-legged on the ground, chatting within the chat group.
"I don't have any extra either. I'm currently in the body-conditioning stage; my arm strength only reached three hundred catties today, making me invincible under five years old in the village..."
"Weakling group leader."
"Weakling group leader." +1
"Hmph hmph, I'm writing this down in my little notebook. Sea King Xu and Sea King Ning, you two just wait."
"Our Lantern Festival is starting in a few days. Do you guys want to come take a look?" Ning Yi spoke up.
"Sure! To watch you flaunt your poetic talent and put on a show! Haha!"
"Oh? An ancient lantern festival? Too bad Luo Feng is in closed-door seclusion so he can't go..." Xu Xin added, "Boss Bai, are you going?"
Having watched *Ling Long*, Xu Xin had adopted the nickname used therein.
"I have nothing to do lately, so I'll go with you. But I don't have any ancient clothing!"
Chitter-chatter.
The conversation was instantly derailed by Xu Xin and Bai Yuekui.
Just as they were talking.
Outside the door.
"Heng lad! You done eating? If you're done, come with me! Big good news!" Shi Feijiao's booming voice rang out outside the courtyard gate, his expression exceedingly bizarre and looking rather sneaky as he spoke.