Hermit in the Mountains

Three days passed in a flash. As usual, Gu Changsheng finished refining the 'Purple Qi', got up to feed his three pets, cultivate spiritual herbs, and cast the Spirit Rain Technique to irrigate the herb field.

The herb seeds planted in the medicinal field sprouted, so he adjusted the irrigation time of the spiritual rain to once every three days to prevent the herbs from growing too fast.

Gu Changsheng rode his blue ox and stood on the hilltop behind the mountain, looking down at the area where the wooden house was located. Nearly a thousand saplings were planted around the wooden house.

These saplings had all been watered with spiritual water once, so they were unlikely to die. However, in order to ensure a 100% survival rate, Gu Changsheng deliberately left a few saplings unwatered, allowing them to wither and die in place.

The ginseng cultivated in the warehouse does not need to have its growth controlled, while the saplings planted outside are watered with spiritual water only once every few days.

It takes three years for a tree to mature, but if you force a seedling to grow to maturity in one year, a single tree can be considered a mutation. However, it is not a good thing if a large area or a mountain of seedlings exhibits excessive growth.

Bamboo takes 40-60 days to grow to ten meters, and it's not a big problem to shorten that to 30 days to get mature bamboo.

This is why Gu Changsheng chose to plant bamboo on the front, right, and back sides. The left side is on a cliff, with a valley hundreds of meters deep below, so there's no need to worry about anyone climbing up.

Even so, the left side was not overlooked; several rows of agarwood trees were planted there, with lavender planted under the trees, so that the wind blowing from the valley would be fragrant in the future.

In just one or two months, the bamboo forest can completely surround the wooden house, vegetable garden, and medicinal herb field. The bamboo, which can be ten meters high, can enclose the wooden house. Except from the sky, almost no one can see what is happening around the wooden house from the neighboring mountain peak.

Osmanthus and mulberry trees are planted on the left and right sides of the wooden house to block the sun and keep the wooden house cool in the hot summer.

From the gate to the exit of the mountain through the golden bamboo forest a hundred meters away, ten grapevines are planted on both sides of the path leading out, forming a corridor.

Gu Changsheng needed to plan his own quiet place of cultivation properly.

A year and a half later, the mountains were covered in vibrant colors, and the plants were full of life, which was in line with Gu Changsheng's cultivation of the "Path of Withering and Flourishing".

As night falls, the moon shines brightly and the stars are few. The pure white moonlight envelops the Qinling Mountains, and the gentle rays of moonlight fall upon the earth, nourishing all things.

In the wooden cabin bedroom, Gu Changsheng sat cross-legged with his eyes closed and his hands resting naturally on his knees.

Gu Changsheng was surrounded by a faint white light, a phenomenon caused by his full-force absorption of moonlight, which created a vortex around him that gathered the pure white moonlight.

Within the hazy sea of ​​consciousness, a nine-inch Dao Tree was devouring the power of the moonlight from the outside world, and the power of decay and prosperity around the tree was absorbed into the Dao Tree's body.

Above the tree canopy was a 'Tao Seed' interwoven with gray and emerald green, its outer shell's aura expanding and contracting as if a heart were beating.

The Dao Seed is absorbing the power of the moonlight from the outside world and the power of the withering and flourishing of the Dao Tree itself, accumulating energy and waiting for the opportunity to transform into a seed.

Inside the chicken coop, a 30-centimeter-tall rooster with multicolored feathers seemed to sense something. It spread its wings, flew out of the coop, and landed steadily on the highest point of the wooden house, raising its head and crowing towards the east.

"Coo coo coo..."

The volume of the big red crowing bird gradually increased, and suddenly a loud cry rang out.

"oh--"

In an instant, a blush appeared on the horizon, and the energy of the rising sun and the power of the moon intertwined, bursting forth with wisps of 'purple energy' that sprinkled down on the earth.

The bright red feathers shimmered with iridescent light in the sunlight. Whether it was its instinct or a gift from heaven and earth to crow at dawn, a wisp of 'purple aura' entered its body.

Big Red shook its wings comfortably, lowered its head and made a few "coo coo coo" sounds, as if to say that work was over and it was time to go home and sleep with its wife.

It took flight, glided precisely to the wooden plank in front of the chicken coop, folded its wings, and returned to the warm nest.

The three hens sensed Big Red's return, and they all shifted their bodies to lean against him.

Inside the wooden house, Gu Changsheng skillfully used his divine sense to capture four wisps of 'purple energy' and pull them into his sea of ​​consciousness.

The purple energy entered the body of the Dao Tree, and as the purple energy was completely refined, a powerful force was injected into the Dao Seed.

Gu Changsheng, suddenly inspired, shouted loudly.

"break--"

The word "broken" was like a divine thunderbolt striking the "Tao Tree" at the dawn of creation.

The 'Withered and Flourishing Dao Tree' began to crumble from its roots until its crown turned into gray-white light spots. Within the sea of ​​consciousness, a 'seed' interwoven with gray-white and emerald green floated, surrounded by a gray-white ring.

When a certain critical value was reached, the gray-white ring flew out of his sea of ​​consciousness and merged into Gu Changsheng's body, and a layer of gray-white patterns appeared on his meridians.

The moment the gray-white lines on the meridians form a closed loop, an invisible force emanates and resonates with the gray-white lines on the bones and flesh.

The resonance generated high-frequency vibrations that tempered Gu Changsheng's physical strength. The last ten percent of his black hair on the left side turned white, and in the blink of an eye, the colors of his hair became distinct, with white hair on the left and black hair on the right, presenting a black-and-white yin-yang contrast.

A few minutes later, the breakthrough ended. After Gu Changsheng finished comprehending the changes in himself, he opened his eyes. His left eye flashed with a gray-white light, and his right eye flashed with an emerald green light.

"call--"

His breath traveled three feet, and the white mist lingered for a long time, as if a sharp arrow had pierced the sky.

Gu Changsheng raised his hands and looked them over from side to side, then looked up and down at his body, finding no change.

With a single thought, the power of divine sense unfolds, increasing perception by ten meters to a radius of sixty meters, and the coverage area of ​​divine sense reaches a radius of six meters.

When Gu Changsheng withdrew his divine sense, he glanced at his appearance, where his white hair on the left and black hair on the right were quite noticeable.

Whether you have black or white hair, a striking combination of white and green hair would likely be even more eye-catching, attracting even more attention when you go out, simply because the phrase "a green head" is so popular and deeply ingrained in people's minds.

Gu Changsheng pulled himself out of his thoughts, clenched his hands to feel the power within his body, and found that it had increased by another thousand jin, bringing his physical strength to over five thousand jin, making him worthy of the title "humanoid tyrannosaurus".

With a force of two and a half tons plus kinetic energy, a punch to an ordinary person would not just result in a simple bruise and swelling.

He activated the "Withering and Flourishing Armor" to form a protective aura on his body, and then struck his left hand with his right fist.

"Clang clang—"

The sound produced when the hands are struck together is a dull metallic clanging sound.

He estimated that it could block ordinary peanuts, but as for whether it could actually withstand them or how much damage it would cause, he hadn't tried it and didn't have a precise answer.

For a fleeting moment, he really wanted to find an opportunity to test the power of the 'peanut kernel,' but he forcibly cut off this thought as soon as it came to mind, silently chanting in his heart.

"Hold on, hold on, absolutely no slacking off, no recklessness. What's a momentary curiosity compared to spiritual cultivation and longevity?"

Shift your focus away from strength and delve into the deepest parts of your body.

In an unknown, void space, a semi-real glass destiny plate floats suspended within.

Gu Changsheng counted the annual rings on the glass destiny chart. There were 130 emerald green annual rings, and 30 gray-black annual rings on the outer edge.

He muttered to himself, "Another twenty years to live...this is the wonder of cultivation!"