In the early morning when the sun rose, Lu Xun pushed open the door to his room, looking pale and sickly.
He felt that he would be dried up soon.
The exhaustion this time felt more intense than last time, it was probably because he went through a trial yesterday. The mental energy he exhausted hadn’t completely recovered at all, and right away, he felt the next wave of Second Senior Sister’s love like the howling winds and torrential rain.
One night, 19 times. If it were you, you would also be weak.
Cat Southnorth slept in again today, so Lu Xun sat down on her special rattan chair as he pleased, slumping there like an arrogant idler.
After he plunked down for a good while, Lu Xun then unhurriedly took out two dates from his storage ring to eat them. As he looked at them, four words jumped out from his mind, ‘Doomed sooner or later[1]’.
After eating the dates, the refreshing feeling engulfed his entire body. The sense of discomfort he was experiencing somewhat lessened. A small amount of energy was restored to his empty body, this made him certain that he probably wouldn’t just suddenly die.
After letting out a long sigh of relief, Lu Xun looked at the blue skies and white clouds. He stared at them blankly before revealing a smile.
‘Anyway, I certainly made progress.’ Lu Xun thought.
Perhaps it was because he received ‘Sword Dao Aptitude + 1’, or maybe it was because he leveled up twice. In short, from the start, he was ‘killed’ 36 times, and now, it turned to being ‘killed’ 19 times—he obviously lasted longer.
“This is a good thing, it’s a good thing.” Lu Xun consoled himself, possibly, the more he died, the faster he would get used to it.
After he slumped in the rattan chair for about half an hour, Cat Southnorth scuttled out of the window.
The lolita didn’t like to take the main entrance—well, little cats, they loved to scuttle around.
Lu Xun had previously seen some videos where cats especially loved to dig into narrow places. They always could worm their way in, as if their body were made of water.
Cat Southnorth didn’t seem to have such an obsession, she simply liked to bounce and jump around.
If it were in the past, Lu Xun would get up and yield Cat Southnorth’s dedicated large rattan chair to her. This was her chair to begin with after all.
However, he was too exhausted today, he was exhausted to the point that he didn’t want to move. So, he merely shifted his butt and made half the space on the large rattan chair available.
Cat Southnorth originally wanted to drive him away. However, after seeing his pallid appearance, she clicked her tongue and simply sat down next to Lu Xun.
As she dangled her small feet in the air, she asked him, “Little Junior Brother, did you comprehend the Heart of the Sword?”
The commotion yesterday was so large, Cat Southnorth had no reason to not know what it was about.
“Yes.” Lu Xun just slumped there and nodded, as if a pile of mud that could move.
“What’s it like to comprehend the Heart of the Sword?” Cat Southnorth asked out of curiosity.
Since she trained with knives, she was a bit curious about it.
Lu Xun thought, ‘How do I even describe this?’
After all, the Heart of the Sword he got wasn’t truly comprehended, he got it for free.
Thus, he said in a mysterious manner, “It’s quite profound, it can only be understood but not described, I honestly can’t think of how to explain it.”
“Yes, that’s how it is presumably.” Cat Southnorth nodded, she felt that Lu Xun wasn’t wrong.
She was sitting next to Lu Xun when her cat ears suddenly moved, as if she remembered something, she proceeded to say, “If I recall correctly, you don’t even have a sword yet, right?”
Lu Xun nodded, he really didn’t have any equipment apart from a storage ring.
So without reluctance, he said, “Lu Xun thanks Fourth Senior Sister.”
A question mark slowly surfaced on Cat Southnorth’s face, she asked, “Why did you thank me?”
“Uh… wasn’t Fourth Senior Sister going to give me a sword?” Lu Xun had no sense of shame as he started to extort.
Cat Southnorth, “…”
She looked at Lu Xun with disdain. And then, she stuck out her small butt, pushing him right off the rattan chair.
“This chair is more comfortable to sit in alone!” The lolita exclaimed.
Lu Xun wasn’t angry since he was about done resting. So, without a word, he slipped away to the kitchen to make breakfast.
Cat Southnorth’s ears moved as she immediately followed him, she said with a smile on her face, “Little Junior Brother, it was an accident just now! Slurp!”
“What are we eating today? Slurp!”
“Make pumpkin congee okay Little Junior Brother? slurp, slurp!”
…
…
At last, he did indeed make pumpkin congee for breakfast.
Pumpkin congee was quite a healthy food. Since pumpkins contained cobalt, which was a trace element necessary for islet cells to synthesize insulin, it was helpful in the prevention of diabetes.
Congee might look simple, but in fact, it put one’s control of heat to the test. Lu Xun had a lot of knowledge with boiling congee, after Cat Southnorth ate it once before, she kept constantly thinking about it.
After it was finished cooking, the two of them headed towards the bamboo forest.
Second Senior Sister, who sat on the large rock, was still very thin. Lu Xun didn’t think of feeding her to become as fat as Mu Rongyan, he simply wanted to make her not that slim. By the looks of it now, she wouldn’t be fed any fatter in a short period of time.
The feeding plan was a heavy responsibility that needed to be carried over a long time, comrade Lu Xun still needed to double his efforts!
In reality, Cat Southnorth wasn’t the only one that liked to eat congee, Second Senior Sister also liked it.
Obviously, everyone here was a cultivator, but “hu, hu, hu” sounds could be heard from the bamboo forest as they tried to cool down the congee.
In reality, they weren’t that afraid of the heat. They simply wanted to eat it at a more suitable temperature, because doing so would make it taste better.
Spiritual power could be used to lower the temperature. However, the pleasure of eating would be lost this way, the process had to be enjoyed!
“Hu, hu, hu!”
“Hu, hu, hu!”
The quiet bamboo forest started to have the liveliness of the early morning.
…
After eating their fill, Lu Xun and Cat Southnorth leaned against a large bamboo. They rubbed their protruding bellies with their right hands in a clockwise manner as usual. Their expressions were satisfied as they aided their digestion.
Their movements were very much in unison, they even maintained the same belly-rubbing rhythm. For those who didn’t know them, they might assume that it was a father playing a game with his daughter.
Lu Xun looked as if he were completely relaxed. But in reality, he was paying attention to the gaming forums of ‘Heavenly Earth’.
Ever since the forums opened, Lu Xun would always find time to take a few glances after a meal.
Although ‘Heavenly Earth’ hadn’t officially started its servers, and there wasn’t any useful information on the forums, there wasn’t any harm in checking it out.
In the 22nd century, ‘Heavenly Earth’ attracted the anticipation of the masses during its promotional stage. So even if the players hadn’t officially played the game, quite a lot of players were already chatting passionately on the forums.
The time flow in ‘Heavenly Earth’ was different from reality, the data given on the official website was a 10:1 ratio.
Through studying the time-stamps of the posts on the forums, Lu Xun discovered that it was still the same now.
Three days ago, when he checked the forums, the post time of the idiotic Internet users was on the 11th. When he checked today, it was still the f*cking 11th.
This meant that 1 year on Earth was indeed 10 years in Heavenly Earth—Lu Xun felt older all of a sudden.
During the Open Beta of ‘Heavenly Earth’, it was July of the Heavenly Earth Calendar Year 4000. Now, it was September of the Heavenly Earth Calendar Year 3997. It seemed like there was still three years’ time, however, in reality, it really wasn’t much longer, only just a mere three months left.
Today, he discovered an official post. It was actually about a drawing for lucky players to participate in the alpha testing!
Lu Xun couldn’t help but become serious.
‘Are players… about to come?’ Lu Xun thought.
…
[1] Pun: 吃枣药丸 (Chi Zao Yao Wan) literally means eat dates and medicinal pills is a homonym for 迟早要完, which is doomed sooner or later