9: Chapter 9 Cultivation, Tiger-Strengthening Fruit Tree

"Spirit Tiger Qi Refining Manual"?

Lu Hu's tiger body shook.

Is this cultivation?

Thinking of this possibility, for a moment, he didn't want to think about the poor-ass matters of his past life, nor complain about why a tiger was farming.

The whole tiger was incredibly excited.

If he could cultivate, why the hell would he fear being tired?

Lu Hu immediately chose to use it. A jade slip was taken out from the backpack and flew to the center of Lu Hu's forehead. The jade slip glowed.

"Refining the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into one's own body, storing it in the dantian, circulating through the meridians..."

Knowledge was drilling into Lu Hu's head in the simplest and most crude way. Lu Hu gained a clearer understanding of his own body structure, acupuncture points, and meridians.

His abdomen rose and fell slightly as he subconsciously began to cultivate following the mental cultivation method's circulation route.

After a long time, Lu Hu opened his eyes.

"Roar~" (The spiritual energy is too little.)

Lu Hu complained. The Spirit Tiger Qi Refining Manual mainly relied on meditation and breathing to absorb heaven and earth energy into the body, then converting it into qi, accumulating it as spiritual power, improving the physique, and thus slowly increasing strength.

Lu Hu's physique, even before obtaining the manual, could convert the medicinal power he chewed into energy to nourish his body.

This was equivalent to him being a one-in-a-million cultivation genius. Even before starting to cultivate, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth he unintentionally absorbed was stronger than those with poor cultivation aptitude.

After coming into contact with the cultivation method, he directly crossed the entry level and stepped onto the Qi Refining path. The role of his special cultivation physique began to play out, his cultivation speed was a thousand miles a day, easily leaving other cultivators behind.

But the energy between heaven and earth, the spiritual energy that could be used for cultivation, was simply not much; it was very thin. After cultivating for half a day, the spiritual energy gathered into the body was pitifully small.

No matter how high Lu Hu's cultivation aptitude was, without spiritual energy, it was all in vain.

Under this situation, even if he cultivated continuously for a week without eating or drinking, the spiritual energy absorbed would not be as much as the medicinal power obtained from chewing a ten-year-old wild ginseng.

No wonder "wealth" ranked first among "wealth, companion, method, and land." Cultivating while poor and cultivating while rich were completely different things. If he wanted to cultivate in the future, he still needed to plant more herbs.

"Roar~" (I am currently in the stage of Refining Essence into Qi.)

The Spirit Tiger Qi Refining Manual was divided into four realms: Refining Essence into Qi, Refining Qi into Spirit, Refining Spirit back to Emptiness, and Refining Emptiness into Dao.

It was a bit different from the Qi Refining and Foundation Building Lu Hu imagined, but it didn't matter as long as it was cultivation.

His aptitude was very impressive; just after mastering the technique, he directly passed the entry stage.

Now, the foundation accumulated from two and a half years of chewing herbs was slowly being converted into spiritual power stored in his body. Besides nourishing his body, it could also attach to various parts of his body to strengthen himself.

Lu Hu opened the technique interface again. This time, it was no longer blank but showed a 3D projection of a tiger, looking just like Lu Hu, except this tiger was transparent, with internal organs and meridians glowing, and a ball of qi circulating in its body.

This was the circulation route of the Spirit Tiger Qi Refining Manual.

Name: Uncle Hu

Technique: Spirit Tiger Qi Refining Manual

Realm: Refining Essence into Qi

Spells: None

Divine Abilities: None

Lu Hu looked at his data. After finding nothing special, he closed the technique interface.

"Roar~" (There's one more jade slip.)

Lu Hu took out the remaining jade slip and used it directly.

Soon, the knowledge of the compendium of a hundred herbs was stuffed into Lu Hu's head.

It turned out to be a book recording various herbs, including knowledge of the living environment and effects of medicinal materials like ginseng and lingzhi.

To Lu Hu's pleasant surprise, it also recorded how to plant them.

The "lingzhi Harvest" task that had been troubling Lu Hu now had a way to be completed.

"So the Earth Essence is he shou wu!"

For the "Earth Essence Harvest" and "tuckahoe Harvest" tasks, Lu Hu also saw hope.

The compendium of a hundred herbs recorded their appearances. Although Lu Hu hadn't seen them in the mountains, the mountains were vast, and they would definitely exist.

Medicinal herbs are everywhere in the mountains!

Lu Hu sighed with emotion. With the compendium of a hundred herbs, he only then knew there were so many herbs in the mountains.

Fujin, Rehmannia, Curculigo...

They were everywhere, just ignored because he didn't recognize them.

He had eaten these herbs before, but the medicinal power they contained wasn't as high as ginseng or lingzhi. Eating one or two didn't show obvious changes, so he thought they were useless.

Now he knew it was because he ate too little. If he ate ten or a hundred catties, the effect wouldn't be worse than a few decades-old ginseng.

Guarding a treasure mountain without knowing it, but it's not too late to know now.

Lu Hu looked at the next item, Spiritual Soil.

A pile of dirt, couldn't see anything special in the space.

Lu Hu took out a handful. As soon as he took it out, he felt the spiritual energy contained in the soil.

Moreover, Lu Hu discovered that this soil was also independently absorbing nutrients from the air and slowly converting them into spiritual energy.

Spiritual Soil is just spiritual earth. Plants grown on it can carry some spiritual energy. Of course, its biggest use is for planting spirit medicine.

For example, the spirit ginseng seed in the backpack.

This is spirit ginseng; it can only grow into true spirit ginseng if planted in a place containing spiritual energy.

If planted in ordinary soil, spirit ginseng will slowly degenerate and become a mundane object containing vast medicinal power.

The system gave him ten cubic meters of Spiritual Soil so that his spirit medicine would have a place to grow.

Lu Hu put away the Spiritual Soil. These ten cubic meters of Spiritual Soil were treasures; he had to carefully select a location before taking them out.

"Roar~" (Money.)

Lu Hu looked at the hundred Spirit Coinss from the newbie gift pack, plus the ten Spirit Coinss obtained before, a total of one hundred and ten Spirit Coinss.

"Roar~" (Buy!)

Lu Hu opened the mall and directly spent the huge sum of ten Spirit Coinss to buy a Strong Tiger Fruit Tree.

After taking it out, it was a sapling one meter high and as thick as a thumb, with red leaves and light yellow bark, emitting a special fragrance.

This tree contained a weak, peculiar energy, similar to ginseng, both were great tonics!

Three years to grow, one year to flower, one year to fruit!

Five years!

Lu Hu gently bit the fruit tree, chose a spot near the nest, and swung his claws to dig a hole.

After digging it, he put the tree in, took out one cubic meter of Spiritual Soil to bury it, and then Lu Hu bought a bag of Spirit Fertilizer.

This stuff is fertilizer, one bag is one kilogram.

Lu Hu sprinkled it all around the roots of the Tiger Fruit Tree.

Then he went to the ginseng field, dug a big hole, took out another cubic meter of Spiritual Soil to fill it, then took out the spirit ginseng seed and buried it, then bought another bag of Spirit Fertilizer to fertilize it.

"Roar!"

After doing all this, Lu Hu let out several tiger roars in a row to drive away nearby animals before going to the pool to bathe with peace of mind.

...

The sun was shining brightly. The industrious Lu Hu got up, went to the water to rinse his mouth, then climbed a tree and stuck his paw into a little squirrel's hole.

Under the trembling gaze of the little squirrel, he snatched two pine nuts.

Crack, crack!

Lu Hu chewed the pine nuts and slowly strolled toward the Tiger Fruit Tree.

"Snort!"

"Hiss—!!"

...

On the way, Lu Hu encountered three adult wild boars besieging a Lynx.

A Lynx is agile, and logically it should be easy to shake off wild boars. However, this Lynx was limping, and there were no trees around to climb for shelter. Under the siege of the three wild boars, it fell into a predicament.

Don't look at a Lynx being small; its combat power is not to be underestimated, and it can kill animals much larger than itself.

But in the end, its size was too small. With a weight of forty or fifty catties, facing an adult wild boar of two or three hundred catties, it had no way out and was very powerless.

Lu Hu looked at these three adult wild boars; they were all boars with tusks.

In this territory, Tiger Dad was the only top predator. A year and a half ago, when he first arrived, Tiger Dad had driven away the dhole packs and wolf packs that could kill adult wild boars for his safety.

Only small carnivores like lynxes and foxes were left, which could only catch small prey.

Plus, in his past life, he had studied postpartum management of sows. When he was bored, he used these wild boars for research, so their numbers proliferated rapidly.

Previously, there was Tiger Dad's suppression. Now Tiger Dad had been gone for nearly a month, the scent was gradually fading, and Lu Hu didn't hunt. Without the deterrent, the wild boars' courage grew.

They actually began to actively drive away animals that could threaten small wild boars. This Lynx was obviously among the targets.

The number of wild boars had already been increasing in this year and a half. If those predators that could kill small wild boars were really gone, with the abundant resources in the mountains, it wouldn't be long before wild boars were everywhere.

Pigs, like humans, are among the few omnivores that eat everything.

Not to mention running into the ginseng fields to cause damage, just looking at the pigs all over the mountains gave Lu Hu a headache.

The number of wild boar herds needs to be controlled. Lu Hu sighed; he still had to go through the effort of killing pigs!

"Roar!"

Lu Hu roared and instantly rushed in front of a wild boar. His tiger claws extended, easily breaking through the wild boar's defense. His fifteen-centimeter-long claws, like five knives, directly cut halfway through the wild boar's neck.

It was cut so fast that the wild boar hadn't even reacted yet, its body still thinking of escaping.

Lu Hu gave it a gentle push.

Thud!

The wild boar rolled several times on the ground, blood gushing out. After a few weak twitches, it stopped moving.

The other two wild boars were so scared that they scrambled away.

Lu Hu didn't care and looked at the Lynx, which was bristling with fur and filled with panic.

Lynxes also have different breeds. This one, except for its coat color, had eyes and a face similar to a Dragon Li. The difference was the two tufts of hair on its pointed ears and its fluffy, very short tail.

It was a female cat with an empty belly. She probably hadn't given birth long ago and came out to forage, but failed in hunting, injured her leg, and was then besieged by wild boars.

Lu Hu lowered his head to observe the Lynx's injured hind leg up close. The other party was so scared that its heart pounded wildly, and its eyes revealed despair.

Facing an adult wild boar, it dared to bare its teeth in resistance, but facing a tiger, it was left with only despair.

"Roar~"

After watching for a while, Lu Hu stood up. It should have just been a fall that hurt the bone; it wasn't a big problem and could slowly heal on its own.

If it were really serious, it wouldn't have been able to hold out for so long under the siege of three wild boars.

Fortunately, it wasn't gored by the wild boars' tusks. For animals, if they suffer external injuries, the risk of death from infection is extremely high.

"Roar!" (It's yours!)

Lu Hu pointed to the dead wild boar and then left.

The Lynx, having survived the ordeal, looked confusedly at the departing tiger. With its limited brain cells, it couldn't figure out why it was still alive.

But when it saw the huge, still-warm wild boar nearby, the Lynx limped over to it.

Why think so much? Eat first to replenish strength.

...

"Roar~" (My old father, I miss you!)

Just as he got the cultivation method, his old father also happened to leave.

But if he calculated carefully, if his old father hadn't left, perhaps he wouldn't have run back and accidentally activated the system functions.

He lost his father's care but gained the chance to cultivate.

Win some, lose some.

But without Tiger Dad's deterrent, these wild boars had become so arrogant. In just a few days, they dared to run to the places where he frequented to act wild.

Tiger Dad still needs to teach them a lesson.

Pah, pah~

Lu Hu patted his head. What was he thinking?

This Great King is going to be self-reliant. Why think about that fellow who abandoned his son?

Mere wild boars—in just a few days, he could solve the proliferation problem.

While thinking, Lu Hu arrived at the Strong Tiger Fruit Tree. At the first sight of the Strong Tiger Fruit Tree, Lu Hu was shocked.

"Roar!" (Holy crap!)