Chapter 2103: Two-Legged Sheep
The city’s residents dispersed after watching Lu Yun’s feat of high spirits. Some went to bed, others returned to staring off into space. They busied themselves with whatever their usual business was.
Only Yuan Yi remained staring raptly at Lu Yun.
“Didn’t they… just see hope?” He scratched his head with bemusement.
“When one scrabbles in the dark for too long, one does not think that the darkness is over when a pinprick of light appears,” Yuan Yi shook her head. “What you’ve accomplished doesn’t even count as a pinprick.”
“Then you…” Lu Yun looked at Yuan Yi with surprise. “Are you not the same as them?”
“Of course not. Although I am also accustomed to the dark and scrabble in it, they struggle for survival in the gloom. Cultivators, however, search through the dark. We look for the light.
“Just a pinprick is enough to give us hope, but ordinary people…” Yuan Yi shook her head and spoke no further.
“Okay, then we start with you!” Lu Yun smiled radiantly. “The cultivation method of heaven and earth will create a circulatory system within your body. It will slowly wean you off the need for external energy and ultimately bring your enormous power of the world.
The cultivation method of heaven and earth was a process that wouldn’t bring results overnight. Its prerequisite was a strong body. It wasn’t practical to cut oneself off from the outside world and form an internal circulation system as soon as one started.
Lu Yun had divided the method into three parts. The first was to coalesce heaven and earth inside one’s body. He’d done so before for the immortals who bypassed the void realm in the world of immortals. In order to ensure that they weren’t rendered obsolete with the times, he’d created the formation of heaven and earth.
Coincidentally, it was the crux of the cultivation method of heaven and earth.
He suddenly felt that everything he’d done in the world of immortals had been prearranged. Or at the very least, someone had organized all of the difficulties he’d run into so that he would need to determine solutions.
And solutions he had, which happened to be the exact answers needed in this world.
“It was a conspiracy that started from the moment they got me to the world of immortals and continues to this damned place!” As disgruntled as Lu Yun was, there was nothing he could do about it.
The Dao King, mistress, and God… Forget it, God was dead. Lu Yun itched to go back right now and beat up the Dao King and mistress. But in his current state, he wouldn’t stand a chance against them.
While Yuan Yi possessed the cultivation method, she was unable to etch a formation of heaven and earth. Lu Yun had to do it for her. This world possessed a heaven and earth and perhaps it was still alive, but he couldn’t sense it. Thus, all cultivation had to start from one’s own body. Obtaining nutrients from the outside world to slowly complete one’s internal world would form a complete cycle of heaven and earth.
The second step was internal circulation, transforming the formation of heaven and earth into a true world.
The third step was to expand the internal world outward so that it affected the world around them. However, Lu Yun didn’t know when they’d reach that step. Affecting the external world was a function of the pinnacle of subjectivity affecting objectivity.
Each step was incredibly difficult and arduous to undertake. Although Lu Yun had invented them, he wouldn’t necessarily succeed at achieving them. Even he himself barely managed to make it to the second step.
One’s progression wasn’t a reflection of strength, it was just the process of cultivation. Take Yuan Yi, for instance. She’d just started, but she was stronger than Lu Yun. Even if he progressed to the third step and could affect his immediate vicinity, Yuan Yi would still kill him with one blow.
That was the progression of cultivation, not a matter of cultivation system or realm. He had the vague outlines of a concept and needed painstaking exploration to fill in the details.
Lu Yun was exhausted after etching a formation for Yuan Yi. It was an enormous drain on internal energy and he needed external nourishment for the time being. The most direct method of that was through food.
Yuan Yi delivered a large sum of meat to him of those who’d died in the city. There were humans, monster spirits, and other races among them. Lu Yun shook his head and elected to leave the precious pile of decaying meat alone. Weariness dogging his footsteps, he headed out of the city.
“This world is dying, but it’s not dead. The ghost zombies are devouring everything, but they’re not the source of this disaster. They’re also victims!” Lu Yun murmured to himself as he looked up at the hazy sky.
Yuan Yi wanted to head outside of town with him too, but she kept a firm grip on herself and practiced the cultivation method of heaven and earth.
Internal heaven and earth, internal circulation, and external circulation!
The three steps were immensely entrancing.
Lu Yun walked through the decrepit land, seeing gray in every direction he turned.
“Finally… found it.” A smile curved his lips when he saw a blade of green. Though the blade of grass was withering, it was still a sign of hope in this land.
“Green grass means that this land is not yet fully dead. Some life force still exists within it.” Lu Yun sat down next to the shriveling blade of grass and operated the Method of Life and Death. He breathed in and out next to the grass.
At first, he found nothing. But gradually, he sensed a tiny strand of energy from heaven and earth. His body soaked up the minuscule rivulet like it was a giant sponge.
“It’s not dead, but sealed away by something. There’s… someone behind all this!” He’d fully recovered when he next opened his eyes. A tiny flame burned between his brows as his internal heaven and earth had recovered. It circulated in fully self-sufficient operations and formed a complete reincarnation system.
His cultivation took a step forward as he’d absorbed enough energy to strengthen his reincarnation system. It was stabilized to the point of being able to support his internal circulation. He was now solidly stronger than Yuan Yi.
“There are people alive in this wilderness?”
Lu Yun’s brow twitched when he heard a voice filled with delight.
“A sheep with two legs! We’ll have food for a few days after we kill it!”
“A living sheep means there’s a city nearby, one that hasn’t been destroyed yet!”
“Not a city, but a flock of sheep! We’ll have food for years after we kill its cultivators and butcher the sheep inside!”
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Three figures appeared in front of Lu Yun.
“Take us to your city and we’ll consider letting you join us.” Their leader was a creature that stood on two legs. He wasn’t human as he bore three horns on its head and a pair of fleshy black wings on his back. His emerald eyes bore into Lu Yun, ready to eat the human at any moment.
Two others who looked like him flanked him.
