Chapter 3 Cultivating Life Breath (Part 2)

  At this point, half a year had already passed. During this period, apart from these gains, Zhenyuan did not recover at all. If Qin Yifan hadn't known the difficulty of overcoming these problems and had mentally prepared himself, just the fact that there was no progress in such a long time would have been enough to make an ordinary person lose heart and give up completely.

  These cultivations, Qin Yifan basically all took place on the mountain top. As if he could sense Qin Yifan's progress, the pressure from the lake's demon was also getting bigger and bigger, Qin Yifan could feel the lake demon's cultivation gradually improving. At this distance, the unknown lake demon was like his sparring partner, mutually stimulating each other to improve. However, until now, Qin Yifan still didn't dare to enter the lake again.

  Apart from cultivation, Qin Yifan spent most of his time in the tea sheds along the road and a small part of it hunting in the mountains. Although his internal strength was greatly damaged, he wasn't completely without it, and in this mountain forest, self-defense wasn't a problem at all. Plus, with his skilled archery skills from his military days, he never returned empty-handed every day, and there were always fresh game meats available in the tea sheds.

  Facing the merchants passing by on the official road at the foot of the mountain, Qin Yifan was just a simple and honest young man from the mountains. It's not that there weren't some merchants with strong martial arts escorts or lone wanderers passing through, but none of them had discovered that Qin Yifan was a martial artist. Of course, being physically robust was acceptable to everyone as a usual explanation for mountain people.

  Nor does he know why, but every time after being disturbed by that demon at the top of the mountain, when he goes down to the tea shed at the foot of the mountain, Qin Yifan always feels that the world is very beautiful, and even the traveling merchants and passing travelers are all very kind.

  At this time, Qin Yifan was a simple and enthusiastic mountain dweller. Those tired travelers who saw Qin Yifan's warm smile sat in his tea shed, which was also a great way to relieve the fatigue of long-distance travel.

  At such moments, those people always called for a large bowl of sweet tea water, sitting there to relieve fatigue and fill their stomachs while chatting about the mountains and seas. Qin Yifan also enjoyed sitting beside them at this time, listening to them talk about the interesting things in the divine state, and relieving his own spiritual tension caused by cultivation.

  Sometimes, there were also express couriers and fast horses passing by. When they arrived here, if Qin Yifan was present, he would always give them a bowl of water and let them fill their bellies. He considered these people to be fellow soldiers, and he had never collected any tea or meal money from them. The couriers were also not polite, and they got along very familiarly with him. Over time, the couriers on this official road also came to regard this place as an unofficial rest stop.

  With these messengers around, Qin Yifan didn't need to go anywhere to gather information. Whatever was important and not particularly confidential, Qin Yifan could basically learn from the mouths of these messengers. Plus those traveling merchants from all over the country, he could also roughly understand the major events happening in this era. And sometimes, they could even be entrusted to bring some daily necessities like oil and salt from counties tens of miles away that he couldn't obtain himself.

  This place is remote, and the merchants who come here are not big business, sometimes deep into those barren lands, it really needs everyone to help each other. Although there is a military camp tens of miles ahead, responsible for border defense, but the military camp cannot be open to civilians, so this is the only gathering place for small traders after leaving that border military camp.

  Qin Yifan's craftsmanship is not bad, the wild game he hunted himself can always be made very delicious with some local methods or military school learned methods. People who have eaten it all praise it. The tens of miles of mountain roads are extremely exhausting, and being able to drink refreshing or scalding hot tea here, as well as eating such a delicious meal, makes the hard work of trekking in this mountain area worthwhile.

  Of course, Qin Yifan also had a special skill that made everyone feel very impressed. In the army, he was used to holding a killing knife, but when he picked up a kitchen knife, it wasn't any less familiar than a killing knife. The kitchen knife that Qin Yifan had spent several months polishing would often be inserted into his waist. When he needed to use it, Qin Yifan would always casually take it out and, in front of those merchants, cut open the wild game they had specified.

  The knife glided lightly over the game, without making any sound at all. Even when cutting through slightly larger bones, there was no audible collision between the blade and the chopping board under Qin Yifan's hands. It seemed that every time, Qin Yifan could use just the right amount of force and distance to cut things open, yet somehow managed not to touch the chopping board at all.

  The amazing knife skills of Qin Yifan opened the eyes of these travelers, and every time people walked by a few times, eating became secondary, as they always came to watch Qin Yifan's knife skills performance.

  It wasn't that Qin Yifan intentionally showed off, but with the knife in hand, he couldn't help but use his most familiar techniques. Although he had switched to a new kitchen knife, this habit hadn't changed. Fortunately, the people coming and going still thought it was just the chef's knife skills, never thinking of the killing technique. Qin Yifan still carefully concealed many things.

  What Qin Yifan didn't expect was that when he started to cut open various game with this super knife, the feeling in his hand didn't fade away at all, but instead became more and more pure. This method of being able to practice his knife without revealing his identity, yet still being able to bring a thrilling experience to those passing merchants, had become Qin Yifan's signature move.

  Almost half of his time was spent among these ordinary people, listening to their joys and sorrows. Qin Yifan seemed to think of himself as a detached observer of the world. However, he had his own pursuits, which were different from the struggles of these small-town commoners. He could understand the happiness, anger, sorrow, and pleasure of these people, but he didn't intend to add trouble for himself.

  After getting familiar and accustomed to the disturbance of the demon in the boxing lake, Qin Yifan began a period of rapid recovery of his internal strength, nothing could affect the recovery of his true yuan. The kung fu was improved, although its power and complexity were not comparable to those of famous schools, but as long as it suited himself, that was enough. The bearing capacity and recovery ability of the meridians had exceeded Qin Yifan's own imagination, under such conditions, recovering his original cultivation was just a matter of raising his hand.

  Of course, this doesn't mean Qin Yifan can reach the sky in one step. Even without any obstacles to recovery, he still understands the principle of gradual progress. Achieving success overnight is not the style of Qin Yifan, who is known for being steady and down-to-earth. Moreover, this only applies when he's on top of the mountain; it's unknown when he'll be able to enter the lake again and have a fair competition with that monster.

  It took almost another year, but Qin Yifan finally recovered his cultivation in the military. Moreover, the improved mental method thoroughly eliminated those drawbacks and made Qin Yifan a top-notch master once again.

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