Immortality: Raising an Ant Queen to Cultivate by increasing stat points

The once solitary man, Qin Niu, now not only had Xiao Nui for company but also Xiao Qing, who grew attached to him. This gave Qin Niu an unprecedented sense of happiness.

He returned home.

Since the new house was still under construction, he and Xiao Qing could only live in a temporary shack.

Fortunately, now that he had become the most esteemed person in Shuangfeng Village, the villagers treated him with great reverence. No one dared to spy on them.

When he got home, she had already prepared the meal.

The fragrant pork and cornmeal rice were kept warm in the pot.

As the master hadn’t returned, she kept waiting.

The corn was a gift from Wang Furen.

The two richest men in the village were both crafty, Wang Furen brought him a large bag of corn, and Xu Zhenchang brought a large bag of wheat.

Both men were humble when offering their gifts, speaking in pleasing tones that made it difficult to refuse.

Of course, Qin Niu didn’t turn down their overtures.

He had some initial prestige in the village, but to truly become a leading figure, he would need the support of Xu Zhenchang and Wang Furen.

Wang Furen had a good reputation within the village, while Xu Zhenchang served as the village head and was also a role model for diligent prosperity. They were both on the same side as the villagers, belonging to the class of farmers.

They were both affable and held a certain degree of public trust.

With both men drawing closer to him, it only served to solidify his position in the village.

Every hero needs helpers, just as every fence needs supporting stakes.

To establish a firm foothold in the countryside, personal might could only intimidate others, making them fear you. Only by winning over the people’s hearts, as the Yan Family did, could you command both prestige and authority. This was also the basic standard for rising to power.

In Shuangfeng Village, Qin Niu had already begun to emulate the early days of the Yan Family. Given some time to settle, he would become one with the entire village and the undisputed village leader.

After the master and servant ate, Qin Niu watched as Xiao Qing busied herself with cleaning up the dishes.

“Xiao Qing, today 1 tried to practice the Medicine King Sutra, but 1 was unsuccessful. Could you teach me?” he asked.

“Of course! But my cultivation is quite shallow, and my understanding is limited. I can only teach you some simple things,” she replied without hesitation.

From the moment she acknowledged Qin Niu as her master, everything she had belonged to Qin Niu. Such were the rules of this world.

“When cultivating, it is very helpful to have herbs. The ones planted in the backyard should be suitable.”

She led Qin Niu to where the backyard of his old house used to be.

Now, apart from a well and a small plot of medicinal herbs that Qin Niu had planted, the area was almost entirely cleared and levelled, with building materials like green bricks, door frames, and windows stacked around.

Even after the new house was built, this place would still serve as the backyard. “You need to first attune your heart to the medicinal aura released by the herbs. The Dogtail Grass here, and the Black Leaf Sunflower over there, both contain ample medicinal aura. You could try sitting next to them and follow the breathing methods of the Medicine King Sutra to sense them,” Xiao Qing guided Qin Niu in his cultivation.

He sat cross-legged next to the Dogtail Grass, and tried to practice according to the techniques outlined in the Medicine King Sutra once again.

He still made no progress.

Then, a small hand rested on his back, roughly between the points for the lung and heart meridians.

A stream of warm energy flowed into his body.

She was using her own spiritual power to help Qin Niu expedite the process of perceiving the medicinal aura emitted by the herbs.

With her help, Qin Niu soon felt a glimmer of sensation.

The Dogtail Grass in front of him was like boiling water, emitting strands of ‘warm air.’ When he circulated the technique from the Medicine King Sutra again, some of this ‘warm air’ was drawn to him, and a small portion entered his body.

It had the same quality as the warm energy Xiao Qing was transferring into him.

Both were warm.

So, cultivating the Medicine King Sutra involved absorbing medicinal auras to advance one’s cultivation.

Xiao Qing’s grandfather must have made some mistakes in his practice.

Instead of buying expensive Tempering Elixirs for cultivation, it would be better to cultivate some advanced herbs himself.

Clearly, Qin Niu’s speculation was too simplistic.

What he could think of, how could Xiao Qing’s grandfather not have considered?

Although Xiao Qing’s grandfather knew how to recognize many herbs, he wasn’t capable of cultivating them.

Because cultivating herbs is far more difficult than growing crops.

They have extremely demanding requirements for their growing environment. Once harvested, even high-level farmers might not be able to keep them alive, let alone Xiao Qing’s grandfather.

Taking Tempering Elixirs directly provided a dense concentration of medicinal aura that had been refined by an Elixir Master.

The composition of the Elixirs was also meticulously balanced by a Pharmacist.

They could be directly absorbed by the human body, causing no harm but instead benefiting the improvement of one’s cultivation.

What Xiao Qing’s grandfather sought in consuming the Tempering Elixir was the dense cluster of medicinal aura within it.

The beneficial effects of body tempering and strengthening that came with the Elixir itself were merely a bonus.

As Qin Niu persisted in his practice, he nearly depleted the Dogtail Grass of its medicinal aura.

Its emission of medicinal aura markedly weakened.

Only a little was still being released.

He shifted his focus.

There were more than twenty medicinal herbs planted, each releasing medicinal aura of varying strengths.

Qin Niu didn’t hesitate; he started with the one that had the strongest aura.

After about six hours of cultivation, he felt a sharp pain in his head, having almost completely absorbed the medicinal auras from these herbs.

Since it was his first time practicing the technique, it was quite raw, and a lot of the medicinal aura had escaped.

All wasted.

Qin Niu opened his eyes and, after a great effort throughout most of the night, accrued a small clump of warm energy within his body.

This was the power gained from cultivating the Medicine King Sutra.

Compared to the cool energy gained from cultivating the Everlasting Spring Technique, its nature was entirely different.

The powers cultivated from the two techniques were clearly delineated, stored separately within his body.

However, the Everlasting Spring Technique had already reached the Fivefold realm of mortals, its power much more profound. Its volume was at least a thousand times that of the Medicine King Sutra’s power.

The Medicine King Sutra really isn’t easy to cultivate.

He also discovered another issue, cultivating the Everlasting Spring Technique could replace sleep, allowing both spiritual power and the body to recover. It had a very good effect on nurturing one’s life.

But the Medicine King Sutra did not.

Cultivating the Medicine King Sutra for six hours was already his limit.

This was because after cultivating the Everlasting Spring Technique, his spiritual power had increased somewhat, far exceeding that of an ordinary mortal at the Fivefold realm. Otherwise, he could only cultivate for four hours at most before needing to stop and rest to recover his spiritual power.

Perhaps because his Medicine King Sutra power was still weak, now he could only sense the medicinal qi emitted by the herbs when he focused and closed his eyes.

He wasn’t able to sense the medicinal properties of the herbs, let alone the strength of the energy contained within them.

If more medicinal qi was emitted, it indicated that the herbs contained more energy, he could infer that much at least.

Whether this was indeed the case still needed to be verified.

His gaze shifted to the medicinal herbs in front of him.

They looked wilted, as if they had been tortured by frost.

This indicated that cultivating the Medicine King Sutra and absorbing their medicinal qi caused them certain harm.

“Can the Everlasting Spring Technique quickly restore them to vitality then?”

He prepared to conduct another experiment.

After taking a brief rest to adjust his state, he began to sit beside these herbs and cultivate the Everlasting Spring Technique.

True to its reputation as a top Life-Nurturing Technique.

As he continued to cultivate, his depleted spiritual power was recovering quickly.

The effect was even better than that of deep sleep.

He continued to cultivate until the moon set, and only then did he stop.

He had cultivated for roughly six hours.

Some power from the Everlasting Spring Technique was gained, but compared to cultivating under the Ancient Banyan Tree, it was far less.

Fortunately, his main goal was not to improve his cultivation level.

It was to help these medicinal herbs regain their vitality.

Cultivating in his own backyard, the speed of his cultivation level’s increase was slower, but the experience value for the Everlasting Spring Technique grew quite significantly.

Currently, the Everlasting Spring Technique is still at the ‘Twofold realm.

If he could break through to the Threefold realm, the speed of cultivation would surely improve a lot.

He opened his eyes and checked the condition of the herbs around him.

The Dogtail Grass, which he had drained the most, was fully revitalized, bursting with life once again. The other herbs were even less of a concern. “Master! Did you sit here and cultivate all night yesterday?”

Xiao Qing was already up.

She didn’t have the habit of oversleeping; instead, she was particularly hard-working.

“Yes!”

Qin Niu looked towards her.

“Thank you for using your energy to help me cultivate yesterday.”

“As your servant, isn’t it my duty to help you?”

She wasn’t concerned at all about this.

Her gaze swept over the medicinal herbs surrounding Qin Niu, and a faint trace of disappointment appeared on her face, hardly noticeable.

“Master, was the effect of your cultivation yesterday very poor?”

“That, I’m not clear on. It’s true that a significant amount of the medicinal qi was lost. When you cultivate, do you experience this phenomenon?”

Qin Niu retorted with a question.

“I’m now at the peak of the Twofold realm of mortals, and my Medicine King Sutra is roughly at the second level. Half of the medicinal qi disperses when 1 cultivate. My grandfather’s Medicine King Sutra is close to the third level, and it’s more potent. Fie once told me that he can absorb roughly six-tenths of the full medicinal qi.”

Xiao Qing shared her cultivation experience.

These were core secrets, not to be casually revealed to outsiders.

As master and servant, there wasn’t this concern.

“I see! Then both of you are much stronger than me. Out of the full medicinal qi, I can only absorb about two-tenths.”

Qin Niu nodded in understanding.

“Eh, how come the medicinal qi of these herbs is just as abundant as last night? It even seems to have increased. That shouldn’t be the case! Do you have Medicine King level power within you now?”

Xiao Qing seriously doubted whether her master had just sat there doing nothing all night.

“Yes, there is, just not much. About a small clump the size of a soybean.”

Qin Niu replied.

“Ah… that’s quite a lot! Then you must have been very diligent in your cultivation last night. When I first started learning, it took me over a month to accumulate a clump the size of a mung bean. And that was with the help of my grandfather using his power. He even praised me back then for progressing quickly. Compared to you, I’m extremely weak.”

After hearing this, she was even more astonished.

“Cultivating the Medicine King Sutra and absorbing the medicinal qi from these living herbs can lead to their withering or even death. They would need at least one or two months of careful cultivation to recover. But now, they seem completely fine? This is so strange.”

Xiao Qing was utterly perplexed.

“No wonder you knew that cultivating the Medicine King Sutra required absorbing medicinal qi, yet you never cultivated near the medicinal herbs in the backyard, fearing that your absorption would cause them to wither!”

Qin Niu suddenly understood..