Yun Qing bent down and scooped up a handful of spring water. The moment it entered his throat, his internal organs suddenly felt much lighter, as though icy threads were coursing through his blood vessels and spreading throughout his body.
At first, he only felt a slight warmth, like a spring breeze brushing over his meridians. In the blink of an eye, however, it transformed into a surging wave of heat! His bones crackled with fine pops, while his muscles and tendons seemed to be torn apart and reassembled by invisible hands. Amid the excruciating pain was an indescribable sense of relief.
Yun Qing fell to his knees, a low growl escaping his throat. Thick black sludge seeped from the surface of his skin—the turbid toxins and impurities that had accumulated over many years were now being forcefully driven from his body by the spirit spring.
When the pain gradually faded, he tremblingly opened his eyes, only to find that the world had been completely renewed.
He could clearly make out the textures of the distant mountains, while the sound of the flowing stream transformed in his ears into a clear, melodious symphony. Every movement felt light and nimble, as though his body had been relieved of a burden weighing a thousand pounds. Unprecedented vitality surged through his blood vessels.
Looking at his reflection in the water, he saw that his already handsome face now faintly radiated a jade-like luster. After Marrow Cleansing and Meridian Refinement, he had undergone a complete transformation. In the time it took to drink a cup of spring water, even his supernatural ability had risen by one level, granting him a detection range of one hundred meters and the ability to condense a needle as fine as a cow's hair.
Yun Qing stood atop the mountain and gazed into the distance, thinking that if he planted crops and trees across all this black soil and among these mountains, he would no longer have to worry about starving to death during the Apocalypse.
With that thought, he left the Space. He had also placed the Jade Token inside the Space. It was the only keepsake his grandmother had left him. Since the female protagonist had her own destined partner, there was no need for a Cannon Fodder like him to get involved. Naturally, he would keep the Jade Token as a memento.
Yun Qing had been raised by his grandmother. His father had died in a car accident when he was very young. A year after his father's death, his mother remarried. The only maternal love she had shown him was not claiming his father's compensation money, instead giving both it and her son to his grandmother.
His grandmother had relied on that compensation money to raise him and send him to school. The grandmother and grandson depended on each other for survival. Just when he had graduated from The Great Learning and could finally properly repay his grandmother, she abandoned him and passed away.
After that, he never returned to that small mountain village. Three years had already passed. Alone, he struggled in the city, working as a proper corporate wage slave of a programmer.
When the Apocalypse arrived in his previous life, he had also awakened a supernatural ability. However, his Psychic Ability grew too slowly, so he could only rely on brute force to survive. He followed the other survivors to the Base, but during the zombie horde in the first year of the Apocalypse, he was torn apart by Zombies after running out of strength.
Since the Apocalypse was bound to arrive, he might as well leave the city and return to his rural hometown. There were few people there, along with plenty of farmland and plants, making it convenient for him to collect species and survive more effectively.
As for Zhou Yao? She was merely a blind date he had just met. When the time came, he would call the matchmaker and say that the two of them were incompatible. Surely she would not follow him all the way to his hometown, right? Someone like that, as a protagonist, was best avoided from a distance. He had no desire to get involved in the plot.
With that thought, Yun Qing began packing his belongings. He put everything into the small courtyard in the Space, carried only a backpack, and called his landlord to say that he had something to deal with back home and would no longer be renting the apartment for the time being. The deposit could simply be transferred to him directly.
He also called his company to request a week of leave, saying that he had something to handle in his hometown. He could not resign rashly yet, or people would become suspicious. He would submit his resignation after returning home.
Besides, the Apocalypse would arrive in another month. Did it really matter whether he resigned or not?
Yun Qing boarded the High-Speed Rail back to his hometown, then transferred to a bus. After a whole day of travel, he finally returned to the small mountain village where he had been born just as night was about to fall.
No one had lived there for three years, and the entire courtyard looked especially desolate, overgrown with weeds. Dust filled the house as well.
Yun Qing hastily cleaned up one room so that the place looked somewhat inhabited. Starting tomorrow, he would officially begin turning it into a shelter.
He had saved some money over the past three years, which would be perfect for purchasing supplies. He also needed to collect some species, such as seeds.
It was midsummer, and the crops in the village were growing thickly. He wanted to collect some plants and grow them in the Space. He did not need many of each variety; enough to reproduce would do.
The Space covered roughly one thousand mu. Mountains, rivers, and lakes occupied two-thirds of it, leaving only about three hundred mu of land suitable for cultivation.
In the middle of the night, Yun Qing secretly left the house to steal some crops from the fields. Taking a few dozen from each field would give him quite a lot. At that moment, he could not be bothered with shame or anything else. Staying alive was the most important thing.
Besides, when the Apocalypse arrived, these plants and animals would mutate as well. Only Heaven knew what they would become.
This area was located in the north. The main crops were corn and wheat. Rice was also grown, but it was not the dominant crop. The villagers did not plant much of it either, keeping it mainly for their own consumption.
Their village had long maintained a tradition of preserving seeds. Seeds purchased from outside were used to grow grain for sale, while the food eaten by each household came from seeds carefully selected year after year. Though their yield was not high, the flavor was excellent, and the crops could reproduce.
These were what every household planted in its private plot. Who said farmers lacked wisdom? Having dealt with the land for generations, they were not foolish in the slightest.
The village was not large, containing only a little over one hundred households. Each family had two or three mu of private plots. If he dug up a few plants from densely planted areas, no one would notice at all.
Besides grain, there were also vegetables. Every household here had a vegetable garden, and they were not small. Yun Qing used his divine sense to move the plants from the fields into the Space, stopping only when his divine sense was completely exhausted.
After returning home, he entered the Space. Only after drinking a cup of Spirit Spring Water did he begin sorting through tonight's harvest, planting everything in its proper category across the soil in the Space.
He could also control things with his divine sense inside the Space, which made things far more convenient for Yun Qing. If he had to do everything himself, he would probably collapse. After sitting in an office for years, his body had long since become nearly as fragile as paper.
Even though he had undergone Marrow Cleansing and Tendon Tempering, he was still tired!
Looking at the two mu of corn, two mu of wheat, half a mu of rice, and the scattered millet, sorghum, potatoes, sweet potatoes, other crops, and vegetables, the total area unexpectedly came to roughly ten mu.
He controlled the river water and irrigated all the fields. A small amount of spirit spring flowed into the river at its source, so these crops should certainly be able to survive.
Yun Qing laughed happily. These crops were the foundation of his confidence during the Apocalypse. After finishing everything, he went straight to sleep inside the Space.
When he woke up, he felt refreshed. After stretching lazily, he looked down from the mountain to see how his labor had turned out.
The sight left him stunned. How long had he slept? The crops he had dug up last night had already sprouted ears. Could it be that the Time Flow Rate inside the Space was different from outside? Or had he slept for a very long time?
Yun Qing panicked and hurried out of the Space. He picked up his phone and checked it. It showed that only one night had passed, yet things inside the Space were clearly different. It seemed that the Time Flow Rate between the two places really was different.
He stored his phone in the Space, then turned on his computer and began testing the Time Flow Rate. The results showed that time inside the Space moved ten times faster than outside. Only one hour had passed on the computer, while ten hours had passed on the phone inside the Space.
Yun Qing thought blankly, feeling somewhat frightened. It seemed that he could not live inside the Space from now on. If he stayed there too long, would he not grow old much faster? Although he did not like the Apocalypse, he had never intended to court death.