Chapter 105: Rain Upon the Plantains, the Flying Sword of Heaven and Earth

Luo Zu understood what Tang meant. It wasn’t about her direct expression of affection, but her confusion regarding her own place in the world.

Her body was human, her soul was human, and everyone around her told her she was human, yet the environment she had grown up in pushed her to become a member of the Wu tribe, a part of the Hot-Wu clan. Consequently, she was lost, without direction, unsure of how she should define herself.

But she quickly managed to console herself: "The Wu tribe will soon develop a way to transform into Wu."

Luo Zu didn’t know whether to support this line of thinking or refute it. He could only say that everyone has their own path. He couldn't bring himself to call her a traitor to humanity; after all, the nature of the Wu tribe was complex and difficult to define. He could only offer his blessings.

"Congratulations."

Tang smiled happily. In the end, one's worldview is forged by their environment, and besides, the Wu tribe treated Tang and her people well—they were not as vicious as the demon tribes.

"Luo, will you come with me?" Tang suddenly asked.

"Tang, I am human. I will not become a Wu." Luo Zu answered this with firm resolve.

Tang looked slightly disappointed. "I understand."

Because of this topic, the conversation that followed became somewhat stiff, though they didn't part on bad terms; after all, they still had the subject of cultivation to discuss.

Tang was quite knowledgeable. The Wu tribe did not keep their cultivation practices secret; they were open to all subordinates within the tribe. If one could learn them, all the better; if not, it didn't matter, as everyone had their own methods. Cultivation wasn't strictly about refining Qi, blood, or spirit—as long as it made one stronger, it was cultivation. Even doing push-ups could be considered cultivation. Thus, while the Primordial World might not have been crawling with true Immortals, it was certainly teeming with "pseudo-immortals."

However, cultivation had to be consistent and logical, and it truly had to increase one's power. Within the Wu tribe, there were other races, and they had their own ways of cultivation, which Tang shared with Luo Zu. Some cultivated by chewing iron and eating dirt, others by gazing at the sky and swallowing clouds, some by absorbing water veins, while others consumed fierce beasts, ghosts, or evil spirits. All these methods were aimed at strengthening oneself.

Luo Zu clearly understood this essence, but one had to find the right method. If you didn't, you could easily kill yourself or reach a dead end, stagnating in place. Luo Zu would not let his own cultivation fall into such a trap, so he constantly studied and experimented, terrified of one day suddenly finding no path forward. That would be the end of him.

"The cultivation of the Wu tribe is the tempering of one's own bloodline—constant refinement, and more importantly, sensing the earth, the sky, and all things in nature. Only then can one get closer to the Father God Pangu and reach a higher realm," Tang said slowly, introducing the Wu way to Luo Zu.

The cultivation of the Hot-Wu clan lay in sensing the heat between heaven and earth, absorbing it, and gradually strengthening and purifying their Wu bloodline.

"Refining essence into Qi is looking inward, then seeking outward. In this way, one forms internal breath. In the meantime, we can first use our inherent divine abilities to breathe and circulate, using the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to strengthen our physical bodies." Luo Zu also spoke at length about his own philosophy of cultivation.

Luo Zu’s cultivation level was higher than Tang’s, and his insights were deeper. As they exchanged ideas, it gradually became a monologue, with Tang listening to Luo Zu from noon until night.

Dinner time arrived. Luo Village began to sparkle with lights.

"It’s truly beautiful," Tang said, looking up at the village from the hillside.

"It's out of necessity. If we didn't do this, those evil spirits would rush into our tribe," Luo Zu replied.

"Those evil spirits are indeed detestable," Tang said.

She then talked about how the Hot-Wu tribe dealt with the evil spirits passing through: using sacrificial texts to pray, having the Great Elder step in to drive them away, or simply scattering the "ghost ash" formed after evil spirits were slain around the perimeter of the tribe to disperse them.

"Can I learn your language?" Tang asked, listening to the tribespeople by the campfire.

"No problem at all." Luo Zu was quite fond of spreading Mandarin. This way, he could realize the popularization of Mandarin across the multiverse.

Luo Zu’s method of teaching her was simple. "Just relax." He placed his hand on her forehead and, through a mental connection, poured the information regarding Mandarin directly into her mind.

Tang was stunned. Three seconds later, she came to her senses and began to listen to the words of the people around her. The language was somewhat vulgar, but of course, in this era, that was quite normal—it was direct, and most people spoke that way. Most of the conversations were about mating... well, some people were already taking action. Others were talking about her and Luo Zu.

"Welcome to Luo Village," Luo Zu said with a smile as he saw her looking back.

Tang then spoke a sentence in Mandarin: "Luo, shall we mate?"

"..."

It was very direct—a case of "when in Rome, do as the Romans do," or perhaps just her true nature. Whether Luo Zu refused or not, no one knows.

Luo Zu only saw Tang off the next day. She crushed the teleportation crystal given to her by Shi and returned to the Hot-Wu tribe. The operating principle of this crystal was quite unique; it wasn't spatial teleportation. Shi had said he didn't yet have the ability to shatter space, as his cultivation hadn't reached that level. This crystal simply "fired" a person or object precisely to a set address defined by Shi. It was a practical, everyday application of his own magical techniques, and the effect was quite good. It just required Tang to take protective measures when being launched and to activate her inherent divine abilities to strengthen her muscles and bones so she could withstand such high-speed flight.

Luo Zu watched with his mouth agape as Tang transformed into a streak of light. "Even Sun Wukong’s somersault cloud isn't this intense."

This taught Luo Zu not to underestimate the people of this world. The Wu and Demon tribes had developed for hundreds of millions of years; how could they still be ignorant primitives? Even if they were blinded by their own supernatural powers and hadn't climbed a "technology tree," their application of their own supernatural power had certainly reached an unprecedented level. It was definitely not the barren, one-dimensional imagination found in some novels where they only knew how to fight; their lives were certainly not like those of cavemen.

The two races stood at the pinnacle of supernatural power. If they weren't competing for hegemony, Luo Zu doubted the "plot" of the Primordial World would ever occur, and humanity would never have become the protagonist of the world—the final result would have been either total annihilation or becoming a part of the Wu or Demon tribes.

Luo Zu felt that the various brainstorms and memories from his past life might not keep up with the development of supernatural power by the Wu and Demon tribes over hundreds of millions of years. But one shouldn't be too discouraged; once he became an immortal, the situation would surely change.

"Wait, could they already be playing with time?" A glimmer of despair suddenly rose in Luo Zu’s heart.

Such a possibility existed. He had read plenty of Primordial World novels, and he remembered that in some, those Great Da Luo were truly immortal and indestructible—even if the Primordial universe was destroyed, they could recreate it themselves.

However, Luo Zu quickly let go of these thoughts. He was just a minor character for now, and these things were beyond his reach. When he could touch them, he would think about it then.

Breathe.

After putting those thoughts aside, Luo Zu’s mood improved quite a bit. Mostly because he had gained another wisp of Immortal Qi, and he had gained insight into one of his transformations. He only needed sufficient energy to proceed with his fifteenth transformation. This wasn't because of some enlightenment of his state of mind—he hadn't reached that level—it was just the natural result of his efforts. One was the passage of another day, naturally adding a wisp, and the other was the result of his thirty-six Dharma-image brains running at high speed. Yes, it was all his own hard work.

He had underestimated the speed at which he accumulated Immortal Qi. Previously, he had thought he would need to spend time every day deducing the structure of Dao techniques and refining the essence of the sun and moon and spiritual energy into Immortal Qi. Now, however, he no longer needed to deduce every day, because he had experience with the composition of the two hundred or so Dao techniques within his Immortal Qi. He didn't need to worry about it, though once he mastered a new Dao technique to the seventh rank, the structure would need to be re-deduced, and he would have to deconstruct his past Immortal Qi again. Of course, it wouldn't be too complicated; he wouldn't need to break down the Immortal Qi entirely, just add the new one in and re-derive the structure. He had already planned for this.

After refining a new wisp of Immortal Qi, Luo Zu immediately got busy. For no other reason than the matter of the Kuafu Lake. For the past two days, Shi and Tang had been there, so he hadn't been able to check the situation at the lake. Now he could go and take a look. Besides that, he also needed to check the flesh fragments of the Chouzhi demon stored in his pot-world to see if there were any issues.

He took to the air, flying through the sky. This was a flight technique Luo Zu had researched himself, capable of traveling thirty miles in the blink of an eye. Though not as fast as a somersault of a hundred thousand and eight thousand miles, nor as fast as Shi’s divine archery flight, its advantage was the low pressure—it didn't put too much strain on the body, and one didn't need to be forged of diamond and iron; the physique of an adult Primordial human was enough. He called this flight technique the "Universe Flying Sword," and as the name implied, he planned to upgrade it to sword-flying in the future.

The journey of over three hundred miles only took ten blinks of an eye. It was very fast. However, in just two days, the mountain range that had been shaved by the fish monsters had already begun to regrow. Although the trees were still much shorter than the old trees in the surrounding area, the speed was truly shocking to Luo Zu. Well, it seemed those hundred-year-old trees were all faking their age; they probably weren't that old at all. A thousand-foot ancient tree probably only took ten years to grow, and the ten-thousand-mile trees were the truly ancient ones.

However, even though this mountain range was already covered in a dense forest ten feet high, there were still wild beasts coming to steal the fish eggs. The mothers of these little fish eggs must have died under Shi’s archery. Now, without parents, their future life would be difficult. Since that was the case, Luo Zu decided to send them on their way.

Luo Zu then unleashed his fire-control technique, setting the dense forest ablaze. The roaring flames were unstoppable; even though the forest was new and full of sap, it couldn't hinder the fire. In an instant, the flames engulfed the hundred-mile mountain range, specifically targeting the forest land that had been cleared by the fish monsters.