Chapter 4

Under the clear night sky, a silver moon hung high.

In the southern suburbs of Mufeng City, a large river meandered, its water sounds clear and distinct in the night.

A low wooden house stood quietly in this place, beside it a simple cowshed, and a fence enclosed a yard where an old locust tree stood, its trunk ancient but its branches lush and verdant.

Beneath the old locust tree, a young man sat cross-legged, his smooth black hair cascading over his shoulders. He formed a hand seal, a faint white light circling his body, a gentle energy circulating through his meridians.

This young man was Sun Sheng.

"Boom!"

Half an hour later, a faint explosion shook Sun Sheng's body, and the white light surrounding him disappeared, turning into points of starlight that dissipated like fireflies.

"Huff, huff, huff, huff..."

Sun Sheng was drenched in sweat, utterly exhausted. He leaned against the old locust tree, panting heavily.

"Indeed, I can't gather the energy in my dantian at all. I still can't cultivate. Once the energy enters my dantian, it disperses on its own." Sun Sheng was deeply troubled.

This wasn't the first time he had tried. He was currently at the Qi Moving stage, able to gather the elemental energy of heaven and earth and move it within his body. If he could condense it in his dantian, he could transform it into a furnace to forge the energy, a process known as Qi Cultivation.

Unfortunately, Sun Sheng had been severely injured in the past, leaving his dantian riddled with cracks, making it impossible to gather energy.

A year ago, Sun Sheng found a method in an ancient book, stating that a damaged dantian could be nurtured with one's own energy, potentially allowing it to be reborn.

For the past year, Sun Sheng had been trying this method, but each attempt ended in failure, and the cracks in his dantian only worsened.

"Damn it, who the hell wrote that book? If this continues, my dantian will eventually shatter again. Forget about being reborn; I might not even survive," Sun Sheng cursed, his head drenched in sweat.

However, Sun Sheng was not ready to give up. This was a risky but necessary method. If he couldn't repair his dantian, he would lead a life of mediocrity, even being bullied by others.

So, despite the pain, even if it meant dying, he had to try. This was his only chance.

After recovering some strength, Sun Sheng once again attempted to gather the elemental energy and move it within his body. The faint white light reappeared around him.

"Bang!"

But half an hour later, the white light dissipated, and Sun Sheng still couldn't gather the energy in his dantian.

This time, he felt a sharp pain in his dantian, curling up into a ball and trembling on the ground.

As expected, this attempt had worsened his dantian. The pain was like a thousand needles piercing his abdomen, causing him to break out in a cold sweat and tremble all over.

It took a long time for the pain to subside. Sun Sheng, utterly exhausted, sat up, leaning against the tree trunk and gazing at the bright moon in the night sky, a bitter smile on his face: "Still no effect. If this continues, I might die before I turn eighteen. Father... Mother... I may never see you again, and my little sister..."

At this moment, Sun Sheng felt utterly hopeless. He thought of his parents, whom he hadn't seen for over a decade. Were they still alive?

"Moo!!"

Suddenly, the blue ox in the cowshed, which should have been asleep, stood up and let out a long, thunderous bellow at the silver moon, the sound echoing through the night and even hurting Sun Sheng's ears.

"Hey, Tiezhu, why are you so loud? Why the sudden bellow? Did you have a nightmare?" Sun Sheng scolded, startled.

But then, something strange happened. The blue ox looked at Sun Sheng, its large eyes gleaming, and its mouth opened to speak: "I... remember everything."

"Remember everything? Did you lose your memory before? Tiezhu, wait a minute, was that you speaking just now?" Sun Sheng, who had been joking, suddenly turned pale and turned to look at the blue ox.

"It was me speaking. I remember everything," the blue ox repeated, its eyes unusually bright.

"Oh, that's good. Life is short; how many things can we remember? Right? Haha, I'll be right back." Sun Sheng struggled to stand, ignoring the pain in his body and the dull ache in his dantian, and walked out of the yard.

"It's so late, where are you going?" The blue ox, its massive body swaying, asked Sun Sheng from the cowshed.

"I need to calm down..." Sun Sheng walked out of the yard without another word.

He came to the river in front of the yard and plunged into it, the water splashing and creating ripples.

After more than a minute, Sun Sheng emerged from the river, climbing ashore, drenched from head to toe. The cold water invigorated him.

"This isn't a dream. I'm not feverish. Damn, it's really a ghost. Tiezhu actually spoke. It... it's just a cow." Sun Sheng slapped himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He clearly remembered finding this blue ox in the river.

But now, such a strange thing had happened. A blue ox, speaking human words, conversing with him under the moonlight.

"Your way of expressing surprise is quite unique." The blue ox walked out of the yard under the moonlight and approached Sun Sheng.

Indeed, it was a blue ox. Under the moonlight, its skin was still a deep blue, its horns shiny like metal, and its legs had spiral patterns. Its massive body approached, its large eyes gleaming like lanterns in the darkness.

"Tiezhu, are you a ghost? No, are you a cow or a ghost?" Sun Sheng took a step back, calming down.

The blue ox approached, its voice deep and steady: "The ways of heaven are mysterious. Is our meeting destined or coincidental?"

"Um... Tiezhu, since you just learned to speak, try to speak in simpler terms, okay?" Sun Sheng said awkwardly, keeping a distance from the blue ox because of the strange events of the night.

"Don't worry, I'm still me," the blue ox said.

Sun Sheng calmed down a bit. As long as this ox was still his Tiezhu, it was fine. They had relied on each other for so many years, and Sun Sheng trusted it. Although it suddenly spoke, it was still... wait!

Suddenly, Sun Sheng thought of something and said, "Tiezhu, are you a spirit beast?"

Sun Sheng was a Qi Cultivator and knew about spirit beasts, which were animals that had become highly skilled, comparable to powerful Qi Cultivators. In ancient times, these creatures were called demon beasts, but later, many were tamed by Qi Cultivators and became spirit beasts, so people began to call them spirit beasts.

In the Qingluan Mountains, a thousand miles from Fenyang City, there were many spirit beasts, which were places for Qi Cultivators to train. Some powerful spirit beasts were not much weaker than Qi Masters and could even speak and transform into human form.

So Sun Sheng suspected that the blue ox in front of him might be a spirit beast. If so, there was nothing to fear. After all, he had seen spirit beasts before. In the Ziyang Sect, he had seen powerful Qi Cultivators taming spirit beasts as mounts.

"Do you think I'm a spirit beast?" The blue ox snorted, seemingly a bit angry, but then smiled and said, "Fine, call me a spirit beast. That might make it easier for you to understand."