3. Don't run away from my graduation project!

◎Penniless, I began clearing the land◎

Two hundred years later, at the foot of Cuiliang Mountain.

"Forty thousand years ago, a demon, filled with the resentment of heaven and earth, was reincarnated. After slaughtering his enemies from his previous life, he began to absorb the life essence of the living to cultivate, causing havoc in all directions. This is Qi Ling."

"The Immortal Realm, together with all the immortal sects and the Demon Realm, suppressed it at the foot of Qingshan Peak, where it was guarded by the Qingshan Sect."

"Two hundred years ago, a true dragon was born, and strange phenomena appeared in the sky. Lightning and thunder lasted for five days. The King of Daqi believed this to be an auspicious sign and granted a general amnesty. However, it is said that Qiling turned out to be a blessing in disguise and escaped unexpectedly..."

The old storyteller in the alley took a sip of tea, stroked his beard, and began to tell his story vividly, but unfortunately, few of the passersby paid any attention.

...

On a sunny hillside of Cuiliang Mountain.

Yan Yunzhao lay there contentedly, basking in the sunlight, the grass swaying gently in the breeze.

Two hundred years ago, when the heavenly tribulation struck, she, who had just reached the Foundation Establishment stage, was naturally unable to withstand the rolling heavenly lightning, resulting in the complete dissipation of her cultivation and the loss of her physical body.

Yan Yunzhao thought she was about to end her life so hastily. At the critical moment, Xiao Fu did her best to preserve her spiritual consciousness, but by a twist of fate, it was sealed into the Spirit-Gathering Grass that came with the teleportation array.

Xiao Fu has been devastated ever since and is still recovering; he has not yet been able to communicate with her telepathically.

The Spirit-Gathering Grass was nearly destroyed by the Heavenly Tribulation. It took root in the earth and slowly grew, taking a full two hundred years to barely be able to support Yan Yunzhao's spiritual consciousness.

Although it no longer has the effects of a top-grade spiritual herb and is just an ordinary little grass, its roots are tough enough to withstand Yan Yunzhao's cultivation.

"After all these years, you still haven't given up? None of us of your kind have ever heard of a blade of grass successfully cultivating into a human." A small blade of grass next to Yan Yunzhao twisted its body and said lazily.

“Even grass needs a goal to live, right? I can’t stay a blade of grass forever. Besides, you’ve gained consciousness now, haven’t you? That’s the first step in cultivating into a human.” Yan Yunzhao closed his eyes and meditated, unaffected by it.

Fate often plays tricks on people, and Yan Yunzhao never expected to become a blade of grass.

Whether she felt resentment or anger, the only response she received was the gentle breeze that swept through the valley. Looking up, she saw the sun; looking down, she saw her own pale green body. Perhaps it was better to simply live a carefree life, like a blade of grass, and cultivate whenever she felt like it.

"I never expected that the holiday I longed for with my boss in my past life would be waiting for me here." Yan Yunzhao focused his gaze on the sun, basking in its sunlight.

After years of exploration, this posture has been found to maximize sunlight exposure.

Two hundred years ago, she landed here and took root here to cultivate, gathering the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Gradually, the grass around her was influenced by her and also developed its own consciousness.

Although they were still immature and unable to engage in complex thinking, they could keep her company and relieve her boredom, so the two hundred years of cultivation were not too difficult to endure.

A surge of internal energy erupted from Yan Yunzhao's body, causing the small grass plants to sway and cry out in alarm, "What's happening? What's happening? Is it an earthquake?"

"Don't be afraid, everyone. My cultivation has reached another level, and I will soon be able to create human form." Yan Yunzhao comforted the grass plants as if they were children.

"How long is 'soon'?"

"Uh... if all goes well, it'll take another 150 years..."

For the past two hundred years of cultivation, she has acted like an elder, answering all sorts of strange questions from the plants every day:

"Why can't I cultivate into human form like you?"

“For humans, cultivation requires spiritual roots, but how do grass demons cultivate… I truly do not know.”

Strangely enough, Yan Yunzhao only had a fragment of spiritual consciousness left, so how could she have spiritual roots to help her cultivate? But when she sat on the ground and circulated her energy as usual, a continuous stream of spiritual energy did gather around her.

"Why are we all grass, yet we all look so different?"

"Because every blade of grass is unique."

...

Yan Yunzhao felt that the past two hundred years had greatly honed her patience, and if she had the chance to return to the modern world, she would definitely be very suitable to be an early childhood educator.

The sky darkened, and Cuiliang Mountain became damp, as if it were about to rain again.

The spiritual energy is strongest when the sun is shining brightly, so it's not suitable for cultivation when it rains. Yan Yunzhao concealed his aura and was about to concentrate and rest when a noisy fighting sound came from afar.

"Give me back my elixir! I've been refining it for ten whole months!"

"Of course, whoever gets it keeps it. Come and take it if you dare!"

"You! You're utterly unreasonable!" A woman in purple robes brandished a long whip and lashed out at him. The man, clutching the elixir, nimbly dodged and ran, almost stepping onto the grassy area where Yan Yunzhao was standing.

Oh no! If these two whip her or stomp on her foot, she might have a chance to survive if she focused on her cultivation, but this grass demon would be utterly destroyed.

As a blade of grass, unable to move freely, Yan Yunzhao could only anxiously twist his body.

Just as he was at his wit's end, the woman in purple infused her spiritual energy into her whip, let out a furious shout, and lashed out at the medicinal herb. Seeing he couldn't dodge in time, the man threw it away.

Splash...

Yan Yunzhao was soaked to the bone.

Wait… why was she splashed with water again? Before she could even get angry, a heart-wrenching wail came from the side: “My elixir!!! Without it, how can I graduate from the Heavenly Descent Sect smoothly!!!”

The woman in purple lay on the ground, weeping bitterly. Several blades of grass gasped, "It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!"

"Damn it, get off me!"

Unfortunately, ordinary people cannot hear them speak, and the woman continued to weep and roll on the grass.

Feeling awkward and having lost the elixir, the man sullenly picked a foxtail grass and sat on the ground, playing with it.

Yan Yunzhao couldn't help but chuckle, recalling the painful experience of being tormented by Yan Bi in his previous life. His expression towards the woman in purple became more one of pity and sympathy.

The woman's wailing echoed, sending shivers down Yan Yunzhao's spine.

Wait a minute... it doesn't seem like I was shocked by her voice.

A searing pain rippled through him, growing more and more intense. Yan Yunzhao felt as if he were being roasted over a fire, his entire body burning.

"How potent medicine did this disciple put in it?!"

If they ignore it, Yan Yunzhao, who has not yet fully cultivated, is very likely to be burned by the medicine. They have no choice but to take a gamble and hope that he can successfully absorb the medicinal properties.

She took a deep breath, focused her mind, and began to circulate her internal energy.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth gradually gathered in her body, and a gentle, cool power flowed through her meridians, counteracting the scorching medicinal properties, making her body feel much more comfortable.

After about half an incense stick's time, the toughness of the grass roots completely suppressed the burning heat of the medicine.

Yan Yunzhao closed her eyes and meditated, but felt the sun outside getting hotter and hotter, making her feel scorching hot all over. She opened her eyes in confusion and found that her field of vision had suddenly increased significantly.

A strange sensation came from my limbs—it felt like... arms and legs were growing!

Yan Yunzhao slowly lowered her head and glanced at herself, letting out a soft sigh: Luckily, she was still dressed.

She looked around; it was the same familiar scenery, the sky was clear and bright, except that a man and a woman were staring at her in astonishment from the ground.

"You, you, you, you..."

The woman in purple glared at her and pointed, nearly choking on her own breath.

Yan Yunzhao raised an eyebrow: "Me?"

The two people opposite them gasped in unison and scrambled back a few steps.

"Don't be afraid. I am a... uh... grass demon? Anyway, thanks to your elixir, I have finally taken human form." Yan Yunzhao dusted himself off, stood up, and stretched for the first time in a long time.

It's back to human form, that's wonderful!!!

In this lifetime, she vowed to stay away from those dangerous sects and live a peaceful life, cultivating the land.

The woman in purple cautiously approached and poked Yan Yunzhao's cheek.

"It's quite smooth... Is my elixir really that powerful?"

Yan Yunzhao pondered for a moment, then nodded and replied, "It has accelerated my cultivation by nearly 150 years."

"That's wonderful! I can finally become the chief disciple of the Medicine Sect!" The woman in purple grabbed Yan Yunzhao's hand and wept with joy.

"Thank God, this damned guy didn't waste his talents." She glared at the man, clasped her hands together, and prayed devoutly to the sky.

When the man heard her insulting him, he spat out a piece of foxtail grass with disdain.

"Then can you come back to the sect with me? We need to prove ourselves to the elders." The woman in purple smiled a little shyly. "By the way! My name is Ye Qin."

Yan Yunzhao hesitated for a moment, then politely declined the suggestion to return to the sect with her. The Immortal Realm and the Demon Realm have always been at odds, and now that she was just a lowly grass demon, it was best not to show herself in the Immortal Realm rashly.

Ye Qin understood her concerns and did not insist.

"Then...does the young lady have a preferred place to stay? I'd like to come and find you. Don't worry, I'll only bring my master and a few senior brothers with me; they're all very kind!"

Seeing Ye Qin unable to contain his excitement, Yan Yunzhao smiled and nodded in agreement: "I will stay in Cuiliang Mountain to take care of the grass demons."

After bidding farewell to Ye Qin, the man who had stolen the elixir followed her away. As the two walked away, Ye Qin didn't forget to kick him a few times.

Yan Yunzhao was amazed. On the surface, they seemed to be at odds, but in reality, they seemed to be quite familiar with each other.

As dusk fell, fiery red clouds lingered on the horizon, casting a soft glow over the verdant mountains.

Yan Yunzhao glanced back at the lazy grass spirits on the ground and couldn't help but smile. After two hundred years of living together, it was time for her, as the head of the family, to shoulder some real responsibilities.

Thinking this, Yan Yunzhao strolled leisurely to the stream at the foot of the mountain, enjoying the scenery along the way.

There are mountains, water, and trees. Surrounded by mountains, the trees are lush and green, and in autumn the maple leaves turn a deep crimson, a breathtaking sight.

Having no money at this point, staying at an inn was not a realistic option.

The first step in wilderness survival is infrastructure. After choosing a good spot, she used her sword to chop some wood in the mountains and built a house there to settle down.

The freshly cut wet wood couldn't be used directly, so she used magic to carefully evaporate the moisture from the wood.

When Yan Yunzhao was farming on the back mountain of Qingshan Gate, he had experience secretly building small huts, so he was quite skilled at it. After a lot of hammering, banging, and using his hands, feet, and magic, the hut finally looked somewhat decent.

After all that fuss, Yan Yunzhao collapsed onto a rock, her stomach rumbling like thunder. Cultivating into human form requires a great deal of cultivation, and her current cultivation level is only fifty years. Although her body is strong, she can't withstand the hunger of an ordinary person.

"It seems I need to cultivate more diligently. The demon realm is indeed too chaotic." Yan Yunzhao sighed, then picked up a twig and poked at the ant hole on the ground with his idle hand.

After only a short rest, his stomach began to rumble loudly. Yan Yunzhao looked around and noticed that there were many fresh berries and mushrooms. The thorns were sprouting bright red berries, and the mushrooms hidden in the grass after the rain looked especially delicious and tempting, making his mouth water.

Having not tasted delicious food for two hundred years, she excitedly lit a fire to cook, only to find that she didn't have a pot.

After looking around, Yan Yunzhao's gaze finally landed on the small talisman on his wrist.

Since it went into a long slumber, Yan Yunzhao was surprised to find that the talisman paper was not only tough and unbreakable, but also extremely elastic, and could be stretched to several feet long. It was simply a gift from heaven, a blessing from the earth.

“There are no more suitable materials right now, Xiao Fu, I’m sorry to trouble you to be my pot.” Yan Yunzhao pulled Xiao Fu into a square shape and tied the four corners together to fix it on the frame.

She filled a pot with water, added freshly picked mushrooms, along with several medicinal herbs and wild goji berries gathered from the mountains, and simmered it over low heat for a while until a rich aroma wafted out.

Yan Yunzhao folded a leaf into a small boat-shaped bowl, scooped it up, and took a sip. It was fresh, fragrant, and rich, with the original flavors of all kinds of mushrooms well preserved. The soup was like mellow nectar, and the taste was endless after swallowing it.

She was amazed that even after two hundred years of not cooking, her culinary skills were still so good. She enthusiastically decided: "Why don't we open a small food stall here!"