Chapter 231
In Su Jing's mountaintop villa studio, a pale blue defensive light screen enveloped the surroundings, completely isolating the outside world from noise.
She sat cross-legged on a cultivation cushion made of manganese crystal, her eyes slightly closed. A rich, pale green spiritual energy surrounded her, intertwining with the multicolored energy emanating from the core protective chamber below, forming a visible energy vortex.
Within her dantian, spiritual energy surged like boiling spring water. The barrier that had been at the peak of the first level of Foundation Establishment had developed numerous cracks after five years of continuous nourishment, and she was now attacking it with all her might.
"Drink!" Su Jing shouted, her fingertips glowing with the pale purple lightning of a fourth-order lightning-type ability, and the pale blue coldness of a fourth-order mid-stage ice-type ability simultaneously surged into her dantian. Under the influence of spiritual power, the two energies were like two sharp blades, crashing fiercely into the barrier of her cultivation.
A soft crackling sound of energy rang out within the body, the barrier shattered, and spiritual energy, like a flood bursting its banks, flowed wildly along the widened meridians, re-condensing into an even more powerful vortex of spiritual energy within the dantian—the second level of Foundation Establishment was achieved!
She slowly opened her eyes, a sharp glint flashing in them before returning to calm.
Raise your hand to feel the changes in your body: your spiritual power is more than five times stronger than before, your meridians have expanded to twice their original size, and your range of perception has exceeded 5 kilometers. You can clearly capture the sound of birds flapping their wings in the forest below the mountain, the sound of flowing water in the distant river, and even sense the faint energy fluctuations of humans rebuilding a city 5 kilometers away.
His physical functions also underwent a qualitative leap: his grip strength exceeded 1,000 jin, his running speed was comparable to that of a cheetah, his skin was firm and smooth with a healthy light pink color, the fine lines at the corners of his eyes completely disappeared, and his appearance remained at the peak of his thirties, without any trace of being eroded by time.
"Su Jing...is so...strong..."
A childish, indistinct human language suddenly rang out beside her, its awkwardness obvious yet clearly discernible. Su Jing looked in the direction of the sound and saw Little Jin squatting on the metal workbench of the studio, its little paws digging into a spirit fruit, its little mouth moving slightly, its eyes full of excitement and curiosity.
Su Jing's pupils contracted slightly, and a rare look of surprise appeared on her face: "Xiao Jin, what did you just say?"
Little Jin tilted its head, its little ears standing straight up, as if recalling the pronunciation it had just made. After a moment, it spoke again, its tone still hesitant, but clearer than before: "Su Jing... has... successfully... cultivated..." As it spoke, it pointed at Su Jing with its little paws, then at the cultivation futon, its little face full of admiration.
Over the past five years, nourished by the rich spiritual energy of the space and the energy of the core array, Xiao Jin has not only increased its perception range to 3 kilometers, but its intelligence has also grown rapidly. Previously, it could only communicate through thoughts and simple roars, but now it can speak simple human language.
A warm feeling welled up in Su Jing's heart, and she raised her hand and beckoned, "Come here."
Little Jin immediately jumped off the control panel, its short legs quickly running to her. It rubbed its little paws against her palm and tried to speak again: "Su Jing... hungry... spirit fruit..." Its voice carried a hint of grievance, and its little eyes glanced towards the direction of the space entrance, clearly wanting to eat the spirit fruit that had just ripened in the spirit field.
"Okay, here's a spirit fruit for you." Su Jing nodded with a smile, activated her spatial ability, took out a plump white spirit fruit, and handed it to Xiao Jin.
Little Jin excitedly took it, held it with her little paws, and started munching on it, saying indistinctly, "Sweet...delicious...thank you...Su Jing..."
Su Jing stroked its head, her gaze falling on the monitoring device in the corner of the studio. The screen displayed real-time data on the progress of Earth's restoration: [Year 5 of Earth's restoration: land subsidence rate restored to 5%, forest coverage increased to 40%, air pollution index restored to 80% of pre-apocalyptic standards, magnetic field stability at 90%, ecosystem initially restored, and some extinct species beginning to reappear].
Over the course of five years, under the continuous nourishment of the natural core, the Earth has shed the shadow of the apocalypse and regained its vitality. The human reconstruction of the city at the foot of the mountain has also taken shape, with high-rise buildings rising from the ground and roads connecting all directions. However, Su Jing has never set foot there.
For the past five years, she has always kept her promise to live in seclusion. Her daily life is simple and regular: in the morning, she enters the space to manage the spiritual herb planting area. Now the planting area has been expanded to 1,000 cubic meters. 500 thousand-year-old spiritual herbs are growing vigorously and can yield 800 spiritual fruits every year. The spiritual essence extracted can not only be used for her cultivation, but also nourish other creatures in the space.
In the morning, she assisted Xiao Jin in managing the monster area and the breeding area. Five new Tier 3 Wind Wolves had been added to the monster area (which she had tamed and which were docile). The 10 sheep in the breeding area had multiplied to 30. The number of fish in the freshwater lake had exceeded 10,000. A perfect ecological cycle of "spiritual herbs → breeding/monsters → excrement → soil/silt → spiritual herbs" had been formed in the space. It could operate on its own without her much intervention.
In the afternoon, she would take Xiao Jin down the mountain to clear out the occasional raging monsters (mostly low-level monsters that had not adapted to the changes in the environment) within a 5-kilometer radius. This would both train her supernatural abilities and clear away potential threats for the human reconstruction area, but she would never come into contact with humans.
In the evening, he would return to his studio to cultivate, absorbing the energy of the core array to solidify his cultivation.
Su Jing got up and walked to the monitoring device, pulling up the real-time image inside the space: on the spirit field, three adult spirit deer were munching on spirit herbs. Their bodies were more robust than five years ago, and their antlers shone with a rich spiritual energy. They were able to release a weak spiritual energy shield, becoming the "spiritual plant guardians" of the space.
In the breeding area, 30 sheep graze leisurely on the spiritual grass. Their meat contains a faint spiritual energy due to long-term consumption of spiritual grass, making it an excellent source of energy. In the freshwater lake, thousands of fish swim among the dense aquatic plants. The silt at the bottom of the lake is regularly dug out by robots to serve as natural fertilizer for the spiritual grass.
Inside the monster zone, the Ice Fang Beast and Rock Armor Beast cubs that Xiao Jin had previously managed have grown into adult monsters and are peacefully coexisting with the newly added Wind Wolves. Xiao Jin is squatting by the fence, "commanding" them to eat in broken language: "Wind Wolves...eat...spiritual herbs...don't...steal..."
Seeing this harmonious scene, Su Jing smiled faintly.
She walked to the center of the studio, raised her hand to activate her lightning-type ability, and a three-meter-long lightning pillar condensed at her fingertips. The surface of the lightning pillar did not have any violent aura, but was unusually condensed, which was obviously a qualitative change brought about by her second level of Foundation Establishment cultivation.
She gently waved her hand at a discarded manganese crystal module next to her, and the lightning bolt struck the module precisely. With a "whoosh," the module was instantly pierced, leaving a smooth, round hole without any damage around it.
"My lightning-type ability has reached the late stage of the fourth tier; I should also try my ice-type ability."
With a thought, Su Jing dissipated the lightning pillar, and light blue ice-type supernatural power condensed, instantly forming a five-meter-high and three-meter-wide ice wall in front of her. The surface of the ice wall was as smooth as a mirror, and the inside contained rich spiritual energy. The system prompted, "Ice wall hardness: 3 times that of second-tier manganese steel, capable of resisting attacks from supernatural powers below the fifth tier."
She then activated her ice-based ability, and the ice wall instantly transformed into dozens of ice blades, which were neatly arranged in the air. With her gesture, the ice blades precisely inserted into the ground, forming a ring of ice blades with an error of no more than one centimeter.
Wood-based support abilities have also made significant progress.
She raised her hand towards the potted plant of spiritual herbs in the corner of the studio, and pale green spiritual energy surged into it. The potted plant, which was originally just an ornament, instantly became lush and full of light purple flowers. The flowers had a refreshing fragrance that could soothe the mind.
"Although the wood element is only an auxiliary element, it can accelerate the growth of spiritual herbs and stabilize the spatial ecosystem."
Su Jing thought to herself that in the past five years, her wood-type ability had been upgraded to the third level. Although it could not be used for combat, it played a huge role in managing the space.
After testing her supernatural abilities, Su Jing activated her spatial abilities and stepped into her storage space. On the spirit field, 500 thousand-year-old spirit herbs swayed in the wind, their pale green spiritual energy permeating the air, and newly ripened spirit fruits hung from the branches, gleaming with a lustrous sheen.
When the three spirit deer saw her, they immediately surrounded her, gently nuzzling her arm with their antlers and letting out gentle growls.
When the lambs in the breeding area saw her, they all looked up and bleated.
Little Gold jumped onto the warm jade trellis beside the spirit field, picked up a spirit fruit, handed it to Su Jing, and said, "Su Jing... spirit fruit... ripe... eat..." Its pronunciation became clearer and clearer, and it could already speak simple short sentences fluently.
Su Jing took the spirit fruit, took a bite, and the sweet juice melted in her mouth. The rich spiritual energy flowed into her body through her throat, instantly replenishing the spiritual power she had consumed during the test of her special ability.
"How's the core array?" Su Jing asked, as she walked toward the core protection zone in the center of the space.
Little Jin followed behind her, pointing its tiny paw at the multicolored light screen, and said, "Stable... Energy... Enough..."
The core array remains neatly arranged, with the energy flow released by the 37 mineral cores, 20 plant cores, and 43 beast cores circulating stably, and the connection strength with the Earth's magnetic field is displayed as "100%".
Su Jing raised her hand and infused it with a wisp of spiritual energy. The light screen flickered slightly, responding to her energy, and data popped up on the monitoring panel: [Core energy remaining 85%, can maintain stable output for 5 years, Earth repair progress 60%].
Over the past five years, Su Jing has cleaned up energy impurities around the core array every six months to ensure stable energy output.
Occasionally, when her core energy is insufficient, she will enter newly opened high-level dungeons to hunt high-level monsters and obtain energy crystals to replenish her core. However, these actions are all carried out in secret and have never been noticed by the outside world.
She walked to the freshwater lake on the north side of the space. The lake had expanded to 300 square meters. The aquatic plants at the bottom of the lake were lush and abundant. Thousands of fish swam freely in the water, and occasionally small fish would leap out of the water, splashing water.
Su Jing activated her water-based superpower, a faint blue light emanating from her fingertips. She gently touched the lake surface, and ripples instantly spread across the water. Spiritual energy spread along the ripples, accelerating the growth and reproduction of the fish.
"It's time to clear out the monsters on the outskirts."
Su Jing glanced at the warning on the monitoring device—an energy fluctuation of a fourth-tier berserk bear had appeared in the forest 5 kilometers away, which might threaten the human reconstruction area below the mountain.
She turned to Xiao Jin and said, "Xiao Jin, come down the mountain with me."
Little Jin immediately jumped up excitedly, grabbed her sleeve with its little paws, and said, "Okay...kill...the monster..."
Su Jing activated her flight ability, carrying Xiao Jin out of the space and landing on the open ground outside the villa.
Five years of training had also enhanced her flying abilities, allowing her to fly at speeds exceeding 500 kilometers per hour and maintain a flight time of up to 10 hours without frequent refueling. She unfolded her pale blue wing membranes and flew towards the forest with Little Gold, her intuitive senses pinpointing the location of the raging bear.
In the forest, a ferocious bear was frantically destroying trees. It was huge, covered with thick brown fur, and its aura was violent. It was obviously stimulated by the change in the environment and lost its mind.
Without the slightest hesitation, Su Jing activated her late-stage fourth-tier lightning ability. A pale purple lightning bolt condensed and shot fiercely towards the berserk bear's head. With a deafening roar, the lightning bolt struck its target precisely. The berserk bear let out a mournful howl before its massive body crashed to the ground, completely still.
Little Jin jumped off her shoulder, ran to the corpse of the raging bear, pawed at it with its little paws, and said, "Dead...safe..."
Su Jing withdrew her superpowers and stored the raging bear's corpse into her spatial storage—the hide could be made into a cold-proof material, and the bones and core could be refined into energy crystals to replenish the core array.
She didn't linger. She took Xiao Jin back to the mountaintop and used her intuition to scan the human reconstruction area below. The city was bustling with activity, with cars flowing endlessly and people's faces beaming with long-lost smiles. But all of this was irrelevant to her.
After returning to the villa, Su Jing handed the carcass of the raging bear to the robot for disposal, and then went back to the studio, sat down cross-legged, and began to consolidate her Foundation Establishment Level 2 cultivation.
Little Jin squatted beside her, its tiny paws holding a spirit fruit. It nibbled on it, occasionally uttering a few simple words: "Su Jing...cultivation...becoming stronger...protection..."
Su Jing listened to Xiao Jin's hesitant words with a calm heart.
Over the course of five years, she witnessed the gradual recovery of the Earth and also achieved her own growth. Xiao Jin's ability to speak was an unexpected delight.
She knew that it would take five years for Earth to be fully restored. During these five years, she would continue to stay on the mountaintop, cultivate, protect the core, and clear out the monsters, fulfilling her responsibility as a redeemer in her own way, but she would still not get involved in human conflicts.
On the monitoring device, footage of the human reconstruction area at the foot of the mountain was still playing. Occasionally, promotional images of the reconstruction team could be seen, mentioning the "Superpowered Individual Training Program," seemingly preparing for future civilization development.
Su Jing glanced at it, then turned off the monitor and continued to immerse herself in cultivation.
She could guess that when the Earth was fully restored, humans would most likely come looking for her again, but she had already made her decision—to live in seclusion in the mountains, protect the space, accompany Xiao Jin and the spirit deer, and live the life she wanted.
As night deepened, the defensive light screen of the mountaintop villa glowed with a faint blue light, and the multicolored energy of the core protection room shone through the floor, casting soft light and shadow in the studio.
Su Jing's cultivation continued, the spiritual energy within her dantian flowing smoothly. Little Jin lay beside her, gradually falling asleep, occasionally uttering a few indistinct murmurs in her sleep: "Su Jing... the spiritual fruit... is safe..."
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