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When Du Heng woke up again, he felt his throat dry and his head hurt. He was uncomfortable all over. He lay stiffly on the bed with his eyes open. Suddenly, a magnified face appeared in front of him.
Xiaoxiao's face appeared in Du Heng's eyes: "Chirp!!"
Xiaoxiao rubbed Du Heng's face enthusiastically. The furry and warm feeling made Du Heng feel like he was coming back to life.
Du Heng opened his mouth and said, "Smile..."
What happened to him? How long had he been unconscious?
At this time, footsteps were heard nearby. Du Heng looked and saw Xuan Yu holding a bowl in his hand. Seeing Du Heng wake up, Xuan Yu smiled and said, "Awake? Are you feeling uncomfortable?"
Du Heng spoke the truth: "There is no place on my body that feels comfortable. What's wrong with me?"
Xuan Yu fed Du Heng half a bowl of water in one breath, and Du Heng felt like dry grass encountering a refreshing rain.
Xuan Yu said slowly: "You chose your natal spiritual plant. When it merged with your sea of consciousness, it absorbed too much spiritual energy from your body. You couldn't bear it and fainted."
Du Heng frowned: "Absorb my spiritual energy?"
What's going on? Isn't the natal spiritual plant supposed to protect the monk? It's the monk's right-hand man, so why is it absorbing the monk's spiritual energy?
Xuan Yu explained slowly, "The natal spirit plant is actually a companion and weapon cultivated by the cultivator using his own spiritual energy and cultivation. It can be relied upon to save life at critical moments, but it also needs spiritual energy from the cultivator at ordinary times."
Du Heng almost shed bitter tears. He knew that the road of cultivation was full of pitfalls. He accidentally fell into one.
Xuan Yu comforted him, "Don't worry, your spiritual plant is growing well in your sea of consciousness."
Du Heng asked slowly, "Can I ask what my natal spiritual plant is?"
He remembered that before he fainted, he only saw a round, green seed. As for what kind of plant was inside the seed, he really had no idea.
Xuan Yu said: "It's bamboo."
Du Heng smiled with satisfaction: "Bamboo is good."
Bamboo is hollow and has fewer bends. Bamboo shoots can be eaten, and bamboo poles can be used to make various bamboo products. From a practical point of view, Du Heng was very satisfied with the spiritual plants he collected. It was not something flashy and practical, which was great.
The next question is, "How long have I been dizzy?"
It's no wonder Du Heng asked this question. After drinking half a bowl of water, he felt his stomach growling with hunger. He had never been this hungry since he came to the village.
Xuan Yu said: "You have been unconscious for eight days. Today is already the tenth day of the first lunar month."
Du Heng looked at Xuan Yu in shock: "What? I was unconscious for so long?"
No wonder he felt uncomfortable all over. After being hungry for so many days, it was a miracle that he could wake up!
Xuan Yu said: "This is your first time fusing with your natal spirit plant. With your cultivation level, you have done very well. Some cultivators take longer to fuse, some even taking more than ten years."
Du Heng said sadly: "If he loses consciousness during the fusion, won't he starve to death?"
Xuan Yu said seriously: "It is indeed possible, but in the world of cultivation, there has not been any case of people starving to death while trying to tame spiritual plants." The implication was that Du Heng was worrying too much.
Xiaoxiao squatted beside Du Heng's head and rubbed his face. Du Heng saw a clear meaning in Xiaoxiao's eyes: "Eat!"
Du Heng stood up and said, "Let's go eat. I'm starving."
When Du Heng opened the refrigerator, he almost cried. Where were the snacks he prepared? Why were so many bowls empty? Where were the meatballs, braised pork and noodles? And where were the food he made in the twelfth lunar month? Where did they go?
Before he passed out, the edible vegetables in his refrigerator were enough to support the entire village until the 15th day of the first lunar month. How come it was empty in an instant?
Xuan Yu explained, "Chonghua and the others set out to return to Dongji Mountain early this morning. I didn't know when you woke up, so I took the initiative to pack some things for them."
Xuan Yu is not a stingy person. The result of packing is that only the ingredients that need to be cooked are left in the refrigerator.
Du Heng understood Xuan Yu: "Thank you Xuan Yu, you did a great job."
In fact, Chonghua, Yunzheng and the others have eaten quite a bit during this period, so there might not be much left after each person gets their share.
Du Heng felt a little guilty: "It's all my fault that I was unconscious for too long and missed the chance to say goodbye to them."
It was unknown when they would meet again. Du Heng felt a little regretful when he thought of this. He still had many of his specialties that he hadn't had time to cook for everyone.
Xuan Yu packed up most of the snacks that could be eaten directly and sent them to Yun Zheng and the others. There were quite a lot of ingredients in the refrigerator. Du Heng thought about it and decided that he wanted to eat rice now. The more it went well with rice, the better.
He took out four large pieces of meat, and then took out a winter bamboo shoot and a few slices of green pepper. He wanted to make a small stir-fried meat! He wanted to put the thinly sliced meat on the white rice and eat two bowls of it happily!
The familiar sound of cooking smoke came out of the kitchen again. Seeing the smoke rising, Jing Nan and Feng Gui appeared on time. Wen Qiong, who was dressed in green, also appeared. The small butterfly hairpin on Wen Qiong's head turned the same color as her clothes.
Wen Qiong smiled and said, "You woke up earlier than I thought. How do you feel?"
Du Heng smiled bitterly: "I'm hungry. I was so hungry when I woke up. Didn't I start cooking as soon as I woke up?"
Jing Nan breathed a sigh of relief: "That's right. During the few days you were in a coma, we couldn't eat or sleep well."
Feng Gui coldly complained, "Don't listen to him. He got indigestion the other day because he ate too much braised meat."
Du Heng: ...He knew that the people in the village were not as innocent as they appeared to be.
Xiaoxiao jumped onto the chopping board and stared at Du Heng with sparkling eyes: "Chirp?"
Du Heng was busy adding water to the pot to boil meat. He explained, "I'll make some stir-fried meat. Do you want anything to eat?"
Xiaoxiao thought for a moment and said, "Chirp, chirp!"
He wanted to eat the sausage that Du Heng left for him. He had been longing for that sausage for a long time!
But if we soak the sausage now, it will be too salty and taste bad. He thought about it carefully and said, "How about I steam the sausage for you to eat at night? I'll make you something else delicious at noon?"
Xiaoxiao was the first to speak. He nodded and squatted obediently on the stove.
Feng Gui said inhumanely: "I want spicy food." Jing Nan ordered: "I want duck egg and mushroom soup."
Du Heng: ...Well, he shouldn’t have gone straight to the kitchen after waking up. This group of people didn’t even treat him as a patient.
The spiritual rice was simmered in the pot, and Du Heng said to Jing Nan coldly, "There is no duck egg and mushroom soup, only steamed eggs with shrimp."
At this moment, Du Heng was eager to eat the food and was not in the mood to cook.
Feng Gui weakly asked, "I want it spicy..." Du Heng threw him a can of chili oil and said, "You can use this to mix with rice later."
Feng Gui complained, "Du Heng, you have changed. You never dared to do this to me before."
Du Heng didn't bother to pay attention to the two bastards. His focus was on the boiled meat in the pot. Unlike the usual blanching method, Du Heng added shredded ginger and white wine to the pot and sprinkled a handful of peppercorns. When he saw a half-foot-long shallot growing on the kitchen windowsill, he plucked a handful of shallots, tied them into a knot and threw them into the pot.
After a stick of incense and a cup of tea, the aroma of boiled meat wafted out of the pot. At this point, the meat could be poked through the skin with chopsticks.
Du Heng opened the lid of the pot and took out two lumps of meat, while the remaining two lumps were still stewing in the pot.
Xuan Yu asked, "Why don't you take it all out?" Didn't Du Heng say he wanted to eat the stir-fried pork? What's the point of leaving half?
Du Heng put the steaming meat on the plate. "I was so hungry just now that I felt like I could eat a lot of meat. But when I think about it, four pieces of meat are actually too much. I plan to keep two pieces for garlic pork and two pieces for stir-fried pork slices. Don't worry, these two dishes are quick and easy and will be ready soon."
Wen Qiong and the others at the table suddenly realized: "Oh~~"
The two pieces of meat that had just been taken out of the pot were too hot, so Du Heng put the plate and the meat into the freezer. Seeing everyone's puzzled eyes, Du Heng said, "The meat slices are a little hot now, and with my knife skills, they will be a little thick. It will be easier to cut after it cools down a bit."
Du Heng quickly processed the bamboo shoots and cut them into thin slices. The green peppers were also sliced thinly on the plate. Feng Gui said happily, "Hey, there are peppers."
Du Heng said: "The green pepper is just for flavor, it's not too spicy. In fact, this dish can't be considered stir-fried meat. This method is a bit like twice-cooked pork."
The meat for twice-cooked pork is cooked meat. The word "re-cooked" means putting it back into the pot. There is a big difference in taste between stir-fried cooked meat and raw meat.
It’s just that he lacks an important seasoning for twice-cooked pork: bean paste. But this doesn’t bother Du Heng. If he can’t make twice-cooked pork with authentic flavor, he can make Du’s version of stir-fried twice-cooked pork.
His parents loved the twice-cooked pork he made. Every Chinese New Year, Du Heng would make a plate of it for his parents to taste.
When he took the two pieces of meat out of the refrigerator, the two pieces of white meat left in the pot could also be fished out. Xuan Yu asked considerately: "Should these two pieces of meat be put in the refrigerator?"
Du Heng shook his head repeatedly: "No, no, leave it here, I'll deal with it soon."
The meat is slightly warm when taken out of the refrigerator, so you can cut it into thin slices. The fat part of the slices Du Heng cuts is translucent. He explains as he cuts: "The slices of twice-cooked pork should not be too thick, otherwise it will be difficult to fry out the fat inside, and it will taste greasy when you eat it."
Xuan Yu and his friends had never eaten twice-cooked pork before. After hearing what Du Heng said, they nodded: "Oh!"
Du Heng soon got a large plate of evenly-thick slices of meat, with 60% fat and 40% lean. When the soybean oil in the pot started to smoke, Du Heng threw shredded ginger into the pot. The shredded ginger sizzled, and when they gave off a gingery aroma, Du Heng poured the large plate of meat into the pot.
The thinly sliced meat sizzled as it was touched by the hot oil, and the fat in the fat was quickly forced out. Originally there was only a thin layer of soybean oil at the bottom of the pot, but soon a thick layer of animal oil accumulated.
The meat slices soaked in animal oil were slightly curled, the lean meat parts close to the edge of the pot were slightly browned, and the fat parts were almost transparent.
After frying for a while, Du Heng pushed the meat aside. Authentic twice-cooked pork is fried with bean paste and garlic sprouts, but the inauthentic Du's twice-cooked pork is not so particular.
Du Heng picked up the thinly sliced bamboo shoots and poured them into the pot. After the bamboo shoots were put into the pot, there was a loud sizzling sound. A puff of oil smoke rose up, and Du Heng squinted his eyes and calmly stir-fried the bamboo shoots. After the bamboo shoots were stir-fried for a few times, he picked the meat slices from the side and mixed them with the bamboo shoots.
Now it's time to add seasoning. Du Heng added white wine soy sauce, a small amount of sugar and fine salt, and then sprinkled a little pepper. The meat and bamboo shoots in the pot were immediately stained with the color of soy sauce. People who don't know will think that this dish tastes sweet, but in fact, a small amount of sugar is used to enhance the flavor.
This is a little trick of Du Heng. Adding a little sugar to meat will make the meat softer, more tender and more fragrant. As long as you don't add a lot of sugar, the sweetness of the sugar will not affect the taste of the whole dish.
After stir-frying for a while, he poured in the green pepper slices that he had prepared in advance. After the green pepper slices were put into the pot, the color in the pot suddenly became brighter, and the pot was no longer pale. In the past, Du Heng would use green and red peppers to match, but when conditions did not allow, he could only prioritize the taste.
After frying for a few times, Du Heng took out the large plate that had been used to hold the meat. He got a large pot of greasy and delicious twice-cooked pork. The meat slices lying on the plate exuded a charming meaty aroma, which made people's appetites open.
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Jing Nan and the others could no longer hold back and took out their chopsticks. Jing Nan even gave Wen Qiong a pair of chopsticks: "Try it. It would be great if your enlightenment during cultivation was as smooth as cooking."
Wen Qiong said with a smile: "I think he has good qualifications."
Xuan Yu didn't say anything. He picked up a piece of meat and bamboo shoots with his chopsticks and passed it to Du Heng's mouth: "Eat a little first."
Du Heng was hungry, so he didn't care about anything at this time. He took a big bite of the food on Xuan Yu's chopsticks, and his mouth was full of bamboo shoots and meat. As he chewed, the meat and bamboo shoots danced in his mouth.
The bamboo shoots are crisp and tender, with a thin layer of sauce on them, which tastes salty and fresh with a little sweetness. The meat is soft and flexible, the lean meat is fragrant but not dry, and the fat is oily when you bite it, but it doesn't feel greasy at all.
If you need something to go with this dish, it must be white rice!
Jing Nan has already started howling: "Is the rice ready?" This dish goes very well with rice, and you have to eat three bowls of rice to make it worthy of this dish.
Feng Gui was not interested: "It's not spicy."
God knows how they have been spending the past few days. They are counting on Du Heng's refrigerator to survive. If Du Heng doesn't wake up today, Feng Gui will use force to wake him up. He thinks the food in the refrigerator is delicious, but it's not cooked by Du Heng, so he always feels that it lacks some taste.
Du Heng took a bite of the dish and felt a little refreshed. He said embarrassedly: "Actually, this dish should be less spicy. It's just that I lacked the ingredients."
He not only lacked bean paste, but also garlic sprouts. But he wanted to eat twice-cooked pork, so he could only make this modified version of twice-cooked pork. The real twice-cooked pork is spicy and sweet, and combines the various spicy flavors of garlic sprouts, bean paste and spicy seasonings, which tastes very satisfying.
Jing Nan really likes this dish: "I think it's delicious. Why does it have to be so spicy?"
Wen Qiong also expressed her opinion: "I think it's delicious!" The little girl showed two dimples when she spoke, and Du Heng was instantly drunk.
Du Heng looked at Xuan Yu: "Xuan Yu, do you think it's ok?" Xuan Yu nodded: "It's delicious."
Feng Gui immediately sneered at Xuan Yu: "Come on, you didn't eat anything at all."
In order to make up for Feng Gui’s regret of not having spicy food, Du Heng prepared to make the second dish, garlic pork, spicy.
In fact, making garlic pork is simple, just cut the cooked pork into slices and eat with the dipping sauce. But it is also complicated, because this dish requires very sophisticated knife skills. The slices of garlic pork should be cut thinly enough to be transparent, and the meat slices must be intact. If they are cut too thick, it will taste greasy.
Du Heng thought his knife skills were pretty good, and he was always quite proud of it.
There was a large piece of cooked meat on the chopping board. Each piece of meat was one foot long, eight inches wide and six inches thick, with a large piece of gray lean meat on it, and four inches of fat between the skin and the lean meat.
Du Heng placed the knife almost horizontally close to the piece of meat, and slowly moved the knife from one end to the other. After a while, a large, slightly transparent piece of meat appeared above the knife.
Du Heng picked up the white meat with chopsticks and looked at it. He saw that the meat was intact and the fat part was transparent. Du Heng gave himself a score: "Beautiful!"
Then he rolled up the white meat with chopsticks and placed it on the plate beside him. Soon he got a large plate of white meat neatly stacked like a flower.
At this time, Jing Nan asked a soul-searching question: "Du Heng, what did you just say this dish was called?"
Du Heng was still immersed in his beautiful knife skills: "Garlic pork!"
Jing Nan: "What is garlic paste?"
Du Heng: ...He forgot that he didn't have any garlic! He found ginger and scallions, but he didn't find any garlic!
When Jing Nan reminded him, Du Heng suddenly felt embarrassed: "That... no."
Jing Nan looked at Du Heng suspiciously: "Are you kidding me?"
Du Heng argued weakly: "I haven't seen garlic in the demon world!"
Before he found ginger and garlic, he used madder instead of ginger and garlic. Didn’t he see that all the madder in the fields had been pulled out by Du Heng?
Jing Nan sighed: "If you don't have something, can't you just ask me?"
Du Heng looked at Jing Nan suspiciously: "Do you have any garlic?" Jing Nan simply lay down: "No."
Du Heng was helpless. What kind of people were there in the village?
Jing Nan changed his tone: "I don't have any here, but there are a lot on the mountain. If what you are talking about is the thing I know, there should be quite a few."
Du Heng's eyes lit up: "Are you telling the truth?"
Jing Nan nodded: "But the way you call spiritual plants in your hometown is different from ours, I'm not sure if that's what you want. I know that it's very spicy, and it will grow spherical rhizomes in late spring and early summer. The rhizomes have a bad smell. Snakes, insects, rats, ants, and mountain monsters won't eat that thing."
Du Heng's eyes lit up even more: "Hey?"
Xuan Yu said slowly: "You wait here, Jing Nan and I will go and get some."
As expected of the considerate Xuan Yu, that's great! Du Heng smiled and said, "Okay, okay."
Jing Nan and Xuan Yu disappeared in the kitchen in an instant, and within a cup of tea, they appeared again. This time, Xuan Yu had a bunch of green spiritual plants tied with a string in his hand. Du Heng looked closely and realized that it was garlic sprouts.
The garlic sprouts in this season are fresh and tender. After pinching off the leaves, they will ooze out some fragrant juice. Xuan Yu put the spiritual plant under the eaves of the corridor: "Du Heng, take a look, is it what you want?"
Du Heng nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes! It's just that it hasn't grown garlic yet, but it can be fried and eaten."
Jing Nan and Feng Gui immediately slammed the table: "You want to fry something so smelly and eat it?! No!!" Feng Gui exhaled: "What kind of life did you live in your hometown? Why do you eat this?"
Jing Nan threatened: "If I had known that you were talking about this stuff, I would never let you know even if I were beaten to death. I tell you, if you dare to add this stuff to white meat, I will not eat it today!!"
Du Heng turned a deaf ear to him. He took a dustpan and squatted under the eaves to clean the garlic sprouts. Perhaps because no one cared about them, the garlic sprouts grew very thin, and the thickest ones were only as thick as Du Heng's little finger. It was impossible to make garlic pork with such garlic, but he could take out the garlic sprouts and keep them for cooking other dishes.
Xiaoxiao chirped twice at Du Heng, he wanted to tell Du Heng: the rice in the pot is cooked.
Du Heng placed the basket under the eaves and went to wash his hands by the sink. "What a pity! There is no garlic paste. Let's eat pork with garlic paste without garlic paste."
Feng Gui and Jing Nan breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank God."
It seems that these two people are disgusted by the taste of garlic. I don’t know what garlic has done to them. But Du Heng will find a way to change their opinion of garlic.
The most important thing about white meat is the dipping sauce. Although it lacks the garlic flavor without the mashed garlic, it is still delicious if it is prepared properly.
Du Heng added five spoons of soy sauce, three spoons of chili oil, one spoon of sesame oil, a little salt and a little more sugar to the bowl. Feeling that the seasoning was too strong, he added four spoons of meat sauce. After stirring the seasoning evenly, he rolled up a piece of white meat and dipped it in the seasoning: "Xiaoxiao."
Xiaoxiao immediately ran to Du Heng and opened his mouth. He loved food tasting the most.
The white meat was still warm, and after rolling in the sauce, it was stained with soy sauce and turned into a reddish red. A bite of the white meat was fragrant and spicy, with just the right amount of saltiness and a little sweetness. The meat was a big bite, and it was not greasy at all.
Xiaoxiao trembled her wings and made a trilling sound. Du Heng was happy to receive Xiaoxiao's feedback. He poured the sauce evenly on the white meat: "Originally, there should be some vegetables underneath, but I'm too lazy to move. Everyone, just eat it."
Du Heng placed a large plate of white meat on the dining table. Both dishes on the table looked extremely tempting.
Feng Gui dipped a piece of white meat into his mouth and nodded with satisfaction: "Although it's not very spicy, I like this dish better than the other two."
Du Heng was holding the rice bowl, and he always felt that one day the phoenix would return and the chrysanthemums would be withered.
When Du Heng put the steamed egg with shrimp on the table, Feng Gui suddenly laughed: "If Chonghua and Yun Zheng had known that Du Heng would wake up today, they probably would never have chosen to leave so early in the morning."
Jing Nan happily ate the stir-fried pork: "Yes, yes, I guess you'll have to stay for lunch even if you cry."
Du Heng said regretfully while holding the bowl, "It's all my fault that I was dizzy for so many days. If I had known that fusing spiritual plants would be so troublesome, I would have waited until they left before fusing them. I still have a lot of delicious food to cook for them."
Wen Qiong smiled and said, "It's okay, Du Heng. They have decided to send someone to the village every month to get food. You just need to cook more in the future."
Du Heng thought about it and nodded: "Well, this is also a good idea. By the way, Master, I want to ask, after I receive my life spirit plant, do I have to officially start practicing?"
Wen Qiong nodded: "Well, everyone has prepared a lot of mental methods for you these days, and we have already selected two mental methods for you."
Du Heng suddenly felt that the food in his mouth was no longer fragrant. He asked weakly, "I won't continue to feel dizzy after practicing the mental method, right?"
Wen Qiong showed her small white teeth and said crisply, "How could that happen? At most, there is a mistake in practice and I may go astray. It won't be a big deal."
Du Heng shuddered. Isn’t this more terrifying than fainting?
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The three dishes at noon were eaten up by several people. Du Heng felt full of energy after eating. The courage to practice cultivation returned!
Wen Qiong paced back and forth in front of Du Heng with her hands behind her back: "Do you know that you are collecting Peizhu seeds?"
Du Heng nodded: "Xuan Yu told me."
Wen Qiong nodded: "Very good, how much do you know about Peizhu's personality?"
Du Heng thought for a moment and said, "Aren't all bamboos like that? They also have their own temperament?"
Wen Qiong said earnestly: "Of course, every plant has its own temperament. Some like light, some like moisture, some are gentle and some are bloodthirsty. Since you have chosen Peizhu, I hope you can understand Peizhu's temperament well. But since Peizhu can choose you, I think your temperament should be similar to Peizhu's."
Du Heng sighed, "Pei bamboo is a very good bamboo. The bamboo shoots are delicious, and the bamboo poles can be made into many useful things. It couldn't be more gentle."
Wen Qiong had a strange expression on her face: "If you were attacked, would you dig up a bamboo shoot to knock down your opponent? Or would you hope to weave a bamboo basket to hold your opponent?"
Du Heng thought for a moment and said, "I... can use a bamboo pole to drive away my opponent."
Wen Qiong clenched her fists, but she still had a smile on her face: "Generally, cultivators with wood spiritual roots choose their spiritual plants for their attack capabilities, rather than these additional abilities. I hope you can get familiar with Peizhu's attack capabilities, and then use it to cooperate with others to maximize your combat effectiveness."
Du Heng thought for a moment: "How can I get familiar with Peizhu's attack power?"
Wen Qiong smiled and said, "It's very simple. There is a bamboo forest behind Lord Jing's house. You can stay in the bamboo forest for half a day and tell the bamboos that you want to see them fighting. I think Peizhu will show you."
Du Heng was in a good mood, and he nodded hurriedly: "Okay, okay!"
Thinking of going to Pei Bamboo Forest, Du Heng also carried a backpack so that he could dig some winter bamboo shoots. If the winter bamboo shoots were not dug, a large part of them would soon rot. The taste of spring bamboo shoots is not as good as winter bamboo shoots!
Seeing Du Heng walking out of the door carefreely with his backpack on his back, Feng Gui cracked melon seeds and sighed: "Guess how long he can hold on?"
Jing Nan thought for a moment: "A cup of tea?"
Xuan Yu said calmly, his eyes fell on Wen Qiong: "Maybe less than half a cup of tea."
Wen Qiong smiled sweetly at them: "It will only take two or three breaths."
Du Heng walked into the bamboo forest. He didn't know if there was a seed of Peizhu in his sea of consciousness, but he felt that when he entered the bamboo forest, a sense of familiarity came over him. The bamboos seemed to be greeting Du Heng.
Du Heng's eyes fell on the clump of bamboo at the edge of the bamboo forest. Originally, there were three bamboos in this clump. Later, Chonghua cut off one and planted it in the yard. Now there are only two thin bamboos left.
Du Heng touched the small bamboo and said, "I hope the one in the yard will grow stronger in the spring."
Du Heng put down the backpack, closed his eyes, and said silently in his heart: "I want to see everyone's heroic fighting. Please treat me as your opponent and let me see!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Du Heng felt the sound of wind whirring in his ears. He opened his eyes and saw that the two bamboos closest to him in the bamboo forest were bent. These two bamboos were not the thickest and strongest. They were only as thick as Du Heng's wrists, but they were twisted into an incredible arc.
In Du Heng's opinion, even if a bamboo bends, it can only bend with the root as the center and the bamboo pole as the radius. If the bend is too large, the bamboo will break. The bamboo in the bamboo forest is so dense that even if it wants to bend horizontally, it has to avoid other bamboos, right?
But the bamboo in front of him seemed to be bent in the opposite direction of him, and the green bamboo pole was like a bow that hit Du Heng's chest horizontally. Du Heng only saw two green lights flashing by, and then heard two popping sounds.
His chest seemed to be hit twice by someone, and his eyes went dark and his body flew out. When he was lying in the spiritual field in front of Jing Nan's house, he didn't react.
Xiaoxiao ran over in panic: "Chirp, chirp!"
Du Heng took a long time to breathe out, and his chest began to hurt. He turned over, covered his chest and groaned: "What happened?"
Du Heng was in so much pain that he could hardly breathe. He thought his chest must be bruised. At this time, he saw Wen Qiong's skirt. Wen Qiong looked down at him and smiled: "This is the fighting power of Peizhu. You have never chosen a docile bamboo. Peizhu is also known as ghost-crying bamboo, which means that people who are not recognized by the bamboo will be beaten to the point of ghost-crying."
Du Heng covered his chest and gasped for air. To be honest, he had never suffered such a severe blow in his life. Even when Yan Buhui used his coercion to suppress him when he first crossed over, he had never felt such pain.
Du Heng burst into tears because of the pain. It took him a while to recover: "It hurts so much..."
Wen Qiong squatted down, she looked into Du Heng's eyes and said: "If you were a disciple of my sect, I would definitely ask you this: practicing is so hard, why not give up. Unfortunately, not only can I not say this, but I have to comfort you and make you feel at ease."
Wen Qiong said word by word: "Du Heng, do you know how many cultivators envy your spiritual roots? How many cultivators have lofty ambitions but die due to lack of talent? You cannot slack off if you have this talent. Cultivation is not an easy thing. From today on, I will be very strict with you until you find your own path and embark on a path of cultivation that you can continue smoothly without supervision."
Wen Qiong stretched out her hand to Du Heng, and Du Heng saw the thick calluses on her hand. Wen Qiong said, "Master Xuan has handed you over to me, so I have to be responsible for you. From today on, put away your joking heart and take cultivation seriously. You are not always so lucky to have someone to protect you. You have to become strong, strong enough to protect yourself and the people around you."
Du Heng reached out and held Wen Qiong. His chest still hurt, but he felt an unprecedented sense of heroism. It was his. He practiced not only for himself, but also to protect important people at critical moments.
He still remembered the day when they were besieged by monsters and the scene of Xiaoxiao standing in front of him with her short legs shaking.
During the time he came to the world of cultivation, he felt like he was dreaming. Although he found a sense of belonging in Yikeshu Village, he never accepted his identity as a cultivator. Thinking carefully, he was not just living for himself. He occupied the body of the original owner, Du Heng, and he wanted to fulfill the original owner's unfulfilled wishes.
He had always wanted to escape from the world, and he even thought that as long as he stayed in Yikeshu Village, he could live in peace and stability. After being hit twice by the bamboo stick today, Du Heng suddenly felt the weight on his shoulders.
He couldn't just hide behind Xuan Yu and the others and cook peacefully forever; he also wanted to be a man of his own standing.
Du Heng immediately understood why Xuan Yu invited Wen Qiong. The people in the village were too gentle to be cruel to Du Heng, so they could only invite Wen Qiong to help Du Heng to correct his behavior.
Wen Qiong pulled Du Heng up from the ground. She only reached Du Heng's chest, but the seriousness in her eyes and the pressure around her made Du Heng tremble.
Wen Qiong said, "I know you are gentle by nature and don't like to get involved in disputes, but sometimes you have to pay for the consequences. Everyone wants to be a banished immortal who lives in harmony with the world. Do you think there are many people in the cultivation world who can do this?"
Wen Qiong said, "You see, even the spirit plant you collected can easily defeat you. If you are careless, you will die miserably. So Du Heng, if I find that you are being cunning and careless during the time I am tutoring you, I will not be polite to you. Do you understand?"
Du Heng nodded hesitantly. At this moment, Wen Qiong in his mind had evolved from a cute girl into a strict yet gentle master.
After Wen Qiong finished speaking, she looked at Du Heng's reaction with satisfaction. She nodded and said, "That's it. You have understood the characteristics of Pei Bamboo. Starting tomorrow, you must stay in the bamboo forest for a certain amount of time every day. For the first three days, you must persist for a cup of tea, then an incense stick, and then half an hour, until you can understand the habits of Pei Bamboo. At the same time, I will teach you the basic methods of breathing and wood spirit root cultivation."
Du Heng originally wanted to wail, let alone a cup of tea. Now he was blown away as soon as he stood at the entrance of the bamboo forest. He always felt that this task was very difficult.
But cultivation has always been from simple to complex, and then from complex to simple, Du Heng made up his mind. He fought hard!
After being hit twice, two purple streaks appeared on Du Heng's chest. He opened his shirt and saw that the two purple streaks had drawn a large cross on Du Heng's chest, which was shocking. Xuan Yu applied the ointment on his fingers carefully to Du Heng: "The bamboo forest behind Jing Nan's house can even kill a demon cultivator in the Nascent Soul stage. I will stand outside the bamboo forest and watch you tomorrow."
The cool ointment applied to the burning wound made Du Heng shudder: "No, no, I'll just ask Peizhu to hit me less tomorrow."
Xuan Yu's fingers slid across Du Heng's skin, and he said in a low voice, "I have already stopped hitting you. Your cultivation is not high, and Pei Zhu hits you based on your cultivation. The higher your cultivation, the more fiercely Pei Zhu hits you."
Du Heng was shocked: There is such a thing?!
With the idea that he would be beaten to death by Pei Zhu tomorrow, he had to learn some self-defense skills today. Before making dinner, Du Heng sincerely asked Wen Qiong for advice: "Master, are you going to teach me the breathing and self-defense method?"
Wen Qiong was eating melon seeds. When she heard Du Heng say this, she smiled and replied, "Okay, today I will teach you the first move, the turtle breathing method."
Du Heng was a little puzzled: "Turtle Breath?" After Wen Qiong finished explaining seriously how the spiritual energy should be circulated when breathing, he had a lot of questions in his mind: "Isn't it for self-defense? Why does it feel weird?"
Wen Qiong said: "When you feel that you are about to be killed, use this move. This move can stop your heartbeat and breathing, and at the same time, the spiritual energy around your body will stop circulating. When the opponent's spiritual energy is interrupted, most cultivators, monsters and spiritual plants will stop attacking, so this move is also called the method of playing dead."
Du Heng looked at Wen Qiong in horror: "If you're not my master, shouldn't you teach me how to dodge?" Why did you teach him to pretend to be dead first?
Jing Nan showed his little white teeth: "Isn't this easy? No matter how good you are at dodging, if you are knocked down by your opponent, you may be killed with one punch. But if you train your body to be strong, you can survive."
Xiaoxiao chirped and expressed her opinions. Du Heng asked Xuanyu in confusion, "What is Xiaoxiao talking about?"
Feng Gui said: "Xiao Xiao said that he will practice with you starting tomorrow. He won't watch you die, don't worry!"
Du Heng was so moved that he almost cried.
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