Chapter 31 Consolidation
Wu Buyu told Ji Zhuang to stay in the cave and not to go out for at least three months.
When Wu Buyu bought the Vermilion Fruit, Ji Zhuang had already advanced to the Dissolution Stage. His whole body was undergoing a transformation, his flesh and blood were a mess. He felt that as long as he consolidated his cultivation, he didn't need to eat so much. So he asked Ji Rong and Wu Buyu to cook it together with the auxiliary ingredients. The three of them guarded the large earthen pot and shared the food.
During this time, Ji Rong also took Zhu Guo to Gu Qingqing's place and gave Gu Qingqing a few sips of juice, which earned her an angry eye roll from Wu Buyu, but Wu Buyu ultimately did not say anything unpleasant.
After eating the Vermilion Fruit, Ji Zhuang's wings were no longer a bloody mess; instead, sharp claws resembling hands grew on them. These newly grown wing claws could even turn 180 degrees.
Ji Zhuang's feet also grew wider and thicker, and his sharp claws went into their sheaths; Ji Rong felt that Ji Zhuang had become somewhat human-like, like a strange bird-headed man, and couldn't help but burst into laughter.
Ji Zhuang is very satisfied with his current appearance, and he feels an unprecedented surge of power!
But they are very poor now, and they only have five months left before they have to pay rent. Where will they get the money then?
Wu Buyu said they didn't need to worry about it, as he still had a feather that had been refined for four hundred and fifty years!
However, this was just talk; that tail feather was his natal magic weapon, and he would never actually sell it.
Thus, Wu Buyu began a life of working from dawn till dusk, and Ji Rong worked even harder to solicit customers at the city gate. Their lives were filled with hope because of Ji Rong's secret and Ji Zhuang's promotion.
However, Ji Zhuang, who was guarding the cave, was extremely bored, except for cultivating and feeding Gu Qingqing liquids. When Ji Rong came home from work and saw her brother's boring, bird-like appearance, she suddenly had the idea of wanting a ceramic bowl. So, she gestured to Ji Zhuang to explain.
Ji Zhuang, who was still quite young, was very interested when he heard this. He immediately started digging mud and water in his cave and began to work on it. In just a few days, he met Ji Rong's initial requirements.
I must say, having claws really makes a difference. Although the clay bowls I made weren't perfectly round, they were already starting to take shape.
Ji Rong took them outside to dry in the sun, and before they even got into the fire, the clay bowls cracked.
Ji Rong thought Ji Zhuang would be discouraged and stop playing with the mud, but to her surprise, Ji Zhuang was still very interested.
He said to Ji Rong, "Don't be sad, sister. I think it's because there wasn't enough water. I'll stay home for another two months and I'll definitely be able to make the kind of bowl you described."
Ji Zhuang readjusted the water-soil ratio, resulting in batches of failures.
Wu Buyu watched for a few days and found that Ji Zhuang's actions were very helpful for him to train his new claws' strength control, so he stopped stopping him.
Sometimes Wu Buyu would even offer his own ideas, such as grinding the clay into fine powder to remove as much sand as possible, shielding it from the sun when drying, or whether it could be air-dried.
By the end of the second month, Ji Zhuang had finally succeeded in making three bowls that had not cracked after being dried, using the soil his sister had brought back.
Excitedly, they placed the three bowls directly onto the fire that Wu Buyu had spewed out, and unsurprisingly, the three bowls shattered into pieces.
Ji Rong thought for a while and felt that it was still not right, so she built a small stove outside;
She collected branches and leaves from many common trees, made a roaring fire, and when there was a lot of ash in the stove, she buried the three newly made bowls in the ash and continued to burn the fire on top of them, keeping it burning for most of the night.
Fortunately, they now live in an independent cave dwelling, so when curious cultivators nearby sense it, they only pay attention once they discover it is mortal fire; if it were their previous cave dwelling, any slight movement there would attract a large number of onlookers.
The next day, Ji Rong pulled three bowls out of the small stove. One was relatively intact, while the other two were cracked to varying degrees.
Ji Rong and Ji Zhuang were very happy. They took turns using the bowl to fetch water and drink. Afterwards, Ji Zhuang did a lot more, piling up a bunch of ceramic bowls in the cave.
This earthenware bowl is better than the leaf, its only drawback being that it is fragile, but it is very cheap and can be made by mixing ordinary soil and water and firing it.
Ji Rong happily gave Li Fengnian the best one, wanting to see if the pottery bowl her brother made could be exchanged for money.
As a result, Li Fengnian took out his treasured fine iron bowl and showed it to Ji Rong. As Li Fengnian scratched the bowl with his claws, the bowl made a pleasant and crisp sound.
Better-off repairmen would pursue the quality of their objects, while lowly repairmen would not spend money on such a fragile, coarse pottery bowl.
Ji Rong knew there was no point in trying to get the pottery bowl, so she silently put it down and left dejectedly.
Alas, poverty is a terrible thing.
After three months, Ji Zhuang went out to find work. His claws, honed from three months of constantly working in the mud, were now extremely sharp. Ji Rong's "Phoenix True Understanding" further improved his illusionary magic, addressing any shortcomings in his abilities.
As a minor cultivator in the Dissolution Realm, his magical power has undergone a qualitative leap compared to before;
He possessed a small Dao Pill, which could continuously supply energy to his body;
A pair of sharp claws grew from his wings, allowing him to easily unleash magical power through hand seals.
He had acquired some basic means of self-protection, so Wu Buyu felt reassured that he could take on jobs outside the village on his own.
As the year draws to a close and a cold snap approaches, low-level cultivators who are struggling to survive are prone to ganging up and slaughtering each other.
Ji Zhuang and Wu Buyu took turns flying outwards to ensure that one of them would always be inside the city, thus preventing Ji Rong from being targeted by evil cultivators.
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As the snow fell heavily and the fighting outside intensified, meat became quite cheap, so Tunxiang Restaurant closed for the holidays.
Ji Rong stayed in her cave, practicing the spells in the "Phoenix True Explanation". Her magic power was weak and her physical agility was poor. After studying for so long, she had only learned a small manipulation spell.
This was originally a method for birds to control magical artifacts for attacks, but in Ji Rong's hands, it could only control very small objects.
Of course, this was a huge step forward for her. After learning this small manipulation technique, she used the ceramic spoon that Ji Zhuang had made to feed Gu Qingqing, and no longer had to worry about being stung by Gu Qingqing's Gu worms.
Occasionally, her elder brother Ji Zhuang and Wu Buyu would bring back one or two dead little cultivators. Ji Rong would then instruct her brother to use his sharp wings and claws to skin them, and then have him cut them up according to Zhu Sandao's method from Tunxiangju. The process of preparing the spiritual ingredients was changed to cooking them with spiritual rice.
Thanks to the success of the earthenware bowls and spoons, Ji Rong also tried air-drying and smoking meat on a whim, but ended up with a piece of dried meat that had lost all its vitality and smelled terrible.
Disappointed, Ji Rong took the meat to ask Wu Buyu.
After a difficult communication, Ji Rong finally understood that after a wild beast becomes a spiritual cultivator, it can no longer eat mortal food that has no spiritual energy. Ji Rong's understanding is that the body has changed, and the main substance it operates on has become spiritual energy, so it is no longer willing to accept relatively low-level energy.
Accepting low-level energy is like stuffing garbage into your body. Although this garbage will fill your stomach, it cannot provide the spiritual energy your body needs. As a result, your meridians will gradually atrophy, your cultivation will decline, and your mind will become unclear.
Ji Rong finally understood why Ji Er always said not to leave the mountain when he was alive, and why Huang Pinjie was unwilling to say much even though he had gone out.
It wasn't until she had lived away from home for ten years that Ji Rong belatedly realized that for ordinary cultivators, staying conscious and alive outside of Zhongzhou was an extremely difficult thing.
"Most of those minor cultivators in Zhongzhou who were afraid of being made into meat and ran away eventually became food." Ji Rong thought, tears welling up in her eyes again. She stroked the feathers on the blue stone; she missed them again, but she was also beginning to not be able to see their faces clearly anymore.
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