Chapter Eighty-Eight: Misaligned Technology and National Revival, Part Three

Using her mental power, she caught several fish, then found a sharp stone to clean them with. Stripping some grass into a cord, Mu Yin returned to where the Mistress Cao was staying, only to find that the woman had already gone into a nearby grove to gather branches and leaves and start a fire.

"Mother, look," Mu Yin said, holding up the fish.

"You caught fish?" Mistress Cao asked with delight. She took them over at once, threaded them onto sticks, and began to roast them. To be fair, her fish-roasting skills were quite good. She even seemed to have gathered some wild greens, rubbing their juices over the fish so that even without salt, the roasted fish still had a bit of flavor.

After eating, they continued on their way. Along the road, Mu Yin began guiding Mistress Cao in cultivation. Body techniques had been specially developed in the apocalypse for ordinary people without powers, and they were very easy to learn. Even without understanding the meaning of the inner method, one could still achieve the same effect simply by performing the paired movements.

Whenever they grew tired, they stopped to rest and completed a set of body-technique exercises. Fortunately, spiritual energy in this world was abundant; even without food energy, it could still be absorbed for cultivation, though the effect was slower. After all, body techniques were meant to strengthen the body, and food energy was still more suitable.

Still, it at least gave Mistress Cao’s body, long weakened by years of hunger and hard labor, some improvement. After three hours like this, they finally reached the county town. There were quite a few people there, and many were coming and going at the city gate.

Mu Yin looked around and, thankfully, saw that no documents were required and no entrance fee was charged. She let out a breath of relief and entered the city with Mistress Cao, listening to the gossip floating around them. Then she heard news of someone who might be the protagonist, which surprised her a little. This world was surely vast, and yet she had not expected to be so close to the main character.

It was said that the heroine had originally been a young woman from White Crane Village. One day she received guidance from an immortal and learned all sorts of skills. She could make practical tools and delicious food, and then she led her family to prosperity, opening a small restaurant and a handicraft shop in town.

First she made a fortune, then she uplifted the nation through technology. If this had been an ordinary world, the heroine would surely have risen to great heights. But this was the cultivation world. Though those little inventions were useful enough, many magical implements and pills could already achieve the same things. It was simply that cultivators disdained serving ordinary people.

And the heroine would surely come to know of the world of cultivation. Who, upon learning of the cultivation realm, would not yearn for it? Not to mention that the heroine also possessed a tampered transmigration memory. Even if she did not long for immortality, given her original setting as a scientist, she would surely want to understand what cultivation was.

With these thoughts in mind, they had already entered the city and begun looking for work. But in these times, how could work be so easy to find? Especially for two people without any real ability, and not even especially attractive at that. Indeed, the original body had spent years doing labor; at thirteen, she looked like she was only ten, all scrawny, dark, and gaunt.

If this went on, they would not even have a place to stay tonight. In the end, Mu Yin told Mistress Cao to keep looking while she herself left the city and went into the woods outside the gates. There she used her mental power to search for rabbits and wild chickens, then stunned them with a burst of force.

Fortunately, before she began cultivating her abilities, she had also possessed a strong soul, for she belonged to the type gifted in spirit. Her mental power was exceptionally formidable. After taking down more than a dozen rabbits in one breath, she finally felt a trace of fatigue. She tied up the rabbits and wild chickens with rope and carried them back into the city.

Once inside, she found a tavern and sold all the rabbits and wild chickens. Because they were all alive, the price was quite high, and she earned nearly three taels of silver before returning to the place where she had agreed to meet Mistress Cao. Mistress Cao had already returned as well.

"Where did you go?" Mistress Cao asked hurriedly when she saw Mu Yin.

"Mother, I went out of the city to catch some rabbits and sold them for a bit of money. Let’s find a place to stay first and continue tomorrow," Mu Yin said, taking her by the hand.

"You went into the woods? That’s far too dangerous," Mistress Cao said at once, worry flooding her face.

"It’s fine," Mu Yin replied with a wave of her hand. She took her first to eat, then went to a cloth shop to buy several lengths of fabric, three jin of cotton, and some needles and thread. Only then did she go to an inn and rent a room.

"Mother, let’s wash up first, then make our clothes tonight. If we look cleaner tomorrow, it’ll be easier to find work," Mu Yin said, laying out her plan.

"All right," Mistress Cao said with a nod.

They each ordered hot water and bathed separately, then began making clothes. Mu Yin could sew as well; she had learned in the old world, after all, since it was also a skill one had to make a living by. Her handiwork was very good, though she did not display her embroidery skills now. The original owner could not embroider, and she only knew how to make clothes because that was something every girl had to learn. Someone had to sew the garments, after all.

They slept well that night. The next day, when the two of them put on their new clothes and felt the warmth of them, they exchanged a smile. Mu Yin felt that Mistress Cao seemed somehow more relaxed, as if the whole person had become lighter and brighter.

Mistress Cao still went off to look for work, but Mu Yin did not plan to join her. She felt that working for wages brought money too slowly. Outside the city there were dense woods and mountains, so hunting more prey would be far more worthwhile. After seeing Mistress Cao off, she left the city herself. This time she had bought two carrying baskets to take with her, along with a machete, a fire starter, and some salt.

Once she reached the mountain, she first found a spot and caught a few wild chickens, making beggar’s chicken. Such chickens did not even need to be plucked. After eating her fill, she began practicing the body-technique movements and cultivating them together with the inner method. In this way, she could clearly feel her body gradually growing stronger.

When she was hungry, she ate beggar’s chicken; after half a day of cultivation, she went hunting again. After several days like this, she successfully broke through the first level of body technique and entered the second. As for body technique, in her previous world Yun Muyang had improved it so that it could be cultivated together with body-refining methods, producing twice the result with half the effort.

Body-refining methods tempered the body through grueling hardship, treating the flesh like a magical implement to be forged over and over, with medicinal baths supplying various nutrients until the body became as indestructible as diamond. Body technique, on the other hand, strengthened the body by absorbing energy. It seemed like a watered-down version of body refinement, yet in some respects its method of cultivation was better: body technique had a higher absorption rate for energy, and as long as something was energy, it could be absorbed, converted, and used to strengthen the body.

When the two were combined, body refinement progressed faster and required fewer resources, while body technique became even more powerful. After all, body technique was, in the end, only a means of strengthening the body, whereas body refinement was a form of cultivation for a practitioner. Once foundation establishment was achieved, techniques could be used as well.

Unfortunately, in her previous world the inheritance of body-refining methods had been severed, and there was no complete manual. So for now, she could not cultivate it directly. Still, she would search again after she reached the immortal sect.

Once body technique reached the first level, her stamina and speed, among other things, all improved. The harvest from these past few days had also been good. She had caught plenty of game; besides wild chickens and rabbits, she had also taken muntjac and wild boar.