Living steadily in the world of gods and mystery

The test results were quite satisfying.

Except for when charging up a powerful attack, the speed and great force of the Golden Light Nail made it quite troublesome to handle.

For all other ordinary attacks, he could easily deflect the Golden Light Nails.

Of course, this was mainly due to Chen Li’s day after day of swordsmanship practice, which allowed his reaction time and eyesight to far exceed his peers. If it was an ordinary mid-stage Qi Cultivation practitioner, even if they employed the Traction Skill, they would likely not be able to evade the ordinary attacks of the speed-focused Golden Light Nail.

To celebrate.

After returning, the two of them were busy until late into the night.

"I think you are a genius when it comes to Spellcasting, especially with your Spiritual Power Finger Snap. You’ve managed to perfect such a low-level spell to such a degree."

Afterwards, Zhou Hong nestled in Chen Li’s arms and spoke softly, her eyes filled with tenderness.

"Genius? I’m far from it, it’s just diligent practice that compensates for my lack of talent," Chen Li said with a bitter smile.

He was well aware that he was not a genius by any means. Without the game panel, he might not have even survived the first few months after transmigrating.

"Then why can’t I master it?" Zhou Hong pouted resentfully.

"Such things can’t be achieved overnight, they require lots of practice!" Chen Li said helplessly.

In his spare time, he had also tried to teach Zhou Hong the ’Spiritual Power Finger Snap.’

However, Chen Li found that the results were not good; she was unable to unleash as much power as he could.

Zhou Hong could perform an ordinary ’Spiritual Power Finger Snap,’ but to reach Chen Li’s Grandmaster level, even with his guidance, required innumerable practice sessions.

His ’Spiritual Power Finger Snap’ remained just that, with no fundamental changes.

In fact, even with the assistance of the game panel, Chen Li had practiced nearly six thousand four hundred times to reach this level. As for ordinary people, they would probably struggle to achieve this in a lifetime.

As Chen Li talked, his wandering hand started to reach out...

Hehe!

"Stop it!"

Zhou Hong spoke coquettishly with a frown, but her body pressed even tighter against her man.

...

The days of winter dormancy were plain, boring, yet fulfilling.

Survival was no longer a crisis.

Chen Li followed a well-scheduled daily routine.

Not long after mastering the ’Traction Skill,’ Chen Li successfully mastered the ’Featherweight Talisman.’

At the same time, the ’Scolding Skill’ also advanced to the expert level.

Chen Li had not tested how powerful an expert-level ’Scolding Skill’ was, but judging by his maxed-out ’Spiritual Power Finger Snap,’ it should at least be on par with a mid-tier level one spell.

The weather grew warmer.

The temperature was gradually approaching zero degrees.

To prevent flooding from the thawing ice and snow, Chen Li had no choice but to deal with the two exits of the burrow.

For the exit where ’home’ was located, he raised the ground level.

Fortunately, now with the ’Traction Skill,’ this task was greatly reduced in scope.

The large amount of dirt and stones in the courtyard were drawn by mana like a flowing river of mud and rock. They automatically filled around the entrance, and within the course of a spell, an ’encircling mountain’ was piled up.

Then, by using a log to repeatedly tamp it down, the job was done.

As for the second exit, since it was located on a different street, it was relatively harder to deal with.

Ultimately, Chen Li took advantage of the night to carry a stone slab weighing more than a ton for several hundred meters. He cleared the snow, sealed the entrance with the stone slab, and then covered it back up with snow.

On the way back.

Looking at the chest-high snow on either side, Chen Li suddenly had an idea.

He stopped walking and cast the Traction Skill.

The area of effect of the spell rapidly expanded.

As soon as he concentrated, the snow beneath his feet collapsed several inches.

However, Chen Li’s body did not move an inch, without any change.

"I thought I could fly. It seems I thought too much. No wonder it isn’t even mentioned in the books!"

Chen Li shook his head.

"It’s somewhat different from the effects of the Arrow-Evasion Talisman!" he thought to himself.

During the initial tests of the Arrow-Evasion Talisman, he had still been able to feel the reactive force, but he couldn’t feel anything at all using this spell.

"Two modes?"

That wasn’t incomprehensible.

It’s like throwing a punch by oneself—naturally, one feels the force of the blow. But if one remotely controls a mech, even if the punch turns the adversary into a pulp, sends them flying out of the Earth, or even out of the solar system... one wouldn’t feel any reactive force.

And this Traction Skill obviously belonged to the latter category.

...

One night.

Faint beast roars could be heard again.

Chen Li was startled awake and quietly got up without waking Zhou Hong, who was sound asleep.

Once he exited the cave, the sounds quickly became clearer.

The demon beast roars sounded somewhat pitiful, as if it had suffered severe injuries. Soon the sound turned to wails, gradually growing weaker and weaker until it disappeared.

Was this a demon beast getting killed?

Chen Li quickly followed the sounds.

After struggling through the snow for about several hundred meters, he arrived at the scene.

A crowd had already gathered there—many, like Chen Li, had come from nearby to see what was happening.

Curiosity filled Chen Li as he edged forward to take a look.

"Is this a demon beast!?"

This was his first time taking a close look at a demon beast.

The beast resembled a wild boar but was undoubtedly much larger and more ferocious than any boar.

It was six to seven meters long, and even lying on the ground, it stood as tall as a building, giving the impression of a flesh mountain, emitting a strong sense of oppression.

Its dark gray coarse skin gave off a feeling of thickness. Its mouth was sharp and protruding, with two tusks like curved knives exposed, looking extremely fierce and terrifying. Astonishingly, these tusks emitted a faint glow in the night.

There were five or six wounds on its body.

However, the fatal injury was located at the anus, where a bowl-sized bloody hole could be seen, and a section of intestine was spilling out limply, with fresh blood flowing continuously along the intestine—a clear indication that its internal organs were severely damaged.

Chen Li then looked over at a middle-aged Loose Cultivator who was slumped in the snow, gasping for breath.

Clearly, he had been the one to kill the beast.

Seemingly regaining some strength, the Loose Cultivator struggled to his feet, bowed to the crowd, and laughed loudly:

"My name is Guo Ping. By a stroke of luck, I managed to keep my life from this brute’s jaws. Since all of you neighbors have come here tonight, it must be fate. To those that see, share the spoils—I can’t eat all this demon beast meat by myself. Let’s divide it right here!"

His face wore a smile, but his heart was bleeding.

A demon beast was worth a fortune.

Just its meat alone was worth ten Mid-grade Spirit Stones.

It’s not that he couldn’t eat much, but in this cold winter the meat wouldn’t spoil.

However, people’s hearts are complex, and with such a large fortune at stake. His power was limited, alone and weak—how could he keep it all to himself?

Unwilling to give up the benefits,

he would probably meet his demise within a few days.

"Fellow Daoist Guo, this is after all your kill, how could we possibly accept?"

"Fellow Daoist Guo is so generous and open-handed, truly magnanimous!"

"Good on you, Fellow Daoist Guo."

...

The onlooking crowd immediately beamed with joy, each uttering flattering words.

People then started spreading the news to friends and family, and soon the numbers began to swell.

In the quiet of the night, the area all at once became bustling and lively like a marketplace.

After watching for a moment, Chen Li quietly left the group.