Wisps of mist-like smoke slowly rose from Ye Ju’s head, as countless tiny particles of five colors drilled into her body. Beside her, a wooden stick flashed white light, and a spiritual energy shield enveloped the small space.
Ye Ju entered a state of deep meditation, forgetting herself. A purple cloud of light initially appeared between her brows. From her previous yoga and meditation practice, she knew this was what Buddhists called a “visual perception.” Gradually, it felt as if she were in a space filled with light spots. The spots were beautiful, playing around her, dancing lightly, and then mischievously entering her body. She somehow knew these light spots wouldn't harm her, so she relaxed her body and breathed slowly. The light spots surged into her body. Ye Ju looked at herself in astonishment, seeing the light spots flowing through dazzling, fluorescent channels that permeated everywhere, finally converging in her dantian. They quieted down, forming a rotating mass of energy. What were these fluorescent channels? Could they be her meridians?
This was the first time Ye Ju had encountered such a situation. She abruptly opened her eyes, only to find the sky was already bright. It felt as if she had only meditated for a moment. Was this cultivation? Was cultivation like this, regardless of day or night? Wow! What a gain! It must be related to the abundant spiritual energy on this island, and that spiritual spring water too! Ye Ju jumped up happily, but then zipped onto a reef, startled. When had she become so agile? This reef was nearly three meters high!
Just as she was about to shout at the sea, she raised her hand. Her hands, no longer black, were covered in thick grey grime. She didn't need to guess that her entire body was probably like this. She sniffed her hand, and the smell was incredibly foul. Ugh, Ye Ju almost vomited her previous meal.
She rushed to the spiritual spring, her natural bathtub. Without a second thought, she knew seawater and plant ash wouldn’t clean her. She also remembered to grab the fire-starting stick—yes, the handy wooden stick she decided to name the fire-starting stick. She was starting to cultivate, after all, who knew if there would be any demonic beasts or spirits?
She took off her clothes and jumped into the small pool. The spiritual spring water wasn’t cold; it was even slightly warm. She hadn’t paid much attention before, but now her body was more sensitive to spiritual energy. In a short while, she found her body cleaned. The dirty water flowed down, and her clothes were also cleaned. She soaked comfortably and finally had time to look around. She noticed the spiritual spring water was flowing down a small ditch, which had somehow become a small stream. On both sides of the stream, unknown small flowers bloomed, both purple and pink.
She was quite sure there were no small flowers there when she dug the ditch yesterday. How amazing, to make flowers bloom overnight! The soil on both sides of the stream was no longer visible, already covered by green, unknown grass, as if this small stream had existed for a long time.
Ye Ju was stunned, shouting internally, "This is unscientific!" The grass near the spiritual spring was probably not ordinary either. She needed to search thoroughly later, looking for familiar medicinal herbs like Ganoderma or Ginseng. If she found any, it would be a great windfall.
The area around the spiritual spring was relatively high. She could divert the water to the east, as the plants there looked malnourished. Since this water had such vigorous vitality and growth power, it would surely be good for plants. This project would likely be quite large, as she had no tools. She only had a wooden stick. Although it didn’t seem far from the purple bamboo forest, digging a channel there would take time. She decided to take things one step at a time and focus on building her shelter first.
While soaking in the water, Ye Ju’s thoughts wandered to all sorts of things. She should get up quickly and build her shelter today.
Having appeased her hunger and thirst, she was ready to work! She would first erect the framework. The reef had three sides that didn't need much work, and they were a good three meters high. Living inside wouldn't feel oppressive. It was roughly similar to the height of modern houses, about four meters plus. She only needed to build a frame on the top and cover it with leaves. Then, on the side without the reef, she would create a support, which would be much simpler. The roof still needed to be triangular to allow rainwater to drain away.
Bamboo would have been the most suitable material, but alas, she had no tools, not even a knife. When she was a child, she watched her grandmother make all sorts of furniture from bamboo: bamboo stools, chairs, sofas, and various bamboo products. She knew the principles of mortise and tenon joints, simple principles she understood. She remembered watching a video of someone making a bamboo chair, and at the time, Ye Ju had scoffed, thinking anyone from the countryside would know how to do that. But now, she could only sigh at the sight of the bamboo.
Her grandmother’s generation was proficient in all sorts of skills; otherwise, they wouldn't have survived. Her grandmother disliked cities. She attended elementary, middle, and high school in the countryside, studying in town. It wasn’t until her parents died when she was eighteen that she brought her grandmother to the city to live with her, studying at university while taking care of her. After the accident that year, her strong grandmother aged instantly, and from then on, they relied on each other. Thinking of the man who had accompanied her through that difficult time, she couldn't believe he had done such a thing. And the thought of that scumbag trying to take her house made her furious!
Shaking her head, she pushed those thoughts away. Humans’ eyes are placed in the front so that we, the common people, forget the past and look forward.
She used the fire-starting stick to knock off the branches of the wood and polished all the wood with stones to remove any splinters. She thought that later she would need to burn them with charcoal to prevent insects and water damage. Unexpectedly, a cluster of flames suddenly appeared from her finger. Was it “words as spells”? She touched the fire; it wasn't hot. When had she become so powerful? Wow! This was unscientific! httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
Ye Ju hadn't fully transitioned from being a modern person to a cultivator. But it was good; starting a fire would be much easier in the future. She quickly used this fire to char all the materials. She found she could control the fire’s intensity, but after a while, she felt very tired. It was likely due to insufficient spiritual power. She drank another bowl of spiritual spring water to replenish her spiritual energy. The fatigue vanished instantly. At this point, she finally confirmed and was certain that the spiritual spring could replenish spiritual power. Not only could it cleanse the body and strengthen meridians, but it also gave plants vigorous vitality and could replenish lost spiritual power for cultivators.
Next, she proceeded to build the framework. She first needed to plant a central pillar on the side without the reef, at the entrance. Her plan was to dig a pit. After digging through more than a meter of sand, she reached damp soil and then inserted the sharpened pillar, a process known as piling.
Then she found large stones and drove them about two meters deep into the ground. Since the surface was all sand, they needed to be driven into the firm soil to be stable. Her strength had increased, but it still took a considerable amount of time. The three-meter pillar now had only half a meter exposed above the surface. She then took another pillar and tied it to the exposed half-meter of the wooden pile with wild vines for fixation.
Due to her insufficient height, she stood on the cross-section of the half-meter wooden pile and tied two beams to this pillar. The other ends rested directly on the reef, held in place by large stones. This pillar extended one meter above the reef. She then found the longest piece of wood and laid it across one of the reef’s corners, forming a slope that wouldn’t collect rain.
Afterward, she straddled the two beams and secured this end to the top of the pillar. She did the same for the opposite diagonal. The reef was shaped like a gateway. It had two corners, but the opening was too large. This was why she needed to pile and tie the pillar.
The reef area was at a higher elevation, so she wasn’t worried about the tide. If the seawater reached this point, only the top of the hillside would be habitable. It was relatively far from the sea and closer to the small hill. With the framework built, the rest was simple. For the roof, she used a large amount of branches, secured them with wild vines, and then layered fan-shaped leaves, overlapping them densely without leaving any gaps, also securing them. She made sure they wouldn’t blow away. After finishing the roof, she built a wooden wall on the right side of the entrance pillar with wooden sticks. The left side was designated as the entrance. A window was left above the wooden wall for lighting. She finely wove wild vines through the wooden sticks of the wooden wall, similar to weaving a fence. She checked; it was almost done. The overall structure of the hut was higher in the front and lower in the back. She planned to build a bed against the inner reef wall.
Looking at the sky, the sun was in the west. Without needing a sundial, she knew it was already three or four in the afternoon. She went back to the forest to gather firewood and search for food, and there she made a new discovery.