Under the pitch-black sky, the continuous mountain range was like a crouching beast, quietly waiting for the break of dawn.
At the foot of a small hill shaped like a crouching cow, there was a small village.
"Li Er, get up and get to work!" A yell broke the silence. A middle-aged woman with a bucket-like waist yelled at the cowshed.
In a pile of hay in the cowshed, a skinny young man suddenly woke up from his dream. He thought blankly, "Where am I?"
He had that dream again. In the dream, he lived in a city with tall buildings. He played with a magical artifact called a computer all day, and there were steel monsters running amok on the streets.
Finally, one day, he was killed by a monster called "BMW".
Then he suddenly woke up. Yes, he had transmigrated.
Over a dozen years had passed. He had almost treated the events of his past life as a dream.
Looking around the dirty cowshed, he felt the itch from the mosquito bites. Clearly, this was not a good place. There was probably no other transmigrator in the world as miserable as him.
Looking at the time, it had been about fifteen years!
His parents in this life were the most ordinary farmers in Crouching Ox Village. They passed away when he was young, and he was raised by an older brother. His brother was Li Da, so he was called Li Er.
There were not many rules in the village. Many villagers did not have proper names in their lives. With the knowledge of his past life, he gave himself a name, "Li Qingshan".
"There is no need to bury one's bones in the village. Life is full of green mountains." Even though he had transmigrated, he wanted to live well. No, he wanted to live better than he had in his past life. Only then would he not waste the second life that the heavens had given him.
He remembered when he had just transmigrated. When he had calmed down from his fear and confusion, the great ambition of a transmigrator was ignited in his chest. However, he soon discovered that he was hungry and had no food to eat.
His brother and sister-in-law only treated him as a burden. They threw all the dirty and tiring work to him, but the food he ate was always the worst. There was no familial love at all.
He was young and had nowhere to go. He could only try to act like a child prodigy. However, he was thought to be possessed by a ghost. The witch in the village forced him to drink a lot of talisman water, so he did not dare to act rashly anymore.
Therefore, the villagers still called him Li Er. Li Qingshan was just a joke.
Li Qingshan's sister-in-law scolded him for a while. Seeing that he didn't respond, she rushed in, waved the bamboo stick in her hand, and mercilessly whipped him. "Lazy bones, still pretending to be dead, pretend to be dead!"
Li Qingshan was thinking about his past and present lives, his mind was in a mess. He suddenly stood up and snatched the bamboo stick, glaring at the peasant woman.
Sister Li saw that the child from back then was now a head taller than her. Although she was afraid, her aura was not weak at all, "Li Er, I've raised you so hard and you still dare to be rude to me. When your brother wakes up, I'll let him teach you a lesson. If you don't work, then don't eat!" She turned around and left.
After Sister Li left, Li Qingshan threw down the bamboo stick and sighed heavily. He walked to the side of the trough and said to an old Oxen, "Brother Ox, I've grown up and I don't want to live anymore. I just don't want to leave you."
Before his parents died, they divided the family's property. The cottage and the fields were taken by his brother and sister-in-law. Now, the only property he had left was this Oxen.
Fortunately, he had this ox. He often went to the landlord's house to help, and he could still make a living. If he only ate vegetables at home, he didn't know how thin and weak he would become. Therefore, not only did he not treat it as an animal, but he also respectfully called it "Brother Ox".
The villagers all said that Li Er could live without Brother Li, but he couldn't live without Brother Ox.
The Oxen's fur was glossy, and it was plump and sturdy. It was possible to tell just how much effort Li Qingshan had put into taking care of it. However, it also seemed rather old, and one of its horns was missing. The cut was extremely smooth, as if it had been cut off by a sharp blade.
The Oxen opened its moist eyes and looked at Li Qingshan. As if it had understood him, it gathered its spirit and stood up. Li Qingshan mounted the ox with great familiarity, and the Oxen slowly made its way towards the Crouching Ox hill.
Riding on the Oxen, Li Qingshan raised his head. The stars were extremely bright, a resplendence that did not exist in that world. He was like a regular cowherd, blowing into the clear flute.
The sound of the flute reverberated through the morning mist. Behind him, the village was gradually waking up.
On the Crouching Ox hill, the trees were sparse, and the grass was green.
Using the light from the east, Li Qingshan gazed towards the west. The mountains stretched endlessly, and if he ventured deeper, he would reach the myriad great mountains. It was said that not only were there wolves, tigers, and leopards, but there were also mountain spirits and ghosts. Even hunters dared not venture too deeply.
Li Qingshan had never seen a proper map in the village, nor did he understand the hydrology and geography of this world. All he knew was that the mountains and rivers were extremely lofty, while the rivers were extremely vast. Although it was filled with danger, there was always a great world waiting for him to wander through.
Li Qingshan had already made up his mind to leave. In the end, he patted the back of the Oxen.
"Brother ox, oh brother ox, you're already so old. If I sell you, other people will definitely butcher you and eat you. The world is vast, so you should go. There are many wolves, tigers, and leopards in the mountains, so you have to be careful."
At a time like this, the smartest thing to do was to sell Oxen and gather some travelling expenses. That way, he would have some protection when he arrived in Qingyang city, just in case he starved to death on the streets. However, he refused to do that.
Any farmer would laugh if they heard such a childish approach, but this was what he persisted with.
"Since you call me big brother, how can I bear to leave you?"
"Even if you can accompany me for a long time, there will still be a time … when we part …" Li Qingshan replied instinctively, but his voice gradually trailed off. He widened his eyes and stared at Oxen. All he felt was a chill run down his spine. He took a step back. "Daemon!"
Oxen said, "Don't be afraid. I won't harm you."
After all, they had known each other for so many years, so Li Qingshan was not too afraid. He was just unable to accept this surreal scene for a moment. However, when he thought about everything he had experienced, he calmed down. He frowned and asked in a probing manner, "Are you really brother ox?"
Seeing how he had calmed down so quickly, Oxen nodded in approval. "You really do possess innate wisdom."
"What innate wisdom?" Li Qingshan immediately raised his guard. He definitely did not want anyone to know about his identity as a transmigrator. He thought about how he could still put on an act in front of other people normally, but he was not as vigilant against Oxen. It must have seen all of his actions that did not match his identity and age.
"In the six realms of saṃsāra, there will occasionally be creatures who retain some memories of their past lives. This is known as innate wisdom. You and I both possess the memories of another identity. We're not regular farmers, Oxen. Being able to meet can be considered as fate. "
"I see." Li Qingshan eased up slightly inside. He had heard about this before, but at least his identity as a transmigrator had not been exposed. "I never thought there really would be daemons in this world, and I've even raised one for over a decade. Why didn't you say anything before?"
"There's nothing to say. I won't ask where you come from, and you won't ask where I come from either. All you need to know is what I can give you."
"Give me … what?"
"Have you heard of supernatural powers?"
Before Li Qingshan could ask, the black ox continued, "So-called 'abilities' are the abilities of gods and demons that can penetrate the world. They can move mountains and fill seas, and they can pluck the stars and moon from the sky. If you want to live forever, you can live forever. If you want to live forever, you can live forever. If you want to live forever, you can live forever. Not to mention glory, splendor, wealth, money, and beauties, you can have them at your fingertips. Are you tempted? "
The word 'supernatural power' contained all the desires of all living beings. Li Qingshan was just one of them, so how could he not be tempted?
But the deeper feeling was that it was unbelievable. It was like a person who had been blind for over a decade suddenly opened his eyes. Everything in front of him was so dazzling and full of unreality.
Li Qingshan suppressed the excitement in his heart. "Brother Oxen, are you going to teach me that kind of supernatural power?"
Oxen shook its head. "You're not qualified yet." It then changed the topic. "If you want to cultivate supernatural powers, you have to eat meat first!"
"What?" Li Qingshan wondered if he had heard wrongly. He felt that it was ridiculous. How could a supernatural power that could move mountains and fill seas, and pick the stars and moon be related to such an ordinary thing?
"The first step of cultivation is' refining essence into qi '. You have to refine the essence in your body into qi. With your sallow and emaciated appearance, how can you have essence to refine?"
Li Qingshan smiled bitterly. Anyone who grew up like him would not be able to become strong. And for a person who could not even lift a bucket of water, to talk about moving mountains and filling seas, wasn't it ridiculous?
"Dare I ask, where does meat come from?" How could Li Qingshan not want to eat meat? Compared to the illusory elixirs, the taste of meat was truly engraved in his mind. It made him dream about it at night, and he still missed it.
But how could a poor lad who could not even fill his stomach with coarse grains get delicious meat? He couldn't help but stare at the fat and strong body of Brother Oxen, subconsciously dividing it into tenderloin, T-bone, rib and many other parts in his mind, his eyes gleaming with greed.
Oxen hit his head. "Don't even think about it." Then it raised its hoof and pointed to the Hundred Thousand Mountains in the west. "The meat is in there."
Li Qingshan was surprised instead of delighted. Being a hunter in this world was not that easy. The jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards of the mountains were not to be trifled with. Moreover, the black ox was a living example right before him. As it seemed, the legends of the daemons and monsters were not false. If he ran into any one of them, his life would basically be over.
But Oxen only told him not to worry and asked him to wait at home. Then it disappeared without a trace.
Li Qingshan made his way down the mountain alone. He struggled to calm down from the excitement in his heart. This world was actually so strange and colourful. If he could really become an immortal and travel through the mountains, it would not be a waste of the name he had given himself.
When Li Qingshan returned home, his elder brother Li had already gone to the fields. Only his sister-in-law was leaning against the door and eating melon seeds. She rolled her eyes a few times when she saw him. Ordinary women and men who went out to work in the fields would either run the household chores or weave cloth to earn some money. But she was famous for being lazy in the village. She threw all the chores at home to Li Qingshan. She had never even touched a loom.
Li Qingshan pretended not to see her. He stepped into the house and lifted the lid of the pot. There was not even any leftovers in the pot, let alone hot food and rice.
Sister-In-Law said in a strange tone, "We don't have rice to feed idle people. Why don't you take the ox and help Steward Liu?" She suddenly thought of something and asked, "Where is the ox?"
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