Journey to the West: Life Simulation of Sun Wukong

Leaving the Sunset Forest, Sun Ming and Dugu Yan passed through Tiandou City, bought some supplies, and then set out on foot, rather than taking a carriage.

"Are we really walking?" Dugu Yan said incredulously, "I thought you would hire a carriage."

"Riding in a carriage is like sitting in a narrow box; even if you pull back the curtains, it's just a fleeting view. Walking brings a deeper experience," Sun Ming laughed, "We're not in a hurry to reach the next destination; we're traveling the continent, so we should take it slow."

Twenty kilometers out of Tiandou City, the stone-paved road turned into a dirt road, and there were more weeds and shrubs by the roadside, with hills stretching in the distance.

"Those hills have a lot of regular animals and ten-year soul beasts, nothing over a hundred years, but for ordinary people, it's still fairly dangerous, so most choose to take a detour."

Dugu Yan took out the map and explained the situation, "However, in the surrounding valleys, there are quite a few villages; smaller ones with fifty or sixty households, larger ones with over a thousand households."

"A thousand households can already be considered a town, with many soul masters below the level of a major soul master living there, making a living by capturing the animals and ten-year soul beasts in the hills."

"Wild ones are more expensive than farmed ones."

Soul beasts can actually be farmed.

For example, Sun Batian's soul-hunting group breeds Tianyu chickens, a ten-year soul beast with tender meat.

Of course, only ten-year soul beasts can be farmed; anything over a hundred years, unless you find one or two to keep as pets, would cause chaos if kept in large numbers.

And the effort to cultivate a soul beast to a hundred years is better spent on training.

Thus, soul beast farming can only be done for ten-year soul beasts. Over a hundred years, it takes too long, costs too many resources, and has little return, especially since a hundred-year soul beast's power can threaten ordinary major soul masters or even soul lords.

It's not cost-effective.

To eat meat from a soul beast over a hundred years, ordinary people in most cases have to pay a lot to hire a soul-hunting group to help hunt it. Forcharactersheetsandglossaries,visitMV|LEMPYR.

Ten-year soul beasts are relatively easy to eat.

As long as you have money, anyone can buy them.

But soul beast meat is expensive, so most ordinary people will buy meat from regular animals if they want to eat meat.

But for wealthy merchants, wild is better than farmed—they can't quite explain why, but they just feel wild meat is tougher and more nutritious.

Therefore, a large segment of low-level soul masters live by capturing wild animals and ten-year soul beasts.

Perhaps because the continent's population is still small, or due to some form of energy bestowed by nature, the reproduction capabilities of regular animals and ten-year soul beasts are strong, so over the past century, the animals and ten-year soul beasts in these hills have not been hunted to extinction, and according to the soul masters capturing them, their numbers are about the same as in the past.

Some soul masters say they release the too-small animals or soul beasts they capture.

Sun Ming knew that this behavior added humans as a new "predator" to this hill's ecosystem, achieving a new kind of balance.

People here can truly be said to live "by the mountains and off the mountains."

Moreover, people with soul power here are generally between levels five to fifteen, so the gap from ordinary people isn't too large, creating a relatively harmonious environment, and the relationships among soul masters here are much closer than those of other high-level soul-hunting groups.

The reason is simple: after all, ten-year soul beasts can't produce soul bones, and with the hills' abundant resources, apart from personal grudges and feuds, there are no major conflicts among them.

Sun Ming planned to stay a few days in this village of a thousand households, to observe, collect notes, and inquire about the martial soul conditions and daily lives of most people in the village.

Initially, the villagers were a bit reserved; after all, Sun Ming and Dugu Yan's appearance was quite extraordinary, and their attire was not in the same league.

But they later found that they were very easygoing, without the arrogant attitude typical of nobles or soul masters, and gradually became familiar with them.

In conversation, they regarded them as the "Heart Ape Master," who spoke for low-level soul masters and commoners.

This village of over a thousand households, though near the hills and living by capturing wild animals and ten-year soul beasts, each household also planted rice.

But in the hills, where the mountains are high and the land steep, the farms are small, and the yield is just enough for themselves, and they often need to buy grain from nearby towns.

Overall, most of these thousand households still need to work hard for food and clothing.

Afterward, Sun Ming would change into farmer's clothes, pick up a hoe, and help the family he was staying with to hoe the fields, or even to reclaim land.

At first, the farmer thought Sun Ming was joking, but when he really helped with weeding and land reclamation, they were surprised, especially when his actions went from clumsy to skillful, even with a kind of grace, making the old farmer admire him.

"Is your family an aristocrat that started with farming?" the old farmer couldn't help but ask.

"What aristocrat? I'm just a commoner," Sun Ming paused and smiled faintly, not feeling there was anything wrong with what he said.

Without an official position, he's just a commoner.

As for the identity of a soul master...

He wasn't like those ancient soul masters who created space for humans to live in, nor had he achieved merits for humanity with tremendous power for people to admire.

If you only rely on power to earn respect... then how is a soul master different from a beast?

"Then how are you so good at digging?" the old farmer puzzled.

"I'm just a fast learner and quickly figured out how to dig properly. Should I teach you?" Sun Ming laughed.

"Can they learn?"

"They can learn." Sun Ming pulled the old farmer over, showing him how to take steps to stand more steadily on the ground and how to swing the hoe more efficiently. "See, it's so simple, it's nothing magnificent. If you combine it with this breathing technique and keep doing it, I guarantee you'll be strong and healthy."

"It really is like this."

The old farmer followed Sun Ming's instructions, taking steps and standing firm, swinging the hoe with less effort. His waist, arms, and thighs felt more relaxed than before.

Combining it with deep inhalation and quick exhalation, his whole body felt warm, and Qi-Blood started flowing.

Then, Sun Ming modified several movements from grass cutting and showed them to the old farmer. The farmer tried them and indeed found them more convenient, sighing that a master with significant research in farming had come to his home.

So, word spread from one to ten, ten to a hundred.

First, other old farmers from the village came with cured meat and grains as gifts to seek advice. Then people from nearby villages also sent representatives.

Sun Ming didn't reject anyone, accepting the simple gifts prepared by each household and teaching them one by one. To conceal his identity, he even went to a small barren hill owned by the old farmer.

The five-meter-tall hill belonged to the old farmer, who originally planned to plant some fruit trees, since it had a stream flowing over it, eliminating irrigation concerns.

But due to poor management, all the saplings died.

As for farming on the hill—

How could you farm on a hill?

Sun Ming used the stream on the hill as a foundation, designing terraced fields like steps.

Then Sun Ming started cultivating on the terraced fields in front of the learners, and they, along with the old farmer, followed along, coordinated with breathing.

However, Sun Ming noticed that after a while, these people lost interest. He realized that cultivation is indeed a monotonous task, and over time, enthusiasm naturally dwindled.

So, Sun Ming modified the breathing technique and sang it out.

"Let's open~ the fields!"

The clear voice attracted the attention of those learning behind him.

"Let's open~ the fields!"

"Open the fields!"

"The rocky mountains~ turn into fertile land!"

"Plant the seedlings and wait~ for the autumn harvest!"

"After the autumn harvest~ farmers' faces are filled with joy~ and laughter!"

In the blink of an eye, Sun Ming composed a folk song based on tunes he had heard, causing the farmers swinging their hoes behind him to join in singing.

With the rhythm, breathing coordinated with the hoe-swinging actions, efficiency increased significantly.

Even many old farmers started to change the lyrics among themselves, seeing who sang better.

Sun Ming didn't mind this at all.

The meaning of the lyrics could be changed freely, but as long as the tune didn't change, the breathing wouldn't get disrupted.

Breathing energized the internal organs, and the hoe-swinging movements exercised muscles and bones, achieving holistic inner and outer cultivation without involving Soul Power.

Under these circumstances, the enthusiasm of most people in nearby villages was mobilized. In just half a month, the old farmer's terraced fields were completed.

In the coming years, as long as the small and large stones are removed from the fields and some tea trees or similar small trees are planted near the terrace edges to stabilize the soil, this small hill would become a very fertile farmland.

The old farmer was ecstatic, bowing in gratitude to Sun Ming. He then hosted a meal and prepared to help those people cultivate some suitable terraced fields in the future.

During this process, Sun Ming also took Dugu Yan to confront adversity.

Initially, she was very reluctant to the gray and murky fields, but she tried and persisted, eventually gaining an understanding of the hardships of farming.

After another half month, after documenting everything, Sun Ming bid farewell to the old farmer's family and continued his journey.

"Having personally farmed for half a month, how do you feel?" Sun Ming asked on the road.

"I won't waste food in the future." Dugu Yan, who often wasted food in the cafeteria of Tiandou Royal Academy, now felt a bit ashamed.

As a Soul Emperor, she initially found farming challenging. With each hoe strike, she didn't know where it would land—hitting stones, encountering plant roots.

Even she needed to use brute force initially.

She couldn't understand how those farmers persisted.

"It is their way of survival. If they have land to cultivate, they would never primarily rely on hunting."