49: Night cultivation

Once the celebration ended, the Villagers went to sleep. Ning decided to get some sleep before dawn.

“System, wake me up 15 minutes before the sun rises,” he said.

“Negative,” came the reply.

“What? Why is it negative?” he asked.

“Unable to let you sleep when you have your own body to control. Please switch bodies to enter sleep mode.”

“That’s—that’s not an option. I just got a body. Is there no other way?” he asked.

“You can sleep normally like everyone else.”

Ning seemed to realize something and said, “Oh, of course. Yes.”

“Now that I have a body, I can finally sleep, can’t I?” He was incredibly happy about this. He looked around, and everyone in the village was sleeping on the floor. He tried to think of other places to sleep in the house, but the beds were also made of stone.

“Do I really have to go all the way home to sleep?” he thought. The hard sleeping surface wasn’t the only problem. Another issue was the heating. Now that the fire had started to die down, the air was getting a bit cold.

Although he didn’t feel too uncomfortable, he still didn’t want to risk catching a cold from the low temperature tomorrow. He was in a dilemma. “Should I sleep on the floor and risk catching a cold? Or should I walk all the way home so I can perhaps get a good night’s sleep?”

He started to weigh the pros and cons of these two options when he realized he had a third choice.

“Or, I could just not sleep and cultivate instead.” Thinking this, he felt truly clever. He walked into Hyesi’s house and sat on the bed. Since Hyesi and Bellini were both sleeping outside, he could do whatever he wanted in here.

He closed his eyes and began to breathe slowly. Calming himself once more, he started to sense the aura around him. This time, however, he looked outwards with energy vision.

Small bright spots slowly appeared in the air, moving randomly without purpose. “This is Qi,” he thought. There weren’t many bright spots in the air. At most, there were a few dozen.

He began to perform his cultivation technique, and the light spots slowly moved within the room, gradually returning to his side. Soon, dozens of light spots covered his body, attempting to enter him.

“Ah, this reminds me of the time Freya cultivated in front of me,” he thought.

As the light spots entered his body, more appeared randomly around him. Throughout the night, he gathered hundreds of light spots into his body, but he felt no significant difference from before.

Differences certainly existed, but they were so small as to be almost negligible.

“I guess my body might not be very suitable for cultivation?” he thought.

It quickly became light, and the people in the village woke up. Ning also rose from his cultivation and walked out. The Villagers didn’t wait for him; as soon as he arrived, they came forward to greet him.

Ning walked towards Hyesi and stood beside him. His hat was already used up; it was time to accumulate energy again.

Hyesi and the other Villagers began to perform a ritual, preparing their bodies to receive the Yang energy brought by the dawn sun. Ning waited for that moment to arrive. As the sun was about to rise, everyone’s bodies began to glow.

The time had come. Ning closed his eyes and began to concentrate on gathering Yin energy, converting it into heat. Suddenly, the surrounding Yin, including Hyesi’s and his mother’s bodies, gathered around him.

Once they covered his body, they began to transform into thermal energy.

Immediately, he felt as if he was being burned alive. His concentration broke, and he immediately stopped using the technique.

“Damn it. I forgot this energy was enough to burn down trees. I shouldn’t use it with my human body. Thank goodness I stopped in time, otherwise my entire body would have been severely burned,” he thought.

Since he couldn’t use the Yin to Heat technique now, he switched to the Yin to Sound technique.

As the Yin he gathered transformed into sound energy and was absorbed by him, his entire body began to emit a medium-volume buzzing sound.

The sun rose, and everyone stopped their work, kneeling and kowtowing to the Gods. Only this time, the Gods were right in front of them, so they turned and kowtowed towards the Gods.

They shouted, “Great and brilliant Lord Inikaka, thank you for blessing us.”

Ning felt a bit strange but said nothing, only nodding.

Everyone else also stood up and went about their business.

“Do I have to go cultivate again?” he wondered.

Grrr.

Suddenly, his stomach rumbled. “Ah, I forgot I have a body now. I get hungry too quickly. I should eat something, but what? There’s nothing on this island,” he thought. “Do I have to go to another island to find food?” he wondered.

He sighed and called Hyesi over.

“Lord Inikaka, is there anything you need?” Hyesi asked excitedly. Being summoned by their Lord was an honor for them. Doing tasks for him was even more so.

“This new human body is weak and needs nourishment. I need food and water, otherwise this body will die very quickly,” Ning said.

Hyesi hesitated and said, “But Lord Inikaka, we don’t have water. And the meat will take a while to cook.”

“I know. I didn’t call you here to send me food,” Ning said, which confused Hyesi. Hyesi tilted his head, unsure of what would happen.

“No, I just want you to come with me to another island and help me with something.”