The King of Black Fog

By noon, Li Changzhou laid down his sword, stripped off his shirt, and leaped from a branch, diving into the lake like a fish.

"Splash!"

He shot towards the bottom of the lake like a rocket, leaving a trail of dense bubbles behind.

The depth of the lake was the same as the height of the giant trees, and the world itself was round, with a round lakebed and a round sky.

Reaching the bottom, Li Changzhou flipped over and looked up, the surrounding water deep blue, almost black, with sunlight struggling to linger.

His legs bent, he was about to push off towards the surface, then suddenly remembered a wuxia novel.

In fact, he had thought about wuxia novels while practicing swordsmanship in the morning, recalling the sword techniques in them, but unfortunately, there were no sword techniques in the game.

Not only were there no sword techniques, but "Water Buffalo Style·Great Strength Bull Fist" wasn't actually a boxing style either; Bull Horn Spiral Force was merely a technique of exertion.

At this moment at the bottom of the lake, what came to his mind was the wuxia novels' segment about "practicing swordsmanship underwater."

"Thump!" came a muffled sound.

A wind-like whoosh of water, he threw a punch with Bull Horn Spiral Force.

The spiral of water waves pushed forward, a force usually strong enough to grind stones into dust, but at the lakebed, it only traveled two meters.

The surrounding water felt as heavy as a thousand catties.

At the same time, the breath that was initially under control in his lungs also slipped away considerably with that punch.

Tiring!

But tiring means it's working!

So what was he waiting for?!

"Thump!" Another punch followed.

Li Changzhou was supposed to bathe after morning training and then rest, but there he was, dragging his tired body to continue training.

It wasn't just about strength, he discovered that it was difficult to secure a footing in water, often being pushed back about a meter each time he finished a punch.

Realizing this, he practiced his lower stance while boxing, striving to reach a state where he could throw a punch without moving an inch in the water.

What kind of realm was that?

Li Changzhou did not know, nor could he imagine, but the harder it was to imagine, the more vigorously he trained. The thought of achieving such an unimaginable realm filled him with enthusiasm.

Back when he took the college entrance exam, he had thought, what realm is a perfect score?

Ordinary people wouldn't even imagine it, but the thought made his heart burn with fervor, making the problems feel effortless to solve. When he solved a problem incorrectly or encountered one he couldn't solve, not only was he not discouraged, but he was excited instead.

Identifying problems and then working hard brought him closer to a perfect score.

The same went for his current training; the more shortcomings he noticed, the more excited he became. The fatigue from the morning, washed away by this excitement, was instantly forgotten.

During his underwater training, he practiced until he was nearly suffocating, barely managing to push toward the surface before drowning.

During the swim, he was almost in a state of choking to death.

But Li Changzhou treated this as training, training his explosive power for escaping death. This subconscious act was like placing his hand directly over a fire to roast.

Back at the surface, he spewed out a mouthful of lake water.

In the final moments, he almost lost control over his body, gulping down water in large swallows.

"Cough, cough, cough!" Water filled his mouth, nose, and chest.

His lungs were agonizingly close to death, his head buzzing loudly, his whole body lay on the tree roots at the water surface like a dead fish.

Once his breathing stabilized and his strength returned, he propped himself up with his arms, stood up, and dove down again.

He should have gone up the tree to retrieve the Emerald Bee Sword, but the sword was thin and narrow, offering too little resistance in water, unlike the "Great Strength Bull Fist" which was more challenging.

After two hours of training, his body ached all over, not just from diving into the bottom of the lake, but he lacked the strength even to climb back to Bird Nest Plain.

Too lazy to go up, he simply laid down at the roots by the water and fell asleep.

After falling asleep, listening to the sound of the lake water slapping the tree roots, he even dreamt of training at the lake bottom.

◇

26 packets of vegetable seeds, including cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, green beans, spinach, pumpkins, soybeans, green peas, cabbage, beets, and more.

Each bag consisted of only 10 seeds, meaning only one point could exchange for a single seed, frighteningly expensive; a player had a total of just 10 points.

Yang Qinglan planted only three seeds of each variety, which was merely an experiment. Planting too many could waste resources, and too few might risk coincidence.

She first used a dagger to dig out flora from the tree trunk, studying the growth of their roots before planting the seeds directly into the flora pits.

As she gardened, she immersed herself, feeling close to nature. With her experience with "Thorns," she soon entered a state of closeness with nature.

It seemed she could feel the emotions of the plants; as they were being dug up, they appeared to be crying.

When she planted the seeds, thoughts like "too deep," "too shallow," "just right," "uncomfortable here," and so on, surged in her heart, akin to the seeds' emotions.

That sensation was so vague, blurring the lines between reality and illusion, leading her to question whether it was just her imagination, imagining that the seeds were talking to her.

She let her heart wander, immersing herself in this fantasy, just like a little girl deep in conversation with a doll, combing its hair, dressing it up.

After planting all 78 experimental seeds according to "their preferences," she finally snapped back to reality.

Planting took a long time, but standing straight, her 10 points of constitution didn't make her feel much weariness.

She stood on the tree branch, so vast it could be called flat, where occasionally, light would touch her pristine and saintly face, shining like a gemstone.

Reflective, Yang Qinglan took out another seed and flicked it using the method of "Thorns."

The seed fell to the ground and should have grown into a thorn as hard as iron, but instead, it rooted, sprouted, grew leaves...

Just as the leaves quivered sprouting forth, an iron-colored flood emanated from the root of the chili seed, quickly seizing the sprout and transforming it into a "metallic" plant.

Three seconds later, this metallic chili plant rapidly withered and decayed.

Without further attempts, Yang Qinglan decided to buy some ordinary seeds to try, but she faintly felt that the seeds bought from the game boasted extraordinary vitality and that ordinary seeds wouldn't easily thrive.

By this point, she started to feel a bit confused, as if a thin film covered her brain, creating an impression of another self, observing her calmly from the side.

This was a characteristic of mental exhaustion.

"Hmm—" She lazily stretched out in a yawn.

Having set aside her worries, the appropriate level of tiredness brought her a sense of comfort.

As she turned, intending to head to the Bird Nest Plain to rest, her keen perception allowed her to hear gasps close to death coming from the lake hundreds of meters away.

She hurriedly looked down.

The view of the lake's tree roots abruptly came into her sight.

Li Changzhou was lying on the tree roots, coughing as if about to cough out his lungs, taking deep breaths between coughs, which only triggered another wave of more severe coughing.

What happened? she wondered.

She didn't go down immediately. On Li Changzhou's face, there was no sign of panic or fear, only determination and excitement.

After resting for a while, Li Changzhou stood up, his lean and muscular upper body shining like water.

He dove into the water.

What was under the water? Yang Qinglan subconsciously guessed.

She carefully sensed, using all 10 points of her Perception to their limit, but was unable to discern what was beneath the water.

A little while later, Li Changzhou surfaced again, his hair wet and plastered to his face, looking exactly like someone drowning.

"Cough, cough, cough!" He coughed again on the tree roots.

When he was not coughing, lying down and resting, he slowly and cautiously shadowboxed, as if weighted down and balancing two eggs on the backs of his hands.

Yang Qinglan knew what he was doing.

She continued towards the Bird Nest Plain. Li Qianxia was sleeping soundly there. She took a few steps out and then stopped again.

She found a branch to sit on, leaning against the trunk, closed her eyes, and listened for noises from the lake—just in case Li Changzhou drowned himself.

Sigh, not only did she have to spread knowledge, garden, soothe, and persuade, but she also had to act as a lifeguard. She had never been so worried in her twenty years of life as in this past month.

Yang Qinglan thought about it and laughed to herself.

Suddenly, there was no sound of water immersion from the lake for a long time. She opened her eyes with some confusion—she was certain Li Changzhou had reached the shore (tree roots) and couldn't have drowned.

She looked down. Water droplets fell from his bangs; Li Changzhou had fallen asleep.

The sunlight fell on his face, radiant with a slight frown as if he was contemplating something even in his sleep.

Yang Qinglan's smile spread across her face, studying his face for a while, not realizing when she too fell asleep.

◇

By four in the afternoon, the three of them woke up.

"Only twenty years old, and you're sleeping in separate rooms, how will you manage later, won't you end up divorcing!" Li Qianxia scolded the other two indignantly, carrying the air of the oldest in the family.

"Haven't we always slept together?" Yang Qinglan feigned confusion as she asked Li Qianxia.

"That was just a trial sleep for my brother!"

"Li Qianxia, shut up," Li Changzhou interrupted his sister's absurd claims, muttering about a trial sleep.

They left the world of Mana and the outside was equally dusky; time flowed the same.

Li Changzhou and Li Qianxia went to buy dinner while Yang Qinglan returned to the Qing Lan Bookstore for a bit. The full moon event had been so sudden that she'd only managed to send a quick text to the staff about going away on a trip.

When the siblings came back carrying poached chicken, Mapo tofu, braised pork, drunken shrimp, pickled fish, a big bowl of Spicy Pot (mostly vegetarian), and Li Qianxia's unforgettable hairy crabs, Yang Qinglan had just walked from the Qing Lan Bookstore.

"Why did you buy so much?" she asked, looking at their hands barely managing to hold everything.

"It looks like a lot, but it'll be gone in a moment," Li Qianxia assured confidently.

"Open the door," Li Changzhou said to Yang Qinglan.

Yang Qinglan opened the door for the sibling pair, who had their hands full.

Enjoying the evening breeze, the three ate dinner under an apricot tree, Li Qianxia wearing gloves and grabbing food directly with her hands.

"Mmmh!" she exclaimed as she ate a piece of pickled fish, her right hand reaching for a crab leg that Li Changzhou had just picked up with his chopsticks, her left hand holding a slice of lotus root from the Spicy Pot, her mouth oily from the food.

Yang Qinglan had no choice but to play the role of both sister and mother, wiping her mouth with a napkin as oil nearly dripped onto her clothes.

After dinner, they sat in the cool evening air, chatting and digesting, waiting for Zheng Qing's visit.

"Come with me to buy seeds tomorrow and to buy a few boxes of bees," Yang Qinglan said.

"Bees?" Li Qianxia asked quizzically, her eyes glued to her phone, responding to messages from classmates from the last few days.

"Bees can produce honey and also pollinate crops," Yang Qinglan explained.

"I want to buy dairy cows, hens, pigs, ducks, and sheep; I dream of facing the sea, with spring flowers blooming," Li Changzhou said lazily, lounging in a rocking chair.

"The poet who faced the sea, spring blooming, ended up lying on the tracks," Yang Qinglan retorted.

"Ducks? Let's skip the ducks," Li Qianxia tapped her phone quickly, her Agility maxed out. "I don't like duck meat."

"We can buy cows and chickens," Yang Qinglan said. "We need to become self-sufficient from external food sources as soon as possible."

"Then who will do the cooking?" Li Qianxia looked up, asking a crucial question.

...Silence fell for a moment.

"I vote for Li Qianxia," Yang Qinglan raised her hand, giving Li Changzhou a significative glance.

"Ahem, I vote for Li Qianxia," Li Changzhou also raised his hand.

"You! You two!" Li Qianxia covered her phone and her B-cup bra, heartbroken to the point of vomiting blood, "This... is... the tyranny... of the majority."

While they were having a conversation half joking, half serious, Zheng Qing entered the yard.

She arrived earlier than they expected, just 6 PM.