Chapter 4: Cultivation Method

Chapter 4: Cultivation Method

After returning to his room with the food containers.

Yatsuno Gen first washed the food containers clean, then put them back into the cupboard.

This rented apartment was not large, and its layout was the same as Kiyono Mitsuki’s place next door.

A small living room, a simple kitchen more or less connected to the living room, and then a tiny single bedroom. The bathroom and toilet were also together. It made full use of space, and was quite in line with the customs of this country.

After all, the land was small, so space had to be fully utilized.

However, judging from what he had learned over the past eighteen years of life, it was still somewhat different from the Neon he knew.

In his view, this could not be considered returning to his original world. Even if he went abroad and returned to Yanxia, he probably would not be able to find the people and things that existed in his memories.

So Yatsuno Gen basically treated this place simply as a parallel world. He did not know how to leave. As for the future, as for life in this world...

He only earned the money he needed. He had no desire for so-called success or wealth. Living a simpler life was fine, and he did not need to chase after those things that seemed so tempting.

To put it simply: this guy was an energy-saving type, so he was lying flat. [NOTE: Lying flat refers to a modern East Asian internet concept of opting out of intense competition and ambition in favour of a low-pressure lifestyle.]

After tidying up the room, which did not contain much, he took off his shirt and walked into the bathroom.

He revealed a young body that looked very thin, but in fact had smooth, defined lines.

The lines of his muscles were distinct, and his eight-pack abs looked like a work of art.

He showered directly with cold water in June, not because he was especially frugal. In fact, he liked taking cold showers in every season.

After finishing all this, Yatsuno Gen did not go out again, nor did he watch television or play video games.

Instead, he sat cross-legged directly on the bed in his room and began to breathe deeply.

When he finished his last deep breath and closed his eyes.

The entire world did not become dark because of it. Instead, it became increasingly clear.

He could clearly see the wild grass growing beneath the apartment building, and he could see how the moon hanging in the sky was gradually covered by dark clouds.

The song of the wind was like the breathing of the world, and the flickering streetlamp at the entrance of the residential complex had attracted some lost moth.

This was not some problem with his mental state causing him to fall into hallucination. It was his essential daily practice.

The greatest secret on Yatsuno Gen’s body was not his identity as a transmigrator, but a cultivation method called the Ultimate Formless Art. [NOTE: In xianxia-style fantasy, a cultivation method is a structured practice used to refine the body, mind, or energy, often granting extraordinary abilities.]

After meditating for about three hours, during which his faint breathing seemed to turn into snowy white mist that filled the entire room, the moment he opened his eyes.

A strand of dark golden light flashed through his eyes and vanished.

“As expected, this world still has too little spiritual energy. Is there really no other method of replenishment?”

The cultivation method’s progress was not very satisfying, but there seemed to be no other way. He could only accumulate it bit by bit, like water dripping through stone.

However, the second level of the Ultimate Formless Art was already enough for him to maintain Kiyono Mitsuki’s leg muscles and prevent them from atrophying.

He would sleep first.

He said goodnight to the entire world, then woke on a morning hung with dew.

He washed his face, changed clothes, put on his shoes, and left home for a morning run.

It was not that he especially needed morning runs to exercise his body. He simply wanted to plant a reason for his physical condition in advance and save himself the trouble of explanations.

On the way back, he also brought breakfast for the little hedgehog next door.

“When I bring you breakfast, say good morning, and wake you up, you only need to reply with good morning.”

“Don’t say meaningless things like: Huh? How did you get in? Do you know that trespassing is illegal? Those words are pointless. They aren’t interesting at all.”

Kiyono Mitsuki, whose face was red as she draped on an outer garment, glared at Yatsuno Gen.

“You’re not allowed to use that key again. Do you hear me?”

Yatsuno Gen shrugged.

“You wouldn’t get up and open the door when I called you. What else could I do? The food would get cold.”

Kiyono Mitsuki finally managed to put on that dark hoodie. Although it was June, the morning temperature was still somewhat cold.

She laboriously shifted her body, wanting to climb into the wheelchair.

Doing such a thing in front of Yatsuno Gen gave her an inexplicable sense of shame. She still was not used to showing her incompleteness.

Yet she did not expect Yatsuno Gen to directly reach out with both hands and easily pick her up.

When she was placed into the wheelchair like this, her entire fair face flushed red like a red delicious apple.

She tightened her clothes around herself, as though she was very cold, deliberately furrowing her brows so he would not notice the panic she felt after sensing his warm embrace.

“Who gets up this early... I never asked you to take care of me. Once I wake up, I can eat by myself.”

“Fine, fine, fine. I’m the one who willingly meddled. Your Highness, can you go wash up first?”

The young man pushed the wheelchair to the bathroom.

Hearing his teasing words, Kiyono Mitsuki gave a light snort.

“Do I look like the kind of girl who needs you to coax me through everything?”

She really was a hedgehog. She had to struggle a little over everything.

But Yatsuno Gen had long since grown used to her personality, so he left the bathroom first and let her wash up by herself.

Kiyono Mitsuki had not originally been like this. At most, she had once been a little proud. But after encountering that accident, she had increasingly liked using this sort of method to disguise herself.

She pretended that she needed no one. That way, no one would discover that she actually had no qualifications to obtain the things she wanted.

When Kiyono Mitsuki came out of the bathroom, she saw Yatsuno Gen holding her laptop in one hand and her phone in the other, fiddling with something unknown.

“What are you doing?”

Her expression was unfriendly.

Yatsuno Gen calmly placed the laptop on the sofa.

“I restored your disconnected internet and paid your phone bill too.”

“Why would you do that?”

The young girl’s beautiful eyes stared at Yatsuno Gen. She no longer said those meaningless words, because she clearly knew she could not stop him from doing what he wanted.

The incomparably handsome young man only said leisurely,

“You can try doing what you want to do, even try earning a little money. That way, you won’t feel as though you have to rely on me for everything.”

“Who’s relying on you... Besides, what can I even do now?”

“I remember that you used to like drawing online, or writing light novels and the like. Those would all work.”

“Light novels... I can’t believe you still remember. But I don’t have any stories to write.”

Kiyono Mitsuki coldly refused.

Yatsuno Gen thought for a moment and said,

“I have a story here. You might be interested.”

“What story?”

“It’s about a handsome boy who rejects all the temptations in life, devotes himself wholeheartedly, and gently and considerately takes care of a disabled female neighbour. In the end, they live happily together.”

“...What nonsense are you spouting?!”

Kiyono Mitsuki’s cold, hard defenses were once again easily broken down.

Yatsuno Gen smiled very happily, placed the breakfast he had brought on the table, then stood up.

“Any story is fine. In any case, writing something isn’t bad. If there are some things you don’t want to say much to me, then find another outlet to vent. After all, you can’t keep everything bottled up, right?”

“...It’s not that I don’t want to say them to you.”

“What? I didn’t hear clearly.”

Kiyono Mitsuki’s voice was so soft that it sounded like a mosquito.

She unnaturally brushed the hair beside her ear and tucked it behind her ear, but that instead revealed the clear red at the tip of her ear.

“It’s nothing.”

“Then eat slowly. I have to go to school. Is there anything you want me to bring back for you?”

Yatsuno Gen stood up and asked.

Kiyono Mitsuki shook her head.

“No.”

“Alright, I’m leaving.”

“Mm.”

It seemed as though that was the final farewell.

But Yatsuno Gen, who had stepped forward as if about to walk to the door, suddenly changed direction and walked toward Kiyono Mitsuki.

Then he crouched down before the girl, held her wheelchair, and looked up at her.

“W, what are you doing?”

The sudden eye contact and unprepared distance made Kiyono Mitsuki’s heartbeat instantly quicken.

Then she saw the young man’s bright, beautiful smile.

“I’m leaving. Aren’t you going to say something to me?”

“...If you’re leaving, then leave. What is there to say?”

Was she supposed to be like a wife seeing her husband off to work?!

She puffed up with anger, but her heart burned like fire.

Yet Yatsuno Gen’s gaze did not change. He still looked at her with a smiling expression.

As though, if she did not say it, he would pester her to the end.

The girl’s hands clenched tightly. She bit her teeth, then said with a burning face,

“Be careful on the road. Have a good day at school.”

“How obedient.”

“...Damn it!”

Kiyono Mitsuki was terribly embarrassed and angry, but she was a girl who could not even stomp her foot in anger.

Yatsuno Gen stood up again, thought of something, and said softly,

“Right, if those people come, remember to shut the door properly and wait for me to come back.”

“Huh? No, those people aren’t someone you can...”

“Be good.”

“...Oh.”

When his hand gently patted the top of her head.

Kiyono Mitsuki became like a robot whose switch had been pressed, forgetting to refute him.

Only after he finally left her home did the girl belatedly blush.

“Does he think I’m a puppy? He even patted my head...”

She angrily reached out and touched the top of her head.

Yet her eyes had clearly grown moist, and even the corners of her mouth unconsciously rose.

Looking at the breakfast on the table, she saw it was also something she liked.

It made Kiyono Mitsuki feel warmth, but also a kind of unreality. She felt that this was a present situation she did not deserve.

But if she really had to say it, if one day he finally ended up together with a girl who matched him, and vanished from her world...

Could she endure that kind of future?

Why would someone like this appear in her world? He was simply a temple rising from her barren land.

He was a god who should not have appeared in her cruel world.

Yatsuno Gen, outside the door, was not thinking about these things. He hoped life could be simpler.

Doing the things he wanted to do, not letting money, profit, or power distort his state of mind, living in the same stretch of time as the people he liked, and having his thoughts flow freely were enough.

Looking at those glaring words and that frightening bright red paint.

He merely stretched out his hand and gently covered those traces, then frowned slightly.

Like a breeze brushing past his eyes, lifting his short hair.

When he turned and completely left the corridor.

Those glaring, vicious words vanished, and even the paint as bright red as chicken blood disappeared without a trace.