Heavy snow blanketed the land, a rare sight for the south.

For the first few days, many people still went out to play in the snow. But as time went on, everyone preferred to stay cooped up at home, warming themselves by a brazier, snacking, watching TV, or playing mobile games.

This was commonly known as "holing up for the winter." It was a very enjoyable experience—provided, of course, that you had enough food and drink.

Spiritual Power flowed through Li Xiang’s body, making him completely unafraid of the wind and snow. The deep mountains and old forests were deserted in this heavy snow, so he used the Divine Movement Technique to dash between his "marked locations." With a single shovel, he sent countless flurries of white snow, clumps of mud, small stones, and tangled roots flying... wiping out nest after nest of snakes, insects, rats, and ants.

"Congratulations, Host. You have killed one Tier Three Mutated Creature, a Red Demon Ant. You have received a surprise reward: three stalks of the Tier Two Mutated Spirit Grass, Mandarin Duck Red Bone Pill."

Li Xiang looked at the Spirit Grass in his system inventory. It had golden, ternate, pinnately compound leaves, and the leaflets grew alternately, forming a shape like the Chinese character for "human." He knew this was a type of Ant Grass. However, unlike ordinary Ant Grass, its leaves were golden-yellow and its stem was like jadeite. It was suffused with Spiritual Qi, clearly no Mortal Item at a glance—the kind of thing money couldn’t buy and a crucial resource for increasing his strength.

"Congratulations, Host. You have killed three Tier Two Mutated Creatures, Red Demon Ants. You have received a surprise reward..."

"Congratulations, Host. You have killed one Tier Four Mutated Creature, a Hundred-eyed Iron-legged Centipede. You have received a surprise reward..."

"Congratulations, Host. You have killed one Tier Three Silver-Clawed Cyan-Furred Rat..."

...

After destroying thirteen "Demon Beast" lairs in a single afternoon, Li Xiang had killed a total of 78 Mutated Creatures, earning 2,390 Achievement Points. He had also obtained 108 stalks of Mutated Spiritual Medicine ranging from Tier Two to Tier Four, including mutated berries, Spirit Grass, and fungi.

’Breaking through to Tier Three shouldn’t be a problem,’ Li Xiang thought joyfully. He immediately picked out a lovely-looking Spirit Fruit, chewed and ate it, then performed a set of fist forms in the snow.

Spiritual Power surged through his body, leaving him feeling invigorated.

Although he had a lot of these Spiritual Medicines, he felt it probably wouldn’t be enough to reach the Tier Four Extraordinary realm.

First, consuming Spiritual Medicine always resulted in some loss of Spiritual Power. Some Spiritual Medicines had more impurities, and after Refinement, the refined essence was smaller in quantity.

Second, he had actually discovered long ago—back in his previous life—that the legacy he inherited was different from others. Every time he leveled up, he required far more Spiritual Power than other Extraordinary Beings, which was one reason for his slow progress.

Of course, the benefit of this was an exceptionally solid foundation. He could often crush other Extraordinary Beings of the same tier and even challenge those of a higher tier. Sometimes, leaping three tiers was not an issue.

After getting the system, he had considered changing his Cultivation Technique, but its rating in the system was surprisingly high. Furthermore, it could absorb and integrate other techniques later on, showing immense potential.

In this life, with the system’s help, he felt that this shortcoming of "slow progress" would be overcome. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t, so he chose to stick with it.

Most importantly, this inherited technique was well-suited to his farming, making it perfect for a pastoral lifestyle. He didn’t need to cultivate deliberately; he could improve just by doing his chores.

Li Xiang brought back the useful "Demon Beast" carcasses, like the centipedes and snakes. The larger ones he would air-dry and prepare for infusing in wine, while the smaller ones would be fed to the chickens, kittens, and dogs.

When Grandma and Third Granny saw the centipede and snake carcasses, they jumped in fright. The sheer, dense number of them made their skin crawl.

"Xiang’Er, why did you bring so many of these things back?"

Li Xiang quickly reassured them, "Don’t be afraid. I already killed them all!"

"Don’t catch any more in the future. What if you get bitten by a snake? There’s no medicine out here in the countryside, and it’s not convenient to see a doctor," Grandma said, extremely worried as she warned him.

Although there were barefoot doctors in the countryside—Lei Family Gully had one, for example—and a health clinic in town, as well as several large hospitals in the county, if you were bitten by a poisonous snake, you often wouldn’t make it to the hospital in time.

Even if you did, the hospital might not have the right antivenom.

"I won’t catch any more," Li Xiang said to comfort his grandma, thinking to himself, ’If I really have to catch more in the future, I’ll just hide them in the system inventory.’

He first picked out seven or eight centipedes and went to the chicken coop. By now, it was getting late and too cold outside, so all the chickens and ducks had gone into their shed.

"Here, chick-chick-chick, c’mere..." Li Xiang beckoned to the large rooster with the red crest and colorful feathers.

The large rooster used to be very afraid of him, running away whenever it saw him. But after Li Xiang fed it a few centipedes and showed some goodwill, the rooster’s wariness had greatly diminished. Now, as soon as Li Xiang called, it came running out, strutting proudly.

Then, Li Xiang pulled the handful of centipedes out from behind his back. The rooster grew even more excited, hopping up and down and flapping its wings, as if trying to be cute and curry favor. Li Xiang didn’t feed it right away, instead taking the opportunity to stroke its smooth, colorful feathers a few times before finally tossing the centipedes on the ground.

The other chickens in the coop wanted some, but the rooster shooed them back, only allowing three small hens to come over.

"Damn, this guy’s about to... you know..." Li Xiang turned and walked away, annoyed.

As for the snakes, Li Xiang didn’t feed them directly to the cats. Although a snake was basically a Spicy Strip to a cat, their bodies could contain many parasites or viruses.

High heat would basically kill them all.

Li Xiang picked out a few non-venomous snakes, descaled them, gutted them, and washed them clean. He then chopped them into small pieces, found a clay pot, and put the snake meat and rice inside together. He added a little salt, ginger, chopped vegetable leaves, and half a stalk of a Tier One Spirit Grass, then simmered a pot of Spirit Medicine Snake Porridge.

Cats can’t actually eat too much ginger; it can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and indigestion. However, eating a moderate amount has its benefits.

Ginger is rich in vitamins and minerals. Components like gingerol, shogaol, and zingerone can help cats by improving blood circulation, boosting their immune systems, and providing antioxidants.

His family often used ginger in their daily cooking, and the cats and dogs frequently ate the leftovers. But because their intake was small, they basically never had any of those problems.

Cats and dogs in the countryside were different from city pets; their tolerance and survival abilities were much stronger.

The reason he added the Spiritual Medicine was, of course, because among his pets, Xiaobai, the tortoiseshell, the calico, and Er Huang all had Extraordinary potential. They were limited by the current lack of Extraordinary Particles on Earth and thus hadn’t been able to mutate. Since Li Xiang now had plenty of Spiritual Medicine, giving them half a stalk was his way of helping them awaken their potential early.

He wasn’t being stingy by not adding more; the kittens were just too small. It would be bad if they couldn’t handle it. ’I’ll feed them a little first to see the effect,’ he decided.

If, by some chance, the other ordinary ones could also mutate, that would be even better.

The chances were probably low, though, because this kind of thing really depended on innate talent and constitution. In modern scientific terms, it was all about genetics. But even if they couldn’t mutate, they would still grow up to be much stronger.

Li Xiang ladled out two bowls for the mother cat and her five kittens, and poured the rest into Er Huang’s dog bowl.

The kittens were spirited and growing extremely well. Xiaobai, in particular, despite being bullied often, had caught up and even surpassed the cow cat in size. When it came to looks, however, the calico and the little orange one, the two "females," were more delicate. They had a "refined and pretty" look, like well-bred young ladies.

As for Xiaobai, the tortoiseshell, and the cow cat, these three were much more "rough and domineering." Even at their young age, their sitting and standing postures were different from the calico and the little orange one.

The calico and the little orange one sat primly, with their front paws together, and would even cover them with their tails. They rarely rolled around on the ground or showed their bellies. Xiaobai, the tortoiseshell, and the cow cat, on the other hand, just stood and sat however they pleased, sprawling about and tumbling all over the place.

Er Huang had now emerged from his grief. Grandma said that Er Huang sometimes ran off into the mountains to play, and she didn’t know where he went. Maybe he was going to visit Dahuang.

Seeing Er Huang eating heartily, Li Xiang patted his head, feeling a bit wistful. Humans were hunting wild boars, but in the end, it was the boars and the dogs that were dying the most.

At least, there hadn’t been any cases of humans being seriously injured or killed yet.

In the process of hunting the boars, the performance of the Chinese rural dogs was not much worse than that of those expensive, imported Hunting Dogs. For example, the three mutts that Li Yucheng had brought this time had been a great help to everyone.

Stewing Spiritual Medicine in soup or eating it raw weren’t actually the most effective ways to use it. Now that Li Xiang had enough Achievement Points, he spent 180 of them in the system store to redeem a recipe for Spirit Wine. This recipe required twenty-eight different Spiritual Medicines, and as it happened, he now had all of them.

The system store also had other recipes for Spirit Wine and Spirit Pills, but making Spirit Pills was more troublesome, and those Elixir Recipes were quite expensive.

As for the other Spirit Wine recipes, they were either too cheap and had mediocre effects, or they required too many types of Spiritual Medicine that he didn’t currently possess. That was why he ultimately chose this one.

The system store also sold Spiritual Medicine, but it was still too expensive. In terms of cost-effectiveness, it wasn’t as good as gathering them himself.

Li Xiang mulled it over. ’In a few more years, when Mutated Creatures are running rampant, that’s when I’ll truly make rapid progress.’

Many animals, due to their short lifespans, wouldn’t live to see the Apocalypse. But those born a few years later, closer to the Apocalypse, would result in more Mutated Creatures. At that point, the Apocalypse wouldn’t have arrived yet, so he could take advantage of that specific time window to harvest a huge batch.

His original plan was to rest for half a day and set out again the next morning. However, when he woke up early, the wind and snow had intensified, now mixed with freezing rain that turned every drop of water to ice. Li Xiang called Jiang Jianguo and Li Yucheng to tell them they should postpone again.

Jiang Jianguo and Li Yucheng had been thinking the same thing. After all, they were getting on in years. Hunting wild boars was profitable, but you had to be alive to enjoy the money. If they fell ill because of this, it wouldn’t be worth the trouble.

At the same time, many other hunting teams had also suspended their expeditions due to the weather.

But Li Xiang didn’t rest. Fearless of the wind and snow, he once again geared up and charged out of the house.

Third Granny was keeping Grandma company at home. As they warmed themselves by the fire and chatted, she praised, "That Xiang’Er really has endless energy."

Grandma laughed. "I can’t manage my grandson anymore. He loves to keep busy, so I just let him be." There was a hint of pride in her words. She had heard people saying that everyone in the surrounding villages was praising Li Xiang for his great abilities.

He was agile and strong, his Martial Arts surpassed even Lei Jiaming of Lei Family Gully, he was as handsome as a movie star, and rumor had it he’d already made millions from his live streams!

If it weren’t for the heavy snow blocking the way, matchmakers would have already worn out their doorstep.

In reality, Li Xiang hadn’t earned nearly that much. The money he had on hand right now, even including the uncashed boar subsidies and all the donations and advertising fees from his live streams, only added up to a little over 600,000.

His follower count, however, was growing quite fast. He hadn’t checked in a day, and it was already at 1.6 million.

On his way, Li Xiang received a phone call. It was from the owner of a restaurant in the county town—the same one from last time. The owner said he’d heard Li Xiang had captured over twenty wild boars in just a few days and offered his hearty congratulations. Then, he asked to place an order for the boars, telling Li Xiang not to turn them over to the government for collection, but to sell them directly to him instead.