Cultivation Nerd-Chapter 341 - A Fluffy Snow Creature

I leaned back in the old rocking chair I’d dragged up to the roof of the library tower, letting its gentle creak keep time with the rising sun. The wind was sharp and cool, carrying the faint scent of pine and distant rain, brushing against my face with a briskness that cleared the mind. From up here, the sect spread out in quiet stillness, lanterns glowing like fireflies against the dark.

Surprisingly, it was comfortable, more so than it had any right to be.

A chill wind, a high perch, and nothing but the endless sky above.

Yeah. This was the life.

I pulled out a book, ready to have the perfect start to the day.

This winter had been the best so far. There were rumors of beast waves hitting the other great sects’ territories, but within ours, there had been almost none.

I sighed and leaned back, enjoying the soft winter sun.

Of course, that peace shattered the moment I sensed a powerful presence racing toward me.

It had to be Song Song. Who else would ruin a good morning this early?

I closed the book—without reading even a single word—and slipped it into my storage ring as her aura grew stronger. Moments later, she arrived with a thunderous boom, the shockwave of her landing sending snow flying from the rooftop.

The blast of air stung my face. “Do you have to be so extra?”

“No time for that! I just had this amazing idea,” she beamed, eyes sparkling like a child who’d discovered a new way to cause trouble. “How about we go out there and check what’s happening around the sect’s borders?”

I rubbed my temples. “Couldn’t this have waited until later?”

“What part of I just had this amazing idea don’t you understand?” she said, crossing her arms. “It came to mind, so of course I had to tell you right away.”

I really needed to invent some kind of artifact that acted like a phone, so I could ignore her calls. The simpler times without cellphones weren’t better; there was just no way to mute this woman.

“Also,” she continued, tilting her head, “aren’t you supposed to be home with your wife around this time?” A short pause. “How does… uh, your fiancée not get jealous about this?”

Right. She forgot Fu Yating’s name. Again. And why would she be jealous? Not every woman was as insane as dear Miss Blood over here.

“Because I’m not spending that time with other women, running amok,” I said dryly.

She raised a questioning brow and pointed at herself.

I sighed. There was no winning this conversation.

“Okay, so when do you think we should do this little expedition?” I asked, already thinking about how to rearrange my schedule. Maybe I could even bring Wu Yan and my two disciples along once they finished cultivating in a week or two at most.

When Song Song didn’t respond, I turned toward her. She was staring at me like I’d just asked the dumbest question imaginable.

“What?” I frowned.

“Did you grow dumber recently, or what?” she asked flatly. “Obviously, we’re going right now. It was a spontaneous idea. What’s there to think about? I know you’ve got rations and supplies in your storage ring anyway.”

I opened my mouth to argue… then stopped.

Honestly, spending some time with her didn’t sound so bad.

Sighing, I stood up and brushed the snow from my robes.

“Alright. Where to, then?”

She looked me up and down like a tailor checking for flaws, then nodded in approval, only to shrug a moment later.

“Usually, I’d have you do all the planning. But this time? Let’s just fly off in a random direction, explore a bit, and find some beasts to kill.”

She said it like we were going on a picnic.

I rose into the air until we were at eye level, then followed her beyond the sect walls. The moment we cleared the perimeter, Song Song spread her senses in every direction. It hit like a pressure wave, prickling across my skin and sinking into my bones. The energy felt vast, cold, and heavy with killing intent.

She’d evolved my old killing intent technique again. Her presence now covered miles upon miles, maybe an entire province. Everyone inside that range probably felt their heart skip a beat.

“Wow,” she murmured, scanning the horizon. “You were right. There really are no beasts nearby.”

“None at all?” I asked, frowning.

If there were no beasts in her range, then that was worrying. Because it could mean that they were preparing for something bigger.

“No, not that,” she said. “There are a few deep in the forest, but nothing close and nothing strange.”

I nodded slowly. The number of beasts had dropped sharply since last winter, so it wasn’t shocking. It would take a while for them to recover.

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“Alright then, which direction?” I asked.

Song Song shrugged, then closed her eyes. With a lazy flick of her hand, she pulled a rock from the ground and caught it in her palm. She weighed it thoughtfully for a second and tested the balance, like a gambler checking the dice, and then tossed it high into the air.

“Keep an eye on it,” she said. “Also, make a jade platform for it.”

I was more confused than ever, but by now I had grown accustomed to her unusual requests. She was probably used to mine too.

The rock came down, bounced twice on the jade platform, and tilted northward.

“Well, there’s our direction,” she said, not even giving me the chance to poke holes in her flawless logic before shooting toward the north like a rocket.

Sighing, I ignited my Qi and barrier and followed behind her at top speed, adjusting the flow of energy around me to keep the flight smooth.

Halfway through catching up, I extended my arms forward in the classic Superman pose. Thankfully, no one here was from my previous world, or I’d never live down how childish that looked.

When I drew level with her, Song Song gave me a confused look, eyes narrowing at the grin on my face.

“What’s with the stupid pose?”

She was clearly bored, too bored, if she had time to be this judgmental. Then again, I was probably just as bad with how often I picked apart her nonsense.

“It helps me fly easier,” I said, lowering my arms to a normal position.

“Fly easier?” she tilted her head. “You use barriers to manipulate lift and drag, right? How would raising your arms help with that?”

“Since when did you start questioning everything?” I muttered under my breath.

…

We flew for half an hour, weaving through the clouds and sometimes above them just to break the monotony. Even with our little distractions, our pace barely dropped, we were faster than most planes would’ve been back in my old world.

If this were any other time, I would’ve stopped to study the landscape and maybe note the flora or check the Qi density, but there was nothing to study.

The world was covered in white snow, and it was quiet, with most animals hibernating in their dens during the winter.

I would’ve preferred to travel west, honestly. The edge of the Western Continent wasn’t far, and I’d always wanted to see the World Barrier that divided the continents. It would’ve taken half a month of flight, but it’d be worth it.

Still, it was probably better we didn’t head that way. That was where the Song Clan’s ancestral lands were, a place only the clan leader and their chosen successor were supposed to know. Of course, Song Song told me about it like it was some bedtime story, so much for secrecy.

I was lost in that thought when her voice snapped me back. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“I can sense a Core Formation beast nearby,” Song Song said.

“Then we shouldn’t mess with it,” I warned immediately.

Provoking a beast in its own lair was suicide. For all we knew, it had hidden companions. In its home territory, even an ordinary Core beast could turn into a nightmare.

“Wow, I hope you don’t act this boring in your marriage. Fu Yating is a saint for putting up with someone like you,” Song Song said, shaking her head with the sigh of a self-proclaimed relationship expert.

I knew she was still using that ridiculous virginity technique to boost her cultivation, and she was about as interested in romance as she was in mercy, not at all. But when it came to mocking me? Oh, she thrived on that.

"Technically, Fu Yating is not yet my wife," I said. "But if she were, I do not think our marital affairs would be your business."

There was a good chance Fu Yating and I might end up together, and despite our relationship, I didn't want others to demean her when she became my wife.

Song Song shrugged and decided to drop the subject.

“Well, there’s also a peak Foundation Establishment beast on the other side of that dingy forest,” she added, pointing toward a grove of frost-covered trees, their branches bare and pale.

“So what? We came out here to look for trouble?” I asked.

“Well, I didn’t come sightseeing with Lord Shut-In, who reads books all day,” she shot back.

“Sorry, Lady Bloodthirst,” I bit back. But since this was technically her trip, and I did want to test a few things, I added, “If you really want to, we can go check it out.”

“Now that’s more like it,” she said, her frown flipping into a grin.

We flew closer to the forest, maintaining a steady pace that was fast enough to cover ground but slow enough not to waste Qi or draw attention. The trees grew sparse beneath us, the snow untouched and eerily still.

As we approached, the beast came into my sensory range, and then we saw it.

It was a massive bear, its body blanketed in thick, gleaming white fur that shimmered faintly under the snowlight. Four colossal arms sprawled outward, each ending in claws sharp enough to carve through stone, though for now, they lay slack in peaceful slumber. Each breath rose in a plume of mist, the snow beneath it sagging under its immense weight.

A Four-Armed Winter Bear, a rare subspecies, infamous for hibernating in the open. They slept through both winter and summer, only stirring during spring and autumn to hunt.

Normally, these creatures stayed far from human lands. If one ever settled close to a sect, it didn’t take long before someone sent an extermination squad.

“Okay, this looks like a good training dummy. Go fight it,” Song Song said casually.

I turned to her, unimpressed. “You’re the one who dragged me here.”

“Now that you’re a Level 5 Array Conjurer, this is the perfect time to test things out,” she countered.

I would’ve argued, but she wasn’t wrong. There were a few things I wanted to test, though not necessarily my arrays.

I floated down and landed beside the sleeping bear. The snow crunched under my feet, and my heart leapt to my throat.

But the bear only snored softly, unbothered.

I suppressed my Qi as much as possible while maintaining a thin barrier just in case this was a trap and the thing decided to turn me into paste with one swing.

A jade longsword shimmered into being in my hand, its edge catching the pale light. I leveled the blade at the creature’s thick neck and thrust it toward where the artery should’ve been.

The strike landed true, yet instead of meeting flesh and bone, the sword sank through without resistance, as though cutting into soft snow. No blood. No roar. Just the faint give of frost. The creature’s body crumbled around the wound like a melting sculpture.

Four-Armed Winter Bears possessed a Foundation Skill nearly universal among their kind, Snow Elementalization. Among those with the potential to reach the peak of Foundation Establishment and ascend to Core Formation, it was almost guaranteed.

They could shed their solidity at will, turning fatal blows into nothing more than drifting flakes.

When I drew the blade back, the jade was dusted with fine frost, cold crystals clinging where blood should have been.

Then the bear’s eyes snapped open. Two pale orbs gleamed like frozen moons, locking onto me with unhurried, deliberate intent. It rose to its full height, snow cascading from its fur as its massive frame blotted out the treeline, a mountain of white fur and muscle.

Then it roared.

The sound wasn’t just a howl; it was like a booming avalanche. A thunderous bellow that shook the marrow in my bones and sent waves rippling through the snow. The air itself trembled, birds scattered from distant pines, and even the ground shuddered.