Chapter 2: The Logic of Time
The first rays of dawn struggled to pierce through the warped wooden slats of the shack. The light was gray and weak, filtered through the perpetual smog that hung over the Outer District of Cloud City. It didn't bring warmth; it only illuminated the dancing dust motes and the peeling, rot-infested walls of their new home.
Outside, the alley was already waking up. The sounds were harsh and jagged—the splashing of dirty water, the hacking coughs of old loose cultivators whose lungs were filled with pill toxins, and the sharp, aggressive haggling of neighbors fighting over a single Spirit Stone.
This was the reality of the slums. A place where dignity was stripped away layer by layer until only survival remained.
Luo Xia woke up groggily. Her body felt heavy, pinned down by the exhaustion of the move and the emotional weight of their wedding night. She rubbed her eyes, instinctively curling into a ball, expecting to feel the biting cold of the morning draft.
Instead, she felt warmth.
A rough, calloused hand was gripping hers, anchoring her to the present.
"Husband?" She blinked, her vision blurring. "You're up early... is the landlord back?"
Luo Feng was sitting on the edge of the creaking bed. He was fully dressed in his worn hemp robes, his back straight as a spear. The slump of defeat that had defined his posture for the last ten years was gone. His eyes, usually clouded with worry, were burning with a strange, quiet intensity.
"Xia, wake up," Luo Feng whispered. His voice trembled, not with fear, but with the vibration of a man holding back a scream of victory. "Our fate... has changed."
Luo Xia sat up instantly, her heart skipping a beat. "What happened? Did you find money?"
"Better," Luo Feng shook his head, a mysterious smile playing on his lips. He leaned in close, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Last night, in my sleep... I awakened an ancient legacy. An ancestor's inheritance was hidden deep in my bloodline, waiting for me to start a family to activate."
Luo Xia froze. "Inheritance? You mean... a bloodline legacy?"
"Yes. It poured knowledge directly into my mind. It gave me a cultivation technique called the Sun & Moon Refining Technique." Luo Feng's expression turned serious. "Xia, listen to me closely. It fixes our roots."
"Fixes... our roots?" Luo Xia looked at him with painful pity. She reached out to touch his forehead, fearing the stress had finally broken his mind. "Brother Feng... we have Five Spirit Roots. Our bodies are 90% impurities. Absorbing Qi for us is like trying to filter mud through a net. It's a heavenly shackle. It can't be fixed."
"It doesn't change the roots physically," Luo Feng caught her hand, pressing it to his chest. "It changes the process. Think of our bodies as a clogged filter. Normal breathing techniques try to force the Qi through the clog, which is why we are slow. But this technique? It acts like a Grindstone."
"A grindstone?"
"Yes. Close your eyes. I'll show you."
[System Command: Family Spirit Link Active.]
[Transferring: Sun & Moon Refining Technique - Circulation Route.]
Hum.
A silent vibration filled the room. A stream of golden light flowed from Luo Feng's mind directly into hers.
Luo Xia gasped. It wasn't just words; it was a sensation. A complex mnemonic chant surfaced in her memory, accompanied by a vivid diagram of two spiraling energies—one scorching hot like the Sun, one freezing cold like the Moon.
"Try it," Luo Feng urged gently. "Visualize the Sun in your left lung, and the Moon in your right."
Luo Xia swallowed hard. She crossed her legs and began to circulate her breath according to the new method.
Inhale the Yang. Exhale the Yin.
Usually, cultivating in the slums was painful. The air here was "Dirty Qi"—mixed with dust, resentment, and waste. When she pulled it into her body, it felt like breathing through a wet, gritty cloth.
But as she visualized the Sun and Moon rotating, a miracle happened.
She felt a warm current rise from her gut, crashing into a cool current descending from her mind. The two energies spun violently at the entrance of her meridians. The gritty, dirty Qi was pulled into this vortex and crushed. The dust and impurities were incinerated by the Yang fire or frozen by the Yin ice, leaving behind a trickle of cool, pure liquid energy.
It didn't flow fast—it was still a trickle—but it flowed smoothly.
Ten minutes later, she opened her eyes. They were wide with shock.
"It... it flows," she stammered, looking at her hands. "It's not blocked. The impurities are gone before they even enter my Dantian."
"Based on the speed," Luo Feng analyzed calmly, "it effectively raises our absorption rate to that of Three Spirit Roots."
"Three Spirit Roots..." Luo Xia whispered. "That's the aptitude of a standard Outer Disciple. That's... Average."
"Yes. Average," Luo Feng gripped her shoulders. "We are no longer trash, Xia. We have dignity now. We can advance."
Luo Xia covered her mouth, tears leaking from her eyes. For a genius, "Average" was an insult. But for them? For two people who had been trampled on for a decade? "Average" was a lifeline.
"But that's not all," Luo Feng stood up, pulling her off the bed. "The inheritance gave me something else. A place where we can use this new talent."
He squeezed her hand. "Don't be afraid."
[System Command: Enter.]
Whoosh.
The world twisted.
The sensation was like stepping through a curtain of water. The rotting smell of the shack vanished. The noise of the alley cut off instantly.
Luo Xia stumbled, finding footing on soft ground. She opened her eyes and gasped.
They were standing in a vast, open space.
Ten acres of pristine, flat farmland stretched out before them. The soil was pitch black, glistening with oil and vitality—Spirit Soil of a quality so high it seemed to hum. There was no horizon; the land was ringed by a thick, swirling wall of white fog that isolated them completely from the world.
"Where... where is this?"
"This is our land," Luo Feng said, his voice echoing in the silence. "Ten acres. High-Grade Spirit Soil. But Xia, the most important thing isn't the soil. It's the Logic of Time."
He walked to the center, where a spirit spring bubbled.
"The inheritance has a rule: One day outside is equal to three days inside."
Luo Xia stared at him, her mind racing to do the math.
"Three days?" she whispered.
"Think about it," Luo Feng's eyes gleamed with calculation. "The landlord wants his rent in 30 days. For everyone else, that's 30 days of growth. But for us? We have 90 days inside here."
He pointed to a sack of Yellow Jade Rice seeds.
"Yellow Jade Rice takes three months to mature. If we planted it outside, we would starve before harvest. But here? It matures in one month of outside time. We can harvest four crops a year while others harvest one."
"And cultivation..." Luo Xia realized, her voice trembling. "If we cultivate here..."
"If we cultivate for 30 years inside, we only age 10 years outside," Luo Feng finished. "We have Three Spirit Root talent now. But we have three times the lifespan of our enemies. We have three times the hours to practice spells. Even a tortoise can beat a hare if the tortoise has three times as long to run."
He knelt down and grabbed a handful of the black soil. It crumbled in his hand, moist and warm.
"We are going to plant right now. But we won't use a hoe."
Luo Xia knelt beside him, rolling up her sleeves. She looked at the vast ten acres. "No hoe? Then how?"
"The inheritance taught me a farming technique: Spirit Finger Plowing."
Luo Feng extended his index and middle fingers. He channeled a wisp of his new Sun & Moon Qi into them until they glowed with a faint, sharp white light.
"Metal tools are cold," Luo Feng explained, looking at the earth with reverence. "When a metal hoe strikes the earth, it severs the microscopic veins of Earth Qi. It traumatizes the soil, making the Spirit Rice grow slower."
He thrust his glowing fingers into the black earth.
Thrum.
Instead of digging, he sent a pulse of vibration through his fingertips. The soil around his hand shivered and loosened instantly, turning into fine, aerated powder without breaking the natural structure.
"We use our own body to bridge the gap," Luo Feng demonstrated, dropping a yellow seed into the hole and covering it gently. "The Qi vibration creates a perfect nest for the seed. It stimulates the embryo. It's tiring, and it burns our mana, but it guarantees a High-Grade harvest."
Luo Xia nodded, understanding the logic immediately. This was the difference between a peasant farmer and a Spirit Plant Master.
She extended her own fingers. "Like this?"
She thrust her fingers into the earth. It was harder than it looked, requiring precise control to vibrate the soil rather than just poke it, but under the guidance of the Sun & Moon Qi, the soil yielded.
"Exactly."
Side by side, the husband and wife began to crawl along the black ridges of their secret world. The white fog walled them in, protecting them from the sneers of the deacon and the greed of the landlord.
Thrust. Vibrate. Seed. Cover.
Thrust. Vibrate. Seed. Cover.
It was slow work. Their cultivation was low, and the technique drained their energy rapidly. Sweat began to drip from their foreheads into the black earth. But for the first time in their lives, every drop of sweat wasn't for a quota. It wasn't for a master.
It was for their future.
"We will survive, Xia," Luo Feng said, wiping sweat from his brow as he looked across the flat, black expanse that belonged only to them. He smiled, a genuine, free smile. "We will be slow. We will be quiet. But we have Time on our side."