Re-birth: The Beginning after the End

Chapter 90 BASKING IN THE COMFORT OF OUR HOME

Once the figures of the village chief and the others had disappeared, Li Hua walked back to the courtyard where their garden lay.

She stood there for a moment, the memories again resurfacing. The day they dug this garden and planted the first seeds remained vivid in her mind—her mother's gentle hands guiding her own through the soil, her father's quiet pride as he watched them work together. The garden had been her responsibility and her sanctuary, a place where she was able to cultivate life rather than death.

The garden was divided into sections, one for herbs, one for leafy greens, one for root vegetables, and a special corner where fruit vines climbed trellises her father had built by hand. Each section held its own memories, its own lessons learned through seasons of tending and harvest. The fruit section had been her particular joy—watching the delicate flowers transform into sweet berries and succulent fruits, a reminder of how patience yielded the sweetest rewards.

She gently caressed each plant, and as if understanding her, they swayed gently. There was no wind—just their own subtle response to her spiritual essence, a connection forged through years of nurturing.

"I wish I could take this garden with me," she whispered. The thought of transplanting them to her space had crossed her mind—the soil there would be more fertile, rich with concentrated spiritual essence. But without Little Firefly's guidance, she wasn't sure if it would be possible.

Beyond the practical concerns, something deeper held her back. This garden belonged here, didn't it? It was part of the life they'd built, the peace they'd carved out in this small corner of the world.

She quickly watered the garden with the spirit water from her space. As she worked, her eyes drifted to the right wing of the house, where her mother kept her most precious treasures.

She walked to her parents' expanded room—what had once been two bedrooms and a common area now merged into a single, harmonious space.

The moment she opened the door, the familiar scent of jasmine and fresh soil wrapped around her like an embrace. For a moment, she stood frozen, letting the memories wash over her.

The endorphins flooding her physical form within this mystical space created a natural high that surpassed anything she'd experienced before, and even as her body screamed in protest, her mind hummed with satisfaction. Though well-versed in the difference between productive pain and dangerous strain, this fusion of physical presence within her space brought a whole new dimension to that understanding.

Reaching into her night stand drawer, she retrieved one of multiple timers she had collected in her previous life. When she first started cultivating, she had brought these as a precaution but never needed them—Little Firefly's innate sense of the outside world's flow had always been her perfect timekeeper. She glanced at his dimly glowing cocoon, feeling the absence of his usual temporal warnings. Without his guidance, she would have to rely on more mechanical means.

One day outside equaled roughly twenty-four days within her space. She set the timer for exactly one hundred and twenty days—four months in her space, but only five days would pass in the outside world. The timer's soft blue glow pulsed once, acknowledging the setting, before beginning its countdown.

Her core pulsed with careful eagerness as it sensed the pure energy surrounding them. Unlike her usual gentle cultivation rhythm, today she pushed harder—but with surgical precision. She drew in the dense spiritual essence of her space methodically, testing each meridian's limit before expanding it further. When she felt the first warning signs of strain, she would hold at that threshold, allowing her pathways to adjust before pressing forward again. The pain was still intense, but it was a controlled burn rather than a wild fire. Every increment of power was earned through patience as much as persistence.

The first forty days were dedicated to strengthening her foundation as a low-tier Martial Phase Rank 3 cultivator. She could feel the boundaries of her current level—like invisible walls containing her spiritual essence. The dense energy of her space pressed against these boundaries, searching for weak points, places where breakthrough might be possible. Each cultivation cycle brought subtle changes: meridians expanding microscopically, spiritual essence growing incrementally denser, her core's capacity increasing by tiny degrees.

The next forty days focused on the breakthrough to mid-tier and its stabilization. The barriers between tiers weren't just about quantity of spiritual essence—they required fundamental changes in how energy flowed through the meridians. She adjusted her breathing technique, allowing her spiritual essence to guide the transformation. The breakthrough to mid-tier came not with a dramatic surge but with a quiet shift, like ice finally reaching the perfect temperature to crystallize. She spent twenty of these days just consolidating this new level, ensuring her foundation remained unshakeable.

The final forty days proved the most crucial. The progression to high-tier demanded more power, more precision, more patience than any of the previous tiers. She could feel her spiritual essence changing quality as well as quantity—becoming more refined, more concentrated. Where before it had flowed like water through her meridians, now it moved with the weight of mercury, dense with potential. Her golden core grew stronger, its essence integrating more deeply with her own.

The breakthrough to high-tier came during the hundredth day, but Li Hua didn't rush forward. Instead, she spent the remaining twenty days meticulously reinforcing her new power. Each meridian was carefully strengthened, each energy pathway thoroughly mapped and stabilized. Her white essence was fully integrated into every aspect of her cultivation base, creating a harmonious whole that felt as natural as breathing.

As the timer approached its final hours, she felt satisfaction in her progress. The advancement hadn't been achieved through desperate lunges or reckless absorption of power. Instead, each step had been carefully measured, each level fully mastered before moving forward. She had reached high-tier Martial Phase Rank 3, and more importantly, she had built a foundation solid enough to support future advancements.