[No matter how stormy the outside world was, you continued your cultivation in the small courtyard as usual]
[One day, while you were cultivating, Wei Xia, whom you hadn't seen for years, entered your courtyard again]
["Young Master He, could you spare me some food?"]
[The 21-year-old Wei Xia had fully matured into an adult]
[You could vaguely recognize traces of her 13-14 year old self]
[Without asking questions, you simply let her eat her fill]
[After the meal, she voluntarily shared her experiences over the past few years]
[It turned out that because she couldn't conceive, the elderly couple often abused Wei Xia when Miao Jiayao was working in the fields, denying her food]
[You took Wei Xia back to Miao Jiayao's house and warned the elderly couple against mistreating her]
[The old couple hastily agreed—they didn't dare disobey you since you'd recently dealt with Zhang the Butcher, the influential figure from the neighboring village]
[They knew if you wanted, you could easily become Willow Tree Village's de facto leader]
[But you weren't Slow Sheep—you had no interest in being village chief]
[You only wanted to cultivate]
[After you left, Wei Xia leaned against the doorway gazing at your courtyard for a long time]
[But she knew the social gap between you was too wide to harbor any hopes]
[Miao Jiayao later learned about the abuse too and scolded his parents, forbidding them from bullying Wei Xia]
[Though Miao Jiayao often sighed while staring at Wei Xia's flat belly]
[The elderly couple constantly lamented about the Miao family line ending with them]
[You returned to your courtyard to continue cultivation]
[After reaching mid-stage Skin Refining, you felt your progress slowing down]
[You reminded yourself to avoid arrogance and impatience—only through steady accumulation could you reach the peak]
[The ninth year, you accumulated...]
[The tenth year, you accumulated...]
[The eleventh year, you were still accumulating...]
[The twelfth year, you couldn't take it anymore because your cultivation speed had become unbearably slow]
[Frustrated, you knew you needed higher-level cultivation resources and more money]
[You put on your black clothes and hat again to rob the wealthy]
[You returned to your old profession]
[This time you made a bold decision—to steal from the Linjiang County magistrate's residence]
[Landlords and rich merchants were small fry—the real money was with the magistrate]
[At night, you stealthily infiltrated the magistrate's mansion]
[With auto-loot activated, you rummaged through the place]
[The haul was substantial]
[Over 10,000 taels of silver and 3,000 taels of gold were just bonuses—the real prize was three bottles of Blood Qi Pills]
["Pills? Now that's rare!"]
[Pills were extremely expensive, only affordable by high-level martial artists]
[A single Blood Qi Pill could replace half a month of cultivation]
[These three bottles contained sixty pills total, saving you two and a half years of cultivation time]
[Compared to the grueling daily routine of herbal baths and massive nutritional supplements]
[Now just swallow a pill and you could climb six flights of stairs without getting winded!]
[You stored the pills in your simulation space]
[As you prepared to leave, you discovered the magistrate's son having an affair with the magistrate's young concubine]
[The passionate noises they made forced you to readjust your "egg alignment"]
[To enhance their immersive experience, you helpfully locked their door with a dozen locks]
[Then you jumped onto the wall and shouted: "Fire! The magistrate's son's room is on fire! Everyone come quick!"]
[The mansion immediately erupted into chaos]
[Soon you heard the magistrate's furious curses and the lovers' pleas for mercy]
["Magistrate bro, this is all I can do for you!"]
["Don't ask my name—I never leave one when doing good deeds!"]
[You vanished into the night]
[The next day in your courtyard, you swallowed a Blood Qi Pill and meditated under the peach tree]
[Your cultivation speed returned to normal, even better than before]
["It's back! Everything's back!"]
[You saw hope of breaking through to late-stage Skin Refining]
[While you cultivated peacefully, Linjiang County descended into chaos]
[The county government launched an unprecedented crackdown on thieves and bandits]
[Many seasoned outlaws were captured]
[As the instigator, you offered exactly one second of sympathy for your fallen colleagues]
[Most of those arrested weren't serious bandits though—the majority were actually rapists]
[These rapists lacked real martial prowess—they spent all their energy on women, making them easy arrests]
[Since rapists technically counted as thieves, the arrests weren't wrong]
[Another year of monotonous cultivation passed]
[The thirteenth year, with the pills' assistance, your cultivation progressed rapidly]
[You clearly felt your internal energy growing more robust—a major step toward late-stage]
[Your strength reached 800 jin—you could now play with the 400-jin millstone like a yo-yo]
[At 28 years old, most commoners would have had three or four children by now, but you remained alone]
[Coincidentally, Miao Jiayao seemed to realize this too]
[That night, he came to you]
[The 45-year-old Miao Jiayao was hunched and graying, while martial cultivation kept you in your prime]
["Young Master He, please sleep with my wife tonight!" Miao Jiayao's opening line was explosive]
[You never expected the seemingly simple Miao couple to be into this lifestyle]
[Though engaging in extreme self-cuckolding, Miao Jiayao's eyes were full of pain and pleading]
[He said he knew Wei Xia liked you—he just wanted her to conceive]
[He wanted a child, even if not biologically his—he couldn't bear the Miao line ending]
[Turns out Wei Xia's infertility wasn't her fault—it was Miao Jiayao's]
[Though Miao Jiayao was strict about cuckolding himself, you weren't like Chancellor Cao]
[You refused]
[Miao Jiayao left dejected]
[You continued your accumulation—focused cultivation made time fly]
[Another year passed]
[The fourteenth year, without pills, your progress slowed again, but your strength reached 900+ jin]
[You could feel you were on the verge of breaking through to late-stage]
[Your Cloud Treading Steps mastery reached advanced level—just needing a catalyst for perfection]
[Over the years, using Cloud Treading Steps, you'd robbed every wealthy household within a hundred li]
[Several families moved away in fear, even exhuming their ancestors' graves to relocate them]
[That year, a severe drought struck the region—no crops survived]
[Willow Tree Village was no exception]