Creating a paradise in an ant nest

Chapter 1 Traveling Through Immortal Cultivation with an Ant Box

Lush green grass grows tall and reaches for the sky, blocking out the last rays of the setting sun.

Dandelions float in the sky like clouds.

The fallen leaves formed hills, towering high.

The withered branches stretched across the hillside, seemingly endless.

The butterfly flapped its wings, stirring up gusts of wind.

It swayed its two ponytails as it traversed the rugged, ravine-filled land with light, quick steps.

As if aimlessly, they traversed towering mountains and crossed majestic boulders.

A scent of food wafted over, and it followed the direction, groping around until it found its prey.

It couldn't see the prey in its entirety, only its massive, thick body undulating like waves.

Go forward and try.

An ant trying to shake a tree cannot budge its prey.

It quickly turned around and followed its route home to call its friends, several times faster than it had come.

Soon it arrived in a grand procession, accompanied by hundreds of its sisters.

They swarmed in from all directions, dragging and pulling, forcibly carrying their prey towards home.

The prey panicked and struggled desperately, their bodies rolling and crashing over them like a mountain crashing down.

They remain unfazed, getting up after being crushed, flipping over and attacking their prey with reckless abandon.

Its sharp, pincer-like teeth tear and cut.

The prey's struggles gradually weaken until it is completely dead and motionless.

They climb onto their prey's body, surrounding it layer by layer, tearing open its vulnerable spots with their sharp teeth, and burrowing inside to enjoy their tender meal.

The excess food was transported home by them.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

A forest farm covered with flowers, grasses and trees.

The young man squatted on the ground, quietly watching the ant colony devour a green caterpillar.

His name is Liu He, and he just turned eighteen.

Bored at home during summer vacation, I raised a colony of ants in a transparent acrylic box to observe their lives.

A month ago, he and the ant box inexplicably traveled to the world of cultivation and developed a kind of telepathic connection with the ant queen, similar to a contract.

Being unfamiliar with the place and its inhabitants, he nearly starved to death, just as the cultivation sect "Qian Yuan Sheng Zong" opened its doors to recruit disciples.

He took the test to see if he could get a chance, and luckily, he was found to have a low-grade spiritual root, which gave him the opportunity to enter the sect for "trial cultivation".

To care for the ant colony, he became a forest ranger in the sect's forest farm, responsible for guarding a hillside forest of about thirty acres.

"It's been a month, what's the point of my cheat system?"

"It can neither help me improve my cultivation nor be used in combat."

"A single free-range chicken could wipe out my entire ant colony."

Liu He was helpless; he really couldn't imagine what effect a nest of ants could have in the world of cultivation.

Just then, a sound came from not far behind.

"Liu He, are you watching ants fight again?"

Sun Yan and Liu He take turns guarding this forest farm.

Liu He was in charge of the daytime, and he was in charge of the nighttime.

The two were among the same batch of newly arrived "trial" laborers.

"I was just spacing out because I was bored. Now that you're here, I'll head back first."

Liu He stood up, turned around, and walked out of the forest farm.

"Wait a minute, um, I..."

Sun Yan hesitated, then said apologetically, "I have something to do tomorrow morning. Could you please come half an hour earlier? Half an hour is fine too."

Liu He was taken aback, but being shy, he couldn't refuse: "Okay, I understand."

The two take turns guarding the forest farm for twelve hours a day, with each person working six hours.

Logically speaking, if Liu He arrived half an hour early, Sun Yan should have arrived half an hour early when it was time to hand in his report.

But Sun Yan wouldn't do that; he was only after a small advantage.

At first, Liu Hezhen thought he had something to do and arrived half an hour early.

As Sun Yan made his demands again and again, Liu He suddenly realized that the other party was trying to take advantage of him, just to have more time to cultivate and practice so as to break through to the Qi Refining stage as soon as possible.

They are currently on a "trial training" program and need to break through to the Qi Refining stage within six months to stay in the sect; otherwise, they will be eliminated.

Of the numerous trial laborers each year, less than 10% manage to break through to the Qi Refining stage and remain in the sect as official laborer disciples.

"Something happens every now and then, who would believe that?"

I arrived half an hour early, so why didn't you arrive half an hour early to make up for the lost time when it was your turn?

"I work an extra hour compared to you, why should I?"

Liu He has a somewhat socially awkward personality and will only complain in his mind, never saying it out loud.

He planned to arrive on time the next morning to hand over the work, not even a quarter of an hour early, and pretend he had forgotten about it.

As we left the forest farm, a mountain peak shrouded in a thin white mist came into view.

This peak is called "Qixia Peak", and it is where tens of thousands of miscellaneous disciples of the Qianyuan Holy Sect lived.

People come and go, hurrying about.

"So hungry~~"

Liu He had eaten breakfast that morning, and now, a whole day later, he was starving.

He hurried to the dining hall where the odd jobs were being prepared.

The huge dining hall was packed with people, as the test repair workers, who had been busy all day, lined up to get their meals.

These "trial cultivators" are all mortals who have not yet broken through the Qi Refining stage and are far from reaching the state of fasting. They cannot go without food every day.

The sect provides two meals a day, morning and evening, free of charge.

After queuing for a while, Liu He used his identity jade token to receive a bowl of steaming white rice and sat down at the long dining table to eat.

The rice bowl was only the size of a palm, about the size of a teacup.

This tiny bit of rice was finished in just two bites.

Liu He licked the rice grains from the corner of his lips into his mouth with his tongue, and then, still wanting more, used his chopsticks to pick up the last few grains of rice from the bottom of the bowl, eating them clean.

The person next to him ate even more "unseemly" than him, licking his rice bowl back and forth several times with his tongue.

This is not ordinary rice, but spiritual rice grown in the spiritual field.

A small bowl of glutinous rice is enough to maintain the nutrition and energy needed for daily life. Long-term consumption by ordinary people can improve their physical condition and prolong their life.

Liu He felt the fragrant and sweet rice digesting rapidly in his stomach, replenishing his strength.

"It smells so good, I wish I could eat as much as I wanted."

Unfortunately, he had no money and couldn't afford the spirit rice.

The sect provides two free meals a day, a small bowl of rice in the morning and evening.

Want more?

Buy it with money.

A small bowl of rice costs five taels of silver.

This is a special privilege for probationary disciples; outside, ordinary people can't even buy a bowl of spiritual rice for ten taels of silver.

Besides spirit rice, the sect has many better ingredients, such as spirit beast meat and spirit fruits, which cannot be bought with ordinary gold and silver and must be purchased with spirit stones.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

After the meal, Liu He returned to the dormitory where the servant disciples lived.

Rows of houses are built against the mountainside, appearing densely packed like a honeycomb when viewed from a distance.

The entire Qixia Peak is home to tens of thousands of miscellaneous disciples, and living space is limited.

Liu He walked into the tiny room, which contained only a bed and a set of tables and chairs.

We had to fetch water for washing and use the outhouse outside.

Fortunately, there was a public toilet not far from his room.

He comforted himself by saying that it was convenient to go to the toilet.

Despite the poor living conditions of these menial disciples, this place is a rare and precious cultivation paradise that is priceless in the outside world.

The Qianyuan Holy Sect is located on Qianyuan Mountain, which has a spiritual vein underground.

Qixia Peak is shrouded in a first-order spirit-gathering array, which contains abundant spiritual energy.

"It's time for me to start my spiritual practice."

After a quick wash, he locked the door and sat cross-legged on the bed.

The sect taught these trial practitioners the "Qi-Gathering Technique" to draw in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, cleanse their bodies, and complete a transformative metamorphosis.

To break through to the Qi Refining stage, one needs to cleanse and connect the Ren and Du meridians and the twelve regular meridians throughout the body with spiritual energy, totaling 360 acupoints.

It took Liu He a month of practice to open up the thirty acupoints on the Ren and Du meridians.

At this rate, it would take him a year to break through to the Qi Refining stage.

Two hours later, a wave of drowsiness washed over him, and Liu He fell into a deep sleep.

"Where am I?"

He opened his eyes groggily, feeling an uncomfortable, hard lump beneath him.

It was pitch black all around, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

"What's going on?!"

He suddenly realized that this was not his room, and with a start, he rolled over and got up.

"Have I time-traveled again?"

I've only been in another time travel for a month, and now I'm in another?

He mustered his courage and explored the surroundings, which were completely unfamiliar with the terrain, which was rugged and covered with soil and rocks.

Climbing upwards, we came to a round, brightly lit cave entrance.

"Is this a tunnel?"

He was in a huge circular tunnel that sloped downwards into the ground.

Fear of the unknown environment drove him to climb toward the cave entrance, hoping to escape this eerie tunnel.

"We'll be leaving soon."

He could already see the moonlight outside.

Just then, the shadow of a monster rose up at the cave entrance.

The moonlight shone down, casting the monster's shadow diagonally into the tunnel and enveloping him.