After finishing his aunt's class, Su Yan returned to his dorm and began cultivating.
Su Yan had been at the Qi Refining level for a few years, and now he felt he was about to break through to the Foundational level. He might be able to cross the threshold of the Foundational level after some hard work.
In the cultivation world, the Body Refining Level was to build the foundation and strengthen one's body in preparation for the Qi Refining Level. It would allow one to better accept the spiritual energy of heaven and earth during the Qi Refining Level and find the spiritual energy that suited one's nature.
Only when one's cultivation reached the Foundation Level could one truly be called an immortal cultivator.
A cultivator at the Foundation Level possessed the ability to refine magical tools, cast spells, and set up formations. Their lifespan extended to three to five hundred years, signifying their departure from the mortal realm and their attainment of the status of an entry-level immortal cultivator.
In most sects and organizations, individuals who achieved the Foundation Level before the age of twenty were regarded as exceptional geniuses. Those who reached this level between the ages of twenty and thirty were considered outstanding.
However, those who attained the Foundation Level between the ages of thirty and forty were only deemed average.
Beyond that age range, unless they stumbled upon a fortuitous opportunity, their chances of advancing to the Aurous Core Level were slim.
Due to the strong physique of the beast race, it usually took 30 to 50 years of hard work to reach the Foundation Level. It took at least a hundred years to reach the Aurous Core Level.
This was also why Su Yan's mother had molded him into a human shape when she gave birth, so he could take advantage of the human race's luck when he was born.
Otherwise, with the special characteristics of the Nine-Tailed Fox and the True Dragon, it would take Su Yan three to five hundred years to break through from the Aurous Core Level to the Newborn Baby Level. Now that he had the luck of the human race, he could greatly reduce the cultivation time.
Although it was said to be freeloading, the human race had nothing to say.
This was because when the beast race was flourishing, humans also came to freeload on the beast race in this way. There were many cases of using the beast race's bloodline for cultivation, and even worse things were common. The division of the nine-tailed fox clan originated from this period. The nine-tailed fox clan of the Tu Shan family was split from the nine-tailed fox clan of Qing Qiu.
And the Su Clan was separated from the human race when it flourished.
There were four great fox families in the world, including the Qing Qiu family, which originated from the nine-tailed fox family, and the Tu Shan family, which assisted the human emperor. The more secular You Su family, and the wild fox family, were all related to the pure fox family.
The pure fox clan was the fox clan. The nine-tailed fox was just a divine beast that looked like a fox. It was a fox form that originated from the fall of the ancient chaotic nine stars. It was not a true fox spirit.
....
Su Yan was snoring.
After a night of cultivation, Su Yan did not continue to maintain his human form. Instead, he transformed into a white fox and slept on the bed.
Due to the mattress's weight and material, the only difference between sleeping on the bed in human form and sleeping on the floor was that it was probably not as cold as the floor. If he wanted to sleep comfortably, sleeping in the lighter fox body was better.
However, as he tiptoed in, Su Yan felt cold all over. He felt like he was on a boat, and the ground shook. Little Nine-Tailed Fox, who was sleeping, felt as if he was seasick.
Su Yan opened his eyes in a daze and met a pair of blue eyes. Her body was moving up and down with her chest as she breathed in and out. Su Yan felt very cold, but it was not an illusion.
The mermaid usually lived in the deep sea, and their body temperature would change with the environment. Usually, the mermaid's body temperature was only one or 0.5 degrees higher than the environment.
It was already late autumn, and the meat pads on the foxes' four feet were used to dissipate heat.
Right now, his forefoot was pressed against the
young woman's skin, and his hind foot was stepping on the silk clothes. The temperature was already different, and coupled with the low body temperature of the young woman, Su Yan felt as if he was in an ice cellar.
"Eh..."
Su Yan shivered and exerted force with his front leg, bouncing off Jiao Nanwu's body. He landed on the dorm floor and transformed back into his original form. He hugged his arm and rubbed it vigorously, increasing his body temperature.
The feeling of the human form and fox form was very different. Su Yan's transformation was genuine. He relied on his tongue and meat pads to sense and dissipate heat in the nine-tailed fox form. After transforming into human form, he relied on his skin to dissipate heat like a human.
"It was so cold. It was like licking an iron block in the middle of winter."
Su Yan squatted on the ground and rubbed his skin to warm himself up, but he still shivered occasionally.
His entire body felt numb. It had no idea how long it had been pressing on Jiao Nanwu's body. His entire body almost froze into popsicles.
"?"
Jiao Nanwu was stunned. He looked at Su Yan, squatting on the ground as if he had seen a ghost, and then at his own heat-preserving floating and winter nutrition storage board.
"Don't you like this? I remember that humans seem to especially, like the insulation layer. I thought that foxes would also like the touch."
"To be honest…I still like it."
Su Yan cursed in his heart. After all, in his previous life, he did not even dare to photoshop in such a way as if he was afraid that others would not know it was fake.
"Your body is so cold. My pads are used to sense temperature changes." Su Yan explained, then looked at Jiao Nanwu, who was lying in his bed, and asked, "Didn't you say you were going home? Why did you come so early to disturb my sleep?"
Last night, Jiao Nanwu said he wanted to go home and tell the young girls in the clan that there were no majestic beasts. He also casually told his family that he wanted to spend the winter in Xia Yu.
Why did she come back so soon?
"My hometown is in the deep sea."
An awkward expression appeared on Jiao Nanwu's face. She then briefly explained her family situation to Su Yan.
"But because of business, we usually live in the underground water system, which is only 200 miles away from the main city of Xia Yu. It's very fast to go back and forth. We only go back to our hometown when winter is coming."
The mermaid lived in the underground water system, which was like a trading hub for the mermaid. The mermaid swam from the ocean to the developed underground water system of the primitive continent, transporting the ocean resources to the land countries for commercial trade.
Then, they would transport the supplies from the mainland countries back to the Undersea Kingdom.
Transportation in the underground water system was not as often attacked as on land.
Although its speed could not compare to the speed of immortal boats, it was still very popular because of the cheap transportation price.
The mermaid built underground water transfer stations.
Jiao Nanwu had only returned to the transit station and informed his family that she would spend the winter in Xia Yu.
A round trip of about four hundred miles could be done in the blink of an eye for the mermaid. Jiao Nanwu had even stayed home to chat with her parents for a long time before coming out. Otherwise, she would have returned early to wake Su Yan from the cold.
"Let's go to eat something to warm you up, okay?" Jiao Nanwu looked at Su Yan, who was squatting on the ground rubbing his hands and said in embarrassment.
It was the first time she had met a fox beast, so she was unsure about its habits. However, when she saw Su Yan's human-like behavior, she thought he would like her soft insulation layer.
However, she did not expect to make a big mistake.
Jiao Nanwu was embarrassed and wanted to treat Su Yan to some snacks so that the little fox would forgive him.
"I can't control my body temperature. I haven't reached the transformation level. A secret technique maintains my current human form."
Jiao Nanwu told him the secret technique.