Cultivation of immortality begins with an eighty-year-old eunuch.

Chapter 665 Chen Fan! Let me introduce you to a woman!

As the days passed, Chen Fan had been living in this nameless tribe for a full month.

In this month, he learned many things he never thought he would learn.

Batu taught him to ride a horse and shoot arrows. They used ox horn bows and eagle feather arrows. Riding on horseback, they could draw their bows and shoot arrows, hitting a wild rabbit a hundred paces away with a single shot.

When Chen Fan first drew the bow, he broke three bowstrings. It wasn't because he lacked strength, but because he wasn't used to controlling his strength so roughly.

Batu laughed heartily, patted him on the shoulder, and said that the outsider was quite strong, but too clumsy.

Chen Fan wasn't annoyed; he just smiled and continued to pull the fourth bowstring.

He also learned how to tan sheepskin.

The fresh sheepskin is soaked in lake water for three days and three nights. After being taken out, the fat is scraped off, and then salt and grass ash are applied and rubbed repeatedly until the skin becomes soft and smooth.

He learned this craft from an old woman in the tribe. The woman, who was over seventy years old, had hands as rough as tree bark, but the sheepskins she tanned were the best in the entire tribe.

As she tanned the leather, she hummed an ancient folk song in the local language of the grasslands, the melody long and desolate, like a wind blowing from the depths of the earth.

Chen Fan sat beside her, imitating her technique of rubbing sheepskin. Occasionally, he would hum a few lines in her tune, his voice hoarse and off-key, which made the old woman laugh so hard she almost fell over.

He even learned how to deliver lambs.

It was a cold, late night. In Batu's tent, a ewe was having a difficult labor, and Chen Fan was called to help. He didn't use his spiritual power or any medicine; he simply followed Batu's instructions, pressing on the ewe's belly and pushing in rhythm with the ewe's contractions.

After working for most of the hour, the two wet lambs finally arrived at the ground, their soft bleating unusually loud in the quiet night. Batu handed him a bowl of hot sheep's milk wine, and the two sat on the grass outside the sheepfold, drinking until dawn while gazing at the starry sky.

The calf had grown into a robust, half-grown ox, with two small bulges appearing on its horns. The three skinny sheep were now so fat they were panting when they walked, their wool thick and shiny.

The old gray horse had become much more energetic under his care. Although it couldn't run fast, it would snort and come closer to him every time Chen Fan approached the stable, rubbing its nose against his shoulder to beg for hay.

Occasionally, a cicada would fly out from the sleeve and perch on Gray Mane's ear, gently scratching its ear with its antennae, making Gray Mane wag its tail in pleasure.

A month later, Chen Fan's face was tanned even darker by the sun on the grassland, and a thin layer of calluses had formed on his palms.

He wore a sheepskin robe sewn for him by Batu's wife, the cuffs worn white, and the collar stained with bits of grass and sheep dung. If any acquaintance from the Zhao State's Imperial Sacrificial Hall were here, they probably wouldn't recognize this dark-skinned shepherd, reeking of sheep, as the same golden-medal imperial sacrificial priest who had dominated the Hundred Sects Assembly.

That evening, Batu came to see him again, carrying a wine jug. The two sat on the grass in front of the tent, watching the sun sink into the grassland on the horizon, chatting idly.

"Chen Fan, you've been here for about a month now, haven't you?" Batu took a swig of wine, glancing at him sideways. "I think you're a good guy, hardworking, not lazy, and not talkative. There's just one problem: you're getting on in years and still don't have a wife. How about I find one for you? My wife's family has several unmarried girls. They're not goddesses, but they're good at managing a household and herding sheep. If you're interested, I'll have my wife talk to them tomorrow."

Chen Fan paused slightly in the hand holding the wine pot, then shook his head: "No need. I'm used to being alone."

Batu stared at him for a moment, then grinned, a knowing smile that hinted at his experience: "Alright, I won't force you. But if you change your mind anytime, just let me know."

Chen Fan nodded, handed the wine jug back to Batu, and stood up to walk towards his tent.

A night breeze blew across the lake, carrying a damp coolness. He stopped abruptly at the tent entrance, glancing up at the starry sky. The Big Dipper slowly rotated overhead, the Milky Way stretched across the heavens, and starlight shattered into countless silver flakes on the lake's surface.

That night, Chen Fan lay on the sheepskin blanket, listening to the rustling of the night wind through the grass outside the tent, and it took him a long time to fall asleep.

He had a dream.

In his dream, he stood before the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the Great Abyss Palace. The hall doors were wide open, and it was pitch black inside, so he couldn't see anything. Tianxiangzi's voice came from inside the hall, softly calling his name.

He tried to step inside, but his feet seemed rooted to the spot and he couldn't move.

Then I woke up from the dream.

The next morning, the sky was overcast.

Batu stood outside the tent, gazing at the northern horizon, his brow slightly furrowed. Thick, dark clouds piled up on the northern horizon, flashes of lightning flickering within them, and a heavy, oppressive atmosphere hung in the air, as if an impending downpour was about to begin. He turned to the herders in the tribe and shouted, "A storm is coming! Drive the sheep back to their pens, reinforce the tents, quick!"

The entire tribe immediately sprang into action.

The men herded the sheep scattered along the lake into a circle and reinforced the tent stakes again and again with thick ropes. The women brought the dried meat and sheepskins that had been drying outside back into the tents, and then used earthenware jars to fetch enough clean water from the lake.

The old woman sat at the entrance of the tent, gazing at the dark clouds in the north, muttering to herself, her cloudy old eyes filled with a sense of awe.

She prayed to the gods of the grasslands, begging that the torrential rain would not take away the tribe's livestock and tents.

Chen Fan helped Batu herd the sheep back into the pen, and then led the gray-maned old horse into the stable, where he added two layers of sheepskin to the roof.

Greymane snorted restlessly, pawing at the ground with its hooves. Golden Cicada flew out of Chen Fan's sleeve and landed on Greymane's ear, gently rubbing its earlobe with its antennae, which gradually calmed Greymane down.

Chen Fan patted the horse's neck and walked out of the stable. By then, the sky had completely darkened.

Dark clouds pressed in from the north, like a huge black city slowly advancing across the sky.

Lightning flashed and thunder roared in the clouds, the thunder deep and distant, like the low growl of an ancient god deep in the grasslands. The wind grew stronger, making the tents flap loudly, and several children screamed as they ran back into the tents, their little faces filled with a mixture of excitement and fear.

Batu stood in the open space in the center of the tribe, looking up at the increasingly low-hanging dark clouds, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Back in your tents! No matter what happens outside, don't come out!"

Before he could finish speaking, a torrential downpour began.

The rain came down extremely hard; it wasn't a light drizzle, but a torrential downpour like a celestial river bursting its banks.

Large raindrops pounded against the tents with a rapid, drum-like sound, splashing water half a foot high onto the grass. The entire tribe was instantly swallowed by the rain, and tents ten paces away were no longer visible.

The rainwater quickly gathered into countless streams on the ground, rushing towards the small lake. The lake surface churned and boiled under the impact of the torrential rain, splashing water everywhere.