Jumping the Great Spirit

The young man was tall and thin, with quite a refined appearance. The scholarly aura about him made it obvious at a glance that he was an intellectual.

Evidently, he rarely did physical labor on ordinary days. He had just drawn a bucket of water, yet managed to splash half of it onto himself, soaking the better part of his light blue long gown.

However, the young man showed no signs of impatience or frustration. He simply wrung out the hem of his clothes, bent his back, and continued to fill the buckets.

With great difficulty, he managed to fill both buckets. He clumsily hooked them onto both ends of a carrying pole. After repeatedly checking to ensure the front and back were balanced, he finally stood up and carefully walked away, struggling somewhat under the weight of the two buckets of water.

Lin Xiao found Sun Yigao to be quite an unfamiliar face.

After all, his house wasn't close to Jiang Youfu's neighborhood. Furthermore, Sun Yigao was usually confined at home to study and rarely went out, so it was no wonder Lin Xiao didn't recognize him.

Having set up a few small shrimp traps, Lin Xiao washed his hands and stood up.

"Let's go. We'll head to the village and show off our sect to our friends."

Hearing this, Jiang Youfu became extremely energized.

"Can we talk about it now? Haha, I'm going to tell Tietou that I am now an immortal cultivator!"

Lin Xiao turned his head and instructed Jiang Youfu:

"You don't need to be too specific. What if they all want to cultivate immortality and stop working? What will we do if the adults in their families come looking for trouble? Not everyone is like the two of us, idling away all day."

The reason Lin Xiao didn't work in the fields was purely because Lin Dayou felt that when Lin Xiao encountered a severe cold in his childhood, his mother had painstakingly managed to snatch his life back from the jaws of death.

Even though Lin Dayou always verbally complained about Lin Xiao playing around and not doing any chores, if Lin Xiao were to actually do some work, he would be the first to stop him, using the excuse: "You haven't even grown all your hair yet, what work can you do? Don't ruin my crops!"

In reality, Lin Dayou felt that Lin Xiao was only twelve years old now. With him and his eldest son at home, there wasn't that much work anyway, so there was no need for this not-yet-grown youngest son to do it.

He hoped to wait a few more years until Lin Xiao's body grew sturdier.

As for Jiang Youfu, it was entirely because he was spoiled.

His entire family, from top to bottom, doted on him, including his older brother and sister-in-law. They completely pampered him like a child.

Of course, they would still let him do some minor chores around the house, such as sweeping the rabbit hutch.

However, the youths in the village all greatly envied the two of them.

For them, working was just an interlude; playing was the main theme of everyday life.

The two walked toward the village.

At this time, the warm sun hung high in the sky; it was exactly noon.

There were few people to be seen in the village, as most were having their meals in the fields.

There were only a few old men holding large bowls and bragging under a big tree.

Along the way, Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu occasionally greeted the elders as they headed toward the homes of their friends.

They happened to pass by Landlord Sun's house.

They saw the courtyard gate of Landlord Sun's house wide open. Several idle women from the village were standing at the entrance, discussing something while peering inside.

The Sun family was a minor landlord in Xiushui Village, owning about a hundred acres of farmland across several nearby villages.

Therefore, their family was also the only one in Xiushui Village that could afford to support a scholar.

However, in this era, a landlord with a hundred acres of land was not considered a major landlord.

The Sun family only had a little surplus wealth. It was impossible for them to order around a horde of servants and maids like those wealthy landlord families did.

Out of curiosity, Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu also took a couple of glances through the wide-open gate of the Sun family courtyard.

They saw a strangely dressed person jumping around in the courtyard, babbling unintelligibly.

It turned out they had hired someone to perform a shamanic ritual.

Could it be that something strange had happened in the Sun family?

Lin Xiao, originally an atheist, now somewhat believed in the existence of so-called unholy things, given that he had transmigrated and learned that cultivating immortality was possible in this world.

The few women to the side voiced his very thoughts.

"Brother Sun, what's going on with your family?" The volume was low, obviously afraid of disturbing the shamaness who was performing the ritual.

The usually amiable Landlord Sun was in no mood to deal with these women right now. He merely sighed softly and said to them:

"Gao'er's mother has been dazed since early this morning. She's not quite lucid. We got Old Doctor Jiang from the Renxin Clinic in town to examine her, but he couldn't find anything wrong.

My mother-in-law said it looks like she's possessed by evil spirits. So, we invited Shamaness Song from the township to come and exorcise the evil."

A long-faced woman among them slapped her thigh and said:

"Oh my! The Sun family's wife is actually possessed! I wonder what kind of evil spirit it is, and whether it will bring disaster to our village? No, no, I have to go home first. Otherwise, if the evil spirit comes out and attaches itself to me later, I'll be doomed."

Saying so, she turned around and trotted away.

The remaining women looked at each other in dismay. They also casually bid farewell to Landlord Sun and hurriedly left.

Landlord Sun knew the nature of these village women and didn't take it to heart. He just watched the shamaness perform the ritual with a worried look.

Inside the house, Landlord Sun's mother-in-law heard the commotion. She pushed open the window, watched the retreating figures of the women, spat lightly in disdain, and closed the window again.

The moment she opened the window, Lin Xiao sensed a faint, peculiar aura.

It even felt somewhat familiar.

At this time, Sun Yigao, who had gone to fetch water, returned.

Seeing him return, Landlord Sun in the courtyard hurriedly went out the gate to help him carry the buckets into the courtyard and pour the water into the vat.

Lin Xiao only pondered for a moment before he recalled the unfamiliar aura he had sensed on the mountain this morning.

Turning his head and seeing Sun Yigao about to walk into the courtyard ahead, Lin Xiao's mind raced, and an idea came to him.

After giving Jiang Youfu a meaningful glance, he quickly stepped forward, raising his arm to hook it around Sun Yigao's shoulders.

The other party was a bit tall, so he had to stand on his tiptoes.

Jiang Youfu didn't understand what was going on, but he quickly followed suit.

He then heard his Brother Xiao start spouting nonsense with a straight face:

"Big Brother Sun, you're finally back! I've thought about the matter you came to me about before."

Suddenly having an unfamiliar little boy put an arm around his shoulders, Sun Yigao looked completely bewildered.

"I don't..." know you.

But how could Lin Xiao give him a chance to speak? He immediately interrupted him, saying:

"Come, come, Big Brother Sun, let's step aside and talk."

Catching up, Jiang Youfu was very perceptive. He joined forces with Lin Xiao, and together they flanked the tall and thin fifteen-year-old youth and dragged him away.

Landlord Sun only took one look and noticed that both were children from the village, and one of them was the youngest son of the Jiang family from the front of the village. He felt infinitely gratified in his heart.

"My son finally has friends too..."

On this side, Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu didn't stop until they had dragged the person to a secluded spot.

Breaking free from their grip, Sun Yigao glared at them with some annoyance.

"What are you trying to do!"

Lin Xiao rubbed his nose and said:

"Calm down, Brother Sun, calm down. We were just acting out of urgency, please forgive us."

Sun Yigao had always been good-tempered. Hearing him say this, it seemed like there really was something going on, and the slight anger in his heart immediately dissipated a bit.

He smoothed out his wrinkled clothes and asked:

"What did you seek me out for?"

Lin Xiao looked at the still-wet water stains on his clothes and the mud on his shoes, and said:

"If I just tell you directly, you definitely won't believe me. It's better if I let you see it with your own eyes. Just watch closely."