Back to the Village

So for the past few days, aside from cultivating, Lin Xiao and the other two had been going all over the county town selling and buying things.

Because the three of them were still just half-grown children, they were afraid that if someone saw them selling too much valuable pine soot ink, it would arouse malicious intentions. Therefore, they disguised themselves and specifically sought out the back doors of wealthy households to knock on.

They didn't aim to sell to the masters of the house; selling to the stewards or similar staff of those households was good enough.

Moreover, with the county examinations currently taking place, there were many scholars around. They had absolutely no need to worry about the sales of this high-quality ink produced by the system.

Of course, they only dared to sell one or two sticks at a time. Their prices were slightly cheaper than those at the bookstores. When people saw that their ink was of good quality and the price was a bit lower, they would usually buy it.

The three of them gathered around the table, looking at the scattered pieces of silver that added up to over twenty taels, their hearts leaping with joy.

They were rich!

Early the next morning, Lin Xiao and the other two went out shopping.

By this time, the county examination had reached its final session. Once this last exam ended today, their trip to the county town would be drawing to a close.

After handing the task of buying daily necessities like quilts, bowls, and chopsticks to Jiang Youfu and Liu Yunan, Lin Xiao ran off to the blacksmith shop by himself.

He planned to buy some farming tools to take back.

Wasn't there a restriction on selling iron? Buying farming tools should be fine, right!

Thus, acting with great wealth and generosity, Lin Xiao spent nearly ten taels of silver to buy several hoes, shovels, plows, and sickles.

He wanted to buy even more, but the blacksmith shop owner refused, looking at him with a vigilant gaze:

Have the adults in your family bring their household registration before coming back to buy!

The owner almost wanted to take back what he had already sold to him.

How could Lin Xiao give him that chance? He immediately oiled his soles and slipped away.

The blacksmith shop owner watched in astonishment as this ten-year-old child carried a pile of heavy farming tools and ran off without a trace in the blink of an eye.

But Lin Xiao couldn't care less about that. He quickly found a deserted corner and stored all these farming tools into his private inventory.

Having bought the items, he went to meet up with Fuzi and Baldy, and the three of them returned to the small courtyard together.

After returning to the courtyard, Lin Xiao told the two of them to go back to their rooms to cultivate, while he sat in the yard and opened the system shop.

He planned that once they returned and completed the remaining three tasks, he would start prioritizing the development of agriculture within the sect.

Food is the paramount necessity of the people.

Even though they were all cultivating now, and he had heard from Senior Liao that refining fasting pills was very simple, Lin Xiao and the others had no intention of abandoning real food in the future to rely solely on consuming fasting pills.

Satisfying one's appetite was one of life's great joys. If they threw away this joy, wouldn't life become entirely gloomy!

Therefore, not only did he not plan to refine fasting pills, but he also intended to develop more delicious foods to share with everyone in the sect.

But delicious food requires ingredients.

So now Lin Xiao was preparing to buy seeds in the shop.

He opened the shop, and as expected, the recommendation tab was full of food-related seeds.

From various vegetables to fruit trees and the like, it had everything one could wish for.

Moreover, these melons, fruits, and vegetables were surprisingly all spiritual plants.

Lin Xiao was somewhat expectant. When these things were all grown, wouldn't they be able to eat delicious spiritual meals for every sitting!

Thinking of this, he looked at the prices of these seeds again. On average, each portion was only one or two spirit stones, with fifteen seeds per portion. Lin Xiao immediately spent generously, using up the remaining dozens of spirit stones in his private inventory until only ten were left.

Suddenly, dozens of types of seeds appeared in his private inventory.

Spiritual cabbage seeds, spiritual sugarcane seeds, spiritual watermelon seeds, spiritual pumpkin seeds, spiritual winter melon seeds, spiritual radish seeds, spiritual apple seeds... In short, they were basically common fruits and vegetables, just with the word spiritual attached to the front to highlight their distinction as spiritual plants.

However, Lin Xiao guessed that since these things were so cheap, they probably wouldn't contain much spiritual energy.

But that didn't matter. Did they eat food for the spiritual energy inside it? Of course it was to enjoy delicious food!

Looking at these seeds, Lin Xiao, who had eaten bland farmhouse meals for over a decade, literally swallowed his saliva.

Of course, among the ingredients for delicious food, meat was absolutely essential!

Lin Xiao naturally hadn't forgotten this, but he considered that the sect currently had very few hands. If they had to juggle both farming and animal husbandry, they might not be able to manage it all. They couldn't just cut out all their cultivation time for the sake of these things.

Therefore, the plan for animal husbandry had to be temporarily shelved.

Furthermore, he was also a bit worried. If they raised chickens or other animals in the future and slaughtered them to eat right in front of Little Luan, wouldn't that be a bit inappropriate?

They were all members of the sect, so they had to consider Little Luan's feelings, right?

So regarding the matter of breeding animals, he felt they needed to discuss it further in the long run.

Three days later, the results of the county examination were released.

Sun Yigao ranked first on the list.

Because today was the day the results came out, Landlord Sun and Aunt Sun rushed over from the village early in the morning. Out of confidence in their son, they had even packed their luggage in advance, ready to accompany him to the prefectural city to participate in the prefectural examination.

Upon learning that their son had indeed passed the county examination and even taken first place, Landlord Sun immediately waved his big hand and took the four young men out to a restaurant.

After lunch, it was time to say goodbye.

Sun Yigao still had to continue to the prefectural city to take the prefectural examination. If all went smoothly, he would continue taking exams all the way up.

However, the county town was far enough; it was impossible for Lin Xiao and his two companions to follow him to the prefectural city.

Moreover, since the prefectural city was quite far away, Landlord Sun and Aunt Sun planned to accompany him together.

So after Lin Xiao and the other two returned to the small courtyard and packed their things, they bid farewell to Sun Yigao's family, as well as Tuantuan.

Because of the Peach Blossom Spirit Gathering Array, Tuantuan didn't have such an urgent need for the spirit stone mine anymore; it wanted to accompany its master.

It never again wanted to experience that feeling of leaving for a period of time, only to return and find that everything and everyone had changed.

Cultivation could be slowed down a bit without rushing, but it only had one master.

Thus, Lin Xiao and his two companions left the small courtyard and set foot on the road back to Xiushui Village.

Meanwhile, Sun Yigao carried Tuantuan and, along with his parents, headed for the prefectural city.

The midday sun shone brightly on the two groups of people who were temporarily walking in opposite directions, making them look radiant.

When Lin Xiao and the other two returned to Xiushui Village, they only felt that the atmosphere in the village seemed a bit lively.

Several villagers sitting under the big tree at the village entrance were talking with great interest about something, occasionally pointing towards the North Mountain.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao felt a bit puzzled in his heart.

The villagers basically never went up the North Mountain. At most, they chopped wood and picked up mountain goods at the foot of the mountain. Could it be that they had seen the sect on the mountain?

However, when Lin Xiao listened carefully, he heard them saying things like, The Lin family has really good luck, picking up two strong laborers without even needing to provide housing for them, just tossing them up the mountain and being done with it, and That kid has a silly energy, fighting to do all the chores every day.

Hearing this left him completely baffled. The Lin family? Could they be talking about his family? There weren't many people surnamed Lin in the village.

And what was this about two strong laborers, or some silly kid?