Water Absorption Technique

It wasn't until evening, when the people of the Lingxian Sect finished their daily cultivation, that they realized the heavy rain was still pouring outside.

Seeing this, Lin Dayou felt that something was wrong and hurriedly ran to the spirit fields to check the situation.

Seeing him do so, the others followed suit and rushed over.

In the spirit fields, the seedlings of the spirit grain they had planted earlier were still standing upright, and there was no sign of excess rainwater accumulating in the fields.

Everyone's hearts relaxed slightly.

Then, they thought of their own fields down in the village.

The village wasn't as high up as the mountain, and the fields there weren't spirit fields. They wondered how the crops were faring.

Those who lived in the village became extremely anxious. They hastily bid their goodbyes and hurried down the mountain toward their homes.

On the way back, they noticed that the normally clear and gentle mountain streams had risen significantly and become much murkier. The usually tranquil streams were now rushing rapidly.

The unrelenting rain beat down heavily on the emerald-green crops in the fields, looking as if it was determined to smash them into the ground.

The crops struggled to stand straight, but some could no longer withstand the ceaseless battering and had collapsed into the muddy fields.

Many villagers, heartbroken over their crops, were currently wearing straw rain capes in the fields, lifting the bent seedlings one by one and inserting wooden and bamboo splints into the soil to support them.

The same was true for the Lin family's fields.

Lin Xiao's family fields were connected to the old estate's fields. At this moment, Old Master Lin was busy in the fields with Lin Dashan.

If not for the fact that the family only had two sets of straw rain capes, Eldest Aunt Lin and Grandma Lin would have come as well.

Arriving from the mountain, Lin Dayou and the three boys, including Lin Lei, saw this and immediately ran over to help.

Lin Xiao racked his brain but couldn't think of any of his spells that would be useful in this situation. The spells he had created before entering the secret realm were basically meant for fighting people; there was nothing for dealing with natural disasters.

So, while propping up the crops, he pondered in his heart about what to do to handle the current predicament.

With Lin Xiao and the others joining in, their efficiency increased greatly. It didn't take long for them to finish tending to both the Lin family's and the old estate's fields.

However, if the rain continued to pour like this, it still wouldn't be a permanent solution.

Lin Dayou and Lin Dashan quickly supported Old Master Lin back home. Lin Xiao immediately dried him off and placed a Minor Heating Formation he had made today in the room to warm up everyone who had just been soaked in the rain. This was primarily to warm Old Master Lin and Lin Dashan, to prevent them from catching a cold later.

As for Lin Dayou and the other cultivators, they had spiritual energy protecting their bodies and didn't need to worry about this at all.

Seeing them return, Grandma Lin and Eldest Aunt Lin immediately ran to the yard to dig up some of their homegrown ginger to boil ginger soup for everyone.

After settling Old Master Lin down, Lin Dayou took his two sons back to their own home.

Lin Xiao was very quiet along the way, constantly pondering over matters regarding spells.

All he could think of were spells related to draining or absorbing water, but he felt that this would only treat the symptoms and not the root cause.

But if he wanted to stop the rain entirely, he knew he didn't have the ability to do so yet. Even if he created the spell, with his current cultivation level, he definitely wouldn't be able to cast it.

After some thought, however, Lin Xiao decided to create a spell capable of affecting the weather once he got home. As for whether he could actually use it, he would wait until he made it to see the specifics.

As for those water-absorbing and draining spells, he also planned to create them and give them a try.

Anyway, he had plenty of spirit stones now. Even if the spells he created couldn't be used temporarily, it didn't matter; they would be useful once his cultivation level increased in the future.

Thus, as soon as the father and sons arrived home, Lin Xiao holed up in his room and began his research.

The heavy rain clattered down for another whole night.

It wasn't until the early morning of the second day that it gradually began to lighten up.

Last night, Lin Xiao had created three spells in total.

They were the Cloud Control Spell, the Water Absorption Spell, and the Object Manipulation Spell.

The Cloud Control Spell, as the name suggested, was used to control clouds. It was divided into three tiers: Tier One Cloud Dispersal, Tier Two Cloud Gathering, and Tier Three Cloud Creation.

Although this spell looked like it would be completely useless in a fight at first glance, the cultivation level required to use it was not low.

Having automatically learned this spell, Lin Xiao knew from his perception of it that even the Tier One Cloud Dispersal required a cultivation base of at least the Golden Core stage to cast.

On the other hand, the Water Absorption Spell and the Object Manipulation Spell were single-tier spells that could be used by someone at the fifth level of Qi Condensation at the very least.

However, the spell's effects would vary depending on the caster's cultivation level.

For example, with the Object Manipulation Spell, if Lin Xiao used it, he could instantly prop up all the crops in their fields at once. But because there were too many targets, the energy consumption would be relatively large.

The same was true for the Water Absorption Spell; the higher the cultivation level, the greater the volume of water that could be absorbed.

After tossing and turning all night, the people woke up in the morning to find that the rain had finally lessened, bringing them a lot of peace of mind.

Lin Xiao went out early in the morning and absorbed all the water that had flooded the roots of the crops in his family's fields.

After taking care of his own fields, he took a rough look at the other fields in the village, and then absorbed the water from a few lower-lying fields that were severely flooded, leaving behind only moist soil.

Only after finishing all this did he head up the mountain to begin his daily cultivation.

When the villagers arrived at the fields, they had expected their lands to be severely flooded given the heavy rain yesterday, thinking they would have to bail water for a long time today. Instead, amidst the pattering drizzle, they saw that their fields looked incredibly fresh and clear.

The villagers, who had initially been anxious and stressed, suddenly felt that life was lovely once again.

Unexpectedly, nearing noon, Village Chief Du Liushui suddenly received a notice from the Township Head.

Due to multiple leaks in the upstream dams of the nearby Guyue River, which showed an eighty percent chance of breaching, the county had assigned additional corvée labor for this year.

The rules for this corvée labor stipulated that each household must provide one adult male. If they wished to pay a fee in lieu of labor, except in cases where the household had no adult males or only one adult male, they would have to pay five taels of silver per person.

As soon as this news came out, the entirety of Xiushui Village was in an uproar.

In previous years, corvée labor was rotated among the twelve nearby townships in order, with four townships serving each year. This way, everyone only had to serve once every three years.

But this time, it was a sudden additional assignment. Every registered household under Anqun County had to send someone. If a household only had one male who was underage, they did not need to provide a person or money. However, if a household only had one adult male, although he did not need to serve, they still had to pay a substitute labor tax of one hundred copper coins.

Xiushui Village had just finished their rotation the year before last. Barely over a year had passed, and now there was an additional assignment. It was no wonder everyone reacted so strongly to this corvée labor.

Not to mention, if someone didn't want to serve this time, the exemption fee actually amounted to five taels of silver!