Clan New Year Rituals

Early the next morning, Lin Xiao was led by his father to the Lin family's old residence along with Lin Yun.

The entire family crowded into the courtyard and the kitchen, washing and scrubbing. Pots were steaming and boiling everywhere as they prepared for the noon sacrifice.

The sacrificial customs in Xiushui Village were largely the same for every family.

On New Year's Eve, everyone would get up early to prepare. Once the offerings were ready, they would carry them to the graveyard mountain. By the time they arrived, it would be exactly noon, and the various families and clans would begin their sacrificial ceremonies.

That is right, the New Year's sacrifice in Xiushui Village was not held in the ancestral hall.

Every New Year's Eve, the villagers would first go to the graveyard mountain to perform the ritual. After the sacrifice was completed, they would bring the offerings back to the village. Each family would then open their ancestral hall and place the offerings before the memorial tablets to be enshrined for three days.

After three days, the offerings would be taken out and distributed among the families according to the number of people.

The Lin family was not considered a large surname in Xiushui Village. Including Old Master Lin's family, there were only five households in total.

Normally, the relationship between these households was neither close nor distant, and they did not interact much on a daily basis. However, whenever it came to holidays and festivals, the necessary visits and exchanges of courtesies were never lacking.

Although they all lived their own separate lives, it was not easy for a small surname to survive in the village.

Therefore, even though their actual relationships were just average, they were very willing to actively display their unity to outsiders whenever they could band together on the surface.

Since it was the New Year, the Lingxian Sect, acting as their sect, also distributed some New Year gifts to everyone.

Liu Yunan gave each of the sect's families from Xiushui Village a pig. A live one.

He and Tietou had specifically gone to the county town a few days ago to buy them, and then transported them back using the spirit boat Lin Xiao had built previously.

These pigs were kept in the back mountain, well-fed and watered for several days, before finally being claimed by the families yesterday evening.

As for the other non-Xiushui Village members of the sect, after consulting them and confirming they had no need for sacrifices or meat consumption, specifically referring to Senior Liao, Liu Chun, Little Luan, and Da Tao.

Liu Yunan provided them with equivalent compensation in other forms.

Although they might not care about these things, since it was given in the name of the sect, it naturally had to be fair.

And so, early this morning, bursts of pig squeals echoed from the courtyard of the Lin family's old residence.

As the most promising child of the younger generation, Lin Xiao was specially assigned the position of catching the pig's blood.

Lin Dayou and Eldest Uncle Lin were responsible for holding the pig's four legs.

Lin Lei, as the eldest grandson, was responsible for taking the knife and slitting the pig's throat.

Lin Xiao, the sect master of the Lingxian Sect and a Golden Core cultivator, simply crouched next to the pig's head holding a large bowl. He watched his eldest cousin plunge the clean knife in and pull it out red. With a squelch from the wild boar's neck, warm blood splattered all over his face.

The pig, its limbs tightly gripped by Lin Dayou at the third level of Qi Refining and Eldest Uncle Lin who had finally just drawn Qi into his body, found all its squealing and struggling to be futile. Eventually, its squeals gradually weakened as it lost blood, until it finally breathed its last and stopped moving.

Lin Xiao was stunned for a moment before belatedly casting a spell to clean the blood off his face, casting a thin shell of spiritual energy over his body as well.

Then, after the large bowl in his hands was full, he silently used a telekinesis spell to make another empty bowl fly over from the side, continuing to catch the endlessly dripping pig's blood.

He could not help it; in both of his lifetimes combined, he had never seen, let alone experienced, slaughtering a pig.

In the past, the Lin family was poor. Let alone killing pigs, they had not even killed many chickens.

Previously, when there was a pig slaughter in the village, they had to hire a specialized butcher.

They also needed a group of strong young men to help in order to cleanly slaughter a pig and then butcher it.

Now that their family had all started cultivating, each of them was stronger and sturdier than the last, with the strength of an ox.

So Old Master Lin thought about it and decided they might as well not hire anyone. With so much ready-made labor available, not using it would just be a waste of money.

Even though none of them had ever slaughtered a pig before.

However, every time someone in the village slaughtered a pig, Lin Xiao and his brothers had always gone to join in the fun.

Lin Dayou, Eldest Uncle Lin, and the others had gone even more often.

Every time they went to watch, even though the butchers did not explain the process to them, it did not stop them from observing a lot.

Where to make the cut, how to cut, what to do next, where to divide the meat, and how to move the knife, they had seen it all many times.

So, although they had never done it themselves, it did not stop them from copying what they had seen.

Old Master Lin immediately waved his large hand and declared that from now on, Lin Xiao and the other juniors would take turns stepping up every year to learn how to slaughter pigs.

After all, there is a first time for everyone.

If they did not do a good job this time, they could just improve next time.

Anyway, Old Master Lin believed that their family would definitely get better and better in the future. From now on, the ancestors of the Lin family would be able to eat pigs slaughtered by their own family every year!

Therefore, there would be pigs for Lin Xiao and the others to practice on every year!

Standing to the side, Lin Xiao held the two large bowls full of pig blood. He watched his eldest cousin Lin Lei recall the steps while using the knife to clean out the pig's internal organs, then looked at the pig blood in his own hands, feeling a bit awkward.

Meanwhile, Lin Yun came out holding red-hot iron tongs, preparing to brand the pig's skin to remove its hair.

As for the women of the Lin family, led by Old Madam Lin, they took Eldest Aunt Lin, Lin Yan, and Lin Ying to do a thorough spring cleaning of the house.

It was New Year's Eve, after all.

A massive cleanup was practically mandatory.

It signified bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new.

They had to sweep away all the old dust in the house to welcome the new year.

While wiping the window frames, the two sisters, Lin Yan and Lin Ying, kept turning their heads to look curiously at the pig slaughtering spot in the middle of the courtyard.

Unlike Lin Xiao and the boys, who could run around joining in the fun whenever there was a lively event in the village, the two girls could not.

They could only listen to their brothers excitedly describing it to them when they returned.

Now they could finally see the pig slaughtering process clearly, merging it with the scenes they had heard about in their memories.

Once the whole pig was cleaned up, Lin Dayou hoisted it up by himself and tossed it into a large wooden tub to the side. Eldest Uncle Lin went into the kitchen and brought out two buckets of boiling hot water, pouring them over the pig.

Because Old Master Lin wanted to use a whole pig for the sacrifice, they did not butcher the meat into pieces.

So he and his two older sons figured that if nothing else worked, they would just pour boiling water straight over it.

Pouring a few more rounds should probably cook it through.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao fell into a brief silence.

Then he said to Lin Dayou and Eldest Uncle Lin:

"Father, Eldest Uncle, let me do it."

Hearing this, Lin Dayou stopped the wooden bucket he was about to pour.

Eldest Uncle Lin did not understand why, thinking he just wanted to play, so he obediently handed the wooden bucket to Lin Xiao.

Lin Xiao silently took the bucket handed to him, but did not use it. He merely held it in his right hand.

Meanwhile, with his left hand, he directly formed a hand seal and tossed a minor spell at the massive pig body in the large wooden tub.

This minor spell was something he had just figured out, combining water vapor and heat to form a spell capable of heating things up.

He decided to tentatively call it the Distillation Spell.