New Year's Gift

Everyone in Xiushui Village tilted their heads up, watching the dazzling fireworks in the sky, reluctant to look away.

Even Li Zhanying and Wang Goudan, who lived in a quiet corner of the village, were no exception.

Although they had cultivated for many years, they had never imagined that they could use their own power to create such a breathtaking moment in the mortal world.

Watching the sky full of fireworks, Li Zhanying formed a hand seal and sent a message back to the capital while Wang Goudan wasn't paying attention.

An hour later, the fireworks in the sky finally ended.

Everyone withdrew their gazes with a sense of regret and lingering longing, as if they had just woken from an exquisitely beautiful dream.

At this time, Lin Xiao, who was preparing to return to the mountain, heard the system's notification sound in his mind:

Congratulations to the host and the sect for successfully passing your first New Year. The system has specially prepared a first-year New Year gift for the host and the Lingxian Sect. It has been sent to the host's private vault. Please check it.

Lin Xiao opened his private vault and took a look. Sure enough, there were two gift-bag-like items inside.

He was quite surprised.

To think the system would actually give a New Year gift?

Looking at the two gift bags, he thought that Fuzi and the others might still be waiting for him to go back together, so Lin Xiao did not immediately open them to check.

He planned to wait until no one was around to properly look at the first-year New Year gift the system had given him.

Lin Xiao had noticed that the system had just said "first-year New Year gift." Did that mean there would very likely be a second year and a third year?

Returning to the foot of the mountain, Jiang Youfu and the others were indeed already waiting there; they were only missing Lin Xiao.

Seeing Lin Xiao approach, the group went up the mountain together.

Upon returning to the mountain, they found that the elders no longer seemed to be in the high spirits of conversation as they were before they left. Instead, they were all staring blankly at a certain spot with complex expressions on their faces.

Seeing them return, the elders immediately switched to kind, smiling faces and waved for them to hurry over.

The group of youths ran over.

They saw the elders taking out a bunch of red paper-wrapped envelopes from their pockets and handing them over.

The youths lined up and received them one by one.

The elders spoke words of blessing, and the youths replied with festive phrases.

"May your future be smooth and your life be peaceful."

"May your fortune be as vast as the Eastern Sea, and your longevity as great as the Southern Mountain!"

...

There wasn't much money in the red envelopes; just like in previous years, they each contained nine copper coins.

But none of them were really in it for the money.

This carried the expectations and blessings of generation after generation for the next.

The night passed.

It was the first day of the Lunar New Year.

It was considered inauspicious to use knives on the first day of the New Year.

Therefore, everyone ate the meals that Jiang Youfu had prepared and stored beforehand.

Today, they just took them out to heat them up.

Jiang Youfu had also specially prepared a large platter of whole Silver-Tailed Fish.

However, he didn't let everyone eat it last night.

He merely brought it to the table as a symbolic gesture, and then took it away to store it.

Otherwise, if that fish had stayed on the table for even half an hour more, it would likely have been reduced to mere bones.

At this moment, Jiang Youfu was heating up dishes in front of the stove.

Tietou went up the mountain, found Lin Xiao, and told him that a man calling himself Tong Shuzheng was outside looking for him.

Actually, Tong Shuzheng's original words were that he was looking for a young immortal surnamed Lin.

Tietou thought about it; there were quite a few young immortals surnamed Lin in their village.

But his intuition told him the other party was looking for Lin Xiao, so he came straight up and told Lin Xiao just that.

Upon hearing this, Lin Xiao knew it was Prefect Tong, so he immediately went down the mountain.

According to Baldy, ever since he delivered a message to the Lingxian Sect last time, there had been no further news.

He didn't know what Prefect Tong's purpose was for coming this time.

Could it be that the imperial court had made a new move?

Or had some major event happened among the common people?

While pondering, Lin Xiao arrived at the foot of the mountain.

At this time, Tong Shuzheng and Xue Chengfeng were standing upright at the foot of the mountain, admiring the surrounding scenery.

Nowadays, the foot of this North Mountain was unlike the foot of an ordinary rural mountain, overgrown with weeds and in a mess, looking like a wild mountain at first glance.

The Path of Heart-Questioning alone was enough to make people marvel endlessly.

Beside it sat a quiet and elegant private school.

Even the surrounding plants seemed much more vibrant and spirited than those in other places.

"Lord Tong and Advisor Xue have traveled a long way. I failed to welcome you from afar, please forgive my lack of manners."

Lin Xiao's voice arrived at the same time he did.

Tong Shuzheng and Xue Chengfeng, who had been sight-seeing, looked toward the sound and saw Lin Xiao gracefully descending from the sky.

The two of them immediately raised their hands and bowed to Lin Xiao, saying:

"Greetings, Immortal Lin. On this occasion of the New Year, the two of us have specially come to pay our New Year respects to you."

Then, Tong Shuzheng gestured to the carriage behind him and said to Lin Xiao:

"The two of us came this time for no other matter than to deliver a New Year gift to Immortal Lin and your esteemed sect, wishing you and your esteemed sect eternal immortal fortune. This is a meager gift, we hope Immortal Lin and your esteemed sect will kindly accept it."

Xue Chengfeng added:

"We didn't know what Immortal Lin and your esteemed sect might like, so we just picked out a few things blindly. We hope you and your esteemed sect won't disdain them."

Hearing this, Lin Xiao was quite surprised, not expecting that the two of them had actually come to deliver gifts.

He swept his divine sense over the gifts in the carriage and saw that they were all relatively normal New Year gifts like pastries and cured meats.

Knowing that this Lord Tong and Advisor Xue were not corrupt officials, and that their gift-giving this time was perhaps because they had learned news of his sect and wanted to build a good relationship with it—which was human nature—he did not refuse.

"Thank you for your kindness, my lords. I will accept this on behalf of the sect."

As he spoke, he also took out two small wooden boxes from his robes—actually from his private vault—and handed them to the two, saying:

"I also have two New Year gifts here that I haven't had the time to send to you yet. Since you are here, please don't be polite. I have always forgotten to tell you two, but I am actually the Sect Master of the Lingxian Sect. On behalf of the sect, I wish you both a bright future and endless blessings."

Seeing Lin Xiao accept their gifts, Tong Shuzheng and Xue Chengfeng completely let go of their slightly anxious hearts.

Upon seeing the gifts Lin Xiao handed over, the two did not refuse and accepted them with smiles.

They hadn't come specifically to exchange gifts with Immortal Lin.

Originally, they thought that by coming over to give gifts so suddenly, they shouldn't expect anything in return, considering the other party was an immortal.

But now, seeing that Immortal Lin had actually returned the favor, they were extremely happy.

This meant that Immortal Lin was willing to befriend them and maintain regular contact with them.

After happily accepting Lin Xiao's return gifts, the two took their leave amidst Lin Xiao's immensely enthusiastic invitations to stay for a meal.

The two didn't expect Immortal Lin to be so hospitable as to invite them to eat.

However, both Tong Shuzheng and Xue Chengfeng felt in their hearts that they were not yet prepared to be guests at an immortal sect, so they ultimately declined.

They only said they definitely would next time.

Lin Xiao, who genuinely wanted to keep them for a meal, had no choice but to say to them:

"Since you are already here, why don't the two of you walk the Path of Heart-Questioning before you go back?"

Lin Xiao thought to himself, if they came as guests to eat on the mountain next time, they would still have to walk the Path of Heart-Questioning first. They might as well walk it now, saving them from having to waste time here next time.