Return from Holiday

Once the fifteenth day of the first lunar month passed, the New Year was officially over.

Qin Jianghe was about to leave with his mother and Tietou's Mother.

General Mo was also preparing to set off and return to the capital.

Naturally, Mo Yuanjiao and Mo Que were going to see him off.

Because the journey was long, Lin Xiao lent the spirit boat to Mo Yuanjiao.

That day, Jiang Youfu was busy at the stove before dawn. He made a huge amount of food and packed it all up, preparing to give it to Qin Jianghe and Mo Yuanjiao's groups to take with them when they left.

When the sky just began to turn pale, the two groups led by Qin Jianghe and Mo Yuanjiao had already packed their luggage and gathered near the Ten-Mile Peach Blossom trees.

Everyone from the Lingxian Sect also came over to see them off.

Seeing that it was getting late and everyone had chatted for quite a while, Lin Xiao took out the spirit boat and handed it to Qin Jianghe.

After taking it, Qin Jianghe operated the spirit boat according to Lin Xiao's instructions.

The landed spirit boat instantly expanded to a size capable of carrying six or seven people.

It was just the right size to seat the three heading to Songyang County and the three heading to the capital.

Thus, after the six of them boarded the spirit boat together, they flew away from the sect gates with a storage bag full of food, leaving Xiushui Village behind while bathed in the morning light.

After seeing the six of them off, the Lingxian Sect suddenly seemed much more deserted.

After a brief moment of melancholy, everyone still walked into the cultivation rooms on time to begin their daily practice.

Lin Xiao had originally wanted to go cultivate with them, but the system suddenly sounded an alert in his mind:

[Sect Construction - Sect Facility (7): How can an excellent sect lack a professional medicinal garden? A sect without a medicinal garden is not a complete sect. Host, please construct a medicinal garden as soon as possible to provide a planting ground for various high-level herbs.]

Another mission had arrived.

A medicinal garden...

Thinking of this, Lin Xiao walked toward Liao Pantu's room.

Was there anyone in the sect with more experience than this senior?

Speaking of which, many of the herbs Senior Liao had brought out from the Green Field Secret Realm back then still hadn't been planted.

This was because some herbs had very high requirements for their growing environments and soil quality.

After Senior Liao inspected the sect's spirit fields, he said they couldn't be planted there; planting them would just result in their deaths.

Therefore, many herbs were still kept in storage, completely untouched.

Seeing Lin Xiao arrive, Liao Pantu took out a new teacup, poured some tea, placed it next to himself, and asked, What is it now?

Saying this, he tucked his hands into his sleeves and closed his eyes, pretending to rest.

Lin Xiao sat on the chair next to him with a smile, picked up the cup of tea, and took a sip. Good tea!

Then he finally said, Senior, are you interested in a medicinal garden?

Hearing this, Liao Pantu opened one eye, looked at him, and said, You are going to build a medicinal garden?

Lin Xiao nodded. How about it? Are you interested? You can build it according to your preferences, however you want.

Really? Any way I want?

Lin Xiao nodded vigorously.

Seeing him agree without hesitation, Liao Pantu felt very pleased. He waved his large hand in satisfaction and said, Alright then, I will handle this medicinal garden. You don't need to worry about it!

Great! Then I will quietly await your good news!

Having successfully passed on this task, Lin Xiao took his leave and exited Liao Pantu's room.

It wasn't that he was being lazy, but rather he had other plans to execute later. So for something like building a medicinal garden, he had no choice but to trouble Senior Liao, as the capable should do more work!

On the other side.

With the spirit boat, Qin Jianghe and his group reached Songyang County without taking much time.

In the woods not far outside the county gates, they landed the spirit boat and then bid farewell to each other.

Qin Jianghe took his mother and Tietou's Mother into Songyang County, while Mo Yuanjiao and Mo Que continued to escort General Mo back to the capital.

Just as they were about to take off, they noticed people passing by overhead.

Looking up, they discovered it was actually a massive spirit ship!

It was flying very fast toward the east.

With a little thought, Mo Yuanjiao figured out that this spirit ship was probably full of people from the Shangyang Sect.

After all, the Lingxian Sect and the Shangyang Sect were the only two sects in this vicinity.

Furthermore, the news they received over the past two days mentioned that the Shangyang Sect members stationed in the capital were preparing to return and retake control of their sect.

Because Xiushui Village was far from the capital, the news they received was somewhat delayed.

So it wasn't surprising to see people from the Shangyang Sect now.

Mo Yuanjiao waited until the spirit ship flew far away before restarting their spirit boat to continue their journey.

Under Mo Yuanjiao's control, the spirit boat shrunk to a size suitable for three people and set off leisurely.

After passing Mo Yuanjiao's group, the Shangyang Sect's spirit ship traveled for a while longer before returning to the location of the Shangyang Sect's gates.

The Shangyang Sect's gates still looked as battered and broken as they had after Wei Hai breached them before they left. Perhaps because the Shangyang Sect was currently leaderless, there wasn't even a gatekeeper now.

Looking at the deserted and ruined gates, the returning crowd felt a bit emotional.

But it didn't matter.

They had returned!

From now on, they would be the ones to revitalize the Shangyang Sect!

Elder Luo, in high spirits, led the group of elders and elite disciples behind him through the gates.

Back in the capital, this group had argued many times over the issue of the new sect leader.

The ultimate victor was Elder Luo, who held the sect leader's token.

So now, he should rightfully be called Sect Leader Luo.

With the mindset of returning in triumph to save the disciples who had been abandoned in the sect, the group arrived at the inner plaza in high spirits.

Although they noticed they hadn't seen any disciples along the way, they didn't really care.

They figured these disciples were probably still hiding in corners, shivering in fear, waiting for someone to come out and lead them.

However, when Sect Leader Luo stood on the high platform and Elder Xu beside him loudly summoned all the sect members to come out, his voice echoing throughout the entire sect, very few disciples actually came out to gather in the plaza.

Moreover, the footsteps of those who came out to gather were sparse and scattered. It was nothing like the Shangyang Sect before the incident, where everyone was enthusiastic.

Seeing this, the returning elders were all a bit dumbfounded.

So they immediately began to question and investigate.

Upon asking, they found out that most of the people who stayed behind were those who still had some hope in their cultivation.

As for those with no hope in cultivation, they had long since slipped away, taking advantage of the wide-open gates and lack of management.

This was because those with no hope in cultivation were basically treated as hard laborers in the sect back then.

All the odd jobs and exhausting tasks were their assignments.

If they didn't do their tasks, they couldn't even dream of cultivating.

The only ones who hadn't managed to run away were the miners in the small spirit stone mine within their sect.

Whether during Wei Hai's rule or after his death, this place had always been voluntarily guarded by cultivators.

As for whose pockets the produced spirit stones went into, naturally, they belonged to whoever was managing the spirit stone mine.

Therefore, some people did stay behind.

But as for Sect Leader Luo and his group suddenly returning at this time, they were not very happy about it.