Main Hall of the Monastery

Returning to Xiushui Village, it was already around three or four in the afternoon.

Walking through the village, Lin Xiao suddenly felt two sneaky gazes.

Looking in the direction of the gazes, Lin Xiao saw Eldest Liu's wife, Eldest Aunt Liu, and Third Aunt Liu. The two were working in the fields while stealing evasive glances at him.

Not far away on the field ridge, a few villagers were also quietly discussing them.

With Lin Xiao's current hearing, he could easily hear them with perfect clarity.

"Tsk tsk, the Liu family is finally getting their retribution."

"Isn't that so? In the past, Eldest Liu's wife and Liu San's wife relied on their men's bullying all day long, looking down their noses at everyone in the village. Now, hmph."

"Now that Eldest Liu is crippled, that Liu San is just a spineless coward. He only acted tough relying on his brother, Eldest Liu. Before, he would at least pretend to go down to the fields under Eldest Liu's pressure, but now that Eldest Liu is crippled, only the women of the Liu family are coming out to work."

"If you ask me, when Liu San's wife first married over a few years ago, she wasn't like this. My daughter used to have a good relationship with her. Who would have thought she'd be led astray by the Liu family's crooked ways these past few years. Sigh."

"If you ask me, the root of the problem still lies with Old Man Liu and Old Lady Liu. As the saying goes, if the upper beam is not straight, the lower ones will go slant..."

A moment later, Lin Xiao and his group had already passed this field.

Lin Xiao paid no more attention to the Liu family.

Now that Eldest Liu was crippled, he believed Liu Yunan could handle the rest of the Liu family; they wouldn't be able to stir up any more trouble.

What he cared more about right now was where Qin Jianghe had gone, as they had agreed yesterday to meet at the grand market.

He hoped nothing bad had happened...

Arriving at the fork in the village leading to the North Mountain, Lin Xiao said to Lin Dayou and the others:

"Dad, Uncle, Aunt, I'll go up the mountain to take a look first."

Lin Dayou waved his large hand:

"Go on, go on. Remember to go to your grandpa's house for dinner tonight, come down early. Oh right, give me that pouch. Your uncle, aunt, and I need to take the money back to report in!"

Lin Xiao took the pouch full of copper coins out of his pocket and handed it to his father, saying:

"Dad, a portion of the small change in here is my sect's funds, don't pocket it."

"Hey!" Lin Dayou took the pouch, feeling his palm itch upon hearing this. "Would your dad really covet this little bit of money of yours? Hurry up and go! Just looking at you annoys me."

Seeing his dad's eager palm, Lin Xiao immediately greased his soles and slipped away.

Arriving on the mountain, everyone was indeed cultivating diligently.

However, Qin Jianghe was nowhere to be seen.

Lin Xiao didn't disturb everyone, nor was he in a hurry to go down the mountain to look for Qin Jianghe.

After all, if something had happened to the Qin family, given the villagers' love for watching spectacles and spreading gossip, it would have surely spread all over Xiushui Village by now.

Moreover, he had checked Qin Jianghe's character panel, and there were no abnormalities.

So it shouldn't be a big problem.

Lin Xiao decided to build the Sect Hall first!

His spirit stone inventory was depleted again and needed to be replenished immediately, otherwise his idle cultivation would be interrupted!

On the mountain, not far from the thatched shed, a large pile of mud was stacked.

It was obviously freshly dug today by Tietou and the others who stayed behind at the sect.

The mud stored in Lin Xiao's private inventory from before, combined with what was dug today, was completely enough to synthesize the Sect Hall.

As for the timber.

Lin Xiao decisively took out the axe he had brought from home earlier from his private inventory.

With a flash, he rushed into the dense woods on the back mountain.

Now at the fourth level of Qi Condensation, his physique was a qualitative leap compared to before, or even compared to ordinary people!

He raised the axe in his hand; chopping trees was like chopping sugarcane for him, snapping one down with every swing!

The roughly fifteen logs he had calculated needing earlier were chopped down in no time.

Thinking that he would need more later to build the cultivation room, along with other possible future buildings, Lin Xiao chopped down many more.

However, he didn't clear-cut a small patch of trees; he chopped them at intervals. After all, it was the sect's back mountain, and it wouldn't look good if it was too bare.

That's right, because this area halfway up the North Mountain was rarely visited by people, and villagers basically never came up here on normal days, Lin Xiao already considered this place their sect's private territory.

After all, their village was located in a remote area.

Moreover, in this era, imperial power did not extend down to the villages.

Basically, apart from the registered farmlands in the village, the imperial court really had no control over the desolate mountainous areas near these remote villages.

Generally, when village families built houses, as long as they didn't build on fertile farmland, they could build as big a house as they wanted provided they had enough money. As long as it didn't block the road or someone else's courtyard gate, no one would stop them.

Therefore, Lin Xiao was not at all afraid that anyone would accuse him of illegal construction.

Having chopped enough trees, Lin Xiao returned to the front of the mountain.

He sat down in front of the Ten-Mile Peach Blossom Tree and opened the Building Synthesizer.

Then, in the Brick Material column, he placed most of the mud from his private inventory, about sixty-five cubic meters worth, and put sixteen logs into the Beam Material section.

He put a little extra of each material.

Then he put in the pigments he had bought in town earlier.

He didn't know what the effect would be, but it couldn't be worse than an unadorned dirt brick house, right?

Lin Xiao hesitated for a moment, then clicked the plus sign at the end, adding another slot.

Then he took out his very last spirit stone from his private inventory.

Gritting his teeth, he tossed this spirit stone in.

Then, closing his eyes, he immediately clicked confirm to synthesize.

[Starting to synthesize building - Sect Hall, please wait]

Lin Xiao rubbed his hands together like a fly in slight excitement.

A cultivation sect with only a thatched shed was finally going to be a thing of the past!

Once the Sect Hall was built and the cultivation room was constructed, everyone would no longer need to squeeze into a tiny thatched shed to cultivate!

However, he had no intention of tearing down this thatched shed.

This was painstakingly built for him by his dad.

It was also the starting point of their Lingxian Sect!

This would be written into the sect's history in the future and would be mandatory testing material for the selection of inner disciples!

Lin Xiao couldn't help but fantasize about the future, a prosperous immortal sect with multitudes of disciples soaring on clouds and riding flying swords.

[Ding - Sect Hall synthesized successfully, please choose a placement location, Host]

Then, Lin Xiao saw a colossal object floating in the air before him.

It was a building about six meters high with a base area of about sixty square meters.

Lin Xiao couldn't help but marvel, as expected of a product from the synthesizer!

He saw that although the building was constructed of mud bricks, the joints between the bricks on the entire wall were almost invisible!

Furthermore, whether it was the effect of the pigments Lin Xiao had put in or how the synthesizer had configured it, the wall surface was faintly coated with a subtle, almost imperceptible dark red!

And the roof was paved with quaint mud tiles, and the eaves were actually fashioned into flying eaves!

Faint, flowing iridescent lights continuously fell from the tips of the flying eaves, dissipating into the air.