The Busy Lingxian Sect

The five new disciples chosen to discuss and devise the plan became the leading team for this construction project.

Once they had finalized their plans, they went over the detailed blueprints with all the other new disciples.

The plan was actually quite simple: they would enclose a large courtyard on the flat ground closest to the cultivation hall.

Inside, they would divide it into twenty-two smaller courtyards. Each small courtyard would contain six rooms and one deep water basin, with each room measuring roughly twelve square meters.

One room per person would be enough to accommodate all 132 people.

As for the deep water basin in each courtyard, they had already discussed the arrangement with everyone: the six people living in each courtyard would take turns drawing water together.

After all, this was a mountain, and digging a well would be extremely difficult.

Elder Hu had also suggested that they draw water every day, saying that it would serve as a form of physical exercise.

Besides, there was a small pool of water right beside the mountain, so fetching water would not be particularly exhausting.

With the overall plan settled, it was time to put it into practice.

To build anything, they first needed materials.

The five-person team learned from Hu Liang how to calculate the quantities of materials they would need. All five of them were clever, and before long, they understood the process.

They were not trying to calculate everything with perfect precision, after all. They only needed a rough estimate to give everyone a clear goal and get things moving.

Any finer adjustments could be made during construction.

Once the task of gathering construction materials had been assigned to each new disciple, they immediately got to work.

The new disciples ranged from young to old, though most were young adults and teenagers—the core of the workforce.

In addition, the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall had given each of them a storage pouch specifically for carrying mud and stones, so the process of gathering materials went fairly smoothly.

The strong and sturdy disciples took the initiative to help those who were physically weaker.

The younger ones lacked strength, but they were full of energy and could make more trips back and forth.

The older and frailer disciples handled more of the communication and record-keeping.

In short, everyone was doing whatever they could. Not a single person had any intention of slacking off or taking advantage of the situation.

Liu Yunan had been quietly following them the entire time under the concealment technique. Watching them, he felt deeply impressed.

The new disciples selected by the Path of Inquiry truly had impeccable character.

Their circumstances were, after all, different from those of Liu Yunan and the others. He and Brother Xiao had grown up together, sharing hardships and experiences for more than a decade.

But these people had only known one another for two or three days.

While the new disciples were busy enough to be practically running themselves ragged, the older members of the sect were not idle either.

Every evening, Jiang Youfu prepared a delicious dinner for the new disciples, complete with enticing colors, aromas, and flavors. He packed the food into several large basins and delivered it to the construction site in the flying vegetable basket.

Liu Shengsheng went along as well.

Her master did the cooking, while she was responsible for distributing the food to everyone.

Whenever this happened, the new disciples, exhausted after a full day’s work, would bring over their thoroughly washed lunch boxes, fill them with food, and then happily carry them off to the side to eat.

At the same time, having more than a hundred additional mouths to feed meant that the spiritual fields were the first place to feel the strain.

Over the past three years, the fields’ output had increased tremendously compared with the handful of spiritual rice grains they had started with. But even so, their harvest could not withstand the demands of eating it freely.

To preserve seeds, they had continued to eat ordinary rice for dinner every day.

Spiritual rice was only prepared occasionally, when everyone happened to be present or when there was some great celebration.

But now that new people had arrived, they had to make sure those newcomers were given the best food they could provide.

Thus, in recent days, Old Master Lin had gritted his teeth and dipped into the spiritual fields’ reserves, agreeing to let Jiang Youfu mix spiritual rice with ordinary rice when preparing dinner for the new disciples.

Although the elders felt the loss keenly, they unanimously agreed that this small amount of spiritual rice could not be spared.

The new disciples had just arrived, after all. No matter what, they had to do their best to give them something good to eat.

As a result, the members of the spiritual fields worked even harder every day, and they opened up several more plots of land.

To increase the harvest, the various halls responsible for the four cultivation arts could not remain idle either.

Old Master Lin took Lin Dayou and the others to the Four Arts Halls every day, urging them to produce more formations, tools, and talismans that could benefit farming. He also took the opportunity to see whether they had developed anything new that might help with cultivation.

He did not even spare the alchemy room.

He wandered into the alchemy room, patted Sun Yigao on the shoulder, and said, “Sun boy, these pills aren’t just for people to eat. Put some thought into it and see if you can make something that grass can eat too, eh?”

Sun Yigao pondered this. Then he turned around, carefully searched through the books, and began writing down a few simple pill formulas to study.

When Liao Pantu heard about it, he hurried to the alchemy room.

At first, he had intended to tell Sun Yigao not to listen to that old man’s nonsense. But when he saw his disciple presenting his recent research with complete seriousness, then producing a bottle of freshly refined half-finished pills and conducting an experiment for him, Liao Pantu swallowed the words he had been about to say.

After that, master and disciple buried themselves in the alchemy room together and refused to come out.

Even when it was their turn to teach the new disciples at the cultivation hall, Liu Yunan had to go to the alchemy room that day, drag them out, and escort them there himself.

Apart from spiritual rice, the second greatest expense was spiritual beast meat.

No one knew what Old Master Lin had said to Little Luan, but Little Luan, who was usually so stingy, was remarkably generous when it came to the new disciples’ meals.

This left Jiang Chengtian extremely surprised. Whenever he went to the beast garden for meat, he usually had to spend half a day arguing for it.

He had even thought about taking advantage of Elder Xiaoluan’s uncharacteristically easygoing mood and asking for a little extra.

But clearly, Elder Xiaoluan had calculated the amount needed for each dinner with painstaking precision. Not a single extra piece was available.

Jiang Chengtian’s little scheme naturally came to nothing.

The Finance Hall had never been idle either.

The Celestial Ridge Sect had always maintained trade with both the mortal world and the cultivation world.

Moreover, with the recent increase in the number of disciples, their expenses would only continue to grow. Therefore, while stabilizing their existing trade channels, Qin Jianghe had also been constantly studying ways to expand their business.

Come to think of it, the matter they had discussed before—having the imperial family contact other countries—would naturally take time, but the imperial family should have sent back a response by now.

Those few people who happened to have no immediate work to do were, for the most part, promptly seized by the spiritual fields or the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall and put to work.

Even Fang Tuantuan, who was usually the most carefree of them all, was carried off to help with the farming.

For a while, the entire Celestial Ridge Sect could not find a single idle person.

As the sect master, Lin Xiao finally remembered, after emerging from seclusion for several days, that he still had unfinished business from before he had entered seclusion.

He locked himself in a small room in the Artifact Refinement Hall and did not come out for many days. Even Lin Yun, who spent every day in the Artifact Refinement Hall, had no idea what he was doing.

Still, although he himself never appeared, Jiang Youfu’s daily dinner was delivered to him without fail.