The Shed on the West Side

Whenever the more generous villagers had old furniture they no longer needed—such as badly rotted wooden basins and buckets, or chipped clay jars—they would give it to the beggars living in the shacks.

Through the efforts of both the villagers and the beggars, the shacks to the west of Xiushui Village had become a unique part of the village.

The old people and children living there had come to form a family of sorts, despite having no blood ties.

When Village Chief Du brought up the matter, Du Changsheng planted his woodcutter’s axe on the ground, wiped the sweat from his brow, and replied, “Don’t worry, Father. I remember.”

The construction funds this time had turned out to be much greater than expected. As the leader of the younger generation and the main force behind the village’s reconstruction, Du Changsheng had already discussed with everyone the idea of rebuilding the shacks to the west as well.

They planned to turn the place into a relief center for Xiushui Town, giving the lonely elderly and orphans with no one to depend on a proper shelter.

As he spoke, he suddenly seemed to remember something. He slapped his forehead and said to his father, “Oh, right, Father. The old man with a mole on his chin from the shacks asked whether he could lease a few plots of land on the western side of our village to grow some melons and vegetables.”

Du Liushui paused when he heard this. “The old man with the mole on his chin?”

“Yes, him,” Du Changsheng replied with a nod.

Du Liushui said, “Isn’t that a good thing? They may be frail, but if they can grow some melons and vegetables, they can eat them themselves or sell them for money. At least they’ll have a livelihood. Is that really something you need to come ask me about? From now on, handle matters like this yourself. If you can’t even manage that, some other capable young man may snatch the village chief’s position away from you. Don’t come crying to me then.”

His father’s words made Du Changsheng’s face flush slightly.

“But back when I made decisions on my own without asking you, you chased me all over the village with a stick…”

Seeing him try to argue, Du Liushui glared at him angrily.

“How old were you back then? And how old are you now? At that time, you were supposed to follow me and learn how to handle things, but you insisted on making your own decisions. Now that it’s your turn to take charge, you can’t even decide a trivial matter on your own! If Dayou hadn’t gone up the mountain with his son to cultivate immortality, I wouldn’t even have considered giving you the position of village chief!”

Du Changsheng muttered, rather unconvinced, “That just proves Brother Dayou’s father knew how to teach his son…”

“What did you say?! Are you implying that I’m not as good at teaching my son as Old Man Lin?” Du Liushui was so furious that his whiskers nearly blew upward.

“Nothing! Father, I’m going to chop wood!” With that, Du Changsheng no longer dared remain in the front courtyard. He picked up his axe, hoisted a bundle of firewood into his arms, and dashed toward the back courtyard.

Watching his good-for-nothing son flee like a frightened rabbit, Du Liushui forcefully snorted through his nose.

Thinking of the old beggar with the mole on his chin whom his son had just mentioned, Du Liushui recalled something Liu Yunan had told him some time ago.

He had said that the old beggar was a relative of one of the Lingxian Sect’s new disciples. If the old man came by again, Du Liushui was to find a way to keep him there and look after him as best he could.

After that, Du Liushui had kept an eye out for him for quite some time, but the old beggar never appeared again.

Then, one day, the old beggar staggered weakly to the village entrance.

It was only because someone from the village happened to spot him and came to inform Du Liushui that he found out.

The old beggar was not actually that old, but years of begging, going hungry, and lacking warm clothing had left him extremely frail.

At the time, the old beggar had probably never expected to survive. When he saw Du Liushui, he merely wanted to ask that, when he died, he be buried in Xiushui Village. Any hole in the ground would do.

But Du Liushui knew that the old man was a relative of a new Lingxian Sect disciple, so how could he agree to such a request? He immediately notified Liu Yunan. Later, Liu Yunan brought the old beggar a medicinal pill. After taking it, the man looked much more energetic the very next day.

From then on, the old beggar stayed in the shacks and lived alongside the other elderly and infirm people there.

Du Liushui sat in his wicker chair, thinking over these things. As his thoughts deepened, he could not help sighing.

“They’re all good children with such loyal hearts…”

The autumn wind swept past with a biting chill, blowing several fallen leaves onto him.

Looking at the leaves, yellow with age, scattered across his clothes, Du Liushui slowly rose and shook them off. Then he walked toward the back courtyard with his hands behind his back.

“The weather’s turning cold. I’d better remind that careless brat to bring some supplies to keep the people in the shacks warm…”

Down in the valley, Xiushui Village was bustling with activity and festive cheer. Up on the mountain, the Lingxian Sect was just as busy.

Although the number of plants cultivated in the sect’s spirit fields had increased, spirit grain remained the crop everyone valued most.

With the assistance of various formations, spirit fertilizer, and even medicinal pills—yes, some time ago, Sun Yigao had developed pills that could nourish crops and treat all kinds of insect infestations and plant diseases.

Later, he had personally gone into the fields to carefully observe the different stages of various plants. Based on their different species and conditions, he created numerous specialized pills suited to each kind of plant.

There were even pills specifically designed to nourish the land.

These pills could cater to the differing soil requirements of different plants and cultivate land with the attributes each plant needed.

This caused the elders in charge of the spirit fields to praise Sun Yigao to no end.

They all exclaimed that he truly lived up to his reputation as the top scholar! Even when making medicinal pills for plants, he could produce all sorts of ingenious results!

Sun Yigao’s parents had explained many times that placing first in the academy examination did not make him a top scholar.

But that was beside the point. In everyone’s eyes, coming first in the entire Hufang Province made him a top scholar, plain and simple.

After enduring everyone’s repeated refusal to correct themselves, Sun Yigao’s parents eventually gave up.

It was only their fellow sect members calling him that way once in a while, after all. Let them say whatever they wanted.

Watching Sun Yigao receive so much praise, how could the young and ambitious Mo Yuanjiao stand by and do nothing?

He immediately plunged headfirst into the Formation Hall. After tinkering around for some time, he too managed to make cultivation formations astonishingly versatile.

Formations capable of adjusting the temperature according to a crop’s growth requirements were commonplace by then.

He had even created formations that could pollinate each individual plant at the proper time, according to its particular growth condition, ensuring that every plant requiring pollination received it when the timing was ideal.

He also combined Sun Yigao’s agricultural medicinal pills with the formations, allowing the formations to administer medicine to the plants at the most appropriate times.

After all that effort, Mo Yuanjiao finally earned a steady stream of praise from the elders in the spirit-field group as well.

…

But that’s getting off topic.

Although the growth cycles of many crops in the sect had been effectively shortened through various methods, and their yields had risen considerably, the power of nature had to be acknowledged.

The peak harvest season for crops like spirit grain was still autumn.

Therefore, no matter how many harvests they had gathered previously, the people in the spirit-field group always made careful arrangements for autumn, the harvest season, and never allowed the spirit grain to miss it.