Tap Water

【Congratulations, Host. Xiushui City has been successfully completed. The sect now possesses its first subordinate city, triggering a hidden reward. The reward has been placed in the private treasury. Please remember to check it.】

Lin Xiao no longer had the mind to see what reward the system had given him. At that moment, all he wanted was to see Xiushui City with his own eyes now that it had been completed.

Xiushui City covered a fairly large area. Its city gate was very close to Cuifeng Town, with no more than ten miles between them.

The original Xiushui Village lay deep within the city.

Xiushui City did not include Lingxian Sect, but the sect stood behind it like a natural barrier, connecting the city walls on either side.

The small estate that the villagers of Xiushui Village had given to Lingxian Sect had been transformed into the office of the trading center. A large sign hung outside it:

【Trade Affairs Center】

From now on, cultivators coming to Xiushui Village to conduct business would have to come here to register their goods and handle other matters.

The farmland surrounding the Trade Affairs Center had also been tidied up by the people of Lingxian Sect and turned into spirit fields planted with basic spiritual crops.

That vast stretch of basic spiritual plants alone was enough to leave the cultivators of the mortal world utterly astonished.

Xiushui Village, located in front of the Trade Affairs Center, had also undergone a complete transformation.

The villagers soon discovered that although the layout of the village had not changed, their houses had undergone considerable changes of their own!

Most of the homes in the village had originally been made of earthen bricks and clay tiles. Some had even been thatched huts. Now, however, they had all been transformed into large houses of gray brick and tiled roofs. The quality of the bricks and tiles was so excellent that they were no worse than those used by wealthy families in the prefectural city.

Once all the commotion had finally subsided, some bold villagers, astonished by the changes to their homes, hurried inside to take a look. They found that although the building materials had changed, the furniture and other belongings inside were still exactly as familiar as ever.

The villagers were fascinated. After looking through one room, they went to the next, wandering through every corner of their homes, inside and out.

Then one villager discovered that even the latrine had changed!

The latrines in their homes had originally been filthy. A large pit beneath each one collected the manure. But now, those foul-smelling pits had vanished!

Thinking of the manure they had painstakingly accumulated, the anxious villagers rushed out of their homes and began asking their neighbors:

“Is the manure at your place still there?”

“I haven’t seen it. Is yours gone too?”

“Ah, yes! Where do you think they took our manure?”

“How would I know? Why don’t we go ask Yunan?”

“Good idea. I saw him heading east just now. Let’s go ask him.”

Perhaps Liu Yunan had anticipated the villagers’ reaction. Before they could go looking for him, Liu Yunan had already finished patrolling the other areas and confirming that nothing had gone wrong. He gathered the villagers in the threshing ground and explained all the changes in their homes.

When they heard that the manure from their latrines had not disappeared but had merely been moved, no longer sitting directly beneath the latrine, and that a special pumping mechanism had been installed over the manure pit so the manure could be pumped out without having to scoop it up bucket by bucket, the villagers all breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as it hadn’t vanished, everything was fine.

Afterward, Liu Yunan explained the changes that would be coming to their water supply.

When he brought this up, the villagers looked confused. What changes could there possibly be to using water?

They did not understand until Liu Yunan walked over to a strange new object near the threshing ground—something none of them had ever seen before.

In front of everyone, he turned a mechanism on top of it. A small pipe below immediately began pouring out a steady stream of clear water.

Everyone was stunned.

What kind of device was this? It was unbelievably convenient!

“This mechanism is called running water. Every household in the village has one. From now on, you won’t need to carry buckets to the well to fetch water anymore!” Liu Yunan announced.

“Oh—!”

Hearing this, the villagers erupted in delighted cheers.

The immortals had truly thought of everything!

After mulling over the name “running water,” the villagers suddenly understood. Wasn’t that exactly what it was? All they had to do was turn it with a finger, and an endless supply of water would flow out. It was something they had never even dared to imagine.

By now, an entire waterway system had been installed beneath Xiushui City.

Not only that, but many other conveniences throughout the city had also been designed according to Lin Xiao’s ideas. During this period, he and Mo Yuanjiao had researched and developed them together in the Array Hall.

These inventions had been incorporated into the various buildings in the city, as well as the many small changes within the villagers’ homes. Liu Yunan patiently explained each one to everyone.

Aside from the basic latrines and running water, there were also streetlamps that would light up automatically after dark and carriages that required no one to drive them and ran according to a fixed schedule and route.

Well, they could no longer be called carriages, since no horses pulled them. The immortals said that because they were public vehicles, they would be called “buses.”

Anyone entering the city who wanted to ride one of these buses only needed to pay a single copper coin. They could then ride to any of the stops established throughout the city.

The fares collected by the buses would be managed by the Xiushui City Lord’s Office.

What surprised the villagers of Xiushui Village most of all was that their residential area had actually been enclosed!

By “enclosed,” this meant that a low fence now surrounded all their homes within a designated area. The immortals had said that, from then on, outsiders would not be allowed to enter their village freely.

The villagers themselves could come and go as they pleased.

If a girl married into the village in the future, she would have to register at the city office responsible for managing household records and population registrations. Only then would the new bride be permitted to enter and leave Xiushui Village freely.

Liu Yunan told them that their area would henceforth be called Xiushui Residential District.

He also explained why this arrangement had been made.

Xiushui City would be bustling with people from all walks of life in the future. Although the city was already very safe, Lin Xiao had still decided to give the villagers an additional layer of protection.

On one hand, this was meant to preserve their sense of community.

Lin Xiao was not worried that the villagers banding together would cause any problems. On the contrary, he hoped they would stick together.

To him, the villagers who had grown up together and spent every day in one another’s company were far more important than outsiders. The safety he could offer outsiders was Xiushui City itself, but what he wanted to give these villagers was an extra layer of security within the city.

This was also the peaceful haven he had wanted to preserve for the villagers when he had suddenly decided to build the city.

At the very least, they needed an area where they could continue to live quietly.

Objectively speaking, building the city was beneficial to the villagers. But in Lin Xiao’s eyes, it had ultimately been a choice they had made only half willingly, after being swept along by him.

He had no way of knowing whether every single person was truly delighted that their lives had undergone one enormous change after another in the span of just a few short years.

There were people in this world who strove tirelessly to rise higher, and there were also people who were content with the status quo. As long as they did not affect others, Lin Xiao did not believe either way of life was inherently good or bad.

It was enough to live according to one’s heart and find happiness.