He Yi's Work

Recently, the Lingxian Sect had been providing them with batches of spirit seeds and spirit fertilizer to try cultivating, while Lin Dayou and Lin Dashan had also brought down some of the simplest formation disks and placed them throughout many of the farmlands.

Naturally, none of this was being given away for free.

When assisting ordinary people, the Lingxian Sect had always upheld the principle that teaching a man to fish was better than giving him fish. They also kept firmly in mind the truth that too much kindness could breed resentment.

The spirit seeds they provided to the villagers for the first time were essentially loans. Once the villagers produced spirit grain, the sect would purchase all of it with spirit stones. The cost of the spirit seeds, fertilizer, and other supplies would then be deducted from the purchase payments.

When mentioning purchases made with spirit stones, the Lingxian Sect naturally also explained their value to the villagers. It guaranteed that if they had no way to spend their spirit stones, they could take them to the City Lord’s Mansion and exchange them for real gold and silver. One spirit stone could be exchanged for one hundred taels of silver.

The purchase price offered by the Lingxian Sect was not particularly high. This price was merely intended to give the farmers cultivating spirit grain a general idea of its value, so they would know that spirit stones were precious and would not be easily tricked into handing them over.

Although gold, silver, and copper coins were still the main currencies in circulation in Xiushui City, it was inevitable that spirit stones would become the primary currency in the future. This could also be considered the first step in allowing the common people to come into contact with spirit stones.

As for whether mortals could cultivate spirit grain, and what quality of spirit grain they could produce—

The quality of spirit grain grown by mortals was certainly far inferior to that cultivated by the Lingxian Sect itself. However, with the assistance of the sect’s various spirit fertilizers, formations, pills, and other methods, even spirit grain grown by farmers with no cultivation whatsoever was of much better quality than the spirit grain produced by the sects in the mortal world.

It was roughly comparable to the lowest-quality spirit grain in the cultivation world.

The Lingxian Sect purchased this spirit grain from the common people and transported it to the cultivation world for trade. Since this lower-quality spirit grain was bought from the villagers at a price only slightly below its selling price, the sect practically earned nothing from it beyond a small transportation fee.

As for the spirit grain currently being cultivated by the other sects and imperial families in the mortal world—sorry, but the Lingxian Sect did not want it. They could keep it for their own consumption. The Lingxian Sect only purchased high-quality spirit grain.

That meant spirit grain cultivated from the seeds they bought from the Lingxian Sect, using the cultivation methods provided by the sect.

For this reason, the Lingxian Sect had so far only privately discussed future spirit-grain transactions with the Qinghe Sect.

There were also many mortals cultivating spirit grain in the cultivation world. Even many major sects hired low-level cultivators and mortals to cultivate spirit grain together. After all, they were the cheapest labor available.

The common people farming within Xiushui City had the protection of defensive barriers and the City Lord’s Mansion stationed over them, so they had no need to worry about cultivators seizing their fields.

And if they were worried about being harmed after leaving the city… there was even less need for concern. All the farmland within the city had been registered with the City Lord’s Mansion, and its sale was forbidden. This had been discussed with the landowners beforehand. If anyone was unwilling to hold onto land that could not be sold, Xiushui City would purchase it from them at a generous price.

However, not a single villager had chosen to sell their land. They all approved of Xiushui City’s policy forbidding land sales.

These villagers had lived there for generations. They had no objection to being prohibited from selling their land. On the contrary, they felt that Xiushui City was protecting their fields from being seized and occupied by others.

Their farmland could be passed down from generation to generation, but it could not be sold. If they no longer wished to farm, they could take their land deeds to the City Lord’s Mansion and exchange them for silver at any time. They simply could not sell the land to someone else; it was not as if they were forbidden from converting it into money in an emergency.

Moreover, Xiushui City had introduced another new policy. Anyone who owned a business or other property in the city could use their assets as collateral to borrow money from the City Lord’s Mansion if they encountered financial difficulties. The City Lord’s Mansion charged only a very small amount of interest.

In short, Xiushui City had been issuing one new livelihood-related policy after another over the past few days. The common people were delighted, feeling that every morning they woke up with something to look forward to.

Xiushui City had been established only a few days ago, yet all kinds of systems, benefits, and policies had already been rapidly taking shape.

Moreover, almost all of them benefited the people, while cultivators faced numerous restrictions and received very few benefits.

This surprised He Yi.

He had not joined the Lingxian Sect long ago, and he still could not immediately adapt to or understand all of the sect’s various measures.

Nevertheless, he felt that the atmosphere in the city was quite pleasant.

Watching people of all cultivation levels live their lively, bustling lives together gave him a deep sense of comfort, although he himself did not know why he felt that way.

Of course, while wandering around, he did not forget the task assigned to him. He constantly observed the residential areas and other places along the streets, checking whether any of the city’s facilities had malfunctioned and whether the common people were using the new facilities smoothly. He also had to remain alert for any subtle abnormalities in the city, preventing cultivators from using special methods to cause trouble.

All of this was part of his work.

This task could not be assigned to cultivators with low cultivation. For one thing, they lacked the necessary speed and stamina. They would move too slowly and could not inspect the entire city in a single day, which would waste too much time.

For another, if their strength was insufficient, they would not be able to detect anyone harboring malicious intentions and using special methods to commit misdeeds.

There were not many people in the Lingxian Sect who possessed sufficient cultivation and free time. Thus, the task naturally fell to He Yi.

This could not help but make He Yi wonder whether the work truly aided his cultivation, or whether Lin Xiao simply had no one suitable for the job and had used his abundance of free time as an excuse to assign it to him.

However, although they had not known each other for very long, He Yi felt that the sect master was an upright and honorable person who would not casually make things up.

So he continued to carefully experience everything he saw and heard in the city, pondering the underlying principle Lin Xiao had said would benefit him.

Unexpectedly, after observing for so long, he really did gain some insights.

Although these insights had nothing to do with cultivation for the time being, he increasingly felt that the more he watched, the more he understood the sect’s policies. It seemed that cultivators and sects were supposed to conduct themselves in precisely this manner.

Not only could He Yi quickly and meticulously inspect the entire city every day, but once he returned to the mountain, he still had plenty of free time to make talismans in the Talisman-Making Hall and complete the sect’s orders. If he had not wanted to leave the disciples in the Talisman-Making Hall some opportunities to practice and earn sect contributions, he could have completed all of the sect’s current talisman orders by himself in just a few days.

After that, He Yi still had ample time to cultivate.

By now, Liu Chun hardly needed to concern himself with the orders anymore. He only had to look after his disciples in Yuanling City.

Speaking of this, it was worth mentioning that not long ago, when Liu Chun received word from the sect that He Yi—the champion of the previous Talisman Master Conference—had actually joined their sect and was even helping the Talisman-Making Hall complete its orders, he was so shocked that he felt he ought to step down and make way for a more capable successor.

However, once He Yi obtained his own spatial ring, he immediately contacted Liu Chun and told him that he did not want to manage anything and was not suited to being in charge. If Liu Chun intended to dump the Talisman-Making Hall on him, that would not be stepping down in favor of a worthy successor—it would be tormenting him. Only then did Liu Chun awkwardly abandon the idea.