Patching the Pot Bottom

The villagers in the fields carried their hoes back to the village under the orange sunset, their figures casting long shadows behind them.

A few youths weaved through the crowd, laughing, scolding, chasing, and playing with each other.

Their youthful and unbridled laughter drifted into the evening glow, dispelling the fatigue the villagers had accumulated over the day.

After bidding farewell to the crowd, Lin Xiao walked alone on the village path.

Passing by Patriarch Hu's house, he suddenly heard a woman's startled cry of "Ah!" from inside.

The courtyard gate happened to be open, so he peeked inside from outside.

He saw Patriarch Hu's daughter-in-law walk out of the kitchen holding a large iron pot. She lifted the bottom of the pot and said to Patriarch Hu, who was enjoying the cool air in the courtyard:

"Dad, the iron pot is broken! I was thinking of stir-frying a big dish tonight to give Jifa and the others some extra grease and nutrition. What do we do now? Going to town to mend the pot will cost quite a few copper coins..."

Hu Deli glanced at the iron pot with a hole in the bottom, remembering how he had been in a hurry a couple of days ago and accidentally knocked a hole in it by using too much force. He embarrassedly stroked his grayish-white beard and was about to speak, but was interrupted by a clear, youthful voice from outside the courtyard gate.

"I know how to mend pots, Grandpa Hu. Let me mend it for you?"

Hu Deli and the Hu family's daughter-in-law turned their heads to look outside the courtyard gate.

Seeing it was Lin Xiao, Hu Deli's eyes narrowed into smiling slits as he nodded and said:

"Good boy, come in, come in."

Saying that, he turned back to his daughter-in-law and said:

"Give the pot to Brother Xiao. He knows how to mend it."

The Hu family's daughter-in-law hesitated a bit, but out of trust in her father-in-law, she half-believingly handed the iron pot to Lin Xiao, who was walking in.

"Dad, then I'll go make the other dishes first." With that, she turned and went back to the kitchen.

At this time, the members of the Hu family who were working outside had not yet returned, leaving only Hu Deli and Lin Xiao in the courtyard.

Lin Xiao didn't hide anything. Right in front of Patriarch Hu, he performed a bit of alchemy to repair the large iron pot.

Back when he had created a bunch of spells in preparation for the secret realm, the Five Elements spells were the first ones he created.

Unexpectedly, they hadn't been used much in the Green Field Secret Realm, but they proved quite useful in daily life.

Hu Deli watched Lin Xiao the whole time with his eyes narrowed in a continuous smile, his gaze as kind and amiable as if he were looking at his own nephew.

Watching Lin Xiao raise his hand and form a hand seal towards their iron pot, making the broken bottom look as good as new, he smoothed his beard and slowly said:

"Brother Xiao, that accursed weather won't come back again, right?"

Hearing this, Lin Xiao nodded and answered softly:

"Never again."

Receiving his affirmative answer, Hu Deli let out a long sigh of relief as he lay on his recliner.

Thinking of the sudden weather change a couple of days ago that was just like the one eleven years ago, he still felt lingering fear. But to his surprise, it didn't snow freezing snow like it did eleven years ago; instead, it suddenly warmed up again.

After the weather turned back that day, he, who had been notifying people door-to-door and had just reached the village entrance preparing to go home, saw the scene of a sweating Lin Yun sprinting back with an unconscious, blue-faced Lin Xiao on his back.

Hu Deli felt at the time that he seemed to understand something.

Now that he had Lin Xiao's answer, he completely set his mind at ease.

That accursed weather that would freeze many people to death really was never coming back again.

Seeing Patriarch Hu lying on the recliner staring off into space, Lin Xiao did not utter a sound to disturb him. He bowed slightly and silently took his leave, exiting the Hu family home.

Meanwhile, Hu Deli repeatedly recalled in his mind the scene of heavy snow flying in the June sky from back then.

Thinking of his wife who had passed away because of it, Hu Deli's aged eye sockets turned red again and again.

When the Hu family members returned, they saw their patriarch quietly wiping tears alone in the courtyard.

After leaving the Hu home, Lin Xiao went to the Lin family's old residence for a quick spin, letting the family members there see that he had fully recovered, before finally returning home.

Upon returning home, Lin Xiao ate dinner and then huddled in his room, beginning to ponder what items he should prepare for Sun Yigao and Qin Jianghe's upcoming journey.

First, he couldn't let their cultivation really fall too far behind.

After all, the density of spiritual energy in the sect's cultivation rooms was on a completely different level from the outside world.

Therefore, there had to be cultivation resources.

Not knowing how long they would be away, Lin Xiao thought for a moment and took out twenty spirit stones from his private vault, planning to give them ten each to start.

Lin Xiao also thought about trying later to see if he could create a portable spirit gathering array or something similar.

Then he thought, even though this was the mortal realm, who was to say there weren't cultivators hiding among the crowds?

In that case, they would also need something to conceal their cultivation...

As for Nascent Soul old monsters who could see through a person's cultivation just by observing the spiritual energy fluctuations around them, they were completely out of Lin Xiao's consideration.

What Nascent Soul old monster would be bored enough to mingle in the mortal realm, let alone pay attention to Qi Condensation cultivators like them?

Speaking of which, Lin Xiao suddenly realized that when he had time, he'd better figure out how to conceal his own spiritual energy fluctuations as well...

He made a mental note of this in his little notebook to deal with later.

Pondering in his mind how to synthesize something to hide cultivation and a portable spirit gathering array, Lin Xiao's fingers tapped rhythmically on the edge of the bed.

Array formations... couldn't they generally be accomplished by drawing array blueprints or something similar?

Lin Xiao decided to go up the mountain right now to ask Senior Liao. It would be great if he could draw up an array blueprint for a spirit gathering array and a concealment array to hide their cultivation.

With his previous synthesis experience, Lin Xiao now had much greater trust in the item synthesizer.

It seemed that as long as the items he put in weren't too outrageous, the synthesized items would be generated according to his thoughts.

Arriving on the mountain, Lin Xiao headed straight for Liao Pantu's residence in the Returning Garden Mountain Abode.

Truth be told, it was a bit shameful that up to now, Liao Pantu was the only resident of the Returning Garden Mountain Abode.

Although the others were excited about having their own exclusive spaces, they still had to go home on normal days.

After all, staying alone in a room on the mountain was still a little scary for them.

As for Yang Jinshu's family, although all three of them were cultivating in the sect, they still had a small piece of poor farmland to take care of at home. Thus, living on the mountain was quite inconvenient, so they also went home with everyone else at dusk.

Furthermore, after nightfall, the villagers would all go home in the dark and wouldn't be able to see, which made it convenient for them to cast spells to tend to the fields.

However, everyone had gradually brought some of their own little knick-knacks to leave here, barely fulfilling some of the functions of these houses.

Looking at the Returning Garden Mountain Abode, which housed only Liao Pantu as a soul entity and completely lacked any human liveliness, Lin Xiao sighed deeply in his heart.

Sure enough, the sect's top priorities right now were money and food.

With these two things, everyone wouldn't have to be limited by their living needs to stay at the foot of the mountain.

However, the sect's spirit grain had already begun to be planted, so the problem of food and clothing would be solved sooner or later!