After returning from my cultivation journey, I built a farm through fortune telling.

Chapter 43 Waiting for Thunder

"How many sheets? You call this a number?"

Bai Xiao held a stack of yellow amulets folded into small triangles in both hands, and suddenly woke up from her drowsiness: "Does it have to be this exaggerated? No... you're making me so nervous! Lulu, has Aunt Jiang been scammed? Buying so many amulets? Superstition is no good!"

"It'll save your life!"

After considering it for a moment, Bai Lu decided to tell Bai Xiao about it. If Bai Xiao didn't take it seriously and didn't bring the amulet, and something went wrong, she would regret it.

"The matter of the ancient building where you are going to film has only been temporarily calmed down, and it has not been completely resolved. There will definitely be more accidents while you are filming there. Since you are reluctant to give up this opportunity, I can only draw some talismans for you. Remember to carry them with you at all times. Buy a waterproof bag and hang it around your neck. Don't take it off even when you take a shower."

Seeing Bai Lu's serious expression, Bai Xiao swallowed hard: "You're making it sound so scary, who would dare to take a bath? — Wait, what did you just say? You said you drew this talisman? What good is that?!"

He then unfolded a talisman and exclaimed, "Wow, it looks like scribbles! But it actually looks quite convincing. No wonder you studied design; your skills are top-notch!"

Bai Xiao gave Bai Lu a thumbs up.

Egret: "...I knew you wouldn't believe me! Fine, people can't teach you everything, but you can teach someone something once. Just remember what I said!"

As she spoke, Bai Lu made a hand seal, and a ray of spiritual light attached itself to the stack of talismans, compressing it into a thin sheet. It was then strung together by a red rope that appeared out of nowhere and hung directly around Bai Xiao's neck.

Bai Xiao: "!!!"

She's completely numb, family!
What did the egret just do?!

"you--!!"

The egret clapped its hands and said, "Yes, that's right, you're not seeing things, I know magic!"

Bai Xiao held the safety charm that had appeared out of nowhere around her neck in her palm. As the unreality slowly faded, she jumped up and shook Bai Lu's shoulders: "When did you learn this?! You have such a method, why didn't you share it with me?! If I had learned it, I would be the star of the entertainment industry! I wouldn't need wires to film action movies anymore! I could just fly away—"

A little star, that's all I want!

As expected of someone who's been in the entertainment industry, Bai Xiao's ability to accept things is comparable to Bai Chen and Bai Wei.

"Alright, alright!" The egret was almost shaken to death: "You don't have the talent, you can't learn it!"

"what?"

Bai Xiao felt a moment of disappointment, but quickly cheered up again.

She may be ordinary, but her best friend is incredibly awesome!
She took her hand: "How long have you been practicing? You've figured out what's going on with this ancient building, can you solve it?"

“It can be resolved, but they were just suppressed once and their strength has been weakened. They won’t come out and cause trouble so quickly. Besides, I can’t leave right now. My family’s forty or fifty acres of land need me!”

"Them? Two of them?! Can you put your lousy land aside? Your great-aunt is in danger!"

What on earth are those things? Ghosts? Or monsters?

"Are you sure you want to know? If you know, will you still be able to focus on filming? Maybe you shouldn't go; it's kind of scary!"

"Forget it, let's not tell you!"

Bai Xiao felt that she knew that no matter how much acting skills she had acquired, she could never achieve calm facial expression control. If her facial features were to become unruly, she would definitely be the subject of all sorts of negative gossip once she became famous.

Bailu knew this and didn't bother to persuade her further. As long as she could guarantee her safety, that was enough: "Don't worry, isn't there a safety charm? If anything really happens, you'll hold out until I come to rescue you!"

Bai Xiao rolled her eyes at her: "Do you want to hear what you're saying? You're in Yangcheng, and I'm in the capital! Thousands of kilometers! There's no direct flight, I'd have to take the high-speed rail to Dongcheng, and then fly to the capital—are you trying to take me back to my roots? I thank you! Forget it, I'm not going. It's just a drama that might give me a chance to get ahead, nothing's more important than my life!"

These words were spoken through gritted teeth, and were not sincere.

The egret shrugged: "Whatever you say!"

Bai Xiao thought about it again and felt unwilling, so she confirmed with Bai Lu again: "You can definitely come to save me in time, right?"

Bai Lu patted her head and said respectfully, "If you're really worried, let's not go!"

"Aren't you going to ask for compensation for breach of contract? It's three times the amount!" Bai Xiao gritted her teeth: "My life is in your hands!"

One dared to speak, and the other dared to believe. Bai Xiaoming knew that this trip would be somewhat dangerous, but he still dragged his suitcase and left, looking back at the egrets every few steps.

Bai Lu waved her hand: "It's okay, just focus on filming, I'm here for you!"

After seeing Bai Xiao off, Bai Lu returned home. She did some calculations and predicted that it would rain that afternoon.

We've finally waited for this day!

She greeted Qin Xiu and then drove her old car to the antique street in Yangcheng.

Following the spiritual energy, she found two shops, one selling raw jade stones and the other selling finished jade products.

Both companies have great products!
Bai Lu walked into the nearest rough stone shop. A thin, small old man was reclining in a chair, fanning himself with a palm leaf fan. He wasn't very enthusiastic when he heard that a customer had come: "Young lady? Feel free to look around! We only sell rough stones. Once you buy, you're done. No returns or exchanges!"

Bai Lu scanned the shop and found that there were quite a few stones containing spiritual energy, but the spiritual energy content was very thin. None of them could compare to the one Song Feng had given her, and they couldn't even compare to the spirit jade they used to set up a spirit-attracting array.

Egret: "!!!"

Bai Lu realized too late, "Oh right, why didn't she buy it from Master Qingxu and the others?"
It's definitely easier to find a professional for this kind of thing!

But since she was already there, Bailu still picked out a palm-sized spirit stone from a pile of stones of varying sizes. It was the one with the highest concentration of spiritual energy, but it was also extremely inconspicuous and grayish.

The old man slapped my eye and immediately asked for 50,000!
Bailu thought the price was reasonable given the concentration of spiritual energy, but she also knew that gambling on jade was a deep and complex business. Moreover, judging from the old man's appearance, she resolutely started to bargain. She was shocked by what she found. She bought the spirit jade, which was initially priced at 50,000, for only 5,000!
Bai Lu's gaze towards the old man changed—she could tell he was ruthless, but she hadn't expected him to be this ruthless!

"No business for three years, then enough to live off for three years"—this is no exaggeration!

She then searched through the pile of stones and found several small pebbles, about the size of chicken or quail eggs, and asked the old man, "Can I have these stones as a gift?"

"Young lady, we're just a small business, we can't afford to give them away for free. If you really want them, you can take them for a hundred yuan each!"

"Ten yuan, that's the most I can offer!"

The old man persisted for a moment, then waved his palm-leaf fan and said, "Take it, take it! I'm really scared of you. You're so good at bargaining at such a young age!"

So young?

My sister's combined age across three generations is greater than yours!
The egrets returned laden with their catch, and the antique shop owner cleared out a bunch of his stash of unsold items. They were just toys he'd gotten from the river to make up the numbers, but he never expected them to find someone who appreciated them! How could this not be a win-win situation?

Back home, Qin Xiu went to play cards, Bai Jiang went to work, Bai Chen went to hoe the ground again, Bai Wei was in her room being emo, and Bai Lu returned to her room to start unraveling jade.

The hard raw stone was like tofu in the egret's hands; it could break off any piece it wanted, peeling away the thick outer layer layer by layer, only to find nothing inside.

But Bailu was very patient. She became careful when she got to the center. After a while, a fist-sized piece of fine, oily white jade appeared in her palm, full of spiritual energy.

She used her fingers as a knife to cut it into ten "nothing to worry about" plaques.

She looked at the sky, waited a while, then picked up a bag of small spirit stones and went downstairs. She walked around their small building, taking spirit stones from the bag and throwing them out as she went, until she threw down the last one. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky—

Originally, the lightning strike was aimed at the northwest, but attracted by the lightning-attracting talisman dropped by the egret, it struck the last spirit stone she had dropped. The outer skin of the spirit jade peeled off, revealing the cyan spirit jade. At this moment, all the spirit stones on the ground emitted a dazzling light, with the light connecting between each pair, then flashing for a few seconds before disappearing. Even the spirit stones on the ground disappeared.

The formation is formed.

This formation combines the energy of lightning with a spirit-gathering formation and a protective formation, which is beneficial to both Bai Jiang and Qin Xiu's lives, as well as the cultivation of Bai Lu and her two siblings.

As for the protective array, it was just in case, and she hoped it would never be needed.

Bai Lu stood in the courtyard, feeling the wisps of spiritual energy flowing in from all directions and circulating around the small building. She took a deep breath, and all the pores of her body opened up.

This is the kind of living environment that cultivators should have!
After setting up the formation, Bai Lu took out the ten peace tokens, used her fingers as a brush, and engraved a formation on each one. Then she sat cross-legged and used talismans to attract heavenly lightning, and then incorporated spiritual power to refine them into simple magical artifacts that could protect their owners and ward off evil and disaster!
The "Peaceful Amulet," also known as the "Tranquil Amulet," has a flat and smooth surface without any carvings or decorations, hence the name "Unadorned."

The egrets' formation left no trace on it; "unadorned" means "unperturbed," implying peace, tranquility, and all things going well.

With her current cultivation level, refining these ten peace tokens was a bit difficult, but fortunately she succeeded!
Bai Lu wiped the sweat from his brow and let out a long sigh. Just then, the rain started to fall. Bai Chen carried his hoe and ran home, saying, "This rain couldn't have come at the worst possible time! I was almost done hoeing!"

Seeing that Bailu was sitting in the courtyard without seeking shelter from the rain, he hurried over and saw that there were many jade pendants neatly arranged in front of her. He couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing?"

"I'm doing weapon forging—help me out!"

Bai Lu raised her arm, and Bai Chen quickly grabbed her and ran towards the eaves. If they ran too slowly, they would get soaked!
Egret: "..."

It is not very harmful and extremely insulting.

While I'm weak, are you going to squeeze me?
"Huh? Your weapon forging is different from the ones in the novels. Where's your forging furnace?"

After catching his breath for a while, Bailu said, "Where am I supposed to find a forging furnace now? Don't you need a forging furnace? Do I look like someone who can forge a furnace right now?!"

"Then why are you forging weapons?"

"That's a novel question. Shouldn't a weakling like you have one or two magical treasures for self-defense?"

"Tell me earlier!"

Bai Chen's eyes lit up, and he immediately ran over in the rain to retrieve all the "No Problem" plaques. He wiped the rainwater off them, strung them on a rope, and put them on: "Tell me, what level of expert's fatal blows can this withstand?"

Egret: "..."

Refining weapons is tiring enough, why does this person keep poking at her lungs?

Even in her prime, a lowly servant like her wouldn't dare claim she could forge such a magical artifact, let alone now.

She took out three talismans and ordered, "Go, stick them on those three trees outside the wall!"

What do you want?

The egret's words were succinct: "Signal thunder!"

"Huh? You want artificial lightning-struck wood? But will this talisman still work if it gets wet?"

"How could it be useless? The talisman is still there even after you're gone! Just stick it up. After you're done, stand next to that jujube tree and when the lightning strikes, channel some spiritual energy into it to protect it from dying. You don't need to worry about the other two."

"Huh?" Bai Chen was a little scared: "My teacher taught me since I was little that I shouldn't stand under a tree during a thunderstorm, what if I get struck by a tree?"

"You're afraid of this and that? What kind of ghost immortal are you? If lightning strikes, can't you use your spiritual power to withstand it? Go!"

"okay!"

Bai Chen ran over.

Fine, I'll go. Why are you being so fierce?

As soon as the three lightning-attracting talismans were affixed, the sky immediately darkened, becoming pitch black. Three bolts of lightning struck the three lightning-attracting talismans in perfect unison. The jackfruit tree was instantly split open, a branch of the black olive tree was immediately chopped off, and the jujube tree burst into flames!

Bai Chen quickly picked up a fallen branch from the black olive tree to put out the fire on the jujube tree.

Bailu said, "Tear the talisman off the jujube tree, give it some spiritual energy, and it will come back!"

Bai Chen did as instructed, but after the lightning-attracting talisman on the jujube tree was torn off, the lightning bolt that belonged to it lost its direction and could only strike the black olive tree. The tree trunk, which already had few branches, was further damaged. Bai Chen was so frightened that after he finished channeling his spiritual energy into the jujube tree, he ran like a rabbit, afraid that if he was too slow, the lightning would strike him.

"What's going on? Did any of you reach the Tribulation Transcending stage so quickly? Holy crap!"

Bai Wei came out of her room after hearing the commotion and immediately saw the two large trees that had been chopped down beyond recognition.
"Why did you chop them up? Are they trying to become spirits?"

Bai Chen also looked at Bai Lu. He didn't know either; he was just following orders!

"These two trees are affecting our family's feng shui!"

Bai Chen: "Even so, we can't let lightning strike them dead, can we? These are Aunt Jiao's trees, not ours."

"Can you convince them to sell the tree?"

"……cannot!"

"That settles it! Don't worry, I know what I'm doing! In our line of work, the worst thing is to get involved in karma for no reason. We killed their tree, that's the cause, and sooner or later the consequences will come back to haunt me."

Bai Wei was a little anxious: "Oh? What should we do? Can this tree be saved? We can't just harm others without benefiting ourselves, can we?"

"I haven't finished speaking yet!" Bailu said, "The reason I did this is because their family will need my help soon. Although it's reasonable to help them first and then make requests, the next Spring Thunder won't come for another month, and I don't want to wait that long!"

(End of this chapter)