The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Spring blossoms and autumn harvests, three years have passed like a dream.

The seventh month of the lunar calendar is the hottest season in the Kansai region.

The snow on the mountaintop did not melt completely despite the long hours of sunshine.

If someone were to look down at the earth from the sky, they would be surprised to find...

At the highest snow-capped peak, there were two children, one big and one small, one to the south and one to the north, bending over and waving their little shovels.

Dig and dig.

There's no way to dig it all out.

The mother of the two children was waving her hand and scattering snow lotus seeds into the soil in the crevices of the rocks.

Afterwards, as her supernatural power was activated, the seeds of snow lotus within a radius of several miles began to sprout and germinate at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In nature, it takes about three to five years for a snow lotus to grow from seed to flower.

Relying on them to grow naturally is insufficient to meet the current production of snow lotus wine.

There's no way around it; the demand for Kansai snow lotus beauty wine is just too high.

The market price has been increasing year by year.

To benefit women, every year during the snow lotus harvesting season, Gan Minglan would go to the snow mountain to artificially induce labor.

Snow lotuses grown using wood-based supernatural abilities have more medicinal properties than wild ones.

Data shows that the number of newborns in the Kansai region has been reaching new highs year after year, and this medicinal wine has played a part in this.

During this year's harvest season, she brought her two young children to the snow-capped mountains to broaden their horizons.

Yuanyuan, who already looks like a young girl, was directing her younger brother while working: "Fubao, come quickly, come and put away this pile of snow lotus."

The three-headed little bean sprout happily waddled forward.

When his chubby paws touched the hundreds of snow lotuses on the ground, the snow lotuses vanished on the spot.

The little guy used his consciousness to look around:
"Sister, it's full! Fu Bao's space is already full, it can't hold any more!"

The child is only a little over three years old, and his superpowers are only in the initial stage.

A cubic meter of space really doesn't hold up well.

But even this small space was enough to make his sister envious.

The girl blinked her bright, cat-like eyes, looking pitiful.
"Mom! This is so unfair! Why is it that even though you gave birth to both of us, my little brother awakened both earth and space-based abilities?"

Earth-based abilities are one thing, but she doesn't like using earth-based escape techniques or earthen walls to block them.

Wood-based superpowers are more suitable for a fairy-like girl like her.

But, space-based systems!
What a great tool for robbing and pillaging!
Her dream had always been to storm the capital of the Hu people and empty their treasury.

Therefore, he practiced boxing for three years without interruption.

Unfortunately, the Hu people have become incredibly docile in recent years, and many Hu merchants have moved their entire families to Bagua City.

The current ruler of the Kashgar Khanate has to offer precious horses to the court every year.

How are we supposed to fight like this?
Gan Minglan gave her daughter a cool look: "If you say that, what do you think your second brother will think?"

"Second brother, he... second brother..."

The girl was momentarily speechless.

There are four siblings.

Anyone who has witnessed my elder brother's terrifying metal-based superpowers and his ability to control rats knows just how terrifying they are.

She and her brother, who were born with special abilities, were, in their mother's words, already God's favorite grandchildren.

In comparison, the most pitiful one is the second brother, Zuo Chijun.

He inherited nothing.

The little devil, who had overheard the mother and daughter's conversation, immediately chimed in for his older sister: "Mother, sister, second brother wants to be a third-ranked scholar in the future!"

Why was he the third-ranked scholar?

Of course, it's because no matter how hard the second brother tries, he can't beat the genius Yuantong! The three-headed little bean sprout saw from the wolf howling of the pen holder that the second brother had ruined while preparing for the imperial examination and the dozen or so large cans of ink that he had used up that he knew studying was a hard job.

Let my second brother suffer this hardship; he's still a baby who loves playing in the mud.

Regarding the space that his sister envied, he said it was just so-so.

Both are spaces, but not only is the mother's a huge one, it also has a super powerful divine tree inside, and people and living things can enter it.

Gan Minglan: "."

Sure enough, happiness comes from comparison.

Indeed, without comparison, one cannot know the difference.

Take Huizhou ink from the Jiangnan region as an example.

In the previous dynasty, Huizhou alone had more than 120 famous ink makers and hundreds of famous ink workshops.

After the establishment of the Yongtai Dynasty, Huizhou gradually recovered its vitality.

The good times hadn't lasted more than a few years before the market was disrupted by oil and soot ink from the Kansai region.

Who can believe it?
The required nationwide uniform retail price for a pound of ink was ten copper coins!

Wholesale price, no more than five coins!

You ask what kind of good ink can be made at such a low price?
No, no!
The oil-based ink developed by Kansai over a year with significant investment is extraordinary.

The ink is evenly distributed and highly black, making it ideal for daily practice and writing large characters.

The accompanying writing implements also include paper made from mulberry bark, writing brushes, and inkstones made from clay and stone from Guanzhong.

Various price points are available for you to choose from.

Two taels of silver can buy a set.

Want to pursue high-end luxury? Of course, you can have it!

Just last year, Kansai ink sticks were designated by Emperor Qianwu as the imperial ink.

After that, all the civil and military officials followed suit.

Kansai ink sticks are gradually showing a trend of catching up with Huizhou ink sticks that have been around for a century.

As for calligraphy brushes, needless to say.

Goats and rabbits were successfully bred in large numbers in Kansai, and the pen workshop never lacked raw materials again.

Even for high-end products like wolf hair brushes, with King Atu around, weasels have to line up to have their fur shaved at the workshop.

Anyway, the hair on the tail will grow back even if you shave it.

The pen tubes come in a wide variety of styles, including bamboo from Sichuan and Chongqing, poplar wood from the desert, jujube wood, and even specially fired ceramic pen tubes.

In the Kansai region, there is a type of jade called Mahe Jade, which is hard and dense in texture, robust and strong in shape, and when cut open, has a rich and brilliant color inside, clear and deep texture, and can even display patterns of landscapes, flowers, birds, fish and insects, mirages and other images.

This kind of jade is perfect for carving into inkstones; it would be incredibly high-class.

In short, the stationery set, which used to cost at least a dozen taels of silver to acquire by traveling merchants to Guanzhong, has completely fallen from its pedestal.

Conversely, when merchants came to Kansai to purchase goods, the Four Treasures of the Study were also on their list.

Of the Four Treasures of the Study, ink is the most important.

Not only in the Yongtai Dynasty, but even in the low-end markets of the Northern You Kingdom and the Southern Yue Kingdom, the ink from Kansai was monopolized.

With the news that more than twenty students from Qingshan Academy had become Xiucai (successful candidates in the county-level imperial examinations) three years ago and would participate in the imperial examinations this autumn, Guanzhong was no longer seen as a cultural wasteland by scholars from within the Guanzhong Plain.

Shan Changshan Fang Molin:
Who says that one cannot write beautiful poems and songs while living in a nomadic land?
Who says that students from Kansai lack literary talent?

Compared to students who are ignorant of worldly affairs, the students of Qingshan Academy are not good-for-nothings who are oblivious to the world around them.

The academy has ten acres of fertile land.

Every year, students participate in spring planting and autumn harvesting, and they need to keep track of the year's grain yield and the market price of grain in the Kansai region.

During the two long holidays of summer and winter, they would also be assigned to some workshops, health stations, and market management offices in border trade cities to participate in practical work or stand guard.

How could students raised in such an environment not be pragmatic? (End of Chapter)