Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 22 has already glimpsed the secrets of heaven.
The game system's judgment is truly amazing.

For example, soy sauce is clearly a lot of liquid, but as long as you think about putting it in your backpack, it will appear in your backpack as soy sauce in the game.

Each serving of soy sauce comes in a white porcelain bottle, paired with a matching white porcelain cup. The bottle also has a traditional Chinese character for "sauce" on it.

Both large buckets of soy sauce were put into the backpack, and surprisingly, they were divided into 75 portions. This shows that according to the system's standards, each bottle of soy sauce would not exceed half a pound.

In contrast, the salt was much simpler; each portion of salt was supported by a wooden board, and there were 161 portions in total, indicating that each portion of salt was very small.

In addition to these, spices such as ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, and star anise are also divided into small portions according to certain specifications and stored in the backpack, making them easy to see at a glance.

However, due to the low system level, and the fact that only one cooking-related building, the campfire and the stone mill, were built, the number of recipes unlocked was very limited, with only three: lean meat soup, wild vegetable soup, and vegetable noodles.

The recipes that require seasonings haven't been unlocked yet, but based on his previous experience playing this game, Zhang Chengdao recalled all the spices that could be used, and prepared some of them except for chili peppers, which are not available in this era, just in case.

Of course, the most important thing is actually hemp rope. As one of the most basic building materials, it is almost ubiquitous in the early stages of the game. If you don't prepare more, you will definitely be stuck at a certain level.

When the servants from the Liu family brought over two loads of hemp rope, Zhang Chengdao, along with Chang Ping'an and Xu Ying, bid farewell to the others.

The old man of the Liu family chased after him for a good two miles, worried that the "immortal" would never return and that there would be no more "fate with the immortals" in the future. He was also concerned about the "immortal's" promise to send his disciple to bring "immortal wheat" the next day.

The gods... can't go back on their word, can they?
Only when the three figures were completely out of sight did Master Liu return to the county with his steward and servants, sighing and lamenting.

……

There is no master-disciple relationship between us.

Zhang Chengdao frankly told Xu Ying.

Although he did look down on this blue-quality "character," the main reason he refused to take him as a disciple was that he was unsure of Xu Ying's character and his place in the main story of the cheap disciple.

Of course, there was also some concern that if there was a limit to the number of disciples he could take, Xu Ying would have to take up a spot for nothing—he couldn't just expel someone from the sect without a reason, could he?
The three walked and talked.

Xu Ying looked dejected, pondering how to politely take his leave—since he couldn't become the disciple, he wouldn't be so tactless as to cling to the other party.

Before he could even utter a word, Zhang Chengdao suddenly added, "However, although there is no master-disciple relationship between us, it doesn't mean you lack a destiny to become an immortal."

Glancing at his equally dejected apprentice's expression, Zhang Chengdao decided to trick Xu Ying into becoming free labor.

“You can also study the cultivation manual that I passed on to Ping An. If you can comprehend even a little bit of it, that will naturally be your good fortune,” Zhang Chengdao said, deliberately emphasizing, “However, there is no master-disciple relationship between us.”

This was also because he was afraid that Xu Ying would suddenly become his "apprentice" in the character list.

Xu Ying still had some hesitation in her heart.

As a young master from a scholarly family in Jiangnan, Xu Ying, though somewhat "rebellious," possessed a strong sense of pride.

He could squander his fortune in pursuit of martial arts, yet he could also abandon cultivation for the sake of his pride—even though he had witnessed firsthand how Chang Ping'an, a "cripple" with severed Qi channels, transformed into someone who could cripple a fifth-rank master with a single move, and even seen Zhang Chengdao employ techniques like "Universe in the Sleeve" and "Hidden Object in a Mustard Seed." Chang Ping'an, however, didn't think too much about it. He earnestly invited, "Brother Xu, why don't you cultivate with me? The path to immortality is magnificent, a path to longevity far surpassing martial arts. Having already glimpsed the secrets of heaven, how can you give it up?"

The phrase "the way to immortality" was enough to convince Xu Ying, and Chang Ping'an's words, "having already glimpsed the secrets of heaven," made it impossible for him to refuse.

Xu Ying couldn't help but murmur, "Now that I have glimpsed the secrets of heaven... alas, now that I have glimpsed the secrets of heaven, how can I be content to live the rest of my life in mediocrity?"

Having made up his mind, Xu Ying cupped his hands to Zhang Chengdao and said, "In that case, I will trouble Immortal Zhang!"

"It's alright. Life in the mountains is simple and austere, but it has its own unique charm. Please make yourself at home, young friend Xu."

The three of them walked for more than an hour before returning to the thatched hut.

Surrounded by a bamboo fence, nothing in the yard had changed except for the wheat ears in the [farmland]. They were visibly taller and fuller, and Zhang Chengdao could even see the countdown to their ripening.

Upon entering the courtyard, Zhang Chengdao specially granted Xu Ying all the necessary permissions. Then, he used the materials in his backpack to craft a new thatched house, rearranged the bamboo fence, and stuffed the new thatched house inside.

“I built one house for Ping An and me, and one for you too.”

As Zhang Chengdao spoke, he pointed to the house that had suddenly appeared for Xu Ying.

Xu Ying opened her mouth wide, stunned once again.

Is this the power of immortals? Creating things out of thin air with such ease!?
"Ping An, you two go and practice on your own. I have other matters to attend to, so I won't accompany you."

With that, Zhang Chengdao nodded to the two of them and turned to walk towards the back of the house.

I still have plenty of materials in my backpack. I crafted the [Equipment Workshop] and then built the [Stone Stove], both of which are essential buildings for upgrading to level 5.

But the most crucial structures are the city walls, city gates, and arrow towers. These three buildings require a large amount of stone and planks. The stones brought by the huge bluestone from before have been almost used up, so this time, he has to collect them one by one.

The city wall requires the most stones, 100 units; the city gate requires a little less, 50 units; and the arrow tower requires the least, only 20 units.

However, the stones were not difficult to collect. Just like when he collected bluestone, Zhang Chengdao only needed to move a few boulders to solve the problem of stone scarcity. The real trouble was the wooden planks.

The planks were made of wood, but Zhang Chengdao did not have an axe on hand.

He forgot to buy an axe in Feihu County!
Without an axe, only a saw on the workbench, Zhang Chengdao had no choice but to painstakingly use the saw to cut down the very old pine trees on Baishi Mountain bit by bit. He worked until it got dark before he managed to gather more than a thousand planks.

He had a habit of hoarding. Although building something like a city wall wouldn't require that much wood, Zhang Chengdao collected so much just to be prepared.

After finally managing to quietly build these useless structures in a secluded spot and toss them into his backpack, Zhang Chengdao casually returned to the courtyard and upgraded the system panel to level 5.

Today we're starting a trial run! Please read on and vote with your monthly tickets!
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(End of this chapter)