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

Chapter 54 Meeting
Before long, the three of them arrived at the thatched cottage courtyard.

Looking at the simple dwelling before them, Xu Wen and Li Qi exchanged bewildered glances.

"Master, your disciple is incompetent; I failed to catch the thief who stole your things!"

As soon as she entered the courtyard, Murong Ruyan shouted loudly, her tone filled with grievance.

Zhang Chengdao had just synthesized a new batch of [Bamboo Fences] and was synthesizing other materials in the [Workshop] when he heard Murong Ruyan's voice. Without even looking up, he casually reassured her, "It's alright. I'll go and fence off the mulberry grove right away, and then we won't have to worry about this anymore."

Murong Ruyan said "Oh," and then continued, "By the way, Master, two people got lost. They said they came to visit Steward Xu, so I brought them here!"

"To pay a visit to Steward Xu?"

Zhang Chengdao finally raised his head and saw Xu Wen with a curious expression and Li Qi with a disgusted expression.

"Could it be Xu Wen, Xu Wenhe?"

He was a little excited.

Has the "daycare teacher" finally arrived?!

Xu Wen was somewhat surprised that the "immortal" knew his name. He bowed deeply and said, "I am indeed Xu Wen. May I ask... are you the legendary Immortal White Stone?"

Zhang Chengdao offered a perfunctory gesture of support: "It's just hearsay. My surname is Zhang, my given name is Chengdao, I have no courtesy name or pen name. There's no need for such formality. May I ask who this gentleman is...?"

Li Qi had been looking at this "immortal" from left to right for a while, but he couldn't detect even a trace of true energy in him. In fact, his aura was no different from that of an ordinary person, which was very strange. Therefore, he naturally felt a little distrustful. So he simply cupped his hands slightly and introduced himself in a calm tone: "Li Qi, a sixth-rank martial artist, greets Immortal White Stone!"

Zhang Chengdao didn't seem to notice Li Qi's attitude, assuming he was just Xu Wen's bodyguard. So he nodded politely and said, "Nice to meet you."

Xu Wenshang was also impressed by the carefree demeanor of this "immortal"—it was truly rare to find someone in the martial arts world without a name or title. Just as in the countryside, respect for a person begins with their attire, if someone was out in the world without a title, most people probably wouldn't associate with them!
Therefore, seeing Zhang Chengdao so calmly referring to himself as having no given name or title, Xu Wen couldn't help but sigh, "Zhang the Immortal truly has the bearing of an immortal!"

Since hiring Xu Ying as a "professional manager," Zhang Chengdao had not formally engaged in any social activities. Seeing Xu Wen's exclamation, he assumed that they had entered a phase of mutual flattery and casually replied, "You're too kind. I've also heard about your calligraphy and painting from Manager Xu. It's said that they are exceptional in Jiangnan!"

Hearing that Zhang Chengdao knew about his hobby, Xu Wen became even more excited. He spoke with great enthusiasm, "Immortal Zhang also knows that I am good at calligraphy and painting? However, my clumsy works are probably not worthy of being presented to you. If we are talking about calligraphy, the first one to recommend is Wan Qishuyi, the master of Kuaixue Shiqing Manor. His flying white script can be called the number one in the world!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chengdao's mind went blank.

How could he know anything about Feibai Shu or Wanqi Shuyi? He was just saying it casually. Do you really need to do so much research for mutual flattery these days?
Fortunately, just as he was too embarrassed to say anything, Xu Ying's "majestic" figure appeared outside the courtyard gate and rescued Zhang Chengdao in time.

"Wenhe!"

Xu Ying rushed over excitedly, grabbed Xu Wen's hand, and laughed heartily, "Uncle Wenhe has gotten old! He's even grown a beard!"

Xu Wen's eyes crinkled with joy: "The third boy hasn't grown up yet; he's still so impetuous!"

The two exchanged pleasantries for a while before Zhang Chengdao finally interrupted them: "Xu Wenhe must be tired from his journey. Manager Xu, please take him to the guest quarters to rest. We can discuss the rest tomorrow!"

Xu Ying nodded in realization: "Yes, yes, Wenhe, and Uncle Li, you two come with me..." As he spoke, he led the two men into the guest courtyard.

The so-called "guest courtyard" was actually a courtyard that Zhang Chengdao had built long ago after Xu Ying sent the letter. It contained four wooden and tiled houses, a well in the middle, and several bamboo saplings planted behind the houses.

Of all the seedlings bought from the store, only bamboo propagates grow the fastest. Although they are still new bamboo, they have already grown quite tall and lush, making them the most cost-effective choice for decoration within the sect.

During this period, Zhang Chengdao was working hard to clean up the dust... cough, to repair the sect.

For example, the accommodations and "work areas" on the main peaks have been basically set up, and the large areas of farmland have also been moved to Linggeng Peak.

Although each collection, planting, or harvesting requires a ten-minute walk, at least the overall appearance is much neater.

At least once you enter the mountain gate, it won't be a complete mess.

Of course, in order to save money (on peach blossom stones) and materials, Zhang Chengdao had not yet had time to adjust the courtyard where he lived. He only divided the residences of his disciples and Xu Ying into two separate areas. One area was set up as the disciples' residence in an open space not far from the west side of the mountain gate, while the other was built on a low peak in the east specifically for the sect's management personnel. Each house was enclosed in its own courtyard, and the conditions were much better than those of the disciples' residence.

After all, the housing benefits for "professors" and "students" certainly can't be the same!

Once my disciples, who are based on the main characters, have completed their cultivation and taken up positions in the sect, they can "stay at the school" and then move out to improve their living conditions!

As for Zhang Chengdao himself...

It doesn't matter where you sleep, let's save some resources and level up the cheat ability first!

Starting from level 9, upgrading the cheat code becomes very difficult because many of the buildings required for upgrading need special materials, which can not only be purchased from the store, but most of them also need to be planted or cultivated!
For example, it took Zhang Chengdao more than a week to save up enough white wooden planks to upgrade his building from level 9 to level 10.

From level 10 to 11, in addition to the three fixed items (city wall, city gate, and arrow tower), the newly unlocked buildings are the silkworm room and the upgraded study.

The former is used to raise silkworm eggs and produce silkworm cocoons, while the latter unlocks more spells and supernatural power manuals, including several of blue quality ones. One of them, "Detailed Explanation of Wind Control Technique," is so popular that Chang Ping'an is completely engrossed in learning it.

That thing can really fly once you learn how to use it!

Because of this, Chang Ping'an wasn't the only one who was completely obsessed; Zhang Chengdao himself also secretly read it.

In order to avoid losing face in front of his disciple, he would always turn off the [Study Room] access when Chang Ping'an went to meditate or help gather resources in the wild—to prevent anyone from accidentally entering—before he could secretly practice.

So recently, Chang Ping'an and Murong Ruyan have been very busy. In addition to cultivating, they also frequently "inspect" the various mountain peaks and do whatever they can, such as shaking the trees to pick up fallen materials.

For example, the theft incident in Sanglin was first discovered by Murong Ruyan.

Some readers have asked why there haven't been any illustrations lately. It's because I'm moving, and there's no internet at my new place, so I can't add illustrations (you can only add illustrations when publishing chapters on a computer). I've been typing and publishing chapters on my phone these past few days.
The internet is back up now~ I'll add more illustrations later~ I'm really into this game, haha.

There's a daily limit to the number of illustrations I can upload, so I might not be able to add all the illustrations from the earlier chapters. Anyway, I'll continue to upload suitable illustrations.
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(End of this chapter)