Family Cultivation: Rise of the Wilderness

Chapter 45 The Inducing Academy

After the meeting, Li Xiangming returned to Changtai West Township. As for the animal breeding facility, that won't happen anytime soon.

Changlinfang was merely an auxiliary institution providing strategic advice, not a decision-making body.

Even though Li Qianxiong had made up his mind, he still had to discuss it with the clan elders in the end.

The establishment of animal breeding facilities necessitates the establishment of animal trapping facilities; the establishment of animal trapping facilities necessitates the expansion into Puyin Mountain.

This involves too many complexities and will likely take several months.

Construction in Xixiang is in full swing, and Li Xiangshuo is very responsible, always completing the project on time.

Li Xiangming inspected the area and was very satisfied.

At this pace, Dongcheng will be fully completed in two or three years, and will be able to accommodate at least 100,000 people.

After the East City is finished, there are the West City, the North City, and the South City.

Even if the entire western part of the township is developed, the eastern part will still need to be transformed.

Li Xiangming sighed, "The task is arduous and the road ahead is long."

He immediately gathered everyone in the accounting office and announced several things that were about to be done.

The first and most important thing is undoubtedly to test the spiritual roots of children.

“It’s easy to handle in Xixiang. Just notify each village and have the elders in the family bring the children of school age to the market for unified testing. It shouldn’t take more than a few days.”

Li Qianbai said that there are few people in Xixiang and not many markets, which greatly facilitates the work of the accounting office.

In contrast, Dongxiang does not have the concept of "market town," so it would undoubtedly take a lot of effort for the Li family monks to go down to the villages and inspect them one by one.

"Without the supervision of monks, won't there be instances of oversight going unchecked?"

Li Xiangming raised questions.

Although to mortals, immortal masters are high above, possessing the power to control life and death, and are something everyone dreams of.

However, becoming a Celestial Master is unattainable; it means leaving one's family and making the world one's home.

Some parents cannot bear to be separated from their six- or seven-year-old children, so they will hide the child's age and prevent them from having their spiritual roots tested.

This situation is rare, but it happens every year. The Li family has issued a special order that anyone who does not cooperate with the testing of spiritual root aptitude will be sentenced to ten years of hard labor once discovered, and this will not be able to be stopped.

"This"

Li Qianbai couldn't guarantee anything; establishing authority was easy, but the effectiveness was another matter.

Even with a monk present to supervise, it's impossible to check the bone age of every child in every household.

If this were done, testing spiritual roots would undoubtedly be a difficult task for the four-person Upper Accounting Office.

Li Xiangming knew this too, so he instructed, "Xiangqi, go and inform Li Tong to send the tax collectors to the villages. Their words might be more effective than ours."

After thinking for a moment, he decided that it was better to guide than to block, and said, "Our accounting office will pay a sum of money. For each person whose spiritual root is detected and who is taken away by their family, we will reward them with 40 taels of silver. The tax official in charge of notifying the child will receive 15 taels, and the child's family will receive 25 taels."

"No, increase the reward to 50 taels, and the village will also receive 10 taels."

With a generous reward, there will surely be brave men. Li Xiangming believed that even if some parents wanted to conceal their child's bone age, the tax collectors and villages familiar with them would not turn a blind eye.

He wasn't worried about whether he could afford the generous reward of 50 taels.

In order to build up the two villages, Shangjifang applied for a batch of gold and silver from Danggui Mountain, which has not yet been spent.

Moreover, the markets in Xixiang were all owned by the government, and the profits from renting or selling them were considerable.

Apart from a portion used by the government offices themselves, the remainder of these revenues were held by the Accounting Office.

"Xiang Qi and I will be in charge of the matter of spiritual roots. Xiang Shuo will continue to oversee the construction of Xixiang. In addition, there is another important matter that I will entrust to Uncle Qianbai."

Li Xiangming looked at Li Qianbai and told him about the Li family gathering.

“I will call this place Changyang Valley. You will lead five hundred people to begin its reconstruction now.”

As he spoke, Li Xiangming handed over some sketches containing his ideas to Li Qianbai.

After reading it, Li Qianbai smiled wryly and said, "It's just a small gathering, does it really need to be so complicated?"

"If it can be used once, why can't it be used a second time?"

Li Xiangming smiled slightly. Changyang Valley is in a good location. It is some distance from Tailai Peak, but it can be considered the heartland.

The valley has a flat terrain and a wide view outside, which led the police to designate it as a key monitoring area, occasionally opening it to outside cultivators. In the long run, it may well form a cultivation market exclusively for the Li family.

Even if it's not possible, as long as people come, the Li family can absorb some good young men from among them and use them for their own purposes, which would be good. After hearing Li Xiangming's idea, Li Qianbai was greatly impressed and thought it over carefully. No wonder the other party was able to become the acting head at such a young age.

After explaining the situation, Li Xiangming dismissed everyone, leaving Li Xiangqi alone.

"Six years old? Wasn't it usually seven?"

Li Xiangqi was greatly astonished.

"This year is special; everyone over six years old will be tested. The seven-year-olds will be sent up the mountain, while the rest will remain in Xixiang for the time being."

"Why?"

Li Xiangqi couldn't help but ask.

"You are a disciple of a branch lineage, you should know the current situation of the Green Seedling Academy, right?"

Upon hearing this, Li Xiangqi fell silent.

Do you think the Green Seedling Academy is good or bad right now?

Li Xiangming stared into his eyes.

"I do not know."

Li Xiangqi lowered his head, then quickly raised it again and said, "But I feel something is not normal."

The children in Qingmiao Academy are mostly from other branches of the family, so of course they're not normal.

Many people noticed this, but dared not say it.

Li Xiangming knew this well. He pointed to Xixiang City and said, "Do you remember the Youxue Academy that I put in charge of with Xiangshuo a while ago?"

"The Inducement Hall?"

Li Xiangqi was puzzled, but quickly replied, "I remember, you said at the time that your family wanted to improve education in Changtai Township."

"To be precise, its existence is for the purpose of educating children with spiritual roots."

Li Xiangming said calmly.

"To educate children with spiritual roots?"

Li Xiangqi was a smart man and quickly realized, "A six-year-old child left at the academy?"

"That's right, they will study general education at the Youxue Academy for a year, and then go up the mountain when they are seven years old."

As you know, the Hunyuan Ruyi Jin is complex and involves a lot of knowledge from the Taoist canon. It is really difficult for a seven or eight-year-old child to practice it. The family had no choice but to arrange for an instructor to break it down sentence by sentence, which took as long as two years.

However, the direct lineage children have long studied the Daoist Canon, but only your branch lineage, no, only your branch lineage from Changtai Township, has never been exposed to it.

If I'm not mistaken, your father is a mortal, isn't he?

Li Xiangqi looked somber. He had indeed come from the mortal world, the son of a farmer, and was able to become a cultivator simply because his surname was Li.

However, although he carried the blood of the Li family, he was of mediocre talent, matured late, and his path to enlightenment was extremely difficult.

In comparison, although Sang-seok is also from a branch family, Uncle Yoo-kyum, at the age of seven or eight, knew far more than him.

Therefore, with the same aptitude, others are at the fourth level of Qi Refining, while he is still at the second level.

"I'm not afraid to tell you, the direct lineage children are unwilling to waste these two years, so fewer and fewer people are entering the Green Seed Academy. Have you thought about what the consequences will be once the Green Seed Academy completely loses its direct lineage students?"

"The consequence will be that the family will no longer value the Green Seedling Academy, but instead promote education for each branch, and the offshoots will become a part that is abandoned."

Li Xiangqi gritted his teeth. In fact, there were already signs of this, but faced with the protests from the branch, the direct branch went its own way and just brushed him off with one sentence: "Is it wrong for my child not to go to school?"

Upon hearing this, the weak and outnumbered branch cultivators had no choice but to leave with livid faces.

"You know that the conflict between the main lineage and the branch lineage has existed since the moment you stepped into Zhangning Prefecture. It's not the fault of one or two people, nor can it be resolved by one or two people."

However, regardless of the circumstances, the family shouldn't ignore the situation. The head of the family also intends to alleviate these conflicts through the Green Seedling Academy, and the so-called Enticing Academy is one such fulcrum.

After listening to Li Xiangming's explanation, Li Xiangqi finally understood the key to the Youxue Academy.

By having children in the branch villages of Changtai Township study a year in advance at the learning center, they won't be at a loss when they go up the mountain.

The Qingmiao Academy can also reduce preschool education by one year, making it more acceptable for children with direct blood.

He didn't know if this would benefit the straight meridians, but it was clearly very good for the branch meridians.

Li Xiangqi couldn't help but look at Li Xiangming, deeply moved. He knew that the so-called family head was just a pretext, and the one who truly pushed this matter forward was Li Xiangming. Otherwise, why would the Youxue Academy only appear after Li Xiangming came to the Shangji Office?

(End of this chapter)