Immortality and Cultivation: Starting with Harvesting the Talents of Demonic Beasts

Chapter 18: Meeting an Old Friend (Please continue reading!!! Orz)

That said, the land reclamation tax is quite high: ten low-grade spirit stones for each "small reclamation" and twenty spirit stones for each "large reclamation".

Ordinary independent cultivators simply cannot afford it, so they have no choice but to bite the bullet and go for it.

However, some independent cultivators believe that the exploration of uncharted territory, which is a more in-depth exploration of primitive lands rarely visited by people, will yield greater rewards, and they eagerly anticipate it.

Unlike independent cultivators, cultivation families are different; they must venture into the wilderness to cultivate the land and cannot be hired as servants!

However, members can be freely selected within the family. If the number is insufficient, a "small number of replacements" can be made by paying double the pioneer tax.

Regardless of the circumstances, the "Great Pioneer" – a time of both opportunity and danger – is finally approaching, regardless of public sentiment.

……

"What? Less than three miles outside the market town, a merchant's delivery team was robbed and murdered?"

That day, Lin Changheng had just come out of Xu's alchemy shop when he heard the shopkeepers of the two neighboring shops talking.

"Yes, it's said to be the Ge family's. Not only were all their goods looted, but several of their cultivators were also killed, their limbs and mutilated bodies scattered all over the ground, none of them survived. These robbers are too rampant!"

"This neighborhood will... cough, this is an inevitable result, but I didn't expect the chaos to come so quickly. Before, the Wang family would definitely be furious and crack down hard, but now... it seems we also have to inform the family and deal with it properly."

"Absolutely! When we evacuate, we must send more cultivators from our clan to meet us! We must ensure that everything goes smoothly!"

One of the shopkeepers nodded, then hesitated, "But... was the person who made the move truly a Tribulation Cultivator?"

The other shopkeeper was also taken aback upon hearing this, then fell silent. After a long while, he finally managed to utter two words, "Be careful what you say."

Then the two of them picked up their small stools and returned to their respective beds without saying a word, their tacit understanding unwavering.

Lin Changheng, who had been standing in front of Xu's shop for a while and had actually overheard most of what was going on, also became somewhat serious.

Has the situation outside the market become this chaotic?

When I leave with the Xu family, will I also encounter such bad luck?
He, who has always been steady and never left the market, is now starting to feel uneasy.

"No, we have to mention this to Master Mo. No matter what kind of people are outside the neighborhood—they are bandits, enemies, or whatever—we need to ask the Xu family to take this seriously!"

Having made his decision, Lin Changheng immediately turned back, went up to the second floor, knocked on Master Mo's door, and talked for a long time before leaving.

"not enough!"

Although Lin Changheng had six talismans on him, he still lacked a sense of security. His eyes flickered as he pondered to himself.

……

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Master Mo reported this to his family and received a response.

The Xu family has already taken action, uniting with five or six Qi Refining families with good relations and close ties to negotiate a joint withdrawal.

They agreed to evacuate the market at the same time.

Several families also agreed that it was a suitable approach.

In addition, the Xu family also sent an elder in the late stage of Qi Refining and two key members in the middle stage of Qi Refining to Zichuanfang to transfer some supplies and spirit stones back to the clan in advance.

To avoid taking everything at once and concentrating too much risk.

As the third-in-command of the Xu family's alchemy shop, Lin Changheng was naturally qualified to know the inside story.

However, he refused to delve deeper into the details, citing the need for secrecy.

In fact, Lin Changheng had thought one step further.

If the plan goes smoothly, all will be well, and everyone will be happy.

If a mistake is made and someone is held accountable, he will inevitably face a lot of trouble because he is less experienced than Master Mo and has less of a personal relationship with the shopkeeper.

It's better not to know.

Extricate yourself from the situation!
Mo Shi and Xu Qianyou were taken aback when they heard this. After exchanging a glance, both of them were surprised. However, they both outwardly agreed and followed his advice.

So in the end, Lin Changheng only knew a vague general idea.

A few days later, Lin Changheng arrived at the Xu family's alchemy shop as usual.

Once inside.

"Brother Lin."

A rather honest-sounding voice, mixed with surprise, immediately rang in Lin Changheng's ears.

"Hmm? Fugui?"

Lin Changheng looked in the direction of the voice and saw a dark-skinned man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, who was slightly overweight, grinning at him.

The two moved closer to each other, patting each other on the shoulder, clearly both very happy.

Fu Gui also has the surname Xu, but he is not a member of the Xu family of the Blackwater River.

Instead, the immortal seedling discovered in the mortal realm was a farmer's son, not from the same town as Lin Changheng.

At the Spirit Testing Conference, with eleven strands of water-based spiritual energy and a aptitude barely reaching the lower-grade spiritual root level, he was selected to join the Xu family along with Lin Changheng.

The two got along quite well and had a good conversation.

Later, faced with two paths offered by the Xu family, his choice differed from Lin Changheng's "guest minister path," and he resolutely decided to marry into the Xu family.

According to the Xu family rules

You can choose three Xu family girls if you have a low-grade spiritual root.

You can only choose two mixed spiritual roots.

At the welcoming banquet for the Xu family's immortal offspring, he was in high spirits and took a fancy to three graceful and charming mortal women from the Xu family.

Although none of these three Xu family women possessed spiritual roots, they were still descendants of cultivators and could not escape the matter of "marriage," but they had a certain degree of choice in whom they married.

Xu Fugui's low-grade spiritual root was among the best of the newly arrived immortal seedlings, and they were all perceptive and did not refuse him.

Therefore, he won the hearts of three beauties!
Without any formalities, they entered the bridal chamber that very night.

Later, when Lin Changheng was about to leave for Zichuanfang, Xu Fugui came to see him off, quite reluctant to part with him. Lin Changheng also asked him about his thoughts before marrying into the family and his experiences thereafter.

Xu Fugui smiled, a sly glint in his otherwise honest demeanor:
"What does it matter if it's an extra child or not? Hehe, anyway, all the children born will have the surname 'Xu'."

"Back then, the old tycoon in our village married two beautiful women, making everyone envious. Who would have thought that I, a penniless nobody, could marry three so easily?"

Finally, after cautiously glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention, he whispered that he was doing well in everything else, except that it was too hard on his kidneys, and asked Brother Lin to help him find some secret techniques for replenishing yang energy in the market...

Upon hearing this, Lin Changheng chuckled and left, readily agreeing.

……

"I heard that Brother Lin has finally advanced to the level of alchemist. Ten years of hope have finally come true."

The two maintained a correspondence, though infrequently, about once a year.

"Fugui, you're not bad either, you've broken through to the fifth level of Qi Refining."

"Hehe, this is all thanks to my five sons, who possess mid-grade spiritual roots, which earned me a substantial reward from the clan. However, I must also thank Brother Lin for finding the 'Dragon Essence Secret Technique' for me..."

Lin Changheng nodded; he knew about the matter and had even given a gift in return.

This was also a lavish move by the Xu family, intended to encourage the many promising young immortals to work harder at creating offspring and stop focusing on their meager cultivation levels.

Only by creating more can one have a higher chance of developing cultivation aptitude and potentially producing lower or middle spiritual roots.

However, it is not easy to give birth to offspring with spiritual roots. In ten years, Xu Fugui had six children, and only his third son had a spiritual root, which was a mixed spiritual root.

The fifth son suddenly developed a mid-grade spiritual root.

But the sixth son was a mortal.

There was absolutely no pattern to it, and the mothers of the two spiritual offspring were not even the same person.

(End of this chapter)