Family Cultivation: My Ancestral Home Gets Infinite Upgrades

Chapter 106 The Development of Qinglu Mountain

Halfway up Qinglu Mountain.

Yue'er was sitting on the back of a sturdy mountain boar, patrolling the mountain.

Noticing her younger brother engrossed in climbing the mountain, she raised her voice slightly: "Stone, this morning Rat told me that someone entered our sacred field last night. What happened?"

The boy looked up at the sound and smiled, "Second sister, don't worry, it's been resolved."

"Just two blind thieves set their sights on the blood-tooth rice in the field."

His tone revealed a hint of relief: "This time, it's all thanks to those rock rats you raised that they brought the news in time."

"Otherwise, they might actually succeed."

My heart is content as long as nothing is lost.

Yue'er breathed a sigh of relief, a smile appearing on her face: "Father was right. He had me start raising these rock rats two years ago, and now they're coming in handy."

The Earth Rock Rat is an earth-attribute spirit beast, adept at digging burrows for shelter.

This thing reproduces quickly, and because its bloodline is only of low grade, it can only cultivate to the late stage of the first level at most, which is equivalent to the perfect Qi Refining stage of a cultivator, so it is not expensive on the market.

Two years ago, Jiang Fu'an made a special trip to Yueling Market and bought several pairs of them.

However, the one that brought the news last night was not a purebred rock rat.

It was a semi-spirit beast born from the hybrid of a rock rat and a common field mouse.

Jiang Fu'an raises livestock in this way because the cost is low.

Half-spirit beasts are not picky eaters and grow quickly;

Secondly, precisely because they are weak, they are inconspicuous when mixed in with the wild, making them perfect for keeping an eye on the movements in the area around Qinglu Mountain.

"Second sister, do you know where Father is right now?"

Shi Tou had just dealt with two rogue cultivators and needed to report to Jiang Fu'an.

Yue'er turned her neck and pointed to the east side of the mountainside.

There stood a newly built house, with blue tiles and white walls, which was very conspicuous in the green forest.

"I just saw Father go to the workshop where he makes talisman paper; he'd only been inside a short while."

Stone nodded: "Then I'll go find Father. Second Sister, be careful."

The workshop is not far from the mountainside, and you can see people coming and going from afar.

Several men were pulling out thick, black bamboo stalks from a small mountain of bamboo, carrying them on their shoulders, and slowly moving them into the workshop to hand them over to the papermaking craftsmen inside.

These black bamboos were planted two years ago and only recently matured.

This is the busiest time right now.

Stone sidestepped a load of bamboo and slipped into the workshop.

The interior space is quite large, more than enough to accommodate dozens of people working.

At this moment, about twenty craftsmen were scattered around, carefully processing the black bamboo that had just been moved in.

A faint, fishy smell of bamboo filled the air.

Shi Tou glanced around and quickly found Jiang Fu'an by the window.

His father was holding several newly made talismans, examining them closely against the light outside the window.

The paper is slightly yellow in color and has a uniform and tough texture.

Stone didn't speak immediately. He tiptoed closer and stood quietly waiting.

Jiang Fu'an examined it for a while before revealing a satisfied expression: "Not bad. The paper's toughness and spiritual energy permeability are sufficient to support a mid-grade first-tier talisman."

He had actually made similar talismans before, but those were made from the hides of first-tier spirit beasts, and the production was very limited.

These are different. The raw material is black bamboo that grows all over the mountains, and the workers are farmers hired from the foot of the mountain.

This means that from then on, such talismans could be produced in batches and continuously.

Seeing that his father had finished inspecting the goods, Stone whispered, "Father, two more rogue cultivators came by last night, trying to steal Blood Fang Rice. I took care of them."

Jiang Fu'an showed no surprise.

In the past two years, Qinglu Mountain has received nearly ten such "guests".

He was more interested in the spoils: "What did I get?"

"Very poor."

Shi Tou shook his head and took out a storage bag from his pocket. There were still some dark brown bloodstains on the bag. "The two of us only have a little over ten spirit stones together. Only two low-grade magic weapons are somewhat decent. The rest are all junk."

As he spoke, he handed the bag over.

These kinds of spoils of war are always handled by Jiang Fu'an at home.

Jiang Fu'an took it and casually hung it on his waist, but then changed the subject to another matter: "Shi Tou, I plan to go to Yue Ling Market tomorrow."

"Now that the production of talisman paper and cinnabar is stable, the conditions for opening a shop are also complete, so it's time to look for a suitable storefront."

Currently, the making of talismans and cinnabar is being carried out by Miao people leading hired villagers.

As for drawing talismans, Jiang Fu'an and Jiang Xiangqian were mainly responsible for drawing mid-grade first-tier talismans.

A year ago, Jiang Xiangqian broke through the bottleneck on his own without relying on the Spirit Gathering Pill, reaching the mid-stage of Qi Refining.

Now, his success rate in talisman-making is slightly higher than Jiang Fu'an's.

The first-grade low-rank talismans were given to Jiang Xiangshen and Lin Erya.

They both broke through to the first level of Qi Refining a few months ago.

Jiang Xiangqian simplified the drawing methods of several commonly used low-grade talismans, making them much easier to learn.

After practicing for these days, the two not only learned how to use the spells, but also maintained a success rate of over 60%.

To be honest, they've only been cultivating for two years at most, and both of them have the slowest progress among the five spiritual roots. Logically speaking, it's impossible for them to reach the first level of Qi Refining so quickly.

However, each of them had their own unique experiences:

Jiang Xiangshen benefited from Jiang Fu'an's connections, and was able to obtain Qi-Nourishing Pills from time to time to aid his cultivation;

Lin Erya, on the other hand, possesses the Xuan Yin Body, making it twice as effective to cultivate Yin-attribute techniques.

In the Five Elements, water and earth belong to Yin.

After Jiang Fu'an brought her to Qinglu Mountain, he passed on his cultivation technique, "Azure Water Technique," to her.

Now her cultivation speed is no slower than that of a cultivator with three spiritual roots.

Upon hearing about opening a shop, Shi Tou's eyes lit up immediately: "Dad, don't worry! My second sister and I will keep an eye on things at home, nothing will go wrong."

He knew in his heart that once he had his own shop in Moon Spirit Market, it would be equivalent to having a stable source of income.

Unlike in recent years, when the majority of their income came from these freelance monks who would come knocking on their doors to "deliver wealth."

Jiang Fu'an didn't give any further instructions.

Now that Shi Tou and Yue'er are both capable of handling things on their own, he can truly rest assured with them guarding Qinglu Mountain.

After leaving the workshop, he went straight back to the Jiang family mansion on the mountaintop.

The study door was ajar.

Pushing open the door, one sees a girl in a pale yellow dress standing beside a desk, leaning over and pointing to an open booklet, explaining it softly to two children, who are about seven or eight years old.

Jiang Fu'an brought these two children back from the Spiritual Root Testing Conference this year.

Hearing the door open, the young girl looked up and saw Jiang Fu'an. A smile immediately appeared on her face as she put down the booklet in her hand and came to greet him: "Master is back."

Jiang Fu'an nodded and handed her the bloodstained storage bag: "Er Ya, this is what Shi Tou just brought back. Check it, register it, and put it in the storage room."

In the past two years, Lin Erya has had no worries about food and clothing at the Jiang family home, and her appearance has changed a lot.

Her originally dark and rough skin is now fair and smooth.

Her dry, sparse hair has become black and thick.

The only thing that Jiang Fu'an found somewhat regrettable was that Er Ya's appearance was still ordinary, far from being described as "stunningly beautiful".

It's unclear whether it's because he's still young and hasn't fully matured, or whether his "Mysterious Yin Body" hasn't yet taken effect.