Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

If we're talking about talismans for warding off evil spirits, then the one for protecting the home is the talisman.

Unlike other talismans, which take a lot of time to draw, a protective talisman only requires paper and pen; no other materials are needed.

Xuanqing Temple has always given away protective talismans for free in various places. For example, when the old Taoist priest came to the village to recruit disciples, he gave talismans to every household in the village. Zhuang Xing certainly wouldn't take advantage of such a small gain.

Upon hearing that Zhuangxing was giving away talismans for free, the farmer smiled.

"Your Excellency is truly virtuous. Please come with me to my home to fetch rice!"

"Please, Uncle," Zhuang Xing said.

"Please, Taoist priest." The farmer picked up the clothes he had left by the field, draped them over his shoulder, and walked ahead.

Zhuang Xing and Yan Huai'an went to the farmer's yard and took two liters of rice, which they put into a bag.

One liter of rice is about 1.6 jin (approximately 0.8 kg). When cooked with water, it is enough for one person to eat for about three days.

Then, Zhuang Xing took out a pen and paper he carried with him and drew a protective charm for the farmer to paste in the yard.

"This talisman can also repel mosquitoes, but be careful not to soak it in water, and do not let children tear it off. It can be used for several years, and it will lose its effectiveness when the ink on it dissipates."

The talisman was pasted under the roof beam. While the talisman was being pasted, the villagers heard that a Taoist priest had come and all gathered at the farmer's house.

Some people wanted talismans, so Zhuang Xing simply went all out and drew about a hundred talismans to protect the village, which he then gave to the villagers.

Fortunately, this is a small village; if there were more people, it would take a long time to finish painting it.

Before he left, most of the villagers came to thank him and gave him local specialties.

It's nothing expensive; eggs, a few radishes and cabbages, and fresh green beans are enough to express my gratitude. It wouldn't be appropriate to accept anything too valuable.

The villagers wanted to keep him for the night, but it was still early, and even after he finished drawing the talisman, the sun had not yet risen to its zenith. Unable to refuse their hospitality, Zhuang Xing accepted the village chief's invitation and had lunch there. He then left without lingering.

Zhuang Xing had a good haul; his bundle was stuffed full, with cabbages and round radishes peeking out from one corner. He had wrapped the eggs in cloth and carried them in his hand to prevent them from getting damaged.

"Now that Sister Yan's chronic illness has been cured, has she decided where to go?" Zhuang Xing asked.

Having come to the human world, he began to ponder this question on Yan Huai'an's behalf.

The time I spent walking through the mountains and forests over the past month and a half was not wasted.

Since that winter, Zhuang Xing has never spent so many days with the female knight-errant again.

It's not hard to guess what the female knight is thinking. Although she doesn't talk much, you can tell what she's thinking just by looking at her reactions.

In the days since leaving the snow-capped mountains and heading outwards, Zhuang Xing has made some attempts to test the waters.

Although Yan Huai'an had made the decision to come out, he still seemed unsure of where to go.

The girl was right. She had no relatives left in the world. She was taken in by Yinglong. Given her constitution, her mother must have suffered a lot during her pregnancy. After she was born, the coldness must have quickly manifested itself, which is why her family abandoned her.

Moreover, that was four hundred years ago. Even the dynasty of that time has been reduced to history recorded on paper scrolls, not to mention the people of that era, who have long since turned into dust.

She has no connection with this world; if she wants to go back, she can only go back to Hundred Flowers Valley.

However, when Zhuang Xing was on his way, he asked her several times and realized that the female knight did not seem to want to return to Hundred Flowers Valley.

She left Hundred Flowers Valley years ago to cure her cold ailment, but now, for some reason, she doesn't want to go back.

Zhuang Xing was a little confused, but although the heroine didn't want to go back, she certainly didn't want to travel around anymore. Perhaps she wanted to find a place to settle down.

When Zhuang Xing was drawing talismans for the villagers, the female knight watched him draw them silently, watching him take out paper and pen, and watching him talk to the villagers, explaining the uses and precautions of the talismans.

For Zhuang Xing, a Taoist priest, this was a daily routine.

He was already used to doing this kind of work; it was his job, something he was supposed to do.

As he walked along the road, he noticed that Yan Huai'an's gaze kept glancing at his bundle, which was full of gifts from the villagers.

He wondered, "Does this female knight-errant also want to become a Taoist priest?"

Are they envious that he became a Taoist priest?

It's possible that traveling around in the past wasn't something the female knight-errant wanted to do.

She was forced to work day and night. For so many years, she had been going back and forth for just one thing. Now that she has finished dealing with it, she must want to experience a different life.

That's why he asked the question on Yan Huai'an's behalf. Yan Huai'an was stunned for a moment after hearing his words, and then shook his head.

She was a little absent-minded, and stared blankly at Zhuang Xing's bundle.

What is she thinking?

Zhuang Xing thought about it carefully. There was more food in the bundle, and the female knight kept looking in his direction.

Speaking of which, these past few days, Zhuang Xing has been the one cooking, without letting the female warrior participate.

Why don't we have the heroine cook with him today? We have plenty of ingredients, so we can make something delicious.

Chapter 243 Kitchen

After a day's journey, apart from the village we had just left in the mountains, we followed the ditch upstream until sunset, when we came across another village.

Where there is water, there will be people living.

A wilderness survival expert once said that when you are stranded in the wilderness and can't tell which way to go, just follow the river, and you will eventually find someone.

Since ancient times, people have lived in villages near water.

People will always live along the banks of great rivers, and as the rivers and waterways change, so do the people.

If the water disperses, the people will disperse too.

Feng shui principles hold that a location surrounded by mountains on three sides and bordered by water on one side can "gather and retain qi" (vital energy). This "gathering and retaining qi" means that the mountains on three sides can block wind and sand, stabilize the riverbed, prevent the water flow from deviating, and ensure a continuous supply of water.

Some things may sound mysterious, but the so-called Feng Shui is actually about these simple and pure things.

So they followed the river for a day and finally came to a village where they could rest.

As luck would have it, this was the same village that Zhuang Xing had visited before.

Before he even entered the village, he felt that he had seen the layout of the village houses somewhere before, and he quickly remembered it after getting closer.

That year, a wild serpent, still possessed by nature, came to the fields of this village. During the spring planting season, it coiled itself in the murky paddy field and swallowed a yellow ox. The villager who was driving the ox was also swallowed by the serpent, and its remains were never found.

Zhuang Xing and Yunling followed their senior brother to this place. Yunling used dried snake fruit as bait to lure out the hook snake. Zhuang Xing drew his sword and cut off the hook snake's head, thus completely eliminating the man-eating monster.

Despite not having visited for several years, someone still recognized Zhuang Xing.

There is an old tree in front of the village house. It is sunset, and the elderly and children are enjoying the shade under the tree. Neighbors and villagers are all gathered here chatting.

On the day of the exorcism, many villagers watched from a distance. Although Zhuang Xing had grown up quite a bit, he still wore a Taoist robe and his features remained unchanged. As soon as he walked to the front of the village, an old man said that he looked very familiar. Then someone said his name and asked if he was the little Taoist priest who had come to the village back then.

"I didn't expect that all the uncles and aunts would still remember me."

“How could we forget?” said the man standing in front of Zhuang Xing. “If it weren’t for you Taoist priests, not only would my nephew have died with his eyes wide open in disbelief, but we would have missed the spring planting season, and we wouldn’t know how we would have survived. Those days, we didn’t even dare to sleep, and we kept watch with our brothers every night, afraid that the monster would crawl in and eat people.”

"After that serpent died, have any other monsters been seen in the village?" Zhuang Xing asked.

“I haven’t seen it before. The talismans left by the Taoist priest are incredibly effective. In those summers, there were far fewer mosquitoes at night,” the man said. “Why did the Taoist priest come here? Was he going somewhere to exorcise a demon?”

"It's not about exorcising demons," Zhuang Xing replied. "I was just about to go back to the mountain when I happened to pass by this place and wanted to ask for lodging for the night."

"Please come inside and sit down, Taoist priest," the man said.

Having come here to find shelter from the wind, Zhuang Xing accepted the man's invitation and went into his house.

The man said he was the village chief's younger brother, and that his family had several rooms for entertaining guests. On the first day of the lunar month, they had a wedding and received relatives and guests, so they made room for the Taoist priest and the female knight to stay.

It was dark outside, and there were children playing in front of the house.

Zhuang Xing asked to borrow the stove and pot. The man slapped his forehead and said, "How could I forget that? Daoist, you can rest inside. I'll ask my wife to cook another pot of rice for you."

During the day, men worked in the fields, while women stayed home weaving and cooking. This was how most farming families lived in those days.

However, Zhuang Xing didn't have the face to ask the host to cook him a new pot of rice.

Last time I came, I only dared to mooch a meal from someone else because of the snake.

It was getting dark, and it was well past mealtime. He said that practitioners believe in self-reliance, so he could just borrow a stove and pot.

Seeing that he spoke very seriously, the man probably assumed that this was the Taoist's rule and did not ask for anything more.

Although it was a simple thatched hut, two beds and two rooms were left for Zhuang Xing.

People in the countryside rarely sleep in a bed alone. Usually, parents share one room and children share another. Sometimes, three or four people have to squeeze into a single thatched hut. If there are two empty rooms, it is already considered a thoughtful gesture.

It's clear that the villagers hold Zhuang Xing in high esteem, but even more so in awe.

The man picked up all the children playing in front of the door and took them to another room next door.

After all, Zhuang Xing carried a sword at his waist, and he had even beheaded a hooked snake that was over ten meters long, as thick as an old tree, and capable of swallowing a yellow ox. It was inevitable that ordinary people would be in awe of this power.

Although the man expressed his gratitude, it was more of a respectful one, and there was a slight sense of distance between them in his words.

Compared to the previous village, where every villager enthusiastically asked him to draw talismans, this place was much quieter. After settling in, no one came to disturb him.

Zhuang Xing decided to take things as they came and fill his hungry stomach first, since he was only staying for one night.

"Sister Yan, we finally found a rice cooker and stove. Why don't we cook more dishes today? Sister, could you help me check the heat?" Zhuang Xing proceeded according to the original plan.

“Okay.” Yan Huai’an nodded.

The two went into the kitchen together. Outside the house, the sun had already sunk below the distant horizon, leaving only a long, dark red line outlining its shape, like the wick of an oil lamp being blown out, slowly extinguishing.

As darkness fell, most of the villagers went home.

The chirping of insects could be heard outside, and the last cicadas of summer chirped faintly in the trees. The flames of burning firewood illuminated Yan Huai'an's profile.

Zhuang Xingxian rinsed the rice twice and cooked four ounces of drained rice.

While he was cooking, he asked Yan Huai'an to help him prepare the ingredients.

Peel and slice the radish, and pick some cabbage.

"What am I supposed to do?" Yan Huai'an asked.

She picked up the kitchen knife, her eyes serious.

"Sister, pick out two dishes you like." Zhuang Xing untied the bundle and let Yan Huai'an choose for herself.

"Choose two..." Yan Huai'an hesitated for a moment.

She exhaled, and the cleaver in her hand seemed to transform into a sword. The look in her eyes made it seem as if she wasn't choosing vegetables, but making a life-or-death decision.

She seemed to take this very seriously, perhaps too seriously.