Chapter 64 Chapter 64 Part 2
A cultivator's intuition cannot be ignored, Lin Xinghuo thought gloomily as he was busy making glutinous rice balls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival.
The master really showed no mercy when it came to betraying his own disciples.
There is also Uncle Mao. In order to get back his real name of only one character, Lin Xinghuo could only accept the refuge of A Nian's "poor relative" with tears.
"Anian!" Move your claws faster!
Lin Xinghuo glanced at the caracal who was pushing the winnowing basket to get the stuffing coated with glutinous rice flour, indicating to him that there were dozens of mouths waiting to eat, and as the new village chief, he couldn't let his guard down.
Anian the cat's paws were sore, so he asked the cat to stand up and use its two little paws to turn the Yuanxiao winnowing basket. People are doing things!
The caracal was reluctant to be mean to its human, so it swept its furry tail and a small ball of lightning hit Qingji who was pulling his brand new wooden cart in the yard. Qingji quickly touched his hat and saw that it was not broken. Then he said embarrassedly, "I'm going to go fishing." Then he disappeared.
"You're bullying Qingji again." Lin Xinghuo suddenly became malicious and poked the macaque on the forehead, giving it a red dot.
With a round red dot on his head, Anian squinted his eyes and said sarcastically, "Qingji is only this useful."
In fact, in the entire village of monsters, more than Qingji can be of use. There are more than 20 monsters with their own abilities, and they are all trying their best to repay Lin Xinghuo and the caracal. But except for a few that are in slightly better conditions, the others have to be raised for a winter.
Lin Xinghuo was stunned when he inspected them that day. The bodies of these strange beasts and monsters were not even as good as those of the old cadres who were sent down from Hetan Farm. In fact, they were far worse. Fortunately, they were monsters, otherwise, if they were humans, they would have died of exhaustion several times... It was only this tenacious vitality that made people feel that they were indeed not ordinary cows, deer, dragonflies, etc.
Lin Xinghuo wasn't so ruthless as to abandon the situation. Furthermore, among Yumin's belongings were not only the urns of the three, but also a long letter from her master. The letter pleaded with any cultivators who found the area not to harm the weakened and vulnerable spirits. If they could offer assistance, they could come to Buxian Temple on Lotus Peak to discuss the Dao with her. The master promised to share everything she knew. The letter also contained a page addressed specifically to the descendants of Buxian Temple, stating that if any spirits in the village were in dire straits, they could bring the letter to the descendants of Buxian Temple for help, and that the descendants could not refuse...
This letter is one of the most important things that Yumin entrusted to Qingji for safekeeping, and it has been hidden in Qingji's precious little yellow robe.
Even before Lin Xinghuo saw the letter, he had already softened under the stubborn, gloomy silence of the old man. After all, that was the manul's former home, and he always owed a debt of love and care to the feathered people and the spirits. The manul didn't take the initiative to take responsibility, simply because the mountain home was his and Lin Xinghuo's shared home. He had to raise a family of cubs, and he didn't want to unnecessarily pass his burden on to his family. But Lin Xinghuo immediately emptied most of his storage bag: spiritual rice, spiritual fruit, spiritual honey... Without letting the manul feel guilty about refusing, he gave everything he had to thank his old friend.
Then Qingji wailed and handed the "Village Chief Crown" to Tumang, and then, there was the letter from his master.
Don't ask why Qingji didn't take the letter to Lin Xinghuo when the spirits were starving. The letter left by his master still contained half a small, pale blue plaque similar to the one Lin Xinghuo wore around his neck. For spirits who can identify people by their auras, finding Lin Xinghuo, who had been influenced by Buxian Temple for over a decade, wouldn't be particularly difficult. The only problem is that Qingji couldn't read! He had treasured the remains of the Feather People for nearly twenty years, completely unaware that the solution to his predicament was right in his arms. If he had been able to read, he would have taken the letter to Buxian Temple long ago, and the spirits wouldn't have starved so badly.
This is another important reason why Lin Xinghuo is willing to take in this group of monsters: these monsters risked their lives to fight hunger, but none of them had the idea of eating humans, let alone cannibalism.
Of course, it's also possible that they're too weak, and if they show up rashly, they might get beaten back and eaten. After all, it's either a cow or a musk deer. The only "dragon armor" that sounds impressive is actually a red dragonfly with forked antennae. This one is also slightly less weak, and I heard that it works hard to catch mosquitoes and eat them in the summer.
Other monsters, such as Linghu, which is a relatively large one, are so weak that they even have to avoid wild boars in the forest. However, when they are foraging in the mountains and forests, they will inexplicably attract monsters like the previous monster pig, which are not intelligent but different, to hunt them.
At first, Lin Xinghuo and the caracal thought it odd that they, guarding the vast mountain treasure trove, had starved themselves to such an extent. But as the spirits tearfully devoured their food, Lin Xinghuo realized—they were actually even gluttons! Good thing they didn't dare enter or leave the forest at will, otherwise they would have eaten the entire mountain near Jinjiayao bare. No wonder spirits normally roamed in different places, with only a few special species living in groups.
Even the red dragonfly Longjia is like this, which makes people suspect that there is another space in the monster's stomach.
According to legend, dragon armor is born from the scales shed by a dragon. Whoever catches it will get sick. Lin Xinghuo has never seen this ability to curse disease, but its appetite is really worthy of its origin. I guess raising a dragon would require this much food.
That day, Lin Xinghuo even took out the alchemy furnace to cook rice. After all, rice cooked with water is more filling. In this special time of year, only a wood-attributed cultivator like Lin Xinghuo, who works hard and reaps tenfold, can afford to entertain...
*
However, the spirits were well-educated by the Feathered People and were grateful for their kindness. They also had their own unique abilities, which, while not comparable to those of their ancient counterparts, were indeed incomparable.
Fang Hui, who was wearing two copper earrings, told Lin Xinghuo through the caracal when he recovered some of his strength that he could bring the old man to it. "Seeing it can prolong one's life" means that Fang Hui can give his life span to anyone who sees it, but Fang Hui gives ten and anyone can get one at most, which means that it will cost Fang Hui ten years of his life to add one year to someone else's life at most. Only Fang Hui himself has a vague sense of how much he will get.
Fang Hui's life can grow like a budding plant; spiritual energy, food, sun essence, moonlight... all can extend its lifespan. The Fang Hui of our family originally had a short lifespan, but after being fed with Lin Xinghuo's spiritual food, he regained some of his vitality and began to repay his kindness. However, according to the caracal's inherited memories, the true Fang Hui of ancient times was far more powerful. Without spiritual energy or the sun or moon, even after 500 years of suspended animation, he could still grant 50 years of longevity on the first day of awakening. Even an ordinary person would consider 50 years of lifespan a long lifespan: this is why there's a record of "once in 500 years, a long lifespan is seen." And Lin Xinghuo's Fang Hui, now barely over a decade old, was about to contribute a full lifespan.
Linghu, still able to run and move, went to the brigade the next day to work, earning work points for Lin Xinghuo. This big-necked ox, which couldn't moo but only called "Linghu Linghu," had become a mute, eating little and working hard in the village. This distressed the old breeder, Uncle Huang San, so much so that he chased him to the mountain retreat, bringing half a cart of silage, saying it was to help Linghu, who was so thin his ribs were visible. The old man had already made up a story for Lin Xinghuo: the little fairy had rescued an animal when she went into the mountains, and the rescued ox had returned home with the little fairy, and was working to repay her kindness.
Old farmers believed that cattle were the most intelligent of all livestock. Just a few days after Linghu came down from the mountains, several elderly men and women in the village were already discussing pooling money to make him a pure copper nose ring. Lin Xinghuo couldn't stop them, but she also refused to take the elderly people's hard-earned savings. She simply accepted some scrap metal from each family and forged a gleaming copper ring herself: a clear path forward for her gourd furnace. Lin Xinghuo's family had become quite interested in glassmaking, and they had accumulated a large amount of it, hoping to install windows in the village and at Hetan Farm.
As for Ling Hu, his tail still had only a faint reddish tip, but he had honestly ripened the bowl-shaped tumor on his neck and handed it to Lin Xinghuo. It turned out that this tumor, eaten alone, could cure epilepsy. When combined with other spiritual herbs and fed into Lin Xinghuo's alchemy furnace, it had many benefits. With Lin Xinghuo's current level of cultivation, it was perfectly suited for refining the Concentrating Mind Pill. The Concentrating Mind Pill not only focused the mind and calmed the spirit, improving the quality of cultivation, but also possessed the miraculous ability to increase spiritual awareness. Don't underestimate this tiny bit of spiritual awareness. With a constant supply of Concentrating Mind Pills, accumulated little by little, by the time Lin Xinghuo reached Foundation Establishment, his spiritual awareness would be at least one-tenth or two-tenths greater than that of cultivators of similar cultivation. This extra spiritual awareness would be enough for Lin Xinghuo to perform two more magical techniques in a duel... Spiritual awareness increases exponentially with cultivation level, and the spiritual awareness at Foundation Establishment determines its future breadth.
After Lin Xinghuo replaced the Concentrating Spirit Grass in the Concentrating Spirit Pill with the Collared Hu Sarcoma, supplemented with other herbs, the effect was surprisingly more pronounced than described in the inheritance. This greatly helped Lin Xinghuo, who had been cultivating Polygala tenuifolia for many days but still hadn't been able to advance it to the first-level Concentrating Spirit Grass.
As for the medicine beast, it became Lin Xinghuo's right-hand man in alchemy, possessing a far greater understanding of medicinal properties than Lin Xinghuo himself. The fact that Hu Sarcoma could replace Mind-Concentrating Grass was something the medicine beast had taught him—Lin Xinghuo truly believed the legend that "Emperor Huangdi learned medicine from the medicine beast" might be true. And don't be fooled by the small white ox's mere mooing; its partnership with the fox is incredible. One possesses an innate understanding of medicinal properties, while the other handles everything from collecting herbs to transplanting them. Even the caracal, under the big cub's orders, was forced to work overtime to establish a new herb garden...
Dragon Armor, on the other hand, displayed another kind of talent. Perhaps because it was born from dragon scales, Red Dragonfly had an intuition about refining weapons that was close to "Tao".
Neither weapon refining nor alchemy can be learned on their own simply by being given a recipe. For example, before receiving guidance from the medicine beast, Lin Xinghuo, despite the added bonus of her pure wood spiritual roots to spiritual medicine, could only refine inferior elixirs like "Jade Paste." As for weapon refining, for example, the rake she forged, imitating Marshal Tianpeng's nine-toothed rake, was only slightly sharper and more durable than ordinary farm implements. Its teeth easily broke when it encountered the candle dragon gall. Later, even after re-refining it in the gourd furnace, it still couldn't reach the threshold of a first-tier magical instrument. It should be noted that Lin Xinghuo's sixth-level Qi Refining cultivation should have upgraded to a second-tier magical instrument long ago, when the ancient spiritual energy was rich.
Despite guidance and assistance, the gap between Lin Xinghuo and the Dao of Instruments remained unbridged—Longjia's method of communicating through antennae proved too difficult for Lin Xinghuo to cultivate. After the first experiment, Longjia's miniature antler-shaped antennae were nearly ripped off by the unenlightened human, who, in her frustration, destroyed her hair, which had been hard-earned.
On the other hand, the caracal, perhaps having adapted to the goblins' chaotic and all-encompassing communication methods while still in its egg, managed to work with Dragon Armor twice without issue. However, the timing for refining equipment was fleeting, and even with Caracal Anian's instructions, Lin Xinghuo couldn't keep up. So, a division of labor naturally began to take place at home: Under Dragon Armor's stimulation, Lin Xinghuo's collaboration with the Moo Moo Moo little medicine beast became increasingly smooth. The caracal, who had originally planned to learn the techniques himself and then pass them on to Lin Xinghuo, unconsciously took over the burden of refining equipment when faced with the exhausted humans every day. He even became responsible for refurbishing and reworking the farm tools at Buxiantun...
*
On the 20th day of the first lunar month, the snow was so deep it blocked the doors, but the villagers of Buxian Village still went to work early. The team didn't work during the New Year's holiday, so everyone volunteered, for no other reason than that their little fairy lady had asked them to install glass windows in every household.
Those were glass windows, warmer and more transparent than plastic sheeting, and they didn't need to be replaced every year! Saving up coupons wasn't easy for farmers; every year they struggled to find two feet of cloth and three feet of plastic. They were pleasantly surprised to have a bountiful year, with plenty of food and clothing. Many families even used their coupons to trade for plastic from the commune before the Lunar New Year, figuring that if they used them carefully, they might be able to make it through to next year. Then, the fairy lady finally managed to forge glass!
The members of the cooperative were delighted. Seven or eight girls with nice hair even reluctantly cut out their long hair and asked Aunt He from Hetan Farm to weave a wig for Lin Xinghuo and replace her emerald green headscarf. The little fairy had burned her hair again for everyone, so she had to wear a green headscarf, which was unbearable.
Even the old Party Secretary, an old man with a penchant for rough, unrefined sheepskin hats, couldn't bear to look at Lin Xinghuo's brand-new headscarf. But no one in the village could match Lin Xinghuo's embroidery skills, and replacing her meticulously embroidered green headscarf with her old red one felt a bit awkward. More than one person grumbled, "Our Aunt loves green. Even her wildcats and foxes wear green scarves around their necks... And, after all, our Aunt grew up in the mountains, what does she know about green hats?"
The hats young people love to wear are army green, quite different from the emerald green of the fairy girl's. From a distance, more than one person thought it looked like a juicy cabbage walking in the snow. In this situation, only a girl who loves beauty would come up with the idea of twisting her braids into a wig.
This wig did indeed solve Lin Xinghuo's problem. Did the villagers think she was happy to wear a bright green embroidered headscarf? Wasn't it because they had teased Uncle Mao on the fifteenth day, causing Mao Anian, who had just become the village chief and had taken on the heavy responsibility of refining weapons, to lose face in front of the children and monsters? It was all because of that fool Da Huang, who laughed so hard that saliva flowed all over the floor, and Lin Xinghuo didn't have time to destroy the traces.
In fact, it was just a red dot on the Fuwa, so Anian was so stingy that she hid her red headscarf... Well, she also had the sin of deliberately wrapping the caracal's green headscarf into a hen's head.
Unwilling to refuse the villagers' kindness, Lin Xinghuo, donning a wig, led the men from Hetan Farm to replace the windows. This was a unanimous agreement from the village, not that the members were all selfless. Firstly, for the farmers, who had rarely seen glass windows, installing them was a complete nightmare. Secondly, the windows on the farm were covered with discarded plastic sheeting that the members had discarded. The plastic sheeting, now installed with nails and wooden strips, rotted after a winter. Nowadays, there was no such thing as convenient tape to patch holes. It would be better to just board up the windows. The very thought of it made the members think that the leaky farmhouses would freeze to death.
Since we have to ask others for instruction anyway, we might as well install it on the farm first so that everyone can practice the skills.
As a result, when the reinforcements arrived at the farm on their sleds, they were shocked - the plastic sheets used to seal the windows on the farm were poor, but people used water to make ice and then covered the windows with an ice shell outside. It was so thick that no cold wind could blow in!
All the members of the cooperative sighed and wondered how could this person have such a brain? Their ancestors had been making a living in the snow, so why didn’t they think of this?
I even lamented that the time for growth was still behind me. At that time, Lin Xinghuo finally waited for the opportunity to enter Beijing...
-----------------------
The author has something to say: Regarding Fang Hui, Ling Hu, etc., please see the notes in the previous chapter.
Dragon Armor: Legend has it that a dragon shed its skin by the shores of Lake Taihu. The insects that emerged from its scales immediately transformed into red dragonflies, and anyone who caught them would become ill. Hence, the red dragonfly was called Dragon Armor or Dragon's Descendant, and people were afraid to harm it. "A great dragon shed its skin by the shores of Lake Taihu. From its scales emerged an insect that instantly transformed into a red dragonfly. Anyone who caught it would fall ill with malaria. Nowadays, people call red dragonflies Dragon Armor or Dragon's Descendant, and dare not harm them." — "Shuo Fu" from the Song Dynasty, citing "Wu Chen Za Chao"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
