Xiaolin Village was backed by Beiman Mountain. It was one of the few large villages in the Southern Region. Every household in the village was well-off, and only a handful of families were poor.
Xu Yifan considered himself neither rich enough to stand out nor poor enough to attract attention in Xiaolin Village. He always kept a low profile wherever he went. Logically speaking, someone like him shouldn’t have been particularly noticeable. Yet, strangely enough, all the village gossip headlines were about him.
That day, several elderly women were chatting again beneath the banyan tree at the village entrance.
“Yesterday, I saw Yifan go out. He hadn’t been seen for more than half a month, and it looks like he gained another round of weight.”
“I saw him too. Oh my, that face of his is as round as a plate.”
“Exactly. But honestly, I’ve never seen anyone who could get that fat and still look so handsome.”
Everyone agreed with this and nodded. “That’s true. That boy may be fat, but he really is handsome.”
“Did he go to town to buy things again?”
“Of course. He came back carrying bags and bags of stuff. I heard someone saw him buying third-grade tusked boar meat in town. There must have been more than ten jin of it.”
“My goodness, how many spirit stones would that cost?”
“Without twenty spirit stones, he probably couldn’t have bought it,” someone said enviously.
“The Song family is so wealthy, but even they probably wouldn’t dare spend money like him.”
“You all tell me…” an old woman lowered her voice, “he lies around at home every day. Where does he get so many spirit stones from? Could it be…”
She didn’t finish the sentence, but everyone present understood what she meant.
Xu Yifan was not originally from Xiaolin Village. He had only arrived here a year ago.
Beiman Mountain was filled with demonic beasts and spiritual herbs. The men and women in the village who possessed spiritual roots and could cultivate would enter the mountain to hunt and gather spiritual herbs, then sell them in town. Most cultivators in the village could barely handle first-grade demonic beasts if they joined forces. Anything stronger than that was something they would have to flee from the moment they encountered it.
Low-level demonic beasts were easy to hunt, but they weren’t worth much money. High-level spiritual herbs all grew in the inner regions of Beiman Mountain. They were guarded by strange beasts, making them even harder to gather.
There were many ordinary mortals in the village, while cultivators only made up a small portion of the population. However, the cultivators in the village weren’t particularly powerful. Most of them were only at the Qi Refining stage, and on ordinary days, they could only hunt first-grade demonic beasts. Therefore, even if they went into the mountains frequently throughout the year, they couldn’t earn many spirit stones. Not to mention someone like Xu Yifan, who practically lay at home every day without producing anything.
So where did his spirit stones come from?
A hundred taels of silver was only worth one spirit stone.
The Song family was considered the wealthiest household in the village. All three members of their family, the father and his two sons, were cultivators. Every time they entered Beiman Mountain, they returned with full harvests. However, after exchanging their goods in town, they only earned six or seven spirit stones. Yet Xu Yifan spent a considerable amount of “expensive” spirit stones every time he went out just to buy demonic beast meat to eat.
No wonder everyone found it strange.
Where did his spirit stones come from?
Was he perhaps a young master from some powerful family who had come out to gain experience? Was he carrying some priceless treasure? How many spirit stones did his family actually have? How long could he continue spending like this?
The villagers were dying of curiosity.
An old woman said, “Xu Yifan is sixteen this year, right? Last time I heard the village chief say that he seems to be a cultivator too. I wonder what kind of girl he likes. I wonder if he would be interested in my daughter.”
“I heard he has three spiritual roots,” someone immediately poured cold water on her idea. “And he’s lazy too. He lies in bed every day. Do you have some grudge against your daughter? Why would you find her a husband like that?”
The old woman choked for a moment. “What does having three spiritual roots matter? Although three spiritual roots and four spiritual roots are considered useless spiritual roots, aren’t they still better than those of us who have no spiritual roots at all? Besides, he’s only lazy because no one manages him. If he had someone to keep him in line, would he still be like this?”
“Who can say for sure?”
…
The sun was blazing overhead.
At that moment, Xu Yifan, the center of the village gossip, was standing at the entrance of his house. A young woman stood outside the door.
She came here often, so Xu Yifan had a deep impression of her.
Lan Xiaoying, the woman rumored to be the most beautiful girl in Xiaolin Village.
Leaning against the half-open door, Xu Yifan asked in an unfriendly tone, “What do you want this time?”
Lan Xiaoying twisted the handkerchief in her hands, lowered her eyes, and pressed her lips together as if she found it difficult to speak. Xu Yifan yawned, already impatient with her act.
“Do you have something to say? If not, go home. If you do, say it, then go home. Standing there is annoying.”
“…”
Lan Xiaoying’s face flushed red. She knew Xu Yifan had no good impression of her, but this house belonged to her family, and he rented it from them, how dare he speak to her like this?
Fire burned in her chest. She stretched out her hand and said, “My eldest brother needs to advance a rank and doesn’t have enough spirit stones. Give me twenty spirit stones.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Xu Yifan was almost laughing with anger at how she acted like it was a given. “If he doesn’t have enough spirit stones, why come ask me for them? What obligation do I have to give him any? Is he my son or my grandson?”
Lan Xiaoying said, “You’re renting my family’s house.”
“So what? I’ve already paid the full rent.” Xu Yifan looked her up and down and said angrily, “I must have been blind back then. If I’d known your whole family was like this, would I have rented this damn house from you?”
Not only was the place run-down, the rent was ridiculously expensive too.
Lan Xiaoying hadn’t specifically avoided being seen on her way to find Xu Yifan, and this place wasn’t exactly secluded either, so without her realizing it, quite a few onlookers had gathered nearby.
Lan Xiaoying was nineteen this year. Cultivators generally didn’t marry early in pursuit of the Great Dao, but for ordinary mortals without spiritual roots who lived less than a hundred years, nineteen was already considered a grown woman. Lan Xiaoying had the looks and the figure, and plenty of people admired her, but she still hadn’t married at this age, entirely because the Lan family’s character was simply unbearable. No one wanted their son to marry into that family.
Lan Xiaoying was used to being fawned over, and no one had ever humiliated her like this. She glared at Xu Yifan, full of indignation. “My mother said you lie at home all day, yet every time you go out you spend money like water. A few days ago you even bought third-grade demonic beast meat. Where do you get so many spirit stones from? Is there some treasure hidden in my family’s house that we haven’t discovered but you found? Otherwise, with so many houses in the village, why would you specifically rent this one from my family?”
Hearing this, Xu Yifan wanted to kick her.
When had he ever bought third-grade demonic beast meat? How did he not know about this?
He was only at Qi Refining, sixth layer. He’d have to be an idiot bent on blowing up his own body to eat third-grade demonic beast meat.
The rumors in this village really did spread wildly.
He hadn’t gotten enough sleep to begin with, and what little patience he had was already worn thin. “Your Lan family really has no shame. When you first rented the house to me, you agreed on thirty taels a month. I’d only lived here two months before you came saying the rent had gone up. I didn’t argue with you, and I even paid the increased portion. This has happened several times now, do you take my easygoing nature as an excuse to push your luck further and further?”
“I…”
“Get lost, now.”
“You…”
“Or I’ll beat you.”
“You wouldn’t dare…”
Before Lan Xiaoying could finish her sentence, Xu Yifan slapped her across the face.
He’d been meaning to teach her a lesson, so he didn’t hold back. Lan Xiaoying staggered backward several steps from the force of the blow, and her cheek swelled up instantly.
Once she managed to steady herself, Lan Xiaoying covered her face, staring at Xu Yifan in disbelief. “You… you actually dared to hit me?”
“What’s there not to dare?” Xu Yifan said indifferently. “You were asking for it. Can’t I even hit you now?”
Lan Xiaoying: “…”
Song Dazhuang arrived just in time to see this scene. Seeing the girl he adored being brutally struck, he threw a punch at Xu Yifan without a word. Xu Yifan clicked his tongue, sidestepped to dodge the punch, then firmly grabbed Song Dazhuang’s wrist and slapped him on the chest with his palm.
Song Dazhuang was sent flying backward instantly, spat out a mouthful of blood, and crashed hard onto the ground.
“Amateur-level skills, and you dare to attack me?” Xu Yifan walked over and stepped on his chest. “Standing up for a beauty is one thing, but standing up for a shrew? Have you lost your mind?”
The onlookers were all stunned.
They hadn’t reacted yet.
This Xu Yifan… was reckless as hell.
They didn’t expect that someone who looked so plump, cute, and like an easy pushover would turn out like this.
Whoa, what a guy, he really just started swinging, and even hit Lan Xiaoying. He truly had zero regard for showing tenderness to a woman.
A young man who lived next door to Xu Yifan and occasionally chatted with him gave him a thumbs-up. “Young Master Xu, magnificent display of might!”
Xu Yifan waved his hand, watching Song Dazhuang being helped away by Lan Xiaoying, and said, “That tactless fool didn’t know my strength until I hit him.”
“But… Lan Xiaoying is a woman after all. Hitting a woman isn’t really a good look.”
“If she weren’t such a shrew, who would want to hit her?” Xu Yifan said unhappily. “She comes knocking on my door every day, finding this excuse and that to ask me for spirit stones. If I don’t give them to her, she gets nasty with me. She even cursed at me once. I’ve put up with her six times already. If it weren’t for the fact that she’s a woman, I would’ve kicked her the very first time.”
“…”
The young man laughed awkwardly and changed the subject. “I heard the recruitment season for Xianhao Sect is coming up in a few days, it happens once every ten years. Young Master Xu, are you going to go?”
Xu Yifan tilted his head. “Xianhao Sect?”
Seeing that Xu Yifan had only recently arrived and probably didn’t know much, the young man explained, “It’s the second-ranked sect in the Southern Region. Xianhao Sect has a Golden Core elder stationed there, and the sect has abundant resources. Many cultivators dream of joining it.”
“Only second?” Xu Yifan looked a bit unimpressed. “Then what’s the number one sect?”
“Er, the number one sect is Xianling Sect, but Xianling Sect doesn’t accept people like us.”
Xu Yifan was confused. “Why not?”
“They only recruit people with single or dual spiritual roots. They generally don’t take anyone below three spiritual roots.”
“Oh!” Xu Yifan nodded. “Then never mind, I’m not that interested anyway.”
“You don’t want to go?” The young man seemed eager to try. “We can’t get into Xianling Sect, but we could at least try for Xianhao Sect.”
“You sound pretty confident,” Xu Yifan said.
“Hehe, not bad. If they’re still using the recruitment standards from ten years ago, I should qualify.”
Xianhao Sect’s requirements for recruiting disciples weren’t too strict, four spiritual roots or above, Qi Refining sixth layer, and under twenty years old. Xianling Sect’s requirements were harsh, but single-root cultivators in the world weren’t exactly common as cabbage, so the entire Xianling Sect, including servants and sweepers, numbered no more than thirty people. Calling it the number one sect was really just something ordinary mortals didn’t understand.
The cultivators in the village weren’t very strong. Even the most powerful among them, old man Song, was only at Qi Refining ninth layer. Without sect support, without resource subsidies, without anyone to guide them, without cultivation techniques, without Foundation Establishment pills, many cultivators could only stop at the peak of Qi Refining ninth layer for their entire lives. So most cultivators would choose to join a sect.
Xu Yifan, however, didn’t care either way. Given the choice, he’d rather just stay holed up in Xiaolin Village without moving.
What could possibly be sweeter than sleep during cultivation? Besides, he still had to go back and find his parents. Why would he bother with any sect?
“Oh! Right, I’ve seen a lot of strangers heading to the back mountain lately. Why is that?”
The back mountain Xu Yifan referred to was Beiman Mountain.
“Young Master Xu, you don’t know?” The young man, seeing that everyone else had dispersed, leaned in close to Xu Yifan with a mysterious air and said, “Did you go to town on the eleventh of last month?”
Xu Yifan nodded.
That day he’d gone to sell talismans and had stayed overnight in town.
“No wonder you don’t know,” the young man said.
Aside from going to town, Xu Yifan rarely went out otherwise, and he wasn’t familiar with anyone in the village, only this young man who lived nearby, whom he’d greeted a few times.
“That night after dark, thunder started crashing on the mountain, boom, boom, boom,” the young man said, still looking a little shaken recalling that night. “No one knew what was going on. The thunder struck over and over, thick and loud, rumbling nonstop, as if it were trying to destroy heaven and earth, like it wanted to split Beiman Mountain wide open. The scene was… truly terrifying. After the thunderstorm passed, the spiritual energy in the surrounding area went wild, surging up into the mountain. I heard people say this was the strange phenomenon that appears when a rare treasure manifests in the world. Now a lot of people have gone into the mountain to search for it.”
“I see!” Xu Yifan stroked his chin. He hadn’t known about such a big event and felt a bit out of the loop. “Has anyone found it?”
“No, most people are staying in the outer areas. Hardly anyone dares to go into the inner region, it’s too dangerous in there.”
“Oh, is that so.” Xu Yifan’s gaze darkened slightly.