Chen Mu rushed all the way and finally reached the foot of Low Mountain after half an hour.
Up the slope, a square courtyard entirely made of stone piled up caught his eye.
That was the residence assigned to him by Lower Courtyard of Jilong Road.
“I wonder if Yellow Bud Rice is hard to grow,” Chen Mu mused as he unlocked the brass lock and pushed the door open.
The courtyard faced the north and to the south, and it was about half the size of a basketball court.
On the east side, near the entrance, there was a well, with its stone well platform edges covered in green moss.
However, at the opening of the well was a concave worn by the bottom of the water bucket, smooth to the touch as he ran his hand over it.
To the north of the well platform was a small vegetable patch, now abandoned.
On the west side of the yard, there was a wooden shed with a stove underneath.
“It’s passable,” shrugged Chen Mu. “If anything, I can slowly remodel it later.”
…
After arranging the rice, meat, oil, and salt, Chen Mu pulled out a square table and put it in the middle of the courtyard to start preparing dinner.
By the time the sun slanted west, he had prepared four vegetarian and four meat dishes, totalling eight dishes, and cooked a pot of rice using a mix of Silver Bead Rice and Yellow Bud Rice.
Just as he had laid out the food, there was a noise at the entrance.
Chen Mu turned to look, and a man in his fifties with his hands clasped behind his back, was standing by the door with a chuckle.
His nostrils flaring, his eyes brightened: “Brother Chen, you have some impressive culinary skills.”
“Old Hao, please come in,” Chen Mu immediately stood up to greet him.
This elder was his neighbor, living on the other side of Low Mountain.
He was also the mentor assigned to him by the Lower Courtyard of Jilong Road.
Hmm… a mentor to teach him farming.
…
Halfway through the meal, Old Hao put down his bowl.
Taking advantage of the moment Chen Mu was serving rice, he pulled out his pipe from behind his waist, lit the tobacco, and took a puff.
“Your cooking is truly extraordinary,” Old Hao sincerely admired.
Laughing, he said, “You must be baffled by many things as a newcomer, right?”
“In light of this meal, go ahead, ask me,” Old Hao leisurely exhaled a fragrant puff of white smoke.
Chen Mu hesitated, unaccustomed to not having to pay for information for the first time!
That old man could be quite harmful!
“Is Yellow Bud Rice easy to grow?” Chen Mu hurriedly asked.
“The Lower Courtyard demands three hundred catties of Yellow Bud Rice per acre; with such a vast land, that’s three hundred catties. What do you think?” countered Old Hao.
Chen Mu’s heart skipped a beat.
“You need to prepare in advance,” Old Hao spoke earnestly. “Be ready to be in debt for a few years.”
Chen Mu felt a jolt in his heart.
“This is not a good start.”
…
“The Lower Courtyard has allocated ten acres to you; by next autumn’s harvest, you have to deliver three thousand catties of Yellow Bud Rice.”
“If that’s not enough, then you have to owe it and pay back slowly, with interest included.”
“My father used to say that it took him a full five years to pay off the debt,” Old Hao said with a sigh.
“Of course, if you have White Jade Money to offset the debt, you need not worry. One White Jade Coin can offset a hundred catties,” Old Hao added, raising his eyebrows.
Chen Mu’s face was full of concern: “But I don’t have any White Jade Money.”
“Then you’ll have to exchange the things you brought with you.”
“We get two White Jade Coins every month. But you outsiders don’t have White Jade Money, only two thousand taels of silver as meal money.”
“You can only hope to grow more Yellow Bud Rice to save up.”
“But once you fall into this debt, you would have to toil for free for several years.”
“If this delays your Spirit and Soul Unification, that would be troublesome.”
“Keep in mind, on the path of cultivation, one slow step leads to being slow in every step,” Old Hao shook his head with a sigh. “Being slow means losing hope, draining your spirit, leaving only regret.”
“You’re going to buy the Unity Secret Technique, aren’t you?”
“Even the cheapest True Sun Scripture costs sixty White Jade Coins.”
“My father took a full six years to save up!” Old Hao said, full of emotion.
“Figure it out, such delay and eleven years will be gone just like that!”
Chen Mu’s expression immediately turned ugly.
His future looked bleak.
…
After the meal, Chen Mu saw off Old Hao and arranged to start learning how to plant Yellow Bud Rice the following day.
Once he secured the door, the black smoke billowed, and pots, pans, and basins were swiftly cleaned.
Chen Mu returned to his room, lit an oil lamp, and took out all his money, checking and calculating meticulously.
“There are still two thousand two hundred and thirty-two taels of silver,” he said.
“And there are nine pieces of gold cakes.”
“This bit of money is at most enough for two more months’ worth of food.”
Moreover, he had already mastered four-fifths of the Cloud Mirage Spirit Armor Technique, and the integration of Shell Soul was getting faster.
“If I let myself eat freely, it might not even last a month,” Chen Mu said with a gloomy face.
By then, he would inevitably have to dip into his White Jade Coins.
“A hundred catties of Yellow Bud Rice per White Jade Coin.”
“Based on my current appetite, I’ll need at least twelve White Jade Coins a year!”
“And according to Old Hao, planting Yellow Bud Rice also requires buying Exotic Beast Bone Powder, which costs five White Jade Coins per bag!”
And he had a total of just seventeen White Jade Coins.
“What will I do when the harvest season comes and I can’t pay up for the Yellow Bud Rice?”
“In debt…”
He hadn’t realized until he did the math, but once he did, a cloud of gloom instantly settled over Chen Mu’s heart.
A huge pressure suddenly weighed down on him.
“Be honest and hardworking, strive in cultivation?” Chen Mu couldn’t help but sneer.
“Don’t cause trouble, become another Director Song?” Anger quickly filled his heart.
“The folks on Jilong Road have already written us off!”
“Apart from burying our heads in hard labor, don’t even think about doing anything else!”
Chen Mu felt as though an invisible net was descending on him.
The tighter it bound him, the less room he had to maneuver!
“All in all, it’s because I’m penniless!” Chen Mu couldn’t help but feel despondent, “Could I, a transmigrator, really be thwarted by money?”
Chen Mu managed a wry smile, but then sadness flooded in.
“Heaven really is unfair!” Chen Mu thought bitterly.
Those born with a Daoist Bone inherently started ahead in the race.
Gifted and not needing to put in any effort, they had people eagerly giving them money.
Compared to them, what did I have? I’m just an ordinary person with mediocre talent. I have nothing!
Chen Mu’s heart was full of sorrow and indignation. With a face of discontent, he picked up a basket of sun-dried Calming Pills.
“All my toil and effort, and in the end, thirty pills only sell for one White Jade Coin?!”
“This whole basket is, at most, worth five White Jade Coins!”
Chen Mu turned to look at the corner shelf, where seven flat bamboo baskets were layered, each brimming with Calming Pills.
Chen Mu silently withdrew his gaze, filled with sadness and frustration, “Life is too hard for me!”
…
The next day, in a fan-shaped field at the base of Low Mountain.
“This plot of land isn’t great, with mountains on both sides—they’re not high, but the lighting is inevitably poor,” Old Hao stood in the black soil, looking around.
“The terrain is also irregular, too long and narrow, making planting and irrigation too time-consuming.”
“Right, you must only use water from the well in the courtyard for irrigation, understand?” Old Hao turned to remind Chen Mu.
Chen Mu’s mind stirred, recalling the worn well rim, “Is there something special about that well?”
Old Hao smiled mysteriously, “You think that courtyard was built just anywhere?”
“Where the well is, that’s where the courtyard is.”
“All the wells across the entire basin were specifically opened by the experts of the Upper Court, after delineating the water veins.” Enjoy more content from empire
“The water source originates from Jilong Mountain and contains the Earth Spirit Element.”
“Without it, Yellow Bud Rice can’t germinate and grow.”
Chen Mu’s eyes narrowed involuntarily.
“Earth Spirit Element?”