Chapter 20: Too Narrow, Too Small-Minded

Chapter 20: Too Narrow, Too Small-Minded

The next day, at dusk.

Everyone held large green porcelain bowls, some sitting, some standing, others squatting, chatting as they ate porridge accompanied by salty and pickled vegetables.

“Oh no.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I just bit on a small stone,” Jiang Ju said with a look of disbelief.

The Void Realm was great in many ways, but the food and living conditions were truly challenging, especially the dry toilets—an eternal nemesis for the little fairies!

“It’s already better than before. I remember when I was a kid, besides myself, my grandparents, uncles, and aunts would have just one big bowl of porridge with diced radish at night, and it never really filled us up,” Peng Bing suddenly said, finishing his porridge in a few mouthfuls.

Then, rubbing his stomach with some helplessness, he added, “Tomorrow, we must have meat. I’m going to hunt some wild game. Even if I come across a tiger, I’ll eat it!”

“Compared to the local commoners, we’re living like landlords now. And if one bowl isn’t enough, we can have two, or even three,” Guan Ming, satisfied, rubbed his round belly.

“Let’s just think of it as dieting!”

Hmm.

I just wanted to find something to talk about out of boredom, and now it’s turned into a criticism session?

“Ahem, tell me, where did the director get all these secret manuals? The Spirit Energy Revival only started seven days ago. How could he have possibly developed such a comprehensive and detailed system in such a short time?” Jiang Ju raised the question.

Lu Zhou put down his nearly face-covering green porcelain bowl and said, “It’s not just cultivation methods, it’s an entire system. There’s the Vital Energy system, the Qi Refining system, the Spirit Refining system—just the ones we’ve encountered, there are three major systems.”

“Take the Vital Energy system as an example. The knowledge required just to reach the beginner level is already at a university level.”

Hearing this, Peng Bing began counting on his fingers. After a few breaths, he said, “If you don’t delve too deeply, learning the Pictorial Fist style itself doesn’t require much—just remember the specific moves and key points.”

“But if you want to understand why, to grasp the principle and effects behind each movement, that’s not so simple,” Wang Zongchao added.

“Anyway, I don’t think this could have been put together in just seven days. Besides, the beginner manuals for Vital Energy, Qi Refining, and Spirit Refining were handed to us on the third day.”

“I heard the director rushed to the capital on the first night. The Special Affairs Research Institute was officially established on the second night, and by the third night, we received those inheritances and cultivation techniques,” Peng Bing hinted meaningfully.

If you’ve heard all that, Peng Bing, you’re not an ordinary person!

“I suspect the director might have obtained ancient inheritances during the Spirit Energy Revival, at the moment we awakened our talents—perhaps from a blessed land, or from a powerful predecessor, or maybe from a sect,” Lou Cheng speculated based on his own experience.

After all, Lou Cheng himself had unintentionally acquired a legacy in the form of a Golden Core, and ever since, he had become extraordinary.

“It could also be a very special artifact,” Xu Guangling chimed in, recalling the treasure mirror he recently gained.

“Maybe it’s a talent! Don’t forget, all of us have talents, and talent is a very unreasonable thing. Many talents, even with current technology, are completely incomprehensible—almost like black technology,” Jiang Ju said, thinking of his own gift.

“That’s possible, but talents need to be kept secret. We shouldn’t speculate recklessly. After all, we don’t know if foreign lands possess talents that can access all information in the world. If so, once mentioned, it might leak secrets,” Ning Fan reminded everyone after considering his own talent.

Recalling the confidentiality rules, Jiang Ju coughed a few times and then lowered his head to eat his porridge quickly. Fortunately, the porridge was no longer scalding hot but just warm, and he finished it in a few mouthfuls.

“We’re truly lucky. At the dawn of the Spirit Energy Revival, at the start of this great era, we became the very first to join the institute and become the country’s leading researchers. That is a true blessing.” With that, Jiang Ju went for his second bowl.

“Indeed, this is the time for us to truly show our worth,” Lin Er, who had been silent, suddenly spoke.

“An era of great strife, an era of great strife!” That was Chang Kong, the Taoist.

“The Void Realm is too murky. Goguryeo and the Eastern Isles are unable to control it. For the sake of love and peace, for the greater good, I have decided that whenever I have the strength, I will help them more,” Ning Fan smiled.

“Too narrow! Too small-minded!”

“If it’s for love and peace, how can our vision be limited to just little Goguryeo and the Eastern Isles? The whole world needs our help!”

“Exactly. As some of the most gifted people in this world, it’s both our responsibility and duty to assist the underdeveloped regions. Helping the less fortunate is a long-standing virtue of Great Xia!”

Whether such help comes with a fee is another matter entirely!

“I don’t have such lofty dreams. Right now, I just want to develop my talent well and farm properly.”

“I only want to study hard, read more papers, review more literature, and start researching the extraordinary as soon as possible.”

While everyone dreamed about the future, Chu Xuan was once again having a private meeting with Xiong Yan.

“According to the survey, the entire Void Realm has four villages, one town, and a water fortress inhabited by a group of water bandits.”

“The four villages have about three hundred households, the town has a hundred households, totaling roughly three thousand people. The commoners live by farming.”

“The Void Realm stretches about twenty li in length and twenty li in width. Its height hasn’t been measured, but it certainly isn’t very high. The thickness is also unknown, and we don’t have the proper tools to measure it.”

“Seventy percent is mountains, twenty percent water, and only ten percent is flat land. In other words, out of a total area of one hundred square kilometers, only ten square kilometers are arable.”

“Three thousand people farming fifteen thousand mu of land—on average, five mu per person. It’s not paddy field, so the yield is limited, averaging just over a hundred jin per mu.”

“More than seventy percent of the land belongs to local gentry and landlords. Less than thirty percent is owned by the commoners themselves. So among the three thousand villagers, over two thousand are tenant farmers. Only a few hundred own their land, barely qualifying as wealthy farmers.”

After listening to Chu Xuan’s detailed ten-minute report on the town’s agriculture, Xiong Yan understood Chu Xuan’s plan clearly.

(End of chapter)