After returning from my cultivation journey, I built a farm through fortune telling.

Chapter 34

Bai Wei and Bai Chen didn't sense even a trace of the colorful spiritual energy in the air.

At first, I tried to be patient and meditate, but as I meditated, I fell asleep.

Bai Wei slept for a few hours over the course of the day and two nights, but Bai Chen didn't sleep a single minute. He simply couldn't hold on any longer and they both fell asleep.

The egret shook its head helplessly and didn't wake them up.

They remained in meditation until dawn. By the end of the night, their legs were so numb that they dared not move. They grimaced for a long time before finally recovering.

Bai Chen stretched, yawned, and asked Bai Lu, "Sister, have we successfully guided Qi into our bodies?"

Egret: "...What do you think? You slept all night!"

"Huh? But you can't blame us, sitting still like that, how could we not fall asleep?"

Bai Chen was extremely annoyed. He looked at his hands over and over, and they were just ordinary hands. He had not transformed from an ordinary person into a cultivator overnight.

"It's okay, it's okay!"

Bailu comforted the two, saying, "Everyone's like this when they first start cultivating. It's normal not to succeed yet. Let's take it slowly! Don't be discouraged! Cultivating immortality is about defying fate. If you give up after such a small setback, what kind of immortality are you going to cultivate for?"

She did not force the two of them to draw qi into their bodies within the day.

Take your time!

Bai Chen was indeed a little discouraged. He asked Bai Lu, "Sister, it took you several days to guide your Qi into your body. Was it this difficult?"

—Use your inner spiritual root to communicate with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth!
Humph--

Where is the spiritual root?
Where is the spiritual energy?

I can't see either of them!
How do you communicate?
Tell me, isn't this abstract?
Is cultivation really that difficult? It even requires imagination and pantomime!

"Me?" Bai Lu considered how to answer without affecting her image as the big sister in her younger siblings' eyes: "Well... it took about ten days!"

With dual spiritual roots, his aptitude is not bad. In ten days, even a pig could successfully draw qi into its body!
In fact, back when Bai Lu was a useless person with five spiritual roots in the cultivation world, it took him a whole month to feel the spiritual energy, and another month to successfully draw the energy into his body. The hardships he endured were beyond what outsiders could understand!
Of course, one cannot say that, as it would easily damage one's image and make it difficult to manage the two younger ones.

"Ten days? That's not too fast..." Upon hearing this answer, Bai Chen stroked his chin and suddenly felt like he was back to normal.

Egret: "..."

Ten days isn't too fast, thankfully she didn't mention that it took her two months back then...

This dark history is destined to remain buried deep within him.

"I'll persevere a little longer. Ten days is a long time. I refuse to believe I won't be able to sense that damn spiritual energy! If all else fails, I'll stay on Mount Sanqing every day and cultivate diligently day and night!"

Bai Chen encouraged himself with unwavering determination.

"Stay here every day?" Bai Wei blinked. "It's not that it's not good, but are you planning to take a long leave or resign?"

Upon learning that her older sister possessed such extraordinary abilities, Bai Wei felt reassured. She had been worried that her sister might give up because she couldn't endure the hardships of farming!
That's good, I can quit this job now!

From then on, she followed her sister!
She went back and told the store manager that her brother's condition had deteriorated drastically and he was about to die, so she was going to resign and go back to take care of him!

Bai Chen sneezed loudly for no apparent reason. He rubbed his nose and said, "Good news, very auspicious," then replied to Bai Wei, "I've already resigned. Haven't you?"

Bai Wei: "..."

I just didn't have time!
Bai Chen glared at her: "Didn't your sister tell you to come back and help her with the farming? You agreed! How could you not resign!"

Bai Chen's tone made Bai Wei feel extremely heartless.

She said good-naturedly, "Yes, yes, it was my fault. I'll resign from the store immediately!"

Bai Wei took out her phone and typed rapidly. Bai Chen naturally had no idea what she was saying, because it was too early and the shop manager hadn't replied yet. At this moment, Gu Yinxing reminded them that some tourists had already started going up the mountain.

The egret grasped the branch of the ancient ginkgo tree and said, "We're going home now, little ginkgo, see you next time."

Little Ginkgo lowered her voice: "Okay, okay, Little Egret, remember to come visit me when you have time! Little Bai Chen and Little Bai Wei—"

The two people whose names were called nodded hurriedly: "Okay, okay!"

"Let's go!" said the egret.

Because there were tourists, she couldn't fly with them like she did when going up the mountain—actually, it wasn't flying, since her cultivation level wasn't high enough; it was just a footwork technique that was very fast, making it seem like she was flying. She could only descend the mountain step by step, and this section of the road would take more than an hour to walk.

“Cultivation requires a gradual approach; after all, you can’t become fat overnight. So the most important thing for you is to have a stable mindset. You have good aptitude and you will definitely be able to successfully guide Qi into your bodies; it’s just a matter of time. Once you cross this watershed, you will be qualitatively different from ordinary people.”

—From ordinary oxen and horses to perpetual motion machine oxen and horses!
Bai Lu's theoretical talk did little to inspire the two men; they merely nodded perfunctorily to indicate that they had heard him.

Bai Lu didn't say anything more and continued walking down the mountain. However, when they reached the ticket checkpoint, the three of them had their tickets checked and exited the ticket gate amidst the strange looks from the tourists.

If they weren't mistaken, after queuing to have their tickets redeemed, they didn't go up the mountain, but instead left!
Please note that tickets are for one-time use only; once you leave, you can't come back in!
Where did these three idiots come from?

The three fools took a taxi home. On the way, they saw many figures busy in the fields. Bailu suddenly remembered: "Mom said a couple of days ago that she was going to plow the rice seedlings, but I don't think she has."

"Didn't you plow it?" Bai Chen said uncertainly, "We've been busy picking wild vegetables these past two days, and the whole family had diarrhea yesterday, so we even called Grandpa and Grandma over to help. Nobody has time to plow it, unless Second Grandpa's family takes care of it themselves."

"If we share a rice paddy with my second grandfather's family, wouldn't we only be able to grow rice on eight-tenths of an acre? No way—"

The three got out of the car, and Bailu said, "Have I told you that my major over there is farming? It would be too unfair to me if my family only grows rice on eight-tenths of an acre!"

"I feel so too."

In the past, Bai Wei might have thought Bai Lu was not humble, but now—she's the one who feels wronged!

"You're back so early? Hmm? Where's the food?"

These children have been getting up early every day to pick wild vegetables these past few days, but today they haven't come down yet. When she went up to check, there wasn't a single one of them. She thought they had gone to pick wild vegetables again!
To everyone's surprise, they didn't manage to pick a single wild vegetable.

So here's the question: where did they go? It's so early!
"Well, let's go check on our family's paddy fields!" After years of wits and battles with Qin Xiu, Bai Lu was the most quick-witted among the three siblings.

"Mom, I noticed that the weeds on this plot of land next to our house haven't been disturbed yet. Did you not lend it to anyone else to plant this year?"

Dongshi Village is a small village with only 35 households. Most of the young and middle-aged people work outside the village year-round and only return to their hometown to see their parents during the Spring Festival. Moreover, most of them bring their children with them, so those who remain in the village are mostly people over 50 years old.

If we don't include Bai Lu, Bai Wei, and Bai Chen, there are only three young adults.

In their village, many people have learned the craft of bricklaying and, like Bai Jiang, build houses for people near the village, in the town, or even in the county. They also take care of their own farmland, but they cultivate less. Each family cultivates one or two acres, enough to feed the family and their chickens, ducks, and geese.

But there are also families that work very hard, not only working outside but also farming more than ten acres of land, like Bai Zhan's family.

Their family owns at least ten acres of land, but that's not enough. They also "pick up" the land that other families they know, like the Bailu family, don't cultivate.

Abandoned land is prone to becoming barren, so in villages, if someone wants to cultivate land that a family doesn't own, they'll usually let them do so.

That's why the question about egrets came about.

"What are you going to do?" Qin Xiu glanced at her. "Are you really going to farm so much land?"

“Yes!” Bai Lu nodded repeatedly. “Today is the Awakening of Insects. There are so many crops that can be planted in March. I’ve already made plans. Come, come, let me tell you in detail!”

Bai Lu pulled Qin Xiu to sit down on a small stool, and she squatted opposite her, while Bai Wei and Bai Chen squatted on either side of her.

Bai Lu counted on her fingers: "The first priority is to prepare the seedbed and sow the rice seeds. After all, it takes about twenty days from seedling cultivation to transplanting. During this waiting period, we can also take some time to plant some peanuts and sweet potatoes."

"Many vegetables can be planted at this time of year, such as tomatoes, bok choy, loofah, and water gourd. We should try to plant them before transplanting rice seedlings. Oh, and we can also grow sweet potato seedlings. Not only can we eat sweet potato seedlings, but once we plant the seedlings, around April, we can cut sweet potato stems for propagation!"

Bai Wei and Bai Chen: "..."

That's a really packed schedule!

They won't work themselves to death in the fields, will they?

Meanwhile, Qin Xiuren was dumbfounded by Bai Lu Kaka's calculation: "With your scale of operations, the land you've taken from other people's fields this year is going to become ours!"

Bai Lu waved her hand: "No way! We can rent it! Pay up! It's best to sign a contract, like ten or twenty years, to avoid disputes—hey, how about we buy it out!"

Qin Xiu choked: "Buy my ass! Buy land in this remote mountain area?! You must have lost your mind! And what's with all that talk, you say you have a plan? Tell me what the plan is! Are these fields deep-plowed or shallow-plowed—ugh, you almost led me astray! Whether it's deep-plowed or shallow-plowed, I can't plow it all for you. Twenty or thirty acres! Even if your father and I worked ourselves to death, we still wouldn't finish!"

"I didn't expect you to do the plowing!" Bailu soothed Qin Xiu. "We can hire people and machines—I know what you're trying to say, you need money, right? I have it!"

"You have no idea how expensive labor is these days. Plowing alone costs 120 yuan a day. How many days of labor can you afford with your 30,000 yuan?"

Qin Xiu was absolutely furious: "Not counting labor costs, you can't even afford compound fertilizer and herbicides! Do you think planting twenty or thirty acres requires no investment? You think you can just plant and harvest?"

Egret: "..."

Between telling the truth and giving a false report, Bai Lu chose the latter. She couldn't explain why she could openly reveal her identity as a cultivator to her younger siblings, but subconsciously wanted to hide it from Qin Xiu.

She took a deep breath and removed the hat that was almost welded to her head, revealing a layer of short hair resembling stubble.

"Actually, although I wasn't seriously injured in the car accident, the driver was drunk. In order to avoid calling the police, he gave me 200,000 yuan to settle the matter privately."

"What!" Qin Xiu immediately stood up and examined Bai Lu closely, but couldn't see anything wrong or find any external injuries. She looked worried and said, "Bai Lu, tell me the truth, is your body really alright? Could you have any internal injuries?"

She was about to take Bailu for a checkup when Bailu stopped her, saying, "No need, no need. If something were wrong, the doctor wouldn't dare discharge me! I'm really fine, just a little weak. My only wish right now is to stay home, farm some land, experience rural life, and take good care of my health."

Egret's words were not sincere. After all, people who have lived in the countryside since childhood really do not want to live a life of toiling in the fields. Egret did not like it in the past, and Egret does not like it now.

She just has a cheat code now, so she doesn't need to go through all the hardship of farming herself, which is why she chose this path.

Bai Wei and Bai Chen were speechless after hearing this. What did they mean by "the only wish"?!

That sounds like a dying wish!

But they didn't know why Bailu didn't confront Qin Xiu.

But Qin Xiucai didn't care about her only wish or not. She even tried to persuade Bailu: "Farming is really a dead-end job. If you use this money to farm, you might as well use it to pay back your cousin."

Egret: "..."

Qin Xiu is a good mother to a certain extent, but that doesn't prevent some of her actions from hurting her child's feelings.

For example now.

Bai Lu didn't say anything more, but stood up: "I just want to stay at home and farm. I can pay rent for the family's land, and I can use that money as I see fit."

"You child! Can't you understand good and bad advice? Farming is a dead-end job!"

Qin Xiu was disappointed in Bai Lu, but Bai Lu had already gone far away. Bai Chen and Bai Wei quickly followed. They could both tell that Bai Lu was unhappy.

"sister……"

The two called out cautiously.

"Mom...that's just how she is, sharp tongue but soft heart..."

Bai Lu smiled and said, "You know what? What I hate most is someone who has a sharp tongue but a soft heart."

This is far more disgusting than a direct, physical confrontation.

Bai Chen opened his mouth, but finally said, "You can tell Mom about your current abilities. If she knows, she will definitely support you!"

"I wanted to say it at first, but now I don't want to."

"Why?" Bai Chen asked, puzzled. "Did she want you to return the money to your cousin? Sigh! Don't listen to her. She was just saying it casually; she doesn't really want your money!"

(End of this chapter)