From the family treasure tree to build an eternal family

Chapter 35 Immortal
Xu family medicinal herb field.

Xu Fugui stared blankly at the fourteen acres of bare medicinal fields, wondering what medicinal herbs to plant.

After selling eight acres of withered leaf blackthorn and six acres of iron root grass, I was busy preparing for Xu Xiaoniu's wedding and didn't have time to replant the fourteen acres of medicinal fields.

"To cultivate the five spiritual roots of the Five Elements Pile Meditation, one needs to consume medicinal soup made from the five spiritual plants. Daniel is currently at the third level of the pile meditation. If all goes well, he will hopefully complete it in ten years. At that time, he will need the medicinal soup to reach the Xiantian realm."

As a martial arts technique produced by Baoshu, the Five Elements Pile Training is enough to reach the Grandmaster level, equivalent to the late stage of Qi Refining. However, cultivating the five spiritual roots does not require reaching such a high level; only reaching the innate level is sufficient.

"The five types of spiritual plants required must be prepared in advance."

Of the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, wood, water, and earth are the most common spiritual plant attributes. For example, the withered leaf crow is a wood spiritual plant.

Gold-type spiritual plants are relatively rare, while fire-type spiritual plants are the rarest.

Iron root grass is a gold-type spiritual plant.

"Spiritual plants are the materials for refining high-end pills. Aged spiritual plants are even treasures used by immortals to refine pills. I think it's too difficult to get them."

Xu Fugui's plan was to plant medicinal herbs similar to Kuyewu in the medicinal herb field: if planted in ordinary fields, it would be an ordinary medicinal herb, and if planted in a spiritual vein, it would be a spiritual plant.

This way you can hide your tracks and avoid being noticed.

The space inside his body is a spiritual vein, where dead leaf black grass and iron root grass grow, and the three spiritual plants of water, fire and earth are still missing.

"Let's go to the county's herb seedling market. I may not be able to find any spiritual plants that meet my requirements."

At this time, a stranger came to Baihe Village and passed by Xu's farmland.

"Hey, uncle~"

A soft call interrupted Xu Fugui's thoughts.

Xu Fugui was less than forty years old, but he was tanned from working in the fields for many years, so he was called "Uncle".

He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a young man dressed like a playboy standing on the side of the road.

He has a fair face, wears a neat plain long gown, and has a jade pendant hanging around his waist. He has an extraordinary temperament that seems to be out of touch with the world.

His name is Jiang Hao.

"Uncle, this is Baihe Village, right?"

Jiang Hao smiled slightly, revealing his white teeth.

"Yes."

"Can I ask you something? How many households are there in Baihe Village? Approximately how many people are there?"

"Just over a thousand households, about 4,500 to 4,600 people. Counting maids and servants, there would be a few hundred more."

Xu Fugui acted like a simple and honest farmer, answering whatever the young man asked him.

"Uncle, where are you from? What's your name? How many people are there in your family?"

The question Jiang Hao asked was over the line.

"Sir, I don't even know who you are. Why are you asking about my family affairs right away?"

Xu Fugui could see that the person in front of him was of high status, but it was inappropriate to inquire about his privacy.

Suddenly, a book appeared in Jiang Hao's hand. "Don't mind me, uncle. I'm a civil servant from the county government. I'm here to investigate the household registration documents."

Hearing that the other party was an official from the county government, Xu Fugui pointed to his home and said, "That's my home. My surname is Xu, my name is Fugui, and there are seven people in my family."

Jiang Hao flipped through the books in his hand and quickly found the Xu family: "I found it. You will be able to enjoy a good life in the future, having so many sons."

"Haha, then you have to work hard when you are young. It's not easy to support a big family."

Xu Fugui said with a smile.

Jiang Hao got the information he wanted and said goodbye. He tapped the ground with his toes and his figure suddenly floated dozens of meters away.

Xu Fugui noticed his receding figure and was shocked: Immortal!

————Jiang Hao is a cultivator at the fourth level of Qi training, an "immortal official".

Relying on his talent of three true spiritual roots, he stood out from thousands of independent cultivators in Yuanli County after numerous selections and became one of the dozens of "immortal officials" who joined the imperial court.

Officials in the imperial court are divided into three categories: civil officials, military officials, and immortal officials.

Civil servants are ordinary people without any real power, who do clerical work.

Military officers are those who practice martial arts like Liu Yaozu.

"Xianguan" is what the common people call it, meaning an official who cultivates immortality.

Half a year ago, Jiang Hao was assigned to Tonggu County by the Yuanli County government to serve as the "County Governor", supervising all officials, big and small, in the county.

In name, he can even supervise the county magistrate, but in reality, his status is slightly lower than that of the county magistrate, and he is one of the top big figures in Tonggu County.

Over the past six months, he has been learning about Tonggu County and becoming familiar with his rights and responsibilities.

"The farmer just now said that Baihe Village has just over a thousand households and a population of 4,500 to 4,600 people. But when I looked at the household registration, there are less than a thousand households and just over 3,000 people."

During the conscription in Yuanli County, Jiang Hao was assigned a task by a big boss in the county government: the more soldiers he recruited, the better.

If you recruit 50,000 men, you will be credited with merit. If you recruit 100,000 men, you will be credited with great merit!

The path to becoming an immortal is as difficult as ascending to heaven. Jiang Hao has worked so hard to board the imperial ship, and of course he hopes to go further.

The household registration book in Jiang Hao's hand was a rubbing of the document collected by the county lieutenant Liu Yaozu from various villages, and the conscription was based on this.

Suspecting something fishy was going on, he came to Liu Yaozu's hometown to investigate. Baihe Village, being the hometown of County Magistrate Liu, and the village chief being his brother, was bound to be prone to favoritism and corruption.

"Auntie, I want to ask something."

Jiang Hao found another young woman and asked about her household registration.

When the thirty-year-old young woman saw Jiang Hao, she looked shy and blushed. Jiang Hao was really fair and handsome. The village woman had never seen such a handsome young man before.

So, Jiang Hao didn't even need to reveal his identity, and the young woman answered his questions clearly.

After that, he asked questions along the way and asked everyone he saw on the road.

After a while, he had figured out the situation: the household registration documents of Baihe Village had been revised, and about 20% of the households were hidden.

"Did Liu Yaozu make the changes on his own, or did he collude with the villagers?"

Jiang Hao pondered.

Before leaving Baihe Village, he carefully inquired about the Liu family's situation, especially the Liu family's ancestors.

The person he was inquiring about had happened to be bullied by the Liu family, so he said some bad things about the Liu family.

Jiang Hao wasn't interested in such matters; he was concerned about whether there were powerful figures behind the Liu family. After learning that the Liu family rose to prominence through the efforts of Liu Yaozong and Liu Yaozu, and that previous generations had been at most wealthy peasants, he made up his mind.

After returning to the county town, he went to check the payment status of the exemption silver.

The exemption silver of 500 taels of silver was stipulated by the county government. There were no relevant regulations for this conscription in Yuanli County: there was no provision for paying money to be exempted from military service, nor was there a prohibition on the exemption silver.

"Sure enough, just as I expected."

After checking, Jiang Hao confirmed his guess: Liu Yaozu embezzled the exemption silver by concealing the number of households in the household registration documents.

In Baihe Village alone, 20% of the population was hidden, and most of them were wealthy families who were able to pay the exemption silver.

Each household received five hundred taels of silver.

I guess Liu Yaozu did the same thing in other villages.

Jiang Hao roughly estimated that Liu Yaozu took the opportunity to embezzle hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

"A county lieutenant, taking advantage of the conscription to make so much money, is quite bold."

(End of this chapter)