Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

"Okay, see you tomorrow." Yunling waved.

The girl stood in the sunset and smiled slightly. Under the setting sun, her black hair was tinged with color, and her skin seemed transparent. She was such a girl, so plain and simple, yet when she smiled, it was hard to look away.

"Where have you been playing, you little rascal? How come you're covered in mud?" The father patted Zhuang Xing's head.

"Hehe." Zhuang Xing grinned.

"Still laughing? Go back and see how your mother deals with you!" The father said in a threatening tone, but it was just a joke. "Let Daddy take a look, are there any scratches?"

Zhuang Xing dodged and ran forward, shouting, "Father, let's have a race to see who gets home first!"

"You think you can take advantage of your father working in the fields all day?" The father laughed twice and chased after him.

The father and son played around and disappeared from Yunling's sight.

As darkness fell, Yunling sat by the deserted waterwheel, drawing water to wash away the grime from her body.

She looked at her clothes and shoes with some difficulty. Although she had rubbed off some mud, the clothes were soaked. It was cold to wear them in the early spring weather, but she could only sigh, hug her thin legs, and look towards the river.

The river flows gently, accompanied only by the sounds of frogs and insects.

"So it wasn't Father who came to see me..."

She sat alone by the river for quite a while.

No one came looking for her, and no one called her home.

Once her washed hair was dry, she stood up and walked towards the village.

Although it was still the same, she felt a little bit of anticipation for tomorrow. She waved to the river and turned to leave.

Even if you're alone, you have to keep moving forward.

Otherwise, Father will worry.

Chapter 32 Compendium of Demons

When Zhuang Xing and his father returned home, his mother had already prepared dinner.

The steaming hot food was laid out on the table. As soon as Zhuang Xing entered the house, his mother looked at him with a worried expression, seeing him covered in mud and water.

"How did you get your clothes like this? You're covered in mud."

The mother did not scold him, but went to the side to get a clean towel, soaked it in water, and squatted down to wipe Zhuang Xing's face.

"Mother, I want to take a bath before eating." Zhuang Xing stood obediently.

"Go on, go on." His mother patted his forehead. "I just boiled some water, so take off these dirty clothes first."

"I'll go to the inner room to take it off and get my change of clothes while I'm at it!" Zhuang Xing dropped the wooden sword and skipped into the room.

"This child," his mother chuckled, "I boiled some salted duck eggs today. Hurry up and take a bath, or your father will eat them all!"

"Okay!" Zhuang Xing replied.

He walked through his parents' bedroom, opened a wooden door, and entered a narrow room.

This is a small house that was built last year; it's his bedroom.

As soon as he entered the room, he unbuckled his belt and quickly hid the box under the bed.

After that, he went outside the bedroom, took off his dirty clothes and threw them on the floor, and took a clean shirt and a pair of pants from the crib where he used to sleep.

Now, one side of the crib's railing has been removed and turned into a junkyard, where Zhuangxing's things are stored, including wooden toys his father made for him and his clothes.

He took a bath in the small cubicle outside the kitchen. His mother poured hot water into a wooden basin, and he draped a towel over his shoulders and used a wooden ladle to scoop hot water onto his body.

While rinsing, he rubbed soap to create some lather. The muddy water felt sticky on his body, and he felt refreshed after washing it off.

While taking a bath, the aroma of food wafted into his nose, and a feeling of hunger suddenly surged up. He had used up too much energy wielding the sword, and he was still young and in the prime of his growth, so he was lacking in nutrition in every way.

In fact, he doesn't practice swordsmanship very frequently on a regular basis.

Although the family had achieved a comfortable life by making tofu, meat was still relatively rare. In ancient times, when resources were scarce, even officials couldn't afford to eat meat every day, let alone ordinary people like them.

Families in the village who raise chickens and ducks usually sell them and rarely slaughter them for their own consumption.

Without meat, nutrition would be insufficient. Zhuang Xing was often afraid that he was practicing swordsmanship too much and wasting all his nutrition, which would affect the development of his bones and muscles.

Just like those fitness enthusiasts who only focus on being fit but don't supplement with high-quality protein and carbohydrates, they'll eventually ruin themselves.

Unless you are already overweight, you can be less concerned about food intake during exercise.

Zhuang Xing's height was nowhere near the standard for being overweight; he was only slightly stronger than the other children in the village. Under these circumstances, he naturally couldn't just ignore everything and train haphazardly on his own.

Wash yourself clean and change your clothes.

He went to the dining table, picked up the bowl, and started shoveling rice into his mouth.

Mother cooked two salted duck eggs. She and Father each had half, while Zhuang Xing enjoyed the remaining one all to himself—a privilege reserved for children.

Zhuang Xing didn't stand on ceremony and used his chopsticks to poke open the salted duck egg. Although the egg was a bit lacking in craftsmanship and the yolk wasn't oily, it was still soft and crumbly in the mouth and melted in your mouth.

Zhuang Xing licked his lips, still savoring the taste, and put down his chopsticks.

"I'm full! Mother, Father, you can eat slowly." Zhuang Xing shrugged and tried to crawl back into the house, his mind completely focused on the jade slip.

"Wait a minute, son," the father called out to Zhuang Xing.

"What's wrong, Father?" Zhuang Xing asked.

The father and mother exchanged a glance and nodded to each other.

"Your father has something to ask you." The father's tone became unusually serious. "Do you want to learn to read?"

"Learn to read? Is Father going to teach me to read?" Zhuang Xing asked innocently.

"Do you want to learn?" His father beckoned him over.

Zhuang Xing realized that the atmosphere was a bit off. If things continued like this, he felt that if he said he wanted to learn, he would be scheduled to attend class the next day.

But there's nowhere to attend classes in the village. Do they want to send me to the city?

That's impossible. Where would they get that kind of capital?

His intuition told him he couldn't say he wanted to learn. His eyes darted around, and a sudden idea struck him. He said, "I'll learn if Father teaches me."

"You want your father to teach you?"

His father scratched his hair, and his mother held his hand.

"Ok!"

"Then Daddy will teach you when he has time later." His father patted his shoulder. "Go play. Daddy and Mommy still have to grind beans. Go to sleep when you're tired."

Zhuang Xing was sent away. He ran into the inner room, but didn't go far. Instead, he pressed himself against the door, listening to the voices outside.

"Xiao He, maybe we shouldn't let our son go."

"My lord, do you remember how we made that stone mill that we use to grind beans at home?"

"Of course I remember... Zhuang'er helped us build it. He was playing in the yard that day, and I saw him put the two wooden tops I gave him together and grind beans on them. I made the stone mill based on that."

Do you remember how old Zhuang'er was back then?

"Three years old... plus three months..."

"When he was just a month old, still a little dumpling, he already knew to cry for me to help him to the toilet. By three, he could put on his own shoes and clothes, and by four, he dared to sleep alone without making a fuss. This is the first time I've ever seen him get mud all over himself. To be honest, seeing him covered in mud like a little mud figure today makes me feel like he's a normal child. Husband, you know, I often think, if Zhuang'er hadn't been born into our family..."

There was a moment of silence outside, followed by a long sigh.

“Sigh… Xiao He, you’re right. Anyway, the village chief said that the Taoist priests won’t come until autumn. Let’s save up more money. Even if Zhuang’er doesn’t get selected, we can still spend money to let him study for a few years. That way, he might not have to make a living by doing manual labor like us in the future.”

"But... I'm still a little reluctant to let her go... If Zhuang'er leaves, I don't know how lonely the house will become."

"Children can't stay with their parents forever; they'll grow up eventually."

"Husband, grind more soybeans tonight."

"Ah."

...

The conversation ended, and the sound of a stone mill grinding could be heard outside.

Zhuang Xing went back to his room and lay down on his bed. He heard every word his father and mother said.

This autumn, it seems the "Taoist priests" will come to the village. What are they coming for? To take on disciples?

Did his mother and father want to send him outside to learn a trade?

What does paying money mean? Does paying money mean I can get preferential treatment?

He lay in bed, feeling a strange, indescribable sensation.

But then I thought, autumn is still a long way off. Today is only the eighth day of the third lunar month, and it will be at least five months from now.

The future hasn't happened yet; the most important thing is the present. Making the most of the present is the secret to a good life.

What's the point of worrying about something that never even happened?

Thinking it over, he calmed down, took out the box, took out the jade slip inside, and held it in his hand.

In the dimly lit room, the jade slip emitted a faint glow as Zhuang Xing pondered how to use it.

He first tried to bind his blood to the jade slip, but unfortunately, he failed. The jade slip did not absorb his blood and then call him master.

The experience in the novel proved inapplicable. After thinking for a moment, he took out the key to the box, which was also the talisman.

When experience failed him, he relied on his intuition, which told him that the amulet's function should be more than just opening this "box".

Judging from the various phenomena observed during the day, the amulet seemed more like a remote control, directly connected to the box. While the box bound the white rat, the amulet beeped and sounded an alarm. Moreover, when the grass roots entangled themselves around it, it was the amulet that stopped them.

He thought about it and tried the simplest method: he directly touched a piece of jade on the jade slip with the talisman.

Immediately, he heard a sound like glass shattering, and the light from the white jade suddenly became extremely bright, casting a lifelike projection in the darkness.

Zhuang Xing saw the illusory image of a dragon swimming around, and a firebird with flames burning on its wings. All sorts of strange monsters flashed by like a transition in an animation. Finally, the golden light subsided, leaving only those four characters.

"The Compendium of Demons..." Zhuang Xing murmured as he read those four words aloud.

He tried using the amulet to touch the words, and surprisingly, he could actually turn the pages of the outline just like reading a book.

Chapter 33 Platinum Rat