Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

The fat Taoist priest beckoned people over and started a fire.

Zhuang Xing and Yun Ling sat down. In addition to the snake soup, the fat Taoist priest also gave them three vegetarian dishes and a pickled fish.

The meal was very satisfying. The snake meat tasted very different from the snake meat Zhuang Xing had eaten before. It was like chicken or frog meat, with a texture somewhere between the two. It was very tender and smooth, yet chewy. In short, it was delicious, and it gave off a warm feeling that made him feel very comfortable.

After finishing their meal, just as they were about to leave, someone spoke a few words to the fat Taoist priest, who then called out to Zhuang Xing.

"Did you make that cake?" the fat Taoist priest suddenly asked.

"Cake? How does the Taoist priest know about cake?" Zhuang Xing remembered that the fat Taoist priest didn't have New Year's Eve dinner with them that night.

"Qiaoxia keeps asking for cake. She says it's made with wheat and eggs, but I'm completely baffled. What can you make with wheat and eggs?" the fat Taoist priest said.

Zhuang Xing was surprised to hear the name of Senior Sister Qiaoxia here and asked, "Does the Daoist Master know Senior Sister Qiaoxia?"

"Qiaoxia is my daughter," the fat Taoist priest said, surprising everyone.

Zhuang Xing was shocked. He was stunned for a moment, unable to tell at all that Senior Sister Qiaoxia and the fat Taoist priest were related by blood.

The fat Taoist priest seemed to see his doubt and said, "She is not my biological daughter, but my adopted daughter. I adopted her when she was still young and brought her to the mountain. It has been about twenty years."

"I see." Zhuang Xing finally accepted it somewhat.

"So how exactly is that cake made?" the fat Taoist priest asked again. "Sell me the recipe, I'll name my price."

“That won’t be necessary; it’s not a rare prescription,” Zhuang Xing said.

It was just a cake recipe; he had no intention of keeping it a secret.

Besides, the fat Taoist priest is my senior sister's adoptive father. Exchanging recipes for money is like asking your neighbor's uncle for money after he just cooked for you and wants to learn how to cook a dish from you. It just doesn't feel right.

"A cake is actually a pastry made by grinding wheat into flour, adding egg whites, egg yolks, and sugar, and then baking it," Zhuang Xing said, revealing the key point.

"Grind wheat into flour?" The fat Taoist priest hadn't thought of this step. Qiaoxia had never told him about it. She just kept asking to eat cake, but she couldn't explain how it was made. He couldn't understand what it meant to mix wheat and eggs and then bake it in a fire.

“Yes, this is the most crucial step,” Zhuang Xing said. “Wheat grains are indeed difficult to eat, but if they can be ground into fine powder and then mixed with water to make dough, the taste will be completely different whether it is steamed, boiled, or baked.”

"Really?" the fat Taoist priest asked.

“If it weren’t true, why would Senior Sister be clinging to the Taoist priest?” Zhuang Xing said.

"That's true," the portly Taoist priest nodded. "However, removing the husks and grinding it into powder... that's quite a lot of work..."

"Actually, that's not the case," Zhuang Xing said. "With a stone mill, wheat can be easily ground into flour."

"A stone mill? What's that?"

"It is a tool made by stacking two round stones together. When using it, you just need to pour the wheat into the mill to remove the husk and grind it into flour."

"Did you use a stone mill on the mountain?"

"I built one with a friend."

"Could you take me to see it?"

“Of course.” Zhuang Xing nodded.

As the fat Taoist priest spoke, he handed over the affairs of the shop to the other disciples he had hired, tidied his clothes a little, and left Shanshi with Zhuang Xingyunling.

He was very curious about what stone mills and cakes actually looked like.

He wasn't particularly interested in Taoist magic, demons, or talismans; he was only obsessed with studying the word "food."

Perhaps he was too hungry as a child and never had any good food. As he grew up, the most important thing for him every day was to fill his stomach, which is why he gradually became rounder.

Every time he went down the mountain, he would do his best to collect recipes and delicacies from different places. If there was meat from monsters, he would boldly try it. He had eaten sour and astringent meat, as well as meat that was delicious without any processing.

He had eaten wheat rice before; before he went up the mountain, he had eaten it a few times out of desperation, and it was truly a terrible thing to eat.

Of course, after all these years, he has figured out why wheat rice tastes so bad.

The main reason is that the husk of wheat is too difficult to remove. Whether eaten whole or crushed in a mortar, it must be steamed or boiled with the seed coat, which makes it rough and unpalatable.

When he heard that making a cake required grinding wheat into flour, he thought it meant peeling off the husks one by one by hand and then grinding them into flour. But Zhuang Xing said there was a tool that could both remove the husks and grind the wheat into flour.

If such a tool really existed, wouldn't it greatly reduce many steps in cooking?

He vaguely sensed the immense potential of the stone mill, which is why he wanted to go with Zhuang Xing to take a look.

Zhuang Xing led the fat Taoist priest to the big banyan tree. The stone mill was placed under the eaves. Although it hadn't been used for several months, it hadn't accumulated any dust because Da Chun had been diligently cleaning it every day.

Since there was no wheat, Zhuang Xing used millet to demonstrate the function of the stone mill.

The fat Taoist priest listened to the rumbling sound of the millstone turning and watched the fine powder being ground little by little from the millstone's holes, holding his breath.

"Sell me this stone mill," the fat Taoist priest said excitedly.

"This stone mill is nothing more than a decoration here. If you want it, Daoist, you can take it back with you," Zhuang Xing said with a smile.

"How can this be? I am the elder, and you are the junior. How can an elder take things from a junior for free?"

The fat Taoist priest patted Zhuang Xing on the shoulder.

"However... if I give you more money, you will definitely refuse again. How about this, at the end of each month, I will have Qiaoxia bring the two of you to the shop and treat you to a meal."

"You can't keep making excuses. Humility is a good thing, but if you're too humble, it can make people unhappy."

Looking at the fat Taoist priest's stubborn face, Zhuang Xing couldn't bring himself to refuse.

Buying them with money is one thing, but treating them to a meal is another.

In short, the fat Taoist priest carried the stone mill away by himself, and Zhuang Xing used this stone mill to exchange for two long-term meal tickets for himself and Yunling.

He was naturally very happy and pleased, but the fat Taoist priest seemed even happier and more pleased than him, so it was hard to say who gained and who lost.

Chapter 109 Longing to Return Home

After handing the stone mill over to the fat Taoist priest, Zhuang Xing and Yun Ling had an extra opportunity to freeload a meal at the end of each month.

The fat Taoist priest's cooking skills are really good. Just for the taste alone, Zhuang Xing felt it was worth it, not to mention that the nutritional supplements could also help Zhuang Xing and Yunling cultivate.

Zhuang Xing felt bad about always eating other people's food for free, so he taught the fat Taoist priest how to make tofu. Anyway, Xuanqing Temple was far from the village, so the fat Taoist priest wouldn't be competing with his mother for business.

It is said that this tofu became very popular as soon as it appeared in the market.

Soon after, even the canteen staff started using tofu in their cooking.

Gradually, Zhuang Xing also discovered stone mills in other parts of Xuanqing Temple.

That year, Zhuang Xing and Yun Ling maintained a frequency of going down the mountain to exorcise demons about once every two months, and also went to several neighboring villages to exorcise demons.

They spent month after month slowly on the mountain. As time passed, they got through the sweltering summer and autumn arrived in the blink of an eye. This year's wheat harvest was plentiful, probably because Yunling's vitality magic was very effective. The more than one acre of wheat they planted yielded a full 380 catties of wheat.

With Zhuang Xing around, harvesting wheat became a simple task.

After two years of cultivation on the mountain, and with the Qi-gathering powder that Master Qingxuzi regularly gave him, his true Qi increased significantly.

On the day of harvest, he gripped his sword and quickly cut down all the wheat in the field. He only needed Bai Yu and the others to help him pick up the wheat, which saved him a lot of trouble.

Of the 300 jin and 80 jin of wheat, he sold 300 jin to the fat Taoist priest's restaurant.

Of the remaining eighty jin, he kept fifty jin for himself as wheat seed and to grind flour for making delicious food, and gave the last thirty jin to Bai Yu.

Bai Yu was a smart man and understood what Zhuang Xing meant.

It will take many years before wheat and stone mills can be widely adopted.

This is an opportunity that Zhuang Xing has given to these people. As long as they can seize the opportunity and get ahead of others, they can at least live a life of comfort, if not a life of luxury.

"I will remember your kindness on everyone's behalf, and I will definitely repay you in the future."

These were Bai Yu's words when she received the wheat seeds. It was rare that she didn't offer to pay Zhuang Xing to buy the seeds.

It was probably because she knew very well that even if she took out all the money she had saved up in the temple over the past two years, it wouldn't be enough to offset the heavy weight of this bag of wheat seeds.

Zhuang Xing didn't expect anything in return from her, but he still said verbally, "Then we'll wait until you guys make it big."

This was his blessing. After that, he cherished the time he spent with his neighbors enjoying the cool air. All good things must come to an end, and he knew that every day like this was one less day he could have.

Autumn has passed and winter has come; Zhuangxing is now seven years old.

However, he doesn't look like a seven-year-old child. He eats well, exercises every day, and grows very fast, already looking like an eleven or twelve-year-old boy.

In this era, fourteen years old is considered adulthood, but after your tenth birthday, others will no longer treat you as a child. Once you turn ten, you have to find your own way to eat.

If you are a boy, your family will usually entrust you with a portion of the land to manage, so that you can farm and harvest the crops yourself.

If it was a girl, she would follow her mother to plant mulberry trees and weave cloth to save up for her dowry. When she turned fifteen or sixteen, her family would find a matchmaker to arrange a marriage for her.

Zhuang Xing had grown a lot that year. When he went down the mountain to exorcise demons again, the villagers still called him Little Taoist Priest, but they no longer treated him as a child watching a play. They would occasionally come to ask him for advice, because most of them had learned to live independently at that age.

Sometimes, in the village at the foot of the mountain, eating farm-style meals and watching other families happily together, Zhuang Xing would feel especially homesick.

He has been away from home for two years.

At the end of that year, he found Master Qingxuzi.

He remembered the Taoist priest saying that after becoming a disciple of Qing Sui, one could go home to visit once every three years. He wanted to ask if he could go home to visit next year.

"Next year we'll be sending those children home..." Master Qingxu patted his head and smiled. "We'll need to find some disciples to look after them as they go down the mountain, but we haven't decided on the candidates yet..."

Zhuang Xing sensed the hidden meaning in the Taoist priest's words. Two years ago, a child from his village had come up the mountain to learn martial arts, and naturally, he would have to return to the village when the time came.

Following this group down the mountain means it won't count as going home to visit relatives, and it will save you the trouble of getting a sick leave slip.

"This disciple is willing to accompany you," Zhuang Xing said, cupping his hands in greeting.

The old Taoist nodded slightly: "Then you and Yunling can go down the mountain together. Let your senior brother Lingwei lead the way. I will tell him that there is no need to rush on the way. It is okay to be delayed for a few days."

"Disciple understands." Zhuang Xing was overjoyed.

That night, when he returned to his room, he told Da Chun about it.

“Zhuang Xing, please take this money back for me.” Da Chun took out his box. “I don’t need this money on the mountain. Please take this money to my family and tell them that I’m doing well on the mountain and that I will come down to see them in a few years.”

“You can write now, why don’t you write a letter home?” Zhuang Xing said.

"Oh right, I can read now." Da Chun finally realized.

Zhuang Xing lit the night lamp for him, and he took out a brush and wrote a letter home stroke by stroke on the paper.

Da Chun wrote very carefully, using only simple words. He wrote down what he ate and what he wore, saying that he was doing well in the temple and that his parents didn't need to worry, and that they should take the money back to use.

Da Chun, who is usually quiet, wrote a whole page.

"I wonder how my older sister is doing these days..." Da Chun held his pen and looked out at the night sky.