Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Seafood tofu was made of exquisite materials, making it impossible to make authentic ones. However, they didn’t have ham, shrimp, and yellow flowers at home. They only had chicken soup, dried mushrooms, shredded chicken, egg flowers, and cilantro to flavor the finished product. In addition, Yan Lingsu’s tofu-making skills were not bad, so the taste was extremely delicious.
Yan Qixun said, “Tomorrow morning, you could make some more and send a jar to Great-grandfather. You could fry a few bean dregs cakes and send the rest to Aunt Guo for the remaining bean dregs. Didn’t her family raise a few pigs? Pig loves bean dregs.”
Gongyu Mingxi said, “Our family can’t finish that much of tofu. Later, send some to their families. Lingsu, see how is your great-grandfather is doing while you’re at it.”
After dinner, Yan Qixun went to wash the pots and dishes. She also boiled a pot of water for washing up. Yan Lingsu cleaned up the medicinal herbs that she had picked during the day. She combined them with the medicine that Zuo Guanglu had bought. She prepared the medicine for Grandfather Zuo and sent her second brother to the Zuo family.
After washing up, the family lit the lamps and sat around the brick bed to chat. Gongyu Mingxi began to arrange the work for each family member. There was no need to work in their land at this time of the year. Moreover, the family’s land was rented to their two Granduncles. It was a total of twenty acres of land, ten acres for each family. So even if it was the land-plowing season, the family was not required to take care of the land. But even without work on the land, there was a lot of work at home.
“Lingsu, you don’t have to go up the mountain to pick herbs these two days. You and Lingyu will help me make quilts, clothes, and shoes.
“Hao’er, dig a fermentation pond for Yan Qixun to make paper tomorrow. Besides, aren’t you going to the mountain in the next few days? Make time to dig the fermentation pond tomorrow. When you come back from the mountain, we have to tidy up our original home. It has been burnt to ashes, and it won’t look good if we leave it there.
“The woodwork will not be usable anymore, but the green bricks and tiles can still be used to rebuild our house. We can save some money by building the courtyard walls or the shed in the future.
“We’ll pick out everything that can be used and clean up the ashes. We’ll keep it as fertilizer. It’ll be easier to build a house when spring comes.”
It had rained previously, so it was difficult to clean up after the rain. They would be able to do it after a day or two under the sun when it’s all dried up.
Gong Yuhao said, “Listen to your mother. I’ll be able to clean up after two or three days.”
Yan Qixun was confused. “Mother, what should I do then?”
“You don’t know how to sew, and you only know how to use your mouth to instruct people while we’re cooking. You can just copy the medical book and exchange it for some silver in case of emergencies. But there’s no need to copy it anymore, so you can do whatever you want. If you do not have anything to do, you can just help your second brother.”
Yan Qixun felt that they were discriminating against her. “Then I’ll go to the river and cut some cattail grass. I’ll also ask Grandfather for some rice straw. I need it to make paper.”
She had to buy a guillotine to cut the materials, and she would also need to prepare the rollers and grains to make the materials. Other than that, she had to build a paper-making pool, a paper-making net, and a shed for making paper. The green bricks she had collected were just enough to build a shed. She also wanted to bake some snacks, so she built an oven. However, she was not in a hurry.
Yan Lingsu thought for a moment and said, “Seeing that it is getting colder, we have to prepare more firewood for our house. We also have to cut some dry grass to make fire for cooking.”
They did not have any farmland, and their Granduncle gave the straw they had. However, their straw was too close to the kitchen, which was destroyed during the fire. Grandmother Zuo sent the straw that she had been using for the past two days. Fortunately, there was nothing else in the countryside but plenty of wild grass and reeds.
Gong Yuhao said, “Leave the physical work to me. When I come back from the mountains and clean up the homestead, I’ll go collect straw and gather firewood. I’ll prepare all the firewood for the winter.”
The firewood had to be dried before it could be used properly. The house needed to heat the brick bed, so it was impossible not to prepare more firewood.
Yan Qixun felt that Brother Monkey was too down-to-earth. Gongyu Mingxi was very gratified. “My son, you are competent, but please do not tire yourself out. Your health is more important than anything.”
Even though he was pretty capable, he was still a 12-year-old young child. How could she bear to let him do too much work? But wasn’t he an immortal in the past life? Why would she be worried?
“I channeled Qi into my body last night. My body is fine. You don’t have to worry about me.
“Oh right, speaking of cultivation, although it can’t be passed down to others easily, mother and sisters are my blood relatives. You guys already have extremely heavy karma, so I can pass it to you.
“I’ll teach you the breathing technique first. Firstly you need to nurse your body to the right condition. After your bodies are stronger, I’ll teach you how to channel Qi for cultivation.”
When it came to cultivation, they became interested.
“Can we cultivate?”
They were probably influenced by the cultivation shown in movies and novels of later generations, and Yan Qixun thought that only people with spiritual roots could cultivate.
Gong Yuhao scratched his head and said, “I just saw that all of you have the aptitude for cultivating.
“You three girls can still cultivate since you are young. However, it’s a little too late for Mother to cultivate now, but it doesn’t matter. I was born from the Chaos Stone and had a natural immortal body.
“Although I have a mortal body now, my soul has constantly been transforming my body. It was probably because I had stayed in my mother’s womb for ten months that her cultivation aptitude had increased.
“To be honest, Lingyu should have the best aptitude to cultivate. She has a natural wood spirit body, and her cultivation speed was breakneck due to her affinity with wood spirits.
“Lingsu’s aptitude is also not bad, but I couldn’t see Yan Qixun’s aptitude. Her aptitude is quite similar to mine, which has an affinity with all kinds of Qi.
“Hmm…she’s somewhat similar to me but doesn’t have a natural immortal body like mine. It’s quite strange.”
Who cared what aptitude she had? As long as he could cultivate Yan Qixun, he would be happy.
Yan Qixun wanted to experiment to see if cultivation could open up the brain and the locked genes in the human body. According to what her second brother had said about transforming the body with the spirit, Yan Qixun wondered if this was the process of opening up the human body’s locked genes?
Hearing Gong Yuhao’s words, Mother and the others were very excited. Could they cultivate immortality just like that?
Yan Lingsu said, “Tomorrow morning, the ladies will wake up early. I’ll teach you martial arts first. It will have some benefits for improving your physique. It can also be used for self-defense.
“Although Second Brother will be teaching us cultivation, it will still be beneficial for us to know some martial arts.”
Gong Yuhao nodded in affirmation. “When the martial arts in the mortal world are practiced to the extreme, breaking through to the innate realm will be considered as transcending the mortal world.
“The martial arts in the mortal world can also be considered to walk the path of the flesh and the body. God Erlang and I walked the path of flesh and body before becoming a saint.
“When the physical body is cultivated to the extreme, it will shatter the void. Otherwise, how could I have brought my monkeys to another secluded path?
“Besides, I wouldn’t have been able to become Mother’s son. It’s a pity that this is the mortal world after all. There is too little spiritual energy, and I’m afraid that I won’t be able to cultivate anything. I can find some spiritual objects to help me cultivate. But the energy is too weak, and I’m afraid that spiritual objects are also hard to come by.”
Because his soul body was unique, Gongyu Hao wasn’t worried about cultivating. But he was concerned for his family. He could not bear to part with his family.
When Gongyu Mingxi heard this, her expression froze for a moment, as if she had thought of something, but she did not say much. Yan Qixun, on the other hand, was extremely open-minded. Everyone wanted to live forever, but there was no need to force it to happen.
Just like what she had said before, she felt that if the immortal world were as strict as the legends said, then she would not like it. What she was interested in was the matter of cultivation itself.
Besides, who could say for sure what kind of opportunities people had? Just like how her family had awakened the memories of their previous lives, who could have such an opportunity? If they could be reincarnated with their memories in the future, it wouldn’t be too far off from immortality. Wouldn’t this be even more interesting than ordinary immortality?
Experiencing the mortal world was the best way to cultivate. Besides, since their family was fated to be together in this life, how would they know fate will not bring them together in the next life?
If they were to learn breathing exercises, they would need to know the acupoints of the human body. Yan Lingsu, who studied Chinese medicine, naturally did not need to learn it again. Yan Qixun had a photographic memory. She would remember it after only learning it once. Gongyu Mingxi and Yan Lingyu were also knowledgeable people. After half a night learning the acupoints, Gong Yuhao taught them breathing exercises.
Yan Lingsu said, “Why don’t I go into the mountains with Second Brother and pick some medicinal herbs back to make soup and medicine to recuperate the body? Practicing martial arts and breathing exercises will be twice the result with half the effort..”