Chapter 12

He Changyue’s back was perfectly straight. His legs were pressed together, and his trembling hands rested on his knees. He did not dare move an inch. “Misunderstanding. It’s all a misunderstanding!”

He Nian, who was watching the show from the side, pulled out a small handful of rice and sighed over how familiar this scene felt.

The disciple in charge of reporting the news was indignant. “It was him! He said Little Martial Uncle’s rice tasted bad and wanted to come argue with Little Martial Uncle. Choosing this exact time to show up—isn’t that just ruining Little Martial Uncle’s occasion?”

The disciples of the Divine Creation Sect all liked this Little Martial Uncle, who looked mature but was only thigh-high. Not only did he let them freeload cultivation time in the Spirit-Gathering Array, he also explained the patterns between arrays and runes to them. His abilities were incredible!

He Changyue wanted to cry but had no tears. He had thought the Sword Sect and the Divine Creation Sect were closely allied, so he deliberately made a little joke to lure the little junior brother out. How was he supposed to know today was that little junior brother’s birthday? The elders of the Divine Creation Sect were all gathered together. Heaven knew his legs had almost gone weak when he saw Senior Sister Fuyi come out with her sword in hand.

Fuyi tapped the body of the Dawn and Dusk Sword and said, “You came to ruin my occasion, He Changyue.”

Fuyi was the one who sold the spirit rice. If something went wrong, of course they would have to find the seller.

He Changyue said with a mournful face, “Senior Sister Fuyi, I was wrong, I really was wrong. I just wanted to meet the little junior brother. The rice was especially good. After my father and mother ate it, their complexions looked much younger the next day!”

Not only that. The old master and old madam of the He family had eaten the entire steamed bowl of rice one mouthful at a time while thinking, “At least it was a gift from our son, so we can’t waste it.” The spirit rice was extremely fragrant and sweet, and it tasted perfectly fine plain. Who knew that the next morning, the old madam would let out a shriek in front of the mirror? He Changyue thought something had happened and rushed over at once, only to see that even the white hair at his already sixty-year-old mother’s temples had lessened by a great deal. The old master, whose health had already been good, performed two sets of boxing on the spot, his movements full of vigor and force. It was clearly very effective.

Daoist Yichen and Daoist Yiwen were not here. After all, He Changyue was a junior. If the two of them stepped forward, it would inevitably carry the suspicion of elders bullying a child, and if word spread to the Sword Sect, it would affect the friendship between the two sects.

While He Changyue blamed his own mouth for having no gate on it, he obediently offered up his storage bag. “I didn’t know today was little junior brother’s birthday, and I have offended him terribly. Little junior brother can pick whatever he likes. I wish little junior brother a smooth and open Dao path!”

The storage bag drifted and drifted until it floated in front of Shen Mengji.

Shen Mengji was connecting to the network.

He Changyue had heard of Shen Mengji’s great name, but he did not know Shen Mengji personally. Shen Mengji had established his foundation early, so he looked a little younger. He Changyue’s cultivation realm was also lower than Shen Mengji’s, so he only sensed that this taciturn cultivator’s spiritual energy was restrained. On top of that, he was wearing the black Daoist robe that only direct disciples of the Divine Creation Sect could wear, so He Changyue naturally assumed that he was the newly accepted little junior brother.

“Then many thanks, Senior Brother He.”

Beside Shen Mengji, Lu Yan directed He Nian to pick him up. Using both hands, he grabbed that storage bag and smiled at He Changyue as he spoke.

He Changyue: “…”

He Changyue looked at Lu Yan and began to doubt his life. “L-l-l-little junior brother?”

Lu Yan cupped his fists. “Senior Brother He, you’re too courteous.”

He Changyue looked Lu Yan over from the tips of his toes to the top of his head, then from the top of his head back down to the tips of his toes. After going back and forth several times, he finally asked, “May I ask, little junior brother… which birthday is this?”

Lu Yan held up five fingers. “Five years old.”

He Changyue asked again, “The spirit rice was really grown by little junior brother? And the desk lamp was also made by little junior brother?”

This time, Lu Yan was surprised. He had only ever traded one desk lamp for seeds. “Only one desk lamp has made it out. Could your family be grain merchants?”

So he really had made it.

He Changyue’s face went numb. “No. A grain merchant gave it to my mother.”

So it had changed hands once. Lu Yan nodded to show he understood, then asked, “Did your honored mother find it useful?”

“Useful. Extremely useful,” He Changyue said very seriously. “My mother’s eyes aren’t good, and she can’t stand the smoke from candles. When the desk lamp lights up, it is as bright as day. It also looks pleasing to the eye when placed on a table. My mother likes it very much.”

This was Lu Yan’s first time receiving feedback from the mortal world. He took several spirit beads out of his own storage bag and said, “These are for you. If the spiritual energy in the spirit bead that powers the array dissipates, you can remove the wooden panel and replace it.”

There was simply no better seller than him!

He Changyue secretly glanced at Fuyi. Seeing that Senior Sister Fuyi did not stop him, he received the spirit beads with great joy. He could not help recalling his own five-year-old self. When other people were five, they had cultivated spirit rice and refined desk lamps that even mortals could use.

As for him, he had probably still been playing with mud.

Speaking of desk lamps, He Changyue had come to the Divine Creation Sect today for two reasons. One was the spirit rice, and the other was the desk lamp. He asked, “Little junior brother, are your desk lamps easy to refine?”

Lu Yan nodded. He roughly guessed something. “They’re easy.”

He Changyue’s eyes lit up. “What about the expense?”

Lu Yan pinched up a spirit bead and answered, “One low-grade spirit stone can make ten.”

He Changyue slapped his thigh. “It’s like this, little junior brother. My family does business. Desk lamps are brighter than candles, consume energy more slowly than candles, and if they’re accidentally knocked over, there’s no danger of fire. As long as the costs are handled properly, even ordinary commoners can afford and use them!”

Lu Yan rubbed his chin and accurately caught the words the other party had not yet said. “There’s more to it than that, right?”

He Changyue had grown up in a merchant household, and his little abacus clacked loudly in his head. “It would be even better if there were some other styles, ones that looked a bit more luxurious!”

Lu Yan laughed. “So you want to cover both ends of the market.”

He Changyue thought that little junior brother really did not have the mind of a five-year-old child at all, and said, “No need to seek the best, only the most expensive!”

Lu Yan patted He Nian’s hand, signaling for him to put him down. Then he moved forward on his short little legs and clapped hands with He Changyue. “Deal!”

…

Qionggu Peak.

Lu Yan gathered the disciples who had attended his classes before and established, on the spot, the first assembly-line operations department in the Divine Creation Sect and even the entire cultivation world. There were those responsible for refining lampshades, those responsible for polishing spirit beads, those responsible for carving lamp frames, those responsible for inscribing arrays… Through teamwork, they would strive for the highest efficiency.

He Changyue was amazed by Lu Yan’s rallying power. “Why do all these disciples listen to Junior Brother Bupo?”

He Nian, who had subconsciously shouldered a hoe the moment he reached Qionggu Peak, said, “When they freeload off the Spirit-Gathering Array and sit in on lessons every day, how could they not listen?”

The Divine Creation Sect’s signature skills were runic arrays and artifact refining. Illumination arrays were the basics among basics, and the principle behind the desk lamp was not difficult. Lu Yan demonstrated it a few times, and the disciples grasped the trick. Their expressions were rather serious.

Lu Yan sat down beside He Nian and said thoughtfully, “You demon race cultivators are called demon cultivators. Those who practice the sword are called sword cultivators. Those focused on runic arrays are called rune cultivators or array cultivators. Then what are we artifact refiners called?”

He Nian and He Changyue exchanged a look and said in unison, “Artifact cultivators?”

Lu Yan: “…Auto repair.”

He Changyue instinctively felt that this “auto repair” was not the same as that “artifact cultivation,” and took the initiative to ask, “Little junior brother, do you have any other good things?”

Lu Yan rummaged through the little gadgets in his storage bag, things he had come up with when he had nothing better to do. They were only simple concepts and had not yet been put into practice. “Thermos cups, insulated food jars, hot-water flasks, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, I suppose… Oh, and there’s also a kind of ox cart that can plow the fields by itself.”

He Nian: “If you have an ox cart, why are you still making me turn over the soil?”

And with his Demonic power sealed too, so he could only turn it over with a hoe!

Lu Yan was perfectly justified. “I haven’t refined the ox yet.”

He Nian: “…”

I’ll endure it!

He Changyue did not understand the long string of things Lu Yan had listed. He only knew they had to be quite a few good things. He looked at the busy disciples and asked, “Do you have enough disciples?”

Lu Yan thought for a moment, then said, “I can open a class on arrays. A fair number of disciples should be interested. And since I’ll pay them, it wouldn’t be bad for them to take on a part-time job and earn spirit stones. We can gradually improve it later. If your He family is capable enough, I could even set up repair departments in various places.”

He Changyue was puzzled. “What’s a repair department?”

Lu Yan answered, “It means our Divine Creation Sect will send people to be stationed in different places. If anyone’s things break, they can be repaired or replaced.”

He Changyue admired this little junior brother’s fantastic ideas even more. “That’s a really good idea!”

Opening a class to teach was a very solemn matter no matter where it happened, especially when what Lu Yan was teaching was arrays and runes. After He Nian calmed down, he offered Lu Yan an idea. “At the very least, I did reclaim Qionggu Peak. Why not leave the matter of naming it to me?”

Lu Yan tucked both hands into his sleeves. “How about calling it ‘Neverfall’?”

“Neverfall?” He Changyue smacked his lips. The more he savored these words, the more they seemed to have flavor. Unfortunately, he had no learning, so he could only squeeze out one sentence. “Very Zen.”

Lu Yan’s gaze turned subtle. He thought of a certain roommate from his previous life who had been born in the land of Qi and Lu, as well as that advertising slogan his roommate had complained about in a voice dripping blood: “To learn artifact repair, come to Neverfall.”

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