Let Us Slaughter Sheep and Cattle and Make Merry / Dungeon

"Grandpa Hu, he's still young. I bet he hasn't seen much of anything yet. Once he finds something fun, he's bound to turn out just like us."

"Hmph! A seedling with such cultivation potential, and you two led him astray even knowing how young he was..."

And so, as the Deng brothers' elder continued to nag and grumble at them, the three of them deftly arranged all the offerings.

They checked the incense once more, then respectfully stepped back and bowed again in every direction.

The muttering of the apparition they called "Grandpa Hu" gradually faded, and his form grew faint again. He seemed to have turned his attention to enjoying the newly offered incense and the aroma of food.

Only then did they tiptoe out of the incense hall and carefully close the heavy door.

Outside, the sunlight was bright again.

Deng Youcai breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief. At last, his ears had some peace.

The room they had just left was only something like the "main shrine," where offerings were made collectively within the large compound.

Besides that, most of the other separate rooms in the courtyard were not for people to live in, but were individual "private rooms" for the immortals.

They might contain separate offerings to an "immortal" or an ancestral spirit tablet.

Among all these rooms, there was said to be one most important "main chamber," which even Guan Shihua herself would not enter casually.

What was enshrined there was probably the true "foundation" of the Horse-Riding Immortal lineage, or some extraordinary being.

And if a spirit later succeeded in cultivation, gained recognition for its strength, and was willing to establish a firm connection with the hall,

It would naturally also have its own "room" here, receive incense offerings, and become part of the accumulated foundation of the Horse-Riding Immortal lineage beyond the pass.

This was the complex ecosystem and system of accumulated foundations that the Horse-Riding Immortal lineage had built over hundreds of years.

After they returned the empty food boxes to the kitchen and put them away, they went back to Guan Shihua's warm room.

They found that a small, low square elm table had already been set on the kang.

Several steaming dishes, fresh from the pot, sat on the table: fragrant chicken stewed with mushrooms, blood sausage with pickled cabbage and pork belly, tender stir-fried wild mountain greens, and a basin of golden millet rice.

Master Chai sat in a chair, while Guan Shihua had already taken off her shoes and climbed onto the kang. She sat cross-legged by the table, waiting for them.

"We're just waiting for you three. Come on up and eat while it's hot."

Guan Shihua beckoned them over.

They hurriedly took off their shoes, climbed onto the kang, and sat around the little square table, picking up their bowls and chopsticks.

Chapter 25: Let Us Slaughter Sheep and Cattle and Make Merry

Though these were only rustic home-cooked dishes, they had been carefully prepared by a dedicated cook, with fresh ingredients and rich flavors. They were far more lavish and delicious than Qing He Miao's usual fare at home.

As far as eating went, this period had been the most comfortable he had enjoyed since transmigrating.

A farming household of a few decades really couldn't compare to wealthy landlord families whose fortunes had been passed down.

Unfortunately, those good days would soon come to an end.

Summer vacation was almost over, and he had to return to school.

A few days later, Qing He Miao tucked away the red envelope Guan Shihua had privately given him, containing a sum that could definitely be considered enormous in this era.

Together with Master Chai, he set off down the mountain toward home.

The mountain path wound between lush green woods.

After they had walked for a while, Master Chai glanced at his disciple, who was silently making his way beside him, and couldn't help asking:

"Miao, how did you find this trip? Did you gain anything?"

"I gained... quite a lot."

Qing He Miao made a show of thinking it over, then answered with an extremely serious expression:

"My biggest takeaway is that if I can keep up my current pace, perhaps I won't need the eighty, ninety, or even hundred years I originally estimated... I might only need sixty or seventy years to shed my mortal body and ascend!

"Master, are you really not going to try a little harder and find a way to hold on longer? Wouldn't it be exciting to witness the miracle with your own eyes?"

"You little brat!"

Master Chai was amused by his "shamelessly boastful" yet teasing words. Laughing and cursing, he raised a hand as if to hit him.

"All you do is talk about things that aren't remotely realistic!"

Sixty or seventy years, indeed... at his age, what the hell was the difference between that and the eighty or ninety years from before?

He only thought his disciple was spouting nonsense again.

Not long after returning to the village, Qing He Miao put his school uniform back on and became a student who had just been gloriously promoted to the final year of middle school. In another year, he would face the high school entrance exam again.

Of course, he hadn't done his summer homework, and the teachers wouldn't check it anyway.

But even in the relatively demanding final year of middle school, for a transmigrator with a system,

That wasn't what wore him down most.

As the old saying went, it was easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury back to frugality.

After experiencing the exhilaration of "efficiently farming experience" at Guan Shihua's over summer vacation, he returned to his regular, methodical cultivation.

He always felt that his progress was slow and his efficiency low, with an indescribable sense of "sluggishness."

Just looking at the progress bar was enough to reveal the obvious difference.

But the more this was so, the more it was time for him, as someone with a system, to cultivate.

Qing He Miao did his best to restrain the urge to go out into the jianghu and stir up trouble, forcing himself to focus on his daily accumulation.

Those six months at school could truly be described as uneventful, as bland as water.

In the blink of an eye, autumn gave way to winter, and it was time for winter vacation again.

Even so, when vacation came around again, Qing He Miao didn't rush straight to the main hall as he had during summer vacation.

It wasn't because the New Year fell during winter vacation and he planned to spend it at home.

Although the festive atmosphere in this era was indeed strong and could bring genuine happiness,

For Qing He Miao, there was something about the New Year he looked forward to even more than the celebration itself.

At the eastern end of the village, a sturdy yellow ox with a glossy coat was tethered outside the spacious courtyard gate of a farmhouse.

The ox stood there docilely, flicking its tail now and then, oblivious to the fate that awaited it.

Qing He Miao first nodded to the middle-aged farming couple standing nearby, signaling that he was about to begin.

Then, holding a butcher's knife behind his back, he walked over with steps tracing the Heavenly Dipper, pretending to mutter an incantation.

When he reached the ox, he extended his other hand and gently placed his palm over its eyes, skillfully blocking part of its vision.

At the same time, with a thought, he activated his Stand, [Metallica].

This was the third Stand he had drawn. It was not a physically manifested type, but an extremely small colony-type Stand.

In its normal state, it resembled countless tiny metallic life-forms hidden within its user's body.

It possessed considerable killing power.

Its core ability used an effect similar to magnetic manipulation to precisely control iron within a radius of five to ten meters centered on itself.

Whether that meant iron objects in the surroundings or iron within living organisms.

As he silently released the Stand from his system, Qing He Miao could clearly "feel" it.

Countless exceptionally active metallic life-forms instantly filled his meridians and blood vessels, closely linked to his mental power.

His senses spread out like radar, easily "locking onto" the iron-rich blood flowing through the sturdy yellow ox before him.

Qing He Miao made a mock stab, pretending to use the knife, while simultaneously activating [Metallica] with his mind.

It drew iron from the natural surroundings and delivered it into the ox's body, instantly forming a pure iron scalpel at a vital spot where a strike would cause instant death.

It instantly destroyed a critical physiological structure from within the target, while continuously and rapidly extracting the iron from around the area to hasten death.

The whole process took place in the time it took lightning to flash and sparks to fly.

The ox felt almost no pain. Its massive body shuddered slightly, and the breath of life swiftly faded from it.

Its legs buckled, and it fell silently and cleanly onto its side, without a struggle or a cry, as though it had simply fallen asleep.

The moment the ox hit the ground, the system notifications arrived in Qing He Miao's mind as expected:

[Congratulations! You have killed an LV7 creature and gained experience. Assessment: Your current level is higher than the target's. Experience gained has been reduced.]

[Congratulations! Experience full. Level increased! Current level: LV10.]

A faint but distinct warmth spread through his body along with the notification sound, the subtle sensation of reinforcement brought by leveling up.

Without betraying anything, Qing He Miao concealed the scalpel that had formed inside the ox beneath his hand.

He took the opportunity to drop it into the open mouth of his Stand, [Cream], which ordinary people could not see, beside him.

Only then did he withdraw his hand and turn to the farming couple, who had been watching all along. He gave them a calm smile and nodded.

"All done."

The couple hurried forward to have a look.

There was only an extremely fine, almost imperceptible cut on the ox's neck. Warm blood was now gushing from it, sending wisps of white vapor into the cold air.

Other than that, the ox's body was clean, with no other wounds, and there were no signs of struggling or dragging on the ground. It looked exceptionally peaceful.

The couple couldn't help exclaiming in amazement over and over, their faces full of eagerness to please.

"Oh my! You really live up to your name as Miáotáizǐ Village's 'Half-Immortal Qing'! What a beautifully done job! No ordinary person could have done that."

"That's right! Look at this ox—it didn't suffer a bit and went so quickly! That was smoother than the slaughtering done by the old masters we hired in previous years! Thank you so much, Xiao Miao!"

"Uncle, Auntie, you're too kind. We're all neighbors here. I'm just glad I could help."

Qing He Miao suppressed his anticipation of checking his new level, forced a polite smile, and waved a hand.

"The ox went peacefully, and that's its good fortune too. It'll surely bless your family with abundant harvests and thriving livestock next year."

The farming couple were even happier to hear that, and hurriedly pressed the payment they had already wrapped into Qing He Miao's hand.

Chapter 26: Dungeon

Qing He Miao didn't make much of a show of refusing. He thanked them and accepted it readily.

He wrapped the ordinary butcher's knife he had brought from home as a cover in a rag stained with blood, then carried it as he strode quickly home.

The cold winter wind bit at his face, but his heart felt a little warm.