Three to Five Mu Less (Part 1)

Give roses to others, and their fragrance lingers on your hands.

Back when he had just transmigrated here, Wang Chen, chewing on grain rice and pickles, would never have been so generous.

Now that he was doing fairly well for himself, he was willing to pay a small price to treat others kindly.

Though doing good deeds and accumulating virtue would not earn him even a bit of Human Virtue.

Wang Chen vaguely felt that, in a world overrun by demons and monsters, with chaos reigning among mankind, preserving a measure of kindness

could bring him a little more good fortune.

For instance, today, he had directly raised his Earth Stone Technique experience to the proficient level.

Things had gone more smoothly than expected. Could that really have had nothing to do with luck?

Keep his heart turned toward the light, and never fall into darkness!

The next morning, Wang Chen tucked a Storage Bag filled with Spirit Grain into his robes and headed for Yunyang City.

The ten days following the summer harvest were when farmers and tenant farmers who rented Spirit Fields had to deliver grain to the sect.

Wang Chen had contracted ten mu of Spirit Fields from the Outer Sect.

According to Outer Sect regulations, he had to hand over a total of 4,500 jin of rice every year.

Since the summer grain harvest was larger than the winter grain harvest, his grain delivery quota for the first half of this year was 2,500 jin.

Wang Chen had weighed everything at home the previous night. This time, he could keep roughly 800 jin as rations.

Of course, if all the Spirit Rice were milled into White Corn, there would not be nearly so much left.

Still, compared with the same period in previous years, it was a little more than usual.

That was already quite good!

The Chidao leading to Yunyang City was bustling with people and carriages. The horse-drawn carriage Wang Chen rode in was crammed to the brim.

Quite a few people, like him, were heading into the city to hand over their grain.

Yet most of these spirit planters wore furrowed brows, looking burdened with worries.

Neighbors who knew one another spoke in hushed voices.

They sighed again and again.

An insect plague had broken out some time ago.

Although a Golden Core True Person had made a move and dealt with the calamity, many farming households had seen this year's Spirit Rice yield slashed drastically. Those who had lost the equivalent of three to five mu of harvest were everywhere.

The sect's field rent had already been set at a high quota.

Now, even delivering their full grain allotment had become a problem for everyone.

Not to mention keeping any rations for themselves!

And using the excuse that higher-ups and True Persons had made a move, the Main Hall had also levied another sum of Spirit Stones.

That was all savings they had previously scraped out from between their teeth.

Now that their rice yield was insufficient, they had to dig out more Spirit Stones to make up the difference. How were they supposed to survive in the days ahead?

As for withholding field rent, that was something no one would dare even dream of!

The wheels and hooves rolled on all the way, while the entire carriage echoed with sighs and lamentations.

When they reached Yunyang City, by the time Wang Chen arrived at the Spirit Planting Hall, quite a few people were already lined up to deliver grain.

The Spirit Planting Hall under the Outer Sect Main Hall oversaw all spirit planters, as well as the cultivation of fields and forests.

The place where field rent was paid was called the Sprinkled Gold Field, vast enough to rival a small plaza.

Its level ground had already been swept spotless.

Great stretches of Star Gold Rock Slabs gleamed with specks of light beneath the morning sun.

At the center of the Sprinkled Gold Field stood a grain platform one zhang high.

And embedded in the very middle of the platform was a nine-foot-square Immeasurable Golden Measure.

No spirit planter would be unfamiliar with this Immeasurable Golden Measure.

This spirit artifact could accurately weigh up to 100,000 jin of Spirit Grain at once. The Yunyang Sect had forged four in total, placing them respectively within the inner mountain gate and the three Outer Sect cities.

Connected to the bottom of the Immeasurable Golden Measure was a large grain-storage bag.

This grain-storage bag had quite a history as well.

It was said that when the Yunyang Sect Leader passed through the Southern Hong Marsh a hundred years ago, he slew a Sky-Swallowing Giant Toad and used its stomach sac to refine four Storage Bags capable of holding a million jin of grain each.

They were assigned to the four Immeasurable Golden Measures for collecting and storing grain.

"Guard Post Yi-4, Liang Dacheng, twenty mu of lower fields, five thousand jin of grain remitted!"

Beside the grain platform stood a table, piled high with registers. A gaunt steward with a ratty face held a register in his left hand and a brush in his right, shouting at the top of his voice.

His voice was like that of a castrated rooster with its neck wrung, grating horribly on the ears.

The middle-aged man whose name had been called stepped onto the grain platform. Under the watchful eyes of two Spirit Planting Hall disciples, he opened his Storage Bag and poured the freshly harvested spirit rice into the Immeasurable Golden Measure.

The golden rice swiftly filled the spiritual artifact.

The Immeasurable Golden Measure could be controlled by cultivators to set its capacity, and it recorded the relevant information of those remitting grain.

It was supplied to the Main Hall and the Inner Sect.

When the spirit grain inside the measure was perfectly level with its rim, the Immeasurable Golden Measure immediately emitted a low hum.

The quota had been met.

The middle-aged man instinctively covered the mouth of his Storage Bag and stopped pouring out rice.

The steward seated beside the grain platform suddenly gave a cold snort.

The two Spirit Planting Hall disciples on the platform immediately fixed the middle-aged man with icy stares.

One of them said expressionlessly, "Not enough."

How could it not be enough?!

The middle-aged man's heart was bleeding. His fingers curled into a tight fist.

Yet after struggling for a moment, he still opened his palm and released the mouth of the Storage Bag.

He continued pouring spirit grain into the Immeasurable Golden Measure.

The rice began piling upward.

As time passed, the spirit grain piled higher and higher.

The middle-aged man's expression grew increasingly ugly, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

But he did not dare stop again.

The gaunt steward watched.

His eyes were full of mockery.

Only when the mound of grain atop the golden measure was about to collapse did he pinch his mustache and say casually, "Enough."

The middle-aged man immediately felt as though he had been granted a pardon. Covering his Storage Bag, he wiped away his sweat and hurriedly ran down from the grain platform.

He looked as though he had just stepped down from the executioner's block!

At that moment, a scar-faced cultivator standing to the left of the grain platform suddenly sprang forward and delivered a heavy kick beneath the Immeasurable Golden Measure.

Bang!

His right leg was visibly thicker and stronger than his left.

The kick carried tremendous force, making the golden measure hum violently.

The rice piled at the very top was immediately shaken loose, rolling along the fixed grooves around it and into the openings.

Every last grain flowed into the Storage Bag suspended beneath the troughs.

The rice inside the Immeasurable Golden Measure was once again perfectly level with the rim—not a fraction too much or too little!

The scar-faced cultivator licked his lips and stretched out a hand to pat the body of the measure.

The rice inside instantly poured in its entirety into the Storage Bag at the bottom.

Not a single grain remained.

"Next!"

The gaunt steward flipped to the next page of the register, his shrill cry echoing through the Sprinkled Gold Field.

It was especially piercing!

Another spirit planter stepped onto the grain platform to remit his grain. Like the man before him, he met the quota and added extra besides.

But he behaved obediently, so he was allowed to add a little less rice.

The others watched, every one of them wearing a numb expression.

Everyone knew this was utterly unreasonable—that the people from Spirit Planting Hall were lining their own pockets.

But it happened year after year, and had long become the rule.

Who would dare refuse to submit and resist?

Liang Dacheng had hesitated for only a moment, yet he had been taught a harsh lesson!

He had paid several dozen jin extra.

It was not as though Liang Dacheng did not understand the rules.

It was only that this year, he had been unlucky enough to suffer an Insect Plague. His harvest had already been reduced, yet he still had to hand over additional spirit grain.

How could they possibly accept it willingly?

The grain-paying queue fell silent, inching forward bit by bit.

The rice they had watered with sweat and heart's blood was being swallowed endlessly by the Immeasurable Golden Measure.

"Guard Post Yi-10, Wang Chen, ten mu of lower-grade fields, grain tax: two thousand five hundred jin!"

First update delivered.