The Rich Dog

By the afternoon, he returned to Wu Chao Town and headed straight for the grain shop.

The shopkeeper's eyes lit up as he saw the four sacks Liu Xiaolou carried on his shoulders. "Immortal Master Liu, is that spirit rice?"

Liu Xiaolou set the sacks down. "Shopkeeper, here you go."

The shopkeeper beamed and immediately called for two assistants to weigh the sacks. "Immortal Master, you're early this year, the first one! Is it spirit rice from Goose-Goat Mountain?"

Liu Xiaolou watched the two assistants weigh the sacks and said to the shopkeeper, "Besides Goose-Goat Mountain, where else in Xiangxi has spirit fields?"

Soon, the weighing was done. A total of three hundred and twenty-eight jin and six liang. This was the fruit of Liu Xiaolou's six days of hard work.

"I'll take the odd jin, leave three hundred jin. Shopkeeper, name your price," Liu Xiaolou said. Spirit rice was just for a taste. He was alone, not from a cultivation family, and didn't have the fortune to eat spirit rice as his staple. Three hundred jin of spirit rice – how long would that last? He couldn't even digest it in half a year. Guarding this spirit rice on the mountain and eating it meal after meal would take too much time. Wasn't he supposed to be working?

"Same as always, one hundred jin of spirit rice for one hundred and sixty taels of silver..."

"I don't want silver, I want spirit stones. Shopkeeper, I know you have them. You don't use them, so just trade them with me."

"Heh heh... spirit stones aren't easy to come by..."

"Same as Goose-Goat Mountain, one hundred jin of spirit rice for one spirit stone."

"Heh heh, Immortal Master, are you trying to fool me? Although I don't cultivate, I understand the market. What you're talking about is the fine for Goose-Goat Mountain, not the market price."

"Then... two spirit stones in total, and throw in one hundred taels of silver! My spirit rice is the first harvest, fresh!"

"Immortal Master, you jest. Three hundred jin of spirit rice at market price is one and a half spirit stones. Of course, there's no half spirit stone, so I'll add two hundred taels of pure silver."

"Shopkeeper, my master just ascended to immortality. I'm left all alone in this world, with no family..."

"This... what does your master ascending to immortality have to do with this..."

After some negotiation, Liu Xiaolou ended up leaving all three hundred jin of spirit rice at the grain shop, exchanging it for two spirit stones. This price was actually quite good. The shopkeeper looked at the remaining twenty-odd jin of spirit rice in his sack and asked, "Not selling the rest?"

Liu Xiaolou smiled. "I have to taste what my own hard-earned rice tastes like. It's shameful to say, but I've harvested spirit rice twice, yet I've never properly eaten it. I don't even know what it tastes like."

The shopkeeper nodded. "That's true."

Just as the transaction was about to be completed, a group of people pushed their way through, surrounding a young master and shoving Liu Xiaolou aside.

Liu Xiaolou was about to get angry when he saw someone behind the young master sneer and flash half a long sword at him. The other half was still in its sheath, but it already emitted a frosty sword gleam.

Liu Xiaolou's anger was instantly extinguished. He could only step further aside.

The young master didn't even glance at him. Instead, he said to the shopkeeper with great interest, "Oh? First harvest spirit rice? That's rare! Does Xiangxi also produce spirit rice?"

The shopkeeper immediately greeted him with a smile. "This young master has an extraordinary bearing. From which blessed land do you hail?"

Someone answered on his behalf, "My family is the Ouyang Clan of Yuezhou. We are passing through. Do not think you can deceive us. Conduct your business honestly, and you will not be shortchanged!"

The shopkeeper exclaimed in surprise, "So you are from Lotus Creek Hall! This old man pays his respects! This is our Xiangxi Goose-Goat Mountain spirit rice, with the deepest spiritual roots. Does the young master have an interest?"

The young master asked, "Goose-Goat Mountain?"

The person who had flashed the sword whispered, "Young Master, we cannot linger. We must travel through the night."

The young master nodded. "Then we won't go to Goose-Goat Mountain. Take all of this back."

Liu Xiaolou couldn't help himself. "This is my rice!"

The shopkeeper said, "You already sold it to me."

Liu Xiaolou retorted, "You haven't given me the spirit stones yet."

The young master, impatient with their argument, asked Liu Xiaolou, "How much did you sell it to him for?"

Liu Xiaolou replied, "He only offered two spirit stones. I was still hesitating."

The young master glanced at the four sacks and nodded. "That's the price."

The shopkeeper said to Liu Xiaolou, "See, my shop is the fairest..."

Before he could finish, the young master said to Liu Xiaolou, "I'll give you three." With that, he swaggered away, continuing his stroll down the street.

The servants behind him carried off the four sacks. The sword-flashing attendant came over, tossed three spirit stones to Liu Xiaolou, and followed closely.

Liu Xiaolou watched their retreating backs and sighed, "Rich snob!"

The shopkeeper nodded. "The Ouyang Clan of Yuezhou, indeed, they are rich. Immeasurably rich..."

Liu Xiaolou patted himself down and finally found the remaining twenty taels of silver, placing them on the counter. "Shopkeeper, thank you."

The shopkeeper smiled. "Just a coincidence."

Liu Xiaolou suddenly felt a pang of regret. "I should have kept two jin. I haven't even tasted it myself."

The shopkeeper said, "It's only natural for farmers not to eat their own rice! Eat ordinary grain honestly. Here, twenty jin, also new rice, enough for you for a month."

Although he didn't get to eat his own spirit rice, Liu Xiaolou was still very happy. He returned to Wulong Mountain and sat with Uncle Tian for a short while. Hearing nothing unusual, he went back to his home on Qianzhu Ridge.

He put a jin of new rice in the pot and cooked a large pot of fragrant rice porridge.

The Big White Goose flapped its wings and rushed over, dropping a fat fish into the pot. It circled Liu Xiaolou's feet, as happy as if it were a festival. This time, the fish's innards had been removed. It could actually gut a fish now?

Liu Xiaolou served it a bowl of fish porridge. The man and the goose sat by the stove, slurping down their meal with great satisfaction!

His only regret was not eating the spirit rice. Of course, the spirit energy contained in spirit rice was very little. Even eating a large pot would only convert into a tiny amount of true essence, which was of little use for cultivation. This kind of thing had to be eaten consistently over a long period, replacing ordinary grain, to yield any benefit. For someone as impoverished and down on his luck as Liu Xiaolou, it was undoubtedly a luxury.

So Liu Xiaolou didn't mind. After all, the three spirit stones he had obtained were the true path to cultivation.

A poor family can't hold onto surplus wealth. Liu Xiaolou didn't want to waste a moment and immediately entered his cultivation state.

He circulated the Three Xuan cultivation technique, drawing out the spiritual energy from the spirit stone in his palm, refining it into pure true essence within his meridians, and sending it to the second acupoint of the Hand Jueyin Meridian—the Tianquan point—where he continuously struck the acupoint's gate.

Liu Xiaolou didn't know how other cultivation methods opened meridians, but his Three Xuan Sect's technique worked like this: a slow and steady effort, repeated over and over with perseverance. It naturally included various changes, sometimes light, sometimes heavy, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes like a gentle stream, sometimes like a raging storm.

While it seemed to lack any discernible rules, it adhered to a consistent cultivation principle: all methods of cultivation were centered on responding to the various feedback generated by striking the acupoint's gate. Based on the sensations brought by this feedback, different striking strategies were employed.

Therefore, practicing the Three Xuan cultivation technique was not tedious; on the contrary, it was quite engaging, even to the point where one could become engrossed and unable to pull away.