Lin Su's destination was called Baiji Plain. It lay outside Haining City, no more than five li from the city.
Why did he have to go there in person?
Partly because he did not want to shut himself away reading all day. More importantly, he had heard his second brother mention this stretch of riverbank, especially a certain crop that needed to be seen on site.
Baiji Plain was a riverbank floodplain.
In Feudal Society, water conservancy projects were naturally out of the question. During the rainy season, the riverbank lands flooded, making grain crops impossible to grow. The locals planted a crop called Ting Rice, something that did not exist on Earth and was exceedingly strange. Rice grew on its stalks, flowers bloomed from the rice, and it tolerated moisture—remaining submerged in water year-round yet still flowering. Its vitality was so tenacious it beggared belief, allowing it to grow in the harsh conditions of a riverbank floodplain.
What use was Ting Rice?
Some might say that since it was rice, it was naturally for eating. But that was not the case at all.
The value of Ting Rice did not lie in its value as food, but in the flowers blooming at its tips.
These flowers carried an unusual fragrance that lasted an exceptionally long time. Cultivation Sects used them to make secretly refined perfumes, which they sold in the capital cities of various nations. This had become an important avenue through which Cultivation Sects accumulated resources. The perfume was sold in Great Cang Capital City, where one small bottle cost as much as a hundred taels of silver.
At this point, anyone familiar with transmigration stories could probably guess that Lin Su was planning to make perfume, that Great Weapon.
Heh heh, wrong again!
The value of perfume had already been developed. What right did a powerless, penniless brat like him have to snatch food from someone else's mouth?
Lin Su had his sights set only on Ting Rice itself.
What exactly was Ting Rice?
The locals called it "Yellow Springs Rice." Why such a name? Because this rice made people hate it to the bone.
It had a layer of husk that humans could not digest. It bloated the stomach after being eaten and could not be passed at all.
It was rice—tiny grains. Surely no one could peel the husks one grain at a time.
If it was pounded into powder, the husks still remained mixed in and could not be separated. Eat it, and it would still lock horns with your stomach and intestines to the bitter end. It would cause constipation, and death was inevitable.
Thus, the locals had absolutely no way to deal with this rice.
They might be starving to death, with rice right beside them, yet still be unable to eat it. They could not even feed it to dogs or chickens. Just thinking about it was tragic enough.
So this rice had been developed for two uses. The first was to let it rot into fertilizer.
The second was this: when poor, pitiful people who had suffered all their lives and never once eaten their fill came to the end of their days, they could gorge themselves. Never mind whether they could pass it or not—at least when they reached the underworld, they would be a ghost who had died with a full belly.
That was why it was called "Yellow Springs Rice."
People in this world had no way to deal with this rice, but that did not mean Lin Su had no way either.
He wanted to see whether this rice could be tied to his grand plan. If it truly worked, the Lin Family would gain a stable, controllable source of income.
Five li outside the city, the official road split from the road leading to Baiji Plain.
The official road was flat and broad enough for four carriages to travel abreast. Yet the road toward Baiji Plain was merely a muddy track overgrown with weeds. Lin Jialiang stopped. "Third Brother, give me the bag."
Third Brother only possessed a Literary Root and had yet to enter the Literary Altar. On the path of literature, every level was a different heaven. Those of the Literary Altar far surpassed those with Literary Roots in strength and physical ability.
"No need! Second Brother, let's compare our footwork."
"Third Brother, you do not understand the gap between the levels of literary cultivation. If I truly start running, I'll be ten times faster than you!"
"I don't believe it! Come on!"
Lin Su pushed off with the tip of his foot and shot through the grass, swift as a galloping horse.
Lin Jialiang smiled faintly. With a flicker of his body, he caught up. His toes skimmed across the grass, and not even a speck of mud touched him.
"Wow! Treading Snow Without a Trace..." Lin Su sped up, passing the mountain spur ahead in the blink of an eye.
Without a sound, Lin Jialiang went around him and appeared in front of him, surprise on his face. "Third Brother, your speed simply does not resemble that of someone with a Literary Root!"
"Don't forget, I have Dual Roots of Literary and Martial Arts!"
As soon as the words fell, his speed increased again.
Lin Jialiang was greatly startled. He had to bring out eighty percent of his Literary Altar power just to keep up. Dual Roots of Literary and Martial Arts were actually this formidable? In this world, people possessing Dual Roots of Literary and Martial Arts were exceedingly rare. Why? Because valuing literature over martial arts was the great current of society. If one could possess a Literary Root, who would choose a Martial Root?
Those who chose Martial Roots were almost without exception people who had no way of obtaining Literary Roots.
It was like Modern Society: if I could attend Tsinghua University, why would I go to a vocational high school?
Yet Lin Su was the exception.
Born into a Military Family, he had initially chosen a Martial Root. But his Martial Root could not be activated, so he had planned to try his luck at a Cultivation Sect and see whether he could open a Dao gate. He returned empty-handed.
Later, he exchanged a poem for a direct bestowal from a Sage, receiving a Literary Root. Who could have imagined that the poem he wrote was a War Poem? Receiving the feedback of that War Poem, the Martial Root that had never been able to activate suddenly awakened.
That was why he possessed Dual Roots of Literary and Martial Arts.
The faster Lin Su ran, the greater his exhilaration became. The fine hairs on his Literary Root extended toward his feet, essence energy spread through them, while true qi coiled over his Martial Root, seemingly growing stronger as well. Before he knew it, he made less and less contact with the ground. Every landing point lay farther apart than the last. Another bend appeared ahead. His toes suddenly left the ground, and he skimmed over the grass before stepping onto the slope ahead.
With a whoosh, Lin Jialiang appeared before him, his face filled with excitement. "Third Brother, I've already brought out all my cultivation, yet I'm only evenly matched with you in speed..."
Lin Su looked ahead. "Have the Ting Rice Flowers already been picked? Not a single one left."
Ahead lay the river dike mudflats, stretching for a hundred li. A month ago, he remembered, this place had been a sea of brilliant red, flowers blooming like brocade. But now there was not a single flower left. Only heavy Ting Rice hung from stalks half a man tall, unharvested.
"Of course! How precious are Ting Rice Flowers? They are the materials for making perfume. From the moment the flowers bloom until they are harvested, more than ten experts from Bishui Sect guard them throughout the entire process. They absolutely will not allow even a single fresh flower to fall into civilian hands."
Bishui Sect?
A Great Sect of cultivation?
Lin Jialiang glanced at him. "Third Brother, do you know? The second daughter of the Zhou Family, the one you were betrothed to, is in Bishui Sect."
Huh? He already had a fiancée?
Lin Su perked up a little. "How did I not know?"
"You had only just been born when the marriage was arranged. How could you possibly have known?" Lin Jialiang's tone turned somber. "But after what happened to the Lin Family, people from the Zhou Family came to our door. When they left, Mother's expression was very unpleasant. There may have been some change."
"Changing their minds at the sight of a better option, then kicking someone when they're down?"
Lin Jialiang shook his head. "Your brother does not know the details. I fear it may not necessarily have reached that point. Even if it has, with Third Brother's poetic talent, the Zhou Family will surely turn back around. Third Brother, do not worry."
"I truly don't care about that!" Lin Su said. "Since I'm already betrothed, what about you, Second Brother? Are you betrothed?" Yu Lou did not count as a proper engagement.
Lin Jialiang shook his head. "The world's warmth and coldness, seeking profit and avoiding harm, are human instincts. I do not particularly care. I am even rather fortunate—now that the engagement has been broken off, Yu Lou will not have to be caught in the middle and find things difficult."
So he had also been promised to someone, and that engagement had been broken as well.
Lin Su was quite interested in such gossip, so he turned the subject to their eldest brother at the border. What about Eldest Brother? Had he married?
Eldest Brother... Lin Jialiang let out a deep sigh. He had originally fallen in love with a woman from another country, which was already fraught with countless difficulties. Now, things had become even harder...