Chen Renfeng returned to the Small World and saw Bai Xue quietly reading in the distance, while Chen Qing was controlling two puppets and having the time of his life making them wrestle.
Chen Renfeng rubbed his hands together a few times, then rubbed his face, burying his disappointment from earlier deep in his heart. Pretending to be optimistic, he laughed loudly. "You two are really enjoying yourselves!"
"Professor, you're back!" Chen Qing happily brought the puppets over to greet him. The two puppets already had eyebrows, eyes, and mouths painted on their faces.
When Bai Xue heard that the professor had returned, she put down the book in her hands and came over as well. Concerned, she asked, "Uncle Chen, are you all right? You look really tired!"
Chen Renfeng shook his head and asked with concern, "What have you two been eating these past few days?"
Bai Xue replied, "Uncle Chen, I'm not hungry. If I get hungry, I just drink some water from the lake, and I feel refreshed."
Chen Qing replied as well, "Professor, I'm the same. After drinking some lake water, I feel full of energy."
Hearing this, Chen Renfeng walked to the lake, cupped some water in both hands, and drank. His fatigue vanished instantly, and strength filled his body. He used his spiritual sense to examine it. He could not sense any Spiritual Energy in the lake water, but there was something that surpassed Spiritual Energy. Could it be immortal energy?
After getting to his feet, Chen Renfeng said to the two of them, "We won't be able to return for a while. How about we stay here for now?"
"Professor, I'll listen to you." Chen Qing was somewhat accepting of the situation by now.
"Uncle Chen, I suppose this is our only option. It's just that there are no houses or bathrooms here... We'll have to hide in the grass when we need to use the toilet..." Bai Xue helplessly voiced the problem before them.
"Haha! What's so difficult about that? How about we build a few wooden houses?" Chen Renfeng asked with a laugh.
Chen Qing and Bai Xue both nodded in agreement, and the three of them began dividing up the work.
Chen Renfeng took the two puppets to the woods and cut down a hundred trees. He brought back the trunks, branches, and leaves as well. He had used magic to isolate the reflections in the Fantasy Forest.
Bai Xue leveled a patch of ground, pulled out all the grass, and then went to gather a great many stones.
Chen Qing drew a courtyard on the ground, modeled after the old Siheyuan Courtyards of Beijing. Three bedrooms stood side by side in the north, while the east side had a kitchen connected to a dining room. The west side had a study connected to a storage room, and the south side had an alchemy room connected to two bathrooms.
The three of them worked day and night. When they were thirsty or hungry, they drank lake water; when they were tired, they lay on the grass and dozed.
The tree trunks were split into planks and nailed together. Branches were arranged across the roofs, then covered with leaves and grass and smeared with mud.
After the main structure of the Siheyuan Courtyard was completed, Chen Qing and Bai Xue stayed behind to lay wooden flooring, pave parts of the courtyard with stones, and finish up the remaining work. Chen Renfeng left the Small World to browse the market and purchase daily necessities.
There were many shops in the market on Penglai Immortal Island. Most cultivators were rogue cultivators below the True Immortal Realm, and they still needed food, drink, and basic bodily functions. From bedding for the bedrooms to pots, bowls, and ladles for the kitchen, everything was available, including plenty of grain, oil, rice, flour, and seasonings for cooking.
Chen Renfeng spent five High-Grade Spirit Stones, buying only good-quality goods, before returning to the Small World.
The Siheyuan Courtyard stood all alone in the grass by the lake, but Chen Renfeng happily ran inside. Chen Qing and Bai Xue were cleaning up.
"Bai Xue, Chen Qing, come out quickly!" Chen Renfeng shouted happily.
"Professor! You're back! Come look—we've finished everything!" Chen Qing ran out of the house.
"Uncle Chen, where are the things you bought?" Bai Xue hurriedly asked.
The professor took out the Storage Bag and loosened its opening. With a point of his finger, the things inside flew out, all hovering at waist height.
Bai Xue stared at the mountain of things and let out a stunned "Wow!"
The professor laughed heartily. "What are you standing around for? Hurry up and carry everything into the house!"
At his words, Bai Xue and Chen Qing got to work with smiles. Several hundred items were organized and placed in the bedrooms.
Chen Qing lay on the bed in his room, feeling as though he were dreaming. As they let their imaginations run wild, they suddenly smelled an enticing aroma—the fragrance of steamed rice, stir-fried eggs, and meat fried with chili peppers...
Bai Xue was soaking in a wooden tub in the bathroom. The comfortable moment made her feel as though she had returned to the future. As her thoughts wandered, she suddenly smelled the aroma of food as well...
The world suddenly had the warmth of ordinary life...
In the kitchen, the professor had prepared a table full of delicious dishes and placed them on the dining table. He left a note: "I'm going out to buy some things. Eat first."
While Chen Renfeng had been cooking, he had thought of rice, vegetables, eggs, fish, and other things. They should be able to produce them in the Small World themselves. Besides, the Spiritual Energy here was so abundant that anything grown would be saturated with it, bringing tremendous benefits to Bai Xue and Chen Qing.
This time, Chen Renfeng went out to buy Immortal Rice Seeds, Immortal Vegetable Seeds, fish fry, and chicken and duck chicks. Since all of them were top quality, he spent a full ten High-Grade Spirit Stones.
An old man in the poultry market saw how generously he spent and insisted on selling him a pair of black-and-white swan cygnets. When Chen Renfeng refused, the old man quietly told him that he had caught them in the wild and would only charge him one High-Grade Spirit Stone. Chen Renfeng was tempted and bought them.
Chen Renfeng also went to a fabric shop and bought ten zhang of silk cloth, along with needles, thread, and other items. He spent another ten High-Grade Spirit Stones. The shopkeeper even suspected that he was planning to ask someone for a favor and give them gifts.
He went to the market to buy things, then hurried back. There were still two students waiting for him at home.
The Small World's Siheyuan Courtyard finally felt like a real home. Bai Xue held a ladder while Chen Qing nailed a wooden plaque above the gate. When they saw the professor return, they happily put things in order and went over to greet him.
"Uncle Chen, what did you buy this time?" Bai Xue asked cheerfully.
Chen Qing wore a look of curiosity as well.
Chen Renfeng kept them in suspense and said with a smile, "First, let's dig a pond in the grass by the lake and fill it with lake water. Then I'll perform a magic trick for you."
The three of them got straight to work. They dug a pond five zhang square and one person deep, piling the excavated soil along the bank. They also dug a channel to the lake. Once the pond was full, they made a fence out of wooden planks and enclosed a large patch of grass inside it.
Chen Renfeng took out the Storage Bag and loosened it. With a point of his hand, chicks and ducklings flew out, fish fry wrapped in water hovered in the air, and the two black-and-white swan cygnets appeared as well.
Bai Xue was overjoyed. Clapping her hands, she shouted, "Uncle Chen, quick... Put them in the pond!"
Chen Renfeng pointed again. The fish dove into the pond, while the chickens, ducks, and geese floated on the water. Before long, the chicks climbed ashore and went into the grass to eat.
The world suddenly held more than just the three of them. It was brimming with life.
Chen Renfeng planted the Immortal Rice and Immortal Vegetable Seeds he had bought as well. After watering them with lake water, they quickly sprouted.
Their housing and food were taken care of, and their clothing was being cut and sewn in the style of modern short-sleeved shirts and shorts. Although the work was a little slow, silk was still very comfortable to wear.
Once everything had settled down, the professor took Bai Xue and Chen Qing around the Small World to identify most of the grass, flowers, and fruit. Many resembled the plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, hemp, osmanthus, perilla, ginger, and other medicinal plants of the modern world, though they all had prefixes such as metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, ice, and lightning. Moreover, the roots of these medicinal plants all grew in Spirit Soil. It was truly strange. No one knew who had transplanted them here, or where they had come from.
Using the Immortal Realm Herb and Plant Compendium as a reference, Chen Renfeng compared and marked more than a thousand pages, with more than a thousand pages still unread.
"If we have immortal herbs, can we refine pills?"
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