Nighttime Tea Talk

While chatting with his mother about his experiences on this trip, the meal was already ready.

There were more than ten dishes on the table, all of them Lin Lin's favorites. It was an exceptionally lavish spread.

The servants also shared in the good fortune today. It was rare for them to have meat, and their faces were brimming with delight.

Especially after overhearing bits and pieces about Lin Lin's trip, they could not help but marvel at how their young master had accomplished such a great feat during a single outing—leading men alone to pacify a well-armed Mountain Stronghold!

After dinner, Lin Lin sat with his mother, Zhang Fei, in the small courtyard before the house, drinking tea in the evening breeze to aid digestion.

By this time, Zhang Fei had finally decided how to allocate the wealth Lin Lin had brought back.

If she and her husband had earned several tens of thousands of taels of silver, they would certainly have bought shops, farmland, and other properties to provide the family with a steady, long-term income.

But since this wealth had been earned by their son, and his martial arts were still in a period of growth, unlike the two of them, who had reached a bottleneck, the money should naturally be invested in their son's personal martial arts cultivation and development.

"Now that you've become an Elite Disciple, Little Lin, you will surely face many dangers."

"Therefore, you need certain essential equipment. A Divine Weapon suited to your hand and armor to protect your body are both necessities. You also need a fine horse. The horses the sect provides for rent when traveling can only be considered average; they are nowhere near the best."

"Your father and I had limited funds before, so we could only prepare equipment and horses of middling quality for you. Now, we can get you superior ones."

"With some of the remaining money, we can buy rare medicinal ingredients and combine them with these three Old Ginseng roots to brew several doses of Bathing Soup for Body Tempering and Meridian Opening. They should help you nourish your meridians and open your acupoints more quickly, laying a solid foundation for your future martial arts cultivation."

Zhang Fei spoke of her plans.

Previously, she would not have discussed such matters with Lin Lin. She would only hand him the things she had prepared at the appropriate time.

But Lin Lin had now proven through his actions that he had grown up. He was no longer a child who needed his parents' protection, but had become something like the pillar supporting the family.

That was why Zhang Fei discussed the use of the wealth with Lin Lin.

She did not shy away from admitting that, as parents, they had been short on money and had been unable to equip Lin Lin with top-tier gear before.

This was a concrete manifestation, at the family level, of how the economic base determined the superstructure.

Hearing this, Lin Lin nodded. He set down his teacup and said with a smile, "Mother, you're experienced, so you can decide. I've rested enough as well. I'll go back and cultivate for a while, then go to sleep."

Normally, Zhang Fei would have nodded in agreement at this point.

But this time, she stopped Lin Lin and instructed, "When one first becomes an Elite Disciple, one can prioritize learning a Superior Martial Art and make up the Sect Contribution later by completing Sect Missions. Little Lin, you can take some time now to think about which martial art you want to learn first."

"Also, your father and I know a total of eight Superior Martial Arts. After registering them with the sect, we can pass them on to you as well."

"However, that would leave you owing a great deal of Sect Contribution. You likely would not be able to learn any other Superior Martial Arts from the sect for the next seven or eight years, perhaps even ten. So you must first decide what you want to learn and use that as a basis for planning your future Martial Arts System."

After speaking, Zhang Fei got up and brought Lin Lin a document.

It listed the martial arts that she and her husband, Lin Yue, knew, along with introductions to the characteristics of each.

If Lin Lin read through the document and took a liking to the Superior Martial Arts that she and her husband knew, they would teach him the details later.

"Mother, do married couples receive a Sect Contribution discount when they learn each other's martial arts?"

Lin Lin looked at the document in his hands and asked curiously.

Martial arts in the martial world were classified from low to high as crude, unranked martial arts, followed by the ordinary martial arts commonly taught by major sects. Above those were the immensely powerful Superior Martial Arts, and above Superior Martial Arts were each sect's Sect's Supreme Skills.

Beyond Sect's Supreme Skills were the Peerless Divine Arts at the pinnacle of the martial world, which all martial artists pursued. Every one of them possessed tremendous power.

He remembered that his parents had occasionally mentioned in the past that they knew six or seven Superior Martial Arts each.

Normally, the two of them combined should have known more than a dozen, yet only eight were listed here.

That meant some of the Superior Martial Arts they knew overlapped. Lin Lin had not noticed before, but now that he was about to become an Elite Disciple himself, he understood that based on the mission frequency his parents had told him about, they could not possibly have earned enough Sect Contribution for so many martial arts.

Yet neither of them was obviously in debt to the sect for Sect Contribution.

In that case, the only possibility was the guess Lin Lin had just raised.

"Yes. The sect encourages harmony among Fellow disciples. Once a married couple has been together for more than ten years or has had children, they receive the same half-price Sect Contribution Points discount for learning each other's martial arts as children do."

"That is why many Fellow disciples of similar age become husband and wife."

"In fact, to learn the sect's Sect's Supreme Skills and Peerless Divine Arts, one must not only have been in the sect long enough and made sufficient contributions, but the expert must also be unmarried, or their spouse must be a Hundred Flowers Valley disciple. At the very least, their spouse must be an ordinary person."

"Even if you hadn't asked today, the Elder of Teaching Skills would have told you this tomorrow."

Zhang Fei answered.

Lin Lin fell into thought.

This arrangement could indeed strengthen the sect's cohesion. With spouses, children, and property all tied to Hundred Flowers Valley, they would naturally protect the sect wholeheartedly.

Furthermore, this policy fundamentally reduced the likelihood of disciples from this sect marrying disciples from outside sects, lowering the chances of martial arts leaking out and spies infiltrating. It achieved several goals at once.

"Mother, I actually have another question."

"People say More Children, More Fortune these days. During this trip, I saw that commoner families started with three or five children, with some having seven, eight, or even over ten. Why haven't you and Father considered giving me a younger brother or sister? Not only you two—even many of the Martial Uncles around us seem to be only children as well."

Lin Lin suddenly asked.

At the question, Zhang Fei's cheeks reddened slightly.

Not wanting to discuss this with her son, she hurriedly brushed him off. "Don't you know that having children greatly depletes one's vitality? Go on, go on. Finish practicing your internal arts and get to bed early."

With that, she hurried away as if fleeing.

Lin Lin, however, stood where he was without minding it at all, continuing to ponder the phenomenon.

"Does having children greatly injure one's vitality? That makes sense. Ordinary people do not need to cultivate or practice martial arts. Even if their vitality is greatly depleted, they only need to recuperate for a while and replenish it."

"But if a martial artist like Mother has children, it would not only greatly injure her vitality and delay her martial arts progress, but also weaken her combat strength for a long time. In this dangerous martial world, that could be fatal."

"Perhaps once the environment becomes stable in the future, this problem can be fundamentally resolved."

Although Lin Lin still had some doubts about the rarity of children among martial artists, he could not think of any other explanation.

Having reached that conclusion, Lin Lin no longer dwelled on it.

After washing up, he returned to his room and finished reading the document in his hands. Then he cultivated for a while and went to sleep.