Speaking of which, the reclamation tax was steep indeed: ten low-grade Spirit Stones for each Minor Wilderness Expedition, and twenty Spirit Stones for each Great Reclamation.
Ordinary rogue cultivators simply could not afford it and had no choice but to grit their teeth and go.
Yet some rogue cultivators believed that venturing farther into pristine lands where few had ever set foot would yield greater rewards, and eagerly awaited the expeditions.
Cultivation Lineages, unlike rogue cultivators, were required to enter the Savage Wastes for reclamation and could not buy their way out of service!
However, they could freely select participants from within their Lineages. If they truly lacked enough people, they could also pay double the reclamation tax to substitute for a small number of places.
Regardless, heedless of anyone's wishes, the Great Reclamation-with opportunity and danger intertwined-was drawing near.
"What? A shop's delivery convoy was robbed and slaughtered less than three li outside the Market Ward?"
That day, Lin Changheng had just come out of the Xu Family Alchemy Shop when he heard the proprietors of two neighboring shops discussing the news.
"Yes, apparently it belonged to the Ge Family. Not only were the goods looted clean, several of their Lineage's cultivators were beaten to death too. Severed limbs were scattered everywhere. Not one survived. These bandit cultivators are getting far too brazen!"
"This market is going to... ahem, this was inevitable. I just didn't expect the chaos to come so soon. Before, the Wang Family would certainly have flown into a rage and cracked down hard, but now... it seems we'll have to notify our Lineages and prepare properly too."
"Exactly, exactly! When it's time to withdraw, we must have our Lineages send more cultivators to escort us! We have to make absolutely certain nothing goes wrong!"
One proprietor nodded, then hesitated. "But... were the attackers really bandit cultivators?"
The other proprietor froze at that, then fell silent. Only after a long while did he squeeze out a warning. "Mind your words."
Then both picked up their little stools and returned to their respective shops without another word, perfectly in accord.
Lin Changheng, who had stood outside the Xu Family's shop for some time and secretly overheard most of their conversation, also grew solemn.
Had things outside the Market Ward already descended into such chaos?
When I withdraw with the Xu Family, won't I risk running into the same rotten luck?
Ever cautious, he never left the Market Ward. Now, even he was beginning to feel uneasy.
"No, I need to mention this to Master Mo. Whether it's bandit cultivators, enemies, or something else outside the market, the Xu Family needs to take it seriously!"
His mind made up, Lin Changheng immediately turned back, went up to the second floor, and knocked on Master Mo's door. He only left after a lengthy discussion.
Still not enough!
Although Lin Changheng had six talismans on him, he still felt unsafe. His eyes flickered as he pondered silently.
Half a month passed in a flash.
Master Mo reported the matter to the Lineage and received a response.
The Xu Family had already taken action, joining with five or six Qi Refining Lineages with whom they maintained close, friendly ties to discuss a joint withdrawal.
They agreed to leave the Market Ward at the same time.
Several Lineages responded favorably, considering it a sound arrangement.
In addition, the Xu Family dispatched an elder in late-stage Qi Refining and two mid-stage Qi Refining mainstays to slip into Zichuan Market and transfer some supplies and Spirit Stones back to the Lineage ahead of time.
This would avoid concentrating too much risk by taking everything away in one go.
As one of the Xu Family Alchemy Shop's three leading figures, Lin Changheng naturally had the right to know the inside details.
Yet he declined to learn the finer particulars, citing the principle that "plans succeed through secrecy."
In truth, Lin Changheng had thought one step further.
If the plan went smoothly, all would be well, and everyone would be happy.
But if something went wrong and blame had to be assigned, his seniority fell short of Master Mo's, and his personal ties fell short of the proprietor's. He would inevitably end up smeared with the mess.
Better not to know.
Keep myself out of it!
Master Mo and Xu Qianyou were taken aback. Their aged eyes met, both revealing surprise, before they outwardly agreed that he had a point and complied with his wishes.
Thus, in the end, Lin Changheng knew only a vague outline.
A few more days passed.
Lin Changheng came to the Xu Family Alchemy Shop as usual.
The moment he entered-
"Brother Lin."
A rather guileless-sounding voice, tinged with delighted surprise, rang out beside Lin Changheng.
"Hmm? Fugui?"
Lin Changheng looked toward the voice. A dark-skinned male cultivator with thick brows, large eyes, and a slightly plump figure was grinning broadly at him.
The two approached and patted each other's shoulders, clearly delighted.
Fugui's surname was also Xu, but he was not a descendant of the Blackwater River Xu Family.
Rather, he was an Immortal Seedling discovered in the mortal world, a farmer's son who came from a different town than Lin Changheng.
At the spiritual aptitude testing assembly, his eleven wisps of water-aligned spirit resonance had barely qualified him for a low-grade spiritual root, and he had been selected to join the Xu Family alongside Lin Changheng.
The two got along well and always found plenty to talk about.
Later, when faced with the two paths offered by the Xu Family, he had made a different choice from Lin Changheng's path as a guest retainer, resolutely deciding to marry into the Xu Family.
Under the Xu Family's rules,
those with low-grade spiritual roots could choose three Xu Family women,
while those with mixed spiritual roots could choose only two.
At the Xu Family's welcoming feast for the Immortal Seedlings, he had been brimming with confidence and chosen three graceful, youthful, charming mortal women of the Xu Family.
Though none of these three Xu Family women possessed spiritual roots, they were descendants of cultivators. They could not escape marriage, but they had some say in whom they married.
Xu Fugui's low-grade spiritual root ranked among the best of the newly arrived Immortal Seedlings. The women understood their prospects clearly, and none refused.
Thus, he won the hands of all three beauties!
There were no elaborate formalities. That very night, he entered the bridal chamber.
Later, when Lin Changheng was about to depart for Zichuan Market, Xu Fugui came especially to see him off, reluctant to part. Lin Changheng also asked what he had thought before marrying into the family, and what the experience had been like afterward.
Xu Fugui smiled, a trace of slyness showing through his guileless manner.
"What does it matter whether I marry into the family or not? Heh, the children will all be surnamed Xu anyway."
"Back in our village, the old wealthy landowner married two pretty young wives and made everyone green with envy. Who would've thought a pauper like me could marry three at once and outdo him so easily?"
Finally, he glanced warily around. Seeing that no one was paying attention, he lowered his voice and said that everything was going well, except that it was rather hard on his kidneys. He asked Brother Lin to keep an eye out in the Market Ward for secret arts to replenish yang and the like...
Lin Changheng left with a chuckle, readily promising to help.
"I heard you finally became a Pill Master, Brother Lin. Ten years of hopes, finally fulfilled."
The two had never stopped exchanging letters, though they wrote infrequently-once a year.
"You've done well too, Fugui. You've broken through to the Qi Refining fifth layer."
"Heh, that's all thanks to my fifth son. He has a middle-grade spiritual root, which earned me a substantial reward from the Lineage. Still, I have to thank you for finding the Dragon Essence Secret Art for me, Brother Lin..."
Lin Changheng nodded. He knew about this and had even sent a congratulatory gift.
This was also the Xu Family's way of spending a fortune on a horse's bones to entice fine steeds: they wanted the many Immortal Seedlings to put more effort into making babies rather than fixating every day on their own paltry cultivation.
Only by having more children could they increase the odds of producing offspring with cultivation aptitude, and perhaps low- or middle-grade spiritual roots.
Yet having children with spiritual roots was not easy. Over ten years, Xu Fugui had fathered six children. Only his third son had possessed a spiritual root, and that was a mixed spiritual root.
His fifth son had turned out to possess a middle-grade spiritual root.
But his sixth son was a mortal again.
There was no pattern to it whatsoever. Even the two children with spiritual roots had different mothers.