Mo Caihuan first established a school called Jiayuan Academy, where all the leaders of the Whale-Jiao Society had to undergo three to six months of study, and the leaders also had to recommend young, motivated gang members to study at the school.
At the same time, the Whale-Jiao Society was to open private schools in various places so that the children of the Whale-Jiao Society members could attend school and learn arithmetic and literacy.
If a child showed promise, they could be sent to Jiayuan Academy for further education.
It was simply incomprehensible; a gang did not collect protection money, but instead went into the education business-it was bizarre.
Even the gang members had to attend an hour of cultural classes every night to learn simple numbers and characters. The content was not profound, consisting only of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, along with some everyday characters.
This made people in the jianghu feel strange. Everyone joined gangs to make a living, not to pass the imperial examinations. It was incomprehensible, truly incomprehensible.
The gang members were quite enthusiastic, though. They also knew they could not go around fighting and killing forever. Were they to fight and kill, only for their children to fight and kill as well? There was no future in that. Since the Whale-Jiao Society had opened private schools and an academy, even if it was just for the sake of their children, they had to grit their teeth and keep learning.
The leaders also had an extra cultural test. If they failed the exam, they had to retake it. If they failed the retake, they could no longer hold a leadership position.
In short, the Whale-Jiao Society separated itself distinctly from ordinary gangs. Because of this, more respectable folk were willing to join and give it a try, and the strength of the Whale-Jiao Society expanded rapidly.
When the agreed-upon time arrived, Daoist Wealth arrived at the old street courtyard on time, though he was not alone; he also brought along another middle-aged man with thick eyebrows and large eyes.
"This is my business partner, Yan Hu. He is from Yanling Fort," Daoist Wealth said with a chuckle, introducing his companion.
The two rode the same flying sword, though Yan Hu was not an immortal cultivator.
"This humble one is Yan Hu, paying respects to the immortal maiden," the man said, cupping his fists and bowing obsequiously.
"I am no immortal maiden, just a mortal."
"The immortal maiden is a disciple of the Covering Moon Sect, which makes you an immortal maiden," the man said ingratiatingly.
"Hehe, he also wants to place an order," Daoist Wealth said.
"You are welcome," Mo Caihuan said. "Making purchases is naturally fine. Have a look first at the goods I have prepared for the immortals."
She invited the two clients into the house, where various glassware was on display, including several mirrors of various sizes.
Daoist Wealth was extremely satisfied with the goods, and even made an additional purchase of five spirit stones' worth of merchandise. He used a storage pouch to take all the items away.
Yan Hu immediately offered to purchase ten spirit stones' worth of goods at the same price as Daoist Wealth.
Mo Caihuan knew that if they went out to buy them themselves, a single mirror would likely cost one or even two spirit stones, and certainly would not be cheap.
There was no help for it, however. Since she had not mastered the market, doing well as a wholesaler was already quite good.
After concluding the business, Yan Hu spoke politely, "If the immortal maiden has the opportunity to come to Yanliang Mountain, I will certainly do the honors of a host and entertain you well."
"If the opportunity arises, I will inevitably disturb you."
After agreeing to come back next month to pick up the goods, the two of them left together.
Watching the immortals flying to and fro, she felt quite envious. The speed of hot air balloons was still too slow. If she could ever manufacture a jet fighter, she would be able to break the sound barrier.
She could only daydream, however. Looking at the twenty-two extra spirit stones, she said, "This is enough for me to use for several years." She had not yet finished absorbing her previous spirit stone, doing so very slowly.
Now that she had extra spirit stones, she could try a completely new method of cultivation.
She took out five spirit stones and sat cross-legged in the Five Hearts Facing Heaven posture.
The five spirit stones were placed respectively in her palms, the soles of her feet, and the top of her head. This was the fastest absorption method she had discovered through numerous trials and adjustments.
Because of her martial arts training, her body possessed extraordinary flexibility, and assuming the Five Hearts Facing Heaven posture was effortless. Five streams of cool spiritual qi entered her body to strengthen it.
She had no idea whether this speed would allow her to break through her lifespan limit before she died of old age.
The richer the spiritual qi, the longer mortals lived. In the Immortal Realm, mortals easily lived for several centuries.
The spiritual qi of the lower realm was insufficient, coupled with inadequate productivity, so the average lifespan of mortals was only around forty-odd years. If medicine developed, the average lifespan of mortals in the lower realm could indeed be raised to seventy years.
Since they were mortals, they could only pursue an increase in average lifespan, a more hygienic environment, and more advanced medical care. Those with spiritual roots could cultivate immortality, while mortals had to settle for second best.
Absorbing the chaotic spiritual qi within the spirit stones could also break through the limits of the physical body, but one had to race against time.
The spiritual qi entered the body, modifying the flesh bit by bit. Combined with body-tempering cultivation techniques, one could even fight immortal cultivators, though the progress was truly astonishingly slow.
As for any retaliation from Spirit Beast Mountain, it had yet to materialize. It was unknown whether the Five Colors Sect's backing was unaware of the intelligence or if that backing was in secluded meditation.
For immortal cultivators, entering secluded meditation at the drop of a hat sometimes took several centuries. To immortals, the vicissitudes of human history were merely a single session of closed-door cultivation.
She did not regret using the Immortal Ascension Token, however; having the identity of a Covering Moon Sect disciple had made things much more convenient.
Thus, everything stabilized, and the gang developed at a brisk pace.
On this day, Mo Caihuan was reporting accounts to her biological mother. Although she managed the actual affairs, many trivial matters were still handled by the four mistresses.
"Caihuan, a lot of money has been spent in the past half-year. Between the academy, the private schools, and the numerous workshops we've built, we're overdrawn. You need to spend more sparingly," the Fourth Mistress calculated the accounts, noting that money was flowing away like water.
"Next, I will continue to expand the market, looking for capable distributors from other provinces. Things will get better next year," Mo Caihuan said.
"I hope so." Seeing her daughter so opinionated, the Fourth Mistress could only feel helpless.
Just as the mother and daughter were speaking, with a clatter, the glass window was shattered, followed by the sound of a heavy object landing and striking the floor.
The Fourth Mistress immediately spoke, "Which expert is out there? Please show yourself."
Listening to the sound to determine its location, Mo Caihuan saw that the object on the floor was a ring. Picking it up to inspect it, she saw that the ring was engraved with intricate dragon patterns. "Mother, it's Father's dragon-pattern ring," she said.
The Fourth Mistress was startled, hastily taking the black ring to examine it, and drew another ring inlaid as one from her sleeve-this was indeed the dragon-pattern ring.
"Your disciple Han Li pays his respects to Mistress." A voice came from outside the door, and it was none other than Han Li.
Mo Caihuan knew that the protagonist of the story had arrived.
"Please come in," the Fourth Mistress said with a stern expression.
Han Li pushed the door open to reveal a dark-skinned, ordinary-looking young man. He was very cautious, his eyes first scanning the environment inside the room upon entry before he offered a bow.
The Fourth Mistress looked him up and down and asked, "You are the disciple my husband took in?"
"Precisely."
"Does my husband have any news for us?"
"I have a letter from Master Mo." Han Li respectfully presented a letter with both hands.
The Fourth Mistress opened it to take a look. The contents were very simple, stating merely that Mo Juren had matters to attend to and could not return home, and fearing that the family might encounter revenge from enemies, he was temporarily sending his disciple home to look after them for a while, and so on.
The absence of anything suspicious was the greatest suspicion of all. Frowning, the Fourth Mistress asked, "What business does your husband have that prevents him from even returning home?"
"Master Mo did not explain it to this disciple; it must be a very important matter."
"Do you truly not know, or are you helping your master deceive us?" the Fourth Mistress pressed further.
"I genuinely do not know." Han Li maintained an honest expression on the outside while secretly crying out in dismay on the inside.
Unable to discern any flaws, the Fourth Mistress said, "It is getting late. You should go rest first, and we will discuss other matters tomorrow. Xiaolü."
"Present."
"Take him to the guest room to rest."
"Yes, Mistress." Xiaolü said to Han Li, "Young Master, please follow me."
As soon as Han Li left, the Fourth Mistress said to her daughter, "Go call your Second Mistress, Third Mistress, and Fifth Mistress over."
"Yes."
The four mistresses gathered together, surrounding Mo Juren's letter. They produced a specially brewed medicinal liquid and applied it to the blank spaces of the letter, whereupon entirely new content appeared.
Mo Juren had considered the possibility of a failed body-seizure attempt; if it failed, it would be because of Han Li.
After reading the content, Mo Caihuan thought to herself that her cheap father's evaluation of Han Li was actually quite high-could he not simply be ambushed by an immortal cultivator's primordial spirit?
Why must the culprit be Han Li? As a grand overlord, he spoke without a shred of evidence.
In truth, Mo Juren had also lost his grip on Han Li, especially since Han Li had become mysterious after cultivating immortality, and Mo Juren had no idea what he was actually doing. Even though he used Cloud-Winged Birds to monitor Han Li, he was unable to keep a handle on him.
As his physical body weakened, his cognitive faculties were also declining, and his attention was entirely focused on Han Li. Thus, he believed that if he died, Han Li was bound to be the one who did it.