"Was what just happened real?"
Mu Bai stared at Xi Bazì, dumbstruck.
"It was..."
Mu Bai was even more dumbstruck.
"Oh, right, I almost forgot to remind you, Elder Mu. Elder Qing Mao has been away on a mission for half a year now. His stipend during that time..."
Xi Bazì looked at Mu Bai with a face full of beaming smiles.
"Half a year? Twelve thousand! Hurry, hurry, it's almost dark!"
"No matter. Cultivators make no distinction between day and night. There's no rush."
"You're not in a rush, but I am!"
At the thought of immediately getting twelve thousand glittering soul crystals, Mu Bai had long since cast aside that embarrassing scene. He hurriedly had Xi Bazì and Sweet Potato Boy take him to the Attendant Hall. He produced the Elder Token, and before long, twelve thousand glittering soul crystals were in his hands.
"What a treasure." Mu Bai gently stroked the Elder Token as though he had obtained a priceless treasure. "With this jade disc, I can get two thousand soul crystals for free every month. That's even faster than refining pills. Good thing I didn't hand this treasure over. I'm not leaving the Spirit Taming Sect!"
What Mu Bai did not know was that even if he tried to give it away, no one in the vast Spirit Taming Sect would dare accept it. What a joke-this was a sect elder they were talking about. Without the sect master's decree, could just any stray cat or dog become an elder by getting a token? But if the sect master gave the word, then even if you really were a cat or a dog, you could naturally hold the position, drawing a generous monthly stipend and enjoying the attentions of wives and concubines as plentiful as clouds.
Reality was just that mocking and absurd!
After leaving the Attendant Hall, Mu Bai was immensely pleased with himself. He generously took out two soul crystals. "Here, my two brothers. Thank you for your hard work today. These two soul crystals are a small token of my appreciation."
"Oh, Elder Mu, you're too kind. This is what we disciples ought to do."
"We get a hundred soul crystals a month ourselves..."
Sweet Potato Boy spoke in his rumbling voice, his blunt honesty making things thoroughly awkward.
"You blockhead, go cool off somewhere!" Xi Bazì glared fiercely at Sweet Potato Boy. "I really can't tell whether you're truly stupid or just pretending!"
Seeing this, Mu Bai knew he had made a mistake. Carried away by his delight again, he had been too ostentatious.
"I must be modest. I must keep a low profile..."
Mu Bai promptly put the two soul crystals away and began planning how to use this enormous sum. First, he would give the Artifact Spirit Ancestor a few to test their effects, then buy himself two sets of clothes. What about the rest?
"Brother Bazì, may I ask how the elders hand over their household contributions to their wives after collecting their stipends?"
Mu Bai thought of the widows and orphans in Qing Mao's household. Although every one of them behaved in excessively outrageous ways, he still could not quite harden his heart. After all, it was after Qing Mao died that he had directed Mu Bai here, and Mu Bai had also accepted his request to "look after his clansmen..."
"Normally, each wife gets five, each member of the sons' generation gets three, and each member of the grandsons' generation gets two..."
"What? There are grandsons too!"
"Oh, there are great-grandsons too..."
Sweet Potato Boy cut in with an honest grin.
"Heavens, I'm only fifteen. You've certainly treated me generously..."
After bidding farewell to Xi Bazì and Sweet Potato Boy, Mu Bai followed his memory of the location of Qing Mao's Estate. Filled with apprehension and tragic resolve, he hesitated and wavered all the way there.
This time, there was nobody outside Qing Mao Residence, and nobody answered when Mu Bai knocked. Puzzled, he pushed open the gates himself and walked inside. The residence was empty too, without even anyone to serve tea or water.
"Where is everyone? Such a huge family."
Puzzled, Mu Bai hugged the walls and crept quietly inside.
"Wait, even if I'm not coming back to my own home, surely I don't need to act like a thief."
Amused at himself, Mu Bai coughed a few times and began striding openly along. After only a few steps, he heard a baby crying in a room ahead. Following the cries, he indeed found an infant crying in a cradle.
The little child's face looked carved from pink jade, but the baby was crying as though heaven and earth were collapsing, its face red from weeping.
"Who could be so heartless as to leave a child alone in here?" Mu Bai hurried forward and picked up the infant. "There, there, don't cry. Big brother will take you to find Mama..."
Mu Bai was busily soothing the baby when he heard another infant's piercing wails next door.
"There's another?"
Carrying this one, he went into the other room, only to find another infant less than a few months old, clutching its head and clawing at its eyes as it howled wildly.
"Oh, my little darling, why are you crying so sadly? Let big brother hold you..."
Mu Bai put this one down, but before he could pick up the other, the first began wailing again as though its heart and lungs were being torn apart.
Mu Bai did not know whether to laugh or cry. What was he supposed to do?
As the two infants howled louder and louder as though competing, their cries growing ever more heartrending, Mu Bai scratched his ears and cheeks in desperation. "What on earth am I supposed to do?"
Mu Bai quickly recalled how the aunties in the tribe dealt with infants. Feed them milk? He had none! Play with them? Yes, play with them!
In his desperation, inspiration struck. He remembered that he was a second-level divine cultivator, after all. Surely he had a few tricks for amusing children?
At that thought, Mu Bai blew gently, and pear blossom petals appeared above his hand as though a spring breeze had brought a skyful of them, drifting and fluttering beautifully through the air.
"Ah, ahh..."
The two infants immediately stopped crying and reached out little hands like pink lotus roots, trying to catch the petals as they laughed like tinkling silver bells.
"Look, there's a little bird too..."
With that, Mu Bai conjured a tiny Three-Legged Divine Crow, which strutted with its head held high, vividly lifelike.
The two children laughed even more happily, waving their arms as they tried to catch the Divine Crow. But the Divine Crow was nimble and flew away with a whoosh. The children's little eyes froze, and they burst into loud tears.
"Oh, there, there. The little bird is being naughty. Big brother will catch it for you."
Mu Bai held out both hands, and two little Divine Crows appeared in his palms, looking at him with disdain.
"Look, big brother caught them."
Helpless, the two Divine Crows could only hop onto the children and let them pull, grab, and bite them, their eyes filled with grievance and despair.
Mu Bai watched the two little ones play with a cheerful smile, but before long, one opened its mouth and started crying again, and the other promptly followed with a howl.
"Looks like they're hungry. What should I do? I've got it..." Mu Bai hurriedly took out a Soul-Gathering Pill and broke it in half. "Here, have some candy. It's delicious..."
Mu Bai popped half a Soul-Gathering Pill into each child's mouth. The two children smacked their lips, finding the taste quite good.
"What are you doing?"
"Ah, my Ping!"
"Let go of my grandson!"
Mu Bai turned to see several heavily made-up women charging into the room, while outside, all hell had broken loose.
"What's going on?"
"It's in Third Madam's room!"
"Quick, go take a look!"
Panic-stricken, Mu Bai hastily retreated to a corner.
"Aunties, elder sisters, please listen to me..."
"Isn't this that person from earlier today?"
"What is he doing here?"
"Stealing our Qing Ping and Qing Dai?"
"You heartless monster! I'll fight you to the death!"
Whether she was the Third Madam everyone was talking about, Mu Bai did not know, but a woman lunged at him, shrieking like a wailing ghost and flailing her arms. With nowhere left to retreat, Mu Bai hurriedly covered his head and face.
"No, no, Auntie! I came to bring soul crystals! You weren't here, and these two children were crying terribly..."
"What? Soul crystals! Hurry and take them out!"
The woman immediately calmed down, and the eyes of everyone behind her lit up at once.
In the main hall of Qing Mao Residence, Mu Bai sat upright in the seat of honor. "Next... next..."
After a full hour, all the women, children, elderly, and infirm of Qing Mao Residence had finally received their soul crystals. Everyone who had gone out eating, drinking, and making merry in the middle of the night had also immediately rushed back, and they now stood along both sides of the hall, all smiles.
"Husband, you must be weary from your journey. Why not have some wine to ease your fatigue?"
An elderly woman in her eighties tottered forward, holding up a cup of wine for Mu Bai.
Mu Bai's face twitched. This White Wolf Hide coat was truly hot, making him blush with embarrassment.
"Go back and rest. I'd like some peace and quiet..."
Of the twelve thousand soul crystals he had just received, only a little over eleven hundred remained. Who could possibly calm down right away?
"Who knew the elders of the Spirit Taming Sect were so poor!" Sorrow welled up within Mu Bai. "Marrying so many women without knowing anything about family planning-you deserve to be poor..."
Mu Bai practically wanted to cry out to heaven and earth, bitterly resenting this miserable experience. But since he had already distributed the soul crystals, he could not get them back even if he killed himself. How could he dare drink the old woman's wine, or even look at all these women again? Mu Bai hurriedly asked for a room, shut the door, and hid inside, afraid that if he was even a step too late, he would not have a single soul crystal left.
This eye-opening day had finally ended. Mu Bai sat cross-legged on the bed, for once not cultivating the Flying Immortal Scripture, but thinking over everything he had experienced that day. It had utterly overturned his understanding of the world, from being surrounded by powdered beauties in Spirit Command City to the bizarre scenes he had witnessed in the Spirit Taming Sect. It was simply unbelievable. Fortunately, he had collected half a year's worth of Qing Mao's stipend for nothing at the Attendant Hall, which offered some consolation, only to end up supporting Qing Mao's household of several hundred, old and young alike. At present, he could still have one or two hundred soul crystals left each month, but even if he never so much as touched those women from now on, he could not stop the sons from having grandsons, or the grandsons from having great-grandsons. What would he do then...?
At that thought, Mu Bai shuddered and sighed. "Keeping a family fed really isn't easy..."
Before you continue