Lin He's smile froze on his face, and the corners of his mouth twitched twice despite himself.
Five low-grade Spirit Stones for one tael?!
The settling-in allowance that bastard Lin Fu had pocketed yesterday had only totaled fifty low-grade Spirit Stones! In other words, even if Lin He had received the full amount, he could only have bought ten taels of seeds-not even enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.
And now...
Lin He slunk back beneath the old locust tree and met Su Qiuran's questioning gaze.
"Well? Did you dig up any hidden intel?" Su Qiuran raised an eyebrow.
Lin He let out a long, stale breath, plopped down on a rock beside the wheelchair, and spread his hands. "Sure did. We're broke as fuck."
As he spoke, he carefully took the dingy little cloth bundle out of his robe and opened it in front of Su Qiuran.
Inside lay their last remaining possessions: five strings of copper coins threaded on hemp cord, a hundred copper each, plus two pitifully small pieces of silver.
Lin He gave a bitter laugh. "Everything we own put together wouldn't even exchange for half a low-grade Spirit Stone. They want five Spirit Stones for a single tael of the crappiest spirit rice seeds. This starting setup is hell difficulty."
Su Qiuran stared at the paltry copper coins and fell silent too. She had thought that with the jade gourd in hand, they could reach the pinnacle of the cultivation world in no time. Who knew reality would stop them at the very first step: no money for seeds.
"How about..." Lin He rubbed his nose and gave Su Qiuran a tentative look.
"We use the jade gourd's Essence of the Sun to grow some radishes and cabbages first? Since it can speed up ripening, we could harvest once a day and sell them in town. Small profits, high volume—we could slowly save up for spirit seeds?"
Su Qiuran rolled her eyes so dramatically that heaven and earth might have shaken, nearly laughing out of sheer exasperation.
"Lin He, is your head full of water?" Su Qiuran launched mercilessly into sharp-tongued mode.
"A crop of radishes every day? Do you think everyone in town is blind?"
"In a dump like Emerald Mountain Village, if you push a cart full of fresh, juicy radishes out to sell every day, within three days the town's thugs or Rogue Cultivators will have you pinned to the ground and grinding you into the dirt, demanding to know where you got your treasure! An innocent man becomes guilty by carrying jade-get it?"
"Hey, watch how you talk, woman." Lin He refused to take that lying down either. "Then what do you suggest? We've got to find some way to make a living, don't we? Keep eating without earning and even a mountain runs dry. How many days will these five hundred copper last?"
As the two bickered, glaring at each other, an old farmer squatting nearby and selling vegetables he had grown himself finally couldn't bear listening anymore.
The old farmer tapped his tobacco pipe and interrupted in a thick country accent. "Now, you two youngsters look like you came from the city. Why are you jabbering away with all this nonsense? Big radishes growing in a day? You're dreaming!"
Lin He quickly put on a smile and gave him a chummy look. "Sorry to make fools of ourselves, sir. My wife and I have only just split off from the family household. Money's tight, and we're worrying about how to make a living."
The old farmer glanced at Su Qiuran, whose disabled legs confined her to the wheelchair. A flicker of pity crossed his eyes, and he sighed. "Ah, you two do look pretty pitiful. If you really want to earn a few copper to keep yourselves fed, forget that useless radish-and-cabbage business. You'd be better off trying your luck in the mountain out back."
"The mountain out back?" Lin He's eyes lit up as though he had caught the scent of a side quest being triggered. He quickly leaned closer. "What treasures are there, sir?"
"What treasures?" The old farmer shook his head. "It's Green Spike Grass. It might not be a spirit herb the immortal masters use, but it's a fine medicinal herb for mortals."
"Spring Restoration Hall in town buys it year-round. Dried and ground into powder, it fetches five copper a catty."
"Five copper a catty?" Lin He rapidly worked an abacus in his head. That was much more than grain at three copper a catty!
"Is this grass easy to find, sir?" Lin He pressed.
"Easy enough to find, but it takes work." The old farmer pointed toward Green Mountain behind the village, its rolling slopes covered in towering trees.
"This grass likes shade. It grows specifically in rock crevices on the slopes facing away from the sun. You can harvest one crop every autumn."
"The poorer families in our village gather some in their spare time to help with household expenses. But those mountain paths are rough, and the rocks are slippery. With you two..."
The old farmer looked at Su Qiuran's wheelchair and trailed off.
Lin He was ecstatic.
It likes shade! Grows in rock crevices! Isn't that just an ordinary wild plant? For anyone else, it only produces one crop a year. Even scouring the mountains to cut it wouldn't yield very much.
But for me, as long as I can uproot a few living stalks of green-ear grass and bring them back, or get some seeds, then combine them with the jade gourd's sun essence...
Wouldn't that be pure profit without any capital?! And Green Spike Grass is a medicinal herb for mortals. Selling a slightly larger quantity to the medicine shop in town wouldn't attract cultivators' attention. Extremely safe!
Just as Lin He was about to speak, Su Qiuran quietly tugged at the hem of his robe from behind.
Lin He turned and met Su Qiuran's bright, peach-blossom eyes. Neither spoke, but at that moment, their tacit understanding as fellow transmigrated working stiffs was on full display.
Su Qiuran lifted her chin slightly, the meaning in her eyes unmistakable: This is it! Lie low first, build up our first pot of gold, then switch to spirit rice seeds once we have enough funds!
Lin He winked his left eye in understanding: Roger that, Boss Su! Off to buy equipment.
"Thank you for the advice, sir!" Lin He stood up and thanked the old farmer sincerely.
Now that they had settled on a strategy of "lie low first, develop later," buying supplies came next.
The two made a full circuit of the market, letting the villagers get familiar with their faces, before finally stopping at the village's only blacksmith stall.
"How much for this sickle, boss?" Lin He picked up a sickle with a somewhat blackened iron blade and tested its edge with his thumb. It was reasonably sharp.
"Ten copper each. Fixed price." The blacksmith didn't even look up.
"I'll take two." Lin He gritted his teeth, then pointed to a bundle of coarse hemp rope nearby. "And give me a bundle of that rope too. How about five copper?"
After some bargaining, Lin He bought two sickles and a bundle of hemp rope for tying up grass.
Then he went to the grain-and-oil stall and spent a hefty sum on half a sack of the coarsest rice and a small jar of coarse salt harder than stone.
Mortal bodies couldn't practice Grain Avoidance. Without food and salt, they simply wouldn't have the strength to work.
By the time they had bought these necessities, Lin He's cloth bundle had shrunk by more than sixty copper. His heart bled as he watched those coins slip away.
"Come on. Let's go home and get ready to work." Lin He hung their purchases on the wheelchair's footrest, took a deep breath, and gripped the handles again.
"Creak-squeak-creak-squeak-"
Accompanied by that grating friction, the two headed into the sun toward the dilapidated wooden house at the far end of the village.
Back at the wooden house.
Lin He immediately gave the open space outside the threshold a quick clearing, then settled Su Qiuran, wheelchair and all, in the shade beneath the eaves.
"I'll sharpen the blades first, then head to the mountain out back to scout around and see if I can dig up a few stalks of Green Spike Grass."
As Lin He spoke, he scooped a dipper of clean water from the water vat and splashed it over a flat whetstone in front of the house.
He rolled up his sleeves, squatted before the whetstone, and picked up a newly bought sickle.
"Shhk-shhk-shhk-"
The rhythmic sound of sharpening rang through the quiet little courtyard.
Beside his hand, the thumb-sized emerald-green jade gourd lay quietly charging.
Sunlight spilled over the jade gourd, drawn strand by strand into its emerald belly.
Without much effort, he honed the sickle until it gleamed.
Once the blades were sharpened, neither of them stopped to rest. They headed straight for the mountain out back without delay.