Cao Jianjia

Yu Tunzhou's gains that night could hardly have been called meager.

Not only had he truly mastered the key to entering meditative absorption from stillness and completed the first revolution of the Great Divine Court, he had also pushed the Spark Instruction to the second layer with the nourishment of the dragon fish and the aid of True Intention.

He had advanced one layer a day in the Qi Ingestion method, breaking through two realms in succession, yet such progress left Yu Tunzhou with some regrets.

If only he had a reliable, worthy teacher who could answer his many questions, so he would not have to figure so much out on his own.

For instance, he badly wanted to know whether his current achievements were mediocre or above average compared with others in town.

He truly had no idea.

That morning, under Dingguang's astonished and worshipful gaze, Yu Tunzhou ate an entire dragon fish.

After cultivating the Qi Ingestion method, his need for food had suddenly climbed to a new level.

He counted the dragon fish beneath the eaves. Including Dingguang's share, they would last about another two weeks.

That also meant he would have two weeks of dragon fish to aid him.

On his way down the mountain, he spotted the strange girl he had encountered while crossing the bridge the day before. She was squatting on the bridge, staring blankly at the river.

He gave her no more than an extra glance, but the girl seemed to sense it. She turned and glared at him furiously.

Yu Tunzhou dared not look at her again. Fearing that the girl, who seemed seriously unhinged, might latch onto him, he greased his soles and quickly slipped away.

When he arrived at the old residence, there were even more people than yesterday.

Yu Tunzhou sighed and joined the army of cleaners.

After Xie Linchuan arrived, the two greeted each other and went about their respective work.

When evening came, Yu Tunzhou shut himself in his room to cultivate the Qi Ingestion method and refine True Intention.

The harder he worked, the more smoothly the Spark Instruction circulated, without the slightest obstruction. He even performed beyond his usual ability.

It truly bore out the saying: "As heaven moves with vigor, we must strive unceasingly to better ourselves."

As the days and nights passed in this fashion, life grew ever more promising. In the blink of an eye, three days had gone by.

Yu Tunzhou had assumed that, with so many people helping, the old residence would be completely cleaned up in just a few days. Then he could report back to the old Daoist.

But he realized he had clearly overestimated these scions of aristocratic clans and great families.

For one thing, as they cleaned, Yu Tunzhou noticed that the fellows mostly did a halfhearted job, concentrating on searching rather than clearing and cleaning.

Nobody bothered to clear the weeds covering the courtyard. Presumably, the fellows thought there would be no treasures buried in the ground.

Meanwhile, people had trodden back and forth over the thresholds of the main buildings until they were nearly worn through.

For another, the fellows really did not have much "staying power."

Their numbers had still been growing on the third day, but by the fourth they had plunged, and there were already signs of the crowd dispersing.

On the fifth day, no one was left except Yu Tunzhou and Xie Linchuan.

What was more, before leaving, those fellows had all shot Xie Linchuan and him fierce glares, as though they knew the two had fooled them into working for days for nothing.

Yu Tunzhou felt terribly wronged.

Even so, the cleanup of the abandoned old residence had made a great leap forward.

In just five days altogether, the dilapidated, disorderly residence had begun to look presentable.

That morning, Yu Tunzhou was putting the finishing touches on the work.

Xie Linchuan came to tell him privately that some people had actually broken into other residences abandoned for years to search for forgotten treasures, and asked what he thought.

Since there were no treasures here, why not try another "treasure site"?

Yu Tunzhou's expression immediately turned serious. He told Xie Linchuan what Old Mo had once warned him and repeatedly urged him not to follow their example.

At the words "ancestral residences have spirits," Xie Linchuan seemed to think of something. His expression grew grave for a moment before quickly returning to normal.

Sure enough, that afternoon, Xie Linchuan came over, gloating as he told Yu Tunzhou that the fellows who had trespassed into other abandoned old residences had all been soundly punished by their own elders.

The unluckiest of them had even been strung up in one of the old residences. They said he would stay there until evening, and after being hung up today, he would be hung up again tomorrow.

Hearing this, Yu Tunzhou reflected on the importance of heeding advice.

Even the families in town were so wary. If someone with no one to rely on like him had provoked trouble, he dared not imagine the consequences.

Fortunately, he trusted Old Mo and had always treated the ancestral residences of the various families with respect. Whenever he happened to pass one in the past, he would stop to express his thanks.

That afternoon.

Yu Tunzhou walked around the old residence, checking for anything they had missed.

As things stood, the weeds were the only major task left.

Pulling them up would take considerable work.

After seeing the crisscrossing water channels throughout the old residence, Yu Tunzhou gradually formed an idea.

Before he could put it into action, however, an uninvited guest arrived at the old residence.

Cao Jianjia!

When the girl appeared in sight with a cold expression.

Yu Tunzhou's expression remained unchanged, but his gaze wandered. He had already looked around and found a handy "weapon."

It had not rained recently, but there was still some mud in the channels. It would do in a pinch...

Xie Linchuan raised his eyebrows. Did she really dare come looking for trouble, right in front of him?

To their surprise...

"Yu Tunzhou, I have something to ask you." Cao Jianjia's tone was stiff.

If she had not truly run out of options, she would never have sought help from the person before her, who was half an enemy!

As for why he was only half an enemy, the girl would never let a single evildoer off. She had her own scales in her heart, with Yu Tunzhou on one side and Zhang Qinghe on the other.

"Ask me?" Yu Tunzhou ventured. "Are you cultivating the Spark Instruction too?"

"Cultivate it yourself," Cao Jianjia said contemptuously.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized that was no way to ask someone for help. She took a deep breath, did her utmost to return her tone to normal, and changed the subject.

"I heard you look after a large vegetable garden on the mountain by yourself?"

Yu Tunzhou nodded. "It belongs to Daoist Shouxin. I help tend it."

Cao Jianjia seemed relieved. Her phoenix eyes, which looked as though they could speak, fixed intently on Yu Tunzhou. With a rare seriousness, she said:

"Teach me. How exactly do you compost fertilizer for the soil? Why have the vegetables in my garden been looking rather wilted these past few days?"

Yu Tunzhou fell silent.

He could have cracked his skull thinking and never imagined that the girl before him had come to seek his wisdom on farming and composting...

"Which residence do you live in?" Yu Tunzhou asked.

"The one at the westernmost end of town."

"No wonder. So you're under Senior Qingzhi." Understanding dawned in Yu Tunzhou's eyes.

Cao Jianjia frowned. "You know my martial aunt?"

"Senior Qingzhi asked me to cultivate that vegetable garden." Yu Tunzhou paused. "I was tending Daoist Shouxin's vegetable garden on the mountain when Senior Qingzhi came up one day. She saw that I was taking good care of it and asked me to cultivate a vegetable garden for her. She paid me with some oil, salt, rice, and grain."

Xie Linchuan's eyes flickered at the side.

What exactly had Brother Yu been doing all these three years?

Across from them, Cao Jianjia was stunned at first. Then her anger gradually rose, until she was grinding her teeth.

So this fellow had cultivated that damned plot too!

She still laid half the blame for her martial aunt's punishment on Zhang Qinghe.

But as for farming and composting, Yu Tunzhou bore all the blame himself!

Yu Tunzhou saw the flames blazing in the girl's eyes and, out of goodwill, laid out the situation for her.

"Senior Qingzhi has hundreds of ways to punish you. If I hadn't helped cultivate that plot, you'd probably have to start everything from scratch now. You'd not only have to learn how to break new ground, you still wouldn't be able to escape composting fertilizer."

"Forgive me for speaking bluntly, but would someone like you know how to break new ground?"

Faced with the young man's questioning gaze, the Cao family's future female sword immortal did not know how, but she was still full of confidence.

"No. So what? Didn't I come to ask you?"

Yu Tunzhou had nothing to say. He looked back at the old residence. At present, there was no one there but the three of them.

"Do me a favor, and I'll tell you how to compost fertilizer."

Looking at the overgrown weeds, Yu Tunzhou had thought of a way to clear them quickly, but he could not be sure of success alone. He needed to bring in two more people to make certain the fire would not spread.

"You should understand that I don't owe you this. We aren't friends, and whether we're enemies is up to you." Yu Tunzhou added, "You want my help, so do me a favor first. Then neither of us will owe the other anything."

Neither would owe the other anything...

Cao Jianjia's face shifted between moods. Finally, she nodded emphatically. "Fine, neither of us will owe the other anything! Tell me, what favor? If you want a visualization diagram, I don't have one."

"Not a visualization diagram. I want to start a few fires and burn all these weeds. Otherwise, clearing them will take too much effort. But to keep the houses from catching fire, I need a few helpers to make sure the flames stay under control."

"You want to set the houses on fire?" Cao Jianjia's pupils contracted sharply, shocked by the madman's idea.

That very morning, several reckless fellows had been strung up and punished for trespassing into other families' ancestral residences. Yet here he was, daring to set fires in an old residence!

"Burn the weeds," Yu Tunzhou corrected, pointing at the courtyard. "It should actually be fine. The water channels are close together here, and I've already cleared them. With the flowing water separating the sections, the fire is unlikely to spread, but we still need people to watch it, just in case."

Cao Jianjia looked at Xie Linchuan. "Aren't you going to stop him?"

Xie Linchuan smiled and closed his fan. "I think it's a good idea too. It beats the two of us pulling weeds by hand until dark. This courtyard may be short of everything else, but it isn't short of water to put out a fire."

"Two madmen," Cao Jianjia muttered, but she did not refuse again. She turned away without hesitation, leaving them with a parting remark. "Wait for me. I'll go get another slave."

Before either of them could react, Cao Jianjia had left the courtyard.

While she was gone, Xie Linchuan could no longer contain his curiosity. He asked Yu Tunzhou what exactly he had been doing during his three years in the Luofu Grotto-Heaven.

"Farming, delivering fish, practicing martial arts, cooking..." Yu Tunzhou thought for a moment. "Whatever I could do. Now and then, people in town would ask me to do odd jobs. Those who were fair about it would give me things in exchange, like oil, salt, rice, and grain. For those who weren't, there was no next time."

Hearing this, Xie Linchuan narrowed his eyes. "Were all your dealings with others equal exchanges, Brother Yu? Did it never occur to you that you might have a chance to turn your fortunes around if you just cultivated favor with one family?"

"I understand what you mean." Yu Tunzhou nodded, his expression calm. "But I don't think it would work. The gap between the two sides is too great. Any attempt to curry favor would only be taken for granted by the stronger party."

Xie Linchuan nodded silently. There was sense in that. When the gap was too great, one could only hope for pity from those above. To put it bluntly, it was charity.

Changing the subject, he asked with a smile, "Who do you think Cao Jianjia went to find, Brother Yu?"

Yu Tunzhou ventured uncertainly, "...Zhang Qinghe?"