The Sect's New Year Gifts

The next morning, Lin Xiao was led by his father to the Lin Household's old residence along with Lin Yun.

The whole family huddled together in the yard and kitchen, washing and cleaning, steaming in one pot and boiling in another, preparing for the midday sacrifice.

The sacrificial rituals in Xiushui Village are largely the same for each Lineage.

On New Year's Eve, people would get up early to prepare things, and then head to the Grave Mountain. By the time they arrived, it would be noon, and the sacrificial activities of each family and clan would begin.

That's right, the New Year's sacrificial ceremony in Xiushui Village is not held in the ancestral hall.

On the eve of the Lunar New Year, people first go to the Grave Mountain to perform a sacrificial ceremony. After the ceremony, they bring the offerings back to the village, where each family opens their ancestral hall and places the offerings in front of the ancestral tablets for three days.

Three days later, the food was taken out and distributed to each family according to the number of people in the household.

The Lin Household is not a large surname in Xiushui Village; including Old Master Lin, there are only five households.

The families are not particularly close or distant on ordinary days, and they don't visit each other often. However, they always make sure to visit each other and exchange gifts during holidays and festivals.

Although they each lived their own lives, it wasn't easy for the common people to survive in the village.

So even though the actual relationship between the families is not very good, they are still very willing to actively demonstrate their unity to the outside world when they can stick together in a general way.

As it's Chinese New Year, Lingxian Sect, as a sect, has also distributed some New Year's gifts to everyone.

Liu Yunan gave each of the families from Xiushui Village a live pig.

He bought this a few days ago with Tietou and then transported it back using the spirit boat that Lin Xiao had built.

These pigs were kept on the back hill and fed well for several days before they were finally picked up by their respective families yesterday evening.

The other non- Xiushui Village members who had consulted with them and confirmed that they had no need for sacrifices or food were specifically Senior Liao, Liu Chun, and Xiaoluan Big Peach.

Liu Yunan compensated them considerably in other ways.

Even if people don't care about these things, since it's done in the name of the sect, it must be fair.

So now, early in the morning, the squeals of pigs can be heard coming from the old Lin Household mansion.

Lin Xiao, as the most promising young man, was specially assigned to the position of collecting pig's blood.

Lin Dayou and Eldest Uncle Lin were responsible for holding the pig by its four legs.

As the eldest grandson, Lin Lei was responsible for cutting the pigs' throats with a knife.

Lin Xiao, the sect leader of the Lingxian Sect Golden Core Lin Xiao, squatted next to the pig's head, holding a large bowl, watching his older cousin's white knife go in and red knife come out, and the hot blood from the wild boar's neck splattered all over his face.

The pig, whose limbs were tightly gripped by Lin Dayou, who was at the Third Layer of Qi Refining, and Eldest Uncle Lin, who had just Drawing Qi into the Body, could not stop howling and struggling. In the end, its howling gradually weakened as its blood was lost, until it finally breathed its last and became still.

Lin Xiao was stunned for a moment before belatedly casting a spell to clean the blood off his face and then covering his body with a thin layer of Spiritual Power.

Then, after the large bowl in his hand was full, he silently used his Object Control Technique to make another empty bowl fly over and continue to catch the pig's blood that was still flowing down.

There was nothing he could do; in both his lives combined, he had never seen or experienced slaughtering a pig.

The Lin Household used to be poor; they couldn't even afford to slaughter a few chickens, let alone a pig.

In the past, when pigs were slaughtered in the village, a professional butcher had to be hired.

Only by finding a group of strong and healthy young men to help can a pig be slaughtered cleanly and efficiently, and then cut into pieces.

Now everyone in their family has started practicing cultivation, and each one of them is stronger and more robust than the last, with the strength of an ox.

So, after some thought, Old Master Lin decided that they shouldn't hire anyone. It would be a waste of money not to use so many readily available laborers.

Although none of us had ever slaughtered a pig.

But whenever someone in the village slaughtered a pig, Brother Lin Xiao would often go and join in the fun.

Lin Dayou and his Eldest Uncle Lin visited quite often.

Each time they went to watch, even though the butchers who came to slaughter pigs didn't explain anything to them, it didn't stop them from watching a lot.

They had read the instructions many times: where to start the cut, how to start the cut, what to do next, where to divide the cut, and how to move the knife.

So even though no one had actually tried it themselves, it didn't stop them from copying the model.

Old Master Lin immediately waved his hand and said that from now on, Lin Xiao and the other younger generation would take turns learning how to butcher pigs every year.

Everyone has a first time.

If we don't kill it well this time, we can always improve next time.

Anyway, Old Master Lin believed that his family would get better and better in the future, and that his Lin Household would be able to eat the pigs they slaughtered themselves every year!

So every year there are pigs for Lin Xiao and his friends to practice on!

Lin Xiao, standing to the side, held two large bowls filled with pig's blood. He watched his older cousin Lin Lei, clean the pig's internal organs while reminiscing. Then he looked at the pig's blood in his own hands and felt a strange sensation.

Lin Yun then took out a pair of red-hot iron tongs, preparing to brand the pig skin and remove the pig hair.

The women of the Lin Household, led by Old Madam Lin, along with Eldest Uncle Lin's Wife, Lin Yan, and Lin Ying, did a thorough cleaning of the house.

It's New Year's Eve.

Of course, a thorough cleaning is necessary.

This signifies bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new.

To welcome the new year, you need to clean your home thoroughly and remove all the old dust.

As the two sisters, Lin Yan and Lin Ying, wiped the window frames, they kept turning back to look curiously at the pig slaughtering site in the middle of the yard.

Unlike Lin Xiao and the other boys, who would rush around to join in on any exciting event in the village all day long, the two of them were different.

They could only listen to their brothers, who had returned, describe the situation to them in a rambling, detailed manner.

Now I finally saw the pig slaughtering process clearly, and combined it with the pig slaughtering scenes I had heard in my memory.

After the pig was cleaned, Lin Dayou carried it on his back and threw it into a large wooden basin. Eldest Uncle Lin then went into the kitchen and brought out two buckets of boiling water to pour over the pig.

Because Old Master Lin wanted to use the whole pig for the sacrifice, they did not separate the pork.

So he and his two sons discussed it and decided that if all else failed, they would just pour boiling water on it.

It should cook through after a few more rounds of watering.

Upon seeing this, Lin Xiao fell into a brief silence.

Then he said to Lin Dayou and Eldest Uncle Lin:

"Father, Uncle, let me do it."

Upon hearing this, Lin Dayou stopped the wooden bucket he was about to pour.

Eldest Uncle Lin, not understanding why, assumed that Lin Xiao wanted to play, so he obediently handed the wooden bucket to him.

Lin Xiao silently took the bucket he was handed, but didn't use it; he simply held it in his right hand.

With his left hand, he made a Method Formula seal and cast a small Law Technique at the enormous pig body in the large wooden basin.

This little Law Technique was something he had just figured out; it combined water vapor and heat to create a Law Technique that could heat things up.

Let's call it Distillation Technique for now.