The Sect's Base Is Built

At the first hint of daylight, the households near Lin Dayou's home woke to something other than the crowing of roosters.

After giving Lin Xiao a thrashing, Lin Dayou felt refreshed as he headed out with a billhook and a hoe over his shoulder to build a thatched shelter.

Lin Xiao limped along right behind him.

As they walked, he called to Lin Dayou, who was striding ahead:

"Dad, it's the most open patch of ground halfway up North Mountain. Don't go building it somewhere else-"

Though the process had involved a few twists and turns-Lin Xiao's backside in particular-

By lunchtime, the thatched shelter halfway up the mountain had been built through the combined efforts of Lin Dayou and Lin Xiao's eldest uncle, Lin Daman.

It had cost the family a few pieces of stored timber and a large bundle of thoroughly dried thatch.

It covered about eight square meters and stood about two meters high.

His eldest brother Lin Yun also hung bamboo blinds he had recently woven for practice around all sides of the shelter.

As soon as the shelter was finished, Lin Dayou left the billhook, shovel, and other tools on the mountain, telling Lin Xiao to carry them home later. Then he hoisted the hoe over his shoulder and headed down the mountain with Lin Daman. There was still plenty of work to do in the fields today.

Lin Yun told Lin Xiao to come home early and not get carried away playing, then headed down the mountain too, leaving Lin Xiao alone halfway up the slope.

Looking at the freshly built thatched shelter, he was thoroughly satisfied.

Then he heard a "ding" in his head.

[Congratulations to the host on successfully activating the Myriad Realms Sect Construction System]

[The sect to be built by this system is an immortal cultivation sect. Please name the sect as soon as possible. (The name cannot be changed once confirmed.)]

Just as I thought, Lin Xiao thought.

An immortal cultivation sect. That meant people could cultivate immortality in this world!

Lin Xiao was a little excited. He swallowed a couple of mouthfuls of air.

A name, a name...

I've got it!

[Proposed name: Lingxian Sect. Confirm? (The name cannot be changed once confirmed.)]

"Confirm."

[Name confirmed]

With a "poof," Lin Xiao noticed a large stone, half as tall as a person, had appeared beside the thatched shelter.

Three large characters were written crookedly across it: Lingxian Sect.

[Note: The sect stele can be upgraded along with the sect's core cultivation method. Please create and upgrade a cultivation method as soon as possible]

[Activation rewards have been issued. Please check them]

A sect panel appeared in Lin Xiao's mind.

The words [Activation rewards] appeared in the lower right corner, and Lin Xiao chose to open it.

[Congratulations on receiving the activation rewards: Ten-Li Peach Blossom Tree x1, Spirit Stones x5, pine soot ink x10. (No sect treasury detected. Rewards have been sent to the host's private storage by default. Once the sect has a treasury, the host may change where rewards are sent.)]

Lin Xiao saw that a [Private storage] option had appeared on the panel.

He opened it, and sure enough, the three rewards he had just received were all lying inside.

As for Spirit Stones, Lin Xiao reckoned they probably worked much like the Spirit Stones he knew about.

And wasn't pine soot ink just ink for writing? He wondered what it had to do with immortal cultivation...

So he turned his attention to the Ten-Li Peach Blossom Tree. Its thumbnail looked very pretty.

Lin Xiao wanted to inspect it, but found he couldn't.

[Identification function not unlocked. Unable to view item details]

[Plant the Ten-Li Peach Blossom Tree?]

Lin Xiao looked around. Yes, it had been the right decision to choose the site beforehand.

The spot where he stood halfway up the mountain was relatively flat and very open, covering an area of about two or three hundred square meters.

Lin Xiao picked a spot near the mountain path and chose to plant it.

A peach tree with a distinctly ancient appearance suddenly appeared beside the mountain path, where weeds had grown so thick that the narrow, winding trail had been barely visible.

It was the spring equinox, and as though responding to the call of the season, the little buds covering the peach tree popped open one after another in an instant.

A spring breeze blew, scattering the fragrance of the blossoms in every direction.

He only regretted not carrying a reclining chair up with him.

Not sharing such pleasure with someone would be like wearing fine robes at night!

Lin Xiao planned to go down the mountain and lure Jiang Youfu up, and while he was at it, have him join the Lingxian Sect as its first disciple!

Just as he was about to head down, a thought suddenly occurred to him. After he brought Jiang Youfu up and they had admired the sect's base, what were they going to do?

Surely they couldn't just come up, look at the thatched shelter and peach tree for a bit, and head back down.

This was an immortal cultivation sect now, at any rate. Shouldn't they get down to proper business and cultivate immortality?

The system seemed to have mentioned that he should create the sect's core cultivation method as soon as possible... but how was he supposed to create one?

[Ding-cultivation method creation function successfully unlocked. Please add the required items to begin creation]

The system notification sounded in Lin Xiao's mind at just the right time. Immediately afterward, he saw a glowing platform appear before him, with four small squares arranged in a row on top.

Two characters appeared over the first square: [Paper material].

A single character appeared over the second square: [Ink].

The third square was labeled [Cultivation method core].

But the last square held a [?].

Paper material. Lin Xiao thought it over. He remembered there seemed to be some paper mulberry trees farther up the mountain. In many novels and videos he had seen before, people used that kind of tree to make paper. He could get some later and put it in to see what happened.

As for ink, Lin Xiao glanced at the ten portions of pine soot ink lying in his private storage. The system was so considerate.

He had no idea about the last two, though. He planned to experiment and see exactly what those two squares needed.

He'd see if he could make some kind of cultivation method.

Picking up the billhook Lin Dayou had left behind, Lin Xiao hurried off to cut down a tree without stopping.

After he had felled a paper mulberry and stripped off its bark, he stuffed it into the first glowing square. The square's border began flashing yellow.

Lin Xiao was a little confused. Had it worked or not?

Since he didn't know, he would ignore it for now and try filling the second square.

He took a portion of pine soot ink from his private storage and placed it in the second square.

All four sides of the square lit up green.

All right, then. Apparently, either he had put the wrong thing in the first square, or there wasn't enough of it.

Lin Xiao thought for a moment, then stripped off some more paper mulberry bark and put it in.

He watched as the flashing yellow light gradually faded with each addition of bark, finally becoming a steady green.

Sure enough, there hadn't been enough.

A little excited, Lin Xiao rubbed his hands together like a fly.

Time for the third square!

Lin Xiao tried tapping the third square with his finger.

A prompt popped up in his mind:

[Begin inputting cultivation method core?]

Lin Xiao promptly chose yes.

[Beginning cultivation method core input. Countdown: 30 seconds. 29, 28, 27...

Lin Xiao stared blankly.

Why was there a countdown?

He hadn't prepared anything!

But time waited for no one, and Lin Xiao had no time to complain to himself. His blank mind began racing.

In an instant, a jumble of all sorts of fragments flashed through his mind.

But in the end, none of them stayed. His mind was blank, and he had no idea what to do.

...3, 2, 1. Cultivation method core input complete]

His mind still empty, Lin Xiao saw that all four sides of the third square had lit up green.

Lin Xiao: Good grief. I don't even know what I put in, and you're already telling me the input is complete.