Shangyang Sect

Lin Xiao put away his little folding stool as well, while Lin Dayou picked up the pouch stuffed with copper coins, ready to leave.

Lin Xiao tugged at his robe and whispered:

"Dad, Dad, wait a moment. Come over here, come over here."

Lin Dayou was puzzled.

"What for?"

But he followed Lin Xiao's tug and walked with him into a little alley.

Lin Xiao looked around with great vigilance, then, rather unaccustomed to it, sensed whether any unfamiliar presences were approaching.

After Lin Xiao confirmed that no one was around, Lin Dayou saw him pull out a little ragged pouch.

"Dad, quick, put the money in here." Lin Xiao opened the ragged pouch and held it out to Lin Dayou.

Lin Dayou looked at him in disbelief, then at the pouch in his hand, bulging with copper coins, and then at the ragged little pouch, which was smaller than his palm.

This son seemed to have gone stupid. Was he still worth keeping?

But then he suddenly remembered that his son was now an "immortal cultivator."

Oh, well. If he says to put it in, I'll put it in.

So Lin Dayou took the pouch in his hand and, half-believing, pushed it straight into the opening of the little pouch.

It really went in!

Lin Dayou's eyes widened in surprise.

He couldn't help marveling to himself that immortal cultivation really made things so much more convenient!

Outside, Lin Dashan and Lady Qin were packing up when they saw the father and son sneak into the little alley beside them, then come sneaking back out.

It was mostly that rascal Lin Xiao who was acting sneaky.

Before Lin Dayou went in, his face had been full of confusion, but when he came out, he looked quite animated.

Lin Dashan and Lady Qin found it a little strange.

Lin Dashan looked at Lin Dayou. For a moment, he felt that his younger brother seemed a little different, but he couldn't put his finger on what had changed.

Lin Xiao didn't slap his chest and tell everyone, "Come on! Let's go eat at a restaurant! My treat!"

For one thing, he knew that if he said that, Lin Dayou would definitely give him a scolding: "You earn a couple of coins and forget your own surname, do you?!"

He could imagine exactly what his dad would say.

The other reason was that this town really was rather poor.

It was the middle of the day, yet as they walked along, he didn't smell a single tempting aroma.

All he could smell was steamed dry rations mixed with steamed vegetables.

He could smell that every day in the village.

So in the end, the group squatted by a wall and made a meal of the dry rations they had brought.

While Lin Dayou and the others were eating, Lin Xiao slipped away to buy a few things at a nearby general store.

Lin Xiao bought several common pigments.

They might have been just a few common pigments, and not much of each, but they cost Lin Xiao a full three hundred copper coins!

When it was time to pay, the general store owner had to work terribly hard to pry those three hundred copper coins out of his hands.

Lin Xiao was extremely reluctant to part with them. He had cleaned six people's teeth to earn that money!

Cleaning teeth might not have taken much effort, and it might have seemed like he could earn fifty copper coins in no time.

But those were mouths that had only been rinsed with plain water for more than ten, or even several decades!

And many of them had teeth riddled with cavities!

A mouth full of cavities, combined with years of brushing with willow twigs and plain water-one could just imagine how fragrant that breath was!

So Lin Xiao's earnings were hard-earned money too!

Besides, it could basically be considered a one-time deal.

After all, there were only so many households in the town and the nearby villages that could afford to have their teeth cleaned, and once their teeth were white, they wouldn't come back and waste money for no reason.

So every copper coin he spent pained him.

But then he thought that since the sect's main hall was going to be built, they couldn't just throw up a mud-brick house and call it done.

A sect's main hall, for better or worse, had to have a somewhat different air of grandeur.

Lin Xiao walked to a corner and carefully put the pigments he had spent three hundred copper coins on into his pouch for safekeeping. Only then did he return to join his dad and the others, ready to head back to the village.

Just as they reached the main road leading to the town gate, they found that many people had stopped around them.

A small group of constables was also walking over from the town gate.

The constables walked up to a notice board at the side of the street.

Their leader took a sheet from a constable beside him who was carrying a stack of papers and pasted it onto the board.

Before he had finished, the other constables had already continued on, preparing to post notices at the next spot.

The constable who had stayed behind then turned around and pointed at the newly posted notice as he addressed the crowd gathering around him:

"This is tremendous news, everyone, so listen carefully. Don't go blaming me later for not telling you.

"Listen up-the immortal sect in our provincial capital, the Shangyang Sect, is recruiting new disciples! This is a wonderful opportunity that comes only once every thirty years! And in the past, they always recruited in the prefectural city, or at most as far as the county seat. There was never anything in it for our town or the countryside, but this time it's different!

"This time, the immortal sect has shown mercy and expanded its recruitment to our town!

"Of course, there are conditions for recruiting disciples! They must be children under twelve! Boys and girls are both welcome! Folks, if you have children of the right age at home, hurry back and get them ready.

"In ten days! At our town's market! Remember that!"

The people nearby immediately began asking questions, all talking at once.

"Sir, what's an immortal sect?"

"That's right, that's right! We don't even know what an immortal sect is! What kind of good news is this, exactly?"

"Sir, tell us about it!"

The constable put on a look that said, "You don't even know that?" Then he rattled off an explanation to the crowd:

"This immortal sect, let me tell you-tsk, it's remarkable! Do you know there really are immortals in this world? And an immortal sect is a place where immortals are trained!

"If a child from your family is chosen by the immortal sect, tsk, tsk, tsk, then it really will be a case of one person attaining the Dao and even the chickens and dogs ascending to heaven! Think about it: if one of your children catches their eye, they'll be taken straight back to the immortal sect, spend every day in the company of immortals and receive their guidance. Who knows, one day your child might even learn abilities that reach the heavens!"

Someone in the crowd immediately questioned him:

"Sir, is what you're saying true? Can there really be immortals in this world? Are those immortals with such great powers in the plays actually real?"

Seeing that someone had actually questioned him, the constable immediately slapped his thigh and said:

"Who's lying to you? I inherited this post from my grandfather! My grandfather served in the county before me! Thirty years ago, all the county constables were called to the prefectural city to help!

"My grandfather saw it with his own eyes! The immortal who came to the prefectural city to recruit disciples just casually waved a hand, and a boat flew over and floated in the air! Then he waved again, and the children who had been chosen flew straight up, one by one, onto the boat!

"You tell me, if that wasn't an immortal, what is?"

Hearing this, everyone nodded and exclaimed in admiration.