They Could Just Have More

After listening, Liu Yunan hesitated for a moment and asked the others:

"Do you think our arrangement seems a bit unfriendly?"

In the past, Lin Xiao had been in charge of all the recruitment.

Such a formal invitation to complete strangers to enter the sect was unprecedented for everyone present.

Mo Yuanjiao also spoke with some uncertainty:

"Isn't it unfriendly to make those who arrive first stay in thatched huts and wait?"

Everyone fell silent and began to think seriously.

Jiang Youfu, however, looked completely unconcerned. After swallowing the fried beans in his mouth, he said:

"What's the big deal? When our sect first started, Brother Xiao and I cultivated in a thatched hut. It's a tradition of our sect, letting newcomers experience it too, isn't that great?"

"Alright, let's not overthink it. Everyone has done what they could. It's normal for there to be some oversights. Cultivation is all about mutual consent. If they're not satisfied with us, they can leave. We're not money; we can't please everyone. Let's leave it at that." Qin Jianghe made the final decision.

When the group of young men and women heard what he said, they thought it made sense and completely put aside their worries.

The older generation wasn't very curious about the new couple, so they mostly didn't come.

The oldest person in the entire General Affairs Hall was Mo Que, who followed Mo Yuanjiao around, but he wouldn't express any opinions, as long as the young master had no objections.

"Speaking of which, this newcomer named Bai Zhu is quite impressive. He passed the test in just one night," Liu Yunan said.

Hu Liang reached into the small Storage Bag at Jiang Youfu's waist and pulled out a handful of fried beans, nodding as he ate them:

"Yeah, Brother Xiao has made this ' Heart-Questioning Road' much more difficult these days, and I always have to stay in it for a long time."

"Hey, you know what, if we're really talking about speed, Bai Zhu's passage speed is among the best in our sect."

Mo Yuanjiao recalled carefully,

"It seems like it took him about the same amount of time as me!"

Upon reflection, everyone realized it was indeed true!

So far, in each upgrade of the Heart-Questioning Road, apart from Lin Xiao and Sun Yigao Lingxian Sect, who have almost never stopped on the Heart-Questioning Road, Mo Yuanjiao has taken the shortest time.

The total time taken for each pass seems to be roughly the same as the time taken for Bai Zhu today.

However, there is one difference: Bai Zhu is a mortal, while Mo Yuanjiao is a cultivator.

The trial period for mortals on the Heart-Questioning Road is shorter than that for cultivators; they will be released within three days at most, and will not be trapped inside to death.

Just as everyone was chatting about Bai Zhu, the newcomer, Sun Yigao suddenly received a Fang Tuantuan had just gone to the entrance to replace Yuan Qing.

After listening, he turned to the crowd and said:

"It seems there's been a problem on Heart-Questioning Road; Tuantuan has asked us to go check it out."

So the group of teenagers got up and hurried to the entrance of the mountain path.

This is the first time their sect has recruited disciples; they can't afford any problems.

--

Ox Head Village, located on the southern border of the Pusi Kingdom, was an extremely impoverished village.

In this village, selling one's children is nothing new.

Therefore, there are not many people left in the village now, and most of them are elderly people; there are very few young people and children to be seen.

Not long after Tong Jialiang was born, his parents were sold by his grandparents to work as servants in a wealthy family.

His name was given to him by his parents after they worked well in a wealthy family and gained the favor of the steward, who was literate.

In previous years, his parents would often ask someone to send back some of the rewards they received.

But it stopped later.

Because that wealthy family had fallen into ruin, his parents lost contact with their family.

I don't know if they were resold elsewhere or if they simply disappeared.

In short, Tong Jialiang never heard from his parents again after that.

His uncle and aunt took him in out of pity and cared for him, thus preserving the only bloodline of his brother and sister-in-law.

When Tong Jialiang was three years old, a child broker came to the village to take in children. At that time, the family was going through a period of food shortage.

They wouldn't starve to death, but they would at least avoid starvation.

So the grandparents decided to sell the child again.

However, since only his aunt and uncle were left in the family who could do the work, they naturally couldn't be sold.

But he was too young, and the brokers didn't want him.

So his aunt and uncle's son, his cousin who was three years older than him, was chosen.

He still remembered how his aunt and uncle knelt before his grandparents, begging them not to sell his cousin.

Just like their own parents begged them back then.

Perhaps it was because the money came too quickly; compared to their sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren, they felt that the money the broker actually held in their hands was more tangible.

As for children, we can just have another one.

Anyway, the second son and his wife are still alive.

After the eldest grandson is sold, the second son and his wife will have a few more children, by which time the second grandson will be grown up.

Isn't this kind of farming, crop after crop, faster and more comfortable than toiling in the soil for a living?

At that time, Tong Jialiang's cousin was only six years old. Unlike his parents, who were still able to maintain some contact with their family after being sold, his cousin disappeared without a trace after being sold.

However, Tong Jialiang's grandparents did not live to see their grandchildren born in droves for them to sell.

Because they are dead.

He died one night, at the bottom of a cliff behind Ox Head Village.

Tong Jialiang was ten years old at that time.

The body was discovered early the next morning by an old hunter who regularly hunted in the area.

No one knows how they died, or why they died there.

Only Tong Jialiang knew the truth.

Because it was he who lied to them that night, saying he saw a village idler bury silver coins in a small hole on the cliff behind the mountain.

Then he pushed them down himself.

Come to think of it, doing this at ten years old was actually not difficult at all.

He still remembered the excited and greedy expressions on his grandparents' faces when they heard about the silver that night.

They were busy urging him to lead the way, busy groping and searching along the cliff edge according to his instructions, never imagining that this seemingly simple-minded grandson would harbor any ill intentions towards them.

Ox Head Village suffers from chronic food shortages. Even though Tong Jialiang's grandparents have some money given to them by slave traders, they are still thin and pale, and don't have much to eat.

So he gave them a gentle push, and the two of them fell like kites with broken strings.

He also remembers how his face was stiffened by the cold wind blowing from the cliff.

So stiff that not a single extra expression could be generated.

Looking at the two motionless figures at the bottom of the cliff under the night sky, Tong Jialiang thought to himself, "Some people are just meant to stay at the bottom of the cliff."

Later, the uncle and aunt told the village chief who came to inquire that the couple had probably run out of food and, unable to bear seeing their family go hungry, had gone up the mountain late at night to look for wild vegetables and had fallen.

The elderly village chief was merely going through the motions; seeing that no one in the Tong family was pursuing the matter, he closed the case based on the reasons given by the Tong family's uncle and aunt.

After all, everyone's struggling to get enough to eat; who has the time or inclination to meddle in other people's business?