Breaking Ground
"Some cultivators are stuck at a certain level of cultivation for many years without making any progress, but once they comprehend their Dao name, their cultivation, which has been stagnant for many years, can break through in one fell swoop. Therefore, many cultivators who have no hope of improving their cultivation will use the last bit of their lifespan to comprehend their Dao name, hoping that they can also break through the bottleneck in one fell swoop. However, those who actually succeed are very few and far between."
"I see!" the four exclaimed in unison, understanding dawning on them.
I never imagined that this Daoist name would be so useful.
However, for Lin Xiao, Sun Yigao, and Yang Jinshu, their first thought was about the usefulness of the Daoist title in terms of cultivation, but Mo Yuanjiao did not.
He mainly thought that Daoist titles sounded pretty cool!
Once he has a Daoist title, people will call him Venerable So-and-so! That sounds really cool!
Once he has a Daoist name, he must first have his father call him that.
Everyone kept this in mind, planning to meditate and contemplate it whenever they had free time, to see if they could come up with their own Daoist name.
After discussing this matter, Liao Pantu also joined the Teaching and Research Group's work.
It was the cusp of late autumn and early winter, and the sun had a chilling white hue.
Many plants that are not cold-resistant have withered and fallen.
At midday, the people of Xiushui Village no longer come out to stroll and visit each other with their rice bowls in hand. Instead, they choose to eat a hot meal at home and then take a bowl of hot tea soup with them when they go out.
After a morning of hard work, this short rest after lunch is the most pleasant time of their day.
However, in the past few days, instead of taking a walk and basking in the sun in the village after meals, the old and young people in these families have gone to the edge of the village behind the Lingxian Academy.
Here, a large group of shirtless men are working enthusiastically, digging, moving bricks, breaking stones, and tamping earth.
As the weather cools down and there are fewer insects, and the fertilizer was applied a while ago, the work in the fields has become easier these past few days. Just then, the village is about to start its expansion, so the village chief officially began organizing the town's construction.
Although the village chief had money and hired many strong laborers from nearby villages to work, he naturally couldn't leave out his own villagers when it came to making money.
After the town's boundaries and areas were planned, the first thing to do was to build a wall!
Because the village was to be transformed into a town and there was sufficient funding, after discussion among Village Chief Du and the clan elders, it was decided to build a wall around the land allocated to Xiushui Town by the imperial court.
The wall isn't particularly high; depending on the terrain, it's generally between three and five meters high.
The main purpose is to prevent wolves, tigers, and leopards from living deep in the mountains.
Although the people of Xiushui Village have lived here for many years, wild animals still occasionally wander in due to the surrounding mountains and dense forests.
Many people still remember an incident seven or eight years ago when a wild boar broke into Xiushui Village, knocking down the walls of several houses and destroying the chickens and ducks they kept in their yards.
When the older generation talks about old almanacs at the village entrance, they often mention that a tiger once entered the village and killed or injured many villagers.
So now that they have money in hand and approval from above, the first thing that Village Chief Du and the other village elders thought of was to quickly build the wall and enclose everyone so that they could sleep more peacefully at night!
The area where Xiushui Village borders Lingxian Sect is actually halfway up the North Mountain Range.
The area beyond the mountain range is not within the boundaries of Xiushui Village or even Xiushui Town.
Therefore, after discussions with the Lingxian Sect, the construction of this wall in Xiushui Village began from the Lingxian Academy.
Lingxian Academy is located close to the North Mountain, with Mountain Stream mountain stream behind it. The wall of Xiushui Village was built from behind the Mountain Stream, encompassing both the academy and the Mountain Stream within the boundaries of Xiushui Town.
The wall was then built along the fields and houses Mountain Stream.
The road begins to turn at the Grave Mountain, encompassing both the Grave Mountain and the surrounding farmland.
This continues until it forms a square, eventually ending on the other side of the mountainside on the North Mountain.
Apart from the town gate that leads to the outside world, the only gap in the wall of Xiushui Town is the mountainside on the North Mountain where Lingxian Sect is located.
At first glance, Xiushui Town appears to be a place with the Lingxian Sect behind it and the official road facing the outside world.
Planning it out is just a matter of conducting a site survey and sketching a few lines on paper, but actually building it is a completely different story.
To ensure its sturdiness, the wall, though not very high, was quite thick, measuring two meters.
They are not easily overwhelmed by those large wild beasts.
Therefore, the project is not progressing very quickly.
Village Chief Du was supervising the work from the sidelines, observed the weather and the progress and concluded that it probably wouldn't be finished before the soil froze.
He sighed, "We'll be busy again next spring, and the wall probably won't be finished until next summer under the scorching sun."
Just then, two people dressed in identical Lingxian Sect uniforms emerged from around the corner of the wall near the Lingxian Academy and bowed to him.
"Greetings, Village Chief Du," the two said in unison.
"My name is Bai Zhu, and this is Liang Zhonghuai," Bai Zhu said to the village chief, pointing to himself and then to the person next to him.
Upon seeing this, Village Chief Du waved his hands repeatedly:
"Oh dear, this is terrible... What are you all doing?"
Perhaps because he had watched Lin Xiao Jiang Youfu grow up, the Village Chief Du Lingxian Sect, which they founded, did not refer to the young people of the sect as "little immortals" like outsiders, but rather as some more esteemed children.
"It's like this, Village Chief. It's gotten colder lately, so we were thinking it might be inconvenient for you to start construction down here. So starting today, we Azure Cloud Peak disciples will split into pairs and take turns coming down to loosen the soil and warm it up each day, making it easier for you to build the wall," Bai Zhu explained with a smile.
Lingxian Sect has been keeping the entire sect informed about the progress of the construction of Xiushui Village at the foot of the mountain, so Bai Zhu and his Azure Cloud Peak are also very clear about the progress of Xiushui Village.
Last night, after discussing the formation of a study group, they also discussed matters down the mountain.
The sect's elders had said that once everyone's cultivation level was high, they should not forget to help ordinary people. So, ever since they learned that Xiushui Village at the foot of the mountain was going to be built into a town, they kept this in mind and gathered together late at night to brainstorm and think about how they could help.
After all, Xiushui Village is currently the only place where the elders of the sect feel relatively at ease letting them go down the mountain without an elder's accompaniment.
Bai Zhu was in charge of all the talking, because Liang Zhonghuai thought he was better at talking than him, so he obediently kept quiet and stood aside, only occasionally glancing at the wall being built in front of him, and taking in the scenery of Xiushui Village.
After all, the last time I came to participate in the sect's recruitment, it was already evening, and I was in a hurry to accompany Aunt Yang to find her daughter, so I didn't have time to take a look at this village.
At this moment, the mountains and waters complement each other. Although it is late autumn and desolate, perhaps nourished by the Spiritual Qi, many plants and trees are still vibrant, reflecting the green mountains and clear waters, creating a truly beautiful scene.
Unlike the tranquility of a typical village.
Here, people come and go, there are bustling markets and secluded winding paths. Large areas of low-rise farmhouses of varying sizes complement tall and exquisite restaurants, inns, and luxurious mansions, creating a contradictory yet exceptionally harmonious scene of a prosperous mountain village.
This is the village where their Lingxian Sect was born.