The Cage Compound's Reward

After that, we can arrange for volunteer monks to take a slightly longer route to install waterwheels at various major irrigation points in nearby countries.

This is a one-time task, which is a piece of cake for cultivators, but a major undertaking that consumes a lot of manpower and resources for ordinary people.

As for future maintenance, it will be left to the local government and people to maintain together. Even if there are parts that need to be replaced, the materials are all wood, so it is not difficult to make or replace them. Therefore, Lin Yun thought about it and added the construction of the waterwheel to the list of volunteer projects.

By assigning the difficult parts to volunteer monks, construction efficiency can be improved in all aspects.

Once these facilities are completed, they will create many permanent jobs for ordinary people. As long as these facilities remain in use, these jobs will continue to exist, which is what is commonly known as an "iron rice bowl" (guaranteed job).

Lin Yun breathed a slight sigh of relief as he looked at the population growth rate of Xiushui City over the past few years.

Although Xiushui City is a new city with ample employment opportunities across various industries, given the current rate of increase in the number of immigrants, traditional and conventional industries will soon become saturated.

Of course, as the first city in the Mortal Realm to combine immortal and mortal elements, it has far more job opportunities than regular cities, and there are more ways to make money. However, if this continues, the population of Xiushui City will also skyrocket, and the existing jobs alone will not be able to accommodate such a growth.

Therefore, although expanding employment opportunities for people's livelihoods is not urgent at the moment, it has always been an important issue weighing on Lin Yun's mind.

As a result, this problem, which had not yet occurred, already had a solution, and judging from Lin Xiao's plan, Lin Yun felt that this problem would be unlikely to become a livelihood issue for Xiushui City or even the entire Mortal Realm for a long time.

A month later, Lin Xiao and Liao Pantu's research yielded results.

On this day, the monks, who had been confined in the Cage Compound and were used to working from sunrise to sunset every day, suddenly received a different kind of mission.

Early in the morning, Yuan Jinsheng gathered all the cultivators in Cage Compound to the square and distributed several blueprints to each of them.

The cultivators glanced at the contents of the blueprints, and many of them scoffed at the idea.

Although the blueprints are about the four techniques of immortal cultivation, the materials indicated in them are far from high-grade; most of them are even common items.

Even the name is absurd and nonsensical.

They don't even dare to call the "Simple Fertilizing Array" a formation; they have to add the word "Simplified" to distinguish it from regular formations. And the Fattening Pill " isn't even a "Pill."

And then there's this Tilling Cage Cart... Listen to that, does it sound like something a cultivator would use their skills to create?

Furthermore, it should be understood that regardless of the quality or grade of the materials used by cultivators, they must at least be spiritual objects. Items made from mortal objects are not only useless to cultivators, but the fragility of mortal objects themselves makes it difficult to withstand the flow of Spiritual Power during the refining process. Even if one does not care about the final product, refining anything with mortal objects is an extremely difficult task in itself.

The blueprints are filled with ordinary materials, with at most one spiritual material—and it's the cheapest kind, the kind that's commonplace even in the Mortal Realm. What good stuff can be made from that?

The monks of Cage Compound were quite puzzled by the blueprints that were given to them.

However, due to Yuan Jinsheng's long-term training, they are now so accustomed to not easily questioning or raising doubts even if they have doubts in their hearts. At most, they will whisper a few words to each other with acquaintances.

Seeing how disciplined the group was, Yuan Jinsheng was quite satisfied. Without keeping them in suspense, he immediately said, "Everyone's crops have been doing well lately, and last season's yield was much higher than expected. So I specially went to our city lord to apply for a reward for you. This is a highly coveted position that cultivators outside would fight tooth and nail for."

Upon hearing this, the cultivators of Cage Compound were unimpressed.

The cultivators outside, aren't they just cultivators from the Mortal Realm? What good things could those cultivators have ever seen? They just snatch anything bad or rotten, and getting two Spirit Stone is considered a good job.

Seeing that everyone's enthusiasm was low, Yuan Jinsheng didn't mind and continued, "You've all seen the blueprints we gave you. This job is to refine these things. There's a special refining hall in the Cage Compound. Those who sign up for refining only need to till the land for half a day each day, and then go to the refining hall in the afternoon to refine the items according to the blueprints."

Upon hearing this, the cultivators in the square were somewhat taken aback, and finally couldn't help but start whispering among themselves.

This is the 'reward' that Master Yuan was talking about? What's the difference between this and tilling the land outside? At least when you till the land outside, you get more sunlight and absorb some Spiritual Qi. This refining hall is even located in the Cage Compound. They must be out of their minds to choose this job!

Yuan Jinsheng had anticipated their attitude, and after exchanging words with them for a while, he leisurely spoke up, "The refining hall is open every day until the next day's farming season, and the Spiritual Qi supply in the hall is normal during the opening hours."

Upon hearing this, the dense murmurs from the audience suddenly ceased.

That sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

They go out to farm and get some fresh air every morning, and come back in the afternoon to refine some things. They can stay in the refining hall, which is full of Spiritual Qi... Doesn't that mean they are immersed in Spiritual Qi all day long?

Having lived in this Spiritual Qi Cage Compound for so long, they deeply missed the feeling of being immersed in Spiritual Qi every day.

Unlike before when they were forced to cut off Spiritual Qi to clear land for cultivation, everyone waited for a long time without hearing Yuan Jinsheng make any coercive conditions. It was as if this time it was purely up to their will; if they wanted to do it, they could, and if they didn't, they could just leave it at that.

It seemed as if there were many cultivators outside vying to do this job.

Many people's resolve began to waver.

Should we do it?

Many people are conflicted.

Doing so would seem like aiding the enemy, since they were essentially prisoners who had been captured and imprisoned, and were in opposition to Yuan Jinsheng and the Xiushui City behind him. Before, they could say that they were forced to cultivate the land by Spiritual Qi, but this time there were no conditions for coercion. If they were to help them refine things, it would seem that their stance was not quite right.

But... I'll be able to immerse myself in a Spiritual Qi environment every day from now on... I long for that...

Yuan Jinsheng didn't give them much time to hesitate. He immediately waved his hand and said, "Everyone has one incense stick's time to register. After that time, registration will close. Let's begin!"