The Agricultural Sect's advantage

"This tiger skin contains the secret treasure of a tiger demon Lineage. If you can open the treasure according to the map index, you can obtain unparalleled divine weapons and demonic magic!"

Zhang Xuezhou was on the run while fighting, but he collected loot extremely quickly.

This guy was one of the few injured in the chaos, and he's quite efficient at this kind of work.

However, Dong Zhongshu felt that Zhang Xuezhou's spoils of war were useless. The inheritance of demons could only be opened by demons, and as a human, Zhang Xuezhou had no chance of obtaining this secret treasure. Even if he did, he probably wouldn't be able to use it.

"That's so boring!"

Zhang Xuezhou looked sullen.

He was about to throw the tiger skin away, but then he thought that since the tiger skin was worth some money, it would be worth it even to use it as a mattress pad. So he rolled it up again and, after asking the people around him, hid it in his pouch.

His decision to take and release things made Dong Zhongshu envious, and even Xu Ji and others were extremely envious.

Dong Zhongshu always held the Law Treasure fan in his hand, seemingly carefree, but the real reason was simply that Dong Zhongshu had nowhere else to put it.

If he were to put it in Zhang Xuezhou's bag, he feared he wouldn't be able to retrieve it when he needed it.

It wasn't just his Law Treasure fan, but also his sword and other items.

If possible, Dong Zhongshu would certainly prefer to be as light as a swallow, traveling nimbly in just a single garment, but without a storage bag, such storage would be impossible.

He could only envy Zhang Xuezhou's effortless storage.

Regardless of its usefulness, since it's a spoil of war and nobody wants it, this item belongs to Zhang Xuezhou.

Moreover, such spoils of war were not enough to incite greed; their allure was far less than Zhang Xuezhou's envy of that pouch.

"Zhang Xiushi's robes haven't been changed for a month and are still as clean as new; they must be something extraordinary!"

Dong Zhongshu sighed inwardly.

Comparisons are odious; he felt that his own lack of Cultivation Resources made him easily feel inferior in comparison.

"Perhaps he's currently enjoying a period of great fortune, and that good luck won't last!"

If you think things through more, you can always find a balance.

Dong Zhongshu's mind raced with countless thoughts before he joined the others in packing up.

A tiger demon had appeared in the village, and many villagers had become its accomplices. Even though the matter of the tiger demon had been resolved, no one in the merchant group dared to spend the night peacefully in such a village.

"Sleep soundly, everyone. I'm confident in Dongfang Shuo's abilities; he can keep watch at night!"

Dong Zhongshu's words of comfort brought some relief to everyone.

Zhang Xuezhou lay in bed for seven days, but Zhang Xuezhou was full of energy and could go almost seven days and seven nights without sleeping.

This extraordinary ability is of little use in ordinary times, but it's invaluable in this situation.

After a long and arduous journey, and with the loss of a companion, coupled with their exhaustion and sleepiness, the night was going to be difficult for everyone. If they were to be ambushed and killed by villagers in the middle of the night, it would undoubtedly be even more unbearable.

The group carried the corpse and left the ancestral hall, a place rife with controversy.

When they stepped back into Tongfu Inn, they both felt a strange unease.

The deserted inn reflects the extremely deserted village.

Occasionally, the sound of a child sobbing could be heard, accompanied by the sound of an adult scolding.

It was a sad night for them, but an even more agonizing one for the people of the village.

Dong Zhongshu did not announce the tiger demon's complete death in time, Xu Ji did not speak, and Xu Yuan was stopped from talking about it.

Many people fell asleep due to exhaustion or pain, while Zhang Xuezhou kept watch, and Xu Yuan, feeling depressed, paced back and forth in the inn.

"Eastern cultivator, can you really go a whole night without sleeping?"

Zhang Xuezhou wasn't bored at night.

Cultivation brings him joy and comfort.

His Grain Avoidance technique opened many acupoints, and he constantly provided reference and demonstrations for other avoidance techniques, increasing the number of acupoints for various avoidance techniques to varying degrees.

For Zhang Xuezhou, through practicing the art of Grain Avoidance, he was very clear about the limits of his evasion techniques.

This gave Zhang Xuezhou a very clear goal when cultivating, and he knew how many acupoints he could open under normal conditions.

However, he does not pursue the extreme once it exceeds the normal range.

Rather than arduous cultivation, he'd rather patiently wait for the flowers to bloom.

Having mastered the Ceasefire Technique, which had proven effective tonight, Zhang Xuezhou then switched to the Poison Repelling Technique, which had also proven effective. When he switched to the Lightning Avoidance Technique, Xu Yuan could no longer help but ask Zhang Xuezhou, who was patrolling and guarding the center of the guesthouse.

"Yes, I can go without sleep for several nights," Zhang Xuezhou nodded.

You have so much energy!

Xu Yuan sighed enviously.

Zhang Xuezhou was full of energy, while Xu Yuan had difficulty falling asleep due to his overthinking.

His thoughts encompassed not only the ignorant villagers who acted as accomplices to the tyrant, but also the agricultural system, himself, the Great Han Dynasty, and the social conditions that were difficult to change at the time.

The more Xu Yuan pondered, the more sorrowful he became, feeling that everything he saw was ruin, collapse, and injustice.

Like the pitch-black night, he could hardly see a glimmer of light in his heart.

"Your attitude is quite interesting!"

Looking at Xu Yuan, Zhang Xuezhou felt that this boy was definitely a potential psychopath.

If the other person harbors resentment and anger, and this resentment accumulates without being released, they will inevitably fall ill.

There's a reason why overthinking can lead to illness. If you keep thinking about these things but can't solve them yourself, you'll eventually get stuck in this kind of thinking and won't be able to get out.

There are not uncommon cases of people dying from excessive worry.

If his mindset cannot be changed, even if Xu Yuan is temporarily made to feel better through emotional reassurance, he will eventually fall back into his old ways and be unable to extricate himself.

"Is there something wrong with what I said?" Xu Yuan countered.

"Yes, all of them are correct," Zhang Xuezhou nodded.

"So you agree with what I think?"

"Yes, I completely agree, of course!"

Zhang Xuezhou lacked the medical means to treat mental patients, but as a seasoned mental patient himself, he understood their mentality very well.

The more you refute and point out the other party's shortcomings, the more embarrassed they become, the more stubborn they become, and they may even sink deeper into their own biases.

He expressed his agreement and highly praised Xu Yuan's patriotic and people-oriented ideals.

This led Xu Yuan to almost consider him his closest friend after only a few minutes of conversation.

Can our agriculture truly change the world?

After a long conversation, Zhang Xuezhou's words made Xu Yuan feel very comfortable, but also raised more questions for him.

He asked Zhang Xuezhou a question.

"Agriculture can certainly change the world," Zhang Xuezhou nodded. "If everyone can have enough to eat, there will be no need to plunder other people's wealth through war, which will eliminate all the evils you perceive."

"This really works?"

"Absolutely," Zhang Xuezhou nodded. "We can even feed the tiger demon, a scourge of the region, so that if they're well-fed, they won't be able to eat people."

"How is this possible!"

"If food is plentiful enough, then it's definitely possible!"

Zhang Xuezhou pondered the existence of zoos and various ecological parks in the real world, feeling that such a thing had already been realized long ago.

In the real world, there's even a fear that the extinction of certain large predators would lead to the loss of their corresponding genes, so people are constantly breeding them artificially.

If humans are powerful enough, it's not impossible for them to domesticate demons.

It's inconvenient to use real-world examples, but Western Sect do exactly that, keeping many powerful demons as captives.

"Your idea... your matter..."

Zhang Xuezhou's words spurred Xu Yuan's world.

He had never imagined that these things were happening in the world far away, nor had he ever thought that agricultural development would bring such benefits.

"But our agricultural sect hasn't focused on increasing millet production; instead, we've been searching for various edible and medicinal substances!"

The agricultural cultivators were closest to Zhang Xuezhou's suggestion in guiding the villagers in farming; they primarily focused on finding various plants.

Traversing the towering mountains, the agricultural cultivators dug out every kind of plant that could benefit their cultivation, and then sold it to cultivators from the medical sect and other sects in exchange for the Cultivation Resources they lacked.

Some plants are suitable for ordinary people to grow, and they will also cultivate them for some local people.

But this is only a sideline of agriculture.

Xu Yuan never imagined that while his main job couldn't change the world, his side hustle might change everything.

"Bone-washing herb, thick-soil Ganoderma, cloud Ganoderma..."

Zhang Xuezhou offered Xu Yuan some advice, urging him to engage in agricultural development and seek ways to change the world through agriculture.

But when Xu Yuan mentioned the medicinal herbs that the Agricultural Sect sought out and cultivated, Zhang Xuezhou almost wanted to persuade him to return to the Agricultural Sect's main business.

While many cultivators were searching far and wide for various medicinal herbs, the cultivators of the Agricultural Sect had already begun cultivating medicinal herbs in large quantities.

Xu Yuan mentioned several medicinal herbs that he cultivated himself, which were exactly the herbs Zhang Xuezhou needed to Spirit-Forging Pill.

"Brother Xu, it's a good thing that you want to dedicate yourself to agriculture, but you should consider that one person's strength is limited..."

Having accepted his advice as a 'close friend,' Xu Yuan had the idea of cultivating high-yield grain varieties.

Zhang Xuezhou couldn't come up with another excuse to get Xu Yuan to continue doing the same old work, so he had to resort to a roundabout approach once again.