The beginner’s gift pack only contained ten silver coins, while the reward for moving the Red Snake Demon up the mountain was fifty. A wooden box sold for a hundred. Lin Zhusheng had plenty of money in hand, but he wasn’t foolish.

Having missed a money-making opportunity, the little cat let out an “oh” and shrank back.

It was a rare outing, so Lin Zhusheng was determined to explore from start to finish, even with a heavy load.

Along the way, there were many items, including all sorts of strange stones and various fruit and herb seeds. The growth cycle for herbs and fruits was long, and after half a month, he would need to change locations to the outer sect. With just over ten days, it wasn’t enough time; otherwise, a certain citizen named Lin Zao, who was eager to try his hand at being a farmer, would have stretched out his wicked little hands and collected one of each kind, filling his yard with them.

The little cat poked its head out at the right moment and said, “It seems the outer sect disciples’ rooms are bigger than the ones now, with their own small courtyards.”

Not only do they have their own small courtyards, but the spiritual energy is also denser. As long as one can enter the outer sect, the freedom to grow vegetables and fruits would basically be realized, including the round fruits from before. Although the space isn’t large, anything can be grown there.

Great! That gave him motivation to strive. For the freedom to farm, Lin Zhusheng had to get a small courtyard where he could grow all sorts of things.

The street not only had seeds and various odd items, but it also had the hair bands he was missing for sale. However, the prices were quite abstract; a short piece of cloth sold for over ten silver coins, which was outright extortion.

He could just tear off a couple of strips of cloth and be a hero, so Lin Zhusheng quickly left the stall without lingering for even a second.

The liveliest part of the entire street was at the end, where a crowd had gathered, and even from a distance, one could see heads bobbing up and down.

Curious citizen Lin, who never missed an opportunity to join in the fun, rushed over to take a look, diving into the crowd like a tree blending into a forest, feeling completely at home as if he had been there from the start.

The gathering was around a bulletin board, which seemed to have just been updated, with fresh papers stacked on top of each other, filled with a lot of content.

Among them were the performance requirements for the Lingxu Grass at the end of the month and the need for disciples to complete their course hours to advance to the outer sect, prominently displayed in the center.

The kind-hearted steward had likely guessed that he had never come to these places before and didn’t communicate with others, being so isolated that he could be considered cut off from information.

The bulletin board not only had sect announcements but also personal information from disciples, such as trading items or looking for lost belongings.

The most common were notices for purchasing Lingxu Grass, with several listings, the highest offering five silver coins per stalk.

Lin Zhusheng listened in the crowd for a while and learned that this had already become a long-standing tradition in the sect. The DDL warriors, who had been testing the waters and unfortunately failed, and those who had been busy preparing for their bone tests and hadn’t gathered enough grass, finally remembered this matter and wanted to start completing the task. However, Lingxu Grass was rarely found in clusters, scattered in corners, making it hard to gather enough in a short time. Thus, they could only attempt to collect it through purchases.

Lingxu Grass was not easy to preserve, and the other disciples had no stock. Once found, they would hand it directly to the steward, and any excess would be processed into medicinal powder. Even if they wanted to trade, they were powerless to do so.

Usually, these purchase notices would be posted until they turned yellow, then replaced by the next batch of announcements. The disciples who issued the purchase notices would also leave the sect directly, just like the yellowed notices.

The little cat scratched at the storage of Lingxu Grass, whispering, “Isn’t this a good opportunity to make money?”

This person had previously been ruthless in harvesting grass, seemingly with endless energy, shouting to the heavens while climbing mountains and showing no mercy while pulling grass. Not a single blade was spared from the vast thicket, and he even had the heart to prioritize the less appealing grass for task submissions, leaving behind quite a bit of grass that looked normal.

Quite a bit meant at least a small three-digit number, enough for several people to meet their task requirements and make a good profit.

After all, pulling grass until your hands ache was no joke. Lin Zhusheng glanced at the amounts on the purchase notice, thought for a moment, and finally said, “No rush.”

When he said “no rush,” he truly meant it. He only remembered the name of the purchasing disciple before shifting his gaze and moving aside to look at the other side of the bulletin board.

His eyes moved across the various papers, finally landing on a recruitment notice in the corner.

The recruitment notice was officially sent by the sect, calling for disciples to chop down trees. Due to the previous incident with the Red Snake becoming a demon, the sect realized how dangerous the neglected woods were and planned to take action against other forests, directly chopping down trees that were not part of the plan.

The task reward was 200 silver coins and a random small item, with the task content being simple and monotonous, essentially providing a work-study opportunity.

However, the timing of the notice was not ideal. Now, it was equivalent to the final exam week in college, where academics were more important, and the disciples couldn’t earn this money even if they wanted to.

If they weren’t going to earn it, Lin Zhusheng was going to. Without a hint of hesitation, he turned and ran toward the registration area, stretching his head out from the large bag he was holding, raising his hand enthusiastically.

The registrar noted down his name.

Watching his name being written stroke by stroke on the paper, he casually asked the core question, “Can the chopped wood be taken away?”

“?”

The registrar was taken aback by the question, finally looking up, somewhat stunned, and said, “… Yes, you can take it away.”

He paused for a moment and then added a friendly reminder, “There are quite a few trees.”

Meaning it would be hard to transport them from the bottom of the mountain to the top, and it wouldn’t just be one trip. If needed, one could buy finished products, and the prices weren’t too high.

This question was easy to resolve, and Lin Zhusheng wasn’t worried. He just smiled and thanked the registrar.

His smile was quite sincere, raising the registrar’s favorability by +1. The registrar said there was no need to thank him and informed him to go to another part of the woods at the foot of the mountain tomorrow afternoon.

Still holding onto his things, Lin Zhusheng didn’t linger any longer and headed back.

On the way back, he didn’t take a shortcut but passed by the Jing Si Dao he hadn’t visited before, where disciples were quietly meditating along the mountainside.

It was only when he got here that he remembered he still had a task to level up to level 2, so he quickly checked his experience.

【Current Level: LV1 (42/200)】

The number seemed to have inexplicably increased significantly; the last time he checked, it was still 10 experience points, which he had earned from defeating a regular Red Snake.

He shouldn’t have done anything particularly special to gain experience since then.

The little cat crawled out from his clothes, climbed onto his shoulder, shook its ears, and its fur was blown up by the mountain wind, helping to analyze, “It’s probably because you’ve been quite active these past few days.”

Meditation, in essence, is a way to enhance metabolism, allowing impurities rooted in the body to leave through the absorption of spiritual energy. The better one’s talent, the faster they absorb it, and the more spiritual power converted from spiritual energy they can store. Exercise, theoretically, is also an effective way to enhance metabolism, especially when running up and down the mountain every day in an area rich in spiritual energy.

An unexpected gain! If this continued, he wouldn’t even need to deliberately find time to fight monsters to level up before the test. After glancing at the disciples meditating together, Lin Zhusheng wondered, “Then why are they sitting here instead of running around more? Don’t they want to?”

He usually didn’t like exercising, but he couldn’t stand doing nothing and just lying there. Compared to that, going up and down the mountain was more acceptable, after all, he could chat a bit.

“…”

The little cat fell silent for a moment.

So, theoretically speaking, in practice, the vast majority of disciples focused entirely on converting spiritual energy into spiritual power, which required full concentration and a lot of energy. This way of meditating was the most efficient for conversion, and after meditating, they had no energy left to jump around or chat.

Not everyone was like this person, full of endless energy. If there were no stamina limits, the person beneath it might evolve to eliminate sleep altogether, living outside like a wild man, running all over the mountains.

After returning to his room, the wild man also went running all over the mountains this afternoon.

On the way, he stopped by to greet Steward Meng and build rapport, and after it got dark, he returned home with a full harvest, ready to start his nighttime reading plan.

Today’s meal was a significant improvement compared to yesterday, not only featuring a variety of freshly picked fruits but also some newly purchased jerky. Finally, he ate like a person and, happily, managed to sleep through the night.

The result of eating well, drinking well, and sleeping well was that he got up the next day and started repeating the previous day’s mad dash, arriving late again.

It was the same familiar time, the same familiar place, and the same familiar fellow disciples.

Today, the sun was still shining brightly. Song Ming leaned against the wall, twirling a dog tail grass, as if he had already anticipated Lin Zhusheng would be late, showing no surprise at all, just saying, “You’re here?”

Lin Zhusheng squatted down beside him, handing over a fruit as breakfast, responding while munching on the fruit and flipping through a book that was already halfway read.

Song Ming took the initiative to grab the snowball and place it on himself. The little cat, having played enough with the dog tail grass, reached out its paw to grab the green jade tassel hanging from his waist, swinging the entire jade pendant, the warm white jade shining brightly and quietly in the light.

Hanging from him was a rare piece of jade, yet he didn’t stop the little cat’s actions and didn’t mind. He slightly turned his head to look at Lin Zhusheng and asked about other matters, “Why are you in such a hurry today?”

Just as he sat down and flipped through the book, still catching his breath, yesterday he at least had time to eat breakfast properly.

“Not much time today,” Lin Zhusheng said, cheeks puffed up as he bit into a red fruit, “I have something in the afternoon.”

The spring sun wasn’t scorching; it warmed him pleasantly. He leaned back comfortably, turning into a lump of mud against the wall.

The sound of the teacher’s lecture came from above, and beside him, the little cat was meowing happily. The gentle breeze was pleasant, and he slowly turned the pages of his book, changing positions several times throughout the morning while leaning against the wall.

With yesterday’s experience, when the teacher’s voice grew quieter and the sounds of his fellow disciples quietly packing up began to rise, it was time to prepare to end. He packed up his book, tucked the cat in, and after briefly saying goodbye to his fellow disciples, he quickly got up and rushed to the classroom door, ready to brush past the teacher at any moment.

“…”

He moved too quickly, and Song Ming couldn’t react in time. Just as he wanted to say something, Lin Zhusheng’s figure had already disappeared swiftly, and the hand he had raised fell back down.

After the class ended, the disciples walked out of the classroom, and he walked against the flow, waving and bouncing toward the teacher from a distance, a smile on his face.

The teacher knew he would come to brush past, so he had already written down Lin Zhusheng’s name on the list in advance, picking it up to show the list all around.

A very accommodating teacher, he admired the names on the list, and Lin Zhusheng suddenly remembered something, pointing at the blank space next to his name, saying, “Song Ming is here too, he’s outside.”

Always remembering to care for his fellow disciple.

As he spoke, he turned to glance out the window, trying to provide evidence.

His fellow disciple stood out quite a bit, easily visible, and it seemed he was never short of company. Surrounding him was a crowd, just like yesterday, and the number of people had even increased compared to yesterday.

As always, he was very popular.

Just as he was about to retract his gaze and leave like yesterday, he caught sight of his good fellow disciple’s expression.

The people around were enthusiastically gathering, laughter and chatter filling the air, but Song Ming wasn’t smiling. In the center of the crowd, his lips were flat.

“Please remember to add him to the list, I’m leaving first.”

After thinking for just a second, Lin Zhusheng slowly blinked, stuffed the little cat into his clothes, and after giving the teacher a quick reminder, he turned and walked straight toward the window. As he stepped into the light, his foot twisted, and the gray robe flared up as he leaned against the window and flipped outside.