NOVEL NEXT Chapter 73: After the winter
“...Shin-er, you are smart it is just that…you are a bit naïve and easy to deceive… even now” said Li-er hesitantly
“I am smarter than in my 1st life!” I objected
“You definitely are but not enough for that b*stard”
Maybe he was right.
“Well for that magic tool you mentioned. It was mine from the start so that concubine would never get it from me in this life. Ah! And she was expelled from the city for cheating in this life so she might never end up his concubine. She is my cousin by the way”
“From what I know of him, he only associated with people he can use so without that tool there no chance for them to get together” added Li-er
Then I had a bigger question “If you and I could be reborn then others could too. Right? What if Wu TaoShen… I mean Wu ChengLiu is reborn too? Or would he be reborn in the future?”
“This is a question I wish to never have to answer but we need to plan for that possibility” replied Wu ChengLi
We spent the rest of the night talking and planning. We did not come up with an amazing solution. For now, I made so many changes that faking not being reborn would not be possible. Anyone coming from the future would suspect me first but I could do nothing about it. So I decided to live like I wanted and let the future me deal with the aftermath
Li-er's plan did not change but he promised to check on his half brother and to contact me if he suspected him being reborn. He even invited me to go with him to the Sun family but I declined. I wanted a happy life and, in this city, I had family and friends now. I was not ready to leave all that to deal with a potential future problem. “I would miss you though Li-er” I said to him
“Me too…I already thanked you for helping me save my mother but I want to really thank you for changing our future”
“No worries, you would have done the same in my place” I said to him
“Maybe, maybe not but you are now the one I trust the most in this world. I will come visit you as soon as I can” promised Li-er
“You know that even if you are older than me I will continue calling you Li-er” I joked with a smile
“I do not expect you calling me anything else” He replied with the same smile
It was dawn already so we decided not to go back to sleep and started to cultivate instead. It was just that I fell asleep while sitting… That was a bit embarrassing as I woke up after lunch. Thankfully, no one made fun of me.
Official Hei sent word that he came back from whatever mission he was on so Jiang-ge had already left in the morning. Li Bo went to school to meet one of his teachers and grandma Li was busy cooking extra food for aunt Sun and Li-er’s departure. Aunt Sun decided to leave with her brother tomorrow. I was sad. I wish I had not slept so I could stay with them a bit longer.
Sun LaoYi gave me a message talisman that I could use to contact Li-er from afar. That was the best gift he could give me under the circumstances. He even thanked me for helping Li-er find his mother! But I did nothing, it was uncle Huai’s guards who did all the work. I just got kidnaped by a 7 year old. He laughed when I said that and warmed up to me pretty quickly.
That day passed quickly. The next day, they left at dawn. I decided to not let anyone come to my room. It was time for a good brooding session.
It was then when I remembered I forgot to tell Li-er about the 3rd golden finger! A mountain of top grade spiritual stones. We could have split it! Grrr. It was too far from the city so better wait until I was older and at least at the Foundation Establishment stage.
During winter, I played with the analyzer to try to figure out all its functions. It would have been a useful tool for my parents in the secret realm so my conclusion was that they did not know what it was and the tool did not bind to them. If that was the case, maybe no one could use it in my first life and it was the reason for not being mentioned in the trashy book. I chose to leave it at that and focus on my cultivation and spending time with my loved ones.
The freezing winter went smoothly this time around. Much less people died than in my first life so I was satisfied. There was no panic or uprisings. No daily news about the death of an entire family or acquaintances.
I begged uncle Huai in the middle of the winter to tour some villages to check on them and he accepted in the end. I made it a friend outing with Sui-er, Jiang-ge and the Li boys. Security was tight and uncle Qin came with us too. We went out for a week. It was really cold and we had to take countless fire pills. Most villages were doing well in the circumstances.
Uncle Qin's ship was faster than array master Kui’s and we could go to some hunter villages I visited earlier. It was harder there, beast attacks were more frequent but master Kui’s arrays held well enough. We distributed the supplies we set aside for donation before leaving. It was an eye opener for my young friends.
When we returned home, the Li boys could not stop talking about their experiences to grandma Li. Uncle Qin, who was at first concerned about our safety and health, chose to schedule the same type of outing with us 2 times later on. We visited other villages then and we tried to help in any way we could.
Eventually, spring came and AnNan citizens learned about the consequences of the extreme weather on other cities.
Those cities were hit pretty badly even though they knew the catastrophe was coming. Their city lords were either lazy or did not believe that the citizens made a city and not the other way around.
Most of their farmers died so they had no one farming after winter and food shortage was to be expected there. Some cultivators from those cities decided to move to ours. Too bad there was not enough residence for all of them. The real estate prices went up by a lot because of them.
As AnNan villagers were fine, the farmlands were all cultivated and they exported the extra to other cities at a good price. Some of my fellow students went to those villages to help with plant boost to increase production. Merchants came to buy goods from the city. The income from various channels made the AnNan city rich again within a year.
As for me, I graduated at 11 from school with honors. The mine was doing well. We had already sold 2 giant spiritual stones to 2 different sects via an auction.
Li Yao, despite his low cultivation, was officially a new recruit at the security team of AnNan city. He was growing steadily and matured a lot. Li Bo was more independent now that he has been at the school for a year. He learned some array making thanks to my tutoring and already rejected a sect offer. He wanted to stay by grandma Li’s side as long as possible.
Grandma Li could not progress her cultivation anymore. She was just too old so I let her live her life however she wanted. She chose to continue cooking for me and her grandchildren while the housekeeper’s wife took over cooking for everyone else. Her daughter stopped crying every few days and matured a lot. She will be going to school in a few months and I gave her writing kits and the books she would need already. She was ecstatic.
Aunt Yan and uncle Huai were visiting me less often. Aunt Yan was pregnant so I was the one visiting her every few days. Each time I saw her she was getting fatter but grandma Li told me to NEVER tell her that and I complied.
While the pregnant couple stopped visiting, I took the time to read Ji FanFang’s diary in the bracelet space. I learned a bit about it and how to use it. It had many hidden functions like protecting my sea of knowledge from outside attacks, warding off evil beings and so on. I could even send emergency messages to my ancestor, she would not be able to come out to help so that was useless from my point of view.
I used the empty lot area to farm some alchemy ingredients for practice. I also kept some seeds from different crops and medicinal herbs ‘just in case’. I was not planning to starve in this life - I had to say it again -
The diary included the life of her descendants and I also learned that my mother never activated the bracelet. In the last few centuries, this bracelet’s function knowledge was lost when my great-great-great grandmother died from delivering her only son. Her son founded the Bai family and the bracelet was passed over as a family heirloom. My mother inherited it after my grandparents and uncles’ death. I assumed that she thought that it only had a sentimental value so she gave it to me to pass it on to my descendants. The diary was written by Ji FangFang after she ascended so I assumed she could come to this space once in a while. This was my theory and I was not able to confirm it yet. I just hoped she would come when I was not in it. I would die due to her immortal pressure otherwise.
I also wondered, if my mother knew the bracelet function, would she and my father choose to stay with me and hide in it to cultivate? But then again, I was not sure if Ji FangFang would have given her ownership in that case.
I was at level 9 of Qi condensation and was planning to break through in a few days. I had my main and secondary meridian paths already defined so I just increased my root’s rotations based on 3D axes just like what I planned.
In the end, when I entered closed door cultivation, it took me only 2 hours to breakthrough. I went directly to the mid stage of foundation establishment.