Carrying a Hoe to Cultivate

A man carrying a big bowl with water passed by the two, then he halted his steps and shouted towards Gu Wen Zhu, “Your old house is on fire. Quick and go help extinguishing the fire.” After doing so, he ran forward without looking back.

“That’s bad. I will go help.” In his nervous tone, Gu Wen Zhu told Xia Yi, who was stunned on the spot. He swiftly tucked in his shirt, went back into the house with a bucket in his hand, and ran towards the old house. “You stay at home, don’t go anywhere.”

“179, is that caused by my heart shaped candles?” Xia Yi asked System in shock.

“Host, it seems so.”

When Xia Yi arrived at the old house with a wooden bowl in panic, the fire was already out, only some black smoke was left wafting out the roof and the windows slowly.

After the black smoke was out, everyone gathered in the house to look closely.

The walls were all black after being smoked. The floor was wet. Everyone stood in the empty house together. Without any clue, they enthusiastically discussed the cause of the fire.

“How did the fire start? There was nobody living inside and there was no furniture.” Confused, Li Zhu used his hand to fan the black smoke in front of his nose and asked.

“Yeah, I can’t figure it out either. It’s not like there was any lightning or something striking the house and started the fire.”

“Is there some spirit of the mountain or something in the house?” Someone yelled in fear.

“What are you talking about? Spirit of the mountain? Has anyone ever seen one for real before? That’s just a tale.” The person on his side quickly clarified, “But, I have been to the neighboring village two days ago and heard that there was a demon fox around…”

“I was going out, then I saw the inside of the house was on fire. I saw the fire burning through the window. I hurried my way to Mr. Wang’s place, and Mr. Wang took his gong out…” Li Zhu proudly told everybody about his contribution.

Gu Wen Zhu put down the bucket in his hand. He used his sleeve to brush off the sweat on his face. Seeing Xia Yi’s flabbergasted face after entering the house, Gu Wen Zhu tried to soothe him in a low voice, ”Don’t be afraid, it’s okay, the fire is out.”

“Is… is there a huge loss? What’s the damage?” Xia Yi’s voice raised.

“There was very little in the old house in the first place. There were a few damaged furniture in the corner. They weren’t worth much. Just forget about it.” Gu Wen Zhu immediately calmed Xia Yi down when he heard his voice change.

“Do you know how the fire started?” Xia Yi asked anxiously in a soft voice, his heart pounding fiercely.

“What else can be the reason? The culprit may have deceived all of you, but they cannot deceive me. Do you really think I can’t see?” With a wooden bowl in one hand and a copper bed pan in the other, Mr. Wang narrowed his eyes, he looked so intense that beams almost came out from his eyes.

Xia Yi’s legs gave away, he opened his mouth, he was on the edge of confessing the truth directly, “Mr. Wang, I…”

Mr. Wang raised his hand to stop Xia Yi from talking further, he said relentlessly with a gloomy expression, “Those three basters are really determined to ruin you. Ever since they were caught before, they wanted revenge. At first, they went to steal at your house. That didn’t work, they damaged your new clothes in the yard. It was still not enough for them. Now, they came to set your old house on fire!”

“And they want revenge on the whole village. On the day before yesterday, Eggy’s mom cooked him an egg, after she put the egg into the bowl and went into the room, guess what? The egg was gone just like that.” Mr. Wang smiled coldly, then stared afar, sighing sluggishly, “There is no peace in our village ever since, it’s chaos…If the arsener ever lets me catch him, I would skin him.” Mr. Wang forcefully put the silver bed pan on the floor, speaking with gritted teeth.

“179, I am scared.” Xia Yi hid behind Gu Wen Zhu. He and System trembled together.

“What’s wrong?” Gu Wen Zhu felt that Xia Yi was weird. He gave him a pat on the shoulder when no one noticed.

“Zhu, I, I might be the one who lit the fire.” Dejected, Xia Yi was feeling anxious. “I wanted to–”

“Yi, don’t try to cover up for the bad guys, it’s not worth it.” Mr. Wang heard it with his sharp ears, he cut Xia Yi off with his loud voice. When he saw Xia Yi intended to say something, he signaled him to stop with his hand, “Don’t say anything, Mr. Wang knows very well.”

Xia Yi, 179: …

When they were home, Gu Wen Zhu recalled that they were going out to see the surprise before everything happened, therefore he said to Xia Yi apologetically, “You were talking about this surprise but we didn’t go to see it because of the fire, can you bring me to see it now?”

Xia Yi opened his mouth, but ended up murmuring, “The surprise was destroyed in the fire, I will let you see it later.”

“Host, you want to set fire again?” 179 screamed in disbelief.

“I won’t. I won’t.” Xia Yi hurriedly denied and added, “I am talking about other surprises.”

The next day, Xia Yi went to the farmland to check up on his radishes. From the fresh green color of the outer leaves of the white radishes, they could tell that there would be plentiful harvest. They stayed by the side of the radishes for half a day. After dreaming for some time about the harvest, Xia Yi started to walk home slowly.

As soon as he arrived at the east of the village, he saw an elderly stranger with long hair. The guy was standing beside the pigsty of Lady Li’s house. Mr. Wang was crouching beneath a willow, pretending to be smoking, observing discreetly.

That was a slender elderly in his fifties, his fine hair touching his shoulder. He looked exactly like those masters from the ancient Chinese costume TV shows. He was wearing a loose cyan-blue long gown with high quality fabric and his clothes were swaying with the wind. His belt was embroidered with patterns, showing a subtle kind of elegance. With one hand behind him, the other touching his beard, he looked refined and transcended.

These kind of people would only appear at the top of the mountain or in thick fog, they would usually play the Chinese zither or chess, two apprentices behind him would serve him tea.

Now, with the pigsty of Lady Li’s on his side, two big fat one snorting in the pigsty, the scene did not seem too right.

Mr. Wang saw Xia Yi and waved at him. When Xia Yi came to him, he put his hand beside his mouth and said mysteriously, “He had been hanging out in the village since morning, selling some foundation extra-breeding dink. Judging from his look, he is either a con man or a pig breeder.”

Foundation extra-breeding dink? What foundation extra-breeding dink? Xia Yi looked at the old man, his mouth whispering the words that Mr. Wang told him repeatedly, feeling familiar.

Foundation extra-breeding dink, foundation extra-breeding dink, foundation establishment drink! The idea striked Xia Yi, was that person talking about foundation establishment drink??!!

Xia Yi’s heart began to pound, he could not let it be after thinking about it, and so he went towards the pigsty. The old man saw Xia Yi coming, thinking that he was a customer, he nodded slightly. Not waiting for Xia Yi to walk closer, he asked, “Are you coming for the foundation establishment drink? Little fellow.”

That’s right! Foundation establishment drink! Not foundation extra-breeding dink!

Xia Yi went to his side, observed him for a while, and lowered his voice to ask as if there were some secret signals among them, “Cultivation? Are you not from this world? System? Transmigration?”

The old man froze for a second and looked at Xia Yi with widened eyes. Then his face lit up, talked with a low voice as well just like Xia Yi, “I don’t understand the second half of your sentence, but I am a cultivator.”

After saying so, he waited to see Xia Yi’s reaction. Xia Yi was calm and did not seem to repel the idea, therefore, the old man continued, “Yesterday morning I finished a chess game and was preparing to go and play the Chinese Zither by the lake. I did not know what happened, all of a sudden everything spinned, when I opened my eyes again, I was already here. I asked around and no one knows about cultivation. Could this be utopia? But I have been wandering for a day and I can’t find any exits. When I asked people how to get out, they all told me to follow this road, and so I arrived at the city.”

This guy seems different and he was either crazy or a cultivator. There was no way for a crazy guy to know foundation establishment drinks. Would he be from the cultivation world?

In view of the confusion on Xia Yi’s face, that guy said in his lowered voice, “Although this sounds unbelievable, all I have just mentioned are true. I am the third elder Liu SiQian from the Qi Shan Sect. I have already reached the level of the Great Void, all except the ones who are in this utopia knows my name.”

What the f**k!!

Liu SiQian saw Xia Yi froze on the spot silently, thinking that Xia Yi did not believe him, he sighed and kept explaining, “I could have used magic to prove my identity, but I don’t even know why, I can use not one spell, and people think I am a con man…”

Xia Yi ended his own thinking process and signaled the old man to stop talking with his hand gesture, “You do not have to explain further, I believe you.”  

He even mentioned Qi Shan Sect and foundation establishment drinks, how could he possibly be a con man? He was obviously from the cultivation world.

“System, isn’t the management too bad? How do you guys work? Apart from me, even people from the cultivation world are crossing over to this world.”

Xia Yi was worrying about the entire system world.