Asking About Longevity

Chapter 15 Shu Xiu

 The sect opens external doors, recruits disciples, and imparts knowledge and skills of cultivation. When a disciple joins the sect and practices and studies, he needs to pay a stipend.

 Sects of different grades pay different amounts of repairs. The higher the rank of the sect, the more expensive the repairs are.

 Tongxian Sect is only a first-class sect in the world of monasticism, but in Tongxian City, which only has first-class sects, it is the largest sect. Annual cultivation requires one hundred spirit stones, which does not include various other miscellaneous charges.

One hundred spiritual stones is not too expensive, but it is by no means cheap. It is almost the same as a year of ordinary Qi training and casual cultivation, assuming there are no injuries or other things that require a large amount of spiritual stones.

 Once there is a disease or disaster, or if you encounter difficulties that need to be solved with flower spirit stones, it is possible that you will have no harvest for a year.

I am very happy during the New Year, but once the New Year is over, the burden of monastic life seems to be weighed down again.

Mo Shan put a storage bag on the table and said a little guiltily: "I asked a few brothers to borrow some spiritual stones, plus the ones I saved before, there are more than eighty in total..."

Liu Ruhua comforted him and said, "I will also go to the shopkeeper of the restaurant tomorrow and ask him to advance some spiritual stones..."

Just when Mo Shan was about to say something, he found Mo Hua lying at the crack of the door and eavesdropping.

 “Huaer!”

Mo Hua was discovered, so he had no choice but to smile and run to sit next to his mother.

Liu Ruhua pinched Mo Hua's ears affectionately and scolded: "You know how to eavesdrop at such a young age!"

“Dad, Mom, are you still short of spiritual stones at home?”

Mo Shandao: "I am missing some, but yesterday your Uncle Ji said that he would lend it to me, and also told me to study hard in the sect."

 “Uncle Ji?”

“Yes, your uncle Ji said you are smart and always praises you.” Liu Ruhua touched Mo Hua’s head and said.

“But Uncle Ji’s family doesn’t have enough spiritual stones, either,” Mo Hua said.

Mo Shan sighed softly, "I'll pay him back earlier after the New Year. Who can have a surplus of spiritual stones these days?"

 “I have it!” Mo Hua chuckled.

Mo Shan and Liu Ruhua were stunned for a moment.

Mo Hua ran back to the house with his calves, and then ran back again, holding a storage bag in his hand.

Mo Hua opened the storage bag, and the fifty spirit stones inside were intertwined with each other and reflected in various colors, which was really beautiful. But as expected, the scene where his parents were moved to tears and praised him for being sensible did not appear.

Mo Shan’s expression was solemn, and Liu Ruhua also frowned slightly.

Mo Hua said anxiously: "What's wrong?"

Mo Shan tried his best to ask in a calm tone: "Hua'er, who gave you these spiritual stones?"

 “It’s not given by others, it’s earned by myself!”

Mo Shan was stunned for a moment, "Earn it by yourself?"

Liu Ruhua frowned slightly and gently held Mo Hua in her arms, "Then tell me, how do you make money?"

“I drew a formation for Youyuanzhai, but it’s the simplest one. Once I draw one, I can earn one spirit stone.”

Mo Shan and Liu Rushing looked at each other, thinking that their son spent most of the time in the house before and after New Year's Eve, and didn't play much. He only came back after a while when he went out. It turned out that he was drawing formations to earn spiritual stones.

The two of them looked at the spirit stones in the bag again. One spirit stone corresponds to one formation. There are nearly fifty in the bag, which means at least fifty pairs must be drawn...

Liu Ruhua couldn't help but hug Mo Hua tighter.

Mo Shan hesitated to speak several times, but didn't know what to say. In the end, he just stretched out his hand and gently touched Mo Hua's head.

"This spirit stone is your hard-earned money. Keep it for yourself and keep it for practice or buy some delicious food. Dad will find a way to solve the problem of cultivating the Immortal Sect."

Mo Hua knew that his father was reluctant to use these spiritual stones. He rolled his eyes and said, "Then my parents will keep these spiritual stones for me first. I am a child who cannot use so many, and they are easy to be stolen."

Mo Shan and Liu Ruhua looked at each other in silence, unable to think of words to refuse.

In the end, Liu Ruhua said: "Okay, mom and dad will help you collect it first."

 “Yeah!” Mo Hua nodded fiercely.

“Okay, it’s getting late. You’re going to school tomorrow. You should go to bed early.”

 “Well, good night, dad and mom!”

Mo Hua stood up and was about to go back to the house. After thinking about it, he turned back and said, "Mom and dad, just use it if you need it. Don't save it for me."

Mo Shan and his wife couldn’t laugh or cry.

 Watching Mo Hua return to the house and close the door, Mo Shan sighed and said with a wry smile: "As a father, I am worse than a child."

Liu Ruhua consoled him: "Whatever you say, Hua'er knows how to be considerate of his parents, which is a good thing. We should be happy that he can earn spiritual stones by his own abilities. But..." Liu Ruhua lowered his head and looked at the person in front of him. Lingshi looked up at her husband again and said doubtfully: "If he is so young, can he really earn spiritual stones by drawing formations for others? He can still earn so much... I'm afraid someone might see him at such a young age and think..."

 “I’ll go take a look tomorrow.”

Mo Shan said, his eyes gradually becoming sharper.

On the second day, Mo Hua got up on time. After practicing for a while, he and his mother, Liu Ruhua, went to the outer gate of Tongxian Gate to pay for the training and register for school.

Mo Shan went out early. According to Liu Ruhua, Mo Shan was going into the inner mountain with several demon hunters today, so he had to go there early to prepare.

Arrived at the outer gate of Tongxian Gate, Liu Ruhua handed over to Shu Xiu and arranged for admission. He couldn't help but look at Mo Hua a few more times.

When you enter Tongxian Sect to practice, you won’t be able to see your son on weekdays unless the sect is on holiday during the holidays.

Liu Ruhua told Mo Hua a few more words to practice well, have a good relationship with his classmates, eat well, drink well, dress well, and not bully others, and then went back reluctantly.

Mo Hua stood outside the mountain gate and waved. He didn't turn around until Liu Ruhua's figure disappeared at the intersection.

He did not enter the sect, but first went to Youyuanzhai on North Street. He asked the fat steward to get the materials for twenty sets of open fire formations, and agreed to hand them over in half a month at the latest.

The sect has a ten-day break in the first, middle and last days of each month, with only one day off at a time. Mo Hua planned to sneak out during the ten-day break to make a deal with the fat steward.

Twenty sets of materials, but the fat steward still only accepted a deposit of ten spirit stones. Considering that the cooperation with Mo Hua...'s brother was very pleasant before, and the quality of the formations submitted was getting higher and higher, the fat steward was very satisfied, and seeing that It was because of the ink painting, so the deposit did not change.

After discussing with the fat steward, Mo Hua left Youyuanzhai with satisfaction.

After Mo Hua left, he didn't notice a burly man outside Youyuanzhai looking at him silently.

 After Mo Hua left, the man walked into the door of Youyuanzhai.

The doorbell rang. When the fat steward looked up, he saw a handsome man in simple clothes, with sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, looking at him critically, with a compelling edge in his eyes.

The fat steward could tell at a glance that this man was a demon hunter, a demon hunter who had actually seen blood! And his attitude is not very good. The way he looks at himself is like looking at a monster waiting to be slaughtered.

The fat steward thinks he is no worse than this man in terms of cultivation, but it is hard to say when it comes to fighting. After all, the demon hunter has been licking blood with the tip of his knife all year round, and he has to fight the monster with all his strength.

He has been sitting at the counter all year round. He hasn’t touched a sword in an unknown amount of time, and his fighting skills have long been rusty.

The fat steward weighed it, corrected his attitude, and asked carefully: "This fellow Taoist, I don't know what formation is needed?"

The burly man was Mo Shan. He spread out a piece of paper that was crumpled together. There were copied formations on the paper. There were several copying errors, so there were traces of smearing.

 “What formation is this?”

 The fat steward took a glance and said, "It's an open fire formation."

“You accept this kind of formation?”

The man's tone made the fat steward very uncomfortable. Normally, he wouldn't like to talk to him, but today he felt that he was a guest when he walked in, and he had to be polite and considerate to the guests.

“Of course I’ll collect it. This is a commonly used formation that is used by ordinary monks’ families, so it consumes a lot of money.”

Mo Shan said: "That kid who just went out just now also drew the formation for you?"

The fat manager said: "This kind of thing cannot be said to the outside world. Youyuanzhai wants to protect the privacy of customers. This is the principle of our business."

 Mo Shan's eyes instantly stared at him like a knife. The fat steward with a gleaming back thought for a moment and felt that the monks should not be too rigid and the principles could be followed flexibly.

 “It’s not that child, it’s his brother.”

Mo Shan frowned, "Brother?"

The fat steward said: "Yes, how old is this kid? What kind of formations can he draw? He just runs errands for his brother, and his brother draws all the formations."

 “He said this himself?”

“Of course,” replied the steward, “otherwise how could we do business with a child?”

 After the steward finished speaking, he stared at Mo Shan warily:

“As for this child’s name and where he lives, I can’t possibly tell you.”

Mo Shan rolled his eyes at the fat steward, "What is this child's name and where he lives? As a father, I don't know better than you, so why should you tell me?"

But knowing that Mo Hua was not being used by others, Mo Shan's attitude softened, he bowed his hands to the fat steward and said, "Sorry for disturbing you, I'll take my leave."

The fat steward felt relieved and nodded with a hint of arrogance on his face.

Mo Shan turned around and left. It wasn't until his back disappeared behind the door that the fat steward took a breath and muttered dissatisfiedly: "I won't buy anything either..."

 (End of this chapter)