novelhk Chapter 26 Initial Development of Divine Sense, Demeanor in the Courtyard
Chapter 26 Initial Development of Divine Sense, Demeanor in the Courtyard
Lin Yan finished his brief cultivation and consolidation, and with a thought, he left the space. He took out the notebook filled with plans, crossed out the completed items such as "breakthrough to the fourth level of Qi Refining" and "planning space planting," and looked at the list that was gradually filling up, a sense of satisfaction rose in his heart.
Suddenly, he remembered something and summoned Xiao Qi again. The little guy was having a great time and was a bit confused when he was suddenly pulled out.
"Xiao Qi, how long will it take for those ingredients in the special supply area to reach the standard of long-term consumption without producing impurities?" Although eating fasting pills every day is convenient, it is really bland and unbearable for Lin Yan, who is used to eating three meals a day in his previous life. His mouth is almost tasteless.
Xiao Qi tilted her head and did some calculations before replying, "Brother, based on the flow of space and time, those livestock and crops will need at least ten more generations of selective breeding to stabilize their genes, which will take about ten years."
Lin Yanmo did the math: ten years in the spatial dimension is equivalent to only twenty-odd days in the outside world. "Forget it, I can wait!" He had the patience for the sake of satisfying his future cravings.
He planned to rest for two days to relax his mind before attempting to break through to the fifth level of Qi Refining. He had a vague premonition that breaking through to the fifth level would actually be easier than breaking through to the fourth. This was because the fourth level represented a leap from the early to the middle stages; the bottleneck had already been broken, and the foundation was extremely solid. As long as his meridians could withstand the onslaught of spiritual energy, breaking through again in a short time wouldn't be difficult. Once he reached the fifth level of Qi Refining, he could truly begin cultivating the many spells recorded in the *Qiankun Creation Technique*, studying alchemy and talisman-making, and simultaneously undergoing body tempering and deeper spiritual awareness training. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh; the leap in life level was indeed a step-by-step process, not as simple as it seemed.
Holding Xiao Qi, who had transformed back into a little puppy and was nuzzling against him, Lin Yan slowly went downstairs.
Sister-in-law Wang Cuihua was picking vegetables in the small dining room when she saw Lin Yan come down. Sensing the more refined aura emanating from him, she knew that her master's cultivation had improved again and he had emerged from seclusion. A perfectly measured look of concern appeared on her face: "Little Yan's awake? Are you hungry? Shall I heat up some porridge for you?"
Lin Yan waved his hand, looked at the bright sunshine outside the window, and asked, "Sister-in-law, has my brother gone to work?"
"Oh, they left early this morning," my cousin-in-law replied.
Lin Yan immediately sent a message to his cousin, who was "working diligently" at the food factory, through his spiritual imprint: "Find a chance to go up the mountain and cut down a good quality tree, make me a recliner, and put a small tea table next to it. Hurry up, I'm waiting to sunbathe in the yard."
After sending out the "orders," Lin Yan didn't plan to go out today. He carried Xiao Qi and slowly strolled out of the house. At this moment, his spiritual sense radius reached 60 meters, meaning that everything within a 120-meter diameter range was as clear as the lines on his palm.
He habitually channeled his inner energy to create a weak and pale expression, and walked unsteadily toward the central courtyard. Passing through the hanging flower gate, he arrived at the old locust tree in the courtyard. He pretended to be a little dizzy, stopped, and closed his eyes.
On the surface, he was resting, but in reality, he was fully unleashing his divine sense!
In an instant, a strange feeling welled up in his heart. The entire courtyard, the front yard, the middle yard, the back yard, the structure of all the houses, every plant and tree in the yard, and even the situation inside each household's house, could be clearly "seen" with just a thought! It was a near-omniscient and omnipotent "God's perspective" that captivated him.
Just then, Qin Huairu, who was washing clothes by the public tap, looked up and saw Lin Yan standing pale-faced under the old locust tree, his eyes closed and his body swaying slightly. She instinctively called out, her voice soft and gentle with a hint of barely perceptible calculation: "Xiao Yan? Why are you standing there? Are you feeling unwell again? Should I take you home to rest?"
Her shout startled several middle-aged women who were chatting under the old locust tree with their backs to her. They all turned around and, seeing Lin Yan's "frail" appearance, greeted her all at once: "Oh, it's Xiao Yan! Don't stand there, there are small stools here, come and sit down and rest for a while!"
Lin Yan was enjoying the wonderful feeling of probing with his divine sense when Qin Huairu interrupted him. He was slightly displeased, but his expression remained unchanged. He slowly opened his eyes and, following their words, replied weakly, "Thank you, Sister-in-law Jia, thank you, aunties. I'm fine. I've just been lying in the house for too long these past few days, and I feel weak all over. I wanted to come out and get some sun, walk around, and stretch my muscles. If I stay in bed any longer, I'll practically mold."
When Qin Huairu saw that he refused, her eyes flickered. Since she hadn't gained anything, she gave up and continued washing her clothes.
Lin Yan sat down on a small stool that the older women had given up for him. Now that he was tall and had long legs, he felt rather cramped sitting on such a low stool. With nowhere to put his long legs, he could only hunch his upper body, rest his head on his knees, and close his eyes again, pretending to rest.
In reality, his divine sense, like invisible tentacles, rapidly spread out once again.
The Jia family's house was quite tidy, showing that Qin Huairu was indeed diligent. Scanning the room with his divine sense, he quickly discovered three hiding places for the money. Under the kang mat was a thick wad of cash, about six hundred yuan; in the pocket of an old cotton-padded jacket in the wardrobe were one hundred and thirty-seven yuan; and a tin biscuit box was hidden in the lining under the rice jar in the kitchen, containing fifty yuan. Lin Yan knew without a doubt that those fifty yuan were Qin Huairu's hard-earned savings, a secret stash to protect herself from her mother-in-law and husband.
As soon as Lin Yan's divine sense probed into Sha Zhu's house, he was almost horrified by what he saw! For someone with a slight obsession with cleanliness like him, Sha Zhu's room was a disaster. The blankets were shiny with grease and covered with a thick layer of grime; the walls were stained black and yellow with soot and dust; there were even underwear and socks stuffed inside the blankets; and a pile of filthy clothes, their original color unrecognizable, lay at the foot of the bed… Lin Yan suppressed his discomfort and quickly moved his divine sense away. Xu Damao wasn't home; he was probably out showing movies in the countryside again. Lou Xiao'e, the capitalist's wife from the TV series, wasn't there either; she was probably at her parents' house.
The old man Yi Zhonghai's house was spotless and tidy. Scanning the kitchen with his divine sense, Lin Yan spotted a square tin biscuit box on top of the cabinet. Inside the box were nearly nine hundred yuan, several letters, and several remittance receipts signed by Yi Zhonghai. Lin Yan's eyes narrowed, and he immediately understood—this was probably the living expenses that Yi Zhonghai had intercepted from He Daqing and sent to Sha Zhu and He Yushui!
Thinking of this, Lin Yan felt an overwhelming surge of anger. If it weren't for the extraordinary opportunity inherited from his ancestor, he would be nothing more than a sickly, struggling youth in this era. Putting himself in his shoes, if he were like Sha Zhu, his father fleeing, struggling to survive with his younger sister, unaware that someone had secretly cut off their last lifeline, the feeling of being stabbed in the back by someone he trusted… if he had a slightly weaker constitution, he probably would have collapsed long ago. This was practically premeditated murder!
The deaf old woman lived in the main house in the backyard, which was said to have originally belonged to her. After liberation, seeking government protection, she voluntarily donated all the spare rooms in the yard, changing her status to a "five-guarantee household" and receiving government care. The furnishings inside weren't luxurious, but the materials and arrangement of the furniture exuded an old-fashioned refinement. Lin Yan carefully scanned the three rooms with his divine sense and quickly discovered a secret under a daybed beside the kang (heated brick bed). There was a hidden passage under the bed leading to a hollowed-out basement! In the basement were three rosewood display shelves, filled with exquisite porcelain, jade, and calligraphy. In the corner were six large chests, filled with neatly stacked large and small yellow croakers and silver dollars sealed in red paper. Lin Yan even saw an elegantly shaped bronze incense burner; although he didn't understand it, his intuition told him it was no ordinary piece (a dragon-eared incense burner, a type of Xuande incense burner, a rare heirloom). But Lin Yan's temperament was far from ordinary; this wealth didn't tempt him. He was more interested in finding something to prove the old woman's origins. Finally, his gaze settled on an inconspicuous little Buddhist shrine on the bedroom wall. A small section of the wall below the shrine had been hollowed out, concealed by a brick mechanism containing several yellowed photographs. The photos showed a spirited young man in military uniform, but the insignia on his cap was the Kuomintang's Blue Sky with a White Sun!
"Ah, case solved," Lin Yan thought to himself. This was probably the old woman's son (the age matched; if it were her husband, he would be too young), a former Nationalist army officer. It seemed this old woman's background was far from simple. A woman, managing such a vast fortune, surviving the late Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China, and then the People's Republic of China—several regime changes—and even living quite comfortably, her shrewdness and survival wisdom were truly remarkable. Lin Yan didn't feel any ill will towards her, since he hadn't yet discovered any intention for the old woman to harm anyone, so he put the matter aside for the time being.
His divine sense quickly swept over the backyard of his second uncle Liu Haizhong's house, and found nothing more than mundane family matters and Liu Haizhong's pitiful obsession with officialdom, nothing particularly special.
After getting a general idea of the situation in the courtyard, Lin Yan felt that it was about time. He pretended to have rested well, slowly opened his eyes, and stood up by leaning on the old locust tree. He smiled weakly at the chattering aunties and said, "Aunties, keep chatting. I've had enough sun exposure, so I'm going back inside to rest."
After saying that, he slowly and unsteadily walked towards his own house in the front yard. In his heart, he was thinking that when he got back, he would have to carefully look through the magic manuals left by his ancestors to see if there was any way to conceal himself without revealing his identity, and also to let that silly Zhu see Yi Zhonghai's true colors.
"Yi Zhonghai, Yi Zhonghai, since you're so vicious, don't blame me for making things difficult for you." Young Master Lin was very unhappy and decided to do something.