Chapter 56: Benevolent Rice

For the next period of time, Li Youyi practiced only the move "Taiyi Opens the Sea" every day, looking for the heroic momentum that seemed to be able to split the sea with one sword when fighting Yao Zhengsheng

Master Guan said that this is called "Heavenly Dao Law Convergence."

Li Youyi practices hundreds of sword strikes every day.

Every strike is performed with his full effort, and he only stops when both his physical strength and magic power are exhausted to the limit. He tries again and again, gaining a little insight each time.

After thousands of strikes, although he still cannot achieve Heavenly Dao Law Convergence at will, in the last few days, he has finally managed to achieve one or two successful strikes each day.

"Just practicing like this is useless. You must fight, you must temper yourself, and you must engage in life-and-death clashes with experts. Otherwise, it will take you years of effort to succeed." These were Master Guan's exact words.

When Master Guan said this, his heart was filled with mixed emotions.

Because, when his own master said these same words years ago, the latter part was, "Otherwise, it will take you decades of effort to succeed." After all, who could believe that Li Youyi, having practiced for only half a month, could already actively capture the mysteries of the Realm of Law Convergence, even if the success rate was still very low.

In the morning and evening, at the transition between day and night, Li Youyi, Cai Yutong, and Qin Ke follow the Senior Lingwei to practice spiritual divine power and perceive spiritual light.

At the same time, every day or two, Li Youyi takes Zhao Zhizhuo to the inn to ask that senior expert for help in reshaping his spring eye.

Time flies; twenty-two days have passed since the attack on Dragon Street.

Zhao Zhizhuo, wearing a bamboo hat, walked out of the inn and, seeing Li Youyi waiting in the shade of a tree across the street, walked quickly across the street to him.

"How is it? Was the eighth spring successfully reshaped?" Li Youyi asked with a smile.

Zhao Zhizhuo pulled Li Youyi to walk along the river to a secluded spot before taking off his bamboo hat, revealing a face that was glowing with health and full of vitality, his eyes filled with irrepressible excitement.

He cupped his hands and bowed deeply.

Li Youyi said, "Don't do this! Since the eight springs are reshaped and you have returned to the peak of the Gushing Spring Realm, remember to pay me back for the spring liquid. It was ninety-three drops in total, ninety-three thousand silver coins; I'll waive the odd change, let's just make it ninety thousand."

"Spring liquid is spring liquid, but that senior was willing to help me reshape my spring eye because of Li Mou's face. This debt of rebirth is something I fear I can never repay in a lifetime."

After Zhao Zhizhuo stubbornly bowed, he said, "Don't waive the odd change, I'll round it up to one hundred thousand silver coins. I'll write an IOU!"

"One hundred thousand, that's what you said. I won't stand on ceremony with you!" Li Youyi said.

Zhao Zhizhuo was in an excellent mood and laughed, "Haha, please don't stand on ceremony. With my current cultivation, it shouldn't take me more than a few years to earn one hundred thousand silver coins."

After looking at each other and laughing.

Li Youyi asked Zhao Zhizhuo to wait here for a moment, claiming he needed to say goodbye to the senior, and briefly returned to the inn to put the stone coffin into the Evil Camel Bell before the two headed toward the city gate.

The excitement on Zhao Zhizhuo's face gradually faded, and he said seriously, "The one-month deadline is almost here. What does Li Mou think? Actually, entering the Academy is a very good path; almost all the experts of the Jiuli clan have practiced there for a period of time."

Half a month ago, the young clan leader Cang Li visited Li Youyi's residence to inform them not to worry about their safety within the month. At the same time, he invited him, Cai Yutong, and Zhao Meng to join the Cangli clan school or compete for a spot in the Jiuli Academy.

Li Youyi had already made up his mind: "Don't worry, I will personally go to the clan school in the next few days to pay my respects and thank Senior Jia Shou, and I will make a decision then. By the way, I heard that repairing the Qi Sea is far more difficult than reshaping the spring eye, and it seems that blood crystals are required."

Zhao Zhizhuo didn't even dare to think about returning to the Five Seas Realm; being able to possess the cultivation of eight springs was already satisfying enough, so his mindset was extremely relaxed as he talked freely: "The five seas of the Five Seas Realm refer to the five lung lobes in the human body. To open a Qi Sea, one must use magic power to repeatedly wash and refine a lung lobe, and after reaching the critical threshold, an inner world ocean is born."

"Back then, all five of my lung lobes were pierced, and all five inner world oceans withered and shrank. The blood crystals you mentioned can only repair the lung lobes; to support the inner world oceans again, one must either take a Five Seas Pill and hope for luck, or only legendary space artifacts can do it."

Li Youyi didn't know if the Evil Camel Bell counted as a space artifact, so he could only listen to Zhao Zhizhuo continue.

"Five Seas Pills are too hard to obtain now; even within the Cangli tribe, they are severely lacking, and each one is exchanged for a large number of coffins from other realms. In my situation, the chances are slim, and taking one would likely just be a waste."

"I am already content to have recovered to eight springs, so I won't make things difficult for the young clan leader and the elders."

"I can only be like this, but Li Mou, you are different. If you marry the Fourth Young Lady, you will surely have a boundless future. Old Zhao, with my eight-spring cultivation, should be qualified to guard the door and drive the carriage for you, right?"

Li Youyi smiled, "If I don't marry her, does that mean my future is dim?"

Zhao Zhizhuo was just joking and stopped mentioning it: "Should we go find Yao Zhengsheng, capture him, and take him to see the young clan leader or Jia Shou?"

Clearly, after recovering his eight springs, Zhao Zhizhuo's confidence had also recovered significantly.

Li Youyi put away his smile: "Yao Zhengsheng is just a knife. If we take him down, can we really topple Yang Yun? Don't forget the friendship between the Cangli tribe and the Yang clan. Yang Yun is a direct descendant of the Yang clan and an eight-spring hero; what are we in the Cangli tribe?"

Zhao Zhizhuo was silent for a long time before saying gloomily, "Yang Yun is coveting both the Fourth Young Lady and the artifact in Li Mou's hands, and he almost caused our deaths. Let me plan a little and try a secret assassination."

Li Youyi was startled; he hadn't expected Old Zhao to become so tough all of a sudden, and he quickly said, "Don't do anything reckless. The Yang clan is backed by the Sui Sect; not to mention those old guys, just provoking Yang Qingxi would be enough to cause us trouble."

It was already April, and the weather was gradually becoming hot.

The pedestrians on the street were dressed much more lightly.

The two walked out of the city gate, crossed a wooden bridge over a dozen zhang long, and walked home along the stone path by the moat.

The stone path was five zhang wide, and on the other side was a suburban area that stretched as far as the eye could see. The long stone steps under the eaves were filled with children wearing straw sandals and ragged clothes.

They were all about five or six years old, sallow and thin, as if they had walked a very long way, their feet worn out, and their faces covered in a thick layer of dust.

There were nearly a hundred of them, as if sitting there for a temporary rest.

Li Youyi walked along, observing these children. Under the eaves across the way, pairs of round eyes were also staring at him and Zhao Zhizhuo.

"Why are there so many children?" Li Youyi felt it was abnormal.

Zhao Zhizhuo was not surprised and said calmly, "Observe carefully, almost all of them are twins."

Li Youyi did indeed discover this; there were always two children who looked extremely similar, with only a very small number alone.

Why was the proportion of twins so high?

It was too strange!

Zhao Zhizhuo said, "They are Rice People, the rice of paddy rice."

"What do you mean?" Li Youyi was very puzzled.

Zhao Zhizhuo said, "Have you heard of Benevolent Rice?"

Li Youyi shook his head.

"Benevolent Rice is also known as Human Rice."

"'Benevolent' is both the 'benevolent' of benevolence and the 'kernel' of a fruit kernel."

"Benevolent Rice originally came from the depths of the Nether Realm of the Dead; it is the food of some mysterious existences in the world of the dead, and it was only later introduced to the Life Realm."

"A single ear of rice can grow several, or even a dozen fetuses, all in even numbers. Those growing on the left and right sides of the ear look extremely similar, like twins."

"I heard that in the provinces outside, various forces have long begun to plant Benevolent Rice on a large scale."

"First, to select talented individuals from among them to be trained as dead soldiers. Second, to achieve a labor explosion in a short time. Third... people are a kind of resource and commodity; buying and selling Rice People won't cause many disputes, and no one will back them up."

"I heard that some brutal rebel armies even use Rice People to feed their strange beast mounts."

"Here in Lizhou, several old clan leaders of the Jiuli tribe strongly opposed planting Benevolent Rice at the time, feeling it was inhumane. They also believed that as time passed, the proportion of Rice People would rise, causing uncontrollable turmoil."

"But as far as I know, there are still people in the clan secretly planting it in the Longshan Mountains."

While Li Youyi was amazed, his heart was very heavy; the existence of Rice People would surely trigger many human problems. Looking at the children sitting by the street again, he couldn't help but feel some sympathy and pity.

They had no parents.

Without even parents, who in the world would really care about them?

Not to mention caring whether they were happy or not, I fear no one even cares about their life or death.

"A-Yin, you must wear your shoes well, otherwise your feet will be worn out. Endure a little longer, we will be there soon..."

A woman dressed in white Buddhist lay clothes was squatting on the ground, tying straw rope shoelaces for a little Rice Person girl. Her voice was both pleasant and gentle, like a breeze in summer, making it impossible to forget once heard.

After tying them, she stood up.

Her figure was very tall.

The lay clothes were loose, and one could only see that her arms were long and her legs were long too.

On her right wrist was a string of red prayer beads, as red as if they had condensed from fresh blood. The white-clad lay practitioner noticed Li Youyi's gaze, turned her face, smiled and nodded at him, and whispered a Buddhist chant: "Amitabha!"

Li Youyi naturally heard this Buddhist chant clearly; he was stunned at first, and then a stormy sea surged in his heart.

This is not Earth!

Does this world also have Amitabha?

Amitabha, also known as the "Buddha of Infinite Light," is the leader of the Western Paradise in myths and legends.

Having finally met a proper Buddhist practitioner, Li Youyi was thinking about whether to go forward and ask for advice when the other party walked over first.

The white-clad lay practitioner was in her twenties, with sallow skin, an average appearance, and slightly high cheekbones.

After she respectfully bowed, she said in that pleasant and gentle tone: "The benefactor looks like he has a compassionate heart, with a soft light of pity for the world in his eyes. May this poor nun boldly ask for a bowl of vegetarian food?"

Although Li Youyi valued silver coins highly, a bowl of vegetarian food was worth nothing, so he returned the bow and said, "Forget about one bowl! Bring all the children; I feel they are starved."

(End of Chapter)