Building a Martial Dao Celestial Family by Laying Low

Bai San closed the door behind him and said urgently, "Master, you asked me to go to Jiangkou County to gather some information. This time, I discovered a massive secret."

"Slow down," Chen Li said, his voice calm.

After all the Spirit Realm experts of the Jiang Family died at the Drunken Creek Pavilion, Bai San and Linglong never went back. Instead, they took up temporary residence with the Chen Family.

However, Bai San, the Thief King, was naturally restless, so Chen Li sent him to Jiangkou County to gather news.

If the number of Celestial Sword Sect members stationed there had decreased, Chen Li planned to take Gossip and retrieve the five thousand taels of gold.

Bai San swallowed, but his words still came out in a rush. "Master, the Hidden Emperor Castle... it... it’s reopened!"

"Hidden Emperor Castle?"

Chen Li’s gaze sharpened. "So that Black Market didn’t just collapse and scatter to the winds?"

"It did collapse, but now it’s back on its feet!"

Bai San slapped his thigh, his face full of indignation. "It has a new owner now. The master behind it is the Celestial Sword Sect. The place is crawling with swordsmen, three layers deep inside and out. The entire Black Market’s rules have changed. I heard the stall fees for the shops have gone up by more than fifty percent. And the prices for goods in the Black Market... they’ve all fucking doubled!"

The more he spoke, the angrier he got, and he couldn’t help but start cursing. "Son of a bitch. I was lying low there for days, trying every trick in the book to get information. The more I thought about it, the more fucked up it seemed, and now I finally get it. This whole thing was a play directed and performed by the Celestial Sword Sect. They’re the ones who set a trap for the Hidden Emperor Castle. The goal couldn’t be clearer.

"They just wanted a high-sounding excuse to swallow up a juicy prize like the Hidden Emperor Castle and get their hands on the Jiangkou Black Market. The Celestial Sword Sect, and they call themselves a righteous and prestigious sect! These methods... they’re fucking black-hearted and rotten to the core!"

"As for the matter of the Snow Fairy being captured..."

Bai San spat, his face full of contempt. "Hmph, I bet it was a self-inflicted injury ploy, just for show. They probably cut themselves to make it look real. All to have a justifiable reason, a legitimate excuse to annex it."

The atmosphere in the study suddenly froze.

Chen Shouheng sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes filled with disbelief.

’If that’s really true, then aren’t these so-called righteous sects just too rotten?’

He hadn’t gone on the trip to Jiangkou.

But he had heard some news from his younger brother, Shouye, and had even laughed at the Hidden Emperor Castle for letting lust cloud their judgment, losing their entire enterprise over a woman.

He never would have imagined that the Celestial Sword Sect was hiding such a deep scheme behind it all.

As for the Celestial Sword Sect’s schemes, Chen Li wasn’t too surprised.

He had never overestimated the conscience of this world.

Their mouths are full of chivalry, but their hearts are full of business.

This was perfectly normal.

He was concerned about two things: one, whether he could still retrieve the five thousand taels of gold, and two, whether he could continue to purchase the medicinal ingredients needed for his Cultivation.

It seemed he wouldn’t be able to go for the gold for the time being. After all, according to Gossip, the money was hidden not far from the Hidden Emperor Castle.

The Celestial Sword Sect had many disciples. Rushing to retrieve the gold would be too risky.

However, he could now proceed with purchasing the ingredients needed for the Sweet Wind Jade Dew Heaven-Repairing Creation Pill.

This, on the other hand, was good news.

...

「Year’s end.」

There was nothing pressing to do at home.

The mulberry trees planted in the fifth month were already sprouting tender leaves on the slightly more fertile ridges of the fields.

The sericulture room had long been swept and cleaned, ready to welcome the spring silkworms of the new year.

The first order of business was disinfection.

Chen Li’s requirements were extremely strict. The four earthen walls were first meticulously whitewashed with freshly mixed limewash.

After being swept, the floor was also evenly sprinkled with a thin layer of lime.

The bamboo trays and wooden frames for the silkworms were all moved to the Lingxi stream and repeatedly scrubbed with stiff brushes dipped in its clear water.

Finally, an earthenware basin was placed in the center of the sericulture room. Sulfur was burned inside, and the room was sealed for a full day of fumigation to ensure any hidden germs or insect eggs were completely exterminated.

Only after all this was the sericulture room considered ready.

The silkworm eggs, a high-quality batch from the Zhou Family, were placed on the disinfected trays, kept slightly moist, and stored in a warm, dark place to hasten their hatching.

Once the eggs turned bluish-green, they required even more careful attention.

At the first light of dawn, black larvae as tiny as ants, known as "ant-silkworms," broke through their eggshells and wriggled out.

Using a soft goose feather, the ant-silkworms were gently swept onto trays lined with fresh, tender mulberry leaves. The leaves chosen were the tenderest buds, picked at dawn while still covered in dew.

From then on, it was a daily routine of meticulous feeding and care.

The little silkworms grew extremely fast, their appetites increasing by the day. They needed to be fed fresh mulberry leaves at regular intervals, with the leaves being cut into gradually wider strips as the silkworms grew larger.

Raising silkworms was a job that required patience and meticulous care.

The men of the house, however, lacked the patience for such work.

Previously, the day laborers and helpers from the Chen Family clan who worked for Chen Li’s family were all men who did heavy lifting.

But after the Mulberry Seedlings were planted, it was the women of the families who came to Chen Li’s home to work more often.

Shoujing was already two years old and didn’t need constant attention.

So his wife, Song Ying, had more free time.

Chen Li entrusted the entire task of raising the silkworms to his wife, Song Ying. Their daughter, Shouyue, also frequently went to the sericulture room to help her mother.

Chen Li himself, meanwhile, devoted more of his time to Cultivation.

The Cultivation for the Void Transformation stage was extremely damaging to his meridians every time.

Chen Li tried practicing without taking the Sweet Wind Jade Dew Heaven-Repairing Creation Pill. That one time, it took him a full seventeen days to barely dispel most of the Fire Poison from his meridians.

To eradicate it completely, Chen Li estimated it would take at least three months.

If he were to rely solely on his own Cultivation without the aid of an Elixir, it would probably take him fifty years to break through.

Calculating this, Chen Li felt even more keenly how precious the medicines rewarded by the system were.

...

「New Year’s Eve.」

The Chen Family Mansion was even livelier this year than in previous years.

Brand new vermilion peachwood talismans were pasted on the lintel, and large red lanterns hung under the eaves of the corridor.

This year, there were three familiar faces at the table, yet they brought a completely new energy.

Besides the second son Chen Shouye’s new wife, Li Jinru, Linglong and Bai San had also surprisingly stayed behind instead of going their separate ways.

Li Jinru was dressed in a festive scarlet dress, her expression a mixture of a new bride’s shyness and a sincere effort to fit into the family.

From time to time, she would place food on the plate of her sister-in-law, Chen Shouyue, who sat beside her. Shouyue would accept her sister-in-law’s kindness with a grin, and the family enjoyed a harmonious atmosphere.

The normally worldly Linglong found herself somewhat at a loss in the face of such familial warmth.

She sat quietly in a seat slightly further back, her gaze a little dazed as she watched the scene before her.

Bai San, in contrast, was much more animated, frequently boasting to Chen Shouheng and Chen Shouye about his past exploits as the Thief King.

As the drinks flowed and the meal progressed...

Gazing at the warmth that filled the room, Linglong’s heart was suddenly flooded with a strange, unfamiliar feeling.

She subconsciously touched the White Silk at her waist, then glanced at the figures of Shouye and Jinru leaning on each other under the lamplight. A thought popped into her head without any warning.

’Maybe... finding someone to marry and living a life like this... wouldn’t be so bad?’

The thought came so suddenly that it startled even her. She quickly lowered her lashes, hiding the flicker of emotion in her eyes.

On the other side, Bai San gulped down a mouthful of warm wine, smacking his lips. ’When can I save up enough to build a huge family fortune, marry eight or ten wives, have a bunch of chubby sons, and live the comfortable life of a landlord?’ he pondered. ’That would be the life.’

But then... he scratched his head, remembering how not long ago he had snuck over to Chen Yongxiao’s home to look for the gold and silver he had buried there, only to find it empty. The thought alone made him grit his teeth.

’Which bastard, who deserves to be sliced into a thousand pieces, dared to steal my silver?’

’Dammit! I’m the one who steals from others! Since when do others get to steal from me?’

’Hmph! They’d better hope I never find them!’

...