**Chapter 2**
For the past half month, endless golden rice fields had swayed under the breeze like waves of gold.
These days, every household in Dongxi Village had been busy with the harvest.
This morning, Xu Chuan performed his [Daily Vitality] ritual and divined the path ahead.
**[Today's hexagram: Moderate fortune. You will harvest rice today and run into Uncle Chen's family. From Uncle Chen's words, you may gain information about inner strength manuals and a master rice field.]**
Xu Chuan's face lit up with pleasure.
He'd been thinking about this for days, and now it was right in front of him.
*An inner strength manual?*
*Maybe I should consider practicing martial arts.*
But Xu Chuan hadn't yet decided which child to send down the martial path—because that choice would determine who inherited the second-generation talents.
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**The fields.**
"San'er, your family's rice is really something else. Every grain is full, and the heads are huge. Your ten acres yield as much as my fifteen or sixteen."
A dark-skinned man looked at Xu Chuan's rice fields, envy clear in his eyes.
This was Chen Erzheng, Uncle Chen's second son, one year younger than Xu Chuan. He'd admired Xu Chuan since they were kids.
Their rice fields lay right next to Xu Chuan's.
"Is there some secret? Teach me."
"What nonsense about secrets?" Uncle Chen walked over at that moment and scolded him. "He's just telling you—it's heavenly fortune."
[Heavenly Wage] — so Xu Chuan wasn't wrong.
Uncle Chen laughed. "Who doesn't know you're the best farmer in Dongxi Village? Otherwise, the Xu family wouldn't have tried so hard to keep you."
"You were wise to quit that long-term labor. Look at you now—your days keep getting better."
"Still, it's no different from your household, Uncle Chen."
Uncle Chen's family had two sons and two daughters, one hundred twenty acres of rice fields, twenty acres of dry farmland, and thirty acres of mountain forest. They were considered wealthy in Dongxi Village.
And his eldest son was quite ambitious—he had some martial talent. Already a third-rate warrior, he'd settled in Qingjiang County Town and married a wealthy merchant's youngest daughter.
"These days are busy for farming. Will Brother Daming come back?" Xu Chuan asked casually, testing the waters.
At the mention of his eldest son Chen Ming, a flicker of pride mixed with helplessness passed through Uncle Chen's eyes.
"He's a warrior now. He has his own affairs to attend to."
Family troubles weren't something Uncle Chen would air in front of outsiders.
"I really envy Brother Daming. When I have money in the future, I want to buy an inner strength manual too—let my sons practice martial arts. Uncle Chen, if you see Brother Daming, please remember to ask him for me."
"No problem. Small matter." Uncle Chen grinned and patted his chest. "This world isn't very stable anyway. It's good to learn some martial arts for protection."
With that, he sighed a little. "If you ask me, you've got the right idea. Those who don't practice any martial arts—they get robbed in the dead of night, whole families wiped out."
"Pathetic."
"But the path of the warrior is expensive. You need to be mentally prepared." His tone turned serious again.
Without talent, even money would only end up as emptiness.
"I've been saving, Uncle Chen."
"It's a shame about the Yu family. What happened with their fields?"
"All dead. Nothing left." Uncle Chen's eyes lit up, and a smile crept in. "The government will naturally reclaim the land. It should happen in the next couple of days. If you happen to run into the authorities, you'd better act fast."
"After all, your family's population is growing. Your boys are getting bigger. Even if your rice yields are higher than others', ten acres is still too little."
Being seen through didn't surprise Xu Chuan. He scratched his head, feigning embarrassment. "I can't hide anything from you, Uncle Chen. I was thinking the same thing."
"Now that our days are getting better and the family's growing, I've started thinking about adding more fields."
Whether for ordinary peasants or wealthy families, fields were the lifeline. No one sold rice fields unless they absolutely had to.
That land was their children's and grandchildren's security. Even if a family declined over generations, as long as the land remained, there was always a safety net.
Buying rice fields depended on luck.
Fortunately, Xu Chuan had never relied on luck alone. Now he'd finally found his chance.
As for the inner strength manual—that wasn't the most important thing. If the price was too high, he'd have to give it up for now and save it for later. He knew very well what his family needed most.
*Keep your mind like an old dog.*
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In the Dawei Dynasty, the martial path and the immortal path stood side by side, with separate systems for military officials and immortal officials.
However, because the immortal path required high qualifications—and most people had no talent for cultivation—once someone succeeded in immortal practice, their strength far surpassed any warrior's.
Thus, immortals held a clearly higher status in the Dawei Dynasty.
But no matter which path you took, you needed strength *and* connections.
Becoming a military official or an immortal officer in the Dawei Dynasty was like entering the civil service in Xu Chuan's previous life.
That was an iron rice bowl!
Every warrior and low-level cultivator longed for it.
If you did well, you could make your family flourish in just a decade or two.
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After chatting a while longer, the two men began harvesting.
Xu Chuan only had ten acres of rice fields. He'd been harvesting for over ten days, and there wasn't much left. Because he worked efficiently, half a day's effort finished the job.
After lunch, Xu Chuan went to the valley to dry the harvested rice—reducing moisture to prevent mold.
"Dad, where are you going?" the two little ones asked.
"Dad's going to spread the rice to dry."
"Dad, I'll help you." Xu Mingwei looked up at Xu Chuan, little hands clenched into fists, his face determined.
"Alright, Shitou will help Dad."
Xu Chuan ruffled his hair, his eyes full of affection.
What parent wouldn't be happy with such sensible children?
Just then, Xu Mingyuan also shouted in his milky voice, "Aiyuan will go too, Dad!"
"Go, both of you go!"
Many people were busy in the valley. When they saw Xu Chuan arriving with his two boys, they laughed and praised how capable his children were.
Xu Chuan smiled back and joined in the brief, parent-style mutual boasting session.
But after all, the two little ones were still children. Before long, they wandered off, lured by some new temptation, disappearing somewhere unknown.
Xu Mingwei was usually very sensible, so Xu Chuan wasn't too worried.
Still, when they came back covered in mud, Xu Chuan gave them a proper scolding.
Then he cleaned them up, tucked them into a wooden tub, and let Bai Jing scrub them down.
Xu Mingwei and Xu Mingyuan splashed around in the tub, sending water flying and soaking Bai Jing's clothes—staging an unintentional wet performance right in front of Xu Chuan.
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**Late at night.**
Stars dotted the sky. The evening breeze rode the moonlight, carrying a thread of coolness.
Xu Chuan quietly practiced the [Daily Vitality] technique again.
The purer it became, the more he appreciated it.
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**The next day.**
**[Today's hexagram: Auspicious. In a moment, the chief registrar of Qingjiang County will arrive in Dongxi Village. You have a high probability of buying fifty acres of rice fields.]**
"Fifty acres of rice fields?"
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