Chapter 47
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Chapter 47: A Shortage of Three to Five Acres (Part 1)
"Giving someone a rose, the fragrance lingers in your hand."
Back when Wang Chen had just crossed over and was chewing on rice and pickles, he would never have been so generous.
Now that he had a bit of extra wealth, he was willing to spend a small price to do good for others.
Although doing good deeds does not earn one any Virtue,
Wang Chen felt that in a world filled with magical spirits and chaos, maintaining a bit of kindness could bring him some luck.
For instance, today he gained experience points for the Earth and Stone Technique, reaching the proficient level much faster than expected.
Can we really say it was all without luck?
"Keep your heart toward the light, do not fall into darkness!"
The next morning, Wang Chen set off for Yunshan City with a storage bag full of spiritual grains.
The ten days after the summer harvest were the days when farmers renting spirit fields paid their grain payment to the sect.
Wang Chen had contracted ten acres of spirit fields from the outer sect.
According to the outer sect’s rules, he needed to pay a total of four thousand five hundred catties of rice each year.
Since the summer harvest yields more than the winter harvest,
his grain payment for the first half of this year was two thousand five hundred catties.
Last night, Wang Chen weighed his harvest at home and found that he could keep about eight hundred catties of food.
Of course, if he ground all the spirit rice into white corn,
there wouldn’t be that much left.
However, compared to the same time last year, it was still slightly above average.
That was quite good!
The road to Yunshan City was bustling with people and carts, and the cart Wang Chen rode was packed tightly.
Many were headed to the city to pay their grain like him.
However, most of these spiritual plant farmers wore frowns and looked troubled.
Familiar neighbors spoke quietly among themselves.
They sighed deeply and repeatedly.
Recently, there had been a pest disaster.
Although the Golden Core true master intervened to resolve the issue,
many farming families experienced a significant drop in their spirit rice yield this year, with shortages of three to five acres everywhere.
The sect’s rent for the fields was already set quite high.
Now, it made it a bit challenging for everyone to meet their grain payments.
Let alone keep enough food for themselves!
Moreover, the headquarters took advantage of the intervention of experts and true masters to levy an additional sum of spirit stones.
These were the savings they had painstakingly scraped together from their past earnings.
Now, with the rice yield insufficient, they had to dig into their own spirit stones to make up the difference—how would they survive in the future?
As for delaying the rent for the fields, that was something no one dared to contemplate!
The journey was filled with the clatter of carts and the mournful sighs of the passengers.
Upon arriving at Yunshan City,
Wang Chen reached the Spirit Plant Hall to find many people already lined up for grain payment.
The Spirit Plant Hall, under the jurisdiction of the outer sect headquarters, managed all the spiritual plant farmers and the cultivation of fields and forests.
The area designated for paying rent was called the Gold Sprinkling Field, expansive enough to be compared to a small plaza.
The even ground had been thoroughly cleaned.
Large slabs of star-gold stone sparkled under the morning sun, gleaming with light.
In the center of the Gold Sprinkling Field stood a grain platform that was a zhang high.
At the center of the platform, a nine-foot-square Infinite Gold Scale was embedded.
Every spiritual plant farmer was familiar with this Infinite Gold Scale.
This spirit tool could accurately weigh up to one hundred thousand pounds of spiritual grains at once; the Yunyang Sect had crafted a total of four, placed in the inner mountain gate and the three cities of the outer sect.
The bottom of the Infinite Gold Scale was connected to a large grain storage bag.
This storage bag also had a backstory.
According to legend, the sect’s Grandmaster had passed by the South Hong Great Marsh a hundred years ago and slain a Sky-Swallowing Giant Toad, using its stomach pouch to forge four bags capable of holding a million pounds of grain.
These bags were assigned to the four Infinite Gold Scales for receiving and storing grain.
“Yisi Wei Hall, Liang Dacheng, twenty acres under cultivation, paying five thousand pounds of grain!”
Next to the grain platform, a table held a high stack of registration books.
A thin, sharp-featured steward, with a book in his left hand and a pen in his right, shouted loudly.
His voice sounded unpleasant, like a castrated rooster being choked.
When a middle-aged man’s name was called, he stepped onto the grain platform.
Under the watchful eyes of two Spirit Plant Hall disciples, he opened his storage bag and poured the freshly harvested spirit rice into the Infinite Gold Scale.
The golden grains quickly filled the spirit tool.
The Infinite Gold Scale could be controlled by cultivators to set capacity and record the relevant information of the grain payers,
providing it to the headquarters and the inner sect.
When the spirit grains filled the scale to the brim, it emitted a deep humming sound.
It was sufficient.
The middle-aged man instinctively covered the mouth of the storage bag, stopping the flow of rice.
The steward sitting next to the grain platform suddenly let out a cold snort.
The two Spirit Plant Hall disciples on the platform immediately cast icy glares at the middle-aged man.
One of them, with an expressionless face, said, “Not enough.”
How could it not be enough!
The middle-aged man’s heart ached as if it were bleeding, his fingers tightening into fists.
After a brief struggle, he reluctantly opened the storage bag.
He continued to pour the spiritual grains into the Infinite Gold Scale.
The rice began to pile up.
As time went on, the spiritual grains stacked higher and higher.
The middle-aged man’s face grew increasingly grim, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
Yet, he dared not stop.
The thin steward watched, his eyes filled with scorn.
As the pile of grains on the scale teetered on the brink of collapse, he twirled his mustache and casually remarked, “That’s enough.”
The middle-aged man felt a wave of relief, wiping the sweat from his brow as he hastily descended from the grain platform.
He looked as though he had just escaped the executioner’s block!
At that moment, a scar-faced cultivator standing to the left of the grain platform suddenly kicked the bottom of the Infinite Gold Scale with great force.
Bang!
His right leg was noticeably more muscular than his left.
The powerful kick sent a resonant buzz through the scale.
The grains at the top were immediately dislodged, tumbling down the grooves around the scale’s mouth.
They all funneled into the storage bag hanging below.
The grains inside the Infinite Gold Scale leveled off perfectly, not a single grain out of place!
The scar-faced cultivator licked his lips and gave the scale a firm slap.
Instantly, all the rice poured into the storage bag at the bottom, leaving not a single grain behind.
“Next!”
The thin steward flipped a page in the register, his sharp voice echoing through the Gold Sprinkling Field.
It was particularly grating!
Another spiritual plant farmer stepped onto the grain platform. Like the one before him, he had to pay the full amount and then some.
However, his submissive demeanor earned him a slight reduction in the extra rice he had to add.
The others watched in silence, their expressions numb.
Everyone knew this was unjust; the Spirit Plant Hall was skimming off the top.
But this had been the norm for years.
Who dared to resist?
Liang Dacheng had hesitated for just a moment and paid a heavy price!
He ended up short by dozens of catties.
In truth, Liang Dacheng was well aware of the rules.
He had simply been unlucky this year, suffering from a pest infestation that had already reduced his harvest, yet he still had to pay extra in spiritual grains.
How could he accept this willingly?
The line of grain payers moved forward in silence.
The rice they had cultivated with their sweat and toil was steadily devoured by the Infinite Gold Scale.
“Wei Hall B Ten, Wang Chen, ten acres under cultivation, paying two thousand five hundred catties!”
