Chapter 166: Assembling the Villagers_The Science of Cultivation [Xianxia]

Chapter 166: Assembling the Vigers

 Tong Jia, the guard of a humble vige, guided Li Lang’s group toward a decently sized house. From the outside, it looked like there was room for at least arge family to live in it. However, it paled inparison to the Zi estate where Li Lang had once lived.

 The Zi residence was within arge walled-off piece ofnd with several buildings on it. To Li Lang, it could be described as a mansion, while the one currently before them was a singlerge house.

 “This is the mayor’s ce. Please wait here while I go see if he is in condition to talk,” the guard cautiously chose his words.

 Li Lang didn’t hesitate and nodded, watching the town guard off while he surveyed all the other houses in the area. He was told the mayor was injured, so he didn’t mind the dy. Still, the guard was careful with his words lest he offended the powerful cultivators.

 There wasn’t much to look at while they waited, as the vige didn’t have much to offer. They couldn’t even spot any inns or stores, with there only being small houses strewn around here and there with no order to them.

 There may have been few things to see, but Li Lang’s group didn’t have to wait long before the door to the mayor’s house opened. The guard returned while supporting an old man out with him. There were also several faces peeking out from within the residence.

 “Thank you foring all this way just to find an old man like me,” the old man greeted with a bow. “I am Hui Pengfong, the representative of Mu Xia Vige.”

 “No need to be so polite,” Li Lang replied. “We’re the ones who have intruded into your vige without any notice.”

 His words caused the old man to be taken aback for a second as he lifted his head to get a better look at the people before him. He then brought his hand up and coughed into it a few times before it settled.

 “May I ask what purpose you have to visit our humble vige? Is there anything we can assist you with?”

 This time, it was Li Lang’s turn to pause as he gathered his words.

 “We’re mainly traveling through here, so you don’t have to mind us. Just maybe point us to an inn if you have one here. If not, somece where we can camp out would work as well. Oh, and your permission to interview any promising child who seeks to cultivate.”

 “Our vige is too remote to support an inn, but you can stay here if you would like. As for this interview…I presume you seek to recruit them?” the mayor asked with a pointed look.

 “Yes, that’s right.”

 “Then, if I may, can I ask which sect you hail from? Forgive me, but you three don’t seem to be from the Rigid Squall Sect.”

 The trio had discussed how they would conduct themselves once in righteous sect territory. It would be foolish to im to be from the demonic cultivator territory or impersonate members of other sects. Admitting to be independent cultivators gave them a flimsy background at best, which also wasn’t ideal. They quickly settled on trying to give away as little information as possible to let the other party draw their own conclusion. They would allude to others that they were traveling incognito from a certain sect.

 “You’re right. We’re not. In fact, I can’t say I’m from any particr sect. We’ve just been traveling, but our mentors instructed us to take on disciples if we happen toe across someone worth training. The act of teaching helps one learn, our mentor would say.”

 Li Lang’s words caused the mayor to frown as he put on a thoughtful look while Wei Ping and Long Yi nced around nervously at the scene.

 “Is something the matter?” Li Lang asked.

 “Hmm, I’m not sure how to politely convey this, so I’ll just preface this by telling you there are some rules set by the sect that oversees this area. One of those rules includes needing their permission to recruit anyone from this vige.”

 “Then…we can go speak to them, but can we see if there is anyone we actually n to take on first? There’s no point going through everything only for us not to recruit anyone.”

 “I’m not exactly well-informed regarding the details and interpretation of these rules. Though if I had to guess, it should be fine.”

 “Thank you, and we’ll take you up on your offer to stay here. We’ll be leaving tomorrow, so no need to prepare anything for us.”

 With the difficult conversation out of the way, the mayor visibly rxed as they continued to chat.

 Seeing their host scrambling to get rooms ready for them, Li Lang tactfully excused his group with the excuse of taking a look around. It wasn’t exactly an excuse, as he did intend to start searching for any prospective talents to recruit.

 They only had one day to finish up before they resumed their travels to the nearby city, where it was much more populous. They had to make each second count.

 Thankfully, there was arge gathering already around the mayor’s house. They had been here in curiosity, observing the visitors to their vige. Only those who were busy with work were absent.

 Seeing the perfect opportunity, Li Lang channeled some Qi into his vocal cords to project his voice to everyone present.

 “People of Mu Xia Vige! I thank your vige’s hospitality for allowing us to stay for the night.” Li Lang paused and saw the people in the crowd nod at him with a smile. “While we’re only passing by, we wanted to see if any of the children in this vige would like to train under us.”

 Immediately, the silence was broken as a rush of whispers sounded throughout the za. The kids were even shouting in excitement.

 “Awesome! Does this mean I have another chance to be recruited?”

 “Hey! What sect are you guys from?”

 As a high-level Energy Gatherer, it wasn’t hard for Li Lang to pick up the words through all the background noises.

 “Before we proceed, I wanted to rify that we’re not from Vermillion Dragon. If you would like to go with us, you’ll be taken to somewhere far away. Anyone between the ages of eight to twelve is weed.”

 This caused the adults’ gazes to be more skeptical while the kids became more excited instead.

 The adults questioned why there was such a wide age rangepared to usual, while the children were mesmerized by the possibility of exploring the world and finding treasures. That was especially so for the children who had previously failed at being recruited already.

 Li Lang didn’t care to borate.

 “So, if you’re still interested, pleasee with us to the clearing outside the vige. We’ll be doing our tests there!”

 Without missing a beat, Li Lang summoned his Skyrunner from within his space ring and the trio instantly hopped on, flying away. They nced down at the crowd that watched on in tion, all the way until they were out of sight.

 “Okay, so what’s the n?” Long Yi asked as he surveyed the grassy in.

 “I thought you didn’t want to be part of the recruiting process?”

 “Well, doesn’t mean I don’t want to learn about it.”

 Li Lang shared a look with Wei Ping before they both rolled their eyes.

 “Fine, keep it your little secret.”

 While the trio waited for people to arrive, they each spent their time catching up on their own things. Traveling in a Skyrunner was great and all, but it didn’t give them much room to work with. There were many techniques they couldn’t train while on the road, even discounting the very physical ones, like those needing total focus. The five crafts were in this category.

 Seeing how there wasn’t much time, Li Lang summoned his pill furnace and the relevant materials before getting to work. He had been working on a small project on the side within Ruby’sb to rx and refresh his mind.

 As a side project, the research goal wasn’t to produce the most efficient or viable way to do something. Instead, it focused on something a little more fun, taste.

 Throughout the years spent in the pocket realm, the trio had sampled more than enough Nourishment Pills. While they kept your stomach full, it didn’t change the fact they tasted disgusting, and Li Lang wanted to change that.

 He half thought of this project as a way to improve their conditions the next time they were in a simr situation and half as a viablemercial opportunity.

 All those cultivators retreating into closed-door cultivation can’t possibly be satisfied with the taste, right?

 Aiming to address this issue, Li Lang had spent his free time experimenting with the herbbinations while keeping the Nourishment Pill’s effects the same. He also wanted to deepen his understanding of alchemy while ying around, but he soon found it moreplicated than he had suspected.

 That led him to focus on the easier method. To allow the Nourishment Pill itself to remain the same while encapsting it within something tastier. While Li Lang would’ve preferred to use an enteric coating, it wasn’t something easy to produce without synthetics like polymers. This had turned his tests into somewhat of a cooking experiment.

 While he had eventually found something that was able to cover up the harsh and pungent taste, he was still experimenting with different vors.

 Still, he produced this first prototype version regrly to build up a stock of it. Even if he made improvementster, he could just market it as the basic vor.

 His pill refining inadvertently created a fume of smoke, spreading a sweet scent across the entire vige. It attracted the vigers to follow them to the outskirts of the settlement. It wasn’t long before they caught up, though there were visibly fewer of them.

 They watched on in awe at the blue mes from Li Lang’s furnace, the shy moves Long Yi and Wei Ping were practicing. They knew not to disturb them as they waited for these mysterious cultivators to turn their attention to them.

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Chapter 166: Assembling the Villagers