As the sun dipped westward, a disheveled Li Rongzhou limped back to Peach Blossom Village with half a basket of firewood on his back.
A passing village elder couldn't help but ask, "What happened to you?"
"Just took a bad fall while chopping wood," Li Rongzhou replied with a bitter smile. "Lost most of my haul too. Won't be much help for household expenses now."
"Ah, why must you insist on sending your eldest to martial arts training and the second to school? Such a waste of silver," the elder nagged. Village gossip traveled fast, and Li Rongzhou's inquiries about martial instructors had become common knowledge, with most villagers watching for amusement.
Li Rongzhou merely smiled without agreement. As a former minor landowner, his vision extended further - he refused to let his children spend their lives tilling fields like peasants. Even he saw farming only as a temporary measure, nursing quiet ambitions for martial advancement.
Seeing the stubborn outsider remain unmoved, the elder shook his head and left. In his view, that spare money would be better spent siring more children to grow like weeds - more hands meant more crops. What use was education or martial arts when few ever succeeded? If they failed, wouldn't they still end up farming to fill their bellies? This Li fellow was truly squandering his family's future!
The Li household stood with doors tightly shut.
Li Rongzhou's limp had miraculously disappeared as he and Lady Qin spread their washed gold dust across an indigo cloth.
The glittering particles resembled a miniature golden beach, dazzlingly beautiful.
"We've struck riches!" The couple's hearts pounded wildly - even the family fortune they'd carried while fleeing famine hadn't stirred such exhilaration. That "fortune" represented two generations of accumulation, but this gold came from secret panning!
Pressed shoulder to shoulder, they admired their treasure like honey-thieving mice, giddy with delight.
After their excitement subsided, Li Rongzhou whispered, "There's more gold in that creek. But this batch needs refining before we can use it." Unfortunately, it wasn't a proper vein - just some exposed riverbed after an earthquake, limited in value. Refining would erase its origins.
Obtaining gold proved easier than covering tracks. With shallow roots in Peach Blossom Village, the Lis lacked connections to trustworthy smelters.
"Does my husband have a plan?" Lady Qin asked softly.
"I'll visit the black market in Flat Peach Town." Li Rongzhou had already considered this. During his White Crane Dojo days, his master had taken him there - less a den of thieves than a local tax-evasion scheme, nothing like the stories. Following protocols, concealing his face, and avoiding flashy wealth would minimize risks. Compared to certain lucrative "businesses," his modest "family heirloom" gold dust barely warranted notice.
"Today's affairs must never reach a third soul." Li Rongzhou fixed his wife with a grave look, met by her equally solemn nod. This ranked as the Li family's second greatest secret.
Their youngest son's extraordinary talents remained the foremost!
"But I already know~!"
Thanks to his spy mushrooms and Little Black's reports (rewarded with many raspberries), Li Pingcan had learned everything. While sympathetic toward his father's struggles, the boy pumped his chubby fists excitedly. He'd finally contributed to the family! His brothers' education would face no more financial hurdles.
"Still, gold panning is unstable income, not a proper long-term solution." If he could master Plant Growth to cultivate spirit herbs, wouldn't that prove more legitimate and sustainable than secret gold? Alas, his age limited both his "mana bar" and skill acquisition, preventing him from planting trees to gain Druid experience.
"Dad oh dad, you must plant more trees!"
"If father won't work hard, his son can only grieve!"
Days passed with Li Rongzhou leaving at dawn and returning at dusk, spending the farming off-season chopping wood in the mountains. Meanwhile, Li Pingcan trained Little Black while cycling through his skills in their courtyard.
"Cast Dance of the Wind."
"Cast Animal Speech."
"Cast Earth Pulse Sense."
His current mana pool allowed about twenty minor spells daily. With Earth Pulse Sense, he could vividly hear underground activities - sprouts breaking soil, earthworms tunneling, roots gathering strength - painting an extraordinary sonic landscape.
Dense footsteps drummed through Li Pingcan's perception. "Debt collectors are at Granny Wang's again!"
As if confirming his thought, Granny Wang's wails mixed with the collectors' crude threats and smashing blows. Ever since her youngest son's 200-tael gambling debt came to light, these thugs visited daily to terrorize the household.
The commotion made Lady Qin frown as she covered her youngest's ears. "Don't listen. Filthy talk."
Li Pingcan nodded obediently while deploying Spore Growth and Spore Sense to monitor the situation, calmly observing the drama. Granny Wang's home lay in ruins after the collectors left, followed by even fiercer family arguments.
The three daughters-in-law, unable to endure more, prepared to return to their birth families with the children. The four older brothers disowned their battered youngest sibling. The household teetered on collapse as Granny Wang slumped to the ground, eyes vacant, lips mumbling incomprehensibly.
When a spy mushroom leaned closer, Li Pingcan's cheeks puffed up angrily. "It's all that bitch Lady Qin cursing me! Otherwise why would bugs crawl on me? Why fall into the latrine? Why would my son lose at gambling?"
Even in disaster, her malice remained unchanged! Serves your family right!
Li Pingcan felt no sympathy. Without his father's divine intervention, debt collectors would have come eventually regardless. Yet the loan sharks' ruthless methods evoked uneasy empathy - that 200-tael debt had started as merely 20 taels!
"Though Granny Wang's family boasts five grown sons, they only bully within Peach Blossom Village."
"Common peasants facing gangs are like mantises trying to stop a chariot - utterly powerless."
As his second brother said - the weak suffer oppression everywhere! This realization stoked Li Pingcan's hunger for power into blazing intensity!
The Wang family's ruin became village gossip for weeks, gradually quieting after the headman mediated a settlement of 180 taels.
Having gathered sufficient gold dust, Li Rongzhou visited Flat Peach Town's black market, returning with five taels of pure gold. This windfall noticeably improved their living standards - daily eggs, ample rice, and occasional meat had Li Pingfu declaring it "heavenly living."
One day, Li Rongzhou prepared a feast to host martial instructor Zhou Enxian.
Li Pingcan studied this Blood Qi Realm martial artist with curiosity - broad-shouldered and muscular with piercing hawk-like eyes, his breathing rumbled like thunder when he moved.
He looked impressively powerful!