Chapter 44: Where’s Your Belt?

But now, he found himself actively running up the mountain.

There was no other way. With his vastly improved physique, his eyesight had also sharpened. Even in the dark of night, he could see everything around him with perfect clarity.

As soon as he reached the halfway point up the mountain, Lin Xiao spotted Xiao Luan near the grass hut, in the spiritual field, taking care of some important chicken business.

Lin Xiao and the little bird, which had its rear end sticking up in the air, locked eyes. The scene became awkwardly silent.

"Ahem," Lin Xiao cleared his throat, bringing his fist to his mouth.

Startled by Lin Xiao's cough, Xiao Luan's rear end trembled, and two indescribable objects dropped onto the ground.

Feeling a bit embarrassed but remembering his purpose, Lin Xiao decided to get straight to the point. "Xiao Luan, do you need money?"

"Money?" Xiao Luan tilted its head, then remembered that money was the thing Madam Sun had used to trade with others. The bird immediately shook its head vigorously. "Don't want it, don't want it! Cluck, cluck, cluck, I don't need that unlucky thing!"

Lin Xiao rubbed his nose. "Alright, then what do you want?"

Xiao Luan tilted its head again, and suddenly, its tiny beady eyes lit up. "Cluck, cluck, I want bugs! Tasty ones!"

Lin Xiao felt a headache coming on. Where was he supposed to find bugs for it in the middle of the night?

But he really wanted to complete that salary distribution task tonight!

Suddenly, Lin Xiao thought of something. He took out a spirit stone from his private stash and held it up in front of Xiao Luan. "How about this? Do you like it?"

As soon as Xiao Luan sensed the rich spiritual energy emanating from the stone, it took a deep breath and immediately started nodding its head so fast it seemed like a blur. "Want it, want it! I like it!"

Lin Xiao casually placed the spirit stone in Xiao Luan's beak. "Then it's yours!"

Xiao Luan was overjoyed, clutching the spirit stone and spinning around in circles. "Cluck, cluck, cluck! This stone will last me three months!"

Hearing that, Lin Xiao was surprised. "You're saying this one spirit stone will last you three months?"

Xiao Luan stopped its spinning and replied, "Yes, cluck, cluck, cluck! I'm only at the first level of spiritual awakening, so this stone will be enough for three months!"

Lin Xiao suddenly thought about the spirit stones his auto-cultivation function consumed daily. Wasn't that a bit wasteful?

But then he reconsidered. Although the auto-cultivation feature consumed more, the effects were excellent! In just a few days, he had already reached the fourth level of Qi Refinement! If he were cultivating on his own, he'd never progress this fast.

Plus, the feature saved him so much time and effort, allowing him to cultivate without worry.

With that thought, Lin Xiao felt better about it.

And now, he finally understood the true value of spirit stones. Xiao Luan was only at the first level of spiritual awakening, equivalent to the first level of Qi Refinement for humans, and one spirit stone could last it three months!

Looking at the solitary first-level spirit vein fragment in his private stash, Lin Xiao couldn't help but feel excited about the day when he would finally collect all the fragments.

Shaking off his daydreams, Lin Xiao looked down at Xiao Luan and said, "Xiao Luan, this spirit stone is your salary for being a member of our sect. Keep doing a good job fertilizing the fields and guarding the sect, and once you've used up this stone, I'll give you another one!"

Excited by the prospect, Xiao Luan flapped its wings and hopped around in circles, chirping happily. At that moment, Lin Xiao finally heard the long-awaited system notification in his mind.

[Ding—Task 'Distribute Wages to Sect Members' has been completed. Rewards have been distributed. Please check your inventory.]

With the task complete, Lin Xiao happily bid farewell to Xiao Luan and headed back down the mountain.

He raced home, slipped into his room, and immediately checked his rewards.

In his private stash, the number of spirit stones had increased from 84 to 104—20 additional spirit stones as a reward.

There were also two new items: a Sect Uniform Recipe (Beginner) and Spiritual Plant Growth-Accelerating Bone Meal x50.

Both items seemed incredibly useful to Lin Xiao.

The sect uniform recipe, labeled as "beginner," suggested that the uniform might be a type of magical artifact.

As for the bone meal, it was pretty self-explanatory: it would help accelerate the growth of spiritual plants.

Suppressing his urge to run back up the mountain, Lin Xiao decided to inspect the sect uniform recipe first.

The recipe was straightforward, listing only three ingredients:

10 units of Spirit Silk

5 Spirit Stones

1 pound of Cotton

The result would be 10 beginner-level sect uniforms.

(Note: When placing materials into the [Item Synthesizer], you will have 30 seconds to mentally design the uniform's appearance.)

With this recipe, Lin Xiao wouldn't have to fumble around with the synthesizer anymore. He could follow the recipe and get exactly what he wanted!

Lin Xiao was eager to try it out. But with the moon high in the sky, if he didn't go to bed soon, his father would wake him up the next morning with a headstand in a bucket of water.

Reluctantly, Lin Xiao put aside his desire to experiment and slipped into bed, surrendering to sleep.

However, much to his dismay, he was woken up before dawn by his father anyway.

"Where's your new belt?" his father demanded.

Still groggy, Lin Xiao squinted at the dark sky outside and mumbled, "Belt? Dad, let me sleep a bit more..."

Lin Dayou, completely ignoring his son's plea, shook him awake with more force. "I'm asking you! Where's that new belt I bought you last year?"

Finally snapping out of his groggy state, Lin Xiao gulped and tried to calm his father down. "Dad, don't worry, the belt's safe..."

"Safe where? I checked your laundry pile, and all I found was a piece of grass string!"

Trembling, Lin Xiao reached into his pocket and pulled out his storage bag, offering it to his father. "The belt's in here..."

Seeing the small, tattered bag that Lin Xiao had used to hold money in town yesterday, Lin Dayou didn't know whether to laugh or get angry.

No wonder the bag had looked so familiar—Lin Xiao had made it from his belt!

A good belt wasn't cheap; even a lower-quality one cost at least a dozen coins. After buying oil and salt, there wasn't much money left, so getting a new belt would mean dipping into their savings.

Remembering the money Lin Xiao had earned yesterday, Lin Dayou snorted, dropped Lin Xiao back onto the bed, and said gruffly, "There's no money in the house to buy you a new belt. You can either keep using that grass string or buy one yourself!"

With that, he picked up the laundry basin and went back to washing clothes in the courtyard.

Lin Xiao... Lin Xiao just rolled over in bed and fell asleep again.