Thirty-one, feeling of home

  A small hill about two or three miles in circumference, without any tall trees, only some low shrubs, not at all eye-catching.

  At this moment, a giant beast was wreaking havoc on the hillside. It saw it flailing its two thick front paws up and down, and in an instant, it had stripped the entire hillside of shrubs, then spewed out a ball of fire to burn the stripped shrubs into ashes. Turning around, it ran proudly to the side of a white-clad beauty, lowered its head, and showed a flattering expression on its beastly face, with eyes full of fawning color. The hateful gaze from the young Taoist beside was directly ignored.

  This is Su Xin, Xun Daozi and Jidao Beast who came to the valley to plant pine nuts. On the way to the valley, for some reason, Jidao Beast suddenly realized that as long as it was by Su Xin's side, Xun Daozi couldn't do anything to it. Every time Xun Daozi showed malicious intentions towards Jidao Beast, Su Xin would protect it, and Xun Daozi could only glare at it. Realizing this, Jidao Beast made the decision to tightly hug Su Xin's thigh. As long as it pleased Su Xin well, it wouldn't be afraid of Xun Daozi, that scourge. Moreover, by pleasing Su Xin well, it could also obtain spiritual grass and fruits to eat, which was much better than secretly stealing them. From then on, Su Xin became Jidao Beast's patron and protector, and its orders were executed unconditionally. After diligently completing Su Xin's orders and trying its best to please him, it naturally didn't need to pay attention to Xun Daozi standing beside it. As long as it followed closely behind Su Xin, everything would be safe and worry-free!

  Xun Daozi didn't expect Jie Long Beast to be so cunning, finding Su Xin as a shield. Along the way, he had thought of taking it out, but it had been hidden for many years, and its aura was blocked by Su Xin's kindness. Now seeing Jie Long Beast with a beaten expression, although he hated it so much that his teeth itched, he really couldn't do anything to it in front of Su Xin.

  Su Xin patted the head of the Jilong beast, giving it a slight reward. The Jilong beast narrowed its eyes, looking pleased, and turned its head to glance at Xun Daozi with a self-satisfied expression.

  Xun Daozi suppressed his anger and turned his gaze to Su Xin, who was lightly raising her slender hands, pinching her fingers in a subtle gesture.

  Only to see the pure heart and two pure hands lifted in mid-air, constantly moving, just seeing a mysterious trajectory appearing out of thin air, and then disappearing into the void.

  With a pure heart and both hands moving faster and faster, mysterious and profound trajectories appeared out of thin air, only to quickly disappear.

  Before long, Su Xin's temples were slightly sweaty, and at this time, the spiritual energy in the air was rapidly gathering towards the hill from all directions. Gradually, a large cloud formed by spiritual energy took shape, growing bigger and thicker, enveloping the entire hill. Finally, the layer of spiritual energy could no longer withstand the pressure of the gathering energy, transforming into spiritual rain that poured down on the hill, soaking the entire area in spiritual energy.

  In just a short while, the spiritual rain stopped, the spiritual clouds dispersed, and the sky was once again clear and bright.

  Xun Daozi stared in amazement: Two years have passed, and this little girl has made great progress. She can now gather spirits to form rain! Who knows what other skills she's learned? If she catches up with me and surpasses me, it would be quite embarrassing for this older brother.

  She smoothed out her hair with a gentle touch, wiped away the sweat from her temples, and turned to see Xun Daozi looking troubled. She couldn't help but smile inwardly. Pouting slightly, she called out softly: "Brother!"

  Xun Daozi suddenly lifted his head and saw Su Xin looking at him with a smile that was not quite a smile. His old face turned red, and he quickly asked: "Su Xin, what's the matter?"

  Su Xin said: "Please, brother, take out the pine nuts!"

  Xun Daozi hastily took out the barbarian beast's E pearl and urged it on, pouring all the pine nuts from the pearl.

  Su Xin gave a few orders to the Ji Long beast, and it ran towards the hill with its feet, running to the top of the hill and digging holes on the ground with its front paws, one paw at a time, each hole five zhang away from the next. Xun Daozi was stunned by what he saw.

  After instructing the dragon beast, Su Xin faced the pine cones on the ground and made a gesture with her hands. The pine cones on the ground flew into the air one after another, tightly closed pine cones opened one by one, and the pine seeds inside fell down like rain.

  A pile of shiny and full pine nuts suddenly appeared on the ground.

  The last pine nut in the air fell from the air, and with a wave of her hand, the floating pine nuts disappeared instantly. Then she continued to wave her hand, and the pine nuts on the ground flew into the pit dug by the dragon beast, either two or three accurately falling into the pit.

  After digging a hole, the moles carefully covered up the pine nuts in the hole with the dug soil.

  After finishing all the tasks, Su Xin took out a handkerchief and threw it into the air. The remaining pile of pine nuts on the ground flew towards the handkerchief. Then, with a wave of her hand, the handkerchief wrapped around the pine nuts and returned to Su Xin's hand, transforming into a fist-sized package that she tucked into her sleeve.

  Xun Daozi stood by and watched Su Xin and Jie Long Shou busy themselves, feeling idle and a bit guilty for not being able to help. He felt a bit awkward standing there. Just then, he saw Su Xin demonstrate her skill in collecting pine seeds, and his heart was amazed: this girl really couldn't be underestimated. Earlier, she had shown off her ability to gather spiritual energy and turn it into rain, and now she was using this kind of technique, which was far more impressive than anything he could do. He wondered how she had practiced to achieve this level of skill, despite her realm not being higher than his. When Su Xin and Jie Long Shou finished their task, Xun Daozi asked, "Su Xin, what's next?"

  Su Xin said: "Let's go find a place to plant the tea tree first." Then he took the lead and walked forward, Shen Dao hurriedly followed up, walking side by side with Su Xin, while Jie Long beast trotted along behind them.

  Su Xin was very familiar with the mountain valley, and led Xun Daozi and Jie Long Beast to turn left and right, and soon came to a vast empty space. The spiritual energy here was so dense that it formed a faint mist, and the sunlight passing through this mist became colorful, which was fascinating.

  Su Xin stopped at the middle station and turned to Xun Daozi, saying: "Brother, would it be good to plant that spiritual tea here? In the future, we can cultivate this place into a tea garden."

  Xun Daozi nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice, "Good, good, good! Su Xin said so, and in this aspect, brother is not as good as you."

  Su Xin smiled and said: "Alright then, would you please bring that spiritual tea here?"

  Xun Daozi saw that he finally had something to do and hastily agreed: "Alright, I'll go get the tea trees right away." After finishing speaking, he quickly turned around and left.

  When Xun Daozi brought the tea tree back, he saw Jidragon beast digging a hole with great vigor. The speed was extremely fast, and in just one round of Xun Daozi's movement, Jidragon beast had already dug out a large pit over 50 feet square and more than 10 feet deep, but at this time, Jidragon beast did not stop and continued to dig furiously with its head buried.

  Next to Su Xin, quietly watching the busy Jilong beast, hearing Xun Daozi's footsteps, turned around and smiled at Xun Daozi. Suddenly, it was like the clouds and rain had just opened, and the beautiful day was shining everywhere, making people feel like they were bathing in the warm sunshine. A voice as smooth as pearls and jade sounded: "Brother is here!"

  Xun Daozi's heart skipped a beat every time he saw Su Xin's smile, and this time was no exception. He paused for a moment before hastily responding, "I'm here." He quickly retrieved the tea from the barbarian beast Ou Zhu.

  Su Xin spoke again: "We still need to ask Brother to go to the bamboo pavilion by the water pool and fetch some water!"

  Xun Daozi agreed and hurriedly went to fetch water.

  Dai Xuan waited for Daozi to fetch water and return. By the time he came back, Jie Long Shou had already dug a big pit, which was over 20 zhang deep and 50-60 zhang in diameter.

  Su Xin saw Xun Daozi return and said: "Please put the Ling tea into the pit, and help me straighten it up in mid-air."

  Xun Daozi followed Su Xin's instructions and carefully transplanted the tea tree into the large pit, supporting it upright in mid-air. Su Xin then climbed down into the pit and meticulously straightened out the tea tree's roots one by one. He also instructed Juelong Beast to fill in the soil carefully, and when about a third of the soil had been filled in, Su Xin told Xun Daozi to pour the water from the pond onto the soil. When it seemed like enough water had been poured, he let Juelong Beast continue filling in the soil, during which time he again straightened out the tangled roots.

  When the dragon beast filled the soil to a little more than two-thirds, Xun Daozi poured water once again according to Su Xin's request. After that, the dragon beast filled all the soil and compacted it with its massive paws.

  Su Xin again led the spiritual energy to rain and watered the tea tree branches and leaves, and picked some tender leaves. Only then did she return to the medicine field with Xun Daozi and Jie Longshou.

  In the medicine field, work is in harmony. Su Xin divides the medicine field into blocks, Jilong Beast opens trenches at the front, Xun Daozi plants the categorized spiritual grasses in the trenches opened by Jilong Beast, and Su Xin follows behind to guide the spiritual energy to transform into rain for irrigation.

  They were busy until late afternoon before they finished planting the spiritual grass. The two of them and the beast returned to the bamboo pavilion.

  After returning to the bamboo pavilion, Xun Daozi finally remembered to take off the package on his back and took out the thing wrapped inside, which was a bit black and messy, and some grayish-white like a cauldron or a furnace, and placed it on the tree stump tea table. He sat down in the bamboo recliner with a thud, stretched his waist, and fell onto the recliner, saying unconsciously: "It's great to be back home!"

  She glanced at Xun Daozi, smiled slightly, and went to get some spiritual grass for the Juelong beast. She then started a fire, roasted the tender tea leaves she had picked, and then boiled a pot of water. After that, she took out a handkerchief from her sleeve, poured out the pine nuts inside, and used a technique to extract the pine seeds, placing them in a jade plate. The crystal-clear pine seeds rolled around in the jade plate, bringing joy to all who saw it.

  Xun Daozi was gazing at Su Xin with a pleased expression, and his heart couldn't help but rise with a feeling called 'happiness'.

  After a while, Su Xin placed the pine nuts and several spiritual fruits on the tree trunk tea table, and also brought over the cut tea in front of Xun Daozi. She herself carried a cup and sat lightly opposite Xun Daozi.

  Xun Daozi sat up straight, picked up the cup and took a sip, swallowed it down, and suddenly felt a fragrance rising from his teeth and gums, refreshing his heart and spleen. The sense of happiness in his heart became even more intense.

  Xun Daozi put down the cup in his hand, looking at the bright eyes staring at his delicate face, and listening to the sound of the dragon beast chewing on the spiritual grass by the bamboo pavilion. In his heart, he felt: This is what home is!