In the study.
Lin Yunyi asked, “Dad, why did you call me here again?”
Looking at his son's disrespectfully casual manner, Lin Yuanqiao replied helplessly, “The family wants to expand the chicken farm. We'd like to buy your secret method of raising spiritual chickens.”
Lin Yunyi said, “Sure.”
Lin Yuanqiao eyed him suspiciously. “You agree? Just like that?”
Lin Yunyi replied, “Of course. If we want to make the chicken business bigger and stronger, how can the few of us manage it alone? It's time the family stepped in. I want twenty percent of the profits from the chickens the family raises.”
Lin Yuanqiao agreed readily. “Done.”
He reflected that the ancestor had also suggested giving Little Third twenty to thirty percent. With five roots, even if Little Third possessed the Heavenly Yang Sacred Physique, the cultivation resources he needed would be substantial.
Still, the family had rules, and they couldn't show too much favoritism.
If Little Third received twenty percent of the chicken-farming profits, he should have little reason to worry about cultivation resources in the future.
Lin Yuanqiao had been worried that Little Third would make an excessive demand, but to his surprise, the boy had asked for only twenty percent.
Observing his father's expression, Lin Yunyi began to wonder whether he'd asked for too little.
But a great tree offered welcome shelter. He'd only been able to become such a successful chicken farmer thanks to the ancestor's protection, so he decided not to change his demand.
Lin Yuanqiao smiled. “The ancestor said that once the new farm is established, he'll give you great credit for it.”
If Lin Yunyi were an independent cultivator without family backing, he wouldn't be able to keep even one spiritual chicken safe, much less a hundred.
Although he'd been in charge of establishing the farm, the family had provided plenty of help too.
Raising chickens hadn't always been smooth sailing. There had been two outbreaks of chicken disease, and if the ancestor hadn't supplied medicine, his grand chicken-farming enterprise would have collapsed long ago.
Twenty percent of the profits was a reasonable share. The ancestor and his father surely understood the whole farming process by now. The fact that they had specifically asked him about it was probably an attempt to look after his interests.
The ancestor had been more than a hundred years old when he left the Beast-Taming Sect and came to Clear Creek Town to found the Lin family.
More than forty years had passed since then, and he was now nearly a hundred and fifty.
Foundation Establishment cultivators could live two hundred years. But the ancestor had been injured when he left the sect, so he probably wouldn't reach that age.
Within twenty years at the earliest, or thirty at the latest, the ancestor would probably be gone.
In the novel, he seemed to have died about ten years after Lin Yunyi married Jiang Tan'er, which would be a little over twenty years from now.
If he didn't marry Jiang Tan'er, perhaps the ancestor might even live a few years longer. After all, in the book, the ancestor had discovered that his judgment about the marriage was wrong and was so devastated that he coughed up blood.
There were only twenty-some years left. If the family couldn't produce another Foundation Establishment cultivator before then, they would be in danger. A family without one to protect it could easily fall apart.
At present, the person with the best chance of advancing was his father, who had already reached the seventh level of Qi Refining.
Judging from his rate of cultivation, he should reach the ninth level within the next ten years. That would leave him more than another decade to obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill.
Such a pill cost around a hundred thousand spirit stones. The family's main income currently came from its approximately 1.65 acres of spiritual fields. Thirty percent of the harvest went to the Beast-Taming Sect, fifty percent was kept for family use, and the remainder could be sold for roughly four thousand spirit stones a year. At that rate, saving a hundred thousand stones from the fields alone would take more than twenty years.
Of course, the ancestor was a Foundation Establishment cultivator and had accumulated some wealth before leaving the sect. If the family really needed to purchase a pill, he could probably contribute something.
But they couldn't depend on the ancestor for everything.
They needed to find more ways to earn money! If the chicken business took off, the family would be in a much more comfortable position.
After teaching the family's cultivators how to raise chickens, Lin Yunyi went into seclusion to break through to the second level of Qi Refining.
A month later, he successfully advanced.
His breakthrough caused quite a stir in the family. Even someone with dual roots who reached the second level of Qi Refining at six could be called a genius. Yet Lin Yunyi had five roots.
When Lin Yunxiao saw him emerge from seclusion, he exclaimed excitedly, “Third Brother, you're finally out!”
Lin Yunyi said, “Yes. After a whole month in seclusion, I've finally accomplished what I set out to do.”
Lin Yunxiao said enviously, “Third Brother, you've reached the second level of Qi Refining!”
Lin Yunyi looked at him. “You don't have to envy me. Your aptitude is better than mine. You only went down the wrong path because you listened to Dad's foolish advice. Fortunately, it's never too late to mend the fence once you've lost a sheep. Now that you've corrected your course, you'll soon catch up to me.”
Lin Yunxiao asked, “Really?”
Lin Yunyi nodded. “Of course. Why would I lie to you? Has anything interesting happened lately?”
Lin Yunxiao said gloomily, “Lots of older relatives have started getting involved in raising chickens. They've taken over our jobs.”
Lin Yunyi replied, “Having people to help with the work is a good thing. We can do something else instead.”
Lin Yunxiao asked, “Something else? Like what?”
Lin Yunyi thought for a moment. “Let's make some feathered shuttlecocks. We can make lots of them and give them to the children in the clan.”
Quite a few of the spiritual chickens had grown brightly colored feathers, and Lin Yunyi had already collected a supply.
Lin Yunxiao asked with interest, “Feathered shuttlecocks? What are those?”
Lin Yunyi gave him a sidelong glance, thinking that it was rather pitiful for Fourth Brother to have grown this old without even knowing what a shuttlecock was.
He gathered the chicken-farming team and had everyone make shuttlecocks together.
As soon as the feathered shuttlecocks were finished, they became a hit with the clan.
Before long, children could be seen kicking shuttlecocks all over the mountain.
The feathers came from spiritual chickens, so to many ordinary children they could be considered rare treasures.
Lin Yuanqiao watched the children playing across the mountainside with great satisfaction.
Lin Yunwen looked at him. “Are you happy, Father?”
Lin Yuanqiao nodded. “I am!”
Lin Yunwen said, “I heard Third Brother's shuttlecocks have brought quite a bit of business to our shop.”
They gave the ordinary-looking shuttlecocks to the clan's children, while the more attractive ones were sent to the family shop for sale.
They were inexpensive, but their spiritual-chicken feathers were brightly colored and eye-catching. They proved popular and sold rather well.
Business at the family shop had previously been unremarkable. But once the shop began giving shuttlecocks as little gifts to customers, sales unexpectedly picked up.
Lin Yuanqiao replied, “I'm not pleased because the shuttlecocks brought business to the shop. I'm pleased that your third brother is finally willing to make toys like this. At last, he's acting a little like a child.”
Lin Yunwen thought his father's satisfaction was rather misplaced. Although Third Brother had invented the feathered shuttlecocks, he regarded them as children's toys and couldn't be bothered to play with them himself.
Third Brother didn't like them, but Fourth Brother adored them. Of all the chicken-farming team members, he could kick them the highest and keep them in the air the longest.
Fourth Brother seemed to own more than twenty shuttlecocks himself, some in solid colors and some with mixed feathers. Every one was beautifully made.
Lin Yunxiao looked at Lin Yunyi. “Third Brother, aren't we making shuttlecocks today?”
Lin Yunyi replied lazily, “We've made so many that they wouldn't all be used up in three years. Let's stop for now.”
Lin Yunxiao disagreed. “They'll definitely be used up within three years. Maybe within three months! I've heard the shuttlecocks sent to our family shops are very popular.”
Lin Yunyi said, “They're just children's toys. Who'd have thought they'd sell so well?”
Once the older clan members became involved, chicken production expanded rapidly.
In only one year, the flock grew to more than a thousand birds.
The chickens laid more than twenty thousand eggs a month, generating around two thousand spirit stones in monthly revenue and over twenty thousand a year.
The family's spiritual fields earned no more than that each year.
However, once the flock exceeded a thousand, expansion slowed.
The Lin family's territory on Clear Creek Mountain was limited, and there was only so much suitable space for chickens. A little over a thousand birds was nearly the maximum, but even so, the clan elders were thoroughly satisfied.
