Li Xiang did have this idea, but it was obvious he couldn’t accomplish it on his own.
He jotted down all his ideas, including some of his cultivation experiences, in a dedicated notebook. It served as a memo, plus, who knew? Maybe he could write a book and establish his own theories later on.
Li Xiang spent his days at home doing farm work and keeping his grandmother company. As for his videos, he rarely filmed them himself anymore and hardly ever even appeared on camera.
The live-stream sales were left in the hands of Yao Yao, Zhao Xueqing, and Lei Xiaohui.
He now had three main, publicly known sources of income. The first was his Jade Processing Factory and jewelry business. The second was the several shops in the scenic area; thanks to the picturesque scenery and the five giant pandas—national treasures—drawing in the crowds, there was never a shortage of tourists and business as long as the weather was good. The third was live-stream sales, which mainly focused on tea, red wine, and local specialty products like dried bamboo shoots, various mushrooms (including Black Truffles), sweet potatoes, peanuts, and chestnuts, all purchased from the villagers of Eighteen Li Town.
He continued with this for two reasons: one, to revitalize the rural economy and help the villagers in the surrounding area improve their lives, and two, to provide a significant number of jobs.
If he were only looking out for himself, with the massive amount of supplies in his system’s warehouse, his family wouldn’t be able to get through it all in a lifetime. He could have truly just "lain flat" and relaxed. But now, there was no telling how many families were supported by the industries under his name.
Zhao Xueqing and Lei Xiaohui weren’t filming many videos or acting as hosts anymore, and neither was Yao Yao. All three had moved behind the scenes and were beginning to transition into management roles.
Besides, there was no shortage of attractive young women among the new hires. With a little touch of a beauty filter, they could easily attract plenty of fans.
Even if their looks were just average, you couldn’t beat their youth. They were all young women around twenty years old, and this year, some high school dropouts had even joined. Their youthful, collagen-filled faces alone were a feast for the eyes.
Li Xiang tidied up the backyard, clearing out all the weeds, washing the stone slabs clean, and trimming the flowers and plants. He shaped them a little, making the yard look more poetic and picturesque.
While he was cleaning up the backyard, Er Huang, the Little Fox, the kittens, and the big geese all gathered around him.
Well, they couldn’t be called goslings anymore. After all, they’d been growing for a year. The pair of Extraordinary geese, one male and one female, were magnificent and had already developed the ability to guard the house. They could even fly for several hundred meters, no worse than a large rooster.
’They’re probably just too fat,’ Li Xiang thought. ’If they were a bit thinner, they could probably fly even farther.’
As the smaller pets played around Li Xiang, Tuantuan and Huanhuan watched with envy from the back mountain. Unfortunately, as national treasures, they were "forced to be on duty." The foot of the mountain was swarming with tourists, all there to see them, making it impossible for them to come over and enjoy some quality time with Li Xiang.
Li Xiang could only wave to them from afar, signaling that he would visit them that night.
Yuanyuan’s belly was getting bigger and bigger, and there was no telling when she would give birth. Experts from the province had reminded Li Xiang and the people of Li Family Village to disturb her as little as possible and let her handle it on her own. They just needed to provide plenty of food and a sufficiently safe environment.
Li Xiang went over in the middle of the night, moving silently. He helped Yuanyuan by fashioning a cave den in a relatively secluded spot. He filled it with soft straw and placed lots of bamboo shoots nearby.
Of course, the cave itself was located on Bamboo Mountain, so there was an endless supply of fresh bamboo around it. Food would not be an issue.
Additionally, Li Xiang would also feed her some Spirit Fruits and stock the cave with ordinary fruits that wouldn’t spoil easily, like apples, which could be stored for a while.
Tuantuan seemed a bit carefree. He was about to become a father, yet he acted as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Still, one really couldn’t judge an animal by human standards.
The old tabby cat at home, along with several of the younger female cats he’d bought later, were all pregnant. He had no idea who the father was, and Li Xiang couldn’t be bothered to figure it out.
As long as he provided enough food and a shelter, he’d just let them breed on their own.
Regarding the spring on the back mountain, now that Li Xiang possessed the Earth Escape Superpower, he slipped into the stone cliff face one night and followed the water’s source. Several hundred meters deep underground, he found an underground river.
Near Li Family Village, the river channel narrowed, causing the underground water pressure to build. The water then forced its way up through fissures in the rock, forming what is known as a "rising spring," or an artesian spring.
Li Xiang returned to the surface and "reshaped" the cliff face where the spring emerged. He created an enclosed "buffer pool" there, leaving one opening where he perfectly fitted a bamboo pipe.
’This bamboo is quite durable. When it eventually wears out, I’ll replace it with a permanent stone pipe.’
After this modification, the water flow became much more abundant.
Li Xiang also optimized the water flowing from the Overlapping Waterfall, making it meander through more of the vegetable patches. This reduced the need for manual watering.
With his Earth Superpower, changing the "waterways" at will was incredibly simple.
Jiang Cai’Er was on break from school, but Li Xiang hadn’t run into her and was starting to miss her. So, taking advantage of a trip for a county meeting, he brought a cup of milk tea and a large bag of assorted "American-imported" snacks, coffee, and tea bags. He left them at the school’s security office, asking the guard to contact Jiang Cai’Er’s homeroom teacher and have her notified to pick it up after class.
The school had a closed-campus policy, so outsiders were generally not allowed in during school hours. Students also weren’t allowed to have their phones, so there was no way to contact her directly.
He could, of course, use his Earth Escape to sneak into the girls’ dormitory at night, but neither he nor Jiang Cai’Er would ever do something so inappropriate.
When Jiang Cai’Er received the milk tea and the large goodie bag of snacks, a faint smile touched her lips, and a warmth spread through her heart.
...
Li Xiang found some time to visit the Jadeite Rough Stone warehouse in Ruili and filled it up again. After sunrise, he called his Little Aunt to let her know and they chatted for a bit. She and her family were living very happily there.
As for the wedding, they had to wait until May. They planned to have one ceremony in Ruili and another back in their hometown, since it wasn’t feasible to have all of her husband’s relatives travel to Li Family Village.
This was a common practice for couples from different places. Only the closest and most important relatives would attend both ceremonies.
Since Ruili was so close to Myanmar and India, Li Xiang made a side trip to both countries to gather more resources.
The poor drug lords and various warlords of Myanmar had just managed to accumulate a new wave of wealth, only for Li Xiang to plunder it all again, including their hoards of newly mined rough stones.
The people in India, on the other hand, were much more cooperative. They now made "voluntary offerings," stockpiling vast quantities of supplies in various temples, awaiting the Divine Envoy’s arrival to collect them. This saved Li Xiang a great deal of effort.
Li Xiang would also occasionally "perform a miracle," using his Spirit Dew Rain to heal some of the women and children. He chose cases of external injuries or sores. The sores were a particular problem; due to limited medical care, poor sanitation, and an environment rife with bacteria and viruses, they often refused to heal. But a single application of the Spirit Dew Rain was an instant cure.
Alternatively, he would give children with colds and fevers a drink of "Divine Water"—which was simply purified water mixed with "American-imported" antibiotics—packaged in small, Indian-style porcelain bottles to make it look very high-end.
He didn’t need to treat too many people. He would just help out when he came across someone in need. The cures were often instantaneous, and so the number of his believers grew steadily.
He even made it onto the Indian television news because of this.
One Bollywood director even started planning to shoot an epic film based on these events. Li Xiang secretly looked into it and discovered that the actress chosen as the female lead was quite beautiful.
Li Xiang’s speed was now incredibly fast, with a top speed of Mach 12. Boosted by an Endurance Inscription, his Extreme Speed burst time had increased from seven or eight minutes to over twenty. A single sprint could cover nearly six thousand kilometers.
It was only a little over three thousand kilometers from his home to Japan, and about the same distance to the farthest reaches of India. Siberia was three to five thousand kilometers away, and Australia was just over five thousand. In other words, he could reach almost any part of Asia within twenty minutes.
The neighboring countries, in particular, were only a few minutes away. They were practically his personal backyard, a place he could visit whenever he pleased.
After plundering a few more rounds of resources from the neighboring countries, Li Xiang decided it was time for a trip to Europe to retrieve the many cultural relics that had been lost overseas.