Ch191 – Living isn’t Easy

Lin Xuanzhi smiled slightly. “I intend to continue cultivating.”

Fourth Elder Bai cast a glance at him. “That’s too vague. Your performance today can be considered to be remarkable among the craftsmen circle. I don’t believe you have absolutely no ambition.”

Lin Xuanzhi replied, “I naturally have ambition, but it shouldn’t be in much conflict with the Bai family, so Elder Bai can rest assured of that.”

Lin Xuanzhi’s words surprised Fourth Elder Bai a bit.

This kid is actually this straightforward.

In that case, Fourth Elder Bai no longer tried concealing anything, otherwise it would make it seem that an old man like him was on the losing side.

“I apologise on behalf of my family’s younger ones for what happened today.” Fourth Elder Bai frowned, “They lack discipline and were too presumptuous. I’ll ask the young master rectify the family’s principles.”

Lin Xuanzhi raised an eyebrow slightly and said with some trepidation, “Fourth Elder Bai is too polite. Nothing happened today, so what’s there to apologise for?”

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Fourth Elder Bai thought that Lin Xuanzhi was a very interesting person.

He could definitely tell that the attack of the broken knife was deliberate, yet not only did he not intend to seek justice from the Bai family, but he also pretended as if nothing had happened.

Lin Zezhi stood to a side, thought about it for a moment, and understood. He couldn’t help but frown — as pupils of the elite Bai family, they actually carried out such a vicious assault in the dark. Weren’t they being too narrow-minded?

Fourth Elder Bai said rather meaningfully, “You really didn’t notice it?”

“What should I notice?”

Fourth Elder Bai decided that he might as well come clean. “During the crafting process today, you almost got attacked.

“So Fourth Elder Bai was talking about that.” A sudden realisation dawned upon Lin Xuanzhi. He nonchalantly continued, “I didn’t take it to heart. After all, many such uncontrollable incidents happen during the crafting process. No one can predict when it’ll happen.”

“You really don’t take it to heart at all?” Fourth Elder Bai raised an eyebrow as he asked.

“Well…not entirely so. Speaking of which, you could say it’s my fault. After all, I didn’t get harmed in the slightest, and the one who got hurt was one of the younger ones from the Bai family. I even intend to pay the Bai family a visit one day to offer my apologies and ask for the Bai family’s forgiveness and understanding.” Lin Xuanzhi sighed, looking quite reproachful. “I’m truly sorry, it was all my fault. How’s that young one’s injuries now?”

However, Lin Xuanzhi’s beautiful and memorable face, in addition to his sincere and ashamed expression and modest attitude, really made it difficult for others to determine if he was being ironic or if he was saying what he truly thought.

Fourth Elder Bai pondered over it. “Bai Honghu isn’t doing that well, but the Bai family has a lot of experience in dealing with the backlash from one’s soul force when an accident occurs during the crafting process. He should be able to recover after a period of rest and recuperation, so Craftsman Lin need not blame yourself. After all, this was an accident that no one could’ve predicted.”

Lin Xuanzhi breathed a sigh of relief. “Since Fourth Elder Bai said that, I feel much more at ease now.”

Why did the phrase ‘feel much more at ease’ sound a bit out of place?

Fourth Elder Bai decided to shelve this topic that made one uncomfortable for the time being.

Fourth Elder Bai changed to scolding him, “Today, Craftsman Lin was the most outstanding one of all. The others all turned into fireflies whose glow was overshadowed by the sun and moon in comparison to you — not a bit of their light could be seen ah.”

Lin Xuanzhi nodded. “Monopolizing the spotlight today was my goal today. Since I managed to catch Fourth Elder Bai’s notice, it looks like I did a pretty good job with that.”

Fourth Elder Bai was stunned. He didn’t expect Lin Xuanzhi to react that way.

This was a little damn unconventional!

Lin Zezhi also looked at Lin Xuanzhi in astonishment. With his IQ, could he not tell that Fourth Elder Bai was trying to berate him for being too ostentatious and arrogant?

And he was actually enjoying himself!

Yan Tianhen blinked at Lin Xuanzhi.

Lin Xuanzhi blinked back at Yan Tianhen.

Since Fourth Elder Bai guessed that Lin Xuanzhi probably didn’t understand what he meant, he decided to berate him some more a bit more straightforwardly.

However, before he could speak, he heard Lin Xuanzhi say, “I can actually understand the meaning behind Fourth Elder Bai’s words, and I’d also like to thank Fourth Elder Bai for your advice.”

Lin Xuanzhi smiled lightly, making light of it, “The Bai family is already the only elite craftsmen family that can dominate the Five Continents throughout the Five Continents’ mainlands, so they do not need the Hundred Families Gathering to add flowers to their brocade and increase their reputation, but I’m not the same. I’m but one person; I have never thought of fighting over anything with the Bai family. The cultivating path is a long and arduous one, and it gets even tougher the farther one travels, so there naturally needs to be more approaches. Besides, I also have a precious younger brother; the burden I bear is even heavier.”

Fourth Elder Bai didn’t understand what Lin Xuanzhi wanted to imply for a moment and looked at him, puzzled.

Lin Zezhi looked at Lin Xuanzhi’s precious younger brother.

Lin Xuanzhi’s precious younger brother sadly added, “Yeah. My Dage and I are truly too poor. Dage is such a low-profile person; he couldn’t help but act in such a high-profile manner in public to raise the selling price of the magic treasures he crafted.”

In fact, Yan Tianhen’s words were still not straightforward enough, but Fourth Elder Bai and Lin Zezhi had understood it clearly.

“You’re short of money, so you had to use this sort of method to increase your reputation and make a name for the items you craft?” Fourth Elder Bai thought it seemed a bit surreal and couldn’t help but make it even more direct, so as to confirm Lin Xuanzhi’s true thoughts.

Lin Xuanzhi couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. “It’s hard to say, it’s hard to say. It’s better for Fourth Elder Bai to forget about that ba.”

Fourth Elder Bai: “…”

Fourth Elder Bai’s mouth was about to cramp from twitching. After the four elders of the Bai family worried over all sorts of conspiracies to recruit a huge army after his high-profile actions to deal with the Bai family, the reason behind his high-profile actions was actually merely because he was short of money?

Fourth Elder Bai instantly felt incomparable worry for the survival of wild craftsmen in the Five Continents’ mainlands, such that a strong sense of responsibility for saving the wild craftsmen was borne. Fourth Elder Bai sighed, “Today, craftsmen whose families have no knowledge of crafting and are entering through the door of crafting for the first time do indeed find it difficult to survive.”

“Indeed.” Lin Xuanzhi nodded, feeling deeply empathetic. “After all, crafting burns a lot of money. One doesn’t know how many failures is necessary before they can successfully craft a magic tool, and it may not necessarily be sold for a good price. Without money, they would have no way of buying materials and forged stones; without materials and forged stones, they would have no way of improving their crafting skill through crafting magic treasures, so this turns into a vicious cycle.”

Fourth Elder Bai kept nodded, frowning with an expression like he was worried about the country and its people. “You’re right. However, such a situation has been prevalent since ancient times, so most craftsmen will be recruited by major families once they awaken their crafting soul fire. Big families can provide them with the materials they need, and after the craftsman grows up, they can return the favour.”

“That can be considered a good method of dealing with it.” Lin Xuanzhi nodded. “It’s just that, most craftsmen are proud and arrogant, so they are people who won’t bend for the sake of their principles. However, the assistance of large families is like solicitation that would bring them karma, and it would easily turn into shackles and karma for the craftsmen. That won’t be very beneficial for their development.”

Fourth Elder Bai was a craftsman as well, and he really didn’t like to owe people any favours, much less craft a magic treasure for someone he detested due to coercion or for the sake of the family’s interest. Therefore, Fourth Elder Bai felt like he just got poked in the heart.

“You’re absolutely right.” Fourth Elder Bai sighed. “Us craftsmen should craft magic treasures we like. Take me as an example — I only like to craft decorative auxiliary tools that beautify magic treasures. However, the offensive and defensive tools I craft far outnumber that of auxiliary tools and I feel so hateful every time I craft that I end up clenching my teeth through it.”

Since auxiliary tools weren’t very useful, they were mostly used for decorative purposes, such as hairpins, clothes and so on. Thus, there isn’t much of a market for them. As a craftsmen family, most of the Bai family’s guests came to them for offensive tools, followed by defensive tools. So, as one of the direct elders of the Bai family, Fourth Elder Bai naturally couldn’t escape his fate of crafting offensive and defensive tools.”

“Therefore, in my opinion, craftsmen should join hands and form an alliance that works as one to do our part for the freedom and feelings of us craftsmen.”

Lin Xuanzhi had just finished speaking when Fourth Elder Bai smacked the table harshly in excitement. “You’re absolutely right. I’ve always had that idea, it’s just that I’ve never done anything aside from talking about it. I didn’t expect someone as young as you to actually have this kind of pursuit; there’s no time like the present, why don’t we discuss the future of craftsmen right now?”

Lin Xuanzhi invited Fourth Elder Bai to take a seat.

This time, Fourth Elder Bai quickly plastered his butt to the chair and even poured a cup of tea for himself, clearly intending to continue their chat.

When Lin Xuanzhi saw this, he smiled and said to Yan Tianhen, “Ah Hen, go downstairs and ask them to deliver some food here.”

Yan Tianhen was staring agape and listening with relish at first. When he heard this, he nodded in a daze. “Oh, okay.”

Fourth Elder Bai waved his hand, saying to Lin Zezhi, who also hadn’t understood why things were developing in such a direction, “Go down as well. Get some wine from the neighbouring Heaven and Earth winery, I want to have a good chat with this little friend Lin.”

Lin Zezhi plunged into a chaos of “whoamIwhereamIwhatamIdoing”. He had not yet understood why the topic was already heading in the direction of “how to change the bitter status quo of craftsmen” with no chance of turning back.

Lin Zezhi obediently went out to buy wine.

Before he left, he heard Lin Xuanzhi say lightly, “First of all, we have to resolve the problem of survival for wild low-level craftsmen. I suggest that the major families and sects unite to establish a Craftsmen Alliance, specially dedicated to provide some convenient assistance for those craftsmen whose talents are wasted because of their lack of resources…”

Lin Zezhi almost tripped across the entrance. He quickly reached out to hold a wall for support, stabilizing himself and taking a deep breath to calm down.

Frankly speaking, he now felt like Lin Xuanzhi’s brainwashing capabilities were even more terrifying than his crafting talent — it could even be considered divine-level brainwashing!

From today on, he refuses to engage in any hostile act against Lin Xuanzhi!

By the time Fourth Elder Bai was sent away, it was already late at night.

Before Fourth Elder Bai, he kept looking back at Lin Xuanzhi, reluctant to part, as well as expressing his utmost respect and appreciation for him.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to chat to my heart’s content like this.” Fourth Elder Bai, whose face was flushed red from drinking a bellyful of wine, stood at the entrance to the inn and drunkenly patted Lin Xuanzhi’s shoulder. “Brother Xuanzhi, not bad, you’re really not bad!”

Lin Xuanzhi smiled slightly. “That’s also because Fourth Brother Bai is highly principled and cares deeply about the world. It is precisely because there’s an elder like you overseeing the Bai family that they can have such a stable and outstanding position today.”

Fourth Elder Bai had drunk a lot; he had a thoroughly red face and a pair of shimmering eyes. “You’re too polite, you’re too polite. It’s just normal ba, hahaha!”

Lin Xuanzhi, “…”

—

Editor’s Little Theatre:

Person A: I’m going to faceslap LXZ! I’m going to find him now and scold him until he calls me Grandfather!

Person B: He’s running rampant like this, he deserves to be put in his place!

–Confrontation Interlude–

Person A: LXZ is such a wonderful person, so full of concern for the world! The paradigm of a cultivator on the righteous path!

Person B: *happy sob* and when he looked me in the eyes and shook my hand… I’m never washing it! Not in a million years!

Person A: *besotted sigh* He looked me in the eyes and poured me a cup of wine… is this love?

LZ: ….

LXZ: *sips from his wine cup, looking like the warm breeze that warms a winter heart*