A Mortal’s Immortal Gourd
Chapter 9: Great Surge in Strength

When Ergouzi returned to Shekou Mountain, it was already getting late—it was dinner time again.

Maybe he just wasn’t meant to eat meat. Today, he finally spent money to buy a piece of pork, only to give it to Master Li the Half-Immortal.

Fortunately, he finally bought an iron pot today, so he didn’t have to eat fried unhulled rice anymore.

He poured some unhulled rice from the gourd, gently pounded it on a stone slab to loosen the husks, then blew away the chaff and tossed it into the pot with water to cook.

The rice had been stored in the gourd for over three days now—maybe it would undergo some kind of magical transformation, like water had.

When the rice was done cooking, Ergouzi suddenly remembered that he should’ve bought some bowls and chopsticks today.

But he wasn’t one to fuss over details. He used two twigs and a broken tile and called it a day.

As long as there was food to eat, the rest didn’t matter.

He stuffed a big mouthful of rice into his mouth. Though it still had some bran, it was much tastier than fried rice. Fragrant, soft, and springy.

He took out his treasured piece of bitter salt. Every three big bites of rice, he’d lightly lick the salt. The flavor was amazing.

That night, he cooked one sheng of unhulled rice and ate it all by himself, filling his belly until it was round.

After eating, he lay down on the haystack to rest, and felt a warm sensation in his belly.

Gradually, the warmth spread through his entire body. It felt like soaking in a hot bath—very comfortable.

He maintained that feeling and slept in the haystack all night. The next morning, he woke up full of energy, strong as a dragon and tiger, with endless strength in his body.

With such strength, it would be a waste not to dig and clear land. So he grabbed his hoe and hatchet and headed toward the wasteland.

This stone hollow had about three mu of land, but it wasn’t flat. There were lots of rocks, big and small, with brambles and wild trees growing between them.

To reclaim the land, he first had to cut down the wild trees and brambles. He had already cut part of them in the past few days.

The hardest part was leveling the ground. The wasteland was full of stones—some as large as a zhang, weighing several hundred jin; others the size of fists or eggs.

All these rocks had to be cleared. Even in the coming years, he’d need to keep picking out small stones while farming.

But since Ergouzi used gourd water for irrigation, and his crops adapted well, he wasn’t too picky—just removing the big stones was enough.

At that moment, he pushed a stone weighing over 300 jin and rolled it to the side.

The old stubborn mule had also cleared many stones before, and there was already a big pile accumulated.

Ergouzi planned to use the big stones cleared from reclaiming the land to build himself a stone house.

Maybe the unhulled rice stored in the gourd really was miraculous—he spent the entire morning moving stones and didn’t feel too tired.

The next few days confirmed his guess—eating the rice from the gourd really didn’t wear him out, and even boosted his strength.

Every day he felt full of energy, and his land-clearing speed increased dramatically.

As long as he moved the big stones, uprooted the wild trees, and planted the rice, then watered it—the next day rice seedlings would sprout.

As time passed, the area of rice fields expanded. After six or seven months, almost all three mu were planted.

In those six months, besides land clearing, he also used the big stones to build a stone house.

The house was two zhang long, one zhang wide, and one zhang high, with a thatched roof made of straw.

The gaps between the stones and the layers of straw were plastered with mud to keep out rain and cold.

Inside the house, he stacked stones to make a stone bed. He filled uneven spots with dirt and compacted them.

On top of the bed, he laid a thick layer of straw. It was extremely comfortable to lie on.

Against the wall in front of the bed, he stacked over a dozen sacks filled with unhulled rice.

Actually, besides those, he had stored even more rice in the gourd—at least 80 shi in total.

This was the result of half a year’s work.

As long as he kept watering the rice seedlings adequately, he could harvest once every half month.

Each mu yielded about four shi per harvest.

Right after harvesting, he watered the stubble and it sprouted again—saving on seeds and seeding time.

Now that all three mu were planted with rice, and he could harvest every half month—each batch yielding around 12 shi, and 24 shi per month.

Rice at its cheapest sold for 10 copper coins per sheng. One shi equals 100 sheng, meaning 1,000 copper coins.

When the price went up, it could reach 3,000 coins per shi.

1,000 copper coins equaled one guan, or one tael of silver.

Even at the lowest price, his monthly rice output could earn him 24 taels of silver.

Converted to silver, it was more than enough to show his sincerity to Master Li and become his apprentice in martial arts.

The only issue was transporting the rice to Sanchazi Town to sell—it would take some time.

That day, after breakfast, Ergouzi carried two large sacks of rice and headed down the mountain.

Before leaving, he piled up a bunch of thorny brambles to block the mountain path.

To prevent others from discovering the secret of using gourd water to grow crops, he had spent the past six months destroying the mountain path.

The path had become extremely difficult to walk—some sections were completely blocked.

Even for his own trips up and down the mountain, he had to use several long ropes.

Fortunately, his strength had increased a lot and he could handle the hassle.

He’d been thinking—once he saved enough money, he’d go talk to Huang Laocai to see if he could buy the land on Shekou Mountain.

If he could buy it, it would become his private land. He could rightfully fence off the mountain and keep outsiders away.

This time, carrying two large sacks of rice for twenty li, Ergouzi didn’t feel tired at all.

It was just that, in the scorching summer heat, he was still wearing those cotton pants. Even shirtless, he was sweating buckets.

He had no choice—this was his only set of clothes. Once he sold the rice, he planned to get a tailor to make a summer outfit.

Upon entering Sanchazi Town, he walked straight into the Zhou family’s grain shop.

It was the only shop in town capable of large-scale rice purchases and sales. People said it was owned by the wealthiest Zhou family in Sanchazi.

Their purchase price was just a bit lower than retail prices at the street market.

Since Ergouzi had a lot of rice to sell, efficiency mattered more—so he didn’t bother haggling over small differences.

As the autumn harvest approached, rice prices had started dropping. The buying price that day was only 1,600 copper coins per shi, or 16 per sheng.

His two large sacks totaled 12 dou and 6 sheng, earning him 2,016 copper coins.

With the money, he went to the tailor shop to get a summer outfit made to order.

He also bought some bowls and chopsticks, and a few other daily necessities.

For the next few days, he made daily trips to Sanchazi Town, each time selling a load of rice.

As autumn approached and the weather remained good, everyone had enough grain. The Zhou grain shop’s prices dropped further day by day.

After selling rice for over ten days, the price per shi was down to just 1,080 copper coins.

Ergouzi had saved enough money to become a disciple and didn’t want to sell cheap anymore.

After all, the gourd could store tons of rice without spoilage, so there was no rush to sell.