The announcement about the freezing winter was made that night. People started to panic but the patrol officers were ready for any situation.
A series of measures were also announced making everyone, especially refugees, interested in volunteering. Instead of money or spiritual stones, workers would get a point system and awards. These points could be used to buy things others could not anymore within the city walls; fire pills, heating talismans, having an array cultivator setup one in your room or house … You could even buy winter clothing and food cheaper than the merchants.
Wealthy families would not care for those as they could buy them outside the city but the award achievement made them change their mind; those awards could be bought with points to reduce taxes of a business up to 75% for a year or to get a one on one meeting with the city lord. They could even use them to access the city lord's library or training ground for a day. There were even free day passes available at the cultivation Inn (rooms with cultivation arrays that had up to twenty times spiritual energy than the outside and cost a medium spiritual stone a day).
The points needed were astronomical but for those with high level cultivation, getting them was easy. To avoid people buying and selling points, each point was registered with the name of the worker and could only be used at the city stores and offices. The system was pretty well done, it was created long ago for this type of emergency so it was set up overnight.
By the next day, businessmen started selling fire plants seeds, thick fabrics for winter, firewood and coal to the city in exchange for points. Most were aiming for the tax reduction.
Refugees registered for work and many were sent to the field that the city opened outside to farm fire plants.
Officials went to each village to check their needs and would send some workers to help if necessary. Everyone needed wood, and food for winter. By the end of the first week of the announcement, everyone knew what had to be done. They had a list of recommended minimum goods to store to survive the winter per person - that was my idea - and the city had a long list of villagers to support and their needs on the pill and heating array side. Villagers were used to cold winters so they could take care of the food, usual heating and clothing by themselves so those goods were kept for city residents.
During that week, everyone was busy. Most lessons were halted temporarily in the afternoon to turn students into worker bees. Child labor was not a term that exists in this world especially not for an emergency like this one.
As students, we also had access to the system point. We could buy extra time at school past 12 years old - for those who lost some time due to this catastrophe - individual training with a teacher of your choice for a few hours, privileged access to popular pavilions and lessons and so on.
During the first lessons, I learned that I was good at arrays and alchemy. It took me a few hours to make the heating arrays level 1. I took the rest of the day to set it up with teacher Hong around the school fields. Too bad the introduction that he gave was not the fundamentals. We learned just enough to make heating arrays. I was drawing on the ground a graph then infused spiritual energy to it while mentally solving a simple equation problem to calculate the correct amount of energy to transfer.
I did not understand the link between the equation and the drawing yet - even if I had ideas - and I did not know how to make other types of arrays. I planned to use my points to have an array master teach me the basics or, at least, get books that could help me self study
The 2nd day was the alchemy lessons. I was not sure if it was because I was good at cooking on top of knowing how to use my spiritual energy but learning to make fire pills was even easier. Teacher Luo, an alchemy master hired by the city to teach students temporarily, told me that usually it was harder to make elemental pills that were not part of our roots. He even invited me to be his disciple when I grew up. I planned to reject it because I did not want to specialize in one field.
From now on, I could make fire pills and arrays. I just had to practice both to decrease the number of failures. There were 5 students with me who passed the alchemy test and only 3 of us were in the array. The 2 other array students were student Wong and student Ang. They told me that the list of exercises helped them understand the first level of the array. I felt happy I could help.
There were more than enough students who could use the ‘Plant Boost’ in the school field so the dean decided that I only needed to focus on alchemy and arrays for now.
The next day was a day off so I decided to go out shopping with Sui-er. I had lunch with him every day at school. We decided to go to his dad’s stores to explore. I was also planning to stock up for winter. I had about a week to get the news about my parents, afterwards I had to buy a house. I was planning to prepare for a big fight with uncle Huai and aunt Yan to get my independence but it had to be done for the next steps of my plans. As much as I felt safe with them, I could not use my space bracelet nor do a complete inventory with them around.
I went to Sui-er’s house first. “Wow Shin-ge, what a nice carriage!” It was an unmarked carriage borrowed from the city lord.
“Hi Sui-er, are you well rested?” He was part of the farmer team. His roots were metal and lightning so he had to do the manual work of tilting the earth and harvesting. It was a pretty hard physical work for pampered children
“Yep, I went this morning to harvest a bit but there were so many eager students that there was not much to do” Said Sui-er sadly. He wanted enough points to buy a gift for his father
“It is good that everyone is motivated. Everyone in my group was planning to go today to brew more pills but I need a break. I have to get personally ready for the winter” He could not ask the overworked aunt Yan and uncle Huai to take care of this for me. The Li trio also volunteered, with my approval, to help with the city preparations. They planned to use the points to buy cultivation materials as I could make the fire pills for them and we already bought enough fabric to make winter clothing.
The announcement about the freezing winter was made that night. People started to panic but the patrol officers were ready for any situation.
A series of measures were also announced making everyone, especially refugees, interested in volunteering. Instead of money or spiritual stones, workers would get a point system and awards. These points could be used to buy things others could not anymore within the city walls; fire pills, heating talismans, having an array cultivator setup one in your room or house … You could even buy winter clothing and food cheaper than the merchants.
Wealthy families would not care for those as they could buy them outside the city but the award achievement made them change their mind; those awards could be bought with points to reduce taxes of a business up to 75% for a year or to get a one on one meeting with the city lord. They could even use them to access the city lord's library or training ground for a day. There were even free day passes available at the cultivation Inn (rooms with cultivation arrays that had up to twenty times spiritual energy than the outside and cost a medium spiritual stone a day).
The points needed were astronomical but for those with high level cultivation, getting them was easy. To avoid people buying and selling points, each point was registered with the name of the worker and could only be used at the city stores and offices. The system was pretty well done, it was created long ago for this type of emergency so it was set up overnight.
By the next day, businessmen started selling fire plants seeds, thick fabrics for winter, firewood and coal to the city in exchange for points. Most were aiming for the tax reduction.
Refugees registered for work and many were sent to the field that the city opened outside to farm fire plants.
Officials went to each village to check their needs and would send some workers to help if necessary. Everyone needed wood, and food for winter. By the end of the first week of the announcement, everyone knew what had to be done. They had a list of recommended minimum goods to store to survive the winter per person - that was my idea - and the city had a long list of villagers to support and their needs on the pill and heating array side. Villagers were used to cold winters so they could take care of the food, usual heating and clothing by themselves so those goods were kept for city residents.
During that week, everyone was busy. Most lessons were halted temporarily in the afternoon to turn students into worker bees. Child labor was not a term that exists in this world especially not for an emergency like this one.
As students, we also had access to the system point. We could buy extra time at school past 12 years old - for those who lost some time due to this catastrophe - individual training with a teacher of your choice for a few hours, privileged access to popular pavilions and lessons and so on.
During the first lessons, I learned that I was good at arrays and alchemy. It took me a few hours to make the heating arrays level 1. I took the rest of the day to set it up with teacher Hong around the school fields. Too bad the introduction that he gave was not the fundamentals. We learned just enough to make heating arrays. I was drawing on the ground a graph then infused spiritual energy to it while mentally solving a simple equation problem to calculate the correct amount of energy to transfer.
I did not understand the link between the equation and the drawing yet - even if I had ideas - and I did not know how to make other types of arrays. I planned to use my points to have an array master teach me the basics or, at least, get books that could help me self study
The 2nd day was the alchemy lessons. I was not sure if it was because I was good at cooking on top of knowing how to use my spiritual energy but learning to make fire pills was even easier. Teacher Luo, an alchemy master hired by the city to teach students temporarily, told me that usually it was harder to make elemental pills that were not part of our roots. He even invited me to be his disciple when I grew up. I planned to reject it because I did not want to specialize in one field.
From now on, I could make fire pills and arrays. I just had to practice both to decrease the number of failures. There were 5 students with me who passed the alchemy test and only 3 of us were in the array. The 2 other array students were student Wong and student Ang. They told me that the list of exercises helped them understand the first level of the array. I felt happy I could help.
There were more than enough students who could use the ‘Plant Boost’ in the school field so the dean decided that I only needed to focus on alchemy and arrays for now.
The next day was a day off so I decided to go out shopping with Sui-er. I had lunch with him every day at school. We decided to go to his dad’s stores to explore. I was also planning to stock up for winter. I had about a week to get the news about my parents, afterwards I had to buy a house. I was planning to prepare for a big fight with uncle Huai and aunt Yan to get my independence but it had to be done for the next steps of my plans. As much as I felt safe with them, I could not use my space bracelet nor do a complete inventory with them around.
I went to Sui-er’s house first. “Wow Shin-ge, what a nice carriage!” It was an unmarked carriage borrowed from the city lord.
“Hi Sui-er, are you well rested?” He was part of the farmer team. His roots were metal and lightning so he had to do the manual work of tilting the earth and harvesting. It was a pretty hard physical work for pampered children
“Yep, I went this morning to harvest a bit but there were so many eager students that there was not much to do” Said Sui-er sadly. He wanted enough points to buy a gift for his father
“It is good that everyone is motivated. Everyone in my group was planning to go today to brew more pills but I need a break. I have to get personally ready for the winter” He could not ask the overworked aunt Yan and uncle Huai to take care of this for me. The Li trio also volunteered, with my approval, to help with the city preparations. They planned to use the points to buy cultivation materials as I could make the fire pills for them and we already bought enough fabric to make winter clothing.
