The air in the Lin family courtyard was thick enough to choke on. The villagers of Stone Creek stood in a semi-circle, their faces a mix of pale envy and superstitious dread. In an ancient dynasty, sudden wealth wasn't just suspicious—it was dangerous. It suggested tomb-robbing, black magic, or worse, hiding the spoils of a rebellion.
Zhao Fugui stepped forward, his face twisted in a sneer that didn't quite hide his greed. "Village Head, look at them! New hoes, a cart, white flour? Even the landlord's family doesn't eat white flour every day! And those chickens... listen to them!"
Inside the coop, the ten "Vitality Chicks" were no longer peeping. They were making the deep, throaty clucks of adolescent birds. In just three days, they had grown feathers as thick as winter coats, glowing with a healthy, oily sheen that caught the dying sunlight.
The Village Head, Old Man Li, leaned on his wooden staff. He was a man who had seen eighty harvests and five famines. He wasn't easily swayed by Fugui's hysterics, but the evidence was undeniable.
"Lin Yan," the Village Head said, his voice like grinding stones. "You were a boy who couldn't lift a water bucket last week. Now you bring back silver and grow birds in a blink. The law of Great Yan says that any 'strange occurrences' must be reported to the County Magistrate. Unless... you can explain."
Lin Yan stepped forward. He didn't look like a frail youth anymore. He stood tall, his eyes calm—the eyes of a man who had navigated corporate boardrooms and high-stakes negotiations.
"Village Head, there is no magic. Only 'Earth Wisdom,'" Lin Yan began, his voice clear and resonant. He pointed to the patch of dark, rich soil. "You all call this land 'Alkali Death.' You say nothing grows here. But have any of you ever asked why it is dead?"
The villagers blinked. To them, the land was just the land. It was either blessed by the heavens or cursed by the ancestors.
"The soil is like a person," Lin Yan continued, picking up a handful of the dark loam. "If you only take from it and never give back, it starves. It turns bitter. My 'vision' showed me how to feed the earth. The 'Snow Salt' I sold today? It wasn't stolen. I found a salt-crusted spring in the northern ravine and used a method of charcoal filtration to purify it. Is it a crime to be smart, Uncle Fugui?"
Zhao Fugui stammered, "Charcoal... filtration? Lies! You're using demonic fire!"
"It's science—I mean, it's craft," Lin Yan corrected himself smoothly. "And as for the chickens... they grow fast because they are eating the 'Medicine Insects' that live in this treated soil. Would you like to see?"
Lin Yan kicked over a small pile of mulch near the coop. Hundreds of fat, juicy earthworms and grubs—thriving because of the Soil Revitalizer—wriggled in the light. The chickens swarmed out, feasting with a ferocity that made the villagers gasp.
"I didn't find a tomb, Village Head," Lin Yan said, looking the old man in the eye. "I found a way to make our village the richest in the county. But if Fugui wants to call the Magistrate and have all our 'secrets' seized by the government, then nobody gets anything. Not even a bowl of porridge."
The atmosphere shifted instantly. The word rich acted like a spell. The villagers looked at the worms, then at the chickens, and finally at Zhao Fugui with mounting hostility. If Lin Yan had a secret to wealth, they wanted a piece of it.
"Fugui," Old Man Li snapped, "shut your mouth. Lin Yan is a son of Stone Creek. If he has found a way to heal the earth, it is a blessing for us all."
The Village Head turned back to Lin Yan, his eyes gleaming with a new kind of respect. "What is your price, boy?"
"I don't want your money," Lin Yan said, and he meant it. He needed labor and loyalty. "I want the 'Waste Land' at the foot of the North Slope. It's all rocks and weeds. No one owns it. Give my family the deed to those fifty acres, and I will show the village how to turn their own backyard dirt into 'Gold Soil.'"
The First "Ranch" Expansion
The crowd dispersed with hushed excitement, leaving a fuming Zhao Fugui to slink back into his own yard. The Lin family, however, was in a state of shock.
"Fifty acres?" Lin Da gasped, his hands trembling as he touched the new iron hoe. "Yan'er, that land is a desert! We can't even plow it!"
"We won't plow it, Brother," Lin Yan smiled, his mind already looking at the System Map. "We're going to fence it. We're going to grow grass."
"Grass?" Lin Er scratched his head. "We can't eat grass."
"No, but the goats can. And the cattle we're going to buy will," Lin Yan replied.
That night, the System chimed in his mind.
> [Quest Completed: The First Harvest (Partial)]
> Reward: 1x Modern Scythe Blueprint, 1x 'Pasture Seed' Starter Pack (Alfalfa & Timothy Grass).
> Livestock Evolution: 'Vitality' Chickens have reached 'Laying Stage'.
> Daily Output: 10 Eggs/Day. (Nutritional Value: 300% of standard eggs).
>
Inside the coop, the first ten eggs lay nestled in the straw. They weren't white or brown; they had a faint, golden hue.
The Cowboy Spirit
The next morning, Lin Yan began the "Great Composting." He didn't just stay in the yard. He took his brothers and the new cart to the North Slope.
"Listen up," Lin Yan told his brothers and the few curious villagers who had followed. "To make the earth rich, we need the 'Three Brown, One Green' rule."
He showed them how to layer dry pine needles (Browns) with the green weeds and the droppings from their new mountain goat (Greens). He sang as he worked—a rough, rhythmic song he remembered from a country radio station in his past life.
"Way out here, where the earth is dry and the sun is high..."
His brothers didn't know the words, but the beat was infectious. They found themselves moving in rhythm, the heavy labor feeling lighter than it ever had. It was the birth of the "Ranch Song"—the spirit of the cowboy blending into the ancient Chinese hills.
As they worked, Lin Yan looked at the scrawny mountain goat they had bought. He opened his System and used the 'Animal Health' scan.
> [Target: Mountain Doe]
> Status: Parasites Cleared (System Passive). Nutrients stabilizing.
> Special Trait: 'Ancient Hardy Gene.'
> Suggestion: Introduce 'Boer' breed characteristics for meat-to-weight ratio.
>
Lin Yan pulled a small vial of 'Genetic Essence' from his inventory—a reward from the Village Head's endorsement. He mixed it into the goat's water. Within hours, the goat's dull coat began to shine, and her limping leg straightened.
By the end of the week, the Lin family wasn't just surviving. They had ten golden eggs a day, a revitalized goat, a fifty-acre deed, and the first "Modern Compost" pits in the dynasty.
But as Lin Yan looked toward the high mountains, he saw the tracks of something large. Not a goat. Not a deer.
Wild cattle.
His heart hammered. The real game was about to begin.