Uncle Nine: Raising Spirit Pets in Republican-Era China and Funding My Maoshan Arts

Jiang Li transmigrates into a parallel world set in the Republican era, where his family is dirt poor. After five years of effort, he finally becomes a disciple of Master Jiu. Practicing the Zhengyi sect's arts burns through money like water: pills, talisman paper, ritual altars, spirit pets, everything requires piles of silver dollars. Master Jiu is so poor that his disciples have to practice drawing talismans in a sandbox.

The System comes online: he starts with a dual-panel setup and draws a stone weasel the size of his palm. It can produce pure spiritual energy by chewing on rocks, which then nourishes its Host. For every ten silver dollars he spends on cultivation, his cultivation speed doubles. The more he spends, the faster he grows. Master Jiu watches his young disciple change by the day, so astonished he can barely hold his ruler. "Where are you getting all these silver dollars to buy spiritual materials?" Jiang Li points to the stone weasel in the backyard, chewing on a blue brick. "It produces spiritual energy by eating rocks. Doesn't cost a cent."

Wencai and Qiusheng watch their junior brother's cultivation skyrocket, practically drooling with envy. The corpse of Old Master Ren is about to turn into a zombie, and Master Jiu has just accepted an exorcism job. Jiang Li stares at the option on his System panel: "Spend ten times more to unlock lightning arts early." He feels the silver dollars he just earned in his pocket, then turns to Master Jiu. "Master, about that zombie at the Ren family home, don't step in. Let me handle it."

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.