The Holy Soul Village was small—barely a few dozen families at most. The houses were simple mud and wood structures, and the villagers lived as they always had: farming in the fields, raising chickens, and tending to a few skinny pigs.
For Xiao Tian, it was like stepping back a thousand years. No electricity. No machines. No books except for the worn-out scriptures in the elder's home.
At first, he struggled. The food was plain—corn gruel, wild vegetables, sometimes a salted fish if the hunters were lucky. His small body felt weak compared to his Earth self, who had spent years at the gym.
But slowly, Xiao Tian adjusted. And then, he began to think.
"If I do nothing, I'll just be another villager waiting for fate to crush me. But… if I bring in just a little of Earth's knowledge, I can make a difference here. And maybe… make myself stronger in the process."
The first thing he tackled was farming.
One afternoon, he approached Old Jack, the village chief, who was busy inspecting the wheat fields.
Grandpa Jack," Xiao Tian asked, "why do we always grow the same crop in the same field every year?"
"Why? Because that's how it's always been done. What else would we do?" Old Jack frowned.
"If we keep planting wheat, the soil will get weaker. But if we change crops—plant beans or peas after wheat—the soil will recover. The plants will grow better."
"Rotate crops?" Old Jack muttered, baffled. "Where'd you learn such nonsense, boy?"
"I read it… somewhere," Xiao Tian said quickly. "Let's try one small field this year. If it works, the harvest will be proof."
Old Jack grumbled but finally agreed.
After that, Xiao Tian turned to irrigation.
The village relied on rain for water, but often the crops withered during dry weeks. Xiao Tian remembered how, in ancient Earth civilizations, farmers dug channels to bring water to their fields.
He gathered a few children and convinced them to help dig a shallow trench from the nearby stream, leading it into the wheat fields. The work was messy, their hands blistered, and some adults laughed at the "play."
But when the first water flowed into the field, the soil darkened with moisture, and the wheat stood taller than the rest by the week's end.
The same adults who mocked before now stood with wide eyes.
"This… it really works?"
"By the ancestors… the field looks healthier already!"
"Old Jack, this boy might've been blessed by the heavens!"
Old Jack stroked his beard thoughtfully, his gaze lingering on Xiao Tian with new weight.
Next, Xiao Tian introduced fertilizer.
The villagers usually tossed animal droppings aside, considering them dirty waste. But Xiao Tian explained, "If we pile the manure together and let it rot, it becomes powerful food for the soil. Spread it thinly in the fields, and crops will grow stronger."
At first, they wrinkled their noses, laughing. "What kind of fool feeds plants with filth?"
But when they tried it on a small patch, the difference was clear—the stalks grew thicker, greener, and stronger than the rest.
The laughter turned to murmurs of awe.
Finally, Xiao Tian shared a trick for herding livestock.
The villagers kept their goats and pigs in open pens, letting them wander loosely, which often led to injuries or lost animals. Xiao Tian suggested rotating them between different grazing spots and building fences with woven branches.
"Move them in groups, don't let them scatter," he explained, demonstrating by clapping his hands and guiding the goats with sticks and rope. "This way, they eat evenly, and the grass has time to grow back."
After a few weeks, the goats looked healthier, and fewer were lost to wolves or sickness.
One evening, several villagers gathered near Old Jack's house, whispering about Xiao Tian.
"That boy's strange, but clever."
"He's only a child, yet he knows things we've never heard of."
"Maybe the heavens really gave him a gift… even if it's not in spirit power."
Old Jack chuckled, patting Xiao Tian's head when he passed by. "You may be an orphan, boy, but you've got a head brighter than most grown men. The Holy Soul Village is lucky to have you."
Xiao Tian only smiled faintly. He wasn't doing this just for them. He was laying the foundation for his own survival.
Of course, he never forgot about himself.
Each morning before the sun rose, he ran laps around the village. He lifted heavy stones and logs as makeshift weights. He practiced push-ups and squats until his arms and legs burned. The villagers often laughed at his strange exercises, but after seeing his strength grow day by day, some children began to imitate him.
"I may not have innate talent in this world, but my body… my body can be forged."
And with each passing day, Xiao Tian grew sharper, sturdier, and more determined.