Chapter 107 - 106: Fierce Battle, Advice

Chapter 107: Chapter 106: Fierce Battle, Advice

The crowd left the hall.

Steward Ye quickly arranged rooms for everyone, assigning each person a standalone wooden cabin with its own private courtyard. Li Changsheng had barely taken a stroll around his new place and had not even begun to tidy up his room when a loud shout rang out from outside.

"Junior Brother Li."

Feeling a bit puzzled, Li Changsheng walked out the door. He saw Tan Hu standing in front of the courtyard gate, looking at him with a beaming smile.

"Do you need something, Senior Brother?" Li Changsheng asked curiously as he opened the gate and welcomed him into the courtyard.

"Heh..." Tan Hu let out a weird chuckle and said, "Junior Brother, do you want to go watch a good show?"

A show? Li Changsheng asked in confusion, "What kind of show?"

Tan Hu didn’t explain. He simply said mysteriously, "You’ll know when we get there."

Li Changsheng thought it over. He had some free time anyway, so he nodded in agreement.

"Steady your mind, Junior Brother." As Tan Hu spoke, he flipped his hand to reveal a piece of jade shaped like a tiger with wings on its back. He channeled his Spiritual Power into it. Under Li Changsheng’s astonished gaze, the surface of the tiger-shaped jade bloomed with spiritual light. In an instant, a fierce gale whipped up from the ground, enveloping the two of them as they shot up into the sky and disappeared into the horizon.

Not long after they left, three more people visited the small courtyard one after another. They were Dong Xing, Xu Li, and lastly, Jin Fang. Seeing that no one was in the courtyard, they all turned away in disappointment.

Meanwhile, a pale cyan whirlwind streaked across the sky. Before long, it landed silently on the top of a hill. The whirlwind dissipated, and the figures of Li Changsheng and Tan Hu slowly emerged.

Li Changsheng circulated his Spiritual Power to drive away the discomfort in his body and cast his gaze around. The hill was covered in overgrown weeds, and the two of them were standing on a giant boulder. Beyond the hill, a vast, emerald-green lake entered their view. In the center of the lake, a lush, verdant, isolated island could be faintly seen.

Li Changsheng withdrew his gaze and looked at Tan Hu with a puzzled expression. He wondered where the "good show" was that Tan Hu had mentioned; although the scenery was nice, there was nothing exciting going on.

Tan Hu put away the tiger-shaped jade and smiled. "Junior Brother, look down there..."

Li Changsheng paused for a moment and looked down. Not far from the hill, there were two somewhat messy clusters of wooden buildings separated by hundreds of meters. This was likely what Tan Hu was pointing at.

"Are these..." Li Changsheng’s heart stirred. He turned his head and asked, "The Demon Hunting Corps and Patrol Guard stations?"

Tan Hu nodded. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he pointed down at the field, laughing, "Look quickly, Junior Brother. The show is starting."

Hearing this, Li Changsheng turned to look, his gaze narrowing slightly. He saw silhouettes leaping out from the two building clusters, rapidly converging on the flat ground between them. In just the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, over two hundred people had gathered, split into two opposing sides.

After a brief standoff, a person leaped out from one group and stood in the empty space in the middle. Soon, not to be outdone, someone from the other group leaped out as well.

One of the two held a sword, while the other was unarmed. They sized each other up for a few glances before spiritual light flashed on the surface of their bodies, and they immediately attacked.

There were no flashy moves; sword auras, Magic, and talismans were aimed directly at each other’s vitals.

In less than a dozen breaths, just as the unarmed Cultivator was activating a talisman, a faint sword aura exploded beside him, disrupting his Spiritual Power. The next instant, the sword-wielding Cultivator charged to his side and unleashed a sword aura that shredded the unarmed man’s arm to pieces, leaving one side of his body mutilated and bloody.

This was still not the end. As the man screamed in agony, the sword-wielding Cultivator unleashed another sword aura, aiming straight for his head. Fortunately, someone intervened and saved him just in time; otherwise, he would have undoubtedly been decapitated.

Following that, two more people leaped out from the crowd. With barely a word exchanged, they began to fight. Although the sounds of the battle traveling to the hilltop were faint, the sight alone made Li Changsheng’s heart pound with fear.

He wondered if they were holding a tournament, and if there was even any point to this.

Just as Li Changsheng was about to ask Tan Hu about it, a familiar person—or rather, a familiar swarm of bugs—caught his eye.

"Dong Yao..."

Her opponent was the Cultivator who had just unleashed the sword auras. The two stared at each other for a few breaths before attacking simultaneously.

Dong Yao acted as a Spirit Binder, commanding the insect swarm to harass the sword-wielding Cultivator, while her own hands formed a Technique. Within breaths, a chilling aura rapidly permeated the air around her, and an ice-blue arrow slowly condensed into shape. It shot swiftly toward the Cultivator who was busy dealing with the insects.

The sword-wielding Cultivator’s pupils shrank. Giving it his all, he unleashed several sword auras to hack apart a few bugs and twisted his body to leap out of the way. But right at that moment, the rest of the insects slammed directly into him, causing his airborne figure to freeze for a split second.

The Cultivator’s face instantly turned pale. He pulled his arm back, intending to use his sword to protect his body.

WHOOSH!

With the shrill whistle of an arrow, the sword-wielding Cultivator’s eyes gradually dimmed. A fist-sized hole appeared right where his heart used to be, his blood frozen by frost and shimmering with a translucent glow.

Dong Yao swiftly leaped to his side, looted his spoils in a few quick motions, and returned to the crowd.

On the hilltop, Li Changsheng watched this scene with a complex gaze. In his heart, he thought of that old man—the one who had allowed his face to be beaten into a pig’s head just to acquire the Spirit Plant inheritance, the one who had happily shown off upon learning he would be getting three acres of Spirit Fields. He wondered how the old man would feel if he saw his granddaughter acting like this...

The current Dong Yao was ruthless in her attacks, and seeing how adeptly she looted spoils, it was obvious she had done this many times before.

After watching for a while longer, Li Changsheng lost interest. Watching them slaughter each other was not as good as going home to feed his pigs. He turned to the highly enthusiastic Tan Hu and said, "Senior Brother, I still have some things to do. So..."

Tan Hu was momentarily stunned before he nodded with a smile. "Then let’s head back. Junior Brother’s matters take priority."

With that, he flipped his hand to take out the tiger-shaped jade. A fierce gale rose up, engulfing the two of them as they shot into the sky and vanished over the horizon.

Such a massive fluctuation of Spiritual Power naturally caught the attention of the other Cultivators below. However, once they saw the whirlwind flying away, they paid it no more mind and went back to staring at the slaughter in the field.

At this moment, a lustrous white Flying Ship slowly flew over from the horizon.

Lan Cai Shen frowned as he watched the departing whirlwind. "Tan Hu..."

Then, he dismissed the thought and looked down. When he clearly saw the slaughter happening in the field, his expression suddenly turned gloomy. Channeling his Spiritual Power, he shouted, "Steward Tong, Steward Luo... is this how you clean up the Spiritual Land?!"

Back at the courtyard, after seeing Tan Hu off, Li Changsheng hesitated for a moment before pushing the gate open and stepping out. He walked toward Dong Xing’s place not far away.

In a courtyard where smoke from a fire was rising, Dong Xing and Xu Li had started a campfire. They held meat skewers strung on wooden sticks, chatting idly as they roasted them.

"Oh, you two are eating." Li Changsheng pushed the gate open with a chuckle and walked in.

Seeing him, the two of them quickly stood up.

Xu Li cupped his hands in greeting and said, "Lord Steward."

"Want a bite?" Dong Xing smiled, holding up a meat skewer.

"Sure." Li Changsheng nodded. Not standing on ceremony, he grabbed a chair, plopped down, picked up a meat skewer, and started roasting it himself.

Dong Xing asked in confusion, "I went looking for you a moment ago to get you to come roast some meat, but you weren’t home..."

"Let’s eat first. We can talk after," Li Changsheng waved his hand, then immediately focused on roasting his meat skewer in earnest.

Dong Xing gave him a puzzled look, but then smilingly went back to making casual small talk with him. His words were mostly filled with anticipation for the Spirit Fields he hadn’t yet received and his joy at the prospect of soon seeing his granddaughter. Li Changsheng spoke very little, occasionally chiming in with a brief remark.

Xu Li was very perceptive. Seeing that Li Changsheng seemed to have business with Dong Xing, he quickly slipped away a little while later.

An hour later, Li Changsheng and Dong Xing were both leaning back comfortably in their chairs.

After a few breaths of silence, Dong Xing smiled. "What is it exactly? You can tell me now, right?"

"Alright." Li Changsheng didn’t beat around the bush and directly told him what he had seen from the hilltop. "You already have three acres of Spirit Fields. I think it would be best if she left the Demon Hunting Corps. Otherwise, with the current state of fierce conflict between the two groups, nobody can say how things will end up in the future."

Leaving those words behind, Li Changsheng stood up and left the courtyard.

Dong Xing got up to see him off. When he returned to his seat, he stared at the campfire in silence. His swollen, bruised face appeared even more purple in the firelight...

Returning to his own courtyard, Li Changsheng’s expression returned to normal. At the end of the day, that was Dong Xing’s family matter; giving him a warning was enough. He stepped into the kitchen and saw a large pot on the stove.

"I’ve got a lot of work to do..." Li Changsheng shook his head and mused out loud. After tidying up a bit, he stepped outside the courtyard and began harvesting stink ferns.

These stink ferns were truly ubiquitous; they grew absolutely everywhere. After harvesting a full hundred catties, Li Changsheng carried them back into the kitchen. Smoke slowly rose from the chimney as the crisp sound of chopping vegetables echoed from within.

By the time he finished feeding his several Spirit Beasts, the sky had already grown dim.

Li Changsheng lay on a recliner with Xiaobai in his arms, leisurely gazing up at the star-studded night sky. Xiaohua lay beside him, grunting softly. Under the moonlight, a swarm of thumb-sized insects rose and fell in the surrounding tall grass, grabbing various strange-looking bugs to kill and devour.

The night passed in the blink of an eye.

In a rare occurrence, Li Changsheng didn’t cultivate and slept straight until mid-morning.

Dong Xing stood at the courtyard gate, poking his head in and shouting, "Uncle Li, are you still sleeping?"

Li Changsheng glanced at him and replied lazily, "What is it?" Then, as if remembering something, he added, "If you want me to go to the Demon Hunting Corps, forget about it. I don’t have that much influence."

Hearing this, Dong Xing chuckled awkwardly and waved his hand. "That’s not it. We’re going to open up the Spirit Fields. Don’t you want to join the fun?" He paused, then added, "It would be great if you could offer us some guidance when the time comes..."

Opening up Spirit Fields... Li Changsheng’s heart stirred. He only knew about opening up Spirit Fields from books; he had never actually seen the process in person. With that thought, he stood up and put Xiaobai and Xiaohua away, leaving only Big Bro and Little Bro from the insect swarm hidden inside his sleeves.

"Let’s go. I’d like to see it for myself as well."

"Alright."

Dong Xing nodded and walked with him toward the Central Hall. Along the way, seeing that Dong Xing didn’t seem concerned about Dong Yao’s safety, Li Changsheng couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked if he was going to make Dong Yao leave the Demon Hunting Corps.

Dong Xing merely offered a bitter smile and shook his head without saying a word, repeatedly urging him to hurry up. Seeing this, Li Changsheng dropped the subject.

The two of them entered the hall. Several people were already seated inside.

"Greetings, Steward."

"Greetings, Lord Steward."

Xu Li and Fang Fan quickly stood up and bowed upon seeing him.

"Sit down. No need for formalities," Li Changsheng waved his hand. He turned his gaze to the other two and cupped his hands. "Changsheng greets the two Stewards."

Steward Ye and Steward Wu did not dare act haughty. They stood up and replied, "Greetings, Steward Li."

"Could the two Stewards tell me just how much Spiritual Land there is in the Ring Mountain Spiritual Land?"