Chapter 192 - 188: Desperate to Cultivate

Chapter 192: Chapter 188: Desperate to Cultivate

Lin Feng hadn’t expected the events in Lin Xian Village to have such a huge impact.

Not only was it trending online, but even his superiors were calling to ask about it.

Fortunately, the group of professors had gone with them, recording footage and analyzing the cause.

Otherwise, he felt the rumors about Cultivation would become impossible to clear up.

’Cultivation... I’d love to cultivate too, but I’m really not doing it!’

As the sky gradually darkened, Lin Feng prepared to head to the Land God Temple to handle the matter of refining the Sacrificial Artifact.

"Hurry up and leave. You’re not allowed to stay in Lin Xian Village at night.

And in clothes that thin, aren’t you afraid of freezing to death?"

"Sir, please just let us stay. We promise we won’t get in your way."

"No way. If something happened to any of you, we’d be in trouble too."

Lin Feng walked over and saw security guards blocking a dozen or so people, all of whom looked a bit odd.

"What’s going on?"

"Boss, these people say they want to stay in Lin Xian Village for Cultivation. They refuse to leave.

Some of them even slipped into the mountains. We’re searching for them now."

When the tourists saw Lin Feng, they instantly perked up. One of them said excitedly, "Boss Lin, we just want to try Cultivation! Please don’t make us leave, okay?"

"Boss Lin, Lin Xian Village is undergoing a Spiritual Qi Revival! You can’t just hoard it for yourself."

"Boss Lin, we want to cultivate just like you!"

Lin Feng’s expression immediately darkened. Fortunately, it was too dark for anyone to see. He couldn’t believe people actually bought it.

And now they were refusing to leave at night, determined to cultivate in Lin Xian Village.

’Cultivating like this? I’m afraid by morning, they’ll all have cultivated themselves right into a hospital bed.’

At night in Lin Xian Village, the temperature didn’t drop below freezing, but it was close.

"There’s no Spiritual Qi in Lin Xian Village, and you can’t cultivate here. The buses are still running, so hurry back.

If you continue to cause trouble, I’ll have no choice but to blacklist you from ever entering Lin Xian Village again."

Lin Feng asked the security guard, "How many people slipped into the mountains?"

"We’re not sure yet, but probably a fair number. We suspect some of them are trying to get to South Mountain to look for treasure."

Lin Feng’s face grew even darker. "Go to the security post and get more people. Start searching with the infrared drones. I’ll go get Mo Yu."

Of course, calling for Mo Yu was just a cover. He directly activated Lin Xian Village’s personnel alert system.

’Looking at the information display, these guys really have a death wish, daring to walk the mountain paths at night.’

Sure enough, some were trying to take a roundabout route to South Mountain, and a few had even run off to hide on North Mountain.

When Hu Xia heard the news, they broke off their conversation and hurried over to coordinate the search party.

"Are these people insane? Sneaking into the mountains at night... Aren’t they afraid of getting killed by a wild boar?"

The presence of wild boars in the mountains around Lin Xian Village was common knowledge among tourists, as many had captured footage of them with drones during the day.

"They’re morons. Once they’re found, blacklist every single one of them. A permanent ban."

With Mo Yu’s help, Lin Feng quickly rounded up all the tourists still hiding within the village.

Then, he turned his attention to the tourists in the mountains, using a drone’s loudspeaker to address them.

"Follow the drone out of the mountains! Do not go any deeper! It’s dangerous in there!"

Seeing that the group was unfazed and continued to run deeper into the mountains, Lin Feng felt a surge of real anger.

Hu Zhiming asked, "What now? The mountain paths are treacherous at night. It’ll be difficult to get them out of there."

Lin Feng looked at the two police officers, hoping they had a way to get the trespassers to come out.

Otherwise, if they kept going, someone could really get killed.

"We’ve already reported the situation. Just keep tracking them with the drone. A team will be here soon to handle it."

"It looks like they’re heading for South Mountain. The events from earlier today must have convinced them there’s treasure there."

"I don’t get what goes through their heads. The explanation video is online, but they still refuse to believe it."

Deep in the mountain forest, a small group of people chatted as they walked toward the South Mountain area.

"See? I told you there was treasure. You didn’t believe me. Look how hard they’re trying to kick us out."

"Brother Qiu, are you sure we’ll be okay if we don’t leave?"

"What’s going to happen? They can’t see us clearly right now anyway. Once we find the treasure, we’ll just hide in the mountains for the night.

When it gets light tomorrow and the village fills up with tourists, we can just slip out without anyone noticing."

"Brother Qiu... I feel like something’s watching us."

"I feel it too. Something’s definitely staring at us. You don’t think it’s a wild animal, do you?"

At the mention of wild animals, the group’s lust for treasure slowly gave way to fear.

They had heard these mountains were full of wildlife. An encounter with a wild boar could be fatal.

"What’s there to be afraid of? We’ve got weapons. I even brought a Thunder Shocking Bomb. If we run into a wild boar, we’ll just use this."

Brother Qiu had arranged for someone to deliver these items to him in the afternoon when he was planning to enter the mountains.

Not far away, two Golden Eagles circled overhead, their eyes fixed on the group. At the same time, Mo Yu crept closer, and Xiaohong perched on a tree branch.

Surrounding Xiaohong was a whole troop of its kind. Lin Feng was about to teach these trespassers a lesson.

"THWACK!"

"Agh! What was that? What hit me?"

"THWACK, THWACK-THWACK..."

"Ow, my face!"

Unable to take it anymore, one of them flicked on a flashlight, only to see the surrounding trees were filled with small animals.

The light glinting off their eyes was terrifying.

"Don’t be scared, they’re just squirrels! Turn off the light before the people outside spot us!"

"Fuck! That hurts! My face!"

"My head! Why are these squirrels attacking us?"

"That’s it, I’m not going any further! I’m going back!"

"Me neither! There are too many of them up ahead. We’ll be pelted to death!"

"Get back here! They’re just a bunch of squirrels, nothing to be afraid of... Agh, fuck! That hurts!"

The others backed away, leaving Brother Qiu exposed. He was receiving ’special attention’ from Xiaohong.

From a short distance away, Mo Yu let out a perfect imitation of a wolf’s howl, scaring the group half to death.

"Run! There’s a wolf! A wolf!"

"Don’t eat me! I’ll never do it again!"

"Damn it! Help!"

That wolf howl terrified Brother Qiu too, and he scrambled to run out of the forest.

The rescue team arrived and watched the situation unfold on the drone’s monitor, their faces a mask of confusion.

"What did they run into? They look terrified."

"Quick, use the drone’s speaker to tell them to follow it out."

With these people still in the mountains, Lin Feng couldn’t go refine the Sacrificial Artifact, and his mood soured.

An officer beside him said, "Mr. Lin, don’t worry. We’ll take them into custody and they will be penalized accordingly."

"It’s fine. Just follow standard procedure."

The group soon ran into the officers who had gone in to find them and were promptly escorted out.

Lin Feng didn’t bother meeting them. He just let the police take them away. In any case, the security cameras had already recorded all their faces.

From now on, they could forget about ever setting foot in Lin Xian Village again. They were permanently banned.

Meanwhile, Hu Xia posted an update about the situation online, including the measures Lin Xian Village was taking against the trespassers.

This sparked a heated discussion among netizens, most of whom couldn’t believe someone would be so brazen.

Of course, there were also a few unscrupulous individuals who, after reading the post, started contemplating the possibility of sneaking into Lin Xian Village through the surrounding mountains.

A quick study of the map revealed this was no easy feat. Coupled with the abundance of dangerous wildlife around Lin Xian Village, any attempt would be extremely risky.

After everyone had finally left and Hu Xia’s team had gone to rest, Lin Feng finally tidied himself up and prepared to head to the Land God Temple.

He checked the time. It was already past midnight. The village was finally, truly empty; even the security guards had gone to rest.

Of course, the Daoists were still inside the Land God Temple. They noticed Lin Feng as soon as he arrived.

"Lin Xiaoyou, what brings you here so late?"

Lin Feng asked, feigning concern, "No one came by here, did they? We had some tourists trying to hide out tonight."

"No. We heard the commotion earlier and did a full sweep. No one is around."

Lin Feng placed a hand on the Copper Cauldron. There was no reaction at all. ’I was worried for nothing.’

He glanced at the Copper Cauldron but saw no difference from before. No information popped up either.

However, the gauge on the Land God Temple’s interface had indeed dropped to its lowest point.

"Good. Please keep an eye out. We’ll probably have more trouble from tourists over the next few days."

"We had quite a few people asking us to teach them Cultivation today. If only we really could," a Daoist said with a helpless sigh.

The Daoists watched Lin Feng, trying to read his expression to see if there was any truth to the rumors.

The tourists who had come to them for Cultivation lessons had laid out their analysis of the situation in Lin Xian Village, and it all sounded quite logical.

If not for the complete lack of evidence, the Daoists might have actually believed them.

"Everyone’s gone crazy. If I could really cultivate, do you think I’d let them into Lin Xian Village to disturb me?"

’The Daoists considered this. It made sense. If they could really cultivate, they certainly wouldn’t let strangers in, let alone develop the place into a tourist attraction.’

’Still, there was no denying that Lin Xian Village was a strange place. It was a shame they hadn’t been able to uncover any of its secrets.’

Leaving the Land God Temple, Lin Feng was puzzled. ’After all that refining, nothing changed at all!’

’I guess I’ll have to wait until morning and come back to check on it then.’

Inside the Land God Temple, smoke from the incense burning in the Large Bronze Cauldron drifted toward the ceiling.

The cauldron glinted under the lights. Wisps of smoke drifted through the light toward the Earth God Statue, coiling around it before vanishing completely.

This magical scene lasted for a dozen seconds before the smoke returned to normal. The cauldron’s glow faded, as if it had withdrawn its light.

On Lin Feng’s end, his interface showed no changes at all, as if nothing had happened.

The first thing Lin Feng did in the morning was run to the Land God Temple. He glanced at the Large Bronze Cauldron inside, his face a mask of confusion.

Confirming that nothing had changed, he turned and ran back toward the village.

’That’s strange,’ he thought. ’That’s not right at all!’

He hadn’t chosen the first two options, but from what he understood, this Wish Power was supposed to be something magical.

"Brother Lin, what are you thinking about?"

Hu Zhiming watched as Lin Feng held a piece of flatbread, staring into space for the longest time without taking a bite.

"It’s nothing. Just make sure what happened last night doesn’t happen again today. Tell the surveillance team to be on high alert."

"Okay, I’ll let the security team know."

The topic of Cultivation in Lin Xian Village had been hotly debated online the previous night, but unfortunately, it was all just speculation.

At the Land God Temple in the village square, the Daoists who had risen for their morning practice looked around the temple grounds in confusion.

"Daoist Qi, has something changed around here?"

Qi Yangming stared at the grass shoots sprouting around the base of the wall. "There wasn’t any grass here yesterday. And weeds shouldn’t be sprouting this time of year."

The other Daoists had a moment of realization. A circle of tender, finger-length grass had sprung up around the base of the wall, looking like freshly sprouted wheat seedlings.

They walked a full circle around the Land God Temple and confirmed that, indeed, a lot of new grass had appeared.

However, after a brief moment of puzzlement, they dismissed it from their minds.

Lin Xian Village was hardly a normal place to begin with. Weeds sprouting in the middle of winter, especially around the Land God Temple, was nothing to be surprised about.

Because the Daoists paid it no further mind, Lin Feng remained unaware that the Sacrificial Artifact he had refined the night before was already beginning to affect its surroundings.

Nearby, however, Quan Liangyan noticed that the treatment time for mental illnesses had shortened slightly compared to usual.

But since the time was reduced by only a dozen or so seconds, he didn’t think much of it.

Ni Zhonghai rushed to Lin Xian Village first thing in the morning, ready to enter for his treatment.