So Eager to Wear Green

No matter how fierce the wind and rain outside grew, you continued cultivating in your little courtyard as usual.

One day, while you were cultivating, Wei Xia, whom you had not seen in years, came to your courtyard again.

"Young Master He, could you spare me a bite to eat?"

At twenty-one, Wei Xia had fully grown into an adult.

You could still vaguely make out what she had looked like at thirteen or fourteen.

You did not ask her anything, only let her have a filling meal.

After eating, she took the initiative to tell you about what she had endured over the past few years.

It turned out that because she could not bear children, the old couple would often abuse Wei Xia and deny her food whenever Miao Jiayao went to work in the fields.

You brought Wei Xia back to Miao Jiayao's home and warned the old couple not to abuse her.

The old couple hastily agreed. They did not dare disobey you, because just a few days ago, you had taught Butcher Zhang, the man who called the shots in the neighboring village, a lesson.

The old couple knew that if you wanted to, you could become the one who called the shots in Willow Tree Village as well.

It was just that you were not Slow Goat and had no interest in being village chief.

You only wanted to cultivate.

After you left, Wei Xia leaned against the doorway and gazed toward your courtyard for a long time.

But she knew the gulf between your statuses was too vast, so she did not dare hope for anything more.

Miao Jiayao later learned that Wei Xia had been abused as well. He also berated his parents and told them not to bully Wei Xia again.

Still, Miao Jiayao often stared at Wei Xia's flat belly and sighed.

The old couple, meanwhile, muttered every day that the Miao family line was going to die out.

You returned to your little courtyard and continued cultivating.

After entering the Mid Skin Tempering Realm, you felt your cultivation speed slowing down.

You told yourself not to grow arrogant or impatient. Only by continuing to accumulate could you meet the summit.

In the ninth year, you were accumulating...

In the tenth year, you were accumulating...

In the eleventh year, you were still accumulating...

In the twelfth year, you could not keep accumulating anymore, because your cultivation speed was fucking too slow.

You could not stand it any longer. You knew you needed higher-grade cultivation resources, and more money as well.

You began dressing in black and wearing a black hat again, going out to rob the wealthy.

You returned to your old trade.

This time, you made a bold decision: steal from the Linjiang County Magistrate's home.

The money of landlords and local gentry was only good for a laugh. If one was talking about true wealth, it had to be the County Magistrate.

At night, you secretly slipped into the Linjiang County Magistrate's residence.

With auto-loot activated, you rummaged through the place.

Sure enough, the haul was substantial.

The ten thousand-plus taels of silver and three thousand-plus taels of gold were merely extras. The main prize was the three bottles of Qi and Blood Paste you found.

"Pills? What a rare treasure!"

Pills were exorbitantly expensive, and only high-level martial artists could afford to use them.

One Qi and Blood Paste pill could equal half a month of your cultivation.

The three bottles contained sixty pills in total, enough to save you two and a half years of cultivation time.

Compared with that torturous cultivation method of daily medicinal baths and massive supplements—

Now, all you needed was to swallow a pill, shoot up six floors in one breath, and not even gasp!

You stored the pills in the Simulation Space.

Just as you were about to leave, you discovered that the County Magistrate's son was actually having an affair in a room with the County Magistrate's newly married young concubine.

Those two shameless dogs were making quite a racket, enough that you could not help adjusting your balls.

If you can't find the book by searching its title, try searching the author instead. Maybe it was simply renamed!

In the spirit of helping others find joy, you quietly put more than a dozen locks on their door so they could enjoy a more immersive experience.

Then you leaped onto the wall and shouted, "Someone, come quickly! The County Magistrate's son's room is on fire! Everyone, hurry and put it out—"

The residence immediately blazed with lights, and chaos erupted like chickens and dogs taking flight.

Soon after, you heard the County Magistrate's furious curses, along with his son's and young concubine's pleas for mercy.

"County Magistrate brother, I can only help you this much!"

"Don't ask my name. I never leave my name when I do good deeds!"

You jumped down from the wall and slipped away beneath the cover of night.

The next day, in the little courtyard, you swallowed a Qi and Blood Paste pill and sat cross-legged beneath the peach tree to cultivate.

Your cultivation speed returned to the right track, and its effects were even better than before.

"It's back. It's all back!"

You saw hope of breaking through to the Skin Refinement Late Stage once more.

While you cultivated in peace, Linjiang County City descended into utter turmoil, like a pot of porridge overturned.

The county yamen began cracking down harshly on flying thieves and bandits, with a force and scope that made people click their tongues in astonishment.

Quite a few seasoned bandits who had weathered countless battles were caught one after another.

As the chief culprit behind your fellow professionals' downfall, you offered them one second of sympathy.

But the number of true bandits captured was not especially high. The people caught most often were actually flower-picking thieves.

Flower-picking thieves generally had no formidable martial strength. Whatever strength they possessed was spent on women, so the authorities caught them as easily as chicks—one grab, and not a peep.

In any case, flower-picking thieves had the word "thief" in their name. Arresting them could not possibly be wrong.

Another year of tedious cultivation passed.

In the thirteenth year, with the help of Qi and Blood Paste, your cultivation achieved twice the result with half the effort. You could clearly feel the true qi within your body growing more vigorous, and you took another huge step toward the late stage.

Your strength increased to eight hundred jin. You could play with the hundred-jin millstone in the courtyard like a yo-yo.

This year, you were twenty-eight. In this era, ordinary people at your age had long since had three or four children, yet you were still all alone.

Coincidentally, Miao Jiayao seemed to have realized this as well.

That night, he came to find you.

Forty-five-year-old Miao Jiayao had grown stooped, and his hair had begun to turn white, while you, who cultivated martial arts, had not even reached your prime.

"Young Master He, please go to my home and spend the night with my wife tonight!" Miao Jiayao opened with a bombshell.

You had not expected the honest and simple Miao Jiayao and his wife to be so open-minded, even seeking out a single man.

But although Miao Jiayao's actions were so eager to cuckold himself, his eyes were filled with pain and pleading.

Miao Jiayao said he knew Wei Xia liked you. He only begged that you let Wei Xia become pregnant.

Miao Jiayao wanted a child. It did not matter whether the child was his by blood; he did not want the Miao family line to end.

So all these years, Wei Xia's inability to conceive had not been Wei Xia's problem. It had been Miao Jiayao's problem.

Though Miao Jiayao was strict in making himself wear green, you were not cut from the same cloth as Chancellor Cao.

You refused Miao Jiayao.

Miao Jiayao left in deep disappointment.

You continued accumulating. Days spent focusing wholeheartedly on accumulation always passed quickly.

Another year went by.

In the fourteenth year, without the assistance of Qi and Blood Paste, your cultivation slowed again, but your strength continued to grow, reaching over nine hundred jin.

You could feel that the membrane separating you from the Skin Refinement Late Stage was about to be pierced through.

Your Cloud Stepping Gait proficiency had already reached great mastery. All you needed was an opportunity to break through into perfection.

Over the years, relying on the Cloud Stepping Gait, you had indiscriminately struck at every landlord and local gentry family within a hundred li.

A few families had been robbed by you until they were terrified. They moved away with their entire households, even digging up and relocating their ancestral graves.

That same year, drought struck within a hundred li, leaving not a single grain to harvest.

Willow Tree Village was no exception.