Ling Ruguo (Seeking bookmarks, seeking recommendation votes)

On the fifteenth day after Ling Pengyun arrived at Azure Stone Mountain.

A massive convoy came rumbling in from the distance.

Ling Pengyun, who had been in a cave halfway up Azure Stone Mountain refining the medicinal power of his last Qi Refining Pill, was startled by the noise of the convoy.

He rose and walked to the cave entrance, narrowing his eyes as he gazed at the convoy approaching from several li away.

When he saw that every ox cart and horse carriage in the convoy bore a long banner embroidered with rice stalk patterns and the character "Ling," the corners of Ling Pengyun's lips lifted slightly.

"This should be the mortal clansmen the family dispatched from the nearby villages and towns! There are quite a few of them. Judging by this formation, there should be more than three thousand mortal clansmen!"

His gaze swept across the convoy. Seeing bulging sacks loaded onto the wooden carts pulled by tall horses, he guessed,

"Those large sacks should be carrying nearly a year's worth of food for those mortal clansmen!"

Over the coming year, even if these mortal clansmen who had moved here to settle worked themselves to the bone every day, they would find it difficult to quickly grow crops. They could only bring food from elsewhere to get through their first year here. By the second year, they would be able to support themselves.

Looking again, Ling Pengyun turned his gaze toward the white-haired old man leading the convoy. The old man wore the Ling Clan's Daoist robes, spiritual energy wafting from his body, deathly air showing on his face, and rode a Black Steed. Ling Pengyun's expression paused slightly.

"The family even sent Third Grandfather, who has little lifespan left, to help! It seems the family is truly desperately short of people!"

But on second thought, the Ling Clan had originally merely been attached to a Foundation Establishment Family. Now that it had obtained an entire county's worth of land, it was only natural that it lacked manpower.

The "Third Grandfather" protecting the convoy was Ling Ruguo, the Ling Clan's highest-ranking elder by generation. Ling Pengyun did not dare put on airs and hurriedly cast a Light Body Technique on himself, heading toward the approaching convoy.

"Third Grandfather" was named Ling Ruguo and was already one hundred and nine years old. He had practically one foot in the coffin, with only a few years left to live.

Although Qi Training cultivators had a maximum lifespan of one hundred and twenty years, that was merely the utmost limit.

In this cruel Cultivation World, fights and slaughter were unavoidable. Nearly every cultivator carried hidden injuries, and quite a few were slain before even reaching sixty. Living past one hundred was already considered to be blessed with deep fortune.

As for living to one's maximum lifespan, perhaps only the descendants of cultivators with profound cultivation possessed such fortune, or those who specifically cultivated techniques that extended one's lifespan.

With the Light Body Technique bolstering him, Ling Pengyun needed only tap lightly against the ground to drift several meters through the air. Before long, he had drawn close to the convoy.

The "immortal" method Ling Pengyun displayed also drew the eyes of many mortal Ling Clan members in the convoy, and quite a few looked at him with envy.

In the eyes of mortals, becoming an immortal not only granted one heaven-reaching means, but also riches beyond measure, a longer lifespan, and the pursuit of immortality.

Such benefits naturally left these mortal clansmen deeply envious.

Ling Pengyun felt somewhat lightheaded beneath those gazes, as though he were a celebrity from his previous life, the center of everyone's attention.

Yet that faint feeling of elation soon turned to ashes and scattered away.

In the eyes of mortals, Ling Pengyun was an omnipotent "immortal," but in the Cultivation World, he was merely a minor Qi Training Fourth Layer cultivator. Even within the Ling Clan, he belonged to the lowest tier in terms of strength.

Compared with the entire Cultivation World, he probably did not even count as an ant.

Once he set his mindset straight, the pride on his face returned to normal.

Ling Ruguo, riding the Black Steed at the head of the convoy, took in the changing expressions on Ling Pengyun's face as he rushed over.

He had likewise experienced being watched by the envious gazes of mortal clansmen, and knew that Ling Pengyun's pride was perfectly normal.

When he saw Ling Pengyun's expression return to normal, he nodded in satisfaction and thought to himself.

This child truly deserves to be someone Eleventh Brother values. He adjusted his mentality quickly! Not bad!

"Stop!" Ling Ruguo turned his head, gathered spiritual energy in his throat, and cast a minor spell, the Sound Amplification Technique.

Bolstered by the Sound Amplification Technique, the two words "Stop" rang out across the surrounding half-li, and all three thousand-plus people in the convoy heard them.

Who would dare disobey an immortal's command? They hurriedly directed the horses pulling the wooden carts to halt.

During that time, Ling Pengyun arrived beside Ling Ruguo, who sat atop the Black Steed.

"Third Grandfather, why did you personally come to escort these mortal clansmen? Did you encounter any demonic beasts along the way?" Ling Pengyun asked respectfully with cupped hands.

Ling Ruguo replied kindly, "The family has been short on people lately, and this old bag of bones happened to have a chance to be of use, so I volunteered to escort the clansmen dispatched here. We only encountered a tiger demon at the Qi Training Middle Stage on the way. There was no danger!"

"Pengyun, have you found a place for these three thousand-plus mortal clansmen to live?"

"I have. It is beside Azure Stone Lake, next to the Azure Stone Mountain I guard. Though the lake is only a thousand zhang across, its waters flow continuously and there are many schools of fish within. Most of the lakeside is flat land as well. There is not only enough land to build houses, but enough to cultivate fields. When the farmland needs watering, the lake will be right beside it, making irrigation convenient!" Ling Pengyun pointed toward Azure Stone Lake and described the area he had already surveyed.

"You handled this well. Lead the way for us!" Upon hearing this, Ling Ruguo became even more satisfied with this junior he did not know well. He offered a word of praise before speaking.

Ling Pengyun was quite pleased by the praise, though he did not take it to heart. He truly had not spent much effort finding a place for the mortal clansmen to settle.

With light steps, he reached the front of the convoy, slowed his pace, and led the enormous procession toward Azure Stone Lake.

Since there was no proper road here, the ground was riddled with potholes, stones, and even vegetation, severely slowing the heavily laden convoy.

Though the distance was only several li, it took a full two incense sticks' time before the convoy reached the shore of Azure Stone Lake.

This made Ling Pengyun secretly decide that he would definitely have the mortal clansmen of Azure Stone Village lay down a clean road in the future, at the very least one that was not full of potholes.

Once the convoy had all arrived at Azure Stone Lake, Ling Ruguo once again used the Sound Amplification Technique and shouted to the more than three thousand people in the convoy, "Ling Dong, where are you!"

A middle-aged Strong Man anxiously squeezed out from the crowd, came before Ling Ruguo's horse, and said respectfully, "Ancestor, I am here!"

Hearing that form of address, Ling Pengyun, standing beside Ling Ruguo, stirred slightly. He glanced at the middle-aged man called Ling Dong, then looked again at Ling Ruguo. Seeing that their faces bore quite a resemblance, he immediately understood their relationship.

"This is the Immortal Elder who will protect your Azure Stone Village in the future. If anything happens, you may crush this jade pendant, or go to the foot of Azure Stone Mountain nearby and call for aid! Go and arrange the clansmen. The past fifteen days of long travel have been hard on you mortals, but no matter how bitter or exhausting it is, you must still build houses. Rest for two hours first. From now on, you will command the villagers in building houses along this lakeshore, forming a village, and opening up farmland. During this time, I do not want to see any quarrels!"

"From now on, you will serve as the village chief of Azure Stone Village!"