Harvest

## Chapter 38: The Harvest

Three days later.

A remote small village, with low, old mud houses.

The village wasn't far from Qingya County. When Chen Luo found Old Man Tian that day, he had asked him to take him here. Old Man Tian, having taken the money, kept his promise and spent a day and a half dragging the unconscious Chen Luo out of the mountains.

After staying in the small village for two days and confirming that Chen Luo was out of danger, the four of them set off for home.

Tian Danu had lost his job this time, and he didn't know if his Boss was still alive, so he had to go back and find another way to make a living. It was the same for the Fang Cun and Fang Shan brothers; they had families to support. Old Man Tian was also preparing to return. He had been out for several days longer than expected, and he was afraid his Old Partner would worry.

After a few words of farewell, Chen Laosan got up and saw them out of the village.

"Thank you, gentlemen!"

Chen Laosan bowed solemnly to the four of them.

"What's there to be polite about? We just did it for the money."

Old Man Tian grinned, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth.

This old man looked sloppy, but he was a very trustworthy person, and this time he had helped Chen Luo a great deal.

"Business is business, and kindness is kindness."

As he spoke, Chen Laosan took out four money bags he had prepared earlier from his怀 and gave one to each of them. The amount wasn't large, but it was definitely enough for Old Man Tian and the other three.

Favors that could be repaid with money should be repaid with money.

Chen Laosan wasn't short on money now. With the ill-gotten gains Chen Luo had brought back, he was quite well-off.

After another round of pleasantries, the two sides finally parted ways.

"How do you feel?"

Returning to the village, Chen Laosan pushed open the door. He looked at Chen Luo, who was sitting on the bed with his eyes closed, resting, and asked.

Chen Luo had woken up in the morning. It was only after seeing him awake that Old Man Tian and the others left. One reason was to confirm Chen Luo's safety, and the other was to see if Chen Laosan was really his relative, to avoid sending him to the wrong place and messing things up.

This was also Old Man Tian's principle in life: he could take small advantages, but he would never do anything against his conscience.

"Much better. Have they all left?"

Chen Luo didn't go into detail with his Third Uncle. His experience this time was a bit mysterious, and saying too much would only make things worse. If he encountered some Martial Path expert who could search souls, it might even bring unnecessary danger to his Third Uncle.

"They're gone. I gave them five hundred taels. The three young men got a hundred taels each, and I gave the old man an extra hundred taels."

Chen Laosan pulled up a small stool and sat down beside him, tapping the tobacco pipe in his hand against the wall twice, leaving a black stain.

His hobbies were just that vulgar.

Finding a widow in the alley and smoking opium at his doorstep.

He used to have to earn money by burying corpses when he had no money, but now that Chen Luo had given him a large stack of silver notes, he no longer did the Undertaker's job. Anyway, Qingya County didn't know about him anymore, so it was a good time to retire and be a leisurely old man.

"The favor owed is repaid."

"That's good."

Chen Luo nodded. Chen Laosan had told him about giving them the money.

"I shouldn't have taken you to practice Martial Path in the first place," Chen Laosan picked up his tobacco pipe and took a puff. After a long pause, he finally managed to say something.

This time, Chen Luo was dragged back on an ox cart, which almost scared him to death.

Having buried the corpses of Jianghu Wanderers for most of his life, he had seen too many dead people. Most of these people were experts who had cultivated the Martial Path, and compared to them, Chen Luo was still too green.

Fortunately, it was just a false alarm.

But even so, Chen Laosan didn't dare to bring him back to the village.

He was afraid the old people in the village would worry.

Chen Luo's parents were also old, and there was a little girl at home. It was better to avoid trouble if possible.

"No, I'm very grateful to Third Uncle for helping me change my fate."

Chen Luo shook his head, not agreeing with Chen Laosan's view.

Practicing the Martial Path was a very important starting point for him. Crippled Ma's guidance had saved him a lot of detours. Otherwise, even if he could 'borrow brains' for cultivation, it would have taken a lot of time to embark on the true path of cultivation.

If he had missed that point, he might not have been able to overcome the crisis in Qingya County later, let alone snatch the Immortal Cultivation opportunity from the fire.

"Rest well. Call me if you need anything."

After finishing a pipe of tobacco, Chen Laosan got up and went out.

Chen Luo was still in the recovery phase, and the doctor's advice was to sleep more, so he didn't want to disturb him too much.

Watching his Third Uncle's retreating back, Chen Luo on the bed slowly closed his eyes.

This experience was extremely dangerous; he almost never came back. The faint Blue Energy that killed Old Daoist Lichen had remained in his body, neither dissipating nor integrating.

Under the influence of this power, there was always a feeling of disharmony between his consciousness and his body. He had tried to mobilize this energy, but without the power bonus of the Blue Gem, neither the Jade Slip nor the energy in his body responded to him.

However, fortunately, his physical injuries had basically recovered.

The recovery ability of a Bone Forging Realm Martial Artist was indeed powerful. If it were an ordinary person with such severe injuries, they would have to lie in bed for at least half a year before they could get up.

"The body's assimilation rate is very slow, and this power can only be absorbed by the Royal Family Brain. Even if I use the Royal Family Brain for cultivation every day, I can only digest a tiny bit; any more and I can't handle it."

Chen Luo summarized the results of his cultivation using the Royal Family Brain over the past two days.

What he called 'mobilizing' was merely repeating the process that occurred when the Jade Slip erupted, still using the Internal Qi of the Black Tiger Fist.

This method had an extremely low conversion rate and was very taxing to use.

It felt like pulling a large cart with human power.

It wasn't a good match.

However, he had no other choice for now and could only make do. Fortunately, the Blue Energy had a very high energy level. Even just a tiny bit caused a drastic change in Chen Luo's strength. At the very least, ordinary Grandmasters were no longer insurmountable enemies for him.

"I just don't know what 'Immortal Script' really represents."

Chen Luo recalled the words of Old Daoist Lichen before he died.

That old Daoist must have known something, but unfortunately, he was dead. Even if he were alive, that old Daoist definitely wouldn't have told him; he would have most likely wanted to kill him and take the benefits for himself.

He reached out and touched the Jade Slip on his chest. The item was still in his embrace. Normally, it looked quite ordinary, only giving off a slight warmth when Chen Luo mobilized the faint Blue Energy. Other than that, there was no abnormality.

After putting the Jade Slip away again, Chen Luo closed his eyes and slowly drifted into sleep.

The External Brains began to appear one by one, attempting to digest the faint Blue Energy in their own ways. Throughout the night, over a hundred brains each tried, but the result was the same as before: only the Royal Family Brain succeeded.

Just like that, another half a month passed in a flash.

After half a month, Chen Luo could finally go out. The injuries on the surface of his body had also mostly recovered.

The sense of disharmony was still present, but it no longer affected his movements.

After telling Third Uncle, he left the house.

On the first day out, Chen Luo went straight to the county town and had a good meal, with plenty of fish and meat, eating whatever was available. After lying in bed for days, listening to medical advice and eating light, plain food, his mouth was practically tasteless.

Chen Luo finished eating around noon and then got up to leave.

After leaving the restaurant, Chen Luo first went to the County Yamen.

The Qingya County Yamen, having gone through a disaster, now had a new owner, and the stationed military officer had also changed. Commander Zhu, from back then, had been transferred somewhere unknown, and the newcomers were all unfamiliar faces.

"They're still fighting over at Luoxia Valley. I heard they found a gold mine."

"There aren't even enough Undertakers. I wonder if there will be any mutations later..."

The casual chatter of a few constables reached his ears.

Chen Luo looked back, then turned onto another street.

He didn't rashly sneak into the County Yamen. After the last incident, the people residing in the Yamen were definitely experts now. Calculating the time, Prince Ning's people should have also arrived. Sneaking into the County Yamen at this time would be no different from delivering himself to their doorstep.