"How is it?"
"Can't you go back to the Primordial World? Would you die if you shouted once?"
Great God Nuwa was anxious and distressed. After all, the Primordial World was her true root. Being trapped in the later age forever was not what she wanted.
Chen Xuan crawled out from under the bed, then lay back down and slept for a while. He did not travel back to the Primordial World and shook his head in disappointment.
He had to try every day. Perhaps one day he would be able to travel back to the Primordial World. For Chen Xuan, that was also an anticipated opportunity.
"No..." Chen Xuan sighed.
"Could it be that I really can't go back?" Great God Nuwa was deeply dejected. Her eyes were hollow, filled with the homesickness of a wanderer longing for home, as she gazed beyond the sky outside the window...
"Somehow, the longer I stay here, the more the suppression of heaven and earth seems to loosen, even if only imperceptibly. For a Grand Unity Golden Immortal, that alone defies the heavens..."
Great God Nuwa raised her slender hand. A sphere of Five-Colored Divine Light condensed at her fingertip, radiating the contradictory auras of destruction and creation.
"Great God Nuwa... don't do anything reckless. How destructive is that thing?" Chen Xuan was scared out of his wits as he stared fearfully at the multicolored sphere of light.
"Nothing special... It wouldn't even make the cut in the Primordial World. It's about two ten-thousandths of my power. It could probably destroy mountains and rivers spanning tens of thousands of miles..." Great God Nuwa smiled faintly.
Chen Xuan sucked in a cold breath and said, "Great God Nuwa... teach me this quickly! This is a nuclear bomb made by hand. It can destroy a country with a wave of the hand. I can throw it at those Japanese bastards—this is unbelievably awesome!"
If he carried a sphere of light around Earth, any country that dared to act arrogantly could have it thrown straight in its face, taking the entire nation's people to meet their ancestors.
"No... You eat too much pork, and your cultivation aptitude is restricted. You can only return to the Primordial World and reshape your roots before you can attain immortality." Great God Nuwa refused...
"I feel like you're tricking me every time. I just don't have any proof." Chen Xuan was deeply frustrated.
"Get lost! I'm going to sleep..." Great God Nuwa issued him an eviction order.
"Great God Nuwa... this is my room." Chen Xuan scratched his head.
"Enough... I originally planned to shape a peerless fairy for you after returning to the Primordial World, but it seems that's off the table!" Great God Nuwa left angrily and returned to another room prepared for her. Now that she was posing as his girlfriend, she had a room of her own.
Chen Xuan was dumbfounded...
Women were strange creatures...
Whether mortal women or goddesses, they could never be offended carelessly. The consequences would be severe...
The next day...
Chen Xuan got up with dark circles under his eyes, yawning as he headed to the fields...
"Mortals... must learn to rise early and sleep early. When the spirit is high, one does not think of sleep; when the essence is high, one does not think of lust. Control your private life properly. Semen is a good thing that nourishes the five organs, connects the nine orifices, and generates essence and blood..."
Great God Nuwa suddenly tossed out that remark...
"You're slandering me..." Chen Xuan rode his tricycle and immediately set the record straight. "I spent the entire night reading Investiture of the Gods and some novels about the Primordial World. Before I knew it, it was morning. I'm simply exhausted."
"Heh..." Great God Nuwa laughed without saying anything.
The tricycle soon reached the edge of the fields. The watermelons were still green and most had not ripened. They needed to be irrigated with spiritual energy before they could grow into heaven-defying watermelons...
"Great God Nuwa... how can we do this once and be done with it?" Chen Xuan looked at her expectantly.
"Of course we can. I have a Five-Colored Lotus, obtained from an Immortal Pond on Buzhou Mountain. It is enough to transform an area into a blessed land." Great God Nuwa took out a lotus flower. Its five sacred colors were pure and holy, and soon the air, vegetation, and stream around them displayed a flourishing vitality.
Chen Xuan immediately felt refreshed. Bathing in the spiritual energy was wonderful. He had always thought spiritual energy was a gas resembling dense fog, but now it seemed that was not the case...
The clear and turbid energies transformed into all things. They were an invisible gas that circulated endlessly between heaven and earth. Whoever could control that gas was a god...
"After I place down a Five-Colored Lotus, it will instantly change the spiritual energy in every direction. Whether you plant spiritual herbs, fruits, and vegetables, or even raise various spirit beasts, it will have wondrous effects..."
Great God Nuwa lowered one hand and planted a Five-Colored Lotus in a small pond not far from the watermelon field. It gradually sprouted lotus flowers until the entire pond was filled with them.
"Great God Nuwa... how large can this thing expand? How do I control it? Could it eventually become like the Primordial World? Could it give birth to a true heavenly grotto and blessed land?"
Chen Xuan asked several questions in succession, looking impatient. He was the very image of a little miser.
"First, acknowledge the Five-Colored Lotus as your master. Its range is roughly ten thousand meters. It cannot become a heavenly grotto and blessed land because this place belongs to the Age of Dharma's End. Unless it is the Chaos Green Lotus..."
Great God Nuwa sighed. She did not know why this world had entered the Age of Dharma's End.
Some great, unknown horror must have occurred, causing the world to fall into disorder. Even spiritual energy had withered, and the gods, ghosts, and divine emperors had all disappeared...
"How do I acknowledge it as my master? Do I drip blood on it?" Chen Xuan had read cultivation novels. The year 2010 was precisely the bronze age of online literature, when all kinds of great authors were rising.
"You only need to touch it. Dripping blood to acknowledge an artifact as master is something only done with worthless junk. Do you think I would pick that up?" Great God Nuwa said disdainfully.
"That makes sense. As expected of Creation Goddess Nuwa..." Chen Xuan gave her a thumbs-up, then touched the Five-Colored Lotus as well. He quickly understood how to use it.
With a wave of his hand, he took control of it. A sheet of light enveloped more than three mu, and the large patch of watermelons was nourished by spiritual energy, rapidly swelling and ripening...
"Great God Nuwa... do you have any other peerless treasures? Take them all out so I can play with them. Just looking would be fine too..." Chen Xuan rubbed his fists, filled with anticipation.
"Don't even think about it..." Great God Nuwa refused outright...
Chen Xuan was left deflated. He could only tend to the watermelons for a while. Sure enough, many more had ripened. He then sent Zhou Yanhong a message, telling her she could come and load a truck of watermelons...
About an hour later...
A pavilion in the middle of the fields...
Two figures were waiting there. One was drenched in sweat and looked utterly miserable, while the other was elegant, as if a gentle breeze were brushing past her face.
"Great God Nuwa... is this what a Grand Unity Golden Immortal is like? You're completely unaffected by the cold or heat. Could you cool me down a few times?" Chen Xuan was envious, his eyes blazing. The goddess was especially pleasing to look at.
"Indeed... this is one of the benefits of being an immortal." Great God Nuwa was completely frank.
"Great God Nuwa... you're so smug. Do you realize that?" Chen Xuan gritted his teeth.
"Mortals... you wouldn't understand my troubles." Great God Nuwa looked at him with utter disdain, as if he were an idiot.
Soon, a cargo truck arrived with a group of people. They picked the watermelons, but Zhou Yanhong did not come personally, and even that little secretary was nowhere to be seen. Before long, they had loaded another truck and departed in grand fashion.
At the entrance to Chen Family Village...
A group of villagers watched as a truckload was hauled away. They were not envious in the slightest; instead, they were full of disdain. Watermelons sold for two yuan per jin—what a huge loss.
"Hmph... so what if they haul away one truck? Believe Chen Xuan, that bastard who won't even have a decent son, and he'll cheat you blind while you help him count the money..."
"Some people just pretend to be noble and refuse to have anything to do with money. They insist on choosing watermelons that sell for two yuan per jin. Our watermelons sell for three yuan per jin, and I guarantee they're the best in the industry..."
"Watermelons that sell for three yuan per jin can't even compare to imported ones from overseas. Chen Xuan is an ingrate, and as a fellow villager, isn't he afraid we'll dig up his ancestors' graves? How dare he cheat everyone out of their income..."
"Exactly... I sold mine to Milin Hotel yesterday and earned more than a thousand yuan..."
As the village grew larger, all sorts of people appeared. Some especially disliked Chen Xuan. So what if he was Chen Family Village's first college student? He was still nothing but a profiteer.
"By the way... why hasn't anyone come to collect my watermelons? Didn't they say they were coming today?"
Someone noticed that something was wrong. It was already noon, yet no one had appeared. They had agreed to come in the morning, but there had been no movement at all.
"No, this won't do... I'll go to the village chief's house and call to ask." Someone suggested it. In 2010, mobile phones were becoming common, but in the countryside, household landlines were still the norm.
The old village chief was called out. Amid everyone's anticipation, he picked up the phone and said, "Is this Milin Hotel? I'm the chief of Chen Family Village. When are you coming to collect the watermelons?"
"What watermelons? Believe it or not, I'll smash your dog's head in. Wait for a court summons. What kind of junk are you trying to use to cheat Milin Grand Hotel? Get lost..." The furious man on the other end exploded in rage and hung up immediately...
"Village chief? What happened?" Everyone poked their heads out by the window, extremely anxious.
"Something happened over there! They won't be buying our watermelons anymore, and they're even going to sue us and demand compensation..." The village chief's face was deathly pale.
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