Rise to Fortune

Qiu Luoye agreed to the land reclamation, Li Banfeng brought people to Qiu Luoye's Territory that very day.

With over a thousand people clearing the land, if we leave it unattended, things could get really messy; they could even start fighting over choosing Land Block.

But Li Banfeng had already planned ahead. He distributed maps to everyone along the way, with Land Block already marked on them. He also showed everyone a video on a projector, giving them three days to choose a plot. If they chose the same plot twice, it would be first come, first served.

We've looked at the maps, we've seen the videos, and we've explained everything clearly, but once we got to the site, some people still brought up the idea of exchanging land.

Can I exchange it?

Yes, you can choose a plot of land outside of the Land Block designated by Li Banfeng and become the landowner yourself. There will be no reward money, and you will have to pay for the land reclamation yourself.

Once the Land Block was selected, offerings were prepared that day, and the Qiu Luoye responded one by one. The examination began the next day.

These thousand-plus people are not capable of developing more than a thousand plots of land.

Some groups of three to five people would gather together to cultivate Land Block within a mile in radius, while others would gather together to cultivate Land Block within a three-mile radius.

Teams can be formed however they like. Li Banfeng will reward the land according to the rules, and how the money is divided afterward is the developers' own business.

But we must also be wary of those who lack real skills but come here to cause trouble.

There were a few people with little cultivation who insisted on driving three miles by themselves. Li Banfeng sent all of these people back halfway, as he didn't have time to waste on them.

Some of these people refused to leave and insisted on arguing with Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng simply sent these people to the Little Underworld to provide some food for the dead.

During this assessment, Qiu Luoye gave orders to his subordinates to keep the Strange Monsters under control and strive to ensure that all of them could successfully complete the pioneering work.

The first day went smoothly, and all the pioneers passed the test successfully.

By the morning of the following day, more than a hundred people had failed to clear the land and were forced to leave the Land Block.

Li Banfeng had seen over a hundred people, many of whom were skilled pioneers.

These skilled fighters didn't get greedy. Five fighters formed a team and cleared a territory of about one mile in radius, but a Strange Monsters drove them out in less than five minutes.

Li Banfeng called over the leader of the five pioneers, secretly gave him some reward money, and asked him what had happened.

The leader, named Zhao Yongtian, was in his early forties. He said to Li Banfeng, "I have three levels of cultivation, and I have one level two and three level one subordinates. We can easily cover a mile."

Our plan is to get the job done first, break even, and if Seventh Master thinks highly of us, we can acquire a few more plots of land and earn more.

Who would have thought that a jujube tree would come this morning, enter the Land Block, and start hitting us with its branches? None of us could withstand it at once.

I told you it would take five minutes because I was afraid you'd laugh at us; we were all kicked out in less than half a minute.

What level of cultivation does this jujube tree possess?

It's probably more than four stories, isn't it?

Meng Yuchun once said that Strange Monsters whose cultivation level barely reaches the fourth level can go to Land Block within a mile to be tested, but this is a situation where the Local Earth God particularly dislike those who are pioneers.

People of higher rank are not allowed to enter the Land Block for examinations; otherwise, it would be considered a breach of contract.

What's Qiu Luoye up to? Is he deliberately calling people from the fourth floor and above to test him? Does he not want things to succeed?

Li Banfeng frowned and went directly to find Qiu Daxiang. When he arrived at Qiu Luoye's residence at the foot of Elephant Mountain, he saw Qiu Luoye grabbing a jujube tree and cursing, surrounded by many Strange Monsters.

"Brother Qiu, what happened?" Li Banfeng stepped forward to ask.

Qiu Luoye gritted his teeth and said, "Seventh Brother, don't get involved in this. I'm going to chop this bastard up."

The jujube tree didn't mince words. "Come on, chop it down, Autumn Master. I've been with you for so many years, don't hold back."

When Qiu Luoye was about to take action, Li Banfeng stopped him, saying, "Explain the whole story first."

"Enough said!" Qiu Luoye roared. "This bird tree has five levels of cultivation, yet it runs all the way to this Land Block to test me. Isn't it deliberately undermining me?"

Li Banfeng asked the jujube tree, "Why did you do that?"

"To survive!" the jujube tree cried out. "They've given them all the land, how are we supposed to live?"

Shui Yongquan, who was watching the commotion from the sidelines, sighed, "They've been too hasty."

He wasn't wrong; this situation was indeed caused by overly rapid land reclamation.

If a region is cleared ten times a year, this is not a big problem. A careful Local Earth God will control the number of Strange Monsters and gradually send some of Strange Monsters to other regions. The other Strange Monsters will hardly notice any changes.

However, in the Qiu Luoye's Territory, the land is cleared thousands of times a year, and this time more than a thousand people have come. The number of Strange Monsters in his land is dense, and his living space has been squeezed out too much. These Strange Monsters will inevitably rise up in rebellion.

Qiu Luoye didn't care about all that; he was going to chop down the jujube tree as a warning to others.

But the other Strange Monsters weren't having any of it. "Master Qiu, if you're going to kill him, kill us all too!"

In the heat of the moment, Qiu Luoye roared, "Fine, today I'll grant your wish! I'll send you all on your way!"

Li Banfeng tried to stop Qiu Luoye again, asking, "If the entire area is successfully cleared, what will happen to the Strange Monsters that inhabit it?"

Li Banfeng has always been concerned about this matter, and he will face the same problem in the future.

The entire area has been successfully cleared, and the new land will become the Proper Land, Proper Land there are no Strange Monsters.

Qiu Luoye said, "I'll arrange a place for them!"

Shui Yongquan shook his head and said, "How do you plan to arrange it? If it's divided into several hundred or eighty years and sent out gradually, that would be easier to handle."

You've developed over 30% of the Land Block in the past year, where are you going to send them? To me? I can't support them!

Qiu Luoye spat and said, "What a shameless face! Who said I was going to give it to you? I have plenty of friends, I can give it to anyone."

Shui Yongquan laughed, "Why don't you try sending one? See if they dare to accept it. You're leading hundreds or thousands of men into their territory; who knows what your intentions are? If things turn sour, who won't be afraid of you working against them from the inside?"

The Qiu Luoye swung their noses, clearly annoyed.

Once he gets angry, his mind basically stops working. He grabbed the jujube tree, about to kill it, when Li Banfeng stepped forward and whispered a few words in his ear.

Qiu Luoye was taken aback. "Seventh Brother, does such a place really exist?"

"Yes, leave this to me."

Qiu Luoye shook her nose. "Fine, go ahead and tell them."

Li Banfeng said to the Strange Monsters, "Everyone, listen to my advice. I will arrange a place for you all, and I will make sure you are not mistreated! Those who are willing to come with me will set off in three days. Those who are not willing to come with me, Brother Qiu will not treat you unfairly either."

This was a win-win situation for Li Banfeng and Qiu Luoye, as his territory was lacking in Strange Monsters, and he had made a great profit.

It depends on how the Strange Monsters weigh things.

Judging from the way the Qiu Luoye, they are clearly heading towards the Proper Land. If these Strange Monsters had made plans earlier, they should have followed Li Banfeng to choose a good place.

But staying isn't necessarily a bad thing. Although their living space is being squeezed, they have more opportunities to take exams and earn cultivation points. As long as they follow the rules, Qiu Luoye is never stingy when it comes to rewarding cultivation points.

With a way out finally found, the Strange Monsters dispersed and went home to consider their future.

Two days later, the examination ended, and more than a hundred plots of land were selected from more than a thousand people. Li Banfeng immediately paid out the reward and offered that those who were willing to make money could stay and continue to cultivate the land.

Nearly 20% of the pioneers left, while more than 80% stayed.

Earning money by clearing land is hard; it's like walking on a knife's edge.

But Li Qi offered a lot, and since they were already there, they all wanted to make another profit!

Qiu Luoye asked Li Banfeng, "Seventh Brother, can you handle it? Although I haven't been involved in these worldly matters for many years, what you're doing must have cost a lot of money."

"It's alright, I can handle it!" Li Banfeng's cheeks trembled as he said this.

This is really expensive! Truckloads of silver dollars are being transported to the border. If business hadn't been booming, Li Banfeng wouldn't have dared to do this.

The rest of the people continued to clear the land, while Li Banfeng led more than a hundred Strange Monsters to his own territory.

These Strange Monsters are usually carefree and don't want to earn cultivation through examinations. They just want to find a quiet place to pass the time, so they made plans early on.

But Li Banfeng's place was too remote, and these Strange Monsters creatures kept nagging along the way.

"Seventh Master, where are you taking us? It's not some no man's land, is it?"

"We won't go to unclaimed land; nobody gives cultivation points there."

Li Banfeng laughed and said, "Yes, the Local Earth God there is wonderful, generous and kind!"

Once they arrived at the territory, Li Banfeng first instructed the group of Strange Monsters to find places to settle down.

The group of Strange Monsters didn't move.

"Seventh Master, where is the Local Earth God? Could you please invite him out so we can sign a contract together?"

That's easy to discuss, but how should the contract be written?

Li Banfeng had never written one before and was afraid of revealing his ignorance, so he went to Meng Yuchun's house and learned it from Meng Yuchun.

The contents of this contract are quite complicated. The first part describes the cause and effect, such as on a certain day of a certain month of a certain year, and for what reason so-and-so came to this place.

The second part describes the obligations of the Strange Monsters, which are mainly divided into two points: first, they must abide by the rules of the Land Block and not leave the Land Block at will; second, they must obey the orders of the Local Earth God and fight for the Local Earth God when necessary.

The third part describes the rights of the Strange Monsters, specifically the circumstances under which Strange Monsters can be distributed to them.

Among the contracts Meng Yuchun wrote to the other Strange Monsters, Li Banfeng saw one that read, "Those who fight well before the mirror will be richly rewarded."

Li Banfeng asked Meng Yuchun, "What does 'a skilled warrior in front of a mirror' mean?"

Meng Yuchun shook her head and said, "You don't need to write this."

Following the example, Li Banfeng wrote a contract and returned home, where he had everyone help him copy it.

Hong Ying is blind, but her calligraphy is quite good. Her Wife reads aloud to her while Hong Ying writes. In a short time, she has written more than a dozen pieces. Her characters are strong yet beautiful, and they are very pleasing to the eye.

Gloves write quickly, and although the handwriting is a bit messy, they can write thirty or fifty pages in the blink of an eye.

Li Banfeng was eager to see the Judge's Brush's calligraphy, and the Judge's Brush was also eager to demonstrate its skills.

He struggled to his feet, flew to the table, unfolded a Contract Paper, dipped his brush in ink, and was about to write when Gloves and Hong Ying had already finished writing all the contracts.

Li Banfeng looked at the Judge's Brush and said, "Don't rush, you can write slowly."

"Hmph~" The Judge's Brush wiped the ink off his body and went to rest.

Li Banfeng couldn't let him rest; he still had to meet these new subordinates.

First, set up the scene using a projector; projectors are very familiar with this.

We can borrow some influence from Hong Ying; as long as we make it clear beforehand, Hong Ying won't have any problems.

Li Banfeng first notified a group of Strange Monsters to wait at a designated location.

Taking advantage of his Travel Cultivator, he arrived at the designated location ahead of time, concealed his form, and had the Wine Gourd slowly spray wine, creating a ball of green fire to represent the image of Local Earth God.

With everything prepared, Li Banfeng gave the Judge's Brush the order, "Fly."

Half an hour later, Li Banfeng finally took flight, less than a foot off the ground.

Flying close to the group, Li Banfeng remained silent, knowing that speaking too much would reveal his timidity.

He took out a contract from his pocket and threw it accurately at the troublesome jujube tree. He never missed within five meters; the contract was thrown with exceptional accuracy.

After all the contracts were distributed, no one had any objections, except for one man with a bull's head who shook his head and said, "This contract is wrong; it's different from Master Qiu's!"

Li Banfeng didn't want to talk, but he just happened to run into this troublemaker.

It's perfectly normal for contracts to have slight discrepancies, isn't it? Why does this person have to be so particular?

Li Banfeng asked the bull-headed man in a deep, hoarse voice, "What do you mean by different?"

"The quality is far inferior!" The bull-headed man took out a contract from his pocket, which Qiu Luoye had returned to him.

Li Banfeng took the contract. The contract was a scroll, made of very fine materials, and its appearance was also very exquisite.

It's surprising that the rugged Qiu Luoye put so much effort into the contract; the content must be much richer than what Li Banfeng wrote.

Li Banfeng unfurled the scroll and saw only eight large characters written on it, "From now on, follow me, Qiu Luoye!"

Below the eight large characters are bloody hoof prints left by the bull-headed man.

The bull-headed man shouted, "On Master Qiu's contract, I recognize the character 'Ye'. On your contract, I don't recognize a single character. Your contract is clearly of poor quality. You're not trying to cheat us, are you?"

Is it so great to know only one word?

Li Banfeng looked at the jujube tree and asked, "Who among you can read?"

The jujube tree snorted coldly, "Old Cow is still quite something; I don't recognize the character 'Ye' in that name."

Everyone nodded in agreement, praising Old Cow for his skill.

Li Banfeng had no choice but to read the contract aloud.

After all the contracts were signed, Li Banfeng took them back to Portable Abode.

The Wife looked at the contracts and said to Li Banfeng, "Husband, these Strange Monsters that have signed contracts are both local popularity and local fighting force. When we reach the clouds, they will be your foundation. But more than a hundred are really too few. Husband, you need to find more."

Should we find more?

That works too!

There's nowhere to put the fallen Qiu Luoye anyway, so let's collect them all.

PS: Thanks to Alliance Leader Hejian_Shouhu for his strong support.