On the Road

Amid the mountains and forests,

Rumble, rumble, rumble.

The ground trembled lightly, kicking up clouds of dust. Five carriages loaded with all manner of goods traveled along the official road, escorted on both sides by a team of forty or fifty people as they made their way through the woods.

"Move it! Pick up your pace! Great Bay Village is only ten li away!"

"Don't slack off! Push through in one go, and once we reach the place, you'll have plenty of time to rest!"

The team leader, dressed in a fitted gray outfit, patrolled back and forth, his face taut as he shouted stern reprimands.

The exhausted ordinary people in the convoy could only grit their teeth and force themselves onward, their minds filled with the thought that they would finally be able to rest once they reached their destination.

At this moment,

At the front of the convoy,

On either side of the foremost, relatively luxurious carriage, two tall horses rode half a body-length ahead, guarding the carriage from left and right.

On the tall horse to the left sat an old man in his sixties or seventies. Frost had touched his temples, yet his gaze remained sharp. A Decapitating Blade was slung diagonally across his back, and his entire body radiated a fierce, valiant air.

On the right was a guileless-looking man with a burly build. At his waist hung a Wolf-Tooth Mace over three feet long, its head bristling with savage iron spikes and weighing several hundred jin.

"Xiao Chuan, isn't your father being far too biased? No matter what, you're still his son. We're not asking for you to be like those eldest young masters, sent to some great city to enjoy life as a city lord, but at least you could have been assigned to work in some small town, right? What kind of arrangement is it to exile you to this godforsaken Great Bay Village?"

"We've spent three whole months just traveling here. This place is probably already the very edge of what your Tian Nan Shen Family can control!"

"What good could a dump like this possibly do for your cultivation?"

The fierce old man rode his tall horse as he spoke with dissatisfaction, his rough palm occasionally patting the horse's head and making it snort.

His words were filled with indignation over the treatment the youth in the carriage had received.

"Maternal Grandfather, the Patriarch has more than fifty sons and daughters. I'm merely one inconspicuous illegitimate son among them."

"They call me the Patriarch's illegitimate son, but in a great cultivation Lineage like the Shen Family, I am really no different from a servant."

Inside the carriage,

Fifteen-year-old Shen Changchuan wore a maturity utterly at odds with his age as he spoke calmly.

There was not much expression on his face as he spoke.

"This posting to oversee and manage Great Bay Village was something Mother obtained for me only after paying a great price and pleading on my behalf."

"Fortunately, Great Bay Village lies far from Tiannan City, at the edge of the Shen Family's sphere of influence. Other than the Spirit Grain produced by its Spirit Fields, it has no other source of income. That was the only reason it fell into my hands."

"Otherwise, as for those prosperous towns near Tiannan City, with my status, I would not even need to dream of them."

At this point, Shen Changchuan could not help but sigh.

He slowly explained the matter to the fierce old man beside him.

The sturdy old man was named Han Qinhu. He was Shen Changchuan's maternal grandfather.

Han Qinhu had originally been an ordinary farmer from a mountain village, but he had possessed exceptional talent from childhood. In his youth, he could wrestle tigers and leopards barehanded. Later, after receiving guidance from an expert, he mastered a formidable style of saber arts.

After reaching adulthood, he wandered the martial world and earned himself the name of a heroic man.

Yet even an Innate Hero renowned throughout the Mortal Realm was nothing before cultivators.

It was said that many years ago, Han Qinhu had suffered a crushing loss at the hands of cultivators. In the end, he gave up wandering the martial world, returned to his hometown to marry and have children, and fathered three sons and two daughters.

As for exactly what humiliation he had suffered before those cultivators, Han Qinhu's mouth was harder than iron. He had kept it locked away for half his life, and no one knew the truth.

Twenty years ago,

By a chance opportunity, the middle-aged Han Qinhu had made contact with a steward of the cultivation Shen Family and sent his famously beautiful daughter into the Shen Family as a maidservant.

A few years later, Shen Changchuan's father—the Shen Family Patriarch, Shen Fuxing, whom Shen Changchuan privately cursed as a humanoid breeding machine—took Shen Changchuan's mother after getting drunk one night. Thus, Shen Changchuan was born.

And because of that,

Compared to the eldest young masters born to the First Madam and Second Madam of the Shen Family, whose marriages were alliances between cultivation families, or the illegitimate sons and daughters born to concubines wed through alliances with the great imperial clans and noble houses of the Mortal Realm,

Shen Changchuan ranked among the very lowest of his humanoid-breeding-machine father's more than fifty children.

After all, Shen Changchuan's birth mother and her family were, in the eyes of other noble clans, imperial families, and even immortal sects, practically no different from Mortal Realm farmers.

It was only because he had some talent for cultivation, coupled with the mature temperament from his previous life and his careful conduct, that he had managed to survive. Otherwise, in the intrigue-ridden Shen Family Manor, he would truly have lived worse than a servant.

After all,

Within a great cultivation Lineage like the Shen Family, there was no such thing as brothers being friendly and respectful toward one another.

"Actually, being farther away is better. It suits me perfectly. At least I can avoid some of the struggles within the Lineage and steer clear of the whirlpool of conflict between the First Madam and Second Madam."

"With this little body of mine, even a small wave raised within the Lineage could slap me dead on the beach."

As he said this,

Shen Changchuan felt a lingering chill in his heart.

He was not indulging in groundless fears. Such things could truly happen.

Two years ago, one of his half-brothers had merely displayed rather good cultivation talent. The result was that he had somehow stabbed himself seven times in the back and committed suicide.

How could an ordinary man like him, who had been a commoner in his previous life, possibly take part in the sinister power struggles of such great families?

To be honest,

Back when he had been in Shen Mansion, he had lived on tenterhooks, trembling with fear, afraid that he might lose his life without even knowing why.

By comparison, being sent to Great Bay Village, far from Tiannan City, could not possibly be much worse no matter how bad it was.

"Sigh, that's true enough."

"It's far, but at least there's less of that damned filthy business."

At those words,

Han Qinhu opened his mouth and muttered.

However, his voice had lowered, clearly because he did not dare discuss the affairs of an immortal family's inner court in public.

Still, he understood the matter well enough.

Even outsiders had heard of the power struggle between the First Madam and Second Madam in the rear court of Shen Fuxing, Patriarch of the Shen Family.

As Shen Changchuan's maternal grandfather, he knew even deeper secrets.

But as a mere mortal, Han Qinhu did not dare speak too deeply of such private matters.

After all, disaster came from the mouth.

Han Qinhu had once roamed the martial world and weathered all manner of human affairs. He knew what could be said and what could not.

"I heard Great Bay Village has opened up a total of twelve mu of Spirit Fields. If they're managed well, then after paying the Lineage's share, it could still be considered a fine foundation."

In truth, Han Qinhu had no dissatisfaction with being stationed at Great Bay Village.

As a mere mortal in the eyes of immortals, what right did he have to pick and choose?

Who knew how many great martial heroes, famed throughout the Mortal Realm, could serve immortal families like dogs for years and still fail to earn even a bowl of Spirit Rice?

But Great Bay Village,

Was said to have a full twelve mu of Spirit Fields!

As long as the Spirit Grain planted there fulfilled the Shen Family's annual quota, everything left over belonged to the one stationed there.

With his grandson's connection, perhaps he might even get a taste of the Spirit Rice eaten by cultivators.

That was a precious thing which, if eaten year-round, gave one a chance to Attract Qi to the Dao!

And for that very reason,

When he received word from his daughter that his own grandson, Shen Changchuan, would be sent out to take up a post and needed people to help him, he gave up most of his property and business. He brought along his eldest son, Han Dayong, and more than half his household servants to follow his grandson to his new post.

Put nicely, they were going to help his grandson, lend him a hand, and assist him with manpower and management for the garrison.

Put bluntly, they had come eagerly hoping that when one man attained the Dao, even his chickens and dogs would rise to heaven. They wanted to cling to Shen Changchuan's thigh and have him carry their family's younger generation along.

How many renowned heroes in the outside world wanted to be dogs for immortal families and did not even have the means to do so?

If not for their blood relation, how could such good fortune ever have fallen to Han Qinhu?

His earlier grumbling had merely been out of indignation for his grandson Shen Changchuan's treatment.

In truth, he had been looking forward to this trip to Great Bay Village so eagerly that words could not describe it.

On the day of departure, he had barely slept well for several days.

How could he truly feel even the slightest disgust toward it?

Shen Changchuan chatted on and off with his maternal grandfather, Han Qinhu.

At the same time, he broadened the horizons of someone who had grown up in a deep manor courtyard, learning roughly what the world of ordinary mortals outside was like.

His eldest maternal uncle, Han Dayong, rode silently on the right, unable to squeeze out a single word for half a day. He did not join their idle conversation.

Just then,

Suddenly,

"Ah!"

A shrill scream abruptly rang out from the road ahead.

Shen Changchuan jolted awake.

Something had happened!