A Sense of Superiority

"Eh? How had this village become so quiet?"

Shen Shiying rode slowly along the village road on a large green horse with a trace of Demon Beast bloodline, his gaze sweeping over the surroundings.

Returning to this old place, he felt no nostalgia. Instead, he found it rather strange.

How should he put it?

It was too quiet!

A village with close to two thousand people,

yet there were scarcely any pedestrians on the roads at this moment.

Back when he had been in charge,

Great Bay Village might not have been particularly prosperous, but at the very least, it had never been this desolate!

"Could it be that our young master had gone too far and screwed things up?"

"Look at the white mourning banners hanging outside those homes. Someone in those families must have died recently."

"Not long ago was the Spirit Grain harvest season. Perhaps they were attacked by Demon Beasts from the mountains then, causing many villagers to die or be injured and leaving the village in this state."

"Hmph, I'd say they had it coming!"

"Without the ability, he still stole someone else's foundation. Who knew how much of this year's Spirit Grain yield had been ruined by Demon Beasts, and how much that young master would have to pay out of his own pocket to cover the losses?"

Behind Shen Shiying,

Shen Shaochong, who was likewise riding a green horse, spoke with undisguised glee.

A hint of mocking disdain appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Clearly, Shen Shaochong was extremely unhappy with Shen Changchuan for having "taken" their foundation.

How could he not be?

Ever since their family had lost the foundation of Great Bay Village and been forced to return to Tiannan City,

the subsequent developments had indeed unfolded just as Shen Shaochong had expected.

He, Shen Shaochong, had gone from being Young Master Shen, whom the children of other nearby cultivation lineages competed to flatter and curry favor with around Great Bay Village,

to a lowly lackey in Tiannan City who could only trail behind the real young masters, smiling and fawning.

Such a gap in status

was almost impossible for Shen Shaochong to accept.

It made him hate Shen Changchuan, who had taken his family's "foundation," all the more bitterly.

Now that he had returned once more,

seeing the village's current miserable state naturally filled him with a vengeful delight.

"Enough. Watch your mouth later, kid. He's the Patriarch's son, after all. Show some respect."

Hearing this, Shen Shiying at the front turned around and softly scolded Shen Shaochong.

Though Shen Shiying appeared to be rebuking him,

he was secretly delighted as well.

After guarding Great Bay Village for many years, he knew perfectly well just how much profit there was to be had here.

When Shen Changchuan had squeezed him out, his losses had been enormous.

Shen Shiying had never been willing from the very beginning.

It was only because circumstances had left him no choice but to accept it.

Yet only half a year had passed, and Great Bay Village was already bleak and deserted.

The villagers wore hemp mourning clothes and filial headbands,

while scattered joss paper lay along the roadside.

There was no need to ask. Anyone could guess what had happened from such a scene.

Something had happened nine times out of ten, and the losses had most likely been severe.

Seeing his "enemy" suffer misfortune made Shen Shiying feel as refreshed as if he had drunk a bowl of iced sour plum soup in the scorching heat of summer!

But he was middle-aged now and had experienced much. Even if he was secretly pleased, he no longer showed what he was thinking on his face.

Before long,

the entrance to the village hall came into view ahead.

Shen Changchuan had already come out to receive them.

"Haha, nephew, it has been a long time. Have you been well?"

Shen Shiying swung down from his horse, laughed heartily, and strode forward to greet him.

"Thank you for your concern, Uncle. Everything has been passable."

Shen Changchuan cupped his hands in salute as he replied.

After a round of polite greetings,

the group entered the hall one after another.

"Great Bay Village may have Twelve Mu Spirit Field, but this place lies in a wild and barren region, far from the prosperous parts of the Tiannan Domain. Nephew, life here must not have been easy, right?"

After taking a sip of the clear tea served by a servant, Shen Shiying looked at Shen Changchuan and teased him.

"Yes. This place truly isn't fit for people to live in."

Speaking of it, Shen Changchuan nodded with deep feeling.

Though managing Great Bay Village had brought tremendous gains,

its standard of living was truly far inferior to Tiannan City, that bustling region which had long since been fully developed!

"Not to mention anything else—during the Rainy Season a few months ago, it rained nonstop for two whole months. I stayed indoors until I practically grew mold."

"And even more terrifying was the army of Mountain Leeches that came crawling out from gods knew which mountain nooks and corners with the Rainy Season. They were simply unbearable!"

"They were packed together in dense masses, covering the mountains and fields, crawling over trees and grass. The forests outside looked as though they had come alive—every branch and leaf was covered in writhing tentacles that stretched through the air, probing and grasping. At the slightest disturbance, they would shoot over with crackling pops. If the wild beasts in the mountains let down their guard for even a moment, their bodies would be covered in those densely packed, squirming things. Within moments, they would be sucked dry and turned into mummified corpses. It was simply a forbidden zone within a Demon Lair!"

At the mention of this,

the terrifying scenes flashed through Shen Changchuan's mind, raising goosebumps all over his body and making every hair stand on end!

Even though one or two months had already passed,

it had still left a huge shadow in his heart.

"Nor was that all. There were rather too many Demon Beasts outside this place."

"Not long after I arrived, I killed a Yao Pig not far outside the village. Soon afterward, a Crocodile Demon emerged from the Great Bay River. We finally dealt with it at the cost of several lives, and then, just a few days ago, while harvesting the Spirit Grain, a Gale Falcon came swooping down from the sky."

Speaking of this,

Shen Changchuan could not help but complain.

Those successive battles did not even include the Four Fiends of Heshan's ambush against him!

The past half year had truly been fraught with danger at every step!

When he had still been in Tiannan City, even the remote mountains far beyond the city had not been so dangerous!

No wonder this wretched place possessed as many as Twelve Mu Spirit Field, yet no Shen Family descendants of even modest standing had fought to claim it.

Upon hearing this,

Shen Shiying was rather dumbfounded to learn that Shen Changchuan had encountered three Demon Beast incidents in just half a year.

There was nothing much to say about the Mountain Leech disaster during the Rainy Season. He had gone through it once every year while he had been in Great Bay Village.

But as for Demon Beasts,

during the years he had held the post, only the giant Yao Pig that appeared in his later years had caused much trouble.

It had never been this outrageous for Shen Changchuan!

Did this kid possess some special constitution that attracted Demon Beasts, or was he simply cursed with bad luck?

It made Shen Shiying's gaze toward Shen Changchuan carry a few more traces of sympathy.

But alongside that sympathy,

a sense of superiority arose within him.

With so many disasters and misfortunes, this kid was surely bound to lose money managing Great Bay Village!

Setting aside the Crocodile Demon,

he had heard of the Gale Falcon's fearsome reputation. It was something even Qi Gathering Late-stage cultivators found difficult to deal with!

Before a Gale Falcon, this kid probably did not have the slightest ability to fight back.

The scene he had seen upon entering the village,

with the entire village bleak and deserted, joss paper scattered across the roads, and white mourning banners hanging outside so many homes,

had nine chances out of ten been because this kid had wanted to preserve as much Spirit Grain as possible from the Gale Falcon's beak. He must have forcibly driven the villagers to harvest the Spirit Grain under the Demon Beast's threat, resulting in enormous casualties!

But even if he had filled the gap with human lives,

being able to save thirty percent of the Spirit Grain from the Gale Falcon's beak would already have been the absolute limit!

This kid was probably going to suffer a massive loss!

At that thought,

a trace of derision flashed through Shen Shiying's heart.

Young people like this

saw others making money and relied on connections to rush over and forcibly seize their foundation, only to make a complete mess of things when it was their turn to do it.

He deserved to lose every last coin!

Shen Shiying sneered inwardly.

Those of you who are following along, please continue reading as much as possible. If you want to stockpile chapters, wait until it goes premium. Following is very important during the new-book period, and too many great authors have started books this month. If the follow-up numbers are too poor, then without recommendations, it'll be all over.

Tomorrow, it'll go on the third round of recommendations. I don't dare hope for Three Rivers, but if the follow-up data is good enough, getting a few more rounds of recommendations would still be pretty nice.