Harvest and Trouble

"You guys... help clean up the battlefield."

Shen Changchuan put the Soul-Snatching Bell away. He also saw the Patriarchs of the various villages who had fled halfway and stopped, calling out to them.

His words paused midway.

That brief pause terrified the few men, turning their faces pale.

Fortunately, his subsequent words relieved them.

He was merely assigning them tasks, not settling scores.

The Patriarchs immediately got to work themselves, searching the surrounding corpses for various spoils of war.

Shen Changchuan glanced at them.

He didn't say anything.

Speaking of which, these guys fled without fighting, scattering before the battle even began.

It did make him a little unhappy.

However, upon further thought, they weren't his subordinates.

On the contrary, the Patriarchs of these villages were, in a sense, his benefactors.

Sixty to seventy percent of their annual harvest had to be offered to him.

Since they were benefactors, why should he be harsh?

It was like readers paying to subscribe to your novel; what's wrong with a few filler chapters?

The customer is God.

The one paying is the boss.

Thinking this way, Shen Changchuan's unhappiness naturally vanished.

"It makes sense, they're only at the Qi Gathering Third or Fourth Level. It's normal for them to be scared in front of such powerful enemies."

Considering the substantial offerings they made each year, Shen Changchuan proactively found excuses for them.

He walked up to the corpse of the black-clothed leader and picked up a branch, using it to hook the storage bag from under his right sleeve.

Good luck.

The storage bag wasn't damaged in the fight.

Shen Changchuan infused it with Magical Power, resealing the mark of its original owner.

A space of about seven or eight cubic meters appeared in his perception.

Shen Changchuan carefully searched its contents.

But soon, his brow furrowed slightly.

Because the contents were far less than he expected!

There were only twenty to thirty spirit stones.

There were about eight to nine hundred jin of spirit grain, along with various Yao Beast materials, miscellaneous items, and ores, which took up a lot of space.

But all of this combined was likely not even worth a hundred spirit stones.

Besides these, there was only a low-grade magic item sword and a bottle of pills.

Poor, so very poor!

Shen Changchuan was somewhat disappointed.

Having experienced the rich spoils of war from the Four Fiends of Heshan, he found the current harvest rather unimpressive.

You are at the Peak Qi Gathering Sixth Level, and so was the leader of the Four Fiends of Heshan.

But he was much richer than you!

Not to mention anything else, just the Soul-Snatching Bell, a magic item, was worth six to seven times the total value of all the property in this storage bag!

Shen Changchuan couldn't help but sigh inwardly and shake his head slightly.

With a flip of his palm, a bottle of pills appeared in his palm.

He opened the stopper, examined the appearance and color of the pills inside, and then smelled their scent.

His expression changed slightly at that moment.

"Alright, I guess I was speaking a bit too loudly just now,"

Shen Changchuan muttered to himself.

He discreetly put the stopper back into the jade bottle and returned the pill to his storage bag.

Inside, his heart grew extremely solemn at that moment.

The scent of Azure Origin Water Grass, he couldn't be mistaken!

Not too long ago, he had refined a seedling of Azure Origin Water Grass.

The sensation that made his Soul clear was still fresh in his memory even now!

The clear, Soul-purifying scent emanating from this pill, was almost identical to his previous memory!

Shen Changchuan was certain, that the main ingredient of this pill was definitely Azure Origin Water Grass.

And it was an adult Azure Origin Water Grass at that!

"Azure Origin Water Grass seedlings alone are already extraordinarily valuable, let alone adult Azure Origin Water Grass, and it's even been refined into a pill?!"

"I remember there's a pill that uses Azure Origin Water Grass as its main ingredient, called the Azure Origin Purifying Spirit Pill."

"And this pill's value is in no way inferior to an Out of Body Pill!"

Shen Changchuan's eyes narrowed slightly.

The Out of Body Pill, was a breakthrough pill that could increase the success rate of cultivators at the peak of Qi Gathering Ninth Level breaking through to the Out of Body Stage.

Its value was self-evident!

And the Azure Origin Purifying Spirit Pill, with a comparable value, its preciousness could be imagined!

"Azure Origin Water Grass."

Shen Changchuan's thoughts shifted, because he was reminded of the Azure Origin Water Grass seedling at the bottom of the Great Bay River.

He thought of the case twenty years ago in Great Bay Village, where a collateral branch of the Shen Family died and the Hu Family was annihilated.

"Such a precious spiritual medicine isn't like cabbage."

"Could it be that in some hidden place in this desolate region, such a rare natural treasure is produced?"

Shen Changchuan's gaze flickered with uncertainty.

He had suspected something was amiss long ago.

The Patriarch of the Hu Family in Great Bay Village back then only had a cultivation base of Qi Gathering Seventh Level.

With such strength, sending out any cultivator at Qi Gathering Ninth Level would have been enough to sweep away everything. Why would they need to trouble a True Cultivator at the Out of Body Stage from the Shen Family to personally come?!

It was like using a anti-aircraft gun to swat a mosquito!

Although he felt something was strange, later, Great Bay Village went through Shen Shiying's tenure, and then his own, Shen Changchuan's succession, and nothing particularly noteworthy happened in between.

Even if he wanted to investigate, he had no direction. Unless he met that True Cultivator at the Out of Body Stage from the Shen Family and asked him personally, he might be able to understand the reason.

But that was obviously impossible.

"Stop, stop, stop, don't think about so much right now!"

Too many things were involved, and Shen Changchuan felt a headache coming on. He quickly stopped his thoughts.

These issues were too far-fetched; he would deal with them later.

"Those are not important for now. The most important thing currently is to find out where this pill came from and who knows about it!"

Shen Changchuan quickly retracted his thoughts, returning to the focus of his current attention.

"Right, what about those two people who were being chased?"

Thinking of this, Shen Changchuan finally reacted.

He spoke out to the people around him to inquire.

As the ones being chased, they might know the identities of these black-clothed men.

However, the Patriarchs from various villages who were searching for spoils of war looked at each other, shook their heads, and indicated they didn't know.

The battle had erupted too suddenly, and their escape had been too decisive, to the point that no one had even noticed the two figures, one large and one small, being chased, who had initially caused this conflict.

"Um. The old immortal master just asked for our identities and told us to inform the immortal masters that he would repay them handsomely in the future, then he hurriedly left with his people."

Just then, several mortal martial artists from the rear of the caravan stepped forward and said somewhat tremblingly.

"Did that person leave any identifying information?"

"No."

Shen Changchuan couldn't help but frown.

But he didn't waste any more words, and immediately ordered:

"Pack up your things as quickly as possible and set off immediately!"

Shen Changchuan vaguely felt that

he might have gotten involved in some trouble.

But there was nothing he could do, after all, the black-clothed men had attacked them first; they couldn't just lay down their weapons and let themselves be slaughtered without any resistance, could they?

It was best to leave first!

Soon, everyone efficiently packed up the spoils of war and set off again.

Shen Changchuan lagged behind, he thought for a moment, and unleashed over a dozen fireballs, burning away all traces of the battle.

Then he followed the caravan and left quickly.