Old Man Yu's Lesson to His Sons

The Yu family's courtyard wall had been raised to three meters and thickened to half a meter. Just looking at it gave people a sense of sturdiness.

In years past, such a move might have aroused the curiosity of others.

But this year, the Yu family weren't the only ones doing it.

Ox Ridge was a small settlement, with barely more than a thousand people in total. Yet because the price of a Blessed Land quota had risen, fully a third of the population had chosen to stay.

And among those three hundred or so people, ninety percent were truly ordinary folk who hadn't even reached Fetal Movement.

A small number were people like Old Man Yu or Tiezhu.

In fact, there should have been even more people who couldn't scrape together enough Spirit Stones. But the Zhou family's Insect Hunter Team had doubled in size compared to last year.

Several other families had also taken the opportunity to collect quite a few contracts of servitude.

Joining an Insect Hunter Team was dangerous, but the payment they offered to help families settle in was generous. They had even promised that during the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, team members would share ten percent of the proceeds from the Insect Race they hunted.

This year, they could take a gamble. As long as they didn't die, life would be easier afterward.

Selling oneself into servitude was safer. During this period, the other party would also provide a quota to enter the Blessed Land. But for the next five years, or even ten, all the proceeds from cultivating the Spirit Fields would have to go to the other party.

If the price of a Blessed Land quota remained at this year's fifteen Spirit Stones, then the households accepting contracts of servitude would certainly lose money. But they were betting that the price of a quota would eventually return to what it had been before.

Neither choice was better or worse, right or wrong. Both were reluctant decisions made after weighing the options.

During this time, after learning that Old Man Yu had chosen to stay, some people had approached him. He was old, but at least he had reached Fetal Movement Major Accomplishment and was still useful. He had simply turned them down.

Aside from that, everything was as usual.

Until one day, Yu Ershan returned home with a face ashen with anger, while Yu Dashan came back with a bruised and swollen face.

"Did you get into a fight with someone?"

Old Man Yu asked curiously, but didn't think much of it.

A fight wasn't a big deal.

Especially lately, when the entire settlement seemed to be holding its breath.

"Father, Big Brother wanted to secretly join the Zhou family's Insect Hunter Team. I stopped him."

At Yu Ershan's words, Old Man Yu froze at first. Then his expression darkened. He stood up and took a long spear from behind the door—the one Tiezhu had made.

"Kneel!"

At Old Man Yu's icy command, Yu Dashan didn't argue. He dropped to his knees with a thump.

Old Man Yu turned the spear around, raised the shaft made of ironwood, and brought it down hard across Yu Dashan's back.

Smack.

Old Man Yu showed no mercy. The tough hemp shirt was torn open, and a vivid red welt appeared across Yu Dashan's sturdy back.

Smack! Smack!

Still not satisfied, Old Man Yu struck him twice more, leaving three clear welts in all.

Yu Dashan was a tough one. He clenched his teeth and didn't make a sound.

"Do you know why I'm beating you?"

Old Man Yu asked coldly.

He had held back just now. The autumn harvest was about to begin, and afterward they still had to hurry to the Blessed Land. Otherwise, if he'd truly let loose, Yu Dashan might not have broken any bones, but he'd still have been bedridden for half a month.

"I know."

Yu Dashan understood everything, but he didn't regret it.

Whenever he thought of how his father had been forced to stay behind for the sake of the three brothers, his heart twisted in agony.

At the very least, it would cost him more than ten years of his life. And if his luck ran out and those vicious insects sensed him, he wouldn't even leave a corpse behind.

As a son, how could he calmly stand by and watch that happen?

So he didn't regret his choice. He only regretted failing to cover his tracks and letting his crafty second brother find out.

"Then have you thought about the fact that, if you join the Zhou family's Insect Hunter Team, your chances of coming back alive might be less than two in ten?"

Old Man Yu asked again.

"I have. But someone from their family who's reached Fetal Movement Major Accomplishment after one Blood Change can get a hundred Spirit Stones as a settling-in payment. With those Spirit Stones, Father wouldn't have to stay behind, Second Brother might be able to recover from his injuries, and Third Brother could eat more Spirit Rice and face less danger when he begins cultivating through Fetal Movement."

Yu Dashan might have been honest and simple, but he wasn't stupid.

He had thought it all through. That was why he'd made this choice.

He'd even waited until the very last moment. He hadn't expected everything to fall through in the end.

"You..."

Old Man Yu was so angry he raised the spear shaft, ready to strike him hard twice more. But this time, Yu Ershan stopped him.

"Father, don't really injure Big Brother. In a couple of days, there'll be no one left to collect the Spirit Rice."

At his words, Yu Dashan glared at him.

That bastard, Second Brother!

If only he'd taken the chance to beat him up earlier, when the other guy was aiming punches at his face.

"Fine. I'll let you off with this beating for now. Second Brother, tell me where he went wrong."

Old Man Yu turned to look at his second son.

"Big Brother's mistake was underestimating himself and overestimating the Zhou family's limits. Father just said Big Brother had a one-in-five chance of coming back from the Insect Hunter Team, but in my view, he wouldn't even have a one-in-ten chance.

"This year, the Zhou family's Insect Hunter Team doubled in size. On the surface, their strength has greatly increased, and they seem safer.

"But in reality, this will only feed the Zhou family's ambition. During the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, they'll surely take greater risks, hoping to get more.

"That will naturally bring even heavier casualties.

"So if Big Brother goes, he basically won't come back."

Yu Ershan calmly laid out his reasoning.

"If you knew I wouldn't come back, why did you want to join the Zhou family's Insect Hunter Team earlier?"

Yu Dashan asked indignantly.

"Because he never planned to come back alive in the first place."

Old Man Yu answered for Yu Dashan.

"What?"

Yu Dashan was stunned.

"Father, last year, Big Brother Tian from the Tian family joined the Zhou family's Insect Hunter Team and came back alive. I asked him all about it, and I also know something about those insects' habits. Even if I went this year, I'd have at least a three-in-ten chance of coming back alive."

Yu Ershan had no choice but to defend himself.

He didn't want to burden the family, but he wasn't bent on dying, either. After all, who would choose death if they could live?

It was just that, as he saw it, if someone in the family had to make a sacrifice, it should be him.

"Nonsense!

"Don't you know the rumor that came out of New Moon Blessed Land?

"And you still think you have a three-in-ten chance of coming back alive?

"Do you take your father for a doddering old fool?

"You just said your big brother underestimated himself. So did you not underestimate yourself?"

Old Man Yu fired off question after question, leaving Yu Ershan silent.

"Of the three of you brothers, you're the one I trust most, and also the one I worry about most. I know you've been clever since you were little. If you hadn't accidentally injured your foundations back then, your achievements today wouldn't have been any worse than your big brother's. You might even have gone farther than him in the future.

"When you wanted to join the Zhou family's Insect Hunter Team, part of it was because you genuinely wanted to help this family. But part of it was that you wanted to gamble on a lucky break. Now I can tell you clearly: you don't need to risk your life for it. Our family already has that chance!"

"What?"

Yu Ershan stared at his father in disbelief.

Yu Dashan was just as astonished.

Their own family already had that chance?

How had they never known?