Mala Village

Three days later.

Carrying the supplies he had bought online, Chen Xuan pushed open the back door of Room 201. The exit had moved again, from the top of a hillside to a cave at the edge of the mountains. According to Liu Shuyue, as long as she considered a place her home and it had some of the features of a room, Room 201 would connect to it.

Take this cave, for example... It had no windows, just a wooden door and a straw bed, yet it still counted as a home.

Liu Shuyue was not in the cave.

That was no surprise. She had more than enough to keep her busy lately, either leading everyone in developing the resources around the mountains or traveling into central Qingzhou to guide more refugees here. To make sure Chen Xuan could find her whenever he needed to, she had given him her room key card and left him five Voice Transmission Talismans, promising to come as soon as she got word.

Chen Xuan stepped out of the cave. A little boy at the entrance immediately cupped his fists. "Greetings, shopkeeper!"

Chen Xuan recognized him. His name was Xue Xiaojin, one of the more talented children among the first refugees. After Dragon Blood awakened his potential, he had trained both the Pure Heart Art and the Spirit Sword Technique to the third level.

"Immortal Master Liu went exploring in the mountains. She said that if you came, you could look around the village first. I'll show you the way."

"What's today's date?" Checking the time was always the first thing Chen Xuan did when he arrived.

"November fifth," Xue Xiaojin answered promptly.

And the dragon had been slain three weeks ago.

When Chen Xuan had come yesterday, only fifteen days had passed here.

In other words, unless the door to Room 201 stayed open the whole time, time on the two sides passed at different rates, with no predictable pattern.

There was one broad rule, though: the closer a customer's connection to the Ability Store, the smaller the gap in time. Earlier, he had gone only a few days without seeing Liu Shuyue, yet five years had passed for her.

"Give this to whoever's in charge of farming." Chen Xuan took off his backpack and tossed it to Xue Xiaojin.

The boy lit up. "Could these be the 'immortal seeds' Immortal Master Liu mentioned?"

"That's right. The packages say what each one grows. If the crops do well, you might even get a harvest before winter."

"I'll take them over right now! Please wait here a moment, sir!"

"Mm. I'll go have a look by the lake."

Chen Xuan smiled as the boy hurried off, clutching the bag like treasure. There was nothing especially precious inside, just selected seeds bought online: herbs such as scallions and garlic, easy-to-grow vegetables such as Chinese cabbage and water spinach, and two big bags of potato and tomato seeds. The lot had cost less than five hundred yuan. But the seeds had good genetics, and with spells to speed their growth, the harvest should be impressive.

A few simple rafts cruised back and forth across the glittering lake, casting fishing nets. He had bought those nets too, and they brought in several thousand fish a day.

Along the lakeshore stood drying racks. Fish, game meat, and hides hung from the dense rows of wooden frames. The latter were the Hunting Squad's work. They had fashioned Dragon Tendon, Dragon Tooth, and Dragon Skin into fine bows, arrows, blades, and shields, easily becoming the dominant force among the creatures here. The natural resources were astonishingly abundant. Shoals of fish were visible to the naked eye in the clear blue water, while wild wolves and foxes in the woods even dared approach to beg for the organs the refugees cut from their catch.

Then again... calling them refugees no longer seemed right.

Liu Shuyue had named the village Mala.

They were residents of Mala Village now.

As for why she had chosen that name... her answer had left Chen Xuan torn between laughter and tears. The village could never have been built without his help, and the sign outside his shop said "Mala Tang."

Clearly, he needed to give his shop a proper name soon.

"Shopkeeper, I've delivered the seeds!"

Xue Xiaojin came running back with a grin.

"Good. How many people do you have now?"

"Around thirty-one thousand."

"That's quite a few."

"It is! Immortal Master Liu said that once we reach forty thousand, she'll give everyone another Dragon Blood bath so the people who arrived later can catch up with us."

Chen Xuan nodded. In Liu Shuyue's eyes, every part of that dragon was valuable; of course she would put it all to use. He had seen how extraordinary it was. Even after all this time, its separated blood and flesh had not rotted, as though life still lingered in them.

"Kid, what do you think of life here? Any regrets about coming to this wilderness?"

"Of course not, sir! These past few days have felt like a dream!" Xue Xiaojin said without hesitation. "Before, we couldn't even get one full meal. On the road, I was scared someone would eat me. Every night when I closed my eyes, I thought I might not survive until morning. Things only got better when Immortal Master Liu gave everyone relief rations. Now my mother and I get to eat meat every day, learn Immortal Arts, and I have more strength than I know what to do with!"

"What about before the famine?" Chen Xuan asked, curious.

"If the famine had never happened, that would have been best... My father and little brother would still be alive." The boy's voice fell. "But it happened. I won't pretend things can go back to how they were. From now on, I'll protect my mother!"

"That's the spirit."

"Then could you switch me to an ability better suited for fighting? I think I'd be better in the Hunting Squad than doing support work!"

"That's not up to me. Immortal Master Liu would have to approve it. Besides, the Hunting Squad only takes adults, doesn't it? You've got a while to wait."

As they chatted, Chen Xuan suddenly spotted a column of black smoke rising from the hill behind them.

"What's that smoke?"

"A signal fire." Xue Xiaojin's expression turned serious. "One column means unidentified people are approaching from the north."

The north... Chen Xuan thought for a moment. That probably meant Qingzhou's interior, since the refugees had already fled to the southern borderlands.

"Shopkeeper, could you come to the front of the village and stand with us?" the boy asked urgently. "Immortal Master Liu should be back soon. Until then, we need your strength."

Seriously, hadn't Immortal Master Liu told them their shopkeeper was no good at fighting people head-on?

Still, Chen Xuan was not worried. Liu Shuyue was somewhere in the Myriad Mountain Great Wilderness, so she could return to the village in a quarter of an hour or so. Besides, almost everyone in the village had achieved Qi-Sensing. Outside, they would count as beginner Cultivators. Ordinary enemies would have a hard time doing anything to them.

"All right. Lead the way."

Outside the village, at the site where they had slain the dragon, Chen Xuan saw the "unidentified people." There were only about a hundred of them. Half wore armor and looked like well-trained soldiers.

Had they come to attack the Qingzhou refugees?

A hundred was far too few. Even if the refugees had never bathed in Dragon Blood, thirty thousand people could tear them to pieces.

Mala Village's fighters were already prepared.

Nearly five hundred young men had gathered. Wrapped in animal skins and armed mostly with wooden spears and longbows, they looked like wild tribesmen. No one would have taken them for lofty practitioners at a glance. But appearances had nothing to do with fighting strength. Once battle began, each of them could take on ten ordinary men.

"Chen Xuan!"

A fragrant breeze swept in from the side.

Before her voice had faded, Liu Shuyue came to an abrupt stop and landed beside him.

"You used a Wind Riding Talisman again?" Chen Xuan nodded to her. "Aren't those precious talismans? Every one you use is one less you have."

She had used that very move when they killed the dragon, soaring into the sky and striking the Monster Dragon down with one slash.

Liu Shuyue smiled. "I've gotten better at making talismans lately. I can use Dragon Scales now, so I don't need to be quite so stingy with them. Especially when I sensed you'd arrived."

For Chen Xuan, they had been apart only a day. For her, it had been fifteen days.

Her smile seemed to dim the lush greenery around them.

Ever since they came to the Myriad Mountain Great Wilderness, Chen Xuan had felt that her spirits were much better, as though she had finally cast off some burden.

"They don't look like enemies." Liu Shuyue glanced at the distant hillside. "General Gong would never dare come looking for trouble with so few people."

Chen Xuan studied the group with the Divine Eye Method and suddenly spotted a familiar face he had not expected to see.

"Oh? What's he doing here?"

"Who?"

"The Prefect of Zhang Wei, Shen Fang."