Rapid Development

[Your clan members successfully prevented the calamity victims' invasion.]

[Incense +300!]

With the Hu Family Ancestor dead, this invasion had completely ended.

No.

Or rather, it had only just begun!

Inside the Li Family Ancestral Hall, the Li descendants had gathered. Only that brat Li Yaozu was outside dealing with the surviving calamity victims. Those victims had not joined the group that had forcibly stormed the Li Family grounds, and Li Dalong seemed to have other arrangements for them.

At this moment.

One surviving cultivator had been bound hand and foot. Facing the Li Family and the enormous Purple Thunder Heavenly Sun Python, he trembled like a leaf!

"This unfilial descendant was useless and forced our ancestor to act personally. Please punish us, Ancestor!"

Li Dalong knelt before the Ancestral Tablet with his wife and children.

Watching from behind the screen, how could Li Xiang possibly blame the Li Family?

Their performance this time had left him extremely satisfied. Still, Li Xiang frowned. "Let's first ask about the Tailin Hu Family. They've come looking for trouble twice already."

He tapped the Purple Thunder Heavenly Sun Python's portrait and typed—

Ask about the Hu Family.

In an instant, the temple guardian beast received the message Li Xiang had conveyed. It actually bowed its body toward Li Xiang's tablet in a humanlike manner before speaking to the Li Family.

"Hiss~ sss~"

Compared to its previous roars, the Purple Thunder Heavenly Sun Python now spoke softly, producing the low hiss of a snake.

"???"

Listening to the sound from the game, Li Xiang scratched his head. For some reason, he thought of the sound of Voldemort speaking with snakes in Harry Potter. Voldemort was me all along?

"Is the Ancestor delivering instructions?"

Li Dalong immediately realized that the temple guardian beast was conveying Li Xiang's orders!

Xu Cuihua was, after all, a Beast Tamer.

She merely closed her eyes and pondered for a moment, yet she clearly understood the message conveyed by the Purple Thunder Heavenly Sun Python. "The Ancestor says we are to resolve the Hu Family trouble!"

"Please rest assured, Ancestor. Your child will certainly handle this matter properly!"

Li Dalong understood at once.

Though Li Dalong looked like a rough and burly man, he was actually meticulous as silk. He quickly began questioning the captured cultivator for exact intelligence.

This cultivator was spineless. Before Li Dalong could question him bit by bit, he had already spilled everything he knew.

As he listened to the cultivator's account.

Li Xiang began to ponder as well.

It turned out that throughout this ten-year drought, the cultivators of Tailin Town had been providing relief. But this time, the Hu Family Ancestor had deliberately withheld porridge from the calamity victims, luring the starving madmen here to test the Li Family. That was how this invasion of calamity victims had come about.

As one of the Four Great Families of Tailin, the Hu Family had four ancestors, all Foundation Establishment Realm experts who had been in seclusion for many years. Their foundation ran deep.

"My lords, it's impossible for you to seek revenge against the Hu Family!"

The cultivator's face went pale. "The Four Great Families of Tailin Town are the town's foundation. Though they occasionally have minor disputes, they have always cooperated in order to keep outsiders from seizing their resources. And Tailin Town's mayor will not permit chaos in the town. If you dare touch the Hu Family, the mayor will brand you traitors as well!"

"Hiss~ sss~"

The Purple Thunder Heavenly Sun Python's enormous head suddenly appeared before the cultivator, frightening him so badly that he nearly wet himself. "D-Don't... don't eat me. I've said everything I know! I can even offer you advice. I..."

"I've abandoned darkness and turned toward the light!"

Xu Cuihua knew that the temple guardian beast was not threatening this cultivator. Smiling, she stepped forward. "Don't be afraid. Our Ancestor merely wishes to ask whether Tailin Town will retaliate because we killed the Hu Family Ancestor?"

"No, they won't!"

The cultivator hurriedly said, "The Hu Family Ancestor is dead. Even if you gave them eight hundred times their courage, they wouldn't dare send anyone here. The other three families will surely rejoice at their misfortune and won't invite trouble upon themselves. But they also won't let you enter the town to kill people. The Hu Family will be even less likely to dare anything. Still, you must be careful. They may not dare break in here, but as long as you lack the protection of this great python, they will strike at you!"

At those words, everyone's expressions turned grave.

"Damn it, we're being blockaded at our doorstep."

Li Xiang grumbled. Once he understood the Li Family's current situation, he accelerated the game's time flow and instructed the Li Family to proceed cautiously in the days ahead and avoid going out unless necessary.

Immediately afterward.

Li Xiang began checking this battle's gains. They had wiped out thirteen cultivators in total.

The Li Family had never possessed many magical artifacts, but this time, equipment had dropped everywhere!

[Obtained spoils: Hu Family Ancestor's human skin.]

[Obtained spoils: Spirit Breath Flying Sword (magical artifact)]

[Obtained spoils: Black Storage Ring (magical artifact)]

[Obtained spoils...]

"Thanks to the Hu Family for providing the startup capital for our family's development!"

Li Xiang watched the development within the game with a broad grin.

The entire Li Family had traded their shotguns for cannons!

Li Dalong had once carried two large cleavers, but now he had a strange cyan weapon with spearheads on both ends slung across his back as he traveled toward Silver Iron Forest.

[Silver Ring Yin Hand Double-Headed Snake (mid-grade magical artifact)]

[Can split into two, linked by chains. Created by extracting venom daily from the mouths of a hundred silver-ring snakes, then soaking a spirit-infused iron weapon for seven times seven, forty-nine days. From then on, this magical artifact can produce Silver Ring Snake venom on its own, storing it within the twin spears. Pour true qi into the spears to summon the aid of snake spirits!]

Looking at Li Dalong's magical artifact, Li Xiang felt rather envious.

This magical artifact had clearly been crafted using an ancient technique. In his present world, magical artifacts like this were already rare. Most people used magical artifact pistols, magical artifact bombs, magical artifact mechs... Over the past thousand years, technology and cultivation had gradually merged.

Meanwhile, Li Yaozu used the Spirit Breath Flying Sword taken from the Hu Family Ancestor.

[Spirit Breath Flying Sword (high-grade magical artifact)]

[Tempered from high-grade Spirit Breath Stone, it can absorb the spiritual essence of heaven and earth into the sword for its wielder's use. This sword possesses spirit and comes with its own sword-control technique. Even those who have not learned sword control may wield it, killing invisibly.]

Li Xiang had seen this sword's power before.

With one whoosh, it had shattered his tablet...

The other Li Family members also possessed magical artifacts. However, unlike father and son Li Dalong and Li Yaozu, who preferred fighting and killing, the others had different matters to attend to.

Time passed swiftly.

The Li Family did not rashly head to Tailin Town to make trouble. Although Tailin Town occasionally sent people to harass them, those people never even approached the Li Family grounds before losing their heads.

[Li Family, Year 19.]

[Half of those who invaded the Li Family grounds that year survived. Having received aid from the Li Family, they cultivated farmland outside the Li Family and gradually formed a village...]

Li Dalong had asked him about this matter.

Li Xiang had been the one to tell Li Dalong to keep those people. Slaughter was forever the worst possible choice.

The Li Family possessed enough spirit beasts. With their talents, they could summon water to irrigate the fields, while their droppings made the finest fertilizer!

In this year of great calamity, the victims under the Li Family's Protection could farm, raise chickens and ducks, and after paying taxes, save the Li Family members time spent on agricultural labor. Then, in the near future, the food they produced could feed the spirit beasts controlled by the family!

Besides...

These calamity victims were also decent laborers.

Outside the Li Family grounds, vast stretches of fertile fields had already been cultivated. Livestock ran merrily between the fields, while the calamity victims who had once been skin and bones gradually put flesh back on their bodies. Everyone's face brimmed with smiles.

Not only that.

After gaining nearly five hundred laborers, the Li Family grounds had undergone a complete transformation.

The courtyard they had once built from stone had become a structure of gray bricks and white tiles, covering nearly a thousand square meters and looking quite magnificent. Occasionally, a few spirit beasts could be seen leaping over the walls or soaring above them.

Even so, villagers continued grinding stones. Once they had polished the stones into regular shapes, they began laying them flat across the ground outside the Li Family.

The once solitary Li Family.

Now truly showed signs of gradually growing into a great family. The area centered around the Li Family had begun to bustle and flourish as well.

"Ancestor, come look! The big tree I planted in the Spirit Beast Garden has bloomed!"

As Li Xiang admired the developing Li Family, a delighted voice from the Ancestral Hall interrupted his thoughts.

Li Yaoqing came hopping into the Ancestral Hall.

"The Beast Blood Fruit Tree? It's finally doing something?!!"

Li Xiang was overjoyed.

He quickly tapped Li Yaoqing's portrait, and the Ancestral Tablet followed her perspective into the Spirit Herb Garden!

Sure enough.

Brilliant red flowers had blossomed all over the towering Beast Blood Fruit Tree!

"Awesome!"

Ever since the Beast Blood Fruit Tree had been brought back, there had been no sign of activity. Li Xiang had worried that they had ruined it through planting. Now, he finally saw hope!

[Beast Blood Fruit Tree]

[Status: Watered with the blood of several hundred human corpses and nourished by cultivators' blood, it has absorbed sufficient nutrients. The fruits it bears this year will be even more vibrant!]

"??????"

After tapping the Beast Blood Fruit Tree and seeing its status information, Li Xiang froze. Then he looked at Li Yaoqing below the tree, who seemed utterly innocent as she gently stroked the fruit with a tender expression. "Good girl, you're way too criminal."

Since that invasion incident, he had not paid much attention to how the Li Family handled the corpses.

Now he understood!

Several hundred corpses—all of them had been drained by this little girl to nourish the Beast Blood Fruit Tree!

Li Xiang did not even dare imagine such a thing.

If he dared do that in reality, the entire country would denounce him by the next day...

"Mm... but the result is good."

Li Xiang immediately bestowed a dose of Love from the Ancestor upon Li Yaoqing.

"Thank you for the reward, Ancestor!"

Feeling warmth spread through her body, Li Yaoqing immediately knew that the mysterious ancestor was watching her. A joyful smile appeared on her face. "From now on, Yaoqing will definitely cultivate the Beast Blood Fruit Tree into something even bigger for Ancestor... No, Yaoqing will cultivate lots and lots of Beast Blood Fruit Trees!"

"Just don't do anything utterly devoid of conscience for the sake of raising trees... Otherwise, with our Li Family's tiny arms and legs, if we get labeled demonic cultivators, we really won't be able to handle it."

Li Xiang wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He checked the game world's time. The next decade was about to arrive. Raising his brows, he said, "Grandma Ling still hasn't come knocking? Looks like I'll have to pay a visit and see whether my things are ready."

He had long since prepared for this Bestowal!

Li Xiang had just risen to his feet when the antique phone in his pocket rang.

Caller—Uncle Han from the law firm.

"Did Uncle Han settle my family matter so quickly?" Li Xiang's eyes lit up. Only if the family kept providing him with pocket money could he play games without worry!

He answered the call.

Just as he was about to speak, Li Xiang went completely numb.

"Little Li, I'm afraid Uncle really can't help you with this one. Your new family head drove off in a spaceship overnight and took the entire Li Family with him..."

Li Xiang stared in stunned disbelief.

Only after a long while did he speak as though sleepwalking.

"Fuck, I haven't even gotten on the spaceship yet!"