"Xiao Fan is back."
The villagers Lu Fan met along the way all greeted him with smiles.
Lu Fan responded to each of them.
Perhaps because there were no battle Soul Masters in the village and everyone was an auxiliary-type Soul Master, the villagers were all quite mild-tempered.
Having been born and raised here, Lu Fan had inherited the village's customs as well.
"Is the village chief home?"
Lu Fan asked the villagers tending to the flowers.
"He should be. I didn't see him go out today. He's probably cultivating at home. The chief has been stuck at level 34 for thirty years. You know that his lifelong dream is to break through level 50, become a Soul King, and absorb a Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring."
"But with his current body and declining vitality, even if he broke through to Soul Saint, he might not be able to absorb a Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring."
The other person sighed as he said this.
"Ah, the chief is old. He doesn't have many years left. You should persuade him too, tell him to stop messing around and just enjoy his retirement."
Lu Fan nodded. "I'll talk to him. I'll go find him first. Bye."
As he spoke, Lu Fan also bade farewell to the other children in the carriage.
"All right, I'm going to see Grandpa Village Chief first. You kids go play by yourselves."
"Brother Xiao Fan, I want to ride a horse."
"Me too, me too!"
Several children looked at Lu Fan with eager faces.
Faced with those gazes, Lu Fan could only smile and remind them, "All right, but you're too young. Remember to find an adult to watch over you while you play. Also, be careful when riding, and don't damage the flowers in the village."
"Got it~"
Damaging flowers in Flower Grass Village was a serious offense.
At best, one would be fined and made to replant them.
At worst, one would be driven straight out of the village.
Though every one of these flowers was ordinary and cheap,
each had been planted with the painstaking efforts of generations of villagers.
Flowers could bloom again, but people never regained their youth.
It was said that the oldest flowers in the village were over a hundred years old.
These flowers were not merely plants, but everyone's hobby and passion.
They were also a source of remembrance left behind by those who had passed away.
There was another reason as well.
Most Soul Masters from Flower Grass Village chose to live in the village
because, for Soul Masters whose Martial Souls were flowers,
it was an enormous Mimicry Cultivation Environment specially suited for cultivating Soul Power.
Lu Fan thought that nowhere else in the world could possibly have more flowers than Flower Grass Village.
Watching the children run off to find the adults,
Lu Fan wore a gentle smile.
He suddenly understood why Mu En, during the era of The Unrivaled Tang Clan, had liked to lie beneath the dormitory building and bask in the sun.
Children's innocent and lively manner truly had a way of lifting one's spirits.
Lu Fan arrived at the village chief's house and knocked on the door.
"Village Chief, it's Xiao Fan. I'm back on holiday. Are you home?"
"Xiao Fan? The door isn't locked. Come in."
An aged voice sounded from inside.
Lu Fan pushed open the door and hurried into the courtyard.
He saw the village chief just getting up from the ground in the yard.
Seeing that, Lu Fan said irritably, "Village Chief, it's been thirty years already. If it can't be done, it can't be done. Some things can't be forced. You have a house full of children and grandchildren now. It's time for you to enjoy life."
The village chief smiled and shook his head. "Hey, making time to cultivate doesn't conflict with enjoying the company of my children and grandchildren."
"Besides, a person needs something to strive for in life, doesn't he?"
"If there's nothing to pursue, and one muddles through each day, repeating the same things over and over, what meaning would such a life have?"
Lu Fan dealt him a blow. "How is what you're doing now any different from repeating the same thing every day? Aren't you suffering through the pain of failed breakthroughs every day?"
Clearly, Lu Fan's words were extremely effective and dealt the village chief quite a blow.
"Is that the point? The point is that people must have goals, things they love, and even if they fail, they must possess a brave heart that presses onward without hesitation!"
The village chief shouted at Lu Fan, his face red.
Then he sighed. "Not everyone is a genius with Innate Full Soul Power like you. You shine so brilliantly, while the vast majority of us can only serve as your backdrop in this world."
Lu Fan fell silent at those words.
As someone who had benefited from it, he had personally enjoyed the advantages his talent brought him. He had no right to argue otherwise.
He could only comfort him as best he could. "Everyone is the protagonist of their own life. Although you aren't as strong as I am, Village Chief, becoming a Soul Master already puts you above ninety percent of the people in this world."
The village chief smiled at that. "Yes. Even now, I remember the smiles on my parents' faces seventy years ago, when I awakened my Martial Soul and had innate level-three Soul Power."
"They were proud of me and saw me as their pride."
"And I did not disappoint their expectations. I became the second strongest person Flower Grass Village had seen in a hundred years..."
At this point, the village chief slowed down. He looked at Lu Fan with a complicated expression. "No, I should only be third now. You've probably taken second place."
"Come to think of it, since that child Xiao Guan left the village, he hasn't returned for at least forty or fifty years."
"Oh, no."
"He comes back every Mid-Autumn Festival. He just doesn't meet with us."
The village chief slapped his forehead.
"The only time that child Xiao Guan came back was twenty years ago. Back then, he was already a Soul Douluo-level expert."
"Since Flower Grass Village was founded, we'd never produced such a powerful Soul Master. He was the pride of our village."
Yet as he said this, the village chief looked somewhat lonely.
"Are you talking about Chrysanthemum Douluo of Spirit Hall?"
Lu Fan had heard Yue Guan mention that he was from Flower Grass Village as well.
The person the village chief was talking about could only be Yue Guan.
The village chief nodded. "Yes, yes, that's him. Come to think of it, the storage ring I gave you back then, as well as that Hundred Herbs Chart, were all left behind by Xiao Guan when he returned to pay respects to his older sister."
Lu Fan fell silent for a moment.
After thinking it over, he still said, "I'm with Spirit Hall now too. Half a year ago, he met me in Suotuo City and took me as his disciple. He is my teacher now."
The village chief was somewhat surprised.
But when he thought of Lu Fan's Martial Soul, he felt relieved.
"Mhm, that's good. With him around, I can rest assured that you won't be bullied outside."
A loving smile appeared on the village chief's face.
Like the other children in the village,
Lu Fan had grown up under his watch.
And because Lu Fan was an orphan, whenever it was mealtime back then, he would have his grandson call Lu Fan over to eat.
Nor was it only the village chief's family.
The other neighbors had supported him as well.
That was how Lu Fan had grown up safely despite all odds.
In the end, what difference was there between Lu Fan and his own grandson?
Before you continue