About half an hour passed.
After Chen Guan completed a full cycle of cultivation, he opened his eyes and looked toward Patriarch Zhao and the others in the courtyard.
"Guan'er."
When Patriarch Zhao saw Chen Guan finish "cultivating," he stepped forward and smiled from the doorway.
"What would you like to eat? The crispy fried chicken from yesterday?
I'll have the kitchen prepare it right away!"
"Sure." Chen Guan smiled. He was happy to enjoy this belated fatherly affection and the treatment of a young master.
This feeling was, to be honest, pretty nice.
"Fifth Brother's awake?" The Eldest Young Master and the others saw Chen Guan looking their way, but didn't dare move from their spots.
Although the whole family had eaten together the day before and seemed to be getting along harmoniously,
they hadn't actually spoken with Chen Guan much at the dinner table.
And given how readily Chen Guan had wiped out an entire family,
they were truly afraid of their Fifth Brother.
For now, only Patriarch Zhao seemed to be on better terms with him.
And the Sixth Young Master genuinely admired Fifth Brother's martial arts even more!
"My brother is the third-best fighter in town..."
The Sixth Young Master had a heart for martial arts, but his frail constitution wouldn't allow him to train.
"Eldest Brother, Second Brother, Sixth Brother."
Seeing his brothers standing at the doorway, Chen Guan rose and invited them to take a seat on the little stone stools in the courtyard.
His room was simply too small.
Although it could fit several grown men, there wasn't much room to move around.
"Thank you, Fifth Brother..."
"Thank you, Fifth Brother..."
The three thanked him. Only after seeing their father and Chen Guan take their seats did they dare sit down in order of age.
The Zhao Family might have been a small rice-trading household in a little town, but its family rules were quite proper, following the customs passed down since ancient times.
This was reflected in the seating order: elders first, then the younger generation.
And among those of the same generation, the one with the most ability sat first.
Of course, there would have been nothing wrong with Chen Guan sitting first.
But his family was treating him well, so both courtesy and reason had to be observed.
Chen Guan considered himself a fairly easygoing person.
Thinking of this,
he took three large bundles from beneath the stone table in front of him.
"What are these?" Patriarch Zhao and the others had noticed the things earlier and suspected they were connected to the Liu Family.
But Chen Guan had been cultivating and hadn't spoken.
So they had only looked at them and hadn't touched anything.
"There are some manuals and incomplete cultivation methods inside."
Under everyone's watchful eyes,
Chen Guan spoke as he opened the bundles.
Whoosh—
At the same time, near the gap in the courtyard wall,
the two guards felt they probably shouldn't be listening to this.
So they quickly gathered up their tools and went outside the courtyard.
Their sturdy bodies were enough to block the gap, which was nearly repaired, and shield the courtyard from the street's view.
After the bandit incident,
the Zhao Family's guards had become more cautious.
Chen Guan saw this and gave a slight nod, thinking the two men were quite sharp.
They were sturdy, too. He could teach them a few moves in his spare time while cultivating.
Strengthening the family's power was another way of strengthening his own.
For example, if the Zhao Family became the most powerful household in town, wouldn't it have access to more resources?
Even if he couldn't use those resources in this life, perhaps he could draw on them in the next.
With that in mind,
Chen Guan not only took out the manuals from the bundles, but also nearly a thousand taels' worth of silver notes.
These were all the silver notes the Liu Family had.
There was also a Red Jade Pendant.
After learning that remnants of the Liu Family were waiting outside town for that Bamboo Swordsman, Chen Guan had gone out of town again that very night and killed them.
Running back and forth was why he had needed to recover his spiritual energy in his room earlier.
"I'll leave these assets with Father."
Chen Guan took out the large sum and set it on the table in front of Patriarch Zhao.
"Whether it's collecting manuals for me or expanding the family business, it'll take money.
I'm not good at handling these things, so I'll leave it to Father to decide."
"Guan'er... you...?"
Patriarch Zhao drew in a sharp breath. He hadn't expected his son to have actually "ransacked and wiped out" the Liu Family!
And now he was handing over such an enormous sum of money?
Patriarch Zhao truly hadn't seen this coming.
He'd thought his son would keep the money for himself and not say a word, much less give any to the family.
After all, the money had been earned by his son himself.
That was what Patriarch Zhao had assumed because he was a straightforward man, old-fashioned in his ways, and liked to keep things clear. He wasn't one to invoke filial duty or say, "I raised you for so many years, so you owe me this."
Patriarch Zhao believed that filial piety should come from the heart, not from someone else telling you to show it.
If someone had to ask for it, then it was a request or a command. What did that have to do with filial piety?
That was the sort of odd man Patriarch Zhao was.
Meanwhile,
"Fifth Brother has handed over at least a thousand taels..."
The Eldest Young Master and the others saw the silver notes. It would have been a lie to say they weren't envious.
Anyone would want to claim such a fortune for themselves!
But they understood gratitude, and they knew they owed their rescue to their Fifth Brother.
So after a few envious glances, they struggled to act as though they didn't care and looked away as naturally as they could.
Only the Sixth Young Master watched Chen Guan with respect, then curiously glanced at the manuals on the table.
As for the guards outside, they didn't even look back.
Chen Guan took it all in. Seeing that his family remained calm despite the vast sum he'd brought out, he knew this family was worth "investing in."
That night,
Chen Guan carried a small bundle and the handwritten manuals, along with three hundred taels in silver notes, and left town for the mountains and forests once again.
His purpose was to make sure that if he died unexpectedly one day, he would at least have a "second contingency."
On the way to the place where he'd buried his things,
Chen Guan hurried along, occasionally glancing toward Little Liuzi Town.
"Silver notes are a relatively flexible 'small contingency.'
After I reincarnate, I can come retrieve them as long as I'm able.
My family is a 'large contingency.'
If I can help them grow, they may be able to support me in a future life.
But returning in glory, claiming my ancestors, and using those connections will all need careful planning.
They're nowhere near as convenient to retrieve as these small contingencies."
Chen Guan had thought through many things, and he planned to make a real mark in this life and see how far he could go.
The higher he climbed, the more contingencies he could leave for himself.
This was how he would leave "a legacy of talent for his next life."
But the talent legacies inside the scroll were random, and then had to be developed through hard work.
This one depended entirely on his own foundations and effort.
The next morning,
Chen Guan returned to the area near the Dilapidated Temple.
He went to the temple first. When he saw that Xiao Qing wasn't there, he took a cowhide pouch from the side room.
It contained the "Yin-Yang Eye Potion."
Then he buried the silver notes and manuals beneath the blue bricks in the backyard.
Chen Guan felt he had made enough contingencies for the early stages.
"Plan for defeat before planning for victory.
With this legacy waiting for me, once I retrieve it in a future life, I'll at least be much better off financially."
Chen Guan's thoughts were clear. He was no longer as hasty and impulsive as he'd been during his Black Bear days, burying treasure on a whim. Now he was making careful plans.
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