Awe

The one who came visiting with gifts in hand was the village chief of Zhao Family Village, sixty or seventy kilometers away from Dawan Village—Zhao Hangao.

Zhao Family Village was the closest cultivator-village force to Dawan Village.

Its establishment had not been much different from that of Dawan Village.

Decades, even a hundred years ago, low-level cultivators had discovered a spiritual spring in that area, then opened up spiritual land around it and founded a village.

It was just that Zhao Family Village's spiritual fields were far smaller than Dawan Village's, with only about two mu of spiritual fields.

And Zhao Hangao, as the strongest person in Zhao Family Village, looked to be around fifty years old.

Yet his strength was not great. His cultivation was only around the fourth level of the Qi Induction Realm, which, at his age, could be called lowly indeed.

"Greetings, Eldest Young Master Shen!"

Inside the reception hall at the center of Dawan Village, the moment Shen Changchuan entered, before he could even greet the other party, he saw Zhao Hangao hurriedly rise to his feet and make a deep bow to him.

He looked just like a servant paying respects to some great lord of the officialdom, his manner filled with awe and reverence.

He was only short of kneeling down.

"Brother, there's no need to be so courteous. You're making me feel unworthy!"

Shen Changchuan was also startled and hurriedly helped him up.

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare."

Zhao Hangao was repeatedly fearful and deferential, and his attitude toward Shen Changchuan seemed almost flattered beyond belief.

So much so that when Shen Changchuan told him to sit in the guest seat, he only rested half his buttocks on the chair, ready to stand up at any moment, not daring to truly sit down.

And when he saw Shen Changchuan pick up the teapot, preparing to brew tea for him, he hurriedly stood up even more and took the teapot, pouring tea and water for himself.

He looked as if he did not dare trouble Shen Changchuan in the slightest.

"Eldest Young Master, Eldest Young Master! This humble one is of low birth. I could not possibly accept such courteous hospitality from you, Eldest Young Master. Let me do it myself!"

"Well... Brother Zhao, Shen is merely at the third level of the Qi Induction Realm. There's no need to go this far, is there?"

Zhao Hangao's reaction

made Shen Changchuan open his mouth, feeling truly somewhat dumbfounded.

Such treatment

was something he could say he had never encountered in the snobbish Shen Family Estate.

So much so that, for a moment, he did not quite manage to react.

"It is necessary, it is necessary!"

"Eldest Young Master, you are the son of the Shen family head. The Shen family is an aristocratic great clan of the Tiannan cultivation world. Your status is noble, Eldest Young Master. That you can grant us lowly ones an audience is already enough to satisfy us."

Zhao Hangao's wrinkled face was full of a fawning smile.

It was as if Shen Changchuan being able to speak with him

was his honor.

This left Shen Changchuan unsure what to say for a while.

Fortunately, his temperament was calm and steady, and he did not reveal anything.

Only, out of curiosity, Shen Changchuan sounded him out from the side while conversing with him, asking about some of the nearby situation.

Only after a long while, when he had gained a rough understanding of the situation around Dawan Village, did realization dawn in his heart, and he roughly understood the reason for Zhao Hangao's humble attitude.

All of this

would take a long time to explain.

Dawan Village was located several thousand li south of Tiannan City, in a relatively desolate region where, in many places, one could not see a human shadow for a hundred li.

It belonged to the border between the uninhabited wilderness and the footprints of human civilization.

A very long time ago, this place had still been a deserted wilderness devoid of human traces.

Until three hundred years ago, the century-long war that led to the destruction of the Elephant Mountain Sect swept across the entire Southern Marsh Domain, causing enormous casualties, death, and chaos.

As a result, many low-level cultivators, along with large numbers of mortals dragging their families with them, fled south into the wilderness to avoid the cruel war in the Cultivation World.

Only after those refugees settled here did this southern wilderness gradually begin to show traces of human habitation.

But a wilderness like this was, after all, a place that had never been developed.

Out in the wild here, Demon Beasts were everywhere, and even the settlements were still often attacked by Demon Beasts.

So in the beginning, the population grew very slowly.

It was only in the past hundred years, as the humans who had migrated here gradually adapted to every aspect of the situation, and as cultivators continuously hunted the Demon Beasts in the wild, that this place slowly became stable.

But even so, when traveling in the wilderness, one would still run into attacks by wild beasts from time to time.

The surroundings were still filled with a savage air of the weak being prey to the strong.

And it was precisely because of this

that even though Dawan Village possessed twelve mu of spiritual fields, it was still an unpopular posting within the Shen Family, a chore of an assignment, and Shen Changchuan had been sent here.

After all, near Tiannan City, the development of all kinds of spiritual fields and spiritual veins was already extremely mature and complete. Not only was the income high, it was also safe.

Even if one stayed peacefully inside the village, one could still receive a large amount of income every year.

But that was beside the point.

As for Zhao Hangao's attitude, it had a great deal to do with the process by which the Shen Family obtained Dawan Village twenty years ago.

Dawan Village was several thousand li away from the Shen Clan's main base, so naturally, it could not have been opened up by the Shen Clan.

Twenty years ago, this village belonged to another small cultivation clan.

The ancestors of that small cultivation clan had moved here a hundred years earlier and discovered a spiritual spring in the mountains, where spring water containing spiritual energy welled up.

Afterward, with that spiritual spring containing spiritual energy as their source, they continuously diverted water to soak suitable fields, constantly enriched the soil, and with the rich power of the earth veins here added in, after generations of cultivation and management, it gradually developed to the point of having the current twelve mu of spiritual fields.

As it developed further, it also became a fairly well-known large village in the vicinity, and the clan within it had some small reputation among the nearby villages and towns.

It was just that twenty years ago, the head of that cultivation clan at the time seemed to have gone mad for some unknown reason. He actually killed a collateral clansman of the Shen Clan who had come here to adventure and temper himself, and because he had acted carelessly, clues were discovered, and he was reported to the Shen Clan.

Then, naturally, there was no then.

Although the Shen Family at the time was bustling quite lively with internal struggles for power and profit, it was not to the point that they would remain completely unmoved after one of their own clansmen had been killed by some country bumpkin landlord, especially when the matter had already been exposed.

Thus, the small cultivation clan that had once occupied Dawan Village was gone.

The Shen Clan sent over an Out-of-Body Realm cultivator, and everything was resolved.

And so Dawan Village, with its twelve mu of spiritual fields, became the spoils of war of the Shen Family.

Twelve mu of spiritual fields could produce at least over two thousand four hundred jin of Spirit Grain every year, which, calculated in Spirit Stones, came to more than two hundred and forty Spirit Stones.

Two hundred and forty Spirit Stones a year

was not much to the important figures within the Shen Family.

But it was absolutely not so little that they would casually throw it away.

And though the journey was somewhat far, it was, after all, located on the edge of the Shen Family's sphere of influence. If it could be used to settle some collateral clansmen, that was good as well.

Thus, Dawan Village was incorporated into the Shen Clan's property.

It became a place to settle the Shen Family's collateral branches.

However, although this matter had been done with a justified cause, the outside world did not know much about the inner details. Even if the Shen Family had announced to the public that they had acted because that small cultivation clan had killed someone from their Shen Clan, as for the truth of the matter, some of the nearby small, humble cultivation clans inevitably felt uneasy in their hearts.

After all, this was not a world with surveillance. The Shen Family had not displayed all the evidence before their eyes either. Who knew whether the cultivation clan of Dawan Village back then had truly killed someone from the Shen Family?

As a result, the surrounding forces were naturally on tenterhooks, hearts trembling with fear.

Ever since Dawan Village changed hands twenty years ago, those nearby small cultivation clans and minor forces had all taken Dawan Village as their leader.

Almost every year, during festivals and holidays, the leaders of the surrounding small cultivation forces would bring gifts to visit, fawning and flattering, exhausting every possible means of making connections in hopes of forming ties with the Shen Family.

Putting aside everything else, at the very least, they did not want to end up with some huge hat inexplicably slammed down on their heads, followed by the whole family being wiped out.