Harvest and Trouble

"You lot. Help clean up the battlefield."

Shen Changchuan retracted the Soul-Absorbing Bell and caught sight of the village heads who had stopped halfway through their flight, calling out to them.

He paused mid-sentence.

That brief hesitation made the color drain from their faces.

Fortunately, the words that followed allowed them to breathe a sigh of relief.

He was merely issuing orders, not settling scores.

The men hurriedly set to work themselves, searching the surrounding corpses and gathering all manner of spoils.

Shen Changchuan swept his gaze over them.

He said nothing.

Then again, the fact that these fellows had fled without a fight, scattering in every direction before the battle even began, did leave him feeling somewhat displeased.

But upon further reflection, they were not his subordinates, on the contrary, these village heads were, in a sense, his financiers.

Sixty to seventy percent of their annual harvest was offered up to him.

Since they were his financiers, what was there to criticize?

Just like a reader who pays to subscribe to your novel—what does it matter if they complain about it being filler?

The customer is god, and he who pays the coin is the master.

Thinking of it this way, the displeasure in Shen Changchuan's heart naturally dissipated into thin air.

"Come to think of it, they only have the cultivation of the third or fourth level of Qi Refining; it's only natural for them to be afraid in the face of such powerful enemies."

For the sake of the generous offerings they provided each year, Shen Changchuan took the initiative to find excuses for them.

He walked over to the corpse of the leader in black, picked up a branch, and flicked up the storage bag hidden beneath the right sleeve.

Luck was on his side;

the battle had not damaged the storage bag.

Shen Changchuan channeled his mana into it, breaking the original owner's imprint.

A space of about seven or eight cubic meters appeared within his perception.

Shen Changchuan carefully searched through the spoils.

But soon, his brows furrowed.

The contents were far scarcer than he had expected!

There were only twenty or thirty spirit stones, though there was about eight or nine hundred catties of Spirit Grain, along with various monster materials, miscellaneous ores, and the like, which occupied a large portion of the space.

Yet, all of these combined were likely not even worth a hundred spirit stones.

Beyond that, there was only a low-grade magic tool longsword and a single bottle of pills.

Poor, truly pathetic!

Shen Changchuan felt a wave of disappointment.

Having experienced the rich spoils of the Four Evils of He Mountain, he found the current haul quite beneath his notice.

You are at the peak of the sixth level of Qi Refining, and the leader of the Four Evils of He Mountain was at that same realm.

Yet, they were far wealthier than you!

To say nothing of the rest, the Soul-Absorbing Bell alone was worth six or seven times the value of everything in this storage bag!

Shen Changchuan couldn't help but sigh inwardly, shaking his head slightly.

With a flip of his palm, a bottle of pills appeared in his hand.

He opened the stopper, examined the appearance and color of the medicinal pill inside, and then took a whiff of its scent.

His expression shifted slightly at that very moment.

Alright, I suppose I might have spoken a bit too loudly just now.

Shen Changchuan muttered to himself.

He inconspicuously replaced the jade bottle's stopper and tucked the pill back into his storage bag.

Deep within, his heart grew incredibly heavy.

The scent of the Green Origin Water Grass, there was no mistaking it!

Not long ago, he had just refined a seedling of Green Origin Water Grass.

That sensation which rendered the soul translucent remained vivid in his memory even now!

The scent radiating from this pill, which cleared the soul, was almost identical to his previous memory!

Shen Changchuan was certain, the primary ingredient of this pill was absolutely Green Origin Water Grass.

And it was a mature Green Origin Water Grass at that!

"If even a seedling of Green Origin Water Grass is of extraordinary value, how much more so for a mature one, especially when refined into a pill?!"

"I recall a pill that uses Green Origin Water Grass as its main ingredient, known as the Green Origin Spirit-Cleansing Pill."

"And the value of such a pill is in no way inferior to a Soul-Exit Pill!"

Shen Changchuan narrowed his eyes.

The Soul-Exit Pill, that was a breakthrough pill capable of increasing the success rate for cultivators at the peak of the ninth level of Qi Induction to reach the Soul-Exit realm, its value could be imagined!

And for a Green Origin Spirit-Cleansing Pill to be comparable in value, its rarity was beyond doubt!

"Green Origin Water Grass."

Shen Changchuan's heart stirred, for he associated it with that Green Origin Water Grass seedling at the bottom of the Dawan River.

He thought of the case twenty years ago in Dawan Village, where the branch family of the Shen Clan died and the Hu Clan was wiped out.

Such a precious spiritual herb is not some common cabbage.

Could it be that in some hidden corner of this desolate borderland, such rare treasures of heaven and earth are being produced?

Shen Changchuan's gaze flickered with uncertainty.

He had suspected something was wrong a long time ago.

Back then, the head of the Hu Clan in Dawan Village only possessed the cultivation of the seventh level of Qi Induction.

With such strength, sending a single ninth-level Qi Induction cultivator would have been enough to sweep everything away.

Why would it require the personal arrival of that Soul-Exit realm true cultivator from the Shen Clan?!

It was like using an anti-aircraft gun to swat a mosquito!

However, although he felt something was strange, Dawan Village had since passed through the hands of Shen Shiying, and then to him, Shen Changchuan, in succession, yet nothing particularly unusual had occurred.

Even if he wanted to investigate, he had no direction, unless he went to meet that Soul-Exit realm true cultivator of the Shen Clan and asked him personally, which was the only way to understand the reason.

But that was clearly impossible.

Stop, stop, stop! Don't think about that for now!

There were too many entanglements involved; Shen Changchuan felt a sudden headache and hurriedly reined in his thoughts.

Those questions were too far off; he would deal with them later.

"Those things are not important for the moment. What is most important right now is to first understand where this pill came from and who else knows about it!"

Shen Changchuan quickly pulled back his thoughts, returning to the focus that required his attention today.

"Right, what about those two who were being hunted?"

Thinking of this, Shen Changchuan finally realized. He spoke up to ask the people around him. As the ones being hunted, they might know the identities of these men in black.

However, the heads of the various villages who were currently scavenging for spoils of war all looked at one another, shaking their heads to indicate they had no idea. The battle had erupted too suddenly, and their own flight had been far too decisive, to the point that no one had paid any attention to the large and small figures being hunted who had sparked this conflict in the first place.

"That... the old immortal master asked about our identities just a moment ago and told us to convey to the immortal masters that he would surely reward you handsomely in the future, then he hurried away with the other person."

Just then, a few mortal martial artists who had been at the back of the caravan stepped forward, speaking with some trepidation.

"Did that person not leave behind any information regarding his identity?"

"No."

Shen Changchuan could not help but knit his brows. Yet, he did not waste any more words and immediately issued an order: "Pack up quickly, we depart at once!"

Shen Changchuan vaguely sensed that they might have become entangled in a troublesome affair. But there was no helping it; after all, those men in black had been the ones to initiate the attack, and it was impossible to simply lay down their weapons and let themselves be slaughtered without putting up any resistance, right? It was better to leave first and worry about the rest later!

Soon, everyone efficiently gathered the spoils and set off once more. Shen Changchuan brought up the rear. After a moment's thought, he cast a dozen or so fireballs in succession, burning away every trace of the battle. He then followed the caravan and departed with haste.