Crude Management

"Changchuan, you must be careful of that man."

Once Shen Shiying and his party had completely departed, his grandfather, Han Qinhu, who stood behind him, hesitated for a moment before stepping forward to whisper a warning in his ear.

"Those who offer favors without cause are either treacherous or thieving! That Shen Shiying did not show his face at first, sending his son instead; it is clear he did not hold us in any regard. Furthermore, the way Shen Shaochong acted earlier, he was clearly looking to pick a fight and intended to give us a show of force. It was only for some unknown reason that he changed his mind."

"His excuse about taking local specialties back, which led him to empty the village's public treasury, was far too flimsy. In my view, their original goal was likely to strip the entire village bare! I just don't know why his attitude shifted so abruptly."

Han Qinhu analyzed in a low voice by Shen Changchuan's side. Although he was not a cultivator, he had traveled far and wide for most of his life and had seen much of the world. The inconsistencies in the man's behavior were far too easy to spot. In all likelihood, the other party had harbored ill intentions from the start.

"Rest assured, Grandfather, I understand."

"The situation is likely as you described, and these five spirit stones and the Spirit Eye Technique are most likely his way of apologizing and salvaging the situation. I certainly won't think he is a good person just because he tried to curry favor. However, there is no need to worry. After all, the Shen Family Estate is vast; whether we will even have the chance to meet again is another matter entirely."

Shen Changchuan weighed the small cloth bag containing the five spirit stones in his hand, his eyes flickering slightly as he spoke. Having survived two and a half years of terror within the treacherous environment of the Shen Family Estate and witnessed the cruel internal strife of a great aristocratic clan, Shen Changchuan was no longer the naive, wide-eyed office worker he had been in his past life. Naturally, he would not easily lower his guard against strangers.

One thing was certain: if he were to encounter Shen Shiying again in the future, Shen Changchuan would remain strictly on his guard. Of course, he would not go out of his way to make an enemy of him either. Although the man might have harbored ill intent and hidden schemes at the start, at least nothing had actually come of it. On the contrary, the man had even paid a hefty price to him, had he not? For things that never came to pass, Shen Changchuan would naturally not go out of his way to make life difficult for himself by creating an enemy.

The reason Shen Shiying changed his mind so quickly must have something to do with that big fellow, right?!

A flash of understanding crossed Shen Changchuan's eyes as he recalled the expression on the man's face when he saw the carcass of the giant wild boar on the carriage. He had a rough guess. Perhaps it was precisely because the man saw the corpse of the giant wild boar—which Shen Changchuan had killed in a single blow and which possessed strength at least at the fourth level of Qi Refining—that he felt intimidated and abandoned his original plan. This was not hard to understand. Someone once said that after one becomes famous, everyone around them becomes a good person. Replacing "fame" with "strength" yielded the same result. When your strength is formidable, many "good people" will naturally appear around you.

"Forget it, let him be. Even if we meet again, that is a matter for the future. Let's head back first. The most important thing right now is to secure control over everything in Dawan Village; we cannot afford any slip-ups."

Shen Changchuan spoke, and Han Qinhu nodded in agreement at his side. "That is true."

The group turned and left. After some effort, Shen Changchuan and his party moved into the Half-Mountain Courtyard and steadily took over Dawan Village, completing the transition of power. Throughout this process, there were no major setbacks. Although there were some minor difficulties and confusion, fortunately, no one resisted, and everything proceeded very smoothly. This was not actually surprising. Although Dawan Village was established to serve the cultivation of spirit fields for the immortal families, and its population consisted mostly of martial artists—some of whom were even criminals brought there to serve as forced labor—the gap between cultivators and mortal martial artists was simply too vast.

It was so vast that it was almost impossible to bridge.

Even if there were truly any unyielding, unruly souls among them, they had likely already been slaughtered by Shen Shiying and his ilk over the past few years.

Those who remained had long since been tamed.

If not out of heartfelt loyalty and submission, they at least would not resist, choosing instead to obey the orders issued by the Immortal Master.

With the added assistance of his maternal grandfather Han Qinhu, his eldest uncle Han Dayong, and others, Shen Changchuan quickly took over the reins of power in Dawan Village, gaining control over the entire settlement.

Yet, when he had the various reports submitted and, after sorting through them, finally understood the situation throughout Dawan Village, Shen Changchuan could not help but feel a headache coming on.

The village gave him the impression of being chaotic—utterly chaotic!

The entirety of Dawan Village consisted of several hundred households, with a population of around two thousand.

Among these people were the veteran martial artists who had arrived with the Shen family twenty years ago to manage the village after it was first acquired.

There were also the mortal martial artists who had been recruited—or rather, coerced—from secular powers every few years.

Some left once their term of service expired; some were killed for stealing spirit grain or for their unruly resistance; others simply stayed, took wives, and had children, hoping to secure a sliver of immortal destiny by serving the Immortal family, eventually establishing their own households within Dawan Village.

The myriad changes over time had left the household registration records of Dawan Village in complete disarray.

Furthermore, the management style of the previous warden, Shen Shiying, had been extremely crude.

He had essentially delegated the power to manage the village to his family steward, leaving the servants to handle the day-to-day affairs.

When the season for sowing spirit grain arrived, he would simply have the steward take a whip to drive the villagers into the spirit fields to till the soil and sow the seeds. Afterward, the steward would assemble a patrol team from the villagers to guard the fields day and night, occasionally clearing weeds or pests.

When harvest time came, he would have all the villagers swarm out at once to reap the spirit grain from the fields.

At most, he would personally show up to supervise, just to prevent the villagers from secretly pocketing the ripe grain.

But on the whole, it was a very rough-and-ready method of management.

It was just like a feudal lord managing the production of his own serfs; aside from putting some effort into the operation of the spirit fields, everything else was managed in an extremely slipshod manner.

So much so that Shen Shiying probably didn't even know the exact population of Dawan Village!

Regarding this, Shen Changchuan, who had transmigrated two and a half years ago and possessed a certain understanding of this world, could actually empathize.

In this world, cultivators stood high above the rest.

Even the worst off, a cultivator with only entry-level cultivation, was enough to carve out a massive foundation in the mortal world.

Expecting such beings to manage and operate farmland was much like expecting the young masters of noble, high-ranking families in ancient times to manage the production of their rural estates!

Being able to achieve even that much was already quite remarkable!

However, understanding was one thing, but as a transmigrator, Shen Changchuan was clearly dissatisfied with this messy Dawan Village.

"Reform! There must be reform!"

"This crude, serf-manor style of operation is undoubtedly a massive waste of human and material resources!"

"Since this Dawan Village has become the place I am tasked to guard and manage, the more it produces, the more benefits I receive. The production here concerns my future path of cultivation, so this must be changed!"

After roughly sorting through the specific situation of Dawan Village, Shen Changchuan reached a resolution in his heart.