Objective achieved

Chen Xugu felt utterly worn out.

But he also understood that youngsters really were prone to getting carried away when they first entered the jianghu.

With hot blood in their veins and righteousness filling their hearts, they always wanted to intervene whenever they saw injustice.

Never mind those two-even he had been the same back then. Otherwise, how would he have brought this disaster upon himself?

Some might dismiss that behavior as being a hotheaded rookie, but everyone had been a hotheaded rookie once.

Some might say that no one who achieved anything great would be so reckless, but in fact, most people were like that.

Although Chen Xugu believed the two of them could be reckless and hot-blooded in their youth, he doubted that was why they were making such a fuss right now.

He pondered, Could these two little terrors be using this method to coax out why I chose the Third Princess instead of Qin Shuangjiang? They've always been curious about that, haven't they?

Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao stood together, following him toward the village at the foot of the mountain.

Zhang Junbao had demanded that Chen Xugu take them to confront the Third Princess face-to-face!

Old Chen strongly suspected at this point that they had probably already figured out the reasons behind it. Their demand for a confrontation was most likely them turning his scheme back on him to draw him out!

Still, he decided to take them. They had laid their hearts bare to him, given him cultivation techniques, and played their little mind games. After all this fuss, he could hardly let them walk away empty-handed, could he?

Soon, the three of them arrived at the village below the mountain.

The village was called Lü Family Village. It was fairly large, with over three hundred households.

Legend had it that when Patriarch Lü established his Daoist lineage here, some refugees had passed through. Seeing how pitiful they were, Patriarch Lü had offered them shelter.

From then on, those people settled here, growing to over three hundred households by the present day.

Over eight hundred years, and only three hundred-odd households? They hadn't reproduced very quickly, had they?

That was not actually the case. In that time, they had endured two changes of dynasty and all sorts of natural disasters. Some had left, some had married out, and quite a few had ventured into the jianghu and never returned.

As soon as they entered Lü Family Village, villagers came forward to greet him, and Chen Xugu responded to each with a smile.

The villagers chatted with him familiarly about their hens hatching chicks, told him their daughters-in-law were pregnant, and discussed how the crops in their fields were growing.

Their attitude toward him was more than just familiar conversation; there was also a subtle gratitude in it.

In a wuxia world, besides the taxes collected by the state, the major sects also sheltered the farmers around them. Martial arts experts needed to eat too, after all, so they needed these people.

The sects offered the farmers protection, and the farmers offered appropriate compensation in return.

Some sects would even buy the surrounding land and hire thugs to settle there as their tenant farmers.

Before the Qin dynasty thirteen hundred years ago, sects did not need to pay taxes. This led to more and more sects springing up, and they became the country's greatest landowners, annexing land alongside civil officials and hereditary nobles.

That continued until His Majesty Emperor Taizu of Qin, founding emperor of the Great Qin Empire, trampled the jianghu beneath his cavalry with thunderous methods and laid down new rules.

Officials and sects alike had to pay grain levies and taxes. Only then was the expansion of the jianghu halted.

Even now, that rule remained a national policy adopted by every dynasty after its founding!

The villagers were grateful to Pure Yang Palace precisely because it never demanded offerings from them and simply kept helping them. In years of famine and disaster, if they had nothing to eat, Pure Yang Palace would even bring out its surplus grain to provide relief.

And so they were grateful, just like cattle farmers seeing Veterinarian Long.

The harmonious relationship between the villagers and Pure Yang Palace let Zhang Qingyuan understand what it meant to do what lay within one's power, and what it meant to have a compassionate heart.

Soon, they reached a small courtyard in the middle of the village.

The courtyard gate was shut, but Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao sensed several faint fluctuations of internal power in the two neighboring courtyards.

They exchanged a glance and nodded at the same time.

Chen Xugu stepped forward and knocked. Before long, footsteps sounded inside, and then the two halves of the gate swung open.

The woman who opened it was that older woman-the legendary Third Princess.

She still had that awkward-looking face, but she was delighted to see Chen Xugu and asked quite naturally, "Have we got guests?"

Chen Xugu walked into the courtyard just as casually and smiled. "My junior brothers from Taiqing Palace were very curious about you, so they asked me to bring them over to see you. They were afraid I was abusing you and keeping you prisoner."

The Third Princess smiled at that, thinking he was joking, and said to Zhang Qingyuan and Zhang Junbao, "Come in. The courtyard's rather messy. I remember seeing you two by the river this morning."

"Hello, sister-in-law." Zhang Qingyuan smiled and nodded.

"Greetings, sister-in-law." Zhang Junbao cupped his fist respectfully.

"You two junior brothers have achieved so much at such a young age. You must be chosen ones." The Third Princess gestured for them to come in.

"Do you know divination too, sister-in-law?" After entering, Zhang Qingyuan looked at the scripture on the stone table in the courtyard.

The Third Princess shook her head. "What would I know about that?"

"Then how could you tell we were no ordinary people?"

"Isn't that easy?" She looked at her husband. "He's already this old, yet he calls you his junior brothers. You're so young, but you're of the same seniority as him. You certainly can't be ordinary people."

"You're brilliantly clever, sister-in-law."

"Have a seat. I'll get some tea."

They sat beside the stone table in the courtyard. Chen Xugu took off his robe and set it aside, then got up and went inside to fetch a plate of snacks.

Judging by how they behaved after entering, they really did seem like a couple living an everyday married life together.

Soon, the tea was on the table. Zhang Qingyuan picked up a dried apricot and popped it into his mouth. Sweet and sour-it was quite tasty.

The Third Princess told them to make themselves at home, but Chen Xugu said, "Don't worry. Neither of these two has a thin skin."

"Senior brother, I'm actually very shy." Zhang Junbao pretended to be bashful, then glanced at Zhang Qingyuan, who was still eating dried apricots, and continued, "My senior brother is the thick-skinned one."

"I beg to differ. My thin skin just isn't as obvious."

Everyone laughed and teased one another, soon growing closer.

Chen Xugu also told his wife about their martial arts talent and their gift of cultivation techniques, drawing repeated exclamations of amazement from the Third Princess.

Once they were more familiar, Zhang Qingyuan went straight to the point and said with a smile, "You and senior brother are so close, sister-in-law. How did you meet? I heard that senior brother once flew into a towering rage for a beauty. It's even a celebrated tale in the jianghu."

"Exactly. Being able to marry you was a blessing senior brother cultivated in his previous life."

They were both afraid of saying the wrong thing and touching a sore spot, but the Third Princess unexpectedly seemed unbothered. She smiled and said, "What celebrated tale? Still, being able to marry Old Chen was the greatest blessing of my life too."

"Wow, what's so good about senior brother?"

Both wore doting grins, secretly delighted. They were finally getting to the point.

Just as Chen Xugu suspected, at first, their guesses really had gotten their hot blood pumping.

But later, especially after they entered the alchemy room and heard Chen Xugu ask in feigned anger whether they had come to call him to account, that hotheaded-rookie fervor had faded.

They might have been a little reckless, but they were not complete idiots. They did have some wits.

By then, they had already reflected on themselves and guessed there was more to the story.

Hadn't Zhang Qingyuan's tone softened by then? He had even been about to shift the subject to sparring.

Yet Zhang Junbao had still acted like a complete brute, yelling for him to confess for leniency and warning that resistance would bring severity. His purpose was to turn the scheme back on its maker.

He was bolder than Zhang Qingyuan. Zhang Junbao felt, We've spent all this effort and gotten this far. How can we stop after merely finding out the Third Princess is fine? If we don't strike while the iron's hot and dig deeper, won't we have come for nothing?

That was why Zhang Junbao had later launched his frenzied barrage, insisting on a formal confrontation.

Zhang Qingyuan had suddenly come to his senses too, shaking off the feeling that he was in the wrong.

Wasn't our whole purpose in coming up the mountain to find out just how much of a scumbag Chen Xugu was back then? Didn't we want to know why he'd abandoned Qin Shuangjiang and married the Third Princess instead? We've already come this far. Just do it!

That was called staying true to their original purpose.

The two sat properly like elementary school students, their hands on their knees.

"Where should I begin?"

Start with the day of the book signing... uh...

The Third Princess began reminiscing. "Your senior brother... he was sixteen that year, and so was I..."

----There's one more chapter. Three updates today too. I'll definitely finish telling this part of the story. Please send tips and gifts, and leave five-star reviews!