Chapter Fifteen: The Stupid Old Man Whose Daughter Eloped

  Taoyuan Village has erupted into a resource crisis.

  It was two weeks after Hai Yunfeng left, and by now most of the trial-takers had been living in Taoyuan Village for a month.

  Time may seem long or short, but it's enough for most people to get on the right track. Except for a tiny minority like some prince who fails halfway and becomes a waste, everyone else is silently accumulating completion degrees, waiting for the moment when they will burst out of hibernation.

  A month has passed, and the strategy for Taoyuan Village has been figured out by the trial players. Although none of them have reached Wang Lu's level, where he seems to have an unspoken understanding with the designer, all the players who have made it this far are among the best in their generation, with exceptional intelligence and talent. Through painstaking trial and error, they have gradually accumulated experience and achieved great success.

  According to the summary of the trialists, there are 120 villagers in Taoyuan Village, which is enough for more than 20 trialists to divide.

  Most people's approach is to focus on one person, accumulate their favorability, and after a certain degree, they will trigger a special task. After completing the special task, they can leave Peach Village. Once this special task is triggered, it will not appear again whether or not it is completed. For example, the village head, Liu Danni, and also Xiaofang, who can only eat ten mantou per meal, will no longer give special tasks to other trial players.

  Special tasks are like passes. Once completed, whether it's an A-level task or a C-level task, you can leave Peach Village smoothly, but the completion rate of the task cannot be mentioned on the same day.

  However, several A-level tasks are either already being exploited or have been ruined by some useless people, leaving no room for intervention. B-level tasks are also in short supply, and only C and D level miscellaneous tasks are abundant.

  This is a bolt from the blue for those who left Yunbo Map later and couldn't grab high-level tasks, but there's no dead end in the world. If quality isn't enough, quantity can make up for it - ten level C tasks should be equivalent to one level B task, right? If it's twenty or thirty, maybe even level A tasks won't be a problem. As for those who have already occupied level A tasks, of course, they will also benefit from this and won't fall behind.

  So, although there are 120 tasks in Taoyuan Village, they quickly become scarce under the competition of more than 20 people. What's even more tragic is that this competition not only fails to distribute resources evenly but also widens the gap between the rich and the poor. Those who left Yunbotu early and had the opportunity to get A-level tasks are also invincible in grabbing low-level tasks, owning a dozen or so tasks after one round of competition, getting rich overnight, while some unlucky ones can't even get one task, on the verge of being trapped in Taoyuan Village!

  After such a resource crisis, contradictions may erupt at any time, and people can't help but think of one person.

  The mysterious person who had been hiding in the village chief's backyard from start to finish, never made a move, nor took over any task... It has been so long, what is he waiting for?

  ————

  "What's gotten into this kid? What is he waiting for?"

  On the cloud, Liu Xian, who had been staring at the clouds for nearly a month with nothing to do, let out a long yawn.

  Because of the gambling gathering, this trusted elder in the gate was punished to stare at the village for twenty days, motionless like a waiting stone, except for meditation and breathing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, he could only observe Taoyuan Village as a pastime. Fortunately, the stories in this village were indeed interesting, and it didn't seem boring at all, especially the story of the prince and Xiaofang, which almost made him laugh out loud during his meditation, losing control of his spiritual energy.

  However, as a spectator, Liu Xian also had some dissatisfaction... what was the mountain village boy who had been instructed by the sect leader doing? He had achieved astonishing results in Yunbo Tu, but in Taoyuan Village, he completely relaxed and degenerated.

  Observations from the cloud are not subtle, but Wang Lu's over a month of not leaving the house is crystal clear. The miscellaneous character by his side has already completed his task long ago, and now he is among the top three in the village in terms of task completion rate. He is being pampered and fawned upon by countless young masters as if he were a superstar, with treatment far superior to that of his lazy master.

  At this rate, development is predictable. It's just unknown what that young man Wang Lu will think.

  "Good morning, senior brother."

  In the midst of contemplation, the woman's voice that was so annoying it could almost disintegrate one's soul rang out beside his ear.

  Liu Xian was overjoyed that his ethereal heart had just undergone a cycle of spiritual energy nourishment, and he timely invoked the mystical ice battle intent, instantly suppressing the anger in his heart.

  "Oh, Fifth Sister, what instructions do you have?"

  "There's nothing much to advise, just come here and have some fun."

  The woman in white said as she walked lightly to Liu Xian's side: "Twenty days, brother, are you moved by my genius design?"

  Liu Xian was taken aback, and upon reflection, he realized that this village didn't have any real people in the true sense. Every villager was a puppet conjured up by an extremely ingenious formation, yet their performance had far surpassed that of ordinary puppets. The village chief and a few others even exhibited behavior close to that of real humans... Of course, it wasn't as if this was some extraordinary feat - the grand formation at the mountain gate of the Lingjian Sect was ten thousand times more powerful and complex than this one. However, considering Liu Xian's cultivation level and her area of expertise, her accomplishments in formations were all the more astonishing.

  But it's just surprising, and as for being moved, it can't be mentioned at all.

  "Do you know how much trouble you've caused everyone? The entire Ascension Conference has been messed up because of you!"

  "No, I think the entire Ascension Conference was elevated because of me."

  "No one needs your kind of sublimation!"

  "Big brother, you're being naughty again. You say no with your mouth, but the elite troops selected from the levels I designed still make you love them to death. That little brat from last week, dare you say you weren't moved?"

  "Uh..."

  Mentioning the person from a week ago, Liu Xian couldn't help but feel moved. With top-notch temperament, intelligence, and emotional intelligence, although his spiritual root was slightly inferior, for the Lingjian Sect, compared to his several advantages, his spiritual root wasn't that important after all.

  This disciple, if properly trained, would not be inferior to those few freaks in the sect. It has been many years since Mount Lingyun produced a freak disciple, and Liu Xian was indeed moved...

  "But what does this have to do with Peach Village? Hai Yunfan's performance on the Cloud Striding Chart is already outstanding!"

  "At least I helped you eliminate those inferior products from those big families."

  "Hmm." Liu Xian hummed in response, not denying it. The three disciples of the Xie family's cultivation sect were indeed looked down upon by him, but according to the standards recognized by the cultivation world, the three were indeed fine jade, and although they were a bit cold-blooded, this was hardly considered a problem in the cultivation world... Fortunately, they had been eliminated at the Taoyuan Village checkpoint; otherwise, if he really had to recruit them, it would have given him a headache.

  However, to make Liu Xian admit that Taoyuan Village is useful, it's not as good as directly refining his nine-colored primordial infant. The master of Piaomiao Peak cleverly shifted the topic and said: "Does your Taoyuan Village have any punishment for those who are negative and lazy?"

  "Slacking off?" Fifth Young Miss's eyes widened, her gaze swept across the crowd, finally locking onto a certain person, her expression changing.

  "Big brother, you've been fooled this time, this guy isn't slacking off at all."

  (Speaking of which, I heard from Little Bell that someone broke my task chain in Lingxi Town. Could it be him? Tsk, the working people are indeed talented, a mountain farmer can even break my task chain... However, getting past this level isn't that easy, hey, no need to mention others, your little book boy seems to be on the verge of rebelling, I wonder what you think about it?)

  ——

  Just as everyone was waiting for Wang Lu's move, Wang Lu welcomed a surprise first.

  "Young master, I think...my mission is almost complete."

  In the room, Xiao Shu's expression was nervous, like a poor young man who had accidentally gotten his girlfriend pregnant and was meeting her father for the first time with a private engagement.

  Wang Lu remained calm and collected as he had been for the past month, flipping through the village head's collection of books while asking, "Which task?"

  Shu Tong paused for a moment, then said: "All eight have already approached perfection... According to Young Master's words, I allocated the progress evenly, strengthened the connection between task characters, and indeed achieved twice the result with half the effort, and it's easier to grasp the progress..."

  "Not bad, then what?"

  Xiao Shu Tong was stunned for a moment, brewing for a long time, and made a very determined decision to lay his cards on the table, but it got stuck in his throat and he couldn't say it out loud.

  "Since the task is almost complete, hurry up and finish the remaining work. What's the point of lingering around here?"

  Shu Tong was startled: "Young master, I..."

  "After a moment of silence, he said: 'Young master... although I'm not sure what you're waiting for, I am your book boy, it's unreasonable to leave the young master alone and continue on.'"

  Wang Lu sneered: "Do you believe what you're saying?"

  Xiao Shu Tong jumped three feet high: "I'm speaking from the bottom of my heart!"

  "Don't jump around, telling nonsense will get you struck by lightning. You're jumping so high, are you trying to make it easier for the Thunder God to lock onto his target?"

  "I..." The book boy was stunned again by Wang Lu, and after a long while, he sighed, "Young Master... two months ago, I would have never thought that I would have such a day. A ordinary book boy from a mountain village, actually got lucky and caught a thread of fate, having the opportunity to become an inner disciple of a top sect. I know all this is Young Master's kindness. If it wasn't for Young Master, I wouldn't be able to get here, Young Master's great kindness...

  "No need to mention great kindness and favors, a debt of rice is repaid with a debt of millet. If this were to escalate into great kindness and favors, wouldn't that make our feud irreconcilable?" Wang Lu chuckled teasingly, "Actually, you might as well be more honest with yourself. You've lived in the village for a month and spoken with those trial-takers quite a bit, so you should know what it means to be able to cross the Golden Bridge. A predestined affinity is just that - not something I gave you, nor was it blown in by the great wind. You were born with a predestined affinity; even if there wasn't the Lingjian Pavilion, some other sect would eventually find you. The path of cultivation is inevitable for you."

  Shu Tong didn't say anything because before deciding and laying his cards on the table with Young Master, he had indeed convinced himself of this.

  "So you're about to leave Peach Village with an astonishing completion rate, and it's likely that you'll pass the next level and reach the Misty Peak. Why waste time waiting for me? The road to ascension is always long and full of dreams, but there's never a guarantee of success... Besides, didn't you promise to travel with someone else?"

  Shu Tong's heart skipped a beat, and indeed, the young master knew everything without leaving his door. Wang Lu was clearly not going out, but he had a firm grasp on all the major and minor gossip in the village!

  Shu Tong indeed made a pact with a certain trialer, who was a noble-born and talented prince. He saw Shu Tong's potential and befriended him without reservation, soon winning over Wang Zhong.

  The reason for Shu Tong's departure is simple. Firstly, except for Hai Yunfan, no one has left Taoyuan Village yet, and they are now walking, which can be considered the first echelon. Secondly, Wang Lu may be mysterious and unpredictable, but he hasn't taken action in a month, it seems that his abilities have also reached their limit, let alone Shu Tong's own abilities.

  "Want to be a book boy for life or become a dignified Wang Zhong, I think... you should consider it."

  And what's being considered is the result of this scene before our eyes.

  However, unlike Xiaoshu's anxious concern, the young master didn't mind his betrayal at all, and even said that Wang Lu seemed to have been expecting it for a long time.

  "Your pretentious hesitant attitude is really ugly, I genuinely don't care whether you're here or not, so please leave without any psychological burden."

  Wang Zhong's face turned red, but he didn't say another word. He silently knelt on the ground and knocked his head three times against Wang Lu's feet, then stood up straight, lifted his head, turned around and left.

  After Shu Tong left, Wang Lu couldn't help but laugh.

  "After kowtowing a few times, he became confident and arrogant. Indeed, he has turned the tables and become the master... Xiaohai, you were right, this kid is not a good person."

  Wang Lu's smile gradually turned into self-mockery: "Damn it... and I even helped him come up with this pile of battle plans!"

  As they spoke, an arm swung up, and the hundred or so sheets of paper covered in writing on the desk scattered like a heavenly maiden scattering flowers. They floated and fluttered about, but no one knew that each sheet of paper was actually worth as much as gold.

  "Followed me for seven years, even the protagonist's halo can be recognized incorrectly... I'm really incompetent in teaching my daughter! Alas, now I understand the feelings of a stupid father whose daughter elopes with someone."

  "Whatever, I've got everything ready... let's get started."

  Wang Lu finished speaking and walked down from the bed, pulling down a piece of gauze that was covering the wall.

  If Wang Zhong were still here at this time, he would definitely be scared out of his wits.

  On the wall were posted over a hundred good quality rice papers, each recording the strategy for dealing with a character in the village. The contents were detailed and vivid, far more meticulous than the versions shared among the villagers' mutual aid organizations!

  A month without going out is not a waste, but this month has not been spent in vain. As the trialist who walked out of Yunbo Map with excellent results, Wang Lu gained far more benefits than what Xiaoshu Tong saw. His relationship with the village chief was far from being just a tenant and landlord.

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