Chapter 39: Chen the General Manager

  (Votes, I need votes! The situation of the recommended list is getting more and more terrifying, it's like the devil's face of Lao Hei. During the rush to the top, votes are extremely important, brothers and sisters, come on, give me a push, lift me up, even kick me!)

  Lao Hei sensed these glances and reminded him: "Master, there are several guys in their thatched cottage who are looking at you with ill intentions."

  "It should be the disciples in charge here, what kind of cultivation are they?" Su Che didn't feel unexpected, he indeed had too low strength, coming here made him quite conspicuous.

  Lao Hei replied, "Within a radius of 100 meters, there are eight people. Three outer door disciples and four inner door disciples are all practicing Qi at level seven or above. There is also an outer door disciple who is around sixteen or seventeen years old and is practicing Qi at level five."

  "At the age of sixteen or seventeen, he has already reached the fifth layer of Qi cultivation. The talent of this young man is certainly not bad." Su Che felt a sense of emotion: "The vast Tianxuan Sect, with tens of millions of disciples who are all excellent individuals selected from various levels. Among them, those with exceptional innate talents are not in the minority. My own talent, however, is only at a medium level. On the path to immortality, I must compete with them..."

  It wasn't until about a quarter of an hour later that Lao Hei reported back: "That Chen should have calmed down by now, he's holding a teapot and staring blankly."

  "Alright, go ahead."

  Su Che tidied up his clothes and walked quickly into the courtyard, standing in the center of the yard and saying loudly: "Outer door disciple Su Che is here to report. Excuse me, is Manager Chen present?"

  "Come in." A low, husky voice came from inside the house.

  Lao Hei immediately reported: "Master, he heard your name and his face changed for a moment, then quickly adjusted. The previous scolding behind the back, won't it have something to do with you?"

  "It's impossible, I don't know him at all, how could I have offended him?" Su Che thought to himself in confusion, but his feet didn't stop moving, and he walked lightly into the house.

  The interior decoration is simple. A thin-faced middle-aged man sits upright on the left side of the table, his expression extremely normal, and no emotions can be seen.

  "Disciple Su Che, has met Chief Chen before." After paying respects, Su Che took the initiative to hand over his own identity jade symbol.

  "Is that so?" General Chen took over the jade symbol, infused his true energy and glanced at it briefly before putting it back on the table. He asked in a deep voice: "You're just a new disciple who has only practiced Qi Refining for one layer, what makes you think you can take charge of the Medicine Garden?"

  "The disciple has a slight talent in spiritual grass cultivation, and with the wood attribute spirit root, he specializes in wood-based techniques. He can establish primary mental communication with spiritual plants, sensing their joys and sorrows... As for this aspect of his studies, Su Che had naturally done some preparation, having looked up ancient texts to understand what kind of characteristics were required for the so-called 'spiritual grass cultivation talent'."

  Director Chen stared at Su Che, sizing him up carefully for a while without making any expression, his eyes hidden with coldness, giving off an unfriendly feeling.

  "Master, this guy seems to be up to no good and will likely find some excuse to trouble you." Old Hei said in a low voice.

  "I think so too." Su Che also had a bad premonition.

  It's said that he is walking the same path as Yu Qing Shixiong, so he has Medicine Garden Elder taking care of him. Medicine Garden Elder is the highest manager of the entire Spirit Grass Medicine Garden, and this Chen surname person is only in charge of a certain region, without special reason, he shouldn't be at odds with him.

  Doesn't he know that a single word from the elder of Yao Garden can make him roll up his bedding and leave?

  After a while, Director Chen finally spoke up. He pretended to cough and said with a straight face: "I can see that you have the wood spiritual root, but the special abilities you mentioned are all empty and intangible things that cannot be verified on the spot. You have no evidence, how can you prove your talent?"

  Su Che did not respond immediately, quickly weighing in his mind whether to deal with this kind of person gently or severely.

  "In dealing with people, you can't always be soft or hard, you need to adapt and use different approaches for different people. If this Chen manager has it in mind to make things difficult for me, using a soft approach on him will definitely not work, and instead I'll suffer even more severe difficulties..."

  "Right, just like that!" Old Black waved his big paws and shouted: "We're furious, we love to 'borrow power to oppress people'!"

  Su Che made up his mind, puffed out his chest, raised his voice a few degrees, and said with full confidence: "Director Chen, my talent for spiritual grass cultivation has been recognized by Master Yuqing and the Elder of the Medicine Garden, which is why I was given the position of Guan Shi Zi. If you still want to test my ability in this area, it will only take a few months, and I will definitely make achievements that everyone can see."

  Cultivating spiritual grass is not something that can be accomplished in just a few days. Even for the type of spiritual grass with the shortest medicinal period, it's already quite good if changes can be seen after several months. So Su Che's guarantee was reasonable.

  Director Chen's eyes turned cold for a moment, then he smiled slightly, but in Su Che and Lao Hei's eyes, his smile looked like a sinister sneer.

  He said: "Su Che, what you mean is that with Yu Qing and Yao Yuan's elder protecting you, you can completely ignore my existence, right?"

  "Of course not!" Su Che, however, burst into a smile and suddenly transformed into a mischievous childlike face: "Director Chen only needs to be slightly nicer to me, not so strict, and I will show ten or even a hundred times more sincerity to thank you. I'm actually a person who knows how to be grateful."

  Director Chen was slightly stunned, being caught off guard by Su Che's sudden change in attitude. He had more than 20 disciples under his management and had never encountered such an unusual character before.

  It should be said that Su Che's performance was relatively successful, and his "youthful ignorance" also created an advantage, making Director Chen mistakenly think that he was a young master from a large family who had been spoiled by his elders, fearless of heaven and earth, daring to say anything and dare to do anything.

  The more so, the more General Chen wants to weigh it carefully in his heart, just for a mouthful of resentment, offending such a young man with a deep background, and provoking some powerful old monster, is it worth it or not?

  He was muttering to himself, but then he saw that little brat rushing towards him with a sly look in his eyes and said: "Director Chen, let me say it again, I'm a person who knows how to be grateful and respect my elders. With time, you'll see, all the elders like me. Really!"

  "Damn it..." Chen Zongguan cursed in his heart, but on the surface, he smiled and said: "Is that so? Well, I'm looking forward to your performance."

  Having reached this point, he also temporarily extinguished the idea of making things difficult for Su Che, stood up and beckoned: "Come on, I'll take you to pick a medicinal field! The days of the medicine garden's manager are very bitter and dull, but I hope you can bear this loneliness."

  Su Che saw that it was good and collected his thoughts, responding solemnly: "Director Chen, please be at ease. Since one has embarked on the path of cultivating immortality, they must be able to endure loneliness."

  Director Chen smiled dryly and said nothing more, just leading the way forward.

  Su Che transformed into a well-behaved demeanor, following closely behind him without uttering a single unnecessary word. However, in his heart, he was still guessing with Lao Hei about the reason behind this, wondering why he would be treated this way on their first meeting.

  Next, Su Che was assigned to a field of 'Seven Star Grass'. The field, which covered more than two mu, only had over a hundred stalks of Seven Star Grass planted. This was because planting spiritual grass wasn't like planting ordinary crops, it couldn't be too dense. The higher the grade of spiritual grass, the stricter its requirements for nutrients, spiritual energy and growth space.

  "Su Che, you should first get familiar with the environment and take good care of this medicinal field. Only when you have fully demonstrated your ability will you be allocated more and better medicinal fields." General Manager Chen's face wore a hint of a smile as he asked: "What do you think?"

  "Yes, it should be so." Su Che paid respects with a bow and replied respectfully: "Thank you, Director Chen!"

  "Don't be polite." Director Chen waved his hand and turned to leave, giving a final instruction: "Remember, every week you have to go to my place to report on the growth of the spiritual grass."

  Su Che responded with his back facing him.

  When he walked dozens of feet away, Lao Hei reported back: "Master, that bastard has started scolding people behind their backs again. This time, he specifically mentioned your name!"

  "What did you just call me?"

  "You're a dead man, just you wait and see... I'll find another chance to deal with you slowly... Don't think that just because you have Yu Qing backing you up, I won't dare touch you... Ah, this sentence is too hard to hear, Master, I don't want to learn it anymore... Oh? This sentence is quite crucial! It seems like he's saying, Master, your arrival has taken the position of a certain person's trusted disciple that was supposed to be his..."

  "I understand!"

  Su Che finally realized that his arrival was an exception, and he might have taken the place of someone who was originally supposed to be in charge, and this person must be a close friend or relative of Chen's, so he would harbor resentment and be extremely hostile towards him.

  "This is a mess!" This time, Su Che also didn't know what to say for the better.

  Unintentionally, he had offended his immediate superior, Chen. Presumably, Yu Qing Shixiong and Yao Yuan Zhang Lao didn't know about such trivial matters; otherwise, they wouldn't have assigned him to Chen's jurisdiction.

  "There's something behind you that's causing trouble, it's really annoying and might even interfere with our plan to find the secret medicine garden." Old Black suggested: "Why don't you go talk to Yu Qing again, get her to change it for you..."

  Su Che immediately retorted: "It's impossible. No matter how big or small the matter is, every time we go to trouble Master Yu Qing. This difficult problem must be solved by ourselves."

  "Alright then." Old Black rubbed his head and muttered, "I'll think of a way. After all, I have the cunning and cleverness of humans, the treacherous plots of the demonic gods from outside the domain, and the... of the mouse-like demon beasts..."

  "Don't mention mice to me! And your tail is loose again? It's always swinging back and forth, you really have no sense of it at all?"

  "It's there, but since it's on me, I feel like it's natural and always end up ignoring it. Master, if you dislike it that much, why not just cut it off?"

  "That's not necessary, if you don't mention the mouse, basically, I won't pay much attention to it either."

  In this way, muttering to himself in his heart, Su Che walked into that temporary hut of grass belonging to him.