Chapter 405: Autumn Wind Sweeping the Leaves

In Zhengjing Village, dawn was breaking.

When more people successfully cultivate land in an area, the light from their individual plots intertwines, creating the illusion that this is not new land at all.

Of course, the light from new land is not as dazzling as the sunlight from established land, but when the light from various plots intertwines, it looks much like dawn in an established area.

How many successfully cultivated plots are there near Zhengjing Village? That would require a proper count.

Li Banfeng led the cultivators to a forest, more than five li from Zhengjing Village. Here, they could already see numerous houses and even a restaurant.

Some hunters, visiting Zhengjing Village for the first time, wondered where a restaurant in this location would source its ingredients.

Edible resources on new land are scarce. Previously, most of Zhengjing Village's ingredients came from the orange orchard's oranges, fish from the lake, and some edible wild beasts.

But the situation is different now. Many cultivator-practitioners have successively succeeded in cultivating land in the surrounding areas, growing abundant food and raising many domesticated animals.

With a stable food supply, more people have temporarily settled nearby: cultivators, hunters, refugees, practitioners, shadow play performers, and more. Residential buildings have expanded from inside the village to its outskirts.

Upon reaching the vicinity of Zhengjing Village, Li Banfeng saw two elderly men playing chess under a large tree at the village entrance.

One was slender, the other large and burly.

The slender old man said, "Are you going to make a move or not? You've been staring at that piece for half an hour."

The burly old man pushed a chess piece. "What does it matter if I make a move? I don't even know how to play chess. The people are already here, why should I keep up this charade?"

These two were Shui Yongquan and Qiu Luoye.

Seeing Li Banfeng, Qiu Luoye came forward and pulled him aside. "Old Seven, you've brought so many people this time. Do you need our help with something?"

Li Banfeng nodded. "Actually, there is something. Duan Wuchou, Liang Wucai, and the others have performed many merits for me. I want to keep them by my side permanently."

Qiu Luoye laughed heartily. "Oh, is that all? Just keep them! Ma Wu borrowed Aqin and Huoling from me, and I never asked for them back, did I?"

"Brother Qiu, I'm not borrowing them; I'm asking for them, and I want their deeds as well."

"No problem, I'll give them to you, but they are, after all, new land stock. You'll still need to consult with Old Shui and use more techniques to conceal their identities."

Shui Yongquan stood nearby, a smile on his face, but remained silent.

Qiu Luoye frowned. "What's the meaning of this? Old Shui, are you trying to raise the price? Old Seven has brought so many people today; won't you even help with this small matter?"

Shui Yongquan shook his head. "Listen to what you're saying. I'm always ready to help, but can we put the land cultivation on hold for a bit?"

Li Banfeng was stunned by these words. Why would Shui Yongquan have this attitude? Don't all local gods hope for land cultivation?

Qiu Luoye also couldn't understand. "Put what on hold? What's wrong with you, Old Shui? Did you have an early drink and get confused?"

Shui Yongquan smiled. "Don't rush. Let's find somewhere to talk."

Shui Yongquan had built a wooden hut on his land, where he usually pretended to be a hunter and chatted with people around him.

Inside the hut, Shui Yongquan poured tea for them. Qiu Luoye pushed his cup aside and looked at Shui Yongquan. "We agreed to come out together to meet Old Seven today, knowing he was coming. If I had known you had other intentions, I wouldn't have come out with you. I would have welcomed Old Seven directly to my land."

Shui Yongquan frowned. "Qiu Daxiang, that's a bit unfair of you to say."

"Unfair? What do you mean? What exactly do you mean?" Qiu Luoye was truly angry. "Have you found a higher connection? Do you want to partner with someone else? Do you look down on me, or do you look down on Old Seven? It's fine if you look down on us; we don't need your favor. Old Seven, I'll give you all the people you asked for, and I'll find someone to help you conceal their identities. I also have skilled individuals; I'll bring them all in a moment, and you can pick whoever you want! I, Qiu Luoye, act with a clear conscience!"

Shui Yongquan waved his hand. "Old Qiu, this isn't about conscience!"

"Then what is it about?" Qiu Luoye thumped the table. "Initially, no one came to cultivate land in our desolate place. How many people has Old Seven brought us, time and again? Now that you've found a higher connection, you want to abandon him? Has your conscience been eaten by a dog?"

Shui Yongquan sighed. "To be honest with you, my land spans a li in all directions, comprising 10,900 plots. Of these, 900 plots were given to me by Qiu Luoye."

Qiu Luoye waved his hand. "Don't tell me that; I can't do the math!"

"I wasn't asking you to calculate; I've already done it for you," Shui Yongquan said, pulling out an account book. "On my land, over 2,700 plots have been cultivated. On your land, over 2,500 plots have been cultivated!"

Qiu Luoye's expression was grim, his gaze cold. "Are you saying that the new land cultivated on my side is less than yours?"

Shui Yongquan said helplessly, "Is that even a question? Can't you count?"

Qiu Luoye whispered to Li Banfeng, "I'm not wrong, am I? It is less than his, right?"

Li Banfeng nodded in affirmation.

Shui Yongquan said, "What I mean by this is that nearly 30% of both our lands have been cultivated. If we continue at this pace, the Inner State will notice us."

Qiu Luoye snorted. "So what if they notice? What's there to be afraid of? We're cultivating land according to the rules; what right do they have to interfere?"

"We haven't broken any rules, but our situation is unique. This is 'deep land,' not 'shallow land.' I'm afraid the Inner State will cause trouble for us!"

Li Banfeng was puzzled for a long time. What were "deep lands" and "shallow lands"?

The concepts are quite easy to understand. Shui Yongquan explained, "The terms 'deep' and 'shallow' refer to proximity to the established land. New land closer to the established land is called shallow land. My and Qiu Luoye's territories are very far from the established land, with several layers of new land in between, which is why they are called deep lands.

Logically, the closer the land is to the established land, the easier it is to transport food and supplies. Therefore, shallower lands attract more cultivators.

Old Seven, if you ask around on your journey, you'll find that few local gods have had 30% of their land cultivated. How much land has been cultivated in the territories right next to Green Water Bay? As far as I know, less than 20%!

Yet here we are, brothers with such deep lands, having already reached 30% cultivation. Could the Inner State possibly not know about such a conspicuous achievement? If they do know, will they not cause us trouble?"

Li Banfeng was very curious. "How could they cause trouble?"

"It's hard to say," Shui Yongquan shook his head. "They might send people out to stir up trouble, or they might even destroy our deeds."

Li Banfeng was even more confused. "You said the Inner State might send people to cause trouble. Can Inner State personnel freely come to Prolia Prefecture?"

"No, they can't do that," Shui Yongquan clicked his tongue. "But they definitely have other methods. What those methods are, I haven't found out yet."

Li Banfeng then asked, "You said they could destroy your deeds. Your deeds are buried on your land, so how could they destroy them?"

Shui Yongquan said, "My young friend, you haven't seen a deed; you only know one side of it, not the whole truth!"

Who said he hadn't seen a deed? He had seen two! Of course, he couldn't say that aloud.

Shui Yongquan took out paper and a brush, drawing an arch. "A deed looks like this. It's proof of a local god's ownership of a territory. All major and minor events that occur on the land are recorded on the deed.

When I defeated Qiu Luoye, and he ceded thirty li of land to me, that event was recorded. If you don't believe me, we can dig up Qiu Daxiang's deed right now and see; every stroke is clearly written!"

Qiu Luoye spat. "Pah! Why don't we dig up your deed and have a look?"

Shui Yongquan continued, "Not only are land cessions recorded, but so is land cultivation. Each plot is clearly documented."

Li Banfeng remained impassive, thinking Shui Yongquan was talking nonsense. He had seen two deeds, and neither Ba Shanzhu's nor Bei Wushuang's deeds contained any records of land cultivation.

Wait. Was there any cultivation in those two places?

Those places were much more remote than Shui Yongquan's and Qiu Luoye's territories.

On Ba Shanzhu's territory, there had been no cultivators before. Only after Youtao, He Yuxiu, and Zhang Wanlong successively succeeded in cultivation did the local god at that time become Li Furong.

Bei Wushuang's territory also likely had no successfully cultivated plots, which is why Li Banfeng hadn't seen any records.

In that case, Shui Yongquan's words must be true.

"You're worried that too much cultivated wasteland will attract the Inner State's attention?"

Shui Yongquan said, "With a pile of deeds just sitting there, the Inner State personnel would surely be too lazy to look at them. But if one deed suddenly gains a large amount of new writing, those in the Inner State would definitely have to take a look."

Li Banfeng was confused again. "Where are these piles of deeds kept?"

"They're kept in the Inner State's archives, hanging in rows," Shui Yongquan said, drawing another arch. "Each deed is divided into two halves: we hold one half, and the Inner State keeps the other. When both halves are joined, they form a complete ring. If the Inner State destroys their half, there's no telling what might happen to our half."

This time, Li Banfeng understood. His wife had once mentioned that the Inner State could see the writing on the deeds. It turned out this was because the deeds were split in two, with changes synchronizing on both sides.

Indeed, if there were significant changes on the deeds hanging in rows, they would be immediately obvious.

His wife had transformed Ba Shanzhu into Li Furong. That change wasn't too significant and probably wouldn't attract the Inner State's attention. Probably not...

Li Banfeng felt a little uneasy, then suddenly heard Qiu Luoye say, "Let's not talk about the ring matter for now."

Qiu Luoye seemed somewhat afraid. He had moments of fear too?

Qiu Luoye looked at Shui Yongquan. "Old Shui, what do you plan to do?"

Shui Yongquan said, "There are quite a few people on both our territories. I've roughly counted them, and with all the comings and goings, it adds up to over a thousand people. This is all 'popularity.' With this popularity, we can accumulate cultivation. Why rush things?"

Qiu Luoye couldn't grasp the numbers, but he knew that over a thousand people wouldn't be enough. "Just relying on these thousand-plus people to accumulate cultivation, how long will that take? At your pace, when will we ever reach the third level?"

"What's the rush?" Shui Yongquan was very patient. "We have five times the lifespan of ordinary people, so we can take our time."

The concept of having five times the lifespan on the second cloud layer was something Li Banfeng heard for the first time. But that wasn't the crucial point now. The critical issue was that Shui Yongquan didn't want to continue cultivating land.

Qiu Luoye remained silent for a long time, then walked out of the wooden hut. With his heavy footsteps, the remaining dry leaves on the trees fluttered down.

He turned back to Li Banfeng. "Old Seven, bring all your people to my territory and prepare for cultivation. Once it's done, you can pick anyone you want from my subordinates."

Shui Yongquan frowned. "Qiu Daxiang, did you hear what I just said?"

"No, I didn't hear a word of it," Qiu Luoye replied with frankness. "Old Shui, if you want to wait, then wait. You can wait as long as you like. I won't wait. Old Seven is a benefactor. Heaven has been kind to me by letting me meet such a person, so I must live up to Heaven's kindness. I will see this through to the end!"