That being said, Wang Hou was not being lazy.
Over the last few years, he had been running around to work. Rest and sleep were a luxury for him, and he often went without sleeping over months, or even a year.
That continued until Wang Hou ascended to Void-tier.
Once he ascended, he negotiated with the Ferals and reached an agreement that those above rank-nine were not to attack on a whim, as well as reaching a partnership with the Five Holy Grounds.
Only then did the state of the Hua Nation stabilized.
Though Jiang He’s string of rampages left the many Feral Kings on edge, leaving a chance of unrest erupting everywhere, his swift slaying of the Black King Drake, the Red Toad King, the Violet-Crowned Golden Eagle, the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle, and the Golden Winged-Roc had greatly reduced the Ferals’ forces. As such, the country would have enough strength to face any unrest.
Moreover…
The Dragoncroc Emperor itself indicated its reluctance to fight.
That was why Wang Hou felt even more relaxed.
And one he became relaxed, he desired sleep.
After delegating the various affairs at the MAD, Wang Hou stood up and headed for the bedroom adjacent to his office, even instructing Zhou Yu, “Just say I’m not here if any one comes looking for me, Old Zhou… you can make the decisions on the more trivial matters as well, so don’t disturb my sleep.”
Once Wang Hou reached his small bedroom, he reached dreamland after lying on bed for a couple minutes.
It was a pity that Jiang He was not a witness to that scene, or an ‘insomniac’ person like him would become a green-eyed monster.
Nonetheless, after a murky sleep of less than half an hour…
Bang!
A dull crash could be heard, jolting Wang Hou awake from his sweet dreams.
Zhou Yu had knocked open the office door as he rushed in, dashing outside Wang Hou’s bedroom and slapping on it loudly as he shouted, “Oh no, Minister Wang! Word from Lingzhou City’s MAD is that… Mount Dadong is gone!”
Muddleheaded from sleep, Wang Hou felt a jolt and question marks popping up all over his head.
“What was that? Mount Dadong is gone?”
Wang Hou could not understand it just then.
Mount Dadong stretched on for over a hundred kilometers. How could it be gone?
Realizing that he misspoke, Zhou Yu took a deep breath to compose himself and quickly changed phrasing, saying, “The report from the Lingzhou City MAD might have been a little exaggerated. The specific situation is that the heritage site within Mount Dadong collapsed, causing a massive earthquake—with the heart of Mount Dadong being the epicenter, everything over twenty kilometers from it are reduced to rubble, and most of Mount Dadong are split cracks that stretches on for fifty kilometers, causing serious devastation to the ecosystem.”
That being said, with Mount Dadong having become a lair of Ferals, there was nothing to care about destroyed ecosystems.
Still, with something like this having happened, the Ferals living there would definitely migrate away, which was likely to cause Feral unrest.
Wang Hou frowned. “The garrison and military elite guarding Yuzhen only withdrew yesterday, and Mount Dadong is gone already? As for the heritage site… it wasn’t even opened. Why would it crumble?”
Zhou Yu appeared baffled at that, and replied, “It seems that Yan Dehao had a hand in this.”
“Eh?”
Wang Hou couldn’t help laughing out loud at that. “How could I not know what Yan Dehao is capable of? If he had the power to bring down an entire heritage site, I would be reluctant to send him out as an undercover agent.”
“I think so too.”
Zhou Yu smiled begrudgingly. “Perhaps he was made a scapegoat.”
“Tell me then,” Wang Hou said. “What actually happened?”
“Didn’t Zhou Yu run into Yan Dehao last night?” Zhou Yu replied.
“I managed to contact him through Lingzhou City, and in his debrief, he said that he had gained the Sky Demon Cult’s trust and was promoted to Fourth Elder, and arrived at Mount Dadong with their two Cardinals, the Sentinel of the Left, another Elder, three Holy Children, along with several Decans. They were about to open the heritage site alongside the Graywolf King when Jiang He suddenly came charging in, killing all the cultists and forced the Graywolf King to open the heritage site.”
“And according to Yan Dehao, the heritage site itself is a daemonic legacy. The Graywolf King hugely benefited from it and took a great leap forward in power, but still ended up being killed by Jiang He.”
Wang Hou, having kept his eyes fixed on Zhou Yu, asked, “So, you mean that Jiang He was the one who brought down the Mount Dadong heritage site… Hold on…”
He abruptly came to a realization even before he finished, and exclaimed in surprise, “Jiang He killed two Sky Demon Cult Cardinals, the Sentinel of the Left, another Elder, three Holy Children, along with several Decans… and killed the Graywolf King too?!”
Damn it!
Wang Hou held his forehead, unsure what to say just then.
Truly, whatever he feared always come to be.
The Dragoncroc Emperor had made it clear that it would not fight. In turn, that meant humans elites above rank-nine—especially Jiang He—were also to refrain from slaying Feral Kings. Wang Hou certainly did not expect that Jiang He had killed another when he was not looking.
Could he be the terminator of Ferals?
After half a beat, Wang Hou rubbed his temples and forced a chuckle, saying, “Forget it. The Graywolf King is dead either way, and the Dragoncroc Emperor took no offense after Jiang He had slain four Feral Kings and one Feral Emperor. It probably wouldn’t say anything against the Graywolf King’s killing.”
“That said, I’m worried about the Sky Demon Cult right now, and not the Dragoncroc Emperor… with Jiang He killing two Cardinals this time, wiping out their Sentinels and almost all of their nine elders, the Saint of the Sky Demon Cult is going to lose their mind.”
“Whatever, worrying about it is useless. We’ll repel any army that come and bury any floodwater with soil—if the Saint really dared to come forth, I shall summon every elite in the country to fight him!”
The only problem, however, was that the talks with the Dragoncroc Emperor would be brought forward.
Otherwise, if the matter regarding the Graywolf King was allowed to continue brewing while all the Feral Kings felt unsafe. Should the Sky Demon Cult’s leader come out to start trouble, they would be ill-prepared and major problems would ensue.
After musing to himself for a while, Wang Hou’s tone changed and asked, “If that’s the case, does that mean Jiang He brought down the Mount Dadong heritage site?”
Zhou Yu forced a smile. “That’s not exactly it… according to Yan Dehao, the heritage site crumbled once he stamped his feet. Perhaps the heritage site was unstable in the first place, or it was set to collapse on its own due to certain setups if someone took away the legacies within.”
Wang Hou waved him off. “Well, leave it then. Contact Yan Dehao and tell him to get back right away—I have questions for him. And send Jiang He’s Orirocks and Sword Will Barrenwort to him as soon as possible.”
Wang Hou stormed back inside his bedroom.
This time, however, he couldn’t sleep no matter how much he tried.
Sleep, my foot!
There was a whole load of work waiting for him to settle with Jiang He’s antics this time.
***
Meanwhile, Jiang He was snoozing away.
Once he returned home, he went up to the third floor to bathe, after which he returned to the bedroom, falling asleep in a matter of minutes.
And then…
He slept all the way past six.
He felt invigorated once he woke up, and stretched his body lazily while exclaiming in delight, “Twenty-Three Swords is really a divine technique. Not only does it destroy my opponents’ consciousness and even essence, it helps me sleep after I’ve used it. I should use it to cut someone down if I’m having trouble sleeping in the future, so that I would get enough quality sleep.”
Fortunately, no one was around to hear that, or they would feel the impulse to kill Jiang He right then.
Twenty-Three Swords required a part of person’s spirit to charge, thereby hurting it after usage.
Normal people would not recover the spiritual recoil after using it even if they slept for ten days or half a month, and there might even be lasting damage in their spirit.
On the other hand, Jiang He was basically using it as sleeping pills.
As he went downstairs, he saw that Sora had already prepared an aromatic dinner.
Three dishes and one soup—as scrumptious as it was… nutritious.
After all, how could it not be nutritious?
Jiang He planted his own vegetables, and even his eggplants—which were the most ordinary of the lot—possesses wondrous effects and was even more impressive than floral spirits. Therefore, his three dishes and one soup were worth at least a hundred million dollars, and not even the richest person in the world could afford it.
After all, the soup was a broth brewed from the Golden-Winged Roc’s bones, and the qi it contained was as thick as it was concentrated.
Nonetheless, the only thing lacking was how plain the rice was.
“It seems that the plan to plant rice and wheat should be brought forward.’
Jiang He sighed emotionally at the table.
Meanwhile, outside the door of the mansion, Dumbo and Trumbo were holding their steel bowls and staring tearfully at the dinner table, their tongues stretched out lengthily while drool dripped out.
Jiang He was speechless.
Dumbo was a dog and that reaction was only natural… but Trumbo was a damned cat. Forget imitating dogs and wagging its tail, it now learnt to stick out its tongue too?
Nonetheless, Sora stood up, scooped two servings of rice, dishes and soup which she poured into the pets’ steel bowls.
Wagging their tails and picking up spoons, cat and dog sat by the doorway and cheerfully had their dinner.
The Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers ran up to Jiang He as well. However, they were no fans of rice but favor nitrogen fertilizers and composite fertilizers, so Jiang He offhandedly redeemed 100 of the latter and threw it to them.
Each composite fertilizer was worth 300 Farm Points, and 100 was just 30,000, which was no big deal for Jiang He as he was now.
“Thank you, gramps!”
With that, the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers turned around and sped off.
After finishing diner, Jiang He searched through every drawer and cabinet in the house to find seeds for rice and wheat… but found none.
“I remember buying rice and wheat seeds before…”
Jiang He rubbed his temples. Had he actually bought them or not?
Hmmm…
He had a lot of things to deal with lately and had forgotten about it.
Either way, he could not find them in his house.
“Still, that’s fine. It would best if I could get my hands on some mutated seeds instead, and since rice is in season, there might be rice planted in the countless paddy fields at the wildlands across the country affected by Yuan Qi, causing them to mutate.”
Yuan Qi…
It’s Jiang He’s name for it, just as it was for the people from the Five Holy Grounds. Indeed, it might be the same for the people of the Old Martial Era and the Era of Qi Refinists.
On the other hand, Jiang He found the name ‘Universal Force’ which those specialists and professors gave rather uncomfortable.
“I’ll have the MAD help me collect the seeds for rice and wheat, since I’m not in a hurry and could wait those few days.”
Jiang He’s farm EXP was long since full, and he had the ascension materials for his farm as well. All he had to wait was for the 100 Orirocks Wang Hou had promised him to arrive, and he could level up his farm right away after earning some Farm Points.
“There is a lot of stuff to plant after the farm levels up, and since I’m idling anyway, I could prepare ahead of time.”
Jiang He thought about it, ready to develop a Sword array.
As a sword cultivator, how could he greet others without an impressive set of Sword Array?
That being said, Wang Hou was not being lazy.
Over the last few years, he had been running around to work. Rest and sleep were a luxury for him, and he often went without sleeping over months, or even a year.
That continued until Wang Hou ascended to Void-tier.
Once he ascended, he negotiated with the Ferals and reached an agreement that those above rank-nine were not to attack on a whim, as well as reaching a partnership with the Five Holy Grounds.
Only then did the state of the Hua Nation stabilized.
Though Jiang He’s string of rampages left the many Feral Kings on edge, leaving a chance of unrest erupting everywhere, his swift slaying of the Black King Drake, the Red Toad King, the Violet-Crowned Golden Eagle, the Golden-Crowned Black Eagle, and the Golden Winged-Roc had greatly reduced the Ferals’ forces. As such, the country would have enough strength to face any unrest.
Moreover…
The Dragoncroc Emperor itself indicated its reluctance to fight.
That was why Wang Hou felt even more relaxed.
And one he became relaxed, he desired sleep.
After delegating the various affairs at the MAD, Wang Hou stood up and headed for the bedroom adjacent to his office, even instructing Zhou Yu, “Just say I’m not here if any one comes looking for me, Old Zhou… you can make the decisions on the more trivial matters as well, so don’t disturb my sleep.”
Once Wang Hou reached his small bedroom, he reached dreamland after lying on bed for a couple minutes.
It was a pity that Jiang He was not a witness to that scene, or an ‘insomniac’ person like him would become a green-eyed monster.
Nonetheless, after a murky sleep of less than half an hour…
Bang!
A dull crash could be heard, jolting Wang Hou awake from his sweet dreams.
Zhou Yu had knocked open the office door as he rushed in, dashing outside Wang Hou’s bedroom and slapping on it loudly as he shouted, “Oh no, Minister Wang! Word from Lingzhou City’s MAD is that… Mount Dadong is gone!”
Muddleheaded from sleep, Wang Hou felt a jolt and question marks popping up all over his head.
“What was that? Mount Dadong is gone?”
Wang Hou could not understand it just then.
Mount Dadong stretched on for over a hundred kilometers. How could it be gone?
Realizing that he misspoke, Zhou Yu took a deep breath to compose himself and quickly changed phrasing, saying, “The report from the Lingzhou City MAD might have been a little exaggerated. The specific situation is that the heritage site within Mount Dadong collapsed, causing a massive earthquake—with the heart of Mount Dadong being the epicenter, everything over twenty kilometers from it are reduced to rubble, and most of Mount Dadong are split cracks that stretches on for fifty kilometers, causing serious devastation to the ecosystem.”
That being said, with Mount Dadong having become a lair of Ferals, there was nothing to care about destroyed ecosystems.
Still, with something like this having happened, the Ferals living there would definitely migrate away, which was likely to cause Feral unrest.
Wang Hou frowned. “The garrison and military elite guarding Yuzhen only withdrew yesterday, and Mount Dadong is gone already? As for the heritage site… it wasn’t even opened. Why would it crumble?”
Zhou Yu appeared baffled at that, and replied, “It seems that Yan Dehao had a hand in this.”
“Eh?”
Wang Hou couldn’t help laughing out loud at that. “How could I not know what Yan Dehao is capable of? If he had the power to bring down an entire heritage site, I would be reluctant to send him out as an undercover agent.”
“I think so too.”
Zhou Yu smiled begrudgingly. “Perhaps he was made a scapegoat.”
“Tell me then,” Wang Hou said. “What actually happened?”
“Didn’t Zhou Yu run into Yan Dehao last night?” Zhou Yu replied.
“I managed to contact him through Lingzhou City, and in his debrief, he said that he had gained the Sky Demon Cult’s trust and was promoted to Fourth Elder, and arrived at Mount Dadong with their two Cardinals, the Sentinel of the Left, another Elder, three Holy Children, along with several Decans. They were about to open the heritage site alongside the Graywolf King when Jiang He suddenly came charging in, killing all the cultists and forced the Graywolf King to open the heritage site.”
“And according to Yan Dehao, the heritage site itself is a daemonic legacy. The Graywolf King hugely benefited from it and took a great leap forward in power, but still ended up being killed by Jiang He.”
Wang Hou, having kept his eyes fixed on Zhou Yu, asked, “So, you mean that Jiang He was the one who brought down the Mount Dadong heritage site… Hold on…”
He abruptly came to a realization even before he finished, and exclaimed in surprise, “Jiang He killed two Sky Demon Cult Cardinals, the Sentinel of the Left, another Elder, three Holy Children, along with several Decans… and killed the Graywolf King too?!”
Damn it!
Wang Hou held his forehead, unsure what to say just then.
Truly, whatever he feared always come to be.
The Dragoncroc Emperor had made it clear that it would not fight. In turn, that meant humans elites above rank-nine—especially Jiang He—were also to refrain from slaying Feral Kings. Wang Hou certainly did not expect that Jiang He had killed another when he was not looking.
Could he be the terminator of Ferals?
After half a beat, Wang Hou rubbed his temples and forced a chuckle, saying, “Forget it. The Graywolf King is dead either way, and the Dragoncroc Emperor took no offense after Jiang He had slain four Feral Kings and one Feral Emperor. It probably wouldn’t say anything against the Graywolf King’s killing.”
“That said, I’m worried about the Sky Demon Cult right now, and not the Dragoncroc Emperor… with Jiang He killing two Cardinals this time, wiping out their Sentinels and almost all of their nine elders, the Saint of the Sky Demon Cult is going to lose their mind.”
“Whatever, worrying about it is useless. We’ll repel any army that come and bury any floodwater with soil—if the Saint really dared to come forth, I shall summon every elite in the country to fight him!”
The only problem, however, was that the talks with the Dragoncroc Emperor would be brought forward.
Otherwise, if the matter regarding the Graywolf King was allowed to continue brewing while all the Feral Kings felt unsafe. Should the Sky Demon Cult’s leader come out to start trouble, they would be ill-prepared and major problems would ensue.
After musing to himself for a while, Wang Hou’s tone changed and asked, “If that’s the case, does that mean Jiang He brought down the Mount Dadong heritage site?”
Zhou Yu forced a smile. “That’s not exactly it… according to Yan Dehao, the heritage site crumbled once he stamped his feet. Perhaps the heritage site was unstable in the first place, or it was set to collapse on its own due to certain setups if someone took away the legacies within.”
Wang Hou waved him off. “Well, leave it then. Contact Yan Dehao and tell him to get back right away—I have questions for him. And send Jiang He’s Orirocks and Sword Will Barrenwort to him as soon as possible.”
Wang Hou stormed back inside his bedroom.
This time, however, he couldn’t sleep no matter how much he tried.
Sleep, my foot!
There was a whole load of work waiting for him to settle with Jiang He’s antics this time.
***
Meanwhile, Jiang He was snoozing away.
Once he returned home, he went up to the third floor to bathe, after which he returned to the bedroom, falling asleep in a matter of minutes.
And then…
He slept all the way past six.
He felt invigorated once he woke up, and stretched his body lazily while exclaiming in delight, “Twenty-Three Swords is really a divine technique. Not only does it destroy my opponents’ consciousness and even essence, it helps me sleep after I’ve used it. I should use it to cut someone down if I’m having trouble sleeping in the future, so that I would get enough quality sleep.”
Fortunately, no one was around to hear that, or they would feel the impulse to kill Jiang He right then.
Twenty-Three Swords required a part of person’s spirit to charge, thereby hurting it after usage.
Normal people would not recover the spiritual recoil after using it even if they slept for ten days or half a month, and there might even be lasting damage in their spirit.
On the other hand, Jiang He was basically using it as sleeping pills.
As he went downstairs, he saw that Sora had already prepared an aromatic dinner.
Three dishes and one soup—as scrumptious as it was… nutritious.
After all, how could it not be nutritious?
Jiang He planted his own vegetables, and even his eggplants—which were the most ordinary of the lot—possesses wondrous effects and was even more impressive than floral spirits. Therefore, his three dishes and one soup were worth at least a hundred million dollars, and not even the richest person in the world could afford it.
After all, the soup was a broth brewed from the Golden-Winged Roc’s bones, and the qi it contained was as thick as it was concentrated.
Nonetheless, the only thing lacking was how plain the rice was.
“It seems that the plan to plant rice and wheat should be brought forward.’
Jiang He sighed emotionally at the table.
Meanwhile, outside the door of the mansion, Dumbo and Trumbo were holding their steel bowls and staring tearfully at the dinner table, their tongues stretched out lengthily while drool dripped out.
Jiang He was speechless.
Dumbo was a dog and that reaction was only natural… but Trumbo was a damned cat. Forget imitating dogs and wagging its tail, it now learnt to stick out its tongue too?
Nonetheless, Sora stood up, scooped two servings of rice, dishes and soup which she poured into the pets’ steel bowls.
Wagging their tails and picking up spoons, cat and dog sat by the doorway and cheerfully had their dinner.
The Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers ran up to Jiang He as well. However, they were no fans of rice but favor nitrogen fertilizers and composite fertilizers, so Jiang He offhandedly redeemed 100 of the latter and threw it to them.
Each composite fertilizer was worth 300 Farm Points, and 100 was just 30,000, which was no big deal for Jiang He as he was now.
“Thank you, gramps!”
With that, the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers turned around and sped off.
After finishing diner, Jiang He searched through every drawer and cabinet in the house to find seeds for rice and wheat… but found none.
“I remember buying rice and wheat seeds before…”
Jiang He rubbed his temples. Had he actually bought them or not?
Hmmm…
He had a lot of things to deal with lately and had forgotten about it.
Either way, he could not find them in his house.
“Still, that’s fine. It would best if I could get my hands on some mutated seeds instead, and since rice is in season, there might be rice planted in the countless paddy fields at the wildlands across the country affected by Yuan Qi, causing them to mutate.”
Yuan Qi…
It’s Jiang He’s name for it, just as it was for the people from the Five Holy Grounds. Indeed, it might be the same for the people of the Old Martial Era and the Era of Qi Refinists.
On the other hand, Jiang He found the name ‘Universal Force’ which those specialists and professors gave rather uncomfortable.
“I’ll have the MAD help me collect the seeds for rice and wheat, since I’m not in a hurry and could wait those few days.”
Jiang He’s farm EXP was long since full, and he had the ascension materials for his farm as well. All he had to wait was for the 100 Orirocks Wang Hou had promised him to arrive, and he could level up his farm right away after earning some Farm Points.
“There is a lot of stuff to plant after the farm levels up, and since I’m idling anyway, I could prepare ahead of time.”
Jiang He thought about it, ready to develop a Sword array.
As a sword cultivator, how could he greet others without an impressive set of Sword Array?
