I Grind to Martial Saint

"A Lower-class Spiritual Land is already exceedingly rare."

"As vast as Jianghe Province is, there’s only this one Lower-class Spiritual Land."

"Even in the entire Great Ling Dynasty, across all Nineteen Provinces, there are only two Middle Spiritual Lands."

"As for the so-called Upper-class Spiritual Lands... like the Evil Demon Seeds, they disappeared after the Chaotic Ancient Era."

Zhao Mengtian explained.

"Well, now that Evil Demon Seeds have reappeared, maybe Upper-class Spiritual Lands will show up again too," Han Yuan reasoned.

"That’s quite possible... If an Upper-class Spiritual Land were to appear, I’m afraid it would trigger another bloodbath."

"Who knows how many old monsters would emerge."

Zhao Mengtian said softly.

"That would certainly be lively," Han Yuan said with a smile.

Zhao Mengtian sighed. "We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"In any case, you must cherish this opportunity to enter the Lower-class Spiritual Land."

"The world is on the verge of a great upheaval... No one knows what the future holds."

Hearing those words, Han Yuan couldn’t help but frown. "Director Zhao... what exactly is this so-called great upheaval?"

Zhao Mengtian gazed down at Tongming County Town below and said, "The moon wanes only to wax, and it waxes only to wane. The great upheaval of the world is the same."

"The world is never static; it is always in flux. The Spiritual Qi is now shifting from waning to waxing. This is a natural transformation of the world, and no one can stop it."

"In fact, this change began over a decade ago."

"As the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi changes, more and more natural disasters have occurred, causing the world to become increasingly difficult and chaos to gradually emerge."

"And now, even Evil Demon Seeds have appeared."

After listening, Han Yuan was lost in thought.

"But there’s no use talking about this."

"The great tides of the world cannot be turned by human strength."

"We can only do our best and leave the rest to fate."

Zhao Mengtian continued.

"I don’t believe in fate."

"I only believe in myself."

Han Yuan said softly.

Hearing this, Zhao Mengtian’s expression flickered.

Finally, he smiled. "I hope you’re right."

......

And so, Han Yuan set off.

After several days of recuperation, his injuries were no longer a major concern.

Accompanying Han Yuan on this journey was his old acquaintance, Assistant General Song Guang.

He was responsible for escorting Ling Yun’s coffin back to Jianghe Province City.

Song Guang was exceptionally pleased to see Han Yuan arrive.

With this man around, he naturally had no fear of any mishaps.

"Assistant General Song, let’s depart."

Han Yuan said coolly, mounted on a black horse.

The Spiritual Land was set to open in one month.

The journey from Tongming County Town to Jianghe Province City would take over half a month, so they couldn’t afford any delays.

Song Guang had already made all the preparations. Hearing Han Yuan’s words, he immediately gave the order to set out.

Soon.

A procession of several hundred people departed from Tongming County Town, heading for Jianghe Province City.

......

「In a small mountain village in Yuan Province.」

"Daoist, thank you so much."

"I’ll never forget your immense kindness!"

A farmer suddenly fell to his knees before a young Daoist, overcome with emotion.

His name was Li Liu. A few days ago, while working in the fields, he had been accidentally bitten on the ankle by a venomous snake.

After several days, the wound grew more swollen and painful, even showing signs of rotting.

Fortunately, Zhang Cang was passing through the small mountain village. He found some medicinal herbs and cured the snakebite.

"No, no."

"Uncle, please get up."

Zhang Cang hurriedly tried to pull Li Liu to his feet.

But Li Liu refused to stand and even waved his child over.

"Daoist, my child is bright and clever... I want to ask you to take him as your disciple."

"I’m begging you."

Li Liu suddenly began to kowtow to Zhang Cang.

Besides him, his wife also knelt before Zhang Cang.

Only the child stood there, dazed and confused, not knowing what to do.

Zhang Cang was dumbfounded. In all his years of wandering, he had never encountered a situation like this.

Luckily, he was no longer an ordinary person. He secretly circulated his Magical Power to pull the couple to their feet.

"Uncle Li... My own skills are still unrefined. I can’t take your son as a disciple."

Zhang Cang explained.

Hearing this, Li Liu quickly said, "Daoist, even if you don’t take him as a disciple, just taking him with you when you leave would be enough."

"I’ve heard that Daoists like you often have a Child attendant or someone like that."

Zhang Cang was even more confused now. "Uncle Li... why are you so determined to send your son to me?"

It seemed Li Liu only had this one child.

’How could he bear to part with him?’

"Daoist, you may not know this... but my wife and I are just tenant farmers. Every year, we have to give a lot of our grain to the landlord."

"In recent years, the Government Office has been levying more and more exorbitant taxes. The landlord doesn’t want to pay them himself, so he passes all the costs onto us."

"But the harvests have been poor these past few years, and we’ve already fallen deep into debt with our grain payments."

"If we can’t make the payment again... the landlord will force us to sign a deed selling our child..."

Li Liu explained anxiously.

This was why he was so insistent that his child study under Zhang Cang.

After hearing this, Zhang Cang finally understood, but for a moment, he didn’t know how to handle the situation.

Huang Xian’Er, who had been leaning against the wooden wall holding her Treasure Sword, heard Li Liu’s words and asked coolly, "So how much grain do you have to hand over?"

"Milady Hero, according to the current rules... for every catty of grain we grow, we have to hand over eight taels of it."

Li Liu sighed sorrowfully.

"You have to give eight taels for every catty?!"

"Isn’t that just eating people alive?!"

Zhang Cang’s expression was one of utter shock when he heard the number.

"That’s right... so even with a good harvest... we can really only just barely survive."

"Let alone these past few years..."

A look of despair crossed Li Liu’s dark, weather-beaten face.

"These ten taels of silver should be enough for you to cover the grain debt."

Huang Xian’Er took out a piece of silver and placed it on the table.

Seeing the silver, Li Liu hurriedly pulled his wife down to kowtow before it. "Thank you, Milady Hero! Thank you, Milady Hero!!!"

Huang Xian’Er didn’t say anything more, simply leaving the house in silence.

Seeing this, Zhang Cang quickly followed her.

The two of them walked along the village path, heading for the next village.

"Xian’Er... how do you think the world ended up like this...?"

Zhang Cang asked, his mind on what Li Liu had just said.

"The Government Office and the local gentry have always been a den of vipers."

"There’s no need to be so surprised."

"I’d even heard of situations like this back in Cangshui County Town."

Huang Xian’Er said coolly.

Although she was the young lady of the Huang Family, she was not the type to live a sheltered life hidden away in some inner chamber.

As a Demon Exterminator, she knew something of the people’s suffering.

"Then why did things like this stop happening in Cangshui County Town?"

Zhang Cang couldn’t help but ask.

"Who else but that ’good brother’ of yours."

Huang Xian’Er shot him a sideways glance.

"Back then, he slaughtered the great Noble Families of Cangshui County Town until heads rolled. Everyone who saw it was terrified."

"He had only to say a word, and the gentry below would naturally restrain themselves. No one dared to pull stunts like that."

"Later, Wen Zhiyuan also did a good job... He cut many of the unnecessary taxes on the common people, so the farmers in Cangshui County could at least scrape by."

"But not every place has a Han Yuan."

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