At Zhengjing Village, the sky was just beginning to pale.
When many people successfully reclaimed land in a single region, their patches of Heavenly Light overlapped and reflected off one another, creating an illusion—an illusion that this was not newland at all.
Of course, the Heavenly Light of the newland was never as dazzling as the sunlight of proper land. When the light from the scattered plots intertwined, it was not much different from dawn on proper land.
Just how many reclaimed plots were there around Zhengjing Village?
That was something that needed a proper count.
Li Banfeng led the homesteaders into a stretch of woods. Over five li from Zhengjing Village, numerous dwellings were already visible, alongside an eatery.
Some hunters visiting Zhengjing Village for the first time were curious: opening a restaurant out here, where did the ingredients come from?
There were not many edible things on newland. In the past, most of Zhengjing Village’s provisions had depended on oranges from Orange Grove and fish from the lake, along with a few edible wild beasts.
Now, however, the situation was different. A good number of Farm Cultivators had successively reclaimed land in the surrounding territories, cultivating plenty of food and raising a sizable amount of livestock.
With a stable food supply, more people came to stay nearby: homesteaders, hunters, disaster refugees, cultivators, shadow-play filmmakers… Dwellings had expanded from inside the village all the way outside.
Upon nearing Zhengjing Village, Li Banfeng spotted two old men sitting under a massive tree at the village entrance, playing chess.
One was small and skinny, while the other was burly and stout.
The skinny old man said, "Are you going to make a move or not? You've stared at this piece for half an hour."
The stout old man swept the pieces aside with a push. "What difference does it make whether I move or not? I never knew how to play chess in the first place. Our guest is already here, so why am I still putting on a show?"
These two were none other than Shui Yongquan and Qiu Luoye.
Seeing Li Banfeng, Qiu Luoye stepped forward to greet him and drew him aside. "Old Seven, bringing so many people this time—do you need help from the two of us?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "There is indeed a matter. Duan Wuchou, Liang Wucai, and the rest have rendered quite a few services on my end, and I'd like to keep them by my side permanently."
Qiu Luoye let out a hearty laugh. "I wondered what it was! Keep them, by all means! Ma the Fifth borrowed Ah Qin and Huo Ling from me, and have I ever asked for them back?"
"Brother Qiu, I'm not borrowing them. I'm asking for them outright, along with their covenant deeds."
"That's easily done. I'll give them to you. But they are seed of the newland after all, so you'll still need to discuss it with Old Shui and use more techniques to keep them concealed."
Shui Yongquan stood nearby with a smile on his face, keeping silent the entire time.
Qiu Luoye frowned. "What's the meaning of this? Old Shui, are you looking to hike your price? Old Seven brought so many people today, and you won't even help with this small favor?"
Shui Yongquan shook his head. "Listen to how you talk. When it comes to helping, I'm never one to hesitate. But regarding this land reclamation, could we perhaps slow down for a bit?"
The moment those words came out, Li Banfeng froze.
Why would Shui Yongquan have such an attitude?
Didn't local spirits always look forward to land being reclaimed?
Qiu Luoye could not make sense of it either. "Slow down for what? Old Shui, what's gotten into you? Did you drink morning liquor and get yourself muddled?"
Shui Yongquan chuckled. "Don't be in a rush. Let's find a place to talk."
Shui Yongquan had built a wooden cabin on his own territory, where he usually disguised himself as a hunter to chat and mingle with the people around.
Once inside the cabin, Shui Yongquan poured tea for the two of them. Qiu Daxiang pushed his cup aside, glaring at Shui Yongquan. "We knew Old Seven was coming today and agreed to come out together to receive him. If I'd known you harbored other thoughts, I wouldn't have stepped out with you. I would've welcomed Old Seven straight onto my territory!"
Shui Yongquan frowned. "Qiu Daxiang, speaking like that is a bit uncalled-for."
"Uncalled-for how? What on earth do you mean?" Qiu Luoye was truly angry now. "Did you climb onto some high branch? Looking to partner with someone else? Do you look down on me, or do you look down on Old Seven? If you look down on us, fine, we won't ride your coattails! Old Seven, whatever manpower you want, I'll give you. As for hiding their identities, I'll find someone to help you do it. I still have good fighters here; I'll bring them all over shortly and you can pick whoever you like! Everything I, Qiu Luoye, do is answerable to my conscience!"
Shui Yongquan waved his hand dismissively. "Old Qiu, this isn't a matter of conscience!"
"What else could it be?" Qiu Luoye slammed his fist on the table. "Back then, not a soul came to this godforsaken place to reclaim land! How many people has Old Seven brought us over time? Now that you've found a high branch, you want to cast him aside? Did your conscience get hauled off and eaten by your own mouth?"
Shui Yongquan sighed. "To tell you the truth, across my territory, there are ten thousand nine hundred plots measuring one square li each, of which nine hundred were given to me by Qiu Luoye."
Qiu Luoye waved his hand. "No need to tell me that, I can't do the math!"
"I didn't ask you to calculate; I've already worked it out for you." Shui Yongquan pulled out an account ledger. "On my territory, over two thousand seven hundred plots have been reclaimed. On yours, over two thousand five hundred have been reclaimed!"
Qiu Luoye's face darkened, his gaze turning cold. "Are you saying the newland reclaimed on my side is less than yours?"
Shui Yongquan replied helplessly, "Does that even need asking? Can't you count?"
Qiu Luoye lowered his voice to ask Li Banfeng, "I didn't misspeak, did I? It really is less than his?"
Li Banfeng gave a firm nod.
Shui Yongquan continued, "My point in saying all this is that nearly thirty percent of both our lands has been reclaimed. If we keep clearing land like this, the Inner States will take notice of us."
Qiu Luoye snorted. "Let them notice. What's there to fear? We're reclaiming land by the rules. Can they meddle in that?"
"We haven't broken any rules, but our situation is special. We are deep land, not shallow land. I'm afraid the Inner States will play underhanded tricks on us!"
Li Banfeng stood dazed for a long while.
What was deep land, and what was shallow land?
Conceptually, it was easy to grasp.
Shui Yongquan explained, "Deep or shallow simply refers to distance from proper land. Newland close to proper land is called shallow land. The territories belonging to Qiu Luoye and me are far from proper land, separated by several layers of newland in between, so they are referred to as deep land. Logically speaking, the closer one is to proper land, the easier it is to transport grain and supplies, so the shallower the land, the more homesteaders there are. Old Seven, ask around along the way—which local spirit's territory has reached thirty percent reclaimed? Those plots right next to Lüshuiwan, how much have they reclaimed? From what I know, not even twenty percent! Yet now, the two of us, out in such deep land, have already reached thirty percent. With something so conspicuously sticking out, could the Inner States fail to know? If they find out, could they fail to make trouble for us?"
Li Banfeng was curious. "How could they make trouble?"
"Hard to say." Shui Yongquan shook his head. "They might send people out to stir up trouble, or they might destroy our covenant deeds."
Li Banfeng was even more confused. "You said the Inner States might send people out to cause trouble—can people from the Inner States enter Puluo Province just like that?"
"Well, no, they can't." Shui Yongquan smacked his lips. "But they certainly have other methods. Exactly what methods, I haven't figured out yet."
Li Banfeng asked again, "You said they could destroy your covenant deeds. Your deeds are buried in your own territories, so how could they destroy them?"
Shui Yongquan said, "Little brother, you've never seen a covenant deed, so you know only the surface, not the inner workings!"
Who said I've never seen a covenant deed?
I've seen two!
Naturally, that could not be voiced aloud.
Shui Yongquan picked up a brush and paper, drawing an arch. "A covenant deed looks like this. It is proof of a local spirit's claim over their territory. Matters great and small that take place upon the land are recorded on the deed. Back when I defeated Qiu Luoye and he ceded thirty li of territory to me, that was recorded. If you don't believe me, we can go dig up Qiu Daxiang's covenant deed right now and look; stroke by stroke, it's all written out crystal clear!"
Qiu Luoye spat. "Bah! Why don't you dig yours up to look?"
Shui Yongquan went on, "Not only are ceded lands recorded, but land reclamation is recorded as well. Plot by plot, every single one is clearly detailed."
Li Banfeng kept his expression neutral, thinking Shui Yongquan was talking nonsense.
He had seen two covenant deeds, and neither Lord Mountain-Uprooter's nor Bei Wushuang's deed contained any record of land reclamation.
Wait.
Had anyone reclaimed land in those two places?
Those areas were far more remote than the territories of Shui Yongquan and Qiu Luoye.
On Lord Mountain-Uprooter's territory, there had been no homesteaders prior. Youtao, He Yuxiu, and Zhang Wanlong had succeeded in reclamation only later, by which time the local spirit had already become Li Furong.
On Bei Wushuang's territory, in all likelihood, not a single plot had been successfully reclaimed, which was why Li Banfeng had never seen any such records.
In that case, what Shui Yongquan said was probably true.
"You're worried that reclaiming too much wasteland will draw the attention of the Inner States?"
Shui Yongquan said, "When a pile of covenant deeds sits there, the people in the Inner States are certainly too lazy to look. But if one deed suddenly sprouts a massive patch of new text, those people in the Inner States will definitely take a look."
Li Banfeng was confused once more. "Where is this pile of covenant deeds sitting?"
"In the archives of the Inner States, hanging row upon row." Shui Yongquan drew another arch. "A covenant deed is divided into two halves. We hold one half, and the Inner States keeps the other. Joined together, the two halves form a complete ring. If the Inner States destroys their half, there's no telling what might happen to ours."
Now Li Banfeng understood.
His wife had once mentioned that the writing on a covenant deed could be seen by the Inner States. As it turned out, it was because the deeds were split in two, changing synchronously on both sides.
Hanging row upon row, any major change would indeed be glaringly obvious.
His wife had changed Lord Mountain-Uprooter to Li Furong; that small change was relatively minor and likely wouldn't draw the Inner States' attention.
It shouldn't, right…?
Li Banfeng felt a twinge of unease in his heart when he suddenly heard Qiu Luoye say, "Let's speak no further of this ring business."
Qiu Luoye seemed somewhat afraid.
Even he had times when he felt fear?
Qiu Luoye looked at Shui Yongquan. "Old Shui, what do you plan to do?"
Shui Yongquan said, "There are plenty of people across our two territories. I've roughly counted—coming and going, they add up to over a thousand. That is all human presence. With human presence, we can accumulate cultivation. Why the rush?"
Qiu Luoye could not make head or tail of numbers, but he knew that a thousand-plus people was definitely not enough. "Relying on just over a thousand people to amass cultivation, how many years and months will that take? Doing things your way, when will we ever ascend to Tier 3?"
"What's the rush?" Shui Yongquan remained patient. "We possess five times the lifespan of ordinary people. We can take it slowly."
Tier 2 above the clouds granted five times the lifespan of an ordinary person—this was the first time Li Banfeng had heard of this concept.
Yet that was not the crucial matter right now. What mattered was that Shui Yongquan did not wish to continue reclaiming land.
Qiu Luoye fell silent for a long time, then stepped out of the wooden cabin.
Amid his heavy footsteps, the withered leaves clinging to the trees fell one after another.
He turned his head and said to Li Banfeng, "Old Seven, bring all your people to my territory and prepare to clear land. Once the deed is done, you may pick whoever you want from my subordinates."
Shui Yongquan frowned. "Qiu Daxiang, did a single word of what I just said get through to you?"
"No, not one word," Qiu Luoye answered with complete candor. "Old Shui, if you want to wait, then wait. Wait as long as you like. I'm not waiting. Old Seven is a benefactor sent by fate. Heaven has been good to me, letting me cross paths with a noble patron, and I must not let Heaven down. I'm seeing this through to the very end!"
Chapter 405