Fearsome Farmer c1-60

by Lazy Bird

  He wasn’t revealing his trump card, because Song Hu knew that he had killed a wolf too. But since Song Hu didn’t report this to the Feudal Lord immediately when it happened, he would forever not report to the Feudal Lord now. Why should Song Hu have reported this to the Feudal Lord and let the lowly farmer become someone who would be of the same status as himself?

  That would be a joke.

  “Can we do something like this?” Old Zhao hesitated, not very certain of it.

  “Why not, did the Lord say we can’t do such a thing?”

  “But this matter—it isn’t appropriate. Without the Lord or Sir Sun’s order, we can’t do this.” Old Zhao shook his head like a rattle drum. He didn’t want to find trouble for himself.

  Seeing this, Li Siwen laughed coldly.

  “Then let me ask you, are the 10 farmers now your care now? Even the food and water are given to us by you?”

  “So what about it? I am telling you this, Wang Er, I definitely won’t shortchange the farmers any food. Don’t think of asking for more food from me too!” Old Zhao instantly said this firmly.

  “Haha, idiot! Some time ago, a lumberjack died from disease, two farmers died from heatstroke. You know of these, right? Even during the rainstorm a few days ago, the seven farmers weren’t eaten by wolves, they died from being drenched and having a fever.”

  “Then let me ask you, the weather is so hot, you are already sweating like a dog when you are hiding in the shade now. What about the farmers? If they died from heatstroke, who will be responsible? If a rainstorm came along and some of them died, who will be responsible?”

  Hearing this, Old Zhao’s face finally changed. After hesitating for a while, he finally clenched his teeth and said, “Alright, then let’s build a small farmer hut. But I will cut through the woods myself. You continue to do your weeding. Don’t try to use this as a reason to slack off. I will cut the wood and build the hut myself. I don’t think that bastard will have any reason to reprimand me for this!”

  “Wait, if you are gone, who will protect the farmers? If a few wolves came—”

  “Ain’t you here?” Once he said this, Old Zhao instantly realized that this wasn’t appropriate.

  Li Siwen smiled evilly and said, “If wolves come, I will just run. I can run faster than them, so I will be safe. In the end, you will still be the one responsible.”

  “I—I—damn it!”

  Old Zhao trembled from anger. Li Siwen didn’t speak anymore, but just took Old Zhao’s axe and went straight for the south coast of the river ditch. Cutting wood was of course more comfortable than weeding, right?

  chapter 22

  After crossing the river ditch and looking east, he could see the mountain covered in snow. However, that was a very mysterious place. Even the Feudal Lord avoided going that direction when he went hunting. Even the wolves came from the northeast direction too, and not from the direction of the mountain.

  What was there, actually?

  However, this wasn’t something that Li Siwen needed to think about. He was only here to slack off from work for a while.

  Actually, there were several trees to the east of the river ditch too, and it was even closer to the territory. However, the lumberyard wasn’t set here.

  The reason was very simple. Maybe it was because the trees here were too scarce, or because of their breed, the trees here were all very oddly shaped. The trunks were twisted in such a way they didn’t look like trees anymore.

  These types of trees were not only hard to cut, transporting them was an enormous hassle too. They were unlike the trees in the forest where the trunks were all very straight.

  However, Li Siwen had his eyes on the trees here.

  Building a hut was just an excuse. There was only one reason. Trees weirdly shaped like the ones here and occupying such a vast space by themselves would probably provide more vitality than others. Also, he didn’t need to travel too far away.

  After picking an unknown tree with a twisted trunk, dense branches, a huge crown, and required at least three people to hug it and occupied half an acre of land, Li Siwen immediately started hacking at it.

  His 11 points of Strength was already formidable now. Therefore, he was very confident of himself.

  Yet, when he landed his first hit, it shook his arm and hand numb from the impact. The trunk of this tree was unexpectedly hard, the sharp blade of the ax only went in four to five centimeters.

  “What the heck, what tree is this?”

  It shocked Li Siwen. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

  “No wonder those lumberjacks didn’t come here, it’s because they cannot cut the trees here. Also, this ax is too light for cutting such a tree like this one.”

  Helpless, he could only give up and try the other trees. As expected, these ugly-looking trees were very hard. There was one tree that only gave off sparks of ember when he tried to cut it. What the heck, was he in a high-level map and fitting creatures that were above his level?

  He could not afford to offend them.

  Therefore, crestfallen, Li Siwen went back to the first tree. This was the only tree here that he had a chance of cutting down.

  “It’s all or nothing, I have Old Zhao to back me up as a last resort.”

  Li Siwen didn’t have any other options. There wasn’t any easy to cut trees near the wheat field. He could go to the lumberyard in the south, but he would surely alarm Song Hu if he did that and in turn alarm Sun Tieshi.

  The lumberyard wasn’t comparable to this place, only tens of meters away from the river ditch, and only hundreds of meters away from the wheat field. It would be convenient for him to both retreat and advance.

  Thus, he adjusted the amount of force he used on each swing and started hacking away all the way until noon. A total of 14 points of Stamina Points were used up before he cut the tree down.

  Instantly, a large green light was absorbed into the green orb. Li Siwen hurriedly gathered his focus to check. On it, 4/15 was cleared, labeled.

  This means to say that this tree alone provided him with four Vitality Points.

  At the same time, it also proved that the maximum limit the green orb could hold was 15 points.

  “It’s still a bit of a loss. If I was at the lumberyard, putting various factors like weather aside, 14 points of stamina could at least let me cut down 12 big trees, which means six Vitality Points. Of course, even so, it’s still better than weeding grass.”

  Thinking of this, Li Siwen quickly added two points to Strength and two points to Stamina, making them 13 and 17 points, respectively. For now, this was the point adding method most suitable for the current situation.

  What was worth mentioning was that he still had 14 Spirit Points in the yellow orb that he hadn’t used yet.

  Next, Li Siwen prepared to cut some branches. After all, he had to bring back some stuff. If not, Old Zhao would really fight with him to death.

  This twisted tree was just tens of meters tall, but its branches were very huge. There were seven or eight of it that were as thick as a bucket, and 50 as thick as a human’s thigh. If he cut all of it down, he would have about enough wood to use for building a small hut.

  But this time, when Li Siwen hacked at them, the ax directly cut tens of centimeters into the originally very hard tree. With just a few hacks, a bucket-thick branch was cut apart from the truck.

  “What the heck, are 13 points of strength actually so strong?”

  He was shocked, but instantly realized that this was impossible! Even if he had 15 points in strength, he also couldn’t achieve such a feat.

  “Could it be because I had extracted the vitality in the tree?”

  The more he thought about it, the more it made sense to him. When he was cutting the trees at the lumberyard, he only cared about cutting the tree down and not removing the branches, so he didn’t notice this yet. Also, the trees there weren’t as hard as the ones here too, not much different from normal trees. Therefore, even after he extracted the Vita
lity Points, he also couldn’t notice anything different.

  But the trees here were too hard. The difference after extracting the Vitality Points was massive.

  “Thinking about it, it’s actually very scary! The Feudal hunts wild beasts and cut down trees to sacrifice to the statue in exchange for power. As for me, I used the green orb to extract the Vitality Points from the trees. From a sense, isn’t it a kind of sacrifice too?”

  “If there was another power behind the statue manipulating it, who’s the one behind these three small orbs manipulating them?”

  “Wait, the nature between these two is probably different.” Li Siwen quickly thought, “The sacrifice to the statue is more like an exchange, a trade. It’s using an equal amount of resources to trade for something different. Even humans can be exchanged through it. There must definitely be a trading platform behind it. It required the high-level puppet, the Feudal Lord, to hunt for wild beasts and cut down wood first before the exchange could be started.”

  “As for these three small orbs of mine, it’s more like a simple energy conversion device. It allows me to capture the core substance of things in an instance when I am cutting down wood, weeding grass, killing wild beasts, or even humans. This core substance is Vitality Points and Spirit Points.”

  “Also, it might be that even the attribute bar is unique to me alone.”

  “Forget it, why should I care so much. I just want to survive, not to get to the truth behind everything. Not like truth can feed my stomach!”

  After muttering this, Li Siwen threw this matter aside entirely. He quickly cut down all the branches that were usable and carried a few back.

  Yup, he also realized that he could still move very quickly even when carrying a weight of about 100 to 150 kilograms.

  Therefore, halfway back, he dropped most of the branches so that he was only carrying two now. Details, he must mind the details!

  After returning to where the farmers were resting, Old Zhao was anxiously scratching himself. He thought that Li Siwen had run away in fear of punishment.

  “Say nothing useless, think of a way to build the hut yourself, I am only responsible for carrying the wood back. Looking at the weather, we may even have a rainstorm coming this afternoon. The sooner you build the hut, the more of these unlucky farmers that may survive.”

  Before Old Zhao could roar his anger at him, Li Siwen sealed Old Zhao’s mouth with these words.

  chapter 23

  Currently, the weather was not humid and hot anymore; it was obviously on fire.

  They couldn’t even see the Sun now, white water vapor evaporated quickly and covered the entire sky. To be honest, Li Siwen felt that the climate here was very weird. He could see the snow mountain when he lifted his head, but it was actually so hot here. Did he study too little?

  However, one must admit, Old Zhao’s craftsmanship was indeed good, and his character was very decisive too. Once he had realized the seriousness of the situation, he instantly started working on the hut instead of dragging and procrastinating.

  Actually, when Li Siwen went to cut the trees earlier, Old Zhao had already woven dozens of straw ropes. He had also picked the spot to build the hut too and dig the foundation too. The spot he chose was near the hill, away from the few trees. He even knew to prevent lightning, he was really a resourceful Old Zhao.

  When Li Siwen carried the wood back bit by bit, even though he was still complaining and scolding, his actions weren’t slow. The base and support of the hut were quickly made using the straw ropes. In less than an hour, the prototype of a three meters tall, four meters long slope-type hut that was built against the hill could be seen. There wouldn’t be any problem housing tens of people inside it.

  Li Siwen made another two trips to carry some small branches with leaves on the back. After laying them on the top of the hut, the waterproof level instantly rose to the level that when it was pouring heavily outside, it would just be a light drizzle inside.

  “Wang Er, go carry some stones here. This spot attracts wind easily, without stones to press it down, it will be easily blown apart.” Old Zhao was covered in sweat from the work, but he seemed like he was enjoying it. Therefore, Li Siwen didn’t argue with him over such small stuff. Li Siwen chased the other farmers away and made a few rounds to the river ditch to carry some stones back, stacking stones both inside and outside the hut until it was at least a meter high, causing the defence of the hut to improve a little.

  “Not enough, go bring some more stones back, we need to press the roof entirely too. We not only need to protect against the wind, but also wolves too!” Old Zhao spoke the last words softly. He had thought it out now. The Feudal Lord really didn’t care about the wheat field at all. Therefore, building a small farmer hut was not a big deal. However, if any farmer really got ill or got a heatstroke, or taken by wolves, he would definitely be the one responsible. Then, although Sun Tieshi might not punish him, Song Hu would definitely speak ill of him.

  Li Siwen gave him a thumbs up. Old Zhao was really outstanding. His realization was very correct!

  Then, all of them went to the river ditch to carry more stones. The farmers weren’t strong enough; they could only carry stones about 10 to 15 kilograms. Old Zhao could carry stones weighing 50 kilograms or more. As for Li Siwen, he of course carried stones weighing 50 kilograms too.

  Details, mind the details!

  Basically, after working for the entire afternoon and depleting most of the stamina the farmers had, relying mostly on Li Siwen and Old Zhao, a thick layer of stone wall armor was stacked for the hut.

  The thickest base was two meters wide, the top part was a meter thick. Even the rooftop was 30 centimeters thick too.

  It wasn’t sure if it could rainproof, but it was definitely wolf-proof!

  Their forehead covered in sweat from the exhaustion, Li Siwen and Old Zhao leaned against the stone wall and laughed loudly. This work was really comfortable.

  In their laughter, the rumble of the thunder sounded, followed by a fierce wind. This time, the rainstorm was finally here, and it was even more ferocious than the one a few days ago!

  Although Li Siwen only had two Stamina Points remaining, shrinking inside the small hut, the sense of safety was really more than he had ever felt.

  The other nine farmers shrank inside like quails too, softly discussing how good this rain was, it could finally reduce the heat from the hot weather. However, they didn’t know that they had really taken a walk in front of death’s gate today.

  It was so hot in the morning and they were all drenched in sweat. If they were caught in the rainstorm for more than an hour, it would be strange if they didn’t catch a cold and die. That Sun Tieshi definitely wouldn’t waste his healing spell on them.

  “Thanks, I owe you a favor for today.” Seeing the heavy downpour outside, after keeping silent for a while, Old Zhao finally spoke.

  Li Siwen smiled and said nothing. Things were progressing as he had predicted. Without Old Zhao to cover him, he wouldn’t have to be restricted in his actions like before. Of course, he still had in mind the details as always, but it’s always good to have an extra layer of protection, wasn’t it?

  As long as the leader of the farmer team, Old Zhao, could perform well, and occasionally make a few contributions to the territory, he could obtain the trust and favor of the Feudal Lord. In this way, Sun Tieshi wouldn’t be able to scold Old Zhao like and also couldn’t bypass Old Zhao to pay attention to him, the lazy fellow.

  As expected, this rainstorm lasted for more than an hour. Although the hut was leaking and it had already become muddy inside, it was still much better than the situation outside. At least, the farmers wouldn’t become ill and catch a cold.

  When the rainstorm finally weakened, a bulky figure appeared at the entrance of the hut. It was actually the boorish Feudal Lord.

  Old Zhao, who was boasting to the other farmers, was instantly shocked and scrambled out to greet the Feudal Lord. His face was white
from fear, his whole body shivering like a large quail.

  As for the other farmers, they were even more frightened, including Li Siwen, who was hiding amongst them. He hadn’t expected that the Feudal Lord would appear here at this moment.

  “You did this?”

  “I—I—I,” Old Zhao was so terrified that he was stuttering, unable to say anything.

  “You did well, I had overlooked this.”

  The Feudal Lord’s voice was low and majestic as usual. Old Zhao didn’t understand what the Lord meant at first. When he finally realized that he had become the Lord’s ‘favored’ again, the Feudal Lord had already left a long time ago.

  “Oh my brother, I, I didn’t mean to do it on purpose. After all, you are the one who suggested this, you should at least have 20 or 30 percent of the credit.”

  Old Zhao’s face looked very painful (he was so happy that even the flowers bloomed).

  “We are brothers, there isn’t a need to be so courteous. Also, don’t act silly at a time like this. Building a hut like this isn’t much credit, the Lord has only slightly approved of you now. You still need to continue to work hard, don’t be a fool, and mention me to the Lord. If not, not only will the credit be gone, the Lord will think that you are a fool. Are you a fool?”

  Li Siwen smiled and said. He wasn’t surprised at all and also wasn’t angry. Speaking of which, this was what he wished for the most. If not, if the Lord really noticed him, and wanted to check his attributes one day, wouldn’t he be done for?

  “Si—Sir, the wheat field, the wheat field has been flooded!”

  A farmer suddenly shouted anxiously.

  Li Siwen and Old Zhao lifted their heads and took a look. They had a shock. A patch of white covered their sight. The river water had a backflow once again.

  The two of them tacitly looked at each other. Without saying another word, they grabbed their equipment and ran outside. Big fish, don’t run, we are coming!