by Lazy Bird
But this was enough too. At least Sun Tieshi would have to weigh things when he wanted to point at Song Hu’s nose and rebuke him again.
In addition, the boorish Feudal Lord had also summoned 10 lumberjacks and handed all of them to be supervised by Song Hu. It seemed like he was going to do a heavy reconstruction of the territory?
Song Hu very jauntily set off first with his logging team. The 18 lumberjacks were equally jaunty, because they’d switched to new axes, even sharper and also heavier.
While Old Zhao also held 10 new hoes and distributed them to each of them.
It seemed like this was the effect of sacrificing hundreds of big fish yesterday. That boorish Feudal Lord was finally willing to spend some resources to replace their tools.
The hunter team should have received new hunting forks and bows too. Was the territory going to rise up?
Arriving at the wheat field, Old Zhao, as expected, had forgotten about the talk of building a dam from yesterday. He only happily sat in front of the farmer’s hut and wiped a steel knife that was chipped in two places.
This was awarded to him by the boorish Feudal Lord. It was one of the weapons on those five mercenaries who’d died previously.
Beyond doubt, with this chipped steel knife, Old Zhao had grown complacent. It seemed like he’d forgotten about being picked on and scolded by Sun Tieshi this morning.
Now that he could not rebuke Song Hu, would he not be able to rebuke you, damn Zhao Da?
Seeing this, Li Siwen wasn’t even interested to say a word more. He did his weeding obediently, not giving Old Zhao a chance to pretentiously eat his words.
The new hoe was great, forged from wrought iron, it was sharper than the previous iron sheet one and also slightly heavier.
This was something worth rejoicing over to Li Siwen.
Given his current 13 points of Strength, he could shovel the hoe 10cm deep into the soil without effort, tearing every stalk of weed by the roots while separating the soil at the same time and hilling small amounts at the roots of the wheat plants. Completing two tasks at the same time, no delay at all.
Even so, his weeding speed and quality was also something the other farmers could not compare to.
In just one morning, even though it had stormed yesterday, leaving the ground very damp and requiring more effort to swing the hoe, Li Siwen had easily weeded 0.7 acres of land and successfully gained one Vitality Point.
As for the depletion of his Stamina, he’d used up merely six points, among which one point was because of the weather.
“So this is playing cheat, 13 points of Strength, 17 points of Stamina, coupled with a hoe of pretty good quality and this is the outcome created. And even if my Strength now cannot match up to that of a cow, it can definitely win a donkey.”
He quietly added this one Vitality Point to his Stamina. After making it 18 Stamina Points, Li Siwen came to the farmer’s hut. Old Zhao was still seated there, leisurely wiping the steel knife. The sight had all the farmers shuffling and holding their breaths.
Yet this fellow was wearing a smile. His gaze swept past all the farmers and landed on Li Siwen’s face at last. Letting out a dry cough, he announced with feigned lordliness:
“The Feudal Lord’s order, today’s weather is hot, so we will take a two-hour break in the afternoon. If it rains, permission is given to take shelter. However, make sure behavior like yesterday’s fishing without authorization is not seen again. Everyone is strictly forbidden to use any excuse to leave beyond a thousand feet range of the wheat field, even if it’s taking a dump. Those who disobey, while I, Zhao Da, recognize you as my brother, this steel knife in my hand does not. Alright, let’s eat.”
After distributing the rations to all the farmers, Zhao Da then carried his steel knife and came before Li Siwen. He let out a helpless, bitter laugh. “Sigh, Brother Wang Er, it is difficult to go against orders from the higher-ups. You’ve got to understand. Of course, you don’t have to worry, we’re friends until death, I definitely will not intentionally make things difficult for you, brother.”
Li Siwen then smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t put you in a spot either. Can I go inside and take a nap?”
“Of course, Brother Wang Er, please do not stand on ceremony with me. So long as it’s within a thousand feet range of the wheat field, you can go anywhere.” Old Zhao laughed exaggeratedly.
Li Siwen also smiled, as if nothing had happened. He picked several pieces of relatively flatter stones and headed into the farmer’s hut.
The inside was still all humid and after being bathed in the sun for the entire morning, it was as stuffy as a steamer. Even those nine farmers weren’t willing to come in. After all, it didn’t seem like there would be rain today, how comfortable it was sitting under the shade of the trees, and feeling the cool breeze.
But Li Siwen just didn’t care. Spreading the rocks out, he sat there and chewed on his rations quietly. After eating, he laid down and slept, with zero intention of creating trouble.
Old Zhao sat outside, continuing to clean the long knife. There was still a smile on his face, only it was a little distorted.
Whereas inside the hut, Li Siwen quietly opened his Attribute Bar and looked at the bottommost small yellow orb. There were already 15 Spirit Points being lit up here, of them, 4 points had been left from before while the other 11 points had been earned from killing those 22 big fishes yesterday.
“The level 3 farm does not need to be leveled up for now. This place is ultimately not the place for a long stay. Once autumn arrives and that wheat field is ripe for harvest, I will find a chance to go solo.”
Li Siwen finally decided.
Moments later, he let out steady snoring, seeming like he’d fallen asleep.
Zhao Da who kept guard outside hesitated for a few minutes. He ultimately couldn’t stand the blazing sun above his head and moved to the tree shade tens of meters away. He could still watch the chap’s movements from here.
It wasn’t a must for him to make things difficult for Li Siwen, but last night after encountering Sun Tieshi face to face at close range, Sun Tieshi who’d become somber and full of murderous intent for some unknown reason had startled him. He knew himself well enough; he did not have Song Hu’s guts. He didn’t even need to think about lifting his head in front of this person in this life, not to mention resisting against him.
So last night, this Wang Er actually bewitched him into opposing Sun Tieshi. That was truly vicious, he should be killed for his motive!
However, Zhao Da still didn’t have the courage to kill Li Siwen right away. That was why he came up with such a compromising way, to monitor Li Siwen, not allowing him to run about or create trouble, in case he offended Sir Sun.
Sign, it was tough being a sub-chief too.
At the same time, inside the stuffy farmer’s hut, a hint of a smile flashed across the lips of Li Siwen, who’d originally fallen asleep. Opening the Attribute Bar, he drew some Spirit Points from the small yellow orb and added the points to his Spirit attributes.
In this instance, a thread of coolness bloomed in his mind. It was extremely comfortable. And accompanying this coolness, all the minute thoughts from the past few days presented themselves in perfect clarity, allowing him to analyze, manage, and even learn from mistakes within a very brief period.
However, such a miraculous state only lasted several seconds before it turned into terrifying dizziness. Even his soul almost collapsed.
Laying on the stone, Li Siwen’s body shivered violently, as if he’d suffered all kinds of excruciating torture. He only recovered after a long while. Opening the Attribute Bar, his Spirit Development had indeed made a breakthrough to 16% while his Stamina that had already recovered to 12 points had had two points expended.
“Heck, how tough!”
After cursing, Li Siwen took in a breath and tried to allow his mind to enter a quiet and still state. He’d unknowingly crashed into such a state during the rainy night a few days ago. In the end, he’d increa
sed his Spirit Development to 15% within a night’s time, there wasn’t even any negative effect at all.
But such a state truly depended on luck. Moreover, he still had to avoid Zhao Da and the rest. It couldn’t be carried out in the territory. The conditions were much harsher than that rainy night. Hence, he could only toughen his scalp and push forward. It was just going through suffering. Would he be afraid?
chapter 29
Around 2 PM in the afternoon, following Zhao Da’s call, the farmers who’d been resting the whole noon slowly stood up and continued to weed in the wheat fields.
Li Siwen also walked out of the farmer’s hut feeling lightheaded. His countenance was terrible. After all, he’d spent five Spirit Points and forcefully pushed his Spirit Development to 20%.
For this, he almost collapsed and even used up 10 Stamina Points. Counting the two points that he’d recovered at noon, it only left him with four points.
But all of this was worth it. After he raised his Spirit Development to 20%, it seemed like there was a natural leap in his bodily aspects. For example, his hearing had become keener, he could hear the soft gossips between those farmers even with tens of meters between them.
His vision had also improved, he could see those jumping grasshoppers up to a hundred meters away.
In addition, his Spirit Vision also naturally rose to level two.
The period after the skill release was extended to five minutes and the area of coverage was expanded from a 10-meter radius to 15 meters. It seemed like even the strength of his secondary Spirit force field had also seen a slight increase.
Moreover, if he were to forcefully activate it, the first time would deplete five Spirit Points and last for five minutes. The second time would deplete eight Spirit Points and last five minutes.
“Old Wang, you don’t look too good. Please don’t let it be heatstroke?”
Old Zhao walked towards him and detailedly examined Li Siwen. As for his form of address, it was ever-changing, from brother to brother Wang Er, then to Old Wang.
“I’m alright, probably won’t die yet.”
Li Siwen grinned and walked into the wheat field in Old Zhao’s questioning gaze.
He wasn’t flustered at all. So long as he does not do strenuous exercise subsequently, his Stamina would be able to continuously recover. Besides, he wasn’t sure if it was a misconception, but after his Stamina had raised to 18 points, even the sun in the sky no longer felt that grilling.
The ground that was under the blazing sun the whole forenoon finally became dry. The greatest benefit of this was that weeding was now even easier.
Li Siwen still maintained his weeding speed and quality from the morning. While weeding, he also pushed the soil towards both sides, hilling soil on the roots of the wheat.
An hour later, he spent one Stamina Point but had recovered two points. The other farmers were covered in sweat from the scorching sun, but he only had some slight perspiration.
When it came to knocking off in the evening, he’d weeded about another 0.7 acres of land, gained one Vitality Point, and consumed five Stamina Points, but his Stamina had recovered to nine points.
Hence, Li Siwen was now even more sure that increasing Stamina was helpful against resisting the heat, or rather, it could counter most negative conditions.
“Extract!”
“Increase Stamina.”
Instantly, his Stamina reached 19 points. Although there weren’t any specific changes all over him, he knew well that this change existed tangibly.
What was worthy of consideration now was, instead, how to fill his stomach.
“I’ll find a chance tomorrow and try using Vitality Points to speed up the maturation of a few stalks of demonized spring wheat. No matter what, I cannot watch over the wheat field and go hungry.”
When they arrived at the territory at night, there was still no trace of the boorish Feudal Lord. This had Li Siwen deeply suspicious of whether he was still in retreat?
However, not too long after the moon rose, the boorish Feudal Lord who was as sturdy as a mountain appeared on wide strides. He carried a dead tiger with sharp canines on his shoulder, full of murderous intent.
“Tsk tsk, one cannot afford to provoke a brave man with strength and agility.”
Li Siwen only took one glance from afar before he shrank back into the wooden house. He entered dreamland a few minutes later.
The night was peaceful. After all, with such a boorish Feudal Lord with off-the-charts combat skills, what wild beasts would dare come near. In fact, they couldn’t hear even the howls of wolves.
This allowed Li Siwen to have a good sleep and refill his Stamina. However, he was also slightly worried because of this. The wolf packs didn’t seem so amiable.
But the boorish Feudal Lord’s management awareness had probably exceeded that of Li Siwen’s expectations. For example, when he woke up at dawn, he found that the territory had another 10 militiamen. Six were militiamen armed with spears, two with wooden shields and short spears, as well as two intermediate soldiers with bows and arrows.
The first six militiamen were newly recruited, while the last two intermediate soldiers with bows and arrows were promoted from the hunters.
As for the original hunter team, taking away the two leaders, Zhang Ye and Qin Fen, they’d been expanded to become a 12-man team.
Such an expansion naturally brought some changes.
For example, other than Song Hu, the logging team now had two more militiamen armed with spears and two shields and spear militia to protect them, all led by Song Hu.
Meanwhile, the farming team remained unchanged. This was because the wheat fields were too close to the territory, so they only resumed the original rule of militiamen making routine inspections every hour.
The remaining four militiamen armed with spears and two intermediate soldiers with bows and arrows were under Sun Tieshi’s charge, responsible for the security of the territory and the wheat field.
Then, the boorish Feudal Lord headed out to hunt by himself again.
“Is this an accumulation of resources to do something big later on?”
Li Siwen guessed. He absolutely didn’t dare to belittle the boorish Feudal Lord, because he didn’t know when he might be forced to eat his own words again.
Next, following the daily procedures, relieving himself, eating, setting off, he would not go fell trees now, so he wouldn’t fear being caught either. Moreover, after such a long time, he could be completely sure that unless the boorish Feudal Lord brings him before the statue, it would be impossible for him to know about the height of his attributes.
Hence, in comparison, the changes in the territory could no longer catch Li Siwen’s attention. Instead, it was the revenge of the weed prince in the wheat field that was in full swing.
After a day of being under the scorching sun yesterday and growing through the night, the 30 acres of a wheat field that had been flooded twice by the river water, the raging weeds finally showed their power. From afar, it looked to be a sea of green, but up close, one had to open his eyes big to be able to find the demonized spring wheat.
The weeds grew densely, their height had exceeded 10cm, each of them with a sharp mouth, full of fight. The sight made one’s scalp go numb. Alright, this was Li Siwen’s own impression.
So, after the nine other farmers had chosen wheat fields with relatively sparse and shorter weeds, he directly set to work in the wheat field with the densest, most ferocious weeds.
One word, kill!
This time, Li Siwen reduced the depth of the hoe entering the soil from over ten centimeters to just six to seven centimeters, then relied on his own strength and the sharpness and weight of the hoe to launch a ruthless massacre of the weeds.
Although by doing so, the green orbs that he could gain from a singular stalk of weed would be reduced, the overall slaughtered quantity of the weeds had been multiplied, especially when the weeds were wreaking havoc today, the cost-performance ration
was the best.
Hence, in a whole morning, Li Siwen had merely weeded about 0.6 acres of land, expended 8 points of Stamina but had already earned at least 1.5 Vitality Points. Then, his stomach began to rumble with hunger. This was because the energy accumulated from eating the flesh meat in the afternoon two days ago was finally running out.
Though he had eaten these two days, each meal was just a piece of blackish dry ration. It was barely enough to fill his stomach.
Now that it was almost time for the afternoon break, Li Siwen glanced around his surroundings and prepared to accelerate the maturation of some demonized wheat.
chapter 30
Li Siwen was already very experienced in using Vitality Points to speed up the maturation of wild pears, hence he was also rather confident regarding doing so with demonized wheat.
The only thing to consider was how many stalks of demonized wheat he ought to ripen at one go for it to be considered worth it?
Besides, what would the matured demonized wheat look like, would it grow a demon head? All these needed to be considered.
Casting a look more than a hundred meters away at Old Zhao, who was spacing out, Li Siwen let out a snicker. It’d been merely two days and Overseer Sun Tieshi had already scolded Zhao Da as many as six times, so this fellow had no time to keep an eye on him.
Squatting down, he pretended to clean the soil on the hoe. At the same time, he swiftly acted, grabbing 10 stalks of wheat, extracted Vitality Points, then focused his attention. All was done in one breath.
In the twinkling of an eye, those 10 stalks of wheat grew to a height of almost two meters at a visible speed. They’d even grown huge earheads that were like sorghums.
Li Siwen was startled. Fortunately, the farmer closest to him was also more than a hundred meters away, Zhao Da was even further. He deftly dragged these ten stalks of demonized wheat to the ground, nipped off the earheads that weighed at least half a kilogram each, and hid them into the few sacks that had been prepared beforehand.
As for the wheat straw, they were speedily torn to shreds by him and buried into the ground.