182: Wan Hua Die Ling

[Species: Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit (Spirit Rank Species)

Rank: Upper Tier of the Extraordinary Rank

Aptitude: Transcendent

Status: Comfortable, Satiated

Attribute Affinity: Medicine, Flower, Spirit, Snow

Skills: 1. Flower Medicine Powder: The Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit vibrates its wings, scattering thousands of grains of pollen to quickly heal external wounds on the target.

2. Myriad Flower Fragrance: The Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit is always enveloped in a fragrance that has the effect of nourishing the Mental Energy of those who smell it;

The Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit can actively detonate the fragrance, causing a brief stun effect on all objects with Mental Energy within the target area;

The Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit can actively adjust the concentration of the fragrance in the air to repair the mental damage of all targets and apply a barrier that resists mental attacks.

3. Myriad Flower Spirit Shield: Condenses a large number of illusory petals in the air to form layers of flower shields.

4. Spirit of Myriad Flowers: The Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit only eats spiritual flowers. By consuming high-tier spiritual flowers, it can rapidly enhance its own Realm and has a certain probability of absorbing the attribute affinity of the spiritual flower, thereby gaining the eligibility to learn other types of skills.

5. Butterfly Spirit: The Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit consumes energy to enter a spirit body state. In this state, it only takes half the effect of non-mental attacks.

6. Dance of Ice and Snow: The Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit dances its body, summoning falling snow in a large area and condensing ice butterflies. When hit by an attack, they burst, increasing the chill in the area; if they hit a target, they accumulate a frozen state on the target.

Evolution Path: Viewable upon promotion to Spirit Rank.]

Chu Shengfan could feel the Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit's emotions gradually shift from disgust and dislike to feeling that the environment was actually quite comfortable.

Moreover, it had indeed gained new skills. Although they didn't seem particularly rare, they appeared to be quite good in terms of crowd control and area management.

Most importantly, this Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit was not born this way but had transformed through Acquired means. This meant that even if there were another Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit, it wouldn't necessarily have the exact same skills as his.

Every Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit would be unique. Chu Shengfan had a hunch that even if different Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirits absorbed the same spiritual items, the skills they produced might not be identical.

Upper Tier of the Extraordinary Rank—and the Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit's Realm was still constantly surging upward.

It seemed the pollen from the Spirit Rank Cold Moon Pure Lotus contained an extremely high amount of energy.

Only when the Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit's energy accumulation reached the very peak of the Upper Tier of the Extraordinary Rank, with no more room to rise, did the Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit fly back to Chu Shengfan's side, satiated.

It no longer complained about the cold air and obediently landed on Chu Shengfan's shoulder.

Su Yi showed no surprise at the Butterfly Spirit's advancement speed. Seeing that it had finished gathering pollen, she spoke respectfully:

"Little Palace Master, please follow me to your residence next."

Although he was eager to test the Myriad Flower Butterfly Spirit's new skills, now was not the right time.

"Alright, but please don't call me 'Little Palace Master' anymore. It sounds..."

Seeing Chu Shengfan's difficult expression, Su Yi seemed to understand something. She appeared to lower her head and curl her lips slightly, but she quickly regained her composure.

"Then I shall call you Young Lord from now on," Su Yi replied in a low voice while leading the way from the front left.

Although this title was still a bit too formal, it was much better than "Princess," so Chu Shengfan didn't request any further changes. "Alright."

The two left the Spirit Pool, passed through several more palaces, and finally stopped in front of a medium-sized palace.

"Young Lord, this will be your residence from now on."

Chu Shengfan stopped and looked carefully at the palace before him.

In fact, the palaces in this complex all looked extremely similar with little difference, but this one seemed to have more of a lived-in atmosphere.

In the courtyard in front of the palace, extremely cold-resistant Snow Lotuses were planted. Beside the main hall, there were several side halls, which looked like places for these Spirit Rank servants to reside.

Thinking of this, Chu Shengfan sighed again; someone who could clearly be the head of a clan in Heyu Town was nothing more than a servant here.

Entering the main hall, there was a single throne at the far end, with chairs placed at intervals along both sides. It looked somewhat excessively empty.

After passing through the main hall, they reached the actual living area, where various spacious rooms were revealed.

There were bedrooms, a study, a Cultivation Room, a warehouse, and everything else one could need, even an area prepared for Source Beasts to rest and play.

There were too many rooms, so Chu Shengfan didn't visit them one by one. Instead, he just got a general idea of the layout before returning to the front hall.

Su Yi summoned the eight servants who were cleaning the rooms.

Looking at the several Spirit Rank Contract Masters standing before him with bowed heads, Chu Shengfan felt quite a bit of pressure as he prepared to address them.

"Ahem."

Clearing his throat, Chu Shengfan saw them look up slightly at him. Enduring a strange sense of awkwardness, he spoke the words he had prepared.

"You were arranged to be here by my Teacher. I don't know much about you, and you don't know much about me.

Let me first say that I am generally easygoing and don't like to make a fuss over small things.

But be careful not to commit any errors of principle; otherwise, I will have no choice but to send you back to my Teacher.

Now, please introduce yourselves one by one, including your names and specialties."

The servants glanced at each other, and then the one on the far left began the introductions.

"Wang Yu, Spirit Rank Lower Stage, I possess one Spirit Rank Source Beast and two Source Beasts at the Upper Tier of the Extraordinary Rank. Their species are..."

As these people introduced themselves, Su Yi carefully memorized what they said, preparing to assign work according to their specialties later.

It took about half an hour for all eight people to finish their introductions.

"From now on, whatever work you are to do within the palace will be according to Su Yi's arrangements. That's all for today; go back and familiarize yourselves with the environment."

"Yes."

With a synchronized response, they all quietly withdrew. The rules of this Qinghan Palace seemed to be etched into their very bones.

Even when facing a young Contract Master whose Realm was far inferior to their own, they remained respectful and subservient.

After sending them away, Chu Shengfan was left alone in the palace, finally able to think about the impact this apprenticeship had on him.

Undoubtedly, after taking this Teacher, it was as if he had directly achieved a leap in social class. However, this leap was like a castle in the air, derived entirely from his status as Yang Qingxue's Disciple.

If he lost this status, he would instantly fall back to his original class.

But Chu Shengfan didn't think about how to flatter his Teacher to build a deeper emotional connection; instead, he immediately threw himself into his Cultivate.

He understood deeply that only when strength was truly his own could he have more confidence... Heyu Town.

At this time, the construction of Qixia Village and the pasture was nearing completion.

The villagers who had lived on Qixia Mountain had already all moved to the new village. They only occupied one of the four residential areas of Qixia Village.

Furthermore, a large portion of the housing was still vacant. The residential area was beautiful and orderly, and the quality of the villagers living there had improved invisibly.

They spoke more gently than before, and no one was seen relieving themselves along the streets anymore. The improvement of infrastructure and the abundance of resources were destined to give them higher spiritual pursuits.

For the construction of the pasture, various types of Spiritual Plants had been encouraged to grow. Among them were common forage grasses as well as the harder-to-find Broad-leaf Lingluo (a grass-type spiritual item that can accelerate the physical growth of herbivorous Source Beasts).

There were also other Spiritual Plants with slightly different attributes, such as Scorching Sun Grass, Ice Crystal Flowers, Mantle Vines, and so on. These were all Spiritual Plants that the Chu family could currently Cultivate, sourced from the county town or the Treasure Pavilion.

So, compared to the initial pasture which was just a patch of green, the current pasture, due to the planting of different Spiritual Plants, had its own colors in different areas—vibrant and colorful, with a unique wild charm.

Most of the Source Beasts raised by the Chu family were placed in the pasture. They each chose their favorite Spiritual Plant areas and settled down there.

The pasture was large enough and the Source Beasts were still few, so it was estimated that for a long time, the Chu family would not need to worry about how to pen and raise the Source Beasts.

This afternoon, a message was hurriedly delivered to the Chu family residence.

"You mean the Town Head is currently in Qixia Village below with the Inspection Team?" Chu Qinhui's brow furrowed slightly as he looked at the servant respectfully delivering the news.

The servant nodded. "Yes, Young Master."

"Did the Town Head show any particular attitude in town?" Chu Qinhui asked.

"No. The messenger said he didn't dare look directly at the Town Head's face, but his voice was always calm. Right now, he is taking those Guards and wandering around the village."

Chu Qinhui nodded slightly and waved his hand to dismiss the servant.

"Town Head..." He repeated the two words to himself and stood up. "This matter still requires Father to step forward. I hope he isn't here to find trouble."

With that, he got up and quickly walked out of the study... Qixia Village.

Tang Cheng walked along the wide and clean streets, stopping from time to time to stroll through the unlocked shops on both sides before coming back out.

The expression on his face didn't change much, so it was impossible to tell what he actually thought of the architecture of Qixia Village.

Tang Cheng was currently in the residential area where people lived. Knowing his identity as the Town Head, the villagers didn't dare get too close, but they followed the group from a distance.

This distance was very precisely maintained—far enough to see what the Town Head was doing, but not so close as to be driven away by the Guards.

From time to time, villagers would leave the crowd and quietly run toward Qixia Mountain behind them. They were heading toward the Chu family residence to deliver news.

Naturally, this did not escape Tang Cheng's eyes, but he did not send anyone to stop them.

Tang Cheng's inspection of the village was not fast. Sometimes, after coming out of a certain building or a villager's home, he would ponder for a while, and no one knew what he was thinking.

He led the Guards to the center of this residential area, which was also the site of the commercial buildings.

The original four village chiefs also rushed over upon hearing the news. If their respective villages still existed, they would be the ones among the villagers most qualified to step forward and speak with Tang Cheng, the Town Head.

But now they were under the jurisdiction of the Chu family, and since their original villages were gone, they had lost their status as village chiefs. They now held other positions within the residential area.

They were still considered prominent figures among the villagers. In the absence of anyone from the Main Family to welcome him, the former village chiefs of the four villages consulted briefly, and Village Chief Chen from the original Fuhe Village stepped forward to speak.

He actively stepped out of the circle of villagers, his feet clad in new hand-stitched shoes. As he drew closer, a Guard immediately turned around, his arm barring the way in front of Village Head.

This Guard was tall and sturdy. Standing in front of Village Head, he was like a shadow cast by a mountain, completely covering him.

Before Village Head could explain his purpose, Tang Cheng's voice came from behind the Guard. "No need to stop him."

Hearing this, the Guard lowered his arm and stepped back, clearing the way.

Village Head thanked him and walked up to Tang Cheng, bowing low.

"Greetings, Town Head Tang. It is our fault as commoners for not welcoming your presence. If you don't mind, would you like to go to the Office for a cup of hot tea?"

Village Head wanted to settle the Town Head in one place first, lest his wandering actually uncover some problems.

Tang Cheng squinted at Village Head, seemingly remembering something. "I remember, you are the Fuhe Village chief, right?"

Hearing him speak, Village Head hurriedly bowed again. "I am truly honored that the Town Head remembers my humble appearance."

Tang Cheng had heard countless such flattering words, and his expression did not change. Instead, he spoke with a hint of doubt in his tone:

"I remember you were once white-haired and elderly. Seeing you again now, you actually look quite a bit younger?"

It wasn't strange for someone to become younger over time; for example, becoming a Contract Master or consuming some spiritual items could achieve this.

But the Village Head before him was not a Contract Master. As for spiritual items, for these ordinary commoners, even if they had the funds, they shouldn't buy them for Village Head's use but would instead save them to help the next generation become Contract Masters.

That was why Tang Cheng asked.

Village Head's face relaxed. "Thanks to the kindness of our current Main Family, we villagers are occasionally given some Source Beast meat to eat. Our bodies have been nourished and strengthened, which is why I look so much younger."

(Actually, during this period of rapid development for the Chu family, the population under their jurisdiction was sparse. To encourage the villagers to have more children, to allow the experienced elders to live a few years longer, and to strengthen the Physiques of the villagers so that young couples could give birth to more talented children...)

Chu Jingyu ordered a fixed portion of Source Beast meat to be distributed every week. The rank wasn't high—it was just the meat of Mortal Rank Wild Boar Spirits—but the final effect was excellent. Not only were the villagers full of energy when working, but their efficiency also multiplied.

This had brought the Chu family an unexpected surprise.)

Hearing his answer, Tang Cheng nodded. "This Chu family is indeed a rare and kind-hearted Main Family. You villagers are quite fortunate."