105: Chapter 103 Preparation

"Alright, then I'm coming?" Jiang Hanwen's Face showed a hint of teasing.

He wanted to see if his perfected movement technique would be too fast for the three eighth-stage Transcendent Realm cultivators to react.

No sooner said than done, Jiang Hanwen lightly tapped the ground with his foot. He didn't seem to exert any force, yet his body transformed into a wisp of smoke, appearing in front of the three in a flash.

Everyone's pupils dilated in shock. So fast!

Jiang Hanwen was a little disappointed. They couldn't even react to thirty percent of his speed?

The next second.

"Ah!"

...Five breaths later, Jiang Hanwen gestured for the Black-Robed Guardians at the entrance to carry away the three men clutching their legs.

Since they were good brothers, they should all be neatly together.

All three men's right legs had been broken by Jiang Hanwen.

As for who exactly spread the word, did it matter?

In any case, this debt wouldn't be placed on his head.

When he lacked strength, he was timid and submissive, wasn't it precisely so that now, with strength, he could strike with full force?

Song Shuming looked at Jiang Hanwen with a wry smile. He had thought this person intended to win people over with virtue. It turned out he really did, but it was martial virtue.

"Alright, everyone, come inside for the Council Hall. Tell me about the current situation of the Medicine Field."

"Yes!" The four exchanged a smile, their voices full of vigor.

Nearly a year had passed, and the changes in the mountain Medicine Field were minor. It had only expanded by eight mu, which wasn't much.

The biggest problem was Jiang Hanwen's requirement: those unqualified qi gathering grass seeds, grown in the ordinary farmlands, had accumulated into a mountain because they matured quickly.

After hearing the situation, Jiang Hanwen presented his bitter apricot fruit plan.

"Chief Steward Jiang, are you sure you have enough money?"

After reading the bitter apricot fruit plan, Song Shuming looked at Jiang Hanwen with doubt.

It was clearly written in black and white: Chief Steward Jiang, in his personal capacity, would buy processed bitter apricot fruits from them at a high price to generate income for the Medicine Field.

"Don't worry, there'll be plenty!" Jiang Hanwen grinned. bitter apricot fruit?

No, that was called Dao Comprehension Fruit!

The requirement was simple: everyone, if willing, should plant bitter apricot trees, pick the fruits, and process them by stir-frying them thoroughly with qinggang wood according to his instructions, then sell them to him in their spare time.

The four hundred people in the Medicine Field were all skilled, which would greatly shorten the maturation time and guarantee the quality of the bitter apricot fruits.

The benefit of planning ahead was evident. Last year, he had Lei He acquire a large quantity of bitter apricot trees and fruits in advance.

These bitter apricot trees would take root, be replanted, and bear fruit in the Medicine Field, providing Jiang Hanwen with a continuous supply of bitter apricot fruits!

Besides his own use, these bitter apricot fruits could also be used by Gong Qing, and to make calming tea from them.

With this source, he could consider opening a shop.

Constantly going to brothels and spending Origin Qi, why not try something legitimate like massage and foot rubs to clear meridians, then a cup of diluted calming tea to refresh the mind? Wouldn't that be better?

Zhuang Kongming was fostering relationships with the Black-Robed Guardians and his disciples in the back mountains. This matter still required a trip to the accounting office to ask if Chen Qingzhi, that old man, was willing to do it.

"Currently, there are twenty thousand jin of bitter apricot fruits in the warehouse. If processed, at four jin per tael of silver, that would be five thousand taels of silver.

Are you sure you can produce that much within half a year?" Song Shuming asked suspiciously. bitter apricot fruits were bought back at thirty jin per tael. After deducting the cost of qinggang wood, there would still be a large profit, and this was no small amount.

He knew Jiang Hanwen's monthly stipend: two hundred taels a month, which was a lot, but his daily consumption of Medicinal Cuisine meant his expenses were only more, not less. How could there be a surplus?

To this, Jiang Hanwen could only say, "Little brother, your intelligence System needs an update."

In his storage ring lay a small gold bed. Five thousand taels?

No.

Even fifty thousand taels, he could produce in minutes.

However, in that case, any discerning person would notice his unbalanced income and expenditure, which would be suspicious.

"What, are you afraid I'll trick you?"

Song Shuming smiled bitterly, wanting to speak but hesitating. He wasn't afraid of being tricked; he was afraid that Chief Steward Jiang would get himself into trouble trying to cover the deficit.

"Alright, I'm not teasing you anymore." The smile faded, and Jiang Hanwen said seriously:

"Tell them to get moving quickly and process the fruits first.

Also, send the qi gathering grass seeds from the outer fields to my courtyard. I'll buy them at a twenty percent premium, still payable in half a year."

"Yes!" Song Shuming nodded in surprise.

A few thousand taels seemed like a lot, but under the large scale of the entire Medicine Field, it was really nothing. They disbursed several thousand taels in monthly stipends alone.

It was the qi gathering grass seeds that truly gave him a headache. To grow these qi gathering grasses, the monthly stipends for the outer fields alone amounted to over twenty thousand taels. Now, Chief Steward Jiang was willing to buy them at a twenty percent premium, which he had never dreamed of.

According to Chief Steward Jiang's request, these seeds were grown in ordinary farmlands. They had accumulated to this point, unusable, and yet the money for the monthly stipends had already been spent.

They were tasteless to eat, yet impossible to discard, leaving them in an awkward position.

After everything was arranged, Jiang Hanwen was about to leave when Song Shuming glanced outside the door and whispered:

"Chief Steward Jiang, those three brothers, although they were momentarily confused this time, they're not bad people. The seventy percent stipend the Family Head mentioned, they only symbolically took twenty percent.

You say, should we—"

Song Shuming didn't finish his sentence, but Jiang Hanwen understood.

After all, they were three eighth-stage Black-Robed Guardians, and their importance was undeniable; they were just in the wrong this time.

They would see each other often. Management wasn't just about showing might; it also required benevolence.

As the saying goes, with both benevolence and might, even raw iron can be forged into a treasured sword.

"Let them hurt for a couple of days first. Then, buy some Medicinal Cuisine for them and expense it through the public account," Jiang Hanwen nodded.

He would have been too lazy to bother, but if it was Song Shuming's suggestion, he would respect it.

"Then I thank you on their behalf," Song Shuming breathed a sigh of relief.

The fact that these three brothers gave him a month's time actually showed respect to him and to Jiang Hanwen.

If it had been in the past, they would probably have forced the issue long ago. They could only blame their bad luck for running into Chief Steward Jiang's crosshairs.

"No!"

Jiang Hanwen stopped Song Shuming and pointed at him: "This is what you gained for them. Tell them the truth!"

"Alright."

Song Shuming watched Jiang Hanwen's receding figure, feeling a warmth in his heart—the feeling of being respected.

Such matters today, he could actually have gone directly to the Family Head.

But with his Qi and blood declining, he might never be able to advance further in this life.

Now, the Zhuang family was like a speeding carriage.

Old people like them would eventually be left behind. He had no Face to go.

Seemingly a trivial skirmish, it was actually a demonstration of firm resolve.

It was Chief Steward Jiang, Jiang Hanwen, who was shielding this group of people from wind and rain.

Alas, he had lived for decades in vain.

After leaving the Council Hall, Jiang Hanwen did not return home but instead wandered through the Medicine Field, communicating with his subordinates about the frontline situation.

Under the protection of the commission System and the "pseudo-establishment," the Medicine Field's output and technology were steadily advancing.

It could be said without exaggeration that after several rounds of knowledge popularization, the cultivation techniques of any ordinary Medicine Planter now possessed seventy percent of the skill of the original eight elder stewards.

However, Jiang Hanwen also clearly saw that this progress, apart from innovations in hybridizing techniques like fertilizer fruits, was nearing its limit.

A Spirit Planter not only focused on the 'plant' aspect, relying on technique and understanding the habits of Spiritual Plants and medicinal herbs.

They also relied more on the 'Spirit' aspect, cleverly seizing creation, relying on Spells, and on their comprehension of the natural world.

However, due to limited resources, everyone's Cultivation was too slow. By the time their Realm was high enough to nearly touch the eighth or ninth stage of Transcendent Realm, which could change their fate,

they would be old, their Qi and blood beginning to decline, and they would never be able to enter the Qi Induction Realm to experience the mysteries of Spiritual Qi.

This was due to a combination of the Zhuang family's lack of support, individual talent deficiencies, and a lack of ambition to climb higher.

Many people in the Medicine Field viewed his position as their ideal life's destination, unaware that the vast Zhuang family was merely a small birdcage.

The great world outside, with its myriad races, snowfields of fire, thunder mountains, and beast courts, that was where the true excitement lay.

Jiang Hanwen squatted down, pushing aside the moss accumulated on the tombstone, revealing a line of text.

In the middle was Lu Xingwang, to the left, written a little lower, was "Disciple Wu Qinghe," and to the right, at the same level.

"Colleague, Jiang Hanwen."

If Lu Xingwang had been willing to remain humble and not taken the Dragon Head Staff back then,

Jiang Hanwen estimated that Old Lu's eldest disciple would have been the second leader in the Medicine Field to openly Break through to the Qi Induction Realm.

"Old Lu, you spent your life researching Spiritual Plants, and your results were good, but you forgot to research human nature."

Murmuring softly, Jiang Hanwen's mind's eye seemed to conjure Lu Xingwang's smile as he entered the scheme, using years of hard work as bait, and burning books right in front of them.

That smile seemed to say, "I helped Wu Qinghe, but I also helped you. Isn't the Medicine Field doing quite well now?"