46: Chapter 46 Magistrate of Xin'an County: Little Mountain Lord, what kind of person are you?

Li Family Village.

Feng Yifan had just arrived.

The Old Clan Leader was holding a document, coming to present it like a treasure.

"Young Lord, look at this!"

As he spoke, he handed the item to Feng Yifan.

Only then did he remember to ask, "Oh, Young Lord, are you literate? Can you read it?"

"Old man, you're going too far!" Feng Yifan rolled his eyes. "This Young Lord knows more characters than you!"

Isn't it just a land deed from the Government Office?

Could he possibly not understand it?

"Did someone from the Government Office come today?" he asked.

Feng Yifan didn't monitor the movements at the foot of the mountain at all times.

If there was danger, he would sense it in advance.

Besides, these past few days, Li Family Village had been very noisy.

It could almost be described as a hubbub of voices.

So, he had even changed his habit of glancing down occasionally.

And today he was obsessed with Cultivating, so he hadn't noticed at all that people from the Government Office had come.

"They came, arrived over two hours ago."

The Old Clan Leader whispered to Feng Yifan, "Instructor Liu's sixth uncle accompanied them."

It goes without saying that having acquaintances makes things easier.

The one who came was a minor official from the county yamen, a young man in his twenties, quite handsome.

He had a good relationship with Sixth Uncle Liu, and the two were chatting and laughing.

"Young Lord, this person should have some background; I saw Head Liu was quite polite to him," the Old Clan Leader smiled. "But since he wants to pretend, we'll just act like we didn't notice."

Why expose it?

One might even have to kowtow and kneel to him.

No need to go looking for trouble.

Anyway, with this connection and Instructor Liu accompanying him, the other party's attitude had been very good.

He hadn't said a single arrogant or pretentious word.

Once he met Master Li, he became even more polite.

After a few words, Li Feipeng led them to the reclaimed fields and dug trenches to take a look.

He left behind a few subordinate yamen runners to measure slowly, and they came back.

"They went to Master Li's courtyard to drink tea," the Old Clan Leader chuckled. "Young Lord, you didn't see it, but Master Li's pot of tea made his eyebrows twitch."

Whether Master Li's tea was good or not, he didn't know.

Regardless, the water was good water.

Could the water from our Langhuan Well be bad?

"Is the person gone?" Feng Yifan asked.

He looked at the land deeds and felt a bit strange.

There were two land deeds.

One was a normal land deed given to the Li Clan, confirming their fields.

The other was actually for the Mountain God of Mount Xiao Yao!

It was written on it that Little Yao Mountain and the surrounding hundred miles were the protected lands of the Mountain God of Mount Xiao Yao.

However, what made him feel strange wasn't that.

Both land deeds were very formal in format, and they even had the exclusive seal of the Great Yong Dynasty.

Clearly, they were formal document templates produced uniformly by the higher-ups and issued to local areas for use.

In other words, issuing land deeds to a mountain god might be a standard operation in Great Yong.

There was nothing strange about it in itself.

So, what Feng Yifan felt was wrong was the official seal on the land deeds.

Both land deeds were stamped with the official seal of the County Magistrate.

Logically speaking, it should be stamped after all the content is written, right?

If it was stamped beforehand and brought over to be filled in on the spot, that would be even more interesting.

How much must the County Magistrate trust the other party to let him do that?

Wasn't he afraid of something going wrong?

Was it because it was wasteland, and since they couldn't collect much tax anyway, they didn't care?

But that wasn't right either.

If they didn't care, why send someone specifically?

And someone who even the Old Clan Leader could see had some status.

"Not gone," the Old Clan Leader smiled. "Still drinking tea in Master Li's courtyard."

"...Arrived over two hours ago and still hasn't left?" Feng Yifan looked up at the sky. "Is he staying for a meal?"

"Then let him stay; we aren't short of a bite for him," the Old Clan Leader said. "We have enough meat. We'll prepare some wild vegetables, steam some buns and white rice; he won't go hungry."

"You've already planned it all out?" Feng Yifan couldn't help but say. "Both white flour and white rice, you're quite generous!"

"Oh, Young Lord! Don't say that!"

The Old Clan Leader immediately smiled, "No matter who he is, he can't surpass you! In our village, besides people, isn't it whatever you point at that we eat?"

"Young Lord, it's not that I'm generous, but the other party was also quite generous." The Old Clan Leader leaned in closer and whispered, "With a stroke of his pen, he gave us everything within a hundred-mile radius."

Although ostensibly it was given to the Mountain God.

Their land deeds currently only covered the reclaimed ones, at most giving another dozen or so mu of wasteland to allow continued farming outwards.

But those lands that belonged to the Mountain God but weren't on the Li Clan's land deeds—it wasn't said they couldn't be farmed.

This place is so far from the county town, who could always come to check?

As long as the Mountain God can protect them and keep out the yin baleful energy, they can farm.

If someone really comes to inspect, just slip them some benefits, and it can be glossed over.

Besides, even if they are obedient and don't farm, they can still eat the wild vegetables growing on those lands; another day they can plant some trees and say the birds planted them.

Once they grow, won't they be the ones to benefit?

"The Great Mountain God doesn't eat wild vegetables or trees, right, Young Lord?" The Old Clan Leader squinted his eyes, smiling with a face full of cunning. "We can also go graze sheep and cattle!"

"Heh, raise more," Feng Yifan said.

The Great Mountain God doesn't eat them, but he, this Little Mountain Lord, does.

"You can also cut pigweed to feed pigs. Dig up some earthworms to feed chickens." His train of thought also opened up. "When manpower is freed up, expand the pond over there, raise some ducks and geese."

Didn't the Old Clan Leader want to take advantage?

Then take more.

"I also like to eat salted duck eggs, century eggs, and such."

"...Alright." The Old Clan Leader nodded and smacked his lips.

He felt a bit of a realization in his heart.

Good heavens, Tiger Young Master is going to collect rent on behalf of the Great Mountain God!

"You get busy, I'll go see the person from the county yamen," Feng Yifan said.

Although the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat.

But it's fine; he's a tiger, not a cat.

So, he ran to Master Li's courtyard.

Arriving at the place, he saw the courtyard gate was ajar.

He tapped on the door and then poked his head in to take a look.

He saw one of the unfamiliar young men had a clear official aura of blue clouds on him.

He immediately understood what was going on.

He didn't go in; he just nodded to the people inside and turned to leave.

He had wondered who would be so bold.

It turned out the County Magistrate himself had come.

Now that he knew what was going on, that was that.

He had no interest in talking much with officials.

Leaving Master Li's courtyard gate, Feng Yifan took off and ran laps around Li Family Village.

This was a habit he had recently developed.

Probably out of an instinct for patrolling his territory.

While running, he thought to himself that the territory of the Evil God Holy Kingdom as recognized by the System was within the original jurisdiction of the Mountain God of Mount Xiao Yao.

This was because the Evil God's divine position had swallowed the Mountain God of Mount Xiao Yao's divine position.

But this position still existed.

And it was held concurrently by Feng Yifan, the Evil God.

It was roughly similar to Zhu Houzhao concurrently serving as General Zhu Shou.

When Great Yong increased the jurisdictional range for the Mountain God of Mount Xiao Yao, it was also increasing Feng Yifan's territory.

Feng Yifan was the Evil God Holy Emperor recognized by the System, so his place was naturally the territory of the Holy Kingdom.

"The territory conquered by General Zhu Shou belongs to the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao, no problem at all!"

...

Not long after.

Feng Yifan finished patrolling his territory.

He found a spot near Langhuan Well and began to dig a hole.

He planned to pick the largest sapling and plant it here.

The County Magistrate of Xinan County, however, walked over for some reason.

Looking at the hole he dug and then at the sapling beside him.

Not only did he look, but he also asked.

"Little Mountain Lord, what are you planting?"