Returning home, Zhou Ping had yet to properly celebrate with his family before a steady stream of visitors came calling.
The vast majority were small households like the Zhou family. As neighbors who huddled together for warmth in hard times, they naturally wanted to find out exactly what had happened.
"Uncle Chen, take care," Zhou Hong said, seeing off a withered, white-haired old man before finally returning indoors.
Not far away, the old man turned back to look at the Zhou family's door, a sharp glint flickering within his murky eyes.
"From now on, small households like theirs will have to rely on the Zhou family. Perhaps I can even use this chance to avenge my ancestors."
Uncle Chen walked toward his home, hunched over with his hands clasped behind his back, looking every bit the dazed, decrepit old man nearing the end of his days.
As soon as Zhou Hong entered the house, he saw his younger brother rubbing his forehead, a look of sheer exhaustion on his face.
"Old Chen is a pitiful man. Past fifty, and the only person left in his home is an unmarried daughter. Ping'er, what do you think?" Zhou Dashan sighed regretfully, his tone carrying a heavy hint.
"Father, why bring that up? You should focus on resting your body," Zhou Ping replied in exasperation.
"Your father is right. You are getting older; you need to start thinking about starting a family," Madam Huang chimed in from the side. "I have seen that child. She has a good appearance and is a hardworking, capable girl."
"Your father and I are old. As long as we can see you and Hong'er healthy, settled down, and living well, we will be content. If we could just see you married with children, we could die without regrets."
"Honestly, what nonsense are you saying? Your bodies are still tough and hale," Zhou Ping rebuked gently. This kind of mundane family chatter helped close the distance between him and his loved ones. Still, it gave him a headache; he never expected the very first thing he would face upon returning home would be nagging about marriage.
Zhou Hong sat off to the side, amusing himself with his wife and child. Watching his younger brother's troubled expression from afar, he could not help but chuckle foolishly, as if they had returned to more than a decade ago.
Spiritual Qi possessed miraculous healing effects on mortals. In just a few hours, Zhou Dashan's arm had already formed thick scabs, looking as if it were nearly healed.
"I will think about it," Zhou Ping said, brushing the matter off for now. Inwardly, however, he kept wondering why the Chen family's daughter sounded so familiar.
Just then, a noise came from outside.
"Is Old Uncle Zhou home?"
Zhou Hong went to the door to check, and his expression instantly turned exceedingly ugly.
"You are not welcome here. Get out!"
The visitor was Liu Ming. Hearing Zhou Hong's harsh rebuke, the several men behind him flared with anger, but Liu Ming merely offered a calm smile and bowed deeply. "My cousin was stubborn and ignorant. He did wrong, so I have come on his behalf to apologize and make amends."
Hearing this, Zhou Hong's expression softened somewhat. As the saying went, one does not strike a smiling face. With Liu Ming adopting such a humble posture, it was hard to respond with vicious words-especially since the offense was committed by Liu Da and his thugs, not him.
Led by Zhou Hong, Liu Ming entered the house. When he saw the withered Old Man Zhou bearing mottled bloodstains on his clothes, his eyes instantly narrowed.
"The methods of Immortals are truly extraordinary. They might even be capable of growing flesh on bare bones. I absolutely must not provoke him." Thinking back to his previous fantasy of overwhelming Zhou Ping with sheer numbers, he could not help but find it laughable. Even if they somehow won, who knew how many of his own brothers would die in the process?
After all, these were blood-related clansmen, not expendable soldiers. He could not possibly force his own relatives to march to their deaths.
"Brother Ping, I have come specially today to beg your forgiveness," Liu Ming said, his expression shifting to one of deep remorse as he lowered his head.
"It was my bastard of a cousin who broke his promise. Not only was he insatiably greedy, but he actually brought a few brothers to injure the old man. When I heard of this, I was terrified and deeply ashamed."
"Please rest assured, we have already taught Liu Da a severe lesson. This will never happen again."
"I hope so," Zhou Ping replied with a faint, ambiguous smile. He naturally did not believe Liu Da had been punished. He simply watched Liu Ming in silence, waiting for him to offer a real resolution.
Ultimately, the Liu family had numbers and influence, while his own family's foundation was shallow. His personal strength could not completely overturn that disparity overnight. But that did not mean the grudge with the Liu family was settled. Sooner or later, he would collect on this debt.
For now, he could only play along with them, offering false smiles to ensure his family's safety. Stability was what truly mattered.
"As compensation, all the grain in Liu Da's fields will be given to your family. What does Brother Ping think of this?" As Liu Ming spoke, his peripheral vision carefully tracked Zhou Ping's reaction.
But Zhou Ping merely stared at him in silence, making Liu Ming thoroughly uncomfortable.
Off to the side, Old Man Zhou was growing restless with excitement. If the harvest from two mu of land went entirely to them, the surplus grain could be traded for a small donkey! That would save them so much backbreaking effort when plowing and hauling goods, and it could even serve as a playmate for his grandson.
Zhou Dashan was a farmer to his core. Even though his youngest son had returned from seeking cultivation, his peasant mindset was difficult to change overnight. But he was old now, no longer the main pillar supporting the household. In front of his two adult sons, he swallowed his words and kept his thoughts buried in his heart.
Zhou Hong and the others, though visibly tempted, all turned their gazes toward Zhou Ping, waiting for him to make the decision.
"Fine," Zhou Ping finally said, his voice slow and measured. "However, I want to buy that plot of land."
Liu Ming exhaled a breath of relief at the first word, having feared Zhou Ping would open his lion's maw to demand an exorbitant price. But the second sentence caused his brows to furrow tightly.
That land belonged to Liu Da, after all. It was not his place to sell it without permission.
"This..."
Liu Ming wanted to say more, but Zhou Ping cut him off instantly.
"Six taels of silver per mu. How about it?"
Instantly, the breathing of several people in the room grew ragged.
"We will do exactly as Brother Ping says," Liu Ming agreed with a beaming smile. With an extra tael per mu on the table, who cared if he took the liberty of deciding?
Everyone knew that even highly productive, top-grade fields sold for little more than ten taels, while medium-grade fields hovered around eight. Liu Da's two mu might have been medium-grade once, but they were dry and far from any water source, having lain barren and uncultivated for years. Selling them for five taels would have been pushing the absolute limit.
"Son, is that not far too steep?" Even Madam Huang could not help but speak up.
"Mother, I have my plans," Zhou Ping reassured her. He naturally had his own calculations. Since he intended to settle down in Baixi Village, he absolutely would not let his descendants scratch a living out of the dirt. At the very least, they would be wealthy local landlords.
"Furthermore, I must trouble you to spread the word in the village for me. If any family wishes to sell their land, I will buy it at one tael above the market price," Zhou Ping told Liu Ming.
Liu Ming was left utterly speechless by this declaration. He had never imagined that a failed immortal seeker could return so obscenely wealthy, casually matching the Liu family's decades of accumulated foundation. But since his own clan had failed to produce a cultivation seedling, he could only watch with bloodshot eyes.
Nevertheless, Zhou Ping entrusting him with this task was an excellent signal. It meant Zhou Ping not only wished to avoid a blood feud, but was even offering an olive branch to turn enemies into friends.
"Brother Ping, I will handle this matter beautifully for you," Liu Ming laughed. "I shall take my leave now. I will dispatch someone to the county yamen later today, and we can have the land deeds drafted by tomorrow."
Only after Liu Ming and his men departed did Madam Huang ask anxiously, "Ping'er, you cannot joke about such things! Do you really have that much silver?"
"She is right. With the price a full tael above market, I fear many families will rush to sell. What will we do if we cannot pay?" Zhou Hong added frantically. "Liu Ming has not gone far. If I run, I can still catch him."
He was terrified that his younger brother simply did not understand the intricacies of the fields and had inflated the price out of sheer ignorance.
A peasant could break their back over one mu of land for an entire year, and after deducting taxes and rations for the household, having a hundred copper coins left over was considered a blessing. In a bad harvest year, they would even have to borrow money just to survive.
Raising the price by an entire tael of silver was offering them wealth that would normally take several grueling years to save up.
In the long run, selling one's land was naturally a crippling loss. But common folks rarely had surplus coin. The moment sudden hardship struck, selling land became their only recourse.
There were many struggling small households in the village. Even if they only bought a few dozen mu, it would cost hundreds of taels of silver. What ordinary family could produce such a terrifying sum?
If a favor was not spread evenly, it bred resentment. When the time came, if they ran out of money and only bought land from a select few, the remaining families would harbor grievances, even if they did not dare to openly hate them.
Zhou Hong was frantic with worry. He knew his brother was buying land for the family's future, but why could they not just approach families quietly, one by one? Making such an ostentatious public display was a recipe for disaster.
"Do not worry. I have the silver," Zhou Ping said with a serene smile.
In truth, he was far wealthier than Zhou Hong or his parents could possibly imagine.
Back when he was still in the Azure Cloud Sect, although he had only been a menial disciple, a decade of ceaselessly completing assignments had allowed him to squirrel away a few Spirit Stones. When leaving the sect to return to the mortal world, he had naturally exchanged those Spirit Stones for mundane gold and silver to ease his daily life.
On paper, one Spirit Stone could be exchanged for ten taels of gold. However, because Spirit Stones were immensely scarce and demand heavily outstripped supply, the actual rate was one to thirteen, or even fifteen. Yet even at those rates, only departing disciples like him were ever willing to make the trade.
Zhou Ping had walked away with seventy-eight taels of gold. The exchange rate between gold and silver generally fluctuated around one to five or six.
This meant Zhou Ping currently had nearly four hundred taels of silver to his name. Factoring in a few other odds and ends, buying a hundred mu of land would not be a problem in the slightest.
Baixi Village only had about a hundred households and was entirely ringed by mountains. The total amount of arable land reclaimed from the wilderness was just over a thousand mu. It sounded like a vast expanse, but only a tiny fraction of families would actually sell. After all, farmland was a family's ultimate foundation; selling it for a moment of fleeting comfort was the height of stupidity.
If he could truly secure a hundred mu of fertile land, Zhou Ping would be laughing in his sleep. If his silver somehow fell short, the worst-case scenario was simply making a trip to the county city to find another Immortal Master and sell off a few cultivation trinkets for cash.
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