Huh? Isn't this an adventure kingdom building game?!-Chapter 72: Can You Run Away?

"Since you’re so grateful, why insist on keeping me in Lushan? Is this how your Ice-winged Eagle clan treats guests? And what about this grand plan you speak of conspiring together? What’s there to conspire? Are you insisting I stay so you can share your king’s bounty with me, and that would make you happy?"

Jiang Yuan, unfazed by such tactics, sighed heavily as the system alerted him to Yun Mo’s presence behind him, saying, "It’s not for me to say, but your king treats you well enough. How could you be so ungrateful? And to rope me in while he’s away, I harbor no grand ambitions, just want to pick some fruit and brew a bit of wine; let me go and I’ll pretend I never heard those disloyal words!"

Yun Mo silently landed on the mountain peak, his suspicious gaze flitting between the person and the eagle.

Jiang Yuan, showing no fluctuations in spiritual energy, could feign ignorance of the Ice-winged Eagle leader’s return, but Eagle Twenty-One, being a demon beast at the ninth layer of Qi Refining, could not. Hearing Jiang Yuan’s words nearly made him panic as he bowed and said, "My king, this blind person is indeed malicious. He privately complained about you being too stingy with rewards, while I merely tried to offer a few consolations, and yet he accused me of trying to recruit him! Please, my king, see through the deceit. Humans are truly treacherous, trying to sow discord. Do not fall for it!" freewebnoveℓ.com

"Oh? Your king has returned? No wonder your tune changed so suddenly." Jiang Yuan pretended not to know Yun Mo’s whereabouts and shouted, "Watch out for this subordinate of yours. His motives are impure, and when his attempt to enlist me failed, he resorted to sowing discord. Perhaps he even wants to replace you!"

Eagle Twenty-One’s face turned pale instantly, and he knelt prostrate on the ground, crying out, "My king, please judge fairly!"

"Enough!" Yun Mo, with a cold demeanor, dismissed his trusted aide sharply. "Go do what you are supposed to, and don’t covet Mr. Jiang’s talents in the future."

Turning back, he slightly bowed to Jiang Yuan, "It was my failure to properly discipline my subordinate, causing an offense to Mr. Jiang. Please don’t take it to heart. From today, he is punished to reflect in isolation until he understands his mistakes."

He then called for Eagle Fifty-Third to escort Jiang Yuan to gather fruit.

Once their shadows were lost under the moonlight, Yun Mo sighed and helped his punished aide to stand, "Twenty-One, you’ve accompanied me since you were young. We’ve shared many years of brotherhood. I understand your thoughts; you still wish to bind him to Lushan for our use."

He took an exquisite white jade bottle from his bosom and handed it over, "Today at the market, I heard that human cultivators can already enter and leave the market freely, which means their cultivation is above the Foundation Establishment realm. Though Jiang Yuan shows no signs of spiritual energy, he possesses great skills. I suspect he may be related to those people at the market.

I’d also love to have someone like him stationed at the mine to help us with ore extraction, but we lack the strength to keep such talent!

Coincidentally, there was this precious elixir, the Foundation Establishment Pill, at the auction. I wagered everything, including the magical treasure cloak and all my spirit stones, to get it. You should retreat for cultivation and strive for the Foundation Establishment with this elixir’s assistance; you’ll likely succeed far smoother than I.

When you too achieve Foundation Establishment, we’ll have two cultivators of the Foundation Establishment realm guarding us; with the tools I’ve brought to make mining more efficient, and Mr. Jiang helping pinpoint the ore locations, our Ice-winged Eagle clan will inevitably rise to brilliance!"

Yun Mo’s vision of the future was a pleasing one; under his lead, leveraging the Lushan Spirit Stone Mine, his brothers could all succeed in Foundation Establishment, thus growing and strengthening their ranks.

Now, the only remaining hurdle to that dream was time. With the spirit stone mine in their grasp, they had daily returns; given time, they would surely become great!

"Foundation Establishment Pill?!" Eagle Twenty-One never dreamed he would have the chance in his lifetime to consume such an elixir to increase his success rate in entering the Foundation Establishment. His eyes reddened with excitement as he held the jade bottle with his wings, full of gratitude, "My king, I will surely cultivate earnestly, strive for a successful breakthrough in this retreat, and become your most reliable aide!"

Overflowing with hope for the future, under the guise of punishment, Yun Mo sent his trusted aide off with the precious elixir for a closed-door retreat. He distributed new mining pickaxes to encourage more effort from the rat spirits in mining, and happily, he took a spirit fruit, tossed it into his mouth and crunched down on it. With a flip of his right wing, he had a book in hand, "One must read more, to avoid being tricked!"

Jiang Yuan soared across the sky atop the Ice-winged Eagle, pondering finding a suitable rival soon to test the combat power of his Paperman and Paper Horse Skill, having no fear of facing the scheming Eagle Twenty-One again.

A massive black shadow flew over the mountain peak. Inside a cave, the gaunt elder of the He Family lay sleepless, shrinking under his covers as he watched the shadow of the demon beast pass through a vent, frightening him.

"Grandfather, what should we do?" He Yaozu leaned in, asking in the lowest possible voice, "Damn it, just for the sake of an earlier ritual, these people have truly gone mad with work. They’ve almost gathered everything in just a few days. What do we do?"

Despite suffering disasters and losing the Guardian Divine Statue, the prestigious three great families could not stand suffering hardship. The village head, along with the remaining able-bodied men, specially partitioned the cave to provide relatively comfortable and safe living quarters for the three major surnames, per their demands.

Thus, in the deep night, the He Family members, who did not need to engage in production labor during the day, were not as exhausted as the ordinary villagers.

"Are you dense? The villagers are dirt poor; how could they gather sufficient supplies in such a short time, if not for the other two families secretly taking out resources?" The He Family elder grumbled with anger and sighed heavily, "They’re surely thinking that even if it costs them, they’d provide some resources to quickly hold a ritual and receive the divine statue’s protection, so they wouldn’t have to hide every night."

He Yaozu, anxious, patted his thigh, "Oh my, grandfather! Is this really the time to figure out where the resources are coming from? Everything’s nearly gathered, we are supposed to handle the most critical first step, and now... what do we do? We won’t be able to hide it!"

The skinny old man didn’t say a word, sitting up under the quilt as moonlight poured through the vent, casting knife-like shadows on his shriveled face.

The fact that the Guardian Divine Statue was so easily destroyed had its reasons—from a month ago, their prayers for healing powder from Goddess Nuwa had gone unanswered!

For an entire month, the current, previous, and the predecessor’s Priests of the He Family took turns praying, but the formerly responsive deity had not responded again. In other words, they had been abandoned by their deity!

If the uninvited guest hadn’t destroyed the statue, already depleted of divine power, thus forfeiting all its divine essence, with his vast experience, he predicted that in at most half a month, the statue would degrade to an abandoned object, unable to emit any protective holy light for the villagers.

Over the years, the He Family had dominated Riverfront Village, fully aware of how flagrantly they had conducted themselves. Once the commoners learned that the ritual could no longer summon divine observation and pity, the backlash of suppressed hatred and anger could lead to the complete annihilation of the entire family.

In fear, the old man held onto a slim chance of hope.

What if Goddess Nuwa had only temporarily not heard the prayers of her believers?

What if one day they once again received divine attention?

Having been entrenched for generations in Riverfront Village as the local sovereigns, must they truly abandon everything to live in the town, looking at others’ faces for survival? How long would the accumulated wealth of these years sustain the whole family’s squandering?

"Grandfather, say something!" He Yaozu nudged him, "How about we run away? While everyone is still kept in the dark, let’s take the accumulated wealth from the cellar and the collected offerings, and live in the town or, better yet, move to a distant city!"

The old man slowly lifted his head to look at him, "So much stuff, can you carry it all? What’s more, transporting everything from Riverfront Village to the town is a long, long way! The rat spirits ravaged the village’s livestock, burdened with family and so many supplies, could we escape with all that?"