A fruitful harvest

Long Chen's voice was very gentle, as if he were greeting an old friend. A smile that seemed to bestow blessings hung on his face, making him appear very sincere.

However, in the eyes of the cross-eyed man and his two companions, that smile was more terrifying than a devil's grimace. After all, who could beat someone up severely and still speak in such a pleasant, amiable manner?

"Long Chen… you… don't go too far," the cross-eyed man said with a terrified expression.

"I am a person who never goes too far. Discussing things in this atmosphere is actually because I have no other choice. It can only be blamed on the fact that you were all born with faces that beg to be beaten. If I didn't hit you, I'm afraid the Heavens would strike me down with lightning," Long Chen said helplessly.

"You…"

"Alright, let's talk business. Continuing from the previous topic, your arrival makes me very happy. So, here, I only represent myself in expressing a warm welcome and heartfelt congratulations on your arrival." After saying this, Long Chen clapped his hands twice and continued:

"First, your arrival has solved my manpower shortage; I happen to need people to help me weave fish cages. Second, Brother Cross-eyes, I am very grateful for the gift you brought. I express my deepest apologies for my rudeness just now. Therefore, I hope you won't make me feel any more guilt. Come on, you know what to do."

After Long Chen finished speaking, he reached out his hand. The meaning was obvious: if you refuse to hand over the Life Ring, I will have no choice but to continue feeling guilty.

"Don't even think about it! That is my ancestral… fine, I'll give it to you." The cross-eyed man originally wanted to resist to the end, but seeing Long Chen shaking his arms and legs, preparing to warm up, he immediately threw the Life Ring in his hand over.

"Hehe, it's hard for me to refuse such sincerity, Brother Cross-eyes. You don't need to be too grateful to me; I am truly a soft-hearted person," Long Chen said with a sigh as he took the Life Ring.

The cross-eyed man felt his vision go dark with rage. He felt the world spinning and almost fainted. This person was truly too shameless—he robbed someone and then told them not to thank him.

"Long Chen, you are also a Disciple of a noble family. How can you be such a rascal? This is simply the behavior of a villain," one of them said indignantly.

"You're wrong. I'm no Disciple of a noble family. I'm just a nobody from the grassroots. Being a villain is my nature, being a rascal is my virtue, robbing is my profession, and beating people is my hobby," Long Chen replied while attempting to use his Divine Sense to open the Life Ring.

The three men were so angry their faces turned green. Being able to be so proud of being shameless overturned the understanding of these noble family Disciples. Long Chen's complete disregard for his own status made them feel a mix of anger and fear.

In just a few breaths, Long Chen broke the original Soul imprint on the Life Ring, opened it, and saw the space inside.

To Long Chen's surprise, the Life Ring was different from a Space Ring; it wasn't square, but spherical in shape.

It was about ten zhang in diameter, and the inside looked like a small garden, with a small pond in the middle and some small trees and flowers planted around it.

"Interesting."

With a thought, Long Chen took out the Immortal Chrysanthemum from his Space Ring and sent it into the Life Ring. Using the power of his Soul, he dug a small pit in the ground and planted the Immortal Chrysanthemum inside.

Originally, even if the Immortal Chrysanthemum had soil on its roots and was placed in a jade bottle, it wouldn't survive more than three days inside a Space Ring before dying. This is why Space Rings cannot hold living things, not even plants.

Fortunately, the Immortal Chrysanthemum hadn't died yet. After being planted here, although it wouldn't continue to thrive, it wouldn't die either, which was good news.

A living Immortal Chrysanthemum was much more useful than a dead one, because once a Heaven And Earth Treasure dies, a portion of its essence is lost; that is unavoidable.

Now with the convenience of the Life Ring, this Immortal Chrysanthemum could live for a long time. However, it was a pity that this Life Ring was too low-level; otherwise, the Immortal Chrysanthemum could have continued to grow inside the ring.

"Considering this ring, I won't rob you of your Nameplates," Long Chen nodded in satisfaction while looking at the ring.

The two men couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when they heard Long Chen say this, but only the cross-eyed man had an expression of extreme heartache.

Although that Life Ring didn't have much practical use, it had always been his artifact for showing off, because such things were too rare; others didn't have them and had never even seen one.

No matter who he was in front of, as soon as he took out the Life Ring, he would immediately become the center of attention, having the capital to brag and recount the glory of his ancestors.

Furthermore, the Life Ring wasn't very practical and wouldn't arouse others' jealousy, so no one had ever tried to snatch it.

But now he had run into Long Chen, and as luck would have it, Long Chen needed this exact thing. This made the cross-eyed man's heart bleed.

"That… Brother Cross-eyes…"

"My surname is Zhao," the cross-eyed man said angrily.

"Brother Zhao-ji…"

"My name is Zhao Tianhao!"

"Slap!" A slap landed on the cross-eyed man's face. Long Chen said angrily: "Damn it, I'm giving you a face, aren't I? From now on, you are called Cross-eyes. If you dare to resist again, I'll throw you into the water to feed the turtles!"

The cross-eyed man glared at Long Chen, but he dared not talk back. He was completely terrified of this person.

"Whoosh." Long Chen waved his hand, and a cloud of white powder covered the three men. The three were startled but didn't feel anything unusual.

However, after a while, they felt something was wrong. Their bodies became unbearably itchy, especially at their wounds, which were intolerable, so they reached out to scratch.

As a result, once they started scratching, even their hearts began to itch, and they couldn't help but scream.

"Hehe, I found that you don't like to cooperate, so I sprinkled some Itching Powder on you. This way, we can discuss things happily."

Long Chen reached out, and three pills appeared in his hand. He said: "This is the antidote. It can stop the itching for an hour. As long as you cooperate, you will get the next batch of antidote after an hour. If your bones are hard, you can choose not to eat it, but I must tell you, my Itching Powder is a bit unusual. If you don't scratch your own skin off, it basically won't stop."

The three were shocked and angry, but in the end, they obediently took Long Chen's antidote. Once the antidote was swallowed, the three immediately returned to normal, as if what had just happened was a hallucination.

"Alright, now I have a task for you: go cut branches to weave cages for me. Weave them according to the specifications of mine. Weave one every hour. If you don't finish, there will be no antidote."

After Long Chen finished speaking, he saw the three of them still staring at him blankly. He gave a sinister smile and said: "You can continue to space out. I'm looking forward to your expressions of agony in an hour."

The three men's expressions changed, and they immediately dashed out to start cutting branches, weaving according to Long Chen's cage.

However, Long Chen had really overestimated these noble family Disciples. The things they wove made Long Chen want to curse; the gaps were so large that even a turtle could crawl through. How were they supposed to catch fish?

"Work properly for me! That Cross-eyes, didn't you say you could see objects more accurately and with more focus? Are you weaving a fish cage or a fishing boat? Are these shapes the same?"

In the end, Long Chen had to teach them hand-in-hand how to weave, so that he could teach these noble family Disciples how to do it.

Only then did Long Chen have the chance to check the second fish cage. When the second fish cage came out of the water, there was a splashing sound inside, which made Long Chen overjoyed.

"There are actually seven."

This time there were twice as many as the first cage. After thinking about it, he understood: this cage had been in the water longer, and the bait had been diffusing for a longer time, so more fish had come in.

He checked the Medicinal Pill wrapped in dried grass inside the cage. Although it had been soaking for a long time, there was still no change.

Long Chen pondered for a moment, took out a dagger, and made a few small cuts on the Medicinal Pill so that the fragrance emitted by the pill in the water would be richer.

After throwing the cage back into the water, Long Chen returned to the original spot and found that the three men had already finished weaving their cages.

Although there were many gaps, they had used some thin strips to patch up the places where fish could swim through. The shape was a bit ugly, but it could ensure that once the fish went in, they wouldn't be able to get out.

At this time, the three men's faces were a bit ugly, and their bodies were trembling non-stop. Clearly, the time for the Itching Powder to take effect had arrived, but having had the previous experience, they dared not reach out to scratch anymore and instead endured it bitterly.

Seeing Long Chen arrive, the three looked at him with anticipation. This time, they finally realized Long Chen's terror and did not dare to have any provocative emotions.

Long Chen distributed some more Medicinal Pills to them, this time allowing them to hold out for three hours. Long Chen believed that with this experience, they would definitely not dare to run away.

Thus, the three people kept weaving fish cages by the pool. It had to be said that people are forced into things; the three men's weaving skills improved rapidly. If one day they couldn't cultivate, perhaps they could make a living this way.

In a whole day, they wove more than thirty fish cages, and Long Chen threw down a fish cage every half mile.

Thus, Long Chen's round took nearly two hours, allowing him to continuously pull up cages and collect fish.

Because the Medicinal Pills were limited, Long Chen didn't need any more cages, so he arranged for the three to help him collect the cages. Long Chen only needed to sit there and wait for them to bring buckets of Qi Ling Fish over.

When there were hundreds of Qi Ling Fish in Long Chen's Life Ring, two days had passed, and Long Chen stopped fishing.

One reason was that the Medicinal Pills had been exhausted; the other was that these fish were temporarily enough. Anyway, he would be hanging around the Xuantian Branch in the future, so there would be opportunities; there was no need to drain the pond to catch all the fish.

Beside the small pool, a bonfire was lit. Dozens of Qi Ling Fish were roasted until they were fragrant and mouth-watering, making even Long Chen swallow his saliva continuously.

"Alright, everyone has worked hard. These fish are our victory banquet. After we finish eating, we will go our separate ways."

Long Chen took a fish first and started eating. The fish meat entered his mouth, making his mouth water, and the aroma of the meat overflowed, making one want to eat even more.

After Long Chen ate one, he distributed the antidote for the Itching Powder to everyone and left alone.

The three watched Long Chen's departing back, looked at each other, and began to eat frantically. In a short while, over a dozen fish were completely devoured.

"This Long Chen seems not bad," one person licked his lips, still wanting more, and sighed.

"You'd better not let Brother Lei hear that sentence. Everyone, remember your camp," the cross-eyed man said.

That person's heart trembled, and he nodded hurriedly.

"Alright, let this matter pass. No one is to speak of it. Otherwise, if Brother Lei finds out, he might very well think we are too spineless and kick me out," the cross-eyed man looked at the two and said seriously.

After speaking, the three also disappeared from the spot.

Long Chen didn't care how the three evaluated him. Anyway, he had gotten the good stuff, and he had treated them to a meal, so they were even.

After crossing a small mountain, suddenly a voice called out to stop Long Chen.