Protect Our Patriarch

……

Because the Heavenly Fire Master initiated it, the other Daoists eagerly joined in, each betting on their own disciple to win.

The content of their bets was simple: aside from aptitude, the remaining scores. The stakes were not small, with each betting around a hundred thousand immortal crystals, totaling about ten million Top Gold.

This was fitting for a Divine Realm cultivator's status; if the stakes were too high, losing could be damaging, but if too low, it wouldn't be exciting.

Among the enthusiastic Daoists, only Wang Shouzhe remained calm, sipping his spiritual tea without any intention to participate.

"Master Wang Shouzhe, aren't you going to join in?" Mingcheng Zhenren, who had boldly bet a hundred thousand immortal crystals on Luo Qiu, asked with great interest, "If one wins alone, they could earn over a million immortal crystals~"

"I'll pass. Our Wang's Clan doesn't encourage gambling," Wang Shouzhe replied with a smile, cupping his hands. "As long as you all enjoy yourselves."

At home, it's just Ruolan and a few others playing mahjong or poker, but it's all in good fun, and they don't take winning or losing seriously. Only Ruolan, to teach Emperor Longchang a lesson, has won against him a few times.

"Shouzhe, could you advance me ten thousand immortal crystals as wages?" Tianhe Daoist suddenly approached, asking, "The money I earned earlier went to pay off debts, and I'm really strapped for cash now."

Having lived for so many years, Tianhe Daoist was quite thick-skinned and asked without any embarrassment.

What's wrong with being a worker? I'm proud to work for my disciple. Besides, even the Emperor is working for the Wang's Clan now, so why should a mere Divine Realm cultivator feel embarrassed?

Hearing this, Wang Shouzhe put down his tea cup and readily handed over a stack of immortal crystal notes: "Daoist, feel free to play; if you lose, it's on me."

"Master, you're generous, I won't be polite then." Tianhe Daoist happily went to place his bet.

He was full of confidence in his disciple, Liyao. Even if you set aside aptitude and compare the five qualities, she was definitely not lacking.

"Shouzhe... I also want to borrow ten thousand immortal crystals." Yunyang Daoist came over with a bit of embarrassment, saying, "I'm not good at managing finances personally; at home, it's Lici who handles the money."

"Daoist, feel free to play; if you lose, it's on me." Wang Shouzhe also readily handed him ten thousand immortal crystals.

To support Lici, Yunyang Daoist had sacrificed so much... friends, so a mere ten thousand immortal crystals was nothing.

"Shouzhe, you're a true friend, and I'll definitely be friends with you, Yunyang." Yunyang Daoist was deeply moved and quickly took the money to join the bet.

Mingcheng Zhenren, watching this scene, couldn't help but feel emotional: "I understand now why Shouzhe doesn't participate in the bets."

He has a vast family business and doesn't care to play with this group of poor Divine Realm cultivators.

"I heard that Daoist spent quite a bit of his own money to buy an eighth-grade immortal pill for Luo Qiu." Wang Shouzhe took out another ten thousand immortal crystals and gave them to Mingcheng Zhenren, saying, "Consider your bet as mine too."

Eighth-grade immortal pills are extremely expensive, often costing billions of Top Gold, and the Glazed King Hall's lineage has never been good at making money. To help Luo Qiu achieve A-grade aptitude, they really hurt their vitality this time.

"This... how could I accept it?" Although Mingcheng Zhenren was very tempted, he ultimately couldn't bring himself to accept it. After all, he wasn't very familiar with Wang Shouzhe.

"Luo Qiu is my sister." Wang Shouzhe said sincerely, "Thanks to Daoist's care, I should express my gratitude."

"Alright, alright, I'll accept it with thick skin." Mingcheng Zhenren happily accepted the immortal crystals, and his attitude towards Wang Shouzhe became much more friendly, "My disciple Wang Lingzhu is also from your Wang's Clan lineage. If you think about it, our Glazed King Hall lineage and you, Shouzhe, are like family. If you need anything in the future, feel free to ask."

Ten thousand immortal crystals may not seem like much, but for a poor Divine Realm cultivator, it's quite an important resource.

"Shouzhe..." Qingsong Daoist from Green Emperor Valley also looked over eagerly, "We at Green Emperor Valley have almost gone bankrupt for Lu Wei, even my own savings have been spent."

"This..." Wang Shouzhe's cheek twitched slightly, "Green Emperor Valley is a big family, my little money is nothing."

"You can't ignore it; everyone knows about you and Lu Wei." Qingsong Daoist said mysteriously.

"There's nothing going on. Daoist, don't believe rumors." Wang Shouzhe firmly denied it.

Seeing the lively conversation, other Daoists from various veins joined in, chatting and laughing with Wang Shouzhe. Wang Shouzhe handled it all with ease.

For a while, everyone was talking and laughing, and their relationships became increasingly harmonious.

Not far away, Jiang Zhencang, sitting at the head, watched with a furrowed brow.

Wang Shouzhe is starting to treat the Holy Land as his own business? Counting carefully, at least three of the Holy Land's nine veins already consider him one of their own. With his abilities, it won't be long before most of the nine veins are loyal to him.

When Jiang Zhencang eventually passes away, this Holy Land might really belong to the Wang family~

While everyone outside was talking and laughing, watching the excitement, on the large crystal screen, the performances of the Holy Son and Holy Maiden candidates were being continuously switched and played.

To be fair, each candidate faced the same situation as Wang Yingxuan at the start. The only slight difference was the name of the "main city" that had just collected a wave of taxes and the numbering of the farm villages.

Wang Shouzhe observed for a while and felt that this likely represented a "single-player game," or they weren't on the same "map," and would only meet when their levels were high enough.

The reason Wang Shouzhe observed so closely, learning and remembering every detail, was simple.

The Shenwu Army Officer Training Academy hadn't been found yet, but its study assessments were likely similar to these trial cabins. If he could understand this part first, he might have an advantage when "enrolling" in the future. If there was a chance, breaking some academy records or world records would be a huge gain, wouldn't it?

Because each candidate had a different personality, their choices in facing the same situation naturally varied.

After all, the farm village's food could last two to four months, providing plenty of room for maneuver.

Among the many candidates, some stayed in the farm village, planting, building houses, and increasing defenses step by step, while others cautiously explored outside with a small team, searching for useful resources.

Everyone was doing their best to solve the first wave of the food crisis as quickly as possible.

However, in a big forest, all kinds of birds appear.

For example, Wang Lici...

When the big screen switched to her scene, everyone discovered that she hadn't done anything. No, to be precise, she had done one thing!

She was busy eating...

At that moment, in Farm Village No. 8305.

Everyone was involved in the cooking process, pot after pot of coarse grains being cooked and carried to Lici.

Wang Lici was unceremoniously eating, one pot after another, constantly eating and eating.

The villagers around her looked at her with blank expressions.

The village elder, serving as the novice task guide, was even more desperate, beating his chest and lamenting to the sky, "Heavens! Earth! Why is the fate of our Farm Village No. 8305 so miserable, to have such a Heaven's Favored One?"

Thirty units of food, enough for thirty people to eat for a year!

But this Heaven's Favored One ate so much in one meal... Is she the reincarnation of a demon king?

This scene shocked the spectators.

What kind of operation is this?

Clearly, the food in the farm village was already insufficient, yet she started with a reckless feast. Did she not eat enough before the trial?

"Lici sister, as expected of my idol!" Lan Wan'er, sitting in the back row of the viewing seats, wasn't surprised at all. Instead, she watched with sparkling eyes, continuing her blind admiration for Wang Lici, "Even with her strength reduced in the trial, she can still eat so much!"

"Is this worth admiring?" Jiang Xingyuan, sitting next to her, glanced at her, sweating profusely, "With such a peerless talent, she had a chance to win the Holy Maiden Struggle. But starting like this is self-destructive, isn't it?"

The little green snake temporarily coiled on Lan Wan'er's shoulder recalled some unpleasant memories. Their Yi Wood Green Dragon clan was almost eaten to extinction!

In the front row, the various Daoists were also surprised and puzzled by Wang Lici's operation.

"Yunyang~" Heavenly Fire Master looked at Yunyang Daoist with a face full of "regret," saying, "Is your disciple a fool? She ate all the food, and the farm village will immediately collapse, resulting in a zero overall score. It's a waste of her peerless talent!"

Yunyang Daoist couldn't stand others belittling Wang Lici and immediately retorted, "Where is your Zhen Shicong any better? He took a hundred people hunting right away, claiming to be best at tactics and using terrain, but thirty people died right at the start!"

"At least he caught two fierce beasts weighing nearly ten thousand pounds, significantly boosting the villagers' physical strength. With initial experience, casualties can be reduced in the future. Compared to others, his development speed is the fastest, the optimal choice." Heavenly Fire Master said, "Yunyang, if you're not convinced, we can make a separate bet."

"Bet it is! A separate bet on the points between Wang Lici and Zhen Shicong!" Yunyang Daoist was evidently confident in his disciple, "A bet of twenty thousand immortal crystals."

"Deal!"

Heavenly Fire Master's eyes lit up. Although Zhen Shicong had little chance of winning the Holy Son position, winning some money back wouldn't be bad.

Wang Shouzhe listened quietly, having seen Zhen Shicong's operation earlier. Although the kid seemed unreliable, his basic qualities were indeed good, and he was excellent in command and micro-management, making good use of natural terrain.

If not for the villagers' lack of training and experience, leading to panic, there wouldn't have been thirty casualties. Zhen Shicong would surely improve after gaining experience, making him a formidable opponent in the future.

However, Wang Shouzhe was more optimistic about Lici.

His niece might seem like a fool on the surface, but she was cunning at heart. Most importantly, she ate everything but never suffered a loss! Moreover, she had a very special ability... there was no better place for her to shine than the wilderness.

In this regard, even Wang Shouzhe felt envy and jealousy.

On the large crystal screen.

After eating thirty units of food in one go, Wang Lici finally licked her lips with satisfaction and said to the elder, "I finally have a bit of strength, feeling a bit stronger. Elder, find me a hundred strong young men and women, not the elderly, but those who are sturdy! Sigh, just eating grains isn't enough; I need some meat to better replenish my energy."

The elder's face turned pale, and he knelt before her with a thud, trembling as he said, "Great Heaven's Favored One, if you must eat, eat me. If you eat a hundred strong young people, our farm village will be doomed!"

"Heaven's Favored One, if you must eat, eat us." A group of old villagers, sensing something was wrong, rushed out, kneeling before her and crying, "We're old and useless, living is just wasting food. Eat us, and leave a way out for the young and children~~"

"What are you thinking?" Wang Lici was stunned by their thought process, "I'm going hunting and need a hundred people to help process the prey."

"Heaven's Favored One, you really don't eat people?" The elder cautiously looked at her.

"I don't eat obedient ones, but disobedient ones I do." Wang Lici rolled her eyes and said sinisterly, "You have an hour to gather people, or I'll eat the whole village."

The elder, terrified, scrambled to gather a hundred villagers. These villagers hadn't received any training, holding simple tools like axes and wooden clubs, without any proper weapons.

"Let's go, hunt fierce beasts!"

Wang Lici didn't mind and led the "low-morale" villagers out of the village's simple walls.

The poor villagers hadn't even had a full meal before being taken out to hunt...

"Elder, what should we do?" A woman, watching her husband leave, asked pitifully, "Heaven's Favored One won't eat...?"

"She won't." The elder, though anxious, tried to reassure everyone, "Let's keep working, planting, and wait for Heaven's Favored One to return victorious."

The anxious elder could only use work to numb his mind.

This scene naturally led to discussions among the Daoists, who were not optimistic about Wang Lici's future. Her hunting approach seemed too hasty, with no apparent plan...

In contrast, others had more normal approaches.

For instance, Lu Wei had no plans to hunt, instead staying in the farm village, optimizing planting processes, building wind shelters, and using her temporarily "weak" Heaven's Favored One talent to nurture crops.

Besides her, the most concerning candidate, Wang Liyao, also had a seemingly unremarkable start, with no surprises. She seemed to want to do everything: repairing the village, planting, militia training, and scouting the surrounding terrain, leaving nothing out.

But everything was done methodically, without any surprises.

Apart from her, Gongyang Ce, whose thinking had undergone a major transformation, also took a steady approach, focusing on managing and improving all aspects of the farm village without rushing to expand outward.

"This strategy may seem plain, but it's the safest." Jiang Zhencang appreciated it, "Building up the farm village bit by bit will lead to a dramatic change. Back then, this was how I operated to ultimately win the Holy Son Struggle."

As he spoke, he couldn't help but sigh. Unfortunately, his disciple Yingxuan didn't listen and chose a risky plan.

However, in the minds of "everyone," the most outrageous was still Wang Lici. With her current performance, if the Holy Land were handed to her, it might not last a hundred years before collapsing.

Even the elder in charge of the big screen couldn't help but sigh privately. Such a peerless prodigy, yet her brain didn't work well, and she was just a gluttonous fool. Better give her fewer shots to avoid embarrassment.

Unknowingly, the large crystal screen had already gone through many day-night cycles.

Except for Wang Lici, everyone's scenes were being played in rotation, each following their own pace and calculations, gradually finding their way.

Out of sight of the camera.

Farm Village No. 8305.

Several days had passed since Wang Lici led the team out of the village.

During these days, thanks to the elder's reassurance, the village managed to hold on. But starting from the seventh day, as food dwindled, fear and anxiety inevitably spread.

There was no choice; when Wang Lici set out, she took some "military rations," leaving limited resources for the four hundred elderly, weak, sick, and disabled in the village.

By the tenth day, anxiety had filled the entire village.

To save food, the villagers voluntarily reduced their meals from two a day to one, eating only a little when extremely hungry.

To reduce consumption, villagers limited their outings, only leaving for necessary work. Babies cried from hunger, unable to get enough milk, casting a gloomy atmosphere over the village.

At this rate, they might not even survive the month, let alone the harsh winter.

However.

Just as the villagers were on the brink of despair, Wang Lici returned.

A hundred strong young men, chanting in unison, dragged a makeshift wooden raft towards the village. The raft was piled high with prey, looking like dozens of animals.

The prey was so heavy that each step the young men took left shallow imprints in the frozen ground.

Leading them, Wang Lici was dragging a one-horned rhino, lying down taller than a person, its rough skin like armor, and its massive size creating an unparalleled impact.

Seeing this scene, the entire village was stunned.

"How is this possible? That's a one-horned rhino; how did she defeat it?" The elder was so shocked his jaw nearly dropped.

Once they realized, everyone was overjoyed.

Their village was saved!

That day, the atmosphere in Farm Village No. 8305 was as festive as a holiday.

All the villagers happily helped transport the fierce beast carcasses, butcher the prey, and process the hides. Even though they were exhausted, they remained enthusiastic and tireless.

Wang Lici's hunt brought back tens of thousands of pounds of fierce beast meat.

Calculating at a hundred pounds per unit, there were four hundred units of fierce beast meat, enough to feed the entire village for a year if rationed.

In the following days, Wang Lici continued to lead hunting expeditions after eating her fill.

Though she consumed dozens of units of food in one meal, her bloodline allowed her to grow stronger with each meal, increasing her strength and hunting efficiency, leading to greater harvests.

The hunting team was eager to follow Heaven's Favored One on hunts, not only getting enough to eat but also receiving extra food, with minimal danger. Heaven's Favored One's strength was so great that she crushed the fierce beasts to death.

She was truly formidable, like a war god descended to earth.

Under her leadership, the village's food supply snowballed, and the villagers' morale soared.

The children in the village, with fierce beast meat supplementing their nutrition, grew stronger, and even the elders felt more energetic, ready to fight for decades more.

When the big screen inadvertently switched to Farm Village No. 8305, the Daoists were stunned. The village had transformed from lifeless to vibrant, as if undergoing a dramatic change.

"What on earth happened?" Heavenly Fire Master exclaimed like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, "Rewind it, let me see."

The elder in charge of the big screen was also baffled, quickly retrieving the stored footage and replaying it, focusing on Wang Lici.

When everyone saw her leaving the hunting team to find hidden fierce beasts with a seemingly divine perspective, killing them with stones, strangling, or smashing them, they all fell silent.

What kind of terrifying devouring talent was this, where no matter how the fierce beasts hid, they couldn't escape her keen senses?

More frightening was that she could increase her personal combat power so dramatically just by eating. In terms of combat power, she had already left the others far behind.

Before her, "Heaven's Favored One" Zhen Shicong had fought fierce beasts with team coordination, terrain advantage, traps, and his own efforts, barely managing to hunt them.

The whole process was extremely dangerous.

Other candidates also tried hunting fierce beasts, all facing similar dangers, their skills comparable.

But Lici's approach to low-level fierce beasts was as easy as an adult fighting a child.

It was absurd.

"This child Lici has a bright future." Jiang Zhencang, after recovering from his daze, had eyes shining, "I've decided, even if she doesn't win the Lingyun Codex this time, I'll personally go to the Immortal Palace and report to the Immortal Lord, letting her join the Immortal Palace to seek opportunities, and see if she can compete for other codex inheritances."

In the audience, Jiang Xingyuan's heart skipped a beat, sensing trouble.

East Qian's Lingyun Holy Land intended to extend its internal competition to the Immortal Palace? The Immortal Palace's codexes were limited, with even fewer without inheritors.

Thinking about possibly competing with someone as monstrous as Lici for opportunities in the future, Jiang Xingyuan's face darkened.

……