"Good evening, I apologize for the interruption..."
At this mont, Liu Shuyue walked down the stairs and was stunned to see the two of them.
Lin Qing happened to be reaching for so chips, her shoulder almost touching Chen Xuan’s.
"Sorry, did I co at a bad ti?"
Liu Shuyue asked, but her eyes didn’t show signs of avoidance.
"No, we were just discussing so matters." Chen Xuan coughed twice, pretending to be nonchalant as he stood up, "Would you like coffee or tea?"
"Tea, please. Could you make an extra cup?" Liu Shuyue waved towards the second floor, "Co down, the shopkeeper won’t bite you.
Is there soone else?
Chen Xuan looked towards the staircase, puzzled, and saw a sturdy man hesitantly coming down. He had an impression of this man, who used to be a hunter and was one of the first mbers of the Hunting Team.
"Your na is... Fu Jiaolu?"
The man imdiately showed an expression of pleasant surprise, "Lord Chen, I didn’t expect you to rember !"
"I rember, back when Zhangwei was under siege, you shouted loudly to support the Immortal Master."
"Hehe." He scratched his head a bit bashfully, "I’m a rough person who couldn’t think of anything else to do but to cheer for the Immortal Master Lord loudly."
"Co, have so tea." Chen Xuan brought two cups of tea to the coffee table.
"Thank you, thank you..." He quickly bowed his head in thanks, daring to sit only on the edge of the chair.
"I’ve almost arranged everything in Hot Pepper Village and am getting ready to leave." Liu Shuyue sat down next to Lin Qing and said, "But considering the distance between the two places, I’m not sure if the shopkeeper could register Fu Jiaolu as a... VIP custor? If his room connects to the Great Wilderness, then I could return to the village at any ti."
"I see." Chen Xuan imdiately understood the cleverness of this arrangent. The backdoor of the room follows the hoowner, and if two clients each connect to a place, it would be like establishing a portal between the two places. "That should be no problem."
"That’s great." Liu Shuyue then turned to look at Lin Qing, "It seems you’ve recovered well."
"Are you Miss Liu who helped heal ?" Lin Qing grasped her hand, "I’ve heard Chen Xuan ntion you. I wasn’t quite clear-headed when I first woke up last ti, and I forgot to formally thank you... I appreciate your assistance, and if I have the opportunity in the future, I will definitely repay you."
Perhaps not expecting her to be so proactive, Liu Shuyue was montarily stunned, then smiled and withdrew her hand, "I really didn’t do much, no need for such formality. Miss Lin, do you not have suitable clothes here? I could help you prepare a couple of sets."
Lin Qing’s only outfit was a one-piece combat suit, and she was currently dressed in Chen Xuan’s oversized T-shirt.
"Thank you for your kindness, but I’ve already picked out so online, they should arrive tomorrow."
"Online?"
"Well... it’s a bit complicated to explain, but if you’re interested, I could show you around now."
"Sure, that would be great, Miss Lin."
The two of them quickly beca acquainted.
Chen Xuan twitched his mouth, could this be considered cross-era communication?
"By the way, does this shop require any special treasures for repairs?" Liu Shuyue suddenly turned her inquiry to Chen Xuan, "Last ti I saw it was in shambles, and it still is. Won’t this affect business in the long run?"
"Not really, it’s just like fixing an ordinary house; finding soone for the job is the troubleso part." Chen Xuan explained. Fixing lights and plumbing was manageable, as there were many phone numbers posted on roadside poles, but finding a reliable bricklayer was difficult. "Plus, I’ve been busy lately and haven’t had a chance to address it."
"How about... I have the villagers co to help out?" Liu Shuyue suggested.
"Yes!" Fu Jiaolu nodded repeatedly, "There are carpenters and bricklayers in the village, and their craftsmanship is quite good, especially after becoming cultivators, even their original skills have improved significantly. But they can only handle Mortal Artifacts; I fear they wouldn’t be up to the task with things from the Immortal Realm..."
Right, how could he forget about this?
This shop is quite mysterious, so mysterious that aside from its functionalities, it’s ordinary everywhere else. It seed quite fitting to have residents of Hot Pepper Village help with the refurbishnts.
Chen Xuan readily agreed, "Okay, let them give it a try."
Soon, Fu Jiaolu brought in a batch of new villagers, and their expressions upon entering were much like his, reverently cautious as if this place was a sacred ground. After a brief discussion, they rolled up their sleeves and began working with enthusiasm and seriousness.
All the dilapidated furniture was hauled away, and new cabinets and small tables were crafted from blocks of solid wood. The holes in the walls were filled with plaster, with animal skins and bones hung up for decoration. The floors were swept and mopped multiple tis, leaving no corner untouched.
In less than two hours, the shop was completely transford.
If the previous decor style of the hall was simple elegance, it had now turned into a luxurious elegance—each piece of handmade furniture emanated a sense of nobility, and the wall decorations of horns, dragon claws, and tiger skins, typically only seen in museums, instantly elevated the shop’s atmosphere to a new level.
"How about it? Are you satisfied?" Fu Jiaolu asked expectantly.
Chen Xuan patted his shoulder, "Well done."
The crowd imdiately burst into joy, as if they had received the approval of an immortal, their excitent spilling over.
Chen Xuan was also deeply moved; Fu Jiaolu had worked hard for him without asking for pay, only desiring his approval. Such a dedicated worker was as rare as a lantern in daylight!
When assigning rooms to them, he also used a scanning gun to observe everyone’s abilities, discovering that most of them had cultivated the Purifying Heart Technique, with so specializing in Talismans and others in Combat Techniques, all making good progress.
In this way, the benefits that Hot Pepper Village could bring him seed far beyond just exchanging ability performance points?
"Can you leave one day later?" Chen Xuan asked Liu Shuyue.
She thought for a mont, "One day is fine. Do you have sothing planned?"
"Yeah, I do need your help with sothing."
He could perhaps conduct a small rehearsal first—for this world that had yet to open its eyes.
...
...
The next day at noon, Chen Xuan and Lin Qing took a ride to the flood prevention and scenic zone by the Sha River.
This large river divided the city in two, which is why several bridges had been built over it in the past twenty years. But the busiest one was still the Sha River Bridge One in front of them. It was the first to be built and connected the most important city thoroughfare, so despite being sowhat old, its traffic volu was still the largest of all the river-crossing bridges.
Not only that, but the banks were also great sightseeing spots, with green belts and riverside parks, so even on weekdays, there were quite a few people playing along the shore.
"It’s about ti, let’s start." Chen Xuan turned on the phone’s recording mode.
Monts later, three columns of water suddenly erupted from the surface of the river, each one over a dozen ters high!
This unusual scene imdiately elicited exclamations from the tourists in the scenic area.
"Was that an explosion?"
"Is soone using explosives for fishing?"
The people who had been playing and camping on the park grass also ran towards the flood-prevention embanknt.
"Mom, there’s soone standing on the water!" a child shouted.
"Wow, is this so kind of stunt show?" More and more people were shocked to see that three figures had erged at the spots where the water columns had burst.
They were three tall n, clad in animal hides, bare-chested with defined pectoral and abdominal muscles, and their arms sinewy and powerful. Their attire was even more striking, with their light tan skin painted with many patterns, beast horn helts on their heads, and bone necklaces hanging from their chests, very much fitting the ferocious savage style.
"But they don’t have any gear on them, how are they floating?"
"Quick, check Slow-Hand, is anyone livestreaming this?"
The crowd was buzzing with chatter.
"Enough!" suddenly a man roared, his voice overpowering the surrounding noise, rolling across the river like thunder, "How dare you bully us too far! We’ve fled our holand to survive, and yet you still pursue us to the end. Well, I won’t hide anymore! Bring it on!"
"He did quite well, didn’t he?" Lin Qing remarked happily, "He was so stiff during rehearsal, I thought he’d be too nervous to speak during the real performance."
"They just lack experience, it’s not that they’re cowards." In Chen Xuan’s view, anyone who could lead their family across half of Qing State and survive in a famine-stricken, cannibal environnt was definitely not a timid or incapable person. Maybe Fu Jiaolu and the others didn’t understand what these performances ant, but as long as it was sothing the ’Store Manager’ asked for, they would do it earnestly.
As for stage fright, that was no big deal; as soon as the Purifying Heart Technique was employed, they could calm down and focus on fulfilling their tasks, sothing Chen Xuan had already experienced.
"Pursuit? By whom?"
"I support you reporting it to the police!" the surrounding crowd laughed.
But the next mont, everyone suddenly shut up.
"Is that so? That’s just perfect, saves the trouble of looking for you in world after world... Let’s end this." The ensuing clear and cold female voice was like a gust of icy wind, seemingly freezing the whole river. Even without seeing the speaker, the lingering rebuke was enough to set people’s imaginations alight.
"Look, the bridge!" soone pointed to the bridge.
Everyone else looked up towards the bridge structure five or six stories above the water—
They saw a figure in white gracefully appear on the edge of the railing of the Sha River First Bridge.
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