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As if he were responding to the call of the two little fellows, the indicators were flashing rapidly, and the jigsaw that was supposed to trim grass was also waving softly.

“Marvelous!” Han Te rubbed his fists and said confidently, “My Cultivation is slowly recovering after my veins and nerves were broken through by the powerful electric arcs, and we have received the mysterious spiritual puppet ‘Fiend Star’. They are all good signs. Master, just rest assured. Nothing will go wrong in the Bliss Ceremony this time, and we will return with full loads as we did before!”

Gu Zhengyang’s smile suddenly dimmed. After a brief silence, he took a long breath and said, “About the Bliss Ceremony this time, I have transferred the command to Captain Zhao. He will be in charge of everything.”

“What!” The two little fellows were shocked. “Master, how could you have given the commandership to Zhao Lie? Everybody knows that he is ambitious and has been trying to steal your power and take your place for a long time! Right now, Zhao Lie already has a batch of loyal accomplices in the village. His influence grows greater each day. If such a mission as important as the Bliss Ceremony is fully entrusted to him, he will certainly take the opportunity to gather power, win more support, and diminish your influence. In the end, he will sit on our neck!”

“Exactly, Dad,” Liu Li said worriedly. “Uncle Zhao Lie’s conflicts with you are becoming more and more intense. Just now, Zhao Chong even intentionally caused trouble for my senior brother and accused us of keeping assets to ourselves. It was truly shameless of him.”

“I know that you have always been lenient and considered for the big picture, master,” Han Te said, “but if we back off, other people will only think that we are weak and bulliable. They will show no respect for us and demonstrate their power above our head!”

Gu Zhengyang coughed for a moment and said, “You should know that I have never been a man who wanted power. Besides, there is little power in managing a village of several thousand people. If Zhao Lie wants it, he is free to take it.”

“How can that work?” The two little fellows were anxious. Han Fei bulged his eyes and said, “Master, this is not about the position to lead the village. Haven’t you always disagreed with Zhao Lie’s belief and thought that his brutality and aggression will only bring disaster to the Village of Peace? If he truly becomes the village leader, the whole Village of Peace will become a huge nest of bandits, and war will spread to the hundreds of square kilometers around. There will never be any peace!”

“Yes, Dad. Your ailment is only temporary. It will probably…”

Glancing at Li Yao, Liu Li said affirmatively, “It will certainly be cured!”

“It has nothing to do with my illness.” With frustration beaming out of his face, Gu Zhengyang touched the golden ears of the crops softly and sighed. “Liu Li, your mother has been gone for four years.”

Liu Li was slightly dazed, not sure what her father meant.

“Your mother was a very innocent woman. When I first met her, she was only about your age.” Gu Zhengyang sat on a ridge in the farmland and reminisced about the past a long time ago while smelling the fragrance of the ears. “At that time, I had only just fallen from the sky. My brain was utterly blank, without any memory of my past except for the techniques of slaughter and destruction. Those things revolved crazily inside my head like giant swirls, turning me into an ignorant and overwhelming beast.

“At that time, the Village of Peace only had one iron-shelled boat and several hundred people, not nearly as large as it is today. Even the greenhouse that we are in right now was merely a corner where several crooked plants that looked like bulrushes were grown.

“I’d already wandered for a few months like a ghost in the city ruins. The world I saw was filled with nothing but darkness, blood, slaughter, betrayal, and destruction. The few plants that I occasionally found in the gaps of the ruins and the dark corners were either tied up by stinky, venomous vines or spurting highly acidic fluids. I’d never seen such a vigorous and hopeful thing.

“I was so stunned when I saw the gold plant that I asked the little girl who was tending to it carefully what it was.

“She told me that it was Gold Barley, a ‘crop’ and a treasure that could save the entire Land of Sins and save the sinners from the daily bloody fights.

“She said that it was because the Land of Sins was barren and no crops could be grown that people were short of food and clothes and could only pray for the aid sprayed from the Heavenly Rails. To fight for the aid and the slim chance of survival, we compete with each other every day and have turned from humans to beasts.

“If a crop could grow vigorously on the barren land that was rife with pollution and radiation, everybody would have enough food to eat. Then, there would be no need for us to count on the relief from the Heavenly Rails to survive, and there would be no need for us to be hostile and wary of each other, or to maul and bite each other like ravenous wild dogs!”

Han Te and Liu Li were so attracted that they could not help but hold each other’s hands.

With tears shining inside her eyes, Liu Li softly said, “My mother was right. If Gold Barley can really be grown throughout the Land of Sins, transforming the barren earth into a golden field, there will be no more conflicts, no more bloodshed, no more fights, and no more gangs and thugs who are like beasts. Even we won’t need to become beasts.”

Gu Zhengyang grinned, his smile both gentle and bitter. He mumbled, “Yes, she was right. She was obviously a na?ve and weak girl, but when she described her vision, there seemed to be swords inside her eyes that scared me from looking at her face even though I had been travelling for quite a few months in the city ruins as an adventurer.

“Enticed by the future that she envisaged, I stayed and turned the one iron-shelled boat of the Village of Peace into fifteen. Together with her, I turned the greenhouse from one corner at the rear of the cabin to half a deck. Before she passed away, I also held her hand and swore that I would grow Gold Barley throughout the Land of Sins someday!

“But—but right now, I’m getting more and more suspicious if the picture that we’ve been longing to see will ever come true.”

Gu Zhengyang stabbed his fingers into his hair. As if the heavy burden of life had broken his back, he moaned in great pain.

“Master, everything is getting better. We will certainly realize masteress’ dream and grow Gold Barley all over the land!” Han Te clenched his fists and raised his voice. “Do not give up hope!”

“But I… really can’t see any hope right now,” Gu Zhengyang said sullenly. “In the past few decades, I’ve been training and fighting crazily to protect the Village of Peace and accumulated a lot of hidden injuries. This time, all of them have burst out, leading to my great illness and the decline of my Cultivation. I cannot even stop a landslide, much less make a recovery. But it is within my expectations. I’m already more than satisfied to have made it to this day.

“However, the sixty-third transplantation of the Gold Barley has failed again. This is already the crop that your masteress and I carefully picked out with the highest resistance to drought, radiation, and pollution, but it still cannot survive in the radioactive area outside. Even if they are grown only slightly outside the village’s range, the yield will be appallingly low and cannot meet the demand of an ordinary person.

“There’s also the harassment of all kinds of goddamn mutated beasts that always come to destroy the experimental farmlands that we’ve established. We have to dedicate a lot of labor and resources to defend the farmlands. It is not a fair deal no matter how you calculate it.

“Therefore, when I was experiencing a high fever because of the disease and looked at the rusty ceiling, I couldn’t help but wonder if the path that your masteress and I have been walking on is practical. Can we really grow Gold Barley all over the Land of Sins and settle all the conflicts here? Am I really right, or is Zhao Lie’s option the more sensible and correct one?”

“Dad!”

“Master!”

The two young fellows were even more anxious. Each holding one of Gu Zhengyang’s arms, they tried their best to transmit their young, warm strength to the middle-aged man who was sick and upset.

“Of course you are right. You must not be frustrated. Let’s try ten more times, a hundred more times, and a thousand more times. One day, we will succeed!”

“But we are already out of resources and time,” Gu Zhengyang said coldly. “Zhao Lie is not wrong about one thing. The Village of Peace today has reached its expansion limit and is caught in an awkward situation.

“The tranquility and high-speed development in the past twenty years have made the population of the Village of Peace increase by almost thirty times. Other than the adults who joined our village from everywhere, a lot of babies have been born in the village. Every new person means a bottomless hole that can never be filled.

“However we try to explore and fight, there are never enough assets in the warehouse. Even if we can get enough resources from the Bliss Ceremony this year, it will not solve our problem forever. I really have no idea how the Village of Peace can carry on if the population of the village is doubled, or merely increased by fifty percent, in the next couple of years. By then, we will not need anyone to attack us but will be split apart and mired in a civil war on our own.”

The two little fellows both fell silent. After a long time, Han Te finally said, “As—as long as your illness is cured soon and your unparalleled strength is recovered, there will be no problem!”

“Silly child.” Gu Zhengyang extended his tough hands and rubbed Han Te’s hair with a bitter smile. “Your master is old and cannot protect the Village of Peace forever. Even if the Village of Peace runs according to my rules while I am standing, what will happen after my eventual fall? Will the Village of Peace immediately become like any other village or even like one of the gangs in the Bloody Worlds?

“Such a future pains my heart and keeps me up at night.

“If this is the inevitable outcome, I might as well discuss the way out for our village while I still have some strength. Maybe we can each make some concessions and set up rules that are acceptable for both of us.

“As for the more distant future, it will depend on the work of you, Liu Li, and all the people of the new generation!”