"What else can I do? I can't live anymore." Zhou Shitou answered Zheng Yi's question without thinking.
As soon as he finished speaking, he himself was stunned.
Those who rebelled because they couldn't live any longer. How could the situation in their Hebend Village be any better?
Zheng Yi knew that he was thinking of Hewan Village and immediately said: "Brother Zhou, you are the head of our Hewan Village. You should know the situation here better than me, right?"
"As far as I know, there were 45 households in Hewan Village more than 20 years ago, but how many households are left in just over 20 years ago?"
"Obviously there was a mining disaster and the number of strong laborers was reduced. But those greedy guys in the Zhao family have no intention of reducing their allocation."
"In order to complete the tasks assigned by the Zhao family, I'm afraid not many people know how many things you have done over the years."
"If this kind of life continues, it won't take more than thirty to fifty years for there to be no more Hebend Village in the world, right?"
"Stop talking!" Zhou Shitou stood up suddenly and roared.
Seeing his appearance, Zheng Yi knew that he was right. Zhou Shitou himself may have thought about this issue in the dead of night.
It was related to his own big plan, so it was not the right time to continue irritating Zhou Shitou.
Zheng Yi smiled and reassured: "Brother Zhou, actually I'm not saying that we must do anything."
"I just feel that we, the people of Hewan Village, should not continue to live such a miserable life."
As he spoke, he pointed to the leftover chicken bones and the modified mining pick next to them.
"I have the strength to make the people of Hewan Village live a good life."
"Not to mention that you will be rich and powerful, but you will not have any problem with having enough food and clothing."
When talking to people like Zhou Shitou, there is no need to explain many things too clearly. It is best to let them figure out the interests themselves.
"By the way, Brother Zhou, we also made another meal. You can take it back later and give it to your family to try."
Zhou Shitou's response was much faster than Zheng Yi expected.
Originally, Zheng Yi thought that this guy would be struggling for a long time. After all, he is a native of the Cangyan Realm, and he has been under the rule of the Zhao family since he was a child
It's definitely not that easy to make a real decision on this kind of thing.
Zhou Shitou is just a small village chief, which may not seem like much.
But Zheng Yi also knows one thing: going from one to ten is much simpler than going from zero to one.
And for this first step, he doesn't need a person with enough authority to help him get out.
Zhou Shitou is such a person.
In the past few days, Zheng Yi has quietly chatted with many people, whether they are people from Hewan Village or people from several surrounding villages.
As long as Zhou Shitou is mentioned, almost no one has said anything bad about him.
This alone is already very rare.
Although the people he came into contact with were all ordinary people at the bottom.
But through them, Zheng Yi was able to determine that the entire Cangyan Continent had already turned into a powder keg.
All it takes is a sufficient fuse to explode directly.
Although all these villagers could understand were local affairs, Zheng Yi heard almost nothing about grassroots governance measures from them.
For example, where roads have been built, where canals have been built, and even tax increases and reductions.
Whether these things are good or bad for local people, they are a means of governing the country.
Many times, even if it is not good news for the common people, it is still a manifestation of the top leaders doing their best to do their best.
But no...
It's not just ordinary people who don't know. Zheng Yi took the opportunity to deliver the fire rock mine and had a few words with Zhou Qing. Even he was completely blank on this aspect.
There is only one thing in their eyes, and that is to collect as much fire rock ore as possible, and nothing else.
The rest, what Zheng Yi heard the most was that there was a rebellion somewhere.
Of course, none of this rebellion ends well.
The Cangyan Realm, like the Canglan Realm, is a world for cultivators. There is an insurmountable gap between monks and ordinary people.
The Zhao family doesn't even need to spend a lot of resources to mobilize an army to judge. In many cases, just a few monks can directly defeat the rebels.
Faced with such a despairing gap in fighting power, so many people in Cang Yan Realm would rebel, which clearly shows how critical the situation is.
Had he not mastered this information, Zheng Yi would not have taken action rashly.
"Brother Zheng... no... Lord! Please accept my bow." Deep in the mine, Zhou Tong knelt down on his knees and kowtowed three times to Zheng Yi.
"As long as the lord can let the people of Hewan Village live a good life, my life, European Stone, will belong to the lord from now on. No matter what the lord has to do, I, Zhou Shitou, will never frown."
Zheng Yi did not move and accepted Zhou Shitou's gift directly.
This is related to the right to speak in the future, and it is not the time to be polite and modest.
"Stone! You will find some people with stricter mouths later. Give these mining picks to them. The only thing they have to do is to complete the tasks assigned to us in Hebend Village."
< br>
"Other aspects don't matter, but remember, people must be reliable and their mouth must be strict."
"Understood." Zhou Shitou responded, and within a short time he called four young people.
Several people were a little confused.
"Uncle Zhou, you are working right now. Why did you call us here?"
"Uncle, I just dug a volcanic rock mine. If you need anything, please tell me quickly. I'm afraid it will be dug away by others soon."
"Brother, will something happen again? Our Hewan Village can't stand the trouble."
Zhou Shitou ignored them, but respectfully said to Zheng Yi: "My lord, I have brought everyone here. Please give me any orders."
He was trying to establish prestige for Zheng Yi in front of these people.
Without Zhou Shitou, it would not be an easy task for Zheng Yi to order these people to do things.
But now they see that Zhou Shitou is so respectful to Zheng Yi. Although a few people don't understand what's going on, they don't dare to be too presumptuous.
"Chen Mu, give them the things." Zheng Yi said to Mr. Chen in a deep voice.
Mr. Chen gave the two mining picks that Zheng Yi made yesterday, as well as the ones he used himself and Zhou Shitou's, a total of four, to the four young people.
"I'll give you a task. Use these mining picks that I have given magical powers to mine."
"But be careful not to dig too much. Just dig enough for the number of tasks we assigned today."
"Once you have dug enough, you can take your mining picks back and use ordinary mining picks to mine for other people in the same village."
"Work hard. If you can satisfy me, you can eat meat tonight. Not only today, you can also eat it in the future."
When they heard the word meat, several people immediately started to swallow their saliva.
Zhou Shitou was older and had eaten meat in his early years when he was still getting along.
After the birth of the younger generation, the Zhao family's oppression became more and more severe, and many of them had never even tasted meat. Several people looked at Zhou Shitou, obviously waiting for his answer.
This is the role of Zhou Shitou.
After all, Zheng Yi is an outsider. No matter what benefits are promised, no one will believe them as long as they are not presented on the spot.
However, they will believe Zhou Shitou unconditionally.
Zhou Shitou nodded: "What the Lord said is true. As long as you work hard, you will benefit. But remember everything clearly. This is the top secret of our Hewan Village. You must not tell anyone easily."< br>
Although a few people still felt it was a bit strange, with Zhou Shitou present, they still agreed honestly.
"Don't worry, Brother Zhou, I will keep an eye on these guys."
The person speaking was Zhou Yang, Zhou Shitou's cousin and the most reliable of his own.
They took the mining pick and left. Zheng Yi called Zhou Shitou again and called Feng Haitao over.
"Village Chief, what's wrong with you?" Feng Haitao looked submissive.
He was that young man who was so thin that he could barely lift a mining pickaxe.
Zhou Shitou did not answer him, but looked at Zheng Yi.
Zhou Shitou was also very surprised that Zheng Yi called Feng Haitao over.
In Hebend Village, this kid is no different from a useless person. Although it is not easy for a normal young man to dig three pieces of fire rock in one day, most people can complete it.
If you're lucky, you might be able to dig out a few more pieces.
But Feng Haitao, he was able to dig a fire rock mine in three days because this kid was just lucky.
If it weren't for the constant help from fellow villagers, this kid would have died long ago.
The reason why the people of Hewan Village helped him so much was because Feng Haitao's father had given Hewan Village a lot of help when he worked for the Zhao family.
There are at least seven or eight families in the village. If Feng Haitao's father had not been begging for mercy, the whole family would have been punished and implicated to death.
In the eyes of others, Feng Haitao is a useless loser, but Zheng Yi knows that this guy is a genius who has been misplaced.
Nine Yin Spiritual Veins!
A genius who practices water and ice techniques.
The reason why he is so thin is because his physique is suitable for practicing water and ice techniques, but he can only practice fire techniques.
After so many years of training, he is only weak and has not gone crazy and died. This is a good indication of how talented this guy is.
"Stone, if we want to live a good life, we can't rely on others' gifts. We must fight for it with our own hands."
"So, without enough strength, it is absolutely impossible."
"Today I will teach you the exercises. You should practice hard as soon as possible to make yourself stronger."
Not long ago, Zheng Yi read all the exercises in the Xingxiu Haizang Sutra Pavilion.
Although the number of those exercises was extremely large, Zheng Yi couldn't memorize most of them at all.
However, Zheng Yi never memorizes things by rote.
He has already understood the ideas of those techniques, and he can just create the techniques directly according to each person's situation.
Zhou Shitou has a strong physique, and his strong physique allows him to practice the exercises much more intensely than others.
Because of this, even though he was practicing the most common "Fire Fire Sutra", Zhou Shitou could practice it several times faster than ordinary people.
According to his situation, Zheng Yi directly created a "Shaking Mountain Fist" that was both internal and external.
Although it is named after boxing, there are no moves at all. Anyway, this technique can not only temper the body, but also enhance spiritual energy cultivation.
When you encounter an enemy, you don't have to worry about any moves at all, just point it directly at the enemy's face and punch him hard.
Feng Haitao is a little more troublesome. This guy has a dual constitution of ice and water.
His physique is more suitable for practicing in cold places. But in this mine, it is filled with fire spiritual energy.
Zheng Yi estimated that the entire Cangyan world was probably dominated by fire spiritual energy.
If they want to find a cold place to practice, let alone the fact that they don't have the conditions to leave, even if they do, it would probably be even more difficult to find such a place in the Cang Yan Realm.
After thinking hard for a whole afternoon, Zheng Yi drew inspiration from his "Great Five Elements Sutra".
Using the principle that fire generates earth, earth generates metal, and metal generates water, we went around a large circle to create a technique that could be suitable for Feng Haitao's practice.
Feng Haitao was extremely talented, and Zheng Yi had memorized the technique just by reciting it once.
After Zheng Yi explained what he couldn't understand, Feng Haitao successfully ran the technique for a week for the first time.
Feeling the warm and abundant spiritual energy in his meridians, Feng Haitao cried excitedly.
Feng Haitao has never slacked off since he was able to practice.
But no matter how hard he practiced, there was almost no progress in his cultivation.
Every time he practiced, those blazing fire auras made him feel as if he was in an oven.
Because he didn't know the relevant knowledge, Feng Haitao had no other good solution besides practicing hard.
But instead of getting any benefits from his diligence, his body gradually collapsed during the practice.
It wasn't until today that he realized that his efforts were in the wrong direction.
Fire rock ore is the most natural resource for cultivation.
In this place, the fire rock mines are almost endless. For a whole day, Zhou Shitou and Feng Haitao hungrily absorbed the spiritual energy in the fire rock mines.
When it was time to prepare to go back in the evening, Zhou Shitou was just a little bit closer to breaking through the Qi refining stage and reaching the foundation building stage.
It was Zheng Yi who stopped him. Although there was no one in the depths of the mine, it was still too dangerous to break through here. If someone's attention was drawn, the gain would outweigh the loss.
Feng Haitao was similar and entered the middle stage of Qi training directly.
The speed is so fast that Zheng Yi can't help but feel envious. Why didn't he encounter such a heaven-defying opportunity when he was practicing?
As for now...
His cultivation has essentially reached the middle stage of Jindan.
Although these fire rock mines are also good for him, they want to improve his cultivation.
This is only possible unless all the fire rock ore in this entire mine is absorbed by him alone.
The main purpose of his current cultivation is more to break through the suppression of Heavenly Dao on him.
In the evening, Zheng Yi took Zhou Shitou to kill a wild boar and feed it to Zhou Ming and others.
"Is this meat? It's so delicious."
"Master Immortal, if you have any work in the future, just ask me to do it. As long as you can eat meat, I can do whatever you want."
"Wow, wow, wow, I can actually eat meat one day." (End of Chapter)