Chapter 109

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Chapter 109: Independent Resilience

"Let’s go, let’s go. Our village chief said you must leave today. Otherwise, we won’t be polite anymore."

Outside a certain village, a strong man said to Xiao Yuan. He had more than ten villagers fully armed behind him, staring angrily at Xiao Yuan.

"We are leaving, right now."

Xiao Yuan didn’t dare to be reckless. After apologizing repeatedly, he left.

"Uncle Xiao, are they willing to take us in?"

Back among the refugee group, Fang Yuan immediately asked, and this was a matter of life and death for all of them, all eyes were on Xiao Yuan.

But Xiao Yuan’ shaking head disappointed them greatly. This was already the fifth village they had encountered in the past half month since Lin Jiang joined them. None of the villages were willing to accept them. The better ones would let them rest for a day and provide some dry food. The worse ones even wanted to devour them, killing the men and taking the women home.

Of course, with Lin Jiang here, they couldn’t do that.

"Uncle Xiao, how about we start our own village?"

Lin Jiang suggested at this time. He didn’t want to waste any more time. Once they were settled, he would give up his cultivation.

"Uncle Xiao, Lin Kai has a good idea. We don’t need to rely on others. Let’s build our own village."

"Villages and land are easy to find, but immortals are not. Without immortals protecting us, how long can we survive?"

Xiao Yuan said, as mortals in the cultivation world, they depended on cultivators for protection. Without cultivators, let alone demons, even wild beasts could kill them.

"Uncle Xiao, we young ones can endure, but just look at Aunt and the others, they’re either already sick or on the verge of getting sick. If things continue like this, everyone will die."

Lin Jiang pointed to the women and children behind him and said, after spending half a month with them, he had already learned about their situation.

Xiao Yuan had more than a hundred people behind him, survivors from three villages. The three villages were close together and usually protected by two independent cultivators in the Qi Refining Period. However, not long ago, their village was targeted by monsters. One Qi Refining Period cultivator died, and the other was injured and eventually fled.

After that, people from the three villages were eaten by monsters one after another. They tried everything they could, but nothing worked. The remaining people started to relocate and became refugees. There were originally over three hundred people, but now only about a hundred remained.

Furthermore, there were no elderly or babies. The youngest were only seven or eight years old. Any younger would be a burden. There weren’t many young and strong people either. They were eaten by wild beasts and monsters along the way or encountered various accidents.

Now, there aren’t many good people left. Most of them are either sick or have reached their limits mentally and physically. This is the result of Lin Jiang secretly sheltering them for the past half month. Otherwise, half of them would have died again.

"But even without immortals, we still have to die."

"We can worry about dying later. First, let’s settle down, and then Uncle Xiao can go find the immortals. Perhaps there will be a chance for a turnaround."

"Uncle Xiao, Lin Kai is right. We can’t keep going. If we do, we’ll all die."

"Okay, let’s find a place to stay."

Xiao Yuan gave up, he also knew that the villagers had reached their limit, and they didn’t have much food left. Even if they found a place to settle, they wouldn’t have enough food until the next harvest.

Xiao Yuan decided not to continue walking. In less than half a day, they found a valley and decided to settle there. They built wooden houses on the ridges on both sides of the valley to defend against wild beasts. If they encountered a group of wild beasts, they could block the valley entrance and resist them. The flat land at the bottom of the valley could be developed into good farmland.

The following days were very busy. The young and strong refugees were gathered and divided into several groups. Xiao Yuan led a few people to patrol nearby, checking if there were any dangerous wild beasts or monsters. If there were, they would have to run again. This place was not suitable for settling.

Fang Yuan led a group of people to cut down trees and build wooden houses for everyone to live in. It hadn’t rained in the past few days, but if it did rain and they had nowhere to take shelter, falling ill could be fatal. They also needed to fence off the valley entrance and needed a lot of wood for that.

The women and children were not idle either. They cleared the fields, cooked, gathered firewood, and repaired clothes, and so on. There were too many tasks to do. When they fled, they lost almost everything except for food. Now they were essentially building a village from scratch, starting everything from the beginning.

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"Lin Kai, come and help, please."

"Okay."

After a month, beside the valley entrance, Lin Jiang and Xiao Yuan worked together to pull up a huge wooden gate, and the fence at the entrance of the valley was finally completed.

"With this gate, wild beasts won’t be able to come in anymore, and everyone can have a good night’s sleep."

"Uncle Xiao, are you sure there are no monsters around here?"

"I’ve been all over the area within a thirty-mile radius, and there shouldn’t be any."

Xiao Yuan, who was skilled in martial arts and had light footsteps, said that he had walked around the area within a thirty-mile radius dozens of times and there were indeed no monsters.

Lin Jiang, who was standing next to him, smiled and said nothing. Within a two-hundred-mile radius, not to mention monsters, even large fierce beasts were all killed by Big Shadiao.

"That’s great, we can survive here now."

"But let’s talk later, there are still many things to do. In a few days, I need to go to other villages to exchange things. Who wants to come with me, Fang Yuan or Lin Kai?"

"I’ll go."

Fang Yuan said immediately, a small village cannot sustain itself and needs to trade with other villages. They must establish trade routes, otherwise they won’t be able to survive.

"Let Fang Yuan go, I’ll stay here. My house hasn’t been built yet."

"Let’s squeeze together for now, these wood materials are fresh and will get infested with bugs in less than half a year. Let’s wait for the wood to dry for a few months, then we can build a new house."

"No, I snore when I sleep. I don’t want to disturb Uncle Xiao. I’ll build a wooden hut as a temporary solution."

Lin Jiang quickly said, he didn’t want to share a bed with another man. What if he encounters someone who is difficult to deal with? He doesn’t want to be in trouble.

"Suit yourself, let’s focus on building the temporary wooden hut for now. We can work on the permanent house later."

"Yes, Uncle Xiao."

"Let’s go, back to the village. There’s too much to do, we can’t rest today."

Xiao Yuan waved his hand and led his people to hurry back to the village to help. As the strongest man in the village, he was the one people relied on now.

In the span of a month, more than thirty temporary wooden houses had been built in the village, and enough timber had been gathered. The extra wood had started to air dry.

However, this was not enough. They needed at least fifty to sixty wooden houses, not only for people to live in, but also for places like grain storage. As for the tasks, there were even more. They couldn’t finish them all in a short time, so they would have to take it one step at a time.

During this time, Lin Jiang was surprisingly diligent. Lin Jiang promised that in his over two hundred years of living, he had never been this hardworking. He would go out early and come back late every day. He did as much work as Xiao Yuan and the others did. It even moved him himself.

As each day passed, the village started to take shape. The wooden houses were erected one by one, and the arable land was slowly cultivated. Xiao Yuan even picked up wild chicken eggs to hatch. A completely new village appeared before Lin Jiang’s eyes.