Protect Our Patriarch

Book 4: Chapter 48: Return Home! The Huge Enhancement of Wang's Clan's Overall Combat Power

……

This voice could actually transmit back to his mind through his divine sense, what a terrifying and powerful ability this was!

Moreover, the voice sounded like a morning bell or evening drum, each word seemed to strike his soul, making his blood boil.

He suddenly thought of someone, someone he had complained about many times—the Holy Emperor of the Shenwu Royal Dynasty.

"Child of the human race, by the time you hear this message, I should have long fallen. This is just a recording without active consciousness, you need not worry about me trying to possess you. With my pride, I wouldn't do such a despicable thing."

"The war between the demon race and our race has become increasingly fierce. We have been continuously sending troops into the spatial rift to block the demon race, yet many low-level demons have still broken through the formation barrier and entered the human world. I had no choice but to initiate a nationwide campaign, recruiting militias, elite militias, soldiers, and elite soldiers, barely maintaining the situation."

"Your entry into the recruit training camp and obtaining this Celestial Seed indicates that you are an exceptionally outstanding genius. This Life Tree Celestial Seed was something I acquired during my youth while traveling through different spaces. Since I already have a life-bound celestial plant, I didn't want to waste it. Since you have the fate to obtain it and gain its recognition, please treat it well."

"If the demons have not yet retreated, do what you can for the human race within your capabilities."

Listening to the Holy Emperor's rambling voice, Wang Shouzhe's mood gradually calmed down, and he tried to ask, "Your Majesty, the Shenwu Royal Dynasty has been extinct for a hundred thousand years now."

However, the voice was not affected at all and continued, "If the demons have retreated, live your life well, maybe explore other worlds."

Unwilling to give up, Wang Shouzhe continued, "Your Majesty, why not grant me the highest authority of the royal dynasty, so I can develop the royal relics... and contribute to expelling the demons."

"Alright, alright, I've said so much without realizing it, let's leave it at that. Treat the Life Tree well, it's a magical celestial plant that will bring you much help."

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty? Could you leave me all your legacy..." Wang Shouzhe said the last half of the sentence unwillingly, but it was abruptly cut off.

Because that voice had already lost connection.

This left Wang Shouzhe quite disappointed.

A mighty Holy Emperor, and he only left a "recording" in the Life Tree Celestial Seed, without even creating an imprint for communication.

Was he afraid that Wang Shouzhe would exploit him?

The Shenwu Royal Dynasty has been extinct for so long, and the undeveloped relics are becoming fewer and fewer. Even granting him access to a shared dimension warehouse of the recruit camp would be good enough~

Otherwise, rewarding a batch of inheritance manuals would also work...

So stingy even after death!

Disappointed!

Forget it, let's focus on the present.

Feeling the Life Tree seedling in his palm swaying its tender leaves, exuding a cheerful emotion, Wang Shouzhe's mood improved a lot, and he continued to stimulate it with profound energy.

His profound energy contained the power of life's origin, highly compatible with the Life Tree. Under his nurturing, the small seedling with only two tender leaves grew rapidly, soon reaching half an arm's length from its original palm size, with a much thicker trunk and lush leaves growing from the initial two pitiful ones.

At this point, the Life Tree finally showed some semblance of a tree's shape.

Compared to other trees in the juvenile stage, its trunk was much shorter but exceptionally sturdy, showing a tendency for lateral development. Meanwhile, its leaves were very broad and lush, indicating a strong vitality.

Next, Wang Shouzhe began using the methods from the "Changchun True Art" to refine it into his life-bound spiritual plant.

Due to the high compatibility between the Life Tree seedling and Wang Shouzhe's own profound energy attributes, the Life Tree seedling had no resistance towards him, cooperating very well, making the refining process exceptionally smooth.

Before long, Wang Shouzhe successfully refined the Life Tree into his life-bound spiritual plant. A mental connection was established between him and the Life Tree.

Previously, he could only vaguely sense the Life Tree's emotions, but with the establishment of this mental connection, their consciousnesses were linked, allowing the Life Tree's emotions to be clearly transmitted to his sea of consciousness.

"Yiyi ya ya~~"

The Life Tree's voice was crisp and tender, full of vitality, the only problem was... he couldn't understand it~~

It was like a newborn baby, unable to articulate properly due to undeveloped vocal cords and lack of knowledge on correct pronunciation, only able to babble, leaving others clueless about its intentions.

Fortunately, with the mental connection, although Wang Shouzhe couldn't understand a single word it said, he could at least grasp the basic meaning.

It was simply expressing its happiness and attachment to Wang Shouzhe.

As the Life Tree became Wang Shouzhe's life-bound spiritual plant, its functionality began to manifest.

It's known that there is a certain degree of life and energy sharing between a life-bound spiritual plant and its owner.

Changchun Immortal was able to live over eight hundred years and still remain vigorous, without showing any signs of nearing the end of his lifespan, largely because of his eighth-stage peak Longevity Tree.

And the Life Tree, being an extremely rare and precious Celestial Spirit Seed, naturally had even stronger effects.

Even though it had just sprouted, Wang Shouzhe could still feel that while he injected profound energy into it, a small strand of energy full of vitality was feeding back to him from the Life Tree, slowly nourishing his body, giving him a refreshing feeling.

This should be the benefit a life-bound spiritual plant brings to its owner.

However, the Life Tree was still small, so the effect wasn't obvious yet. But Wang Shouzhe could feel that this energy was greatly beneficial to his body, and with long-term nourishment, his physique should improve significantly, possibly even greatly extending his lifespan.

"From now on, you are a member of the Wang Clan." Wang Shouzhe gently touched the tender leaves of the Life Tree, feeling very pleased, "In the future, you will be like Wang Lilong, my child~ I'll give you a name, how about... I call you 'Tree'? When you grow up a bit, I'll..."

"No way!" Liu Ruolan happened to return to the room and immediately expressed her opposition upon hearing Wang Shouzhe's words, "How can a girl be called 'Wang Lishu'? Such an ugly name."

"Wife, it's still a seedling, how do you know it's definitely a girl? What if it's a boy?" Wang Shouzhe broke into a cold sweat.

Strictly speaking, exotic spiritual plants like the Life Tree don't have gender distinctions, as many trees are self-pollinating, and whether it ends up male or female depends entirely on which side its self-awareness leans towards.

Therefore, it's best not to preset its gender, or it might backfire. Senior Brother Jinshan's peony was a painful example.

However, Liu Ruolan didn't think so.

In her understanding, the Life Tree's ability is to grow and nurture, how could it possibly be a boy?

The two couldn't agree.

Before long, the newly sprouted Life Tree seedling was sent out of the room, and the barracks door was slammed shut with a "bang."

The Life Tree shook its leaves in confusion, listening to the sounds coming from the barracks, feeling a bit bewildered.

Why did its owner's aura seem to weaken?

After a "friendly debate," Wang Shouzhe finally decided to give in to his wife, granting the naming rights to Liu Ruolan.

And the Life Tree's name was finalized by Liu Ruolan, taking the "Xian" character from Celestial Spirit Seed, naming it "Wang Lixian," with the preset gender as female.

Wang Shouzhe also gave up struggling.

Wang Lixian it is~ a daughter it is, after all, he already had so many daughters, one more wouldn't hurt.

However, the newly sprouted Life Tree was only at the first stage, clearly unable to help in the upcoming battles. Therefore, in the following time, Wang Shouzhe began to fully utilize his profound energy characteristics to nurture the Life Tree.

The Life Tree is a naturally exotic species, vastly different from spiritual herbs like Zhu Guo and Purple Ganoderma, which rarely develop intelligence. In terms of life essence, it's actually closer to fierce beasts and spiritual beasts. Therefore, its strength level is also referenced from the strength levels of fierce beasts and spiritual beasts.

Under Wang Shouzhe's nurturing, the Life Tree's strength grew rapidly.

After one day, Wang Lixian's strength reached the second stage, equivalent to the mid to late Qi Refining Realm for humans.

Such a result, even though expected, left Wang Shouzhe secretly amazed at its rapid advancement speed. Under normal circumstances, a wild Life Tree would never grow this fast.

The main reason lies in the life-bound refining. Before the life-bound spiritual plant's realm catches up with its owner, its growth will be relatively fast. And Wood profound energy (various wood types) has a certain growth-promoting effect on spiritual plants.

It's just that Wang Shouzhe's life origin energy is extremely compatible with the Life Tree, creating such a miracle.

Six days later, the Life Tree's strength reached the third stage, equivalent to the early to mid Lingtai Realm for humans.

After reaching the third stage, its growth speed significantly slowed down, taking more than twenty days to break through the third stage and reach the fourth stage.

However, the Celestial Spirit Seed is still a Celestial Spirit Seed, and even at the fourth stage, it should not be underestimated.

At the fourth stage, "Wang Lixian's" trunk was already thick enough to require several people to encircle it, with a lush canopy as broad as an umbrella.

The vast and pure life energy emanating from her was as vast as the sea, naturally forming a "life domain."

This is the power of the Celestial Spirit Seed.

Thanks to its powerful life essence, even at the fourth stage, she was roughly equivalent to a human who had awakened the sixth level of bloodline, naturally able to wield divine abilities, and these abilities were noticeably stronger than ordinary minor divine abilities.

If not for the Life Tree's level being too low, this life domain could definitely be stronger.

The life energy within the life domain was so dense it seemed almost liquefied.

Wang Shouzhe had Shoulian help with an experiment and found that under the life domain's coverage, simple flesh wounds healed almost instantly, while more severe injuries like fractures and internal organ damage took longer, but still only about a quarter of an hour to recover.

This effect was already comparable to the healing effect of Wang Shouzhe's profound energy, and it covered a wider range.

He initially wanted to test the effect of the life domain on meridian injuries, but after glancing at Shoulian, who had been tormented several times and was already looking a bit off, he decided to abandon the idea.

Forget it~ If he kept tormenting him, Shoulian might develop a psychological shadow.

Afterward, Wang Shouzhe also tested the life domain's growth-promoting effect and found it surprisingly effective.

Within the life domain's range, the Life Tree could directly manipulate plants through bloodline instinct, performing extreme growth, equivalent to a reinforced version of Wang Shouzhe's own abilities.

And as the Life Tree's level increased, Wang Shouzhe, as her owner, also received many benefits despite the huge consumption of profound energy.

His physical strength had increased by at least a third compared to before, his meridians had widened, and even his endurance had significantly improved.

This feeling wasn't like the kind of strength increase from cultivation advancement, but more like the feeling of a bloodline breakthrough, an improvement in life essence. Perhaps, after this wave, his lifespan limit had also increased, though it wasn't apparent on the surface.

This should be due to the influence of the strand of life essence transmitted from the Life Tree.

The fourth-stage Life Tree was already so powerful, how strong would it be at the fifth or sixth stage?

Wang Shouzhe couldn't help but marvel, the Celestial Spirit Seed was indeed a Celestial Spirit Seed, truly powerful.

No wonder it was a first-clear reward.

Considering it took over twenty days to nurture Lixian from the third to the fourth stage, it might take several months to nurture her from the fourth to the fifth stage, so he temporarily put aside the idea of further nurturing.

Next, it was time to break through the eighth level.

Soon, Wang Shouzhe gathered the Wang Clan members and returned to the training ground, applying to the Spirit Artifact for a challenge to the eighth level.

The Spirit Artifact naturally had no objections.

Having grown accustomed to Wang Shouzhe's shameless tactics, it even had a faint sense of anticipation.

During the seventh level, Wang Shouzhe had refreshed several clearance records with his shameless tactics, was he planning to do it again this time? Could he succeed?

……

In the training ground.

It was the familiar juvenile demon god again.

But the Wang Shouzhe facing it was different from before.

He now had a life-bound spiritual plant—the Life Tree, Wang Lixian!

Wang Shouzhe and the juvenile demon god were locked in a fierce battle.

The entire training ground had turned into a battlefield resembling a primordial forest.

Wang Shouzhe sat cross-legged in the center, floating. Beside him, the still tender celestial plant Life Tree—Wang Lixian's seedling rooted itself in the training ground, its crystal-clear roots penetrating the ground, spreading deep and wide, eagerly absorbing the earth's nutrients.

Some of the aerial roots even wrapped around Wang Shouzhe, like a child who had just learned to walk, relying heavily on their parents when out, feeling insecure without holding their parents' hands.

Moreover, she could extract some life origin energy from her father through the aerial roots to supplement her own life energy deficiency.

As a celestial plant, the Life Tree Wang Lixian couldn't possibly fight by lashing branches like a whip.

Her combat style heavily relied on "minions," with creations like the Witch's Long Hair and fast-growing enhanced dragon fruits, all developed or enhanced by Wang Shouzhe, becoming Wang Lixian's best soldiers.

Vast and pure life energy spread out from her in waves.

The Witch's Long Hair grew wildly, covering the entire ground and sky like a cage, its vines as sturdy as steel entangling the juvenile demon god.

Despite the juvenile demon god's strength, easily tearing apart the annoying vines, new Witch's Long Hair quickly wrapped around it again, creating a scene reminiscent of a horror film.

Meanwhile, rows of fast-growing enhanced dragon fruits swayed rhythmically, launching a mature fruit like a grenade with each swing, exploding with a roar and leaving a blazing fireball.

A single dragon fruit's power was "not much," at least not strong enough to harm a powerhouse like the juvenile demon god, but the sheer quantity made up for it~

Around Wang Lixian, dragon fruits grew in circles, now reaching hundreds of plants, and the number continued to increase.

Such overwhelming firepower coverage even shattered many Witch's Long Hair, turning them into fuel for the blazing flames. However, the Witch's Long Hair's growth rate was too fast, a wave of life energy radiation would cause seeds to quickly take root and sprout, even charred vines could rejuvenate.

This operation infuriated the juvenile demon god, which still retained some consciousness, making it rage with eyes ablaze, constantly roaring "ao ao ao."

Simultaneously, it continuously activated the demon god race's innate divine ability, demon flame, causing widespread destruction.

The flame was a black-red color, mixed with dense demonic energy, extremely powerful and highly damaging to the Witch's Long Hair.

Wherever the demon flame passed, large swathes of Witch's Long Hair turned to ash.

In terms of life level, Wang Lixian and the innate demon god body of the juvenile demon god were almost evenly matched. The only slight disadvantage was that the juvenile demon god was already at the early Celestial Realm, equivalent to the fifth stage.

However, Wang Lixian, having just been born not long ago, rapidly grew to the fourth stage thanks to her father Wang Shouzhe's life-bound refining and life origin feeding.

But it was evident that Wang Lixian wasn't easy to bully, she had a father who could provide her with a continuous supply of life origin energy, allowing her to unleash her life domain without restraint.

What's a few Witch's Long Hair seeds? Her father's storage ring had plenty, even if she squandered them for months, they might not run out.

At times like this, it's all about the foundation.

"Yiyi ya ya."

In her first battle, Wang Lixian was very excited, engaging in a war of attrition with the juvenile demon god, constantly demanding life origin profound energy and various seeds from Wang Shouzhe.

Wang Shouzhe's accumulated seed stock was visibly dwindling.

Wang Lixian was young, but the juvenile demon god puppet wasn't much more mature, likely having been captured by the Holy Emperor shortly after birth and refined into a trial puppet.

"Yaya, yiyi yiyi~ya~"

Wang Lixian waved her semi-transparent branches full of celestial aura, commanding the dragon fruit trees to bombard wildly, like a fanatical warmonger, a firepower master.

"……"

Sitting cross-legged, Wang Shouzhe was speechless, this girl even complained that his dragon fruits weren't explosive enough, and that the Witch's Long Hair's resistance to explosions and fire wasn't sufficient, preventing her from achieving the best results.

He never expected Wang Lixian to be such a battle-hungry Life Tree, not needing him to make a move, treating him as a battery instead.

"Lixian, conserve the life origin energy, don't go wild, learn to micro-manage... your father's profound energy can't keep up." Wang Shouzhe's profound energy couldn't be replenished fast enough with pills and meditation under such intense consumption.

"Yiya yiya, yiyi yiyi ya ya." Wang Lixian didn't feel she had any problem, instead complaining to Wang Shouzhe.

Father, your cultivation is too low, severely limiting her combat potential~

Micro-managing and precision are things only the weak do. The only reason for not defeating the enemy is insufficient firepower, inadequate profound energy, and not enough battle seed reserves or diverse war plant types.

Huh? That stupid Bloodthirsty Vine dared to play dead in the corner after being cut into three pieces?

Wang Lixian sent a wave of life energy, and the Bloodthirsty Vine quickly reconnected and healed, pouncing at the juvenile demon god with renewed vigor under her supervision.

The battle lasted a full seven days.

In the end, it was the juvenile demon god's youth and lack of restraint that led to its exhaustion by Wang Shouzhe and his daughter, eventually collapsing and turning into a white light, being retrieved into the puppet space for repair.

Wang Shouzhe was also exhausted to the point of collapse.

If they couldn't win, he would have to start using various trump cards to force a victory.

"Congratulations, Young Prince Shouzhe..."

The Spirit Artifact was extremely excited, this camp had produced two super geniuses who cleared the eighth level, something it never dared to imagine before.

After a round of "blah blah blah," it swiftly awarded a Legion Commander's Protection and the clearance reward Dao Spirit Pearl Wang Shouzhe requested.

The Dao Spirit Pearl is an energy storage tool, capable of storing spiritual vein energy, profound energy, and enhancing the output power of moves, a very powerful and practical tool.

If Wang Shouzhe had a Dao Spirit Pearl, a large "power bank," before challenging the eighth level, he wouldn't have fought so hard, nearly exhausted, and could have easily met Wang Lixian's unrestrained demands for his profound energy containing life origin.

"Yiya ya, ya yiya yi..."

Wang Lixian hadn't yet recovered from the excitement of her first victory, waving her branches and constantly chattering to Wang Shouzhe, Father, we need to increase investment in combat plant development, accelerate cultivation speed, and enhance the dragon fruit's power!

She even suggested her father give her a Legion Commander's Protection for safekeeping, to increase firepower reserves.

Heh~ Wang Shouzhe's mouth twitched.

Life Tree, Life Tree, it sounds like such a kind and amiable celestial plant, looks beautiful, speaks "nicely," how could it be so firepower-intensive?

As for the Legion Commander's Protection, such a trump card, Wang Shouzhe would never give it to her. He believed that with Wang Lixian's extravagant nature, she might use it as soon as the battle started, throwing out the ultimate move!

Our side opens with the ultimate move! Do as you please...

Wang Shouzhe ignored Wang Lixian's "yiyi ya ya," giving the Dao Spirit Pearl to Liyao, letting her refine it first and store more profound energy.

Logically, Wang Liyao, now at the sixth level of the Holy Body, should be able to suppress the juvenile demon god.

But having an extra trump card prepared would provide more assurance, wouldn't it?

He only discovered during the battle with the juvenile demon god that its physical strength was extremely abnormal, almost comparable to a magic treasure. Without some strength, it would be difficult to inflict damage on it.

Additionally, Wang Shouzhe also found that even if the juvenile demon god puppet's leg was broken, it could recover as long as it stayed in the puppet space for a while.

Relying on this to cheat was almost impossible.

Ten days later.

Wang Liyao began her battle with the restored juvenile demon god puppet. Mature and steady, she fought methodically, always maintaining an advantage, never giving the juvenile demon god a chance to turn the tables.

Five days later, she won easily.

If not for leaving some time for Ancestor Long Yan, she wouldn't have needed such a long five-day period.

"Respected Young Princess Liyao..."

The Spirit Artifact was very excited, showering her with praise, then awarding a Legion Commander's Protection and a small portable cave dwelling.

This item was undoubtedly a treasure prepared for Wang Shouzhe.

It's a pendant-type treasure, requiring unfolding for use, creating a subspace vortex passage for the owner and designated individuals to enter and exit.

Additionally, it comes with a high-level micro concealment array, allowing the owner to freely control its concealment state.

However, this item also has many limitations. Storage equipment like storage rings can be brought inside, but the storage ring cannot be opened within the portable cave dwelling.

After all, overlapping dimensional spaces is already dangerous, opening another dimensional storage space within one could easily cause a dimensional space shock storm due to the interaction of spatial energies.

Moreover, while the small portable cave dwelling's space is large, much larger than a Divine Spirit Artifact-level storage ring, its storage function is quite limited.

Firstly, it cannot be used to directly store or retrieve items with divine sense, requiring the owner to enter and exit the portable cave dwelling to transport items. Each entry and exit consumes a lot of energy, which needs to be replenished with a large amount of spiritual stones or profound energy.

Secondly, unlike storage rings, the portable cave dwelling's interior is not in a vacuum-sealed state, making items prone to spoilage. Food will rot, and metals and other objects will oxidize and corrode over time inside.

In short, this item cannot be used as a normal storage equipment.

Its greater function is to provide the owner with a portable cave dwelling, a private and tranquil space of their own. It allows one to bring their "home" to the wilderness or bustling cities.

Wang Shouzhe was extremely fond of this item.

With proper management and development, this portable cave dwelling could become his secret base, and also provide a truly private space with Ruolan.

His small courtyard was nice, but the bear children at home came and went too often, and he often needed to handle clan affairs.

And although Shuiyue Pavilion was on Zhuhui Lake's inner island, it couldn't prevent mischievous kids like Wang Lilong from hiding in the water.

Moreover, in the future, Zhuhui Lake would house young Kun for a period, and he couldn't possibly sweep the water every time he wanted to spar with his wife in Basalt Battle Techniques, could he? That would be too exhausting.

Having obtained the portable cave dwelling, Wang Shouzhe treated it like a beloved toy, researching it for ten days and still couldn't put it down.

At this time, Ancestor Long Yan's final battle began.

To be cautious, Ancestor Long Yan also stored a wave of profound energy in the Dao Spirit Pearl before the battle, and carried a Legion Commander's Protection.

However, having gradually adapted to the sixth level of the Holy Body, Ancestor Long Yan had just broken through to the seventh level of the Celestial Realm a few days ago.

This gave her a significant boost in strength.

The result was that she defeated the juvenile demon god puppet with an overwhelming advantage, taking just over an hour.

This showed that although the juvenile demon god puppet had the strength of an ordinary Purple Mansion Realm cultivator, due to its stripped intelligence, leaving only instincts, and other factors like field restrictions, it was slightly less troublesome than a wild Purple Mansion Realm.

But even so, Ancestor Long Yan no longer needed to fear ordinary Purple Mansion Realm encounters.

Subsequently, Ancestor Long Yan smoothly obtained a Legion Commander's Protection and the final clearance reward, the Profound Ice Phoenix Egg.

Although the Profound Ice Phoenix's potential only reached the eleventh stage, it was still a rare treasure.

After all, an eleventh-stage spiritual beast's strength was already equivalent to a human Basalt cultivator's Lingxu Realm, and once it matured, the Wang Clan would effectively have another Emperor.Moreover, the stronger the essence and potential of a spiritual beast, the faster its early-stage advancement. This Ice Phoenix might take a long time to reach the Lingxu Realm, but advancing to the Purple Mansion Realm and Divine Realm should be relatively quick. It might even become useful soon.

Within the clan, Ancestor Long Yan's bloodline is the most compatible with it, so without a doubt, it belongs to the Ancestor.

Thus, the path of training (and exploiting) the Fifth New Recruit Training Camp of the Shenwu Army has come to a pause.

However, the Wang Clan's development of the Fifth Training Camp is just beginning.

There are still many prodigies in the clan who haven't caught up yet, such as Wang Shouzhe's eldest grandson Wang Shizhao, his daughters Wang Liyue and Wang Lijue, and other direct descendants like Zongrui. Additionally, there's Wang Luomiao's younger sister and Wang Luoyi's elder sister, as well as Madam Gongsun Hui, Zongsheng, Zonghui, and others.

Currently, their bloodline qualifications are quite good, but they haven't reached the Celestial Realm yet, so coming would be pointless as they can't set any records.

Moreover, even though Wang Luomiao, Wang Luoyi, and Madam Gongsun Hui are also prodigy-level Lingtai Realm cultivators, their combat will is weak, and their Basalt Battle Technique training is insufficient. Even if they reach the Celestial Realm, achieving good results would be difficult.

As for Wang Shouye, the alchemy master, and Wang Zongyao, the artifact master, although they are also key figures cultivated by the Wang Clan and have relatively high cultivation levels, with Shouye even reaching the Celestial Realm, they focus on alchemy and artifact crafting, not pure combat, making it hard for them to achieve good results.

Therefore, Wang Shouzhe has placed them in the second or third batch, allowing them to improve their cultivation before participating.

They might not succeed on their own and will need the help of outstanding juniors like Wang Anye and Wang Yingxuan to lead the way.

Ultimately, the results and benefits they gain will depend entirely on themselves. After all, opportunities must be fought for, and no one can be a lifelong caretaker for someone else.

After resting for a few days in the camp, Wang Shouzhe and the others set off for home. Since their group was so powerful, they didn't bother to conceal their movements. Those who could fly did so, and those who needed to take the flying carriage did so.

If any seventh or eighth-tier beasts were foolish enough to crash into them, it would be a free gift, and Wang Shouzhe wished for more to come.

Compared to the arduous journey there, the return trip was swift and uneventful, unfortunately missing out on any free achievements.

Upon returning home, Wang Shouzhe handled some critical clan affairs and prepared to retreat to work on his small portable cave and bond with Wang Lixian.

Once she matures a bit more, he plans to send her to the Clan School to learn some culture, rather than just focusing on firepower all day!

But before Wang Shouzhe could rest, Commandery Governor Taishi Ankang barged in.

As soon as he entered, he wore a pitiful expression and cried out, "Shouzhe, save me~~~" looking exactly like Qian Xuehan did back then.

This left Wang Shouzhe both amused and exasperated.

...