Chapter Five: Favored by Heaven

Uncle Tie stood in place, overwhelmed with excitement for a while.

His gaze turned to Ye Qingyu, his voice full of admiration.
“It seems, Qingyu, that you possess great fortune. Your sincere prayers have been answered by an ancient exiled immortal of the Heavenly Dao. Clearly, you have become one of His chosen.”

Ye Qingyu blinked her beautiful eyes, puzzled. “Chosen?”

“Exactly, a Chosen of the Heavenly Dao,” Uncle Tie explained. “According to legends, only those with extraordinary talent, pure character, and immense luck might ever be favored by the Heavenly Dao.”

“Your aptitude is quite good and your nature pure. With the Heavenly Dao’s blessing, your path will be much smoother.”

At this point, Uncle Tie’s tone shifted as he asked,
“By the way, aside from the medicinal spring, did the ancient exiled immortal of the Heavenly Dao give any other instructions?”

Ye Qingyu shook her head and replied, “No, He only instructed me to deliver the medicinal spring.”

Hearing this, Uncle Tie nodded gravely, then turned to pour the spring water into the mouths of the two gravely injured middle-aged men.

Before long, the two men slowly regained consciousness, and the ghastly wounds on their bodies began to heal at a rate visible to the naked eye.

“Astonishing effect! As expected of the medicinal spring bestowed by an ancient exiled immortal—the results are extraordinary!”

“It’s far more effective than the rare spirit medicines cultivated during the heyday of the Xuanqing Palace!”

Once again, Uncle Tie was deeply awed by the power of the ancient immortal of the Heavenly Dao.

Even a casual act of grace
surpassed the greatest fortunes Xuanqing Palace had ever seen at its peak.

With this in mind, he led the others to face the heavens. All together, they bowed deeply and intoned reverently,
“We, disciples of Xuanqing Palace, offer our profound gratitude for the ancient immortal’s benevolence!”

The two middle-aged men, their injuries improved, learned from their companions about the immortal’s boundless mercy. Their faces shone with genuine gratitude.

Together, they knelt in deep thanks.

...

“These little people are rather interesting...”
Qin Feng stood beside the box, quietly watching the tiny folk within, feeling a tinge of emotion.

He gazed down at the vast, rugged mountains and thought that these little ones would find it terribly difficult to survive in such wild, untamed lands.

After all, their strength was still quite meager.

They could easily fall prey to the mouths of monsters and beasts.

“Unfortunately, I can’t watch over them all the time...”

Qin Feng had matters of his own to attend to. These past two days, he’d stayed home to recover from his injuries, which allowed him to keep an eye on the world inside the box.

But once he felt better, half his daytime hours would be spent on duty at the yamen, and at night he’d need to sleep, leaving him with little time to look after these tiny folk.

Therefore, he needed to provide them with something for self-defense.

Otherwise, if he stepped out for an errand or slept through the night, they might all be wiped out.

But what should he give them? Weapons? Armor?

Qin Feng pondered for a while, but realized that giving only these things might not suffice.

The wild mountains were crawling with monsters, and these people were few in number. Weapons and armor alone would hardly withstand the relentless incursions of beasts.

After racking his brains for a while, Qin Feng still had no idea what else they might need.

So he simply kept watching the little people inside the box.

Perhaps by observing their needs, he could toss in whatever was required at the right time.

Under Qin Feng’s gaze, the little people finished their kneeling thanks, then rose and began cleaning the ravaged valley.

They rebuilt their rows of houses, constructed multiple layers of fences wrapped with thorny vines, and scattered powders around the valley to ward off insects and beasts.

“Powder... to drive away beasts and insects...”

Seeing this, Qin Feng’s eyes lit up. He realized that the greatest threat these people currently faced was from monsters.

If only he could provide them with some effective means to repel such threats.

“The medicinal juice I brought from home was transformed in the box world, becoming a veritable spring of spiritual medicine, thousands of times more potent than ordinary herbs...”

“If I place some insect-repelling items inside, would their effectiveness also be greatly enhanced?”

With this in mind, Qin Feng went out to the courtyard, gathered some leaves commonly used to repel insects, and tossed them onto a remote plain in the box world, setting the leaves alight.

The moment the leaves entered the box, mysterious markings appeared, and the faint smoke from the burning leaves turned as black as ink.

Qin Feng then caught a couple of monsters and placed them near the burning leaves.

Perhaps repulsed by the acrid smoke, the beasts sniffed once and immediately turned to flee without hesitation.

Some even collapsed halfway, overcome by the smoke.

“It works...”

To be thorough, Qin Feng stunned several wild boars and threw them into the smoke.

Then, with a breath, he blew dozens of monsters toward the burning leaves.

Among them were giant pythons, wolves with savage fangs, and eagles that spanned the sky.

Tempted by the sight of easy prey, the monsters’ instincts drove them forward.

Yet as the scent of the leaves wafted over, they acted as though assaulted by a repugnant odor.

All turned tail and ran.

The slower ones eventually collapsed, overcome by the scent.

“If something as simple as insect-repelling leaves can have such a powerful effect...”

“Then if I use the ceremonial incense from the Mountain God Temple in the county, designed to repel beasts, it might create a barrier that no monster from these mountains would dare cross to approach the people of Xuanqing Palace...”

Qin Feng’s eyes shone with delight. In addition to weapons and armor, he decided to procure some ceremonial incense from the Mountain God Temple and send it into the box world.

Compared to the leaves, the incense would surely be even more effective, and for ordinary people, it also had the benefit of calming and focusing the mind.

Perfect for burning.

With a smile on his face, Qin Feng extinguished the fire on the plain and removed all the burnt grass.

He continued to watch the little people in the valley.

He saw them toil through another day—

Building houses, constructing altars, clearing water channels, felling trees, and opening up plots of spiritual farmland.

In the blink of an eye, night had fallen inside the box.

“Time flows so fast here...”

Qin Feng felt he’d only watched for an hour, but inside, an entire day had passed.

Once the little people had finished their evening meal and returned to their houses, Qin Feng thought they’d all gone to sleep and was about to slip out to the restaurant for dinner himself.

But then he saw Uncle Tie call Ye Qingyu aside and hand her some sparkling, translucent fine sand.

Ye Qingyu seemed to value the fine sand greatly.

For a moment, she refused it, protesting again and again, but at last, moved by Uncle Tie’s earnest words, she accepted it.

“Is that a cultivator’s resource?”

Qin Feng studied the sand carefully, his eyes flickering.

At present, the little people in the box were all rather weak, relying not only on his protection—

They needed to strengthen themselves as well!

“They’re all cultivators. To grow stronger, they’ll need abundant resources for cultivation...”

Qin Feng murmured to himself, “Where can I find such resources for them?”