From the fake emperor to the concubine

"What else can I do? I can't survive anymore." Zhou Shitou answered Zheng Yi's question without thinking.

As soon as he finished speaking, he was stunned.

Those who rebelled did so because they could no longer live happily. How could the situation in their Hewan Village be any better?
Zheng Yi knew that he was thinking of Hewan Village, and immediately said: "Brother Zhou, you are the village chief 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 are left in just over 20 years?"

"Obviously, there was a mining accident, and the number of able-bodied laborers decreased. But those greedy guys in the Zhao family have no intention of reducing their levies."

"In order to complete the tasks assigned by the Zhao family, you have done so much over the years. I am afraid that few people know how much you have done."

"If we continue to live like this, I don't think there will be any Riverbend Village left in the world in 30 to 50 years, right?"

"Stop talking!" Zhou Shitou suddenly stood up and roared.

Seeing his expression, Zheng Yi knew that he was right. Zhou Shitou himself must have thought about this question in the dead of night.

Since this concerns his own big plan, it is not appropriate to continue to provoke Zhou Shitou at this time.

Zheng Yi smiled and said soothingly: "Brother Zhou, I'm not saying that we must do anything."

"I just feel that the people of Hewan Village shouldn't continue to live such a hard life."

As he said this, he pointed to the leftover chicken bones and the modified pickaxe placed next to them.

"I have the ability to make the people of Hewan Village live a good life."

"I can't say that I can become extremely wealthy, but at least I have enough food and clothing."

When talking to someone like Zhou Shitou, there is no need to make many things too clear. It is best to let them figure out the interests involved themselves.

"By the way, Brother Zhou, we have prepared another meal. You can take it back for your family to taste."

Zhou Shitou's response was much faster than Zheng Yi expected.

Zheng Yi originally thought that this guy would be entangled for a long time. After all, he was born and raised in the Cang Yan Realm and had been under the rule of the Zhao family since he was a child.

It is definitely not easy to make a real decision on something like this.

Zhou Shitou is just a small village chief and may seem insignificant.

But Zheng Yi also knew one thing clearly: going from one to ten is much easier than going from zero to one.

And this first step does not require a sufficiently prestigious person to help him take it.

Zhou Shitou is such a person.

In the past few days, Zheng Yi has quietly talked to many people, whether they are from Hewan Village or people from several surrounding villages.

Whenever Zhou Shitou is mentioned, almost no one says anything bad about him.

This alone is already very rare.

The people he came into contact with were all ordinary, lower-class people.

But through them, Zheng Yi has been able to confirm that the entire Cang Yan Continent has already become a powder keg.

All it takes is a sufficient fuse to cause an immediate explosion that sets the whole prairie on fire.

Although all these villagers knew about were local affairs, Zheng Yi hardly heard anything from them about grassroots governance initiatives.

For example, where a road was built, where a canal was built, or even whether taxes were increased or reduced.

These things, whether good or bad for local people, are a means of governing the country.

Many times, even if it is not good news for ordinary people, it is a sign that the top rulers are doing their best.

but none……

Not only did the common people not know about this, Zheng Yi took the opportunity to deliver the igneous rock ore and had a few words with Zhou Qing, but even he knew nothing about this.

There is only one thing in their eyes, that is to collect as much igneous rock as possible, nothing else.

As for the rest, what Zheng Yi heard the most was about rebellion in some place.

Of course, none of this rebellion ends well.

The Cang Yan Realm, like the Cang Lan Realm, is a world of cultivators. There is an insurmountable gap between cultivators and ordinary people.

The Zhao family didn't even need to spend a lot of resources to mobilize the army to attack. In many cases, just a few monks were enough to defeat the rebels directly.

In the face of such a hopeless gap in combat power, there are still so many people in the Cang Yan Realm who rebel. This shows how critical the situation is.

If Zheng Yi didn't have this information, he wouldn't have acted rashly.

"Brother Zheng... no... Lord! Please accept my greeting." Deep in the mine, Zhou Tong knelt on his knees and kowtowed three times to Zheng Yi.

"As long as the Lord can make the people of Hewan Village live a good life, my life will belong to the Lord. No matter what the Lord orders me to do, I, Zhou Shitou, will never frown."

Zheng Yi did not move and directly accepted Zhou Shitou's gift.

This concerns your future voice, so this is not the time to be polite and modest.

"Shitou! Go find some people who keep their mouths shut. Give them these pickaxes. They only have to do one thing, which is to complete the tasks assigned by Hewan Village."

"Other aspects don't matter, but remember, you must be reliable and keep your mouth shut."

"Understood." Zhou Shitou responded, and soon called four young men over.

Several people were confused.

"Uncle Zhou, we are working right now. What do you want us to do?"

"Uncle, I just dug up a piece of igneous rock. If you have anything to say, please tell me right away. I'm afraid someone else will dig it up soon."

"Brother, is there anything wrong again? Our Hewan Village can't stand it anymore."

Zhou Shitou ignored them and said to Zheng Yi respectfully: "My lord, I have brought the people here. Please give me your orders if you have any."

He was establishing Zheng Yi's prestige in front of these people.

If Zhou Shitou wasn't there, it wouldn't be an easy task for Zheng Yi to order these people to do things.

But now they saw that Zhou Shitou was so respectful to Zheng Yi. Although they didn't understand what was going on, they didn't dare to be too presumptuous.

"Chen Mu, give the things to them." Zheng Yi said to Mr. Chen in a deep voice.

Old Chen handed over the two pickaxes that Zheng Yi had made yesterday, as well as the one he used and Zhou Shitou's, a total of four pickaxes, to the four young men.

"I have a task for you. Use these pickaxes that I have endowed with magical powers to mine."

"But be careful not to dig too much. Just dig enough for the tasks we have assigned you today."

"Once you have dug enough, you will take your pickaxes back and use ordinary pickaxes to dig for other people in the village."

"Work hard. If you can satisfy me, you can eat meat tonight. Not only today, but you will also be able to eat meat in the future."

When they heard the word "meat", several people immediately started swallowing their saliva.

Zhou Shitou was older and had eaten meat in his early years when life was still manageable.

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.

Zheng Yi is an outsider after all. No matter what benefits he promised, no one would believe it unless they were delivered on the spot.

However, they will believe in Zhou Shitou unconditionally.

Zhou Shitou nodded: "What the Lord said is true. As long as you work hard, you will definitely get some benefits. But remember, this is a top secret of our Hewan Village and you must not tell anyone easily."

Although a few people still felt a little strange, with Zhou Shitou present, they still agreed obediently.

"Don't worry, Brother Zhou, I will keep an eye on these guys."

The person who spoke was Zhou Yang, Zhou Shitou's cousin and the most reliable person in the family.

They left with the pickaxes, and Zheng Yi called Zhou Shitou and called Feng Haitao over.

"Village chief, do you want to ask me something?" Feng Haitao looked timid.

He was the young man who was so thin that he could hardly lift a pickaxe.

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

Zhou Shitou did not answer him, but looked at Zheng Yi.

Zhou Shitou was also very surprised that Zheng Yi called Feng Haitao over as well.

This guy is no different from a useless person in Hewan Village. Although it is not easy for a normal young man to dig three pieces of igneous rock in a day, most people can do it.

If you are lucky, you might be able to dig up a few more pieces.

But Feng Haitao was lucky enough to dig up a piece of igneous rock in three days.

If it weren't for the frequent help from his fellow villagers, this kid would have died long ago.

The reason why the people of Hewan Village helped him so much was because when Feng Haitao's father worked for the Zhao family, he gave a lot of help to Hewan Village.

There were at least seven or eight families in the village. If Feng Haitao’s father hadn’t run around to plead for mercy, the whole family would probably have been punished and implicated to death.

In the eyes of others, Feng Haitao is a useless waste, but Zheng Yi knows that this guy is a genius who is placed in the wrong position.

Nine Yin Spiritual Veins!

A genius who practices water and ice-based techniques.

The reason why he was so thin was that his physique was suitable for practicing water-based and ice-based techniques, but he could only practice fire-based techniques.

He has practiced for so many years but is still weak and has not gone insane and died. This is enough to show how talented this guy is.

"Shitou, 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 sufficient strength, it will definitely not work."

"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 through all the exercises in the Xingxiu Sea Sutra Library.

Although there were so many skills, Zheng Yi couldn't remember most of them.

However, Zheng Yi has never been one to memorize things by rote.

He had already fully understood the ideas behind those techniques, so he could directly create techniques based on each person's individual situation.

Zhou Shitou has a strong physique, and relying on his strong physique, the intensity of his practice of martial arts is much stronger than others.

It is precisely because of this that, even though he was practicing the most common "Liehuo Sutra", Zhou Shitou's practice was several times faster than that of ordinary people.

According to his situation, Zheng Yi directly created a "Mountain Shaking Fist" that combines both internal and external skills.

Although it is named after boxing, there are no moves at all. Anyway, this technique can not only temper the body, but also enhance the spiritual energy.

When you encounter an enemy, don't worry about any moves, just punch him in the face.

Feng Haitao is a little troublesome, this guy has both ice and water physiques.

His physique was more suitable for training in cold places. However, this mine was filled with fire spirit energy.

Zheng Yi estimated that the entire Cang Yan Realm was probably dominated by fire-type spiritual energy.

They wanted to find a cold place to practice. Not to mention that they didn't have the conditions to leave, even if they did, it would probably be extremely difficult to find such a place in the Cang Yan Realm.

After thinking hard for a whole afternoon, Zheng Yi drew inspiration from his own "The Great Five Elements Sutra of Birth and Death".

Using the principle that fire creates earth, earth creates metal, and metal creates water, he went through a lot of trouble to create a set of skills suitable for Feng Haitao to practice.

Feng Haitao was extremely talented. After Zheng Yi only read it once, he had already memorized the martial arts techniques.

After Zheng Yi explained the parts that he did not understand, Feng Haitao successfully completed one cycle of the exercise on his first try.

Feeling the warm and abundant spiritual energy in his meridians, Feng Haitao burst into tears excitedly.

Feng Haitao has never slacked off since he was able to practice.

But no matter how he practiced, there was hardly any progress in his cultivation.

Every time he practiced, the blazing fire spiritual energy made him feel as if he was in an oven.

Because he didn't know the relevant knowledge, Feng Haitao had no other good way except to practice hard.

However, his diligence not only did not bring him any benefits, but his body gradually broke down during his practice.

It was not until today that he realized that he had been working in the wrong direction.

Igneous rock ore is the most natural resource for cultivation.

In this place, the volcanic rock mines are almost endless. For a whole day, Zhou Shitou and Feng Haitao eagerly absorbed the spiritual energy from the volcanic rock mines.

When he was preparing to go back at night, Zhou Shitou was just a little bit away from breaking through the Qi Refining Stage and reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage.

It was Zheng Yi who stopped him. Although there were not many people in the deep mine, it was still too dangerous to break through here. If it attracted someone's attention, the loss would outweigh the gain.

Feng Haitao was similar and directly entered the middle stage of Qi training.

The speed was so fast that Zheng Yi couldn't help but feel a little 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 the Golden Core.

Although these igneous rock mines are beneficial to him, they are difficult to use to improve his cultivation.

This is only possible if all the igneous rock in this entire mine is absorbed by him alone.

The main purpose of his cultivation now is to break through the suppression of the Heavenly Dao on him.

In the evening, Zheng Yi took Zhou Shitou to hunt a wild boar as a meal for Zhou Ming and others.

"Is this meat? It's so delicious."

"My Lord God, from now on, you can tell me to do any work you want. As long as I can eat meat, I will do anything."

"Woo woo woo woo, there will actually be a day when I can eat meat." (End of this chapter)