tkworld Chapter 139 He offered up nine days of spiritual soil, and the gentleman asked: Does your household
Chapter 139 He offered up nine days of spiritual soil, and the gentleman asked: Does your household
Aiolia frowned slightly.
He looked at the old man kneeling before him, trembling uncontrollably. In those golden eyes, there was only pure bewilderment and a trace of aloofness stemming from the power of the strong.
Who is this?
The visitor brought by Li Zhenguo seemed to be in an unstable mental state.
They greeted each other with such a grand gesture, while muttering the incomprehensible words "God".
My job is security.
Why should you worship me?
"You, get up."
Aiolia's voice was devoid of warmth, like the purest ice crystals in winter, devoid of any emotional impurities.
However, as a Gold Saint, his aura, which transcends ordinary life, naturally spread out with his words.
Fang Tianwen felt an invisible pressure descend from nowhere, clamping down on his soul. The air in his chest was squeezed out, and every breath felt like the last struggle before drowning.
The shockwaves in his heart were already raging!
God!
Even the guards standing by the door possess such divine power!
Then... then what kind of unimaginable, ineffable supreme being is the true master deep within this courtyard?!
He dared not get up, and instead buried his head even lower, his forehead pressed tightly against the cold bricks.
"My lord, please calm your anger! This junior...this junior would not dare!"
Aiolia's brow furrowed even more.
He doesn't like dealing with this kind of trouble.
Just as he was considering whether to move the obstacle using the most direct physical method, Lin Fan's lazy voice, still sounding like he had just woken up, drifted from inside the courtyard.
"Aiolia, who's at the door? What are you dawdling for? Let him in."
"Yes, sir."
Aiolia immediately responded, then glanced at Fang Tianwen on the ground and Li Zhenguo, who was completely frozen beside him, with a flat expression, and said succinctly.
"The sir will let you in."
After saying that, he stepped aside to make way, and like a silent golden sculpture, he returned to the shadows beside the door.
Li Zhenguo was jolted awake as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head. He hurriedly bent down to help Fang Tianwen up.
"Old Fang, Old Fang! What are you doing? Quick, get up!"
His heart was filled with bitterness.
Why did this Fang family head add so much drama to the story?
If Mr. Lin misunderstands and thinks I brought a crazy old man to his house to extort money, will I still be able to keep my position as "steward"?
Fang Tianwen was pulled and dragged by Li Zhenguo, and his legs were so weak that he finally managed to stand up.
With trembling hands, he smoothed out the wrinkles in his robes from kneeling, and then, with a devotion akin to a mortal pilgrimage to a divine kingdom, he took that step.
The moment he stepped through the vermilion gate and his figure fully entered the courtyard, he froze once again.
What did he see?
In the center of the courtyard, a small tree, no more than a meter tall, quietly stretches out its branches.
Each leaf is an unusually vibrant green, as if carved from the purest jade. The veins of the leaves intertwine naturally, subtly forming mysterious and ineffable runes.
A pure and boundless life force, as vast as the ocean, emanated from that small tree, permeating the entire courtyard into a divine realm of life.
Fang Tianwen only took a breath of the air here, and he felt his meridians, which had been withered for many years, suddenly receive water from the Milky Way, like a long-parched riverbed. Billions of cells in his body were emitting joyful cries!
The World Tree!
These four words exploded in his soul!
This...this is the tree that Qingxue mentioned, the one the master usually uses to...brew tea?!
Using the leaves of the World Tree to make tea?!
Fang Tianwen felt his heartbeat was on the verge of stopping.
His gaze involuntarily drifted to the other side of the courtyard.
There, a group of burly men, their imposing figures and fierce auras seemingly inhuman, were wielding jet-black hoes, turning over the soil.
He couldn't identify the material of those hoes, but he could clearly sense that each hoe was imbued with a destructive Daoist aura powerful enough to easily tear apart stars!
Use an artifact... to hoe the ground?
His gaze shifted again.
A man dressed in ancient Greek-style bronze armor, exuding the fierce aura of someone who had survived countless battles, was carrying a glittering... toilet brush. With a blissful expression of great satisfaction and joy on his face, he strolled out of the outhouse in the backyard.
Using a magical tool... to clean the toilet?
Fang Tianwen's brain completely stopped functioning.
He felt that his more than 100 years of martial arts knowledge and nearly 100 years of family authority were being torn apart, trampled, and ground into dust time and time again in this seemingly simple and unadorned courtyard.
Every brick, every tile, every blade of grass, every tree, every person, and every object here is reshaping the limits of his understanding of life in the most brutal way.
He finally understood.
He finally understood why Qingxue had said that her role here was merely that of a... dishwasher maid.
Being able to get a job as a "dishwasher" in this place is by no means a condescension!
That would be an immense honor that the Fang family could never hope for, even if the ancestral graves of the Fang family were to emit auspicious smoke.
"Oh? You're here."
Just as Fang Tianwen's soul left his body, the voice from the recliner sounded again.
Lin Fan sat up straighter and casually looked at the well-dressed old man in front of him, who looked older than the old man next door in a Tang suit.
"Are you Qingxue's grandfather?" he asked.
Fang Tianwen's body trembled, as if he had been awakened by an invisible electric shock.
He looked at the ordinary-looking young man in front of him, whose demeanor was even somewhat lazy, and dared not make any judgment based on appearance anymore.
He knew that beneath this mundane appearance lay an indescribable, supreme being to whom even the gods would bow!
"This junior, Fang Tianwen, pays his respects to... Senior Lin!"
He bowed deeply once again, bending his waist to a ninety-degree angle, almost breaking it.
"Alright, alright, stop calling me 'senior,' I'm only in my twenties, it's making me sound so old." Lin Fan waved his hand impatiently, "Sit down."
He pointed to the stone bench beside him.
Fang Tianwen dared not sit down, but instead bowed even more humbly and stood aside.
"Um... Li Zhenguo, right?" Lin Fan's gaze shifted to Li Zhenguo beside him. "Why did you bring him here so early in the morning? I don't run any senior citizen tourism programs here."
"Uh..." Li Zhenguo was embarrassed and didn't know how to answer for a moment.
"Sir, this is my grandfather. He...he came here specifically to thank you."
Just then, Fang Qingxue came out of the kitchen with a freshly washed dishcloth in her hand, saving everyone from the predicament.
"Thank me?" Lin Fan was even more puzzled. "Thank me for what? Thank me for taking you in and giving you the opportunity to wash dishes here?"
He looked Fang Tianwen up and down again.
"Judging from your attire, you don't seem to be short of money. What, is your family really that poor? Do you have to make your granddaughter work to help support the family?"
"Let me make this clear first: there's no pay during my probation period here. Don't expect her to send money back."
Lin Fan's words made Fang Qingxue and Li Zhenguo wish they could disappear into the ground on the spot.
However, when these words reached Fang Tianwen's ears, they were instantly interpreted as having another deeper meaning.
This is... my senior giving me a warning!
The senior is testing our family's sincerity in this way!
His heart tightened, and he quickly bowed, saying, "Senior is right! To have Qingxue serve by your side is a blessing our Fang family has accumulated over countless lifetimes! This junior dares not ask for any reward! Absolutely not! Absolutely not!"
Lin Fan looked at his terrified expression and curled his lip.
"Alright, stop acting. Just tell me, what's the matter?"
He didn't believe that the old man had gone to such lengths just to express this sentiment to him.
Seeing that Lin Fan seemed genuinely impatient, Fang Tianwen's heart tightened even more.
He dared not delay any longer and quickly gave a look to the Second Elder, Fang Tianxing, standing at the courtyard gate.
Fang Tianxing understood immediately, and holding his breath, he quickly walked in, carrying the warm jade box.
"senior!"
Fang Tianwen took the jade box, used all his strength to steady his trembling hands, raised it high, and presented it to Lin Fan with utmost respect.
"I heard from Qingxue that your vegetable garden seems to be lacking fertilizer."
"My ancestors were fortunate enough to acquire some special soil, which they have always treasured. Today, I have brought it with me to offer to you, hoping that it may... bring some benefit to your vegetable garden."
He dared not mention the words "Nine Heavens Breath Soil" and could only refer to it as "special soil" in accordance with Lin Fan's context.
Upon hearing this, Lin Fan raised an eyebrow.
Oh?
Is this old man here to bring me soil?
He glanced at the obviously valuable jade box, then looked up at Fang Tianwen, who looked nervous.
He asked curiously.
"Your family... sells dirt?"
"Pfft—cough cough cough!"
Li Zhenguo, who was standing next to him, could no longer hold back. He couldn't catch his breath and started coughing violently on the spot, his face turning red.
Fang Tianwen was so taken aback by Lin Fan's question, which was purely out of curiosity, that he froze on the spot.