sinovels Chapter 379 Life in a Bowl! A Leisurely Old Eunuch!
Chapter 379 Life in a Bowl! A Leisurely Old Eunuch!
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
The world inside the bowl remains as springtime as ever, brimming with spiritual energy.
The fields are crisscrossed with furrows and ridges, the radish leaves are lush and green, the rice ears are heavy and bent over, and the sweet potato vines have climbed all over half of the hillside.
Chen Fan, dressed in a coarse cloth short jacket with his trousers rolled up to his knees, was carrying a wooden bucket to water the spirit rice field.
The bucket contains fresh water drawn from the back pond, crystal clear, and when it is poured onto the rice roots, you can see wisps of spiritual energy seeping into the soil.
"Master, it looks like there are worms in that sweet potato patch to the west." Shi San ran over from the other side of the field carrying a hoe, his forehead covered in sweat. "I parted the vines and saw that several leaves had been gnawed through."
"Insects?" Chen Fan straightened up, wiping away sweat. "Go to the kitchen and ask Eunuch Wei for some wood ash. Just sprinkle it around the roots. Remember, don't use your meager magic to burn them. If you burn the sweet potatoes, we'll make sure you don't have dinner tonight."
Shi San shrank his neck, replied "Yes," and quickly ran towards the courtyard.
Chen Fan watched Shi San's retreating figure, a slight smile playing on his lips.
I figured this guy was over three hundred years old, but he was quite good at farming.
Since he started working in this field, Shi San has been more attentive to the crops than anyone else. A couple of days ago, he even figured out a way to use spiritual energy to nourish the soil, which caused the rice to sprout ears three days earlier than usual.
"Tsk, it's a pity he started cultivating too late." Chen Fan shook his head and continued bending down to water the plants. "If I had been born into one of the Eight Sects, I might have become a prodigy."
Just then, footsteps came from behind.
"Eunuch Chen, you're out in the fields so early today?" Eunuch Wei, wearing an apron, came out of the courtyard gate, carrying a bamboo basket with a few freshly picked radishes in his hand. "I'll make radish and pork rib soup for lunch, please have a taste."
Chen Fan glanced back and said, "The radish is still small, isn't it? It'll be even more juicy in another three to five days."
"It's not small anymore." Eunuch Wei squatted by the edge of the field, picked up a radish and weighed it in his hand. "Time flies here. Three days outside is a month inside. Look at these radishes, each one is thicker than an arm. Any longer and they'll be pithy."
That's the truth.
Chen Fan put down the wooden bucket, walked over, took the bamboo basket, and looked at it. Sure enough, the radish had a smooth skin, green tops, and a sweet juice would ooze out when pinched.
He nodded: "Okay, then let's make soup. By the way, do you still have some salted fish from last year in the cellar? Cut half of it and steam it. That kid Shi San has been working hard lately, he needs some nourishment."
"It's all prepared." Eunuch Wei said, raising his pinky finger. "Not only salted fish, but the day before yesterday, that old rascal Zhu Ping caught a few live crucian carp from the river and kept them in a water tank. We'll stew them together."
The two walked towards the courtyard as they talked.
Upon entering the courtyard, one sees Xiaodie sitting under the jujube tree embroidering, Lao Huang sharpening his sickle by the well, Ling Huanzi and Wu Yuezi squatting in the corner playing chess, and Qingxiazi holding a scroll of Taoist scriptures, reading it carefully under the eaves.
Seeing this, Chen Fan smiled and, without disturbing the others, found a chair and lay down.
Eunuch Wei put the radish into the kitchen, then turned around and came out again, wiping his hands, and said, "Eunuch Chen, has the Qingyun Sect really been sealed off like this?"
Chen Fan poured himself a bowl of iced tea: "What, you don't believe me?"
"It's not that I don't believe it, it's just that it's too..." Eunuch Wei rubbed his hands, his eyes shining, "It's too amazing! Tell me, that's the Qingyun Sect, one of the top three sects among the eight sects, with a protective formation that has been passed down for a thousand years, and you just sealed it off like that? And you even escaped unscathed..."
He then lowered his voice, "You're not lying to us, are you?"
"Lying to you?" Chen Fan took a sip of tea, his expression calm. "We'd rather lie to ghosts than to you."
As soon as he said this, Chen Fan glanced at Xiao Die beside him.
Seeing that the girl didn't move, he turned around.
Eunuch Wei leaned closer, his face full of curiosity: "How exactly did you do that? That formation... I've heard that the Qingyun Sect's protective formation is extremely complex; ordinary formation masters can't even understand it. Not only could you understand it, but you could also tamper with it?"
Chen Fan did not answer immediately.
He put down his teacup and looked out at the lush green fields outside the courtyard.
After a long silence, he slowly spoke, "Do you still remember when our family went to the Qingyun Sect the year before last?"
"I remember, I remember," Eunuch Wei nodded hurriedly. "You were already thinking about today back then?"
"That's when it happened." Chen Fan smiled. "During the day, I would read books and cultivate, and at night I would wander around. I figured out the locations of all the array eyes and array hubs in the Qingyun Sect. Their arrays are powerful, but no matter how powerful they are, they are still set up by people. Every array has a life gate and a death gate, and there are key nodes. I wandered around inside for a few months and slowly figured out how to do it."
Eunuch Wei was dumbfounded.
He knew the old eunuch was meticulous, but he never expected him to be this meticulous!
Did they start planning this two years ago, all for this one move today?
"You...you were thinking of sealing off the Qingyun Sect back then?" Eunuch Wei swallowed hard.
"No, that's not it." Chen Fan shook his head. "At the time, I was just thinking about understanding our opponents better. In case we ever fought, it's always good to know your enemy and yourself. As for changing the formation... that was something I figured out later."
As he said this, a sly glint flashed in his eyes: "The Qingyun Sect's protective mountain formation originally had a 'mountain-sealing' mode, which, once activated, isolates the inside from the outside. I simply tampered with a few key formation points, making this mountain-sealing mode... allow entry but not exit, and extremely difficult to deactivate once activated."
Eunuch Wei stared, mouth agape, before finally managing to stammer, "My God... you've turned the Qingyun Sect into a giant cage!"
"More or less." Chen Fan picked up his teacup and took another sip. "If Daoist Qinglian wants to break the formation, don't even think about it for a year or two. In a year, Da Yuan will have plenty of time to do a lot of things."
As soon as he finished speaking, the courtyard suddenly fell silent.
Ling Huanzi and Wu Yuezi, who were playing chess, stopped at some point. Qing Xiazi also put down his Taoist scriptures, and even Xiao Die stopped embroidering and looked over.
"Eunuch Chen," Qingxiazi said softly, "you said that Dayuan would take this opportunity..."
"Expansion." Chen Fan uttered two words. "With the Qingyun Sect sealed off, one of the eight sects is gone, and the balance is broken. Emperor Jianwen isn't stupid, and neither is Ji Daozi. They won't let go of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Wu Yuezi nodded and pondered, "In that case, the flames of war between the eight nations will reignite...and countless lives will be lost."
"It was bound to happen sooner or later." Chen Fan said calmly. "The sealed land is only so big, and the resources are only so much. The eight sects and eight kingdoms have been fighting over it for over a thousand years. When has there ever been a truly peaceful day? In the past, there was a balance of power between them, and no one dared to make the first move. Now that the tiger that is the Qingyun Sect has been put in a cage, the other sects will either watch and wait or take the opportunity to seize territory. Chaos is inevitable."
As he spoke, he looked at Ling Huanzi and said, "I doubt your Changchun Sect will be able to stay peaceful either."
Ling Huanzi smiled wryly: "There have long been pro-war factions within the sect, but they have been suppressed by the sect leader. Now that the situation has changed, those people will probably jump out again."