Bizarre Cultivation: Starting from Being Beaten Up by Reality

Chapter 178 The People's Hard-Earned Money

Magistrate Cao went into the yamen and walked to a secluded empty room.

Pushing open the door, one finds baskets piled high with grain.

These are all offerings made on behalf of the people by the tax collectors.

Frankly speaking, this amount of grain is not much. If this is all that he receives in a year, then Magistrate Cao can at least be considered an honest and upright official.

Magistrate Cao snorted, as if he were facing a room full of fine wine and delicacies.

Then he grabbed a handful of white rice and stuffed it into his mouth to eat.

Raw rice should be hard and difficult to swallow, but Magistrate Cao knelt in front of the rice and stuffed handfuls of it into his mouth.

He picked up the rice, and it bounced around like pieces of tofu dripping with oil. He opened his mouth and sucked it down in one swift motion.

Magistrate Cao was eating raw rice with his mouth glistening with oil.

He would occasionally touch his mustache, which was covered in rice oil.

As his Adam's apple bobbed, Magistrate Cao's complexion became rosy, and the wrinkles on his face gradually smoothed out.

After finishing half a basket of rice, Magistrate Cao seemed to have become ten years younger.

But he was not pleased. He wiped the rice oil off his mouth and said with dissatisfaction, "The taste is very bland. These insects must have been lazy! I told them to go all out, but they are still so hesitant."

Magistrate Cao's mind stirred slightly as he wondered if he should release a group of people from the prison to replace the tax collectors.

But then he chuckled to himself, thinking, "Wujiang County is about to change hands, why bother with all this?"

……

Lin Fan gripped the wooden sword tightly in his hand. Fortunately, the Crane Spirit Wood was sturdy enough. Despite the bulging veins on Lin Fan's arm, the wooden sword remained completely still.

Zhan Peng, unaware of his elder brother's unusual behavior, pulled back the curtain, pointed outside, and said to Lin Fan, "Brother, look, most of the work in Moxia Village is done by government agencies, which saves a lot of manpower."

Lin Fan had a gloomy face and it was unclear whether he had even looked inside, but Chen Ergou was looking outside.

There were indeed many machine workers dressed in cloth clothes working in the fields, drawing water from the wells, and carrying loads on the road.

Chen Ergou looked at Zhan Peng, who had a happy expression on his face, and opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.

Lin Fan seemed to have made up his mind, and his eyes regained some of their light. He even took the initiative to participate in the conversation, "Third brother, why do you think these mechanisms are all human-shaped?"

Zhan Peng asked, puzzled, "Aren't humanoids more convenient for doing work? Like the one who fetches and carries water."

Lin Fan was taken aback. The people of Daqian, limited by their imagination, would indeed understand it that way. They didn't understand that when actually making mechanisms or machines, they would definitely design various efficient structures that suited their purpose, rather than a general-purpose but inefficient structure like a humanoid form.

So Lin Fan gave an extreme example, "Third brother, look at that mechanical puppet over there pounding medicine. It only needs to pound the medicine back and forth. Why not make it with two hands, but instead make it with a head and two feet?"

Reminded of this, Zhan Peng stared at the little mechanical figure in a daze. Indeed, its simple movement required no use of its eyes or nose. Its legs were also dangling in the air.

Before Zhan Peng could figure it out, Chen Ergou revealed the answer: "Guard Zhan, those mechanical figures are all transformed from living people. This is a method of the Mo Sect."

Zhan Peng was struck dumb, his eyes fixed on the boy pounding medicine, unable to utter a single word.

Zhan Peng gripped the hilt of his sword, seemingly about to draw it, but Lin Fan grabbed his hand. "Third brother, I don't know how much authority your Criminal Investigation Division has, but if this is the case in all eighteen villages, and no one has ever reported it to the authorities, then the villagers here and the Moju Temple on the mountain are probably already in cahoots. The law doesn't punish the masses, but this isn't something you can do alone. If we really want to solve this, we might have to send a large army to sweep through the area."

Zhan Peng took a few deep breaths to calm down. Lin Fan's understanding of the imperial government was certainly full of errors, but that didn't stop him from getting to the heart of the matter.

After calming down and thinking it over, Zhanpeng realized there was really nothing he could do. Even if he were to get involved, he needed to plan carefully. He also needed to be even more cautious about his second brother's bandit suppression efforts.

"Thank you for your guidance, brother. I understand now. Do we still need to ask for lodging?"

"want"

The group found a larger farmhouse to stay in for the night. It wasn't that they were picky, but rather that a small family simply couldn't accommodate so many people.

Xiao Yi was unusually active today. Usually, it would hide in the shadows, but today it kept circling around everyone's feet.

The family, seeing that their guest had brought a mechanical beast, became even more courteous. Needless to say, elsewhere, someone like Xiaoyi would be considered a monster, but here he was a symbol of cultural identity.

Sun Ruolan also took off her gloves in a generous manner, revealing her mechanical hands, and went forward to negotiate with the male host. Sure enough, she negotiated a dinner and accommodation at a very fair price.

Zhan Peng was also stunned when he saw Sun Ruolan's hand. Even though he had previously found it hard to believe that a person could turn into a machine, he now believed it completely.

After a long day of travel, everyone else went to rest, but Lin Fan and Zhan Peng sat in the courtyard with furrowed brows.

Of course, Zhan Peng couldn't see that Zi Yue was beside Lin Fan, silently leaning against him, keeping him company and helping him cope with his mood. A mechanical beast lay at Lin Fan's feet. So, although both were feeling down, one could say that one had a girl and a dog, while the other was completely alone.

But Zhanpeng, a single guy, didn't care about any of that. Feeling frustrated, he tried to find a way to relieve his boredom. "Big brother, do you know any swordsmanship?"

This question is a bit strange, because Lin Fan had previously sparred with Zhan Peng using a knife. However, precisely because of this, Zhan Peng could see that Lin Fan's knife skills were indeed clumsy.

Lin Fan replied frankly, "No."

Zhan Peng laughed and said, "Then how about I teach you a few moves, brother?"

Lin Fan became interested upon hearing this, partly because he himself felt frustrated. How could he not feel frustrated after what had just happened? And what could he do about it? He wasn't strong enough, not strong enough to ignore all risks and do what he wanted. So, he was interested in anything that could make him stronger.

So Zhanpeng picked up his black longsword with its sheath, and Lin Fan picked up the Crane Spirit Wood Sword "Iron Elephant" from the ground.

"Brother, feel free to attack, but don't use any other means, only the sword in your hand."

Lin Fan nodded, first restraining his strength and then tentatively swinging his sword at Zhan Peng.

Zhan Peng either dodged or parried with his sword, doing so with great ease, his movements even a beat slower than usual.

So Lin Fan gradually increased his strength, swinging the wooden sword faster and faster.

Zhanpeng's movements were clearly more serious, but still very casual.

"Okay, stop!" Zhan Peng waved for Lin Fan to stop, and said with some difficulty, but finally told the truth, "Big brother, you have to start practicing from the horse stance."

Upon hearing this, Lin Fan simply sat back down. "Forget it, it's too much trouble. I won't learn it."