Shui Yongquan said with a laugh, "You want to send a gift and see if they dare to accept it? When you bring hundreds to thousands of subordinates into someone else’s territory, who can guess what you’re really up to? Once the day comes when allegiances shift, who wouldn’t be afraid of you coordinating an attack from both within and without?"
Qiu Luoye, flaring his nostrils in anger, was very annoyed.
Once he got angry, his mind basically shut down. He grabbed the Jujube Tree, and just as he was about to kill it, Li Banfeng stepped forward and whispered a few words to him.
Qiu Luoye, stunned, asked, "Old Qi, is there really such a place?"
"Yes, leave this matter to me."
Qiu Luoye, snorting through his nose, said, "Alright then, you talk to them."
Li Banfeng addressed the Strange Monsters, "Everyone, heed my advice. I will find a place for you all, and I definitely won’t let you be wronged! Those who are willing to come with me, we set off in three days. Those who don’t want to come with me, Big Brother Qiu won’t shortchange anyone."
For Li Banfeng and Qiu Luoye, this was a win-win situation. Li Banfeng’s territory was in dire need of Strange Monsters, and now he had snagged a great bargain.
It all depended on how the Strange Monsters weighed their options.
Given Qiu Luoye’s posture, it was clear that he was headed for a Proper Land. If these Strange Monsters made early plans, they should follow Li Banfeng to choose a good place to go.
But staying wasn’t a bad option either. Although their living space was being squeezed, there were more opportunities for assessment, and more chances to earn cultivation levels. As long as they followed the rules, Qiu Luoye wasn’t stingy when it came to rewarding cultivation levels.
At least having a way out, the Strange Monsters dispersed one after another to go home and ponder their future.
Two days later, the assessments ended, and out of more than a thousand people, over a hundred plots of land were opened up. Li Banfeng immediately paid out the rewards and also proposed that those who wanted to earn money could continue to stay and pioneer the land.
Almost two-tenths of the Pioneers left, and over eighty percent stayed behind.
Pioneering was not easy money; it was like licking blood off a knife’s edge.
But Li Qi paid well. Now that they were already here, they all wanted to earn another sum!
Qiu Luoye asked Li Banfeng, "Old Qi, can you handle it? I haven’t meddled in worldly matters for many years, but this approach of yours must cost quite a bit of money."
"No worries, I can handle it!" Li Banfeng said, his cheeks trembling as he spoke.
This endeavor was indeed a money-burner! Shiny Ocean Dollars, cartloads of them being transported to the territory. If not for the booming business prospects, Li Banfeng wouldn’t dare to do such a thing.
The remaining people continued to pioneer, while Li Banfeng took more than a hundred Strange Monsters to his own territory.
Normally these Strange Monsters were used to being lax and didn’t want to earn cultivation levels through assessments; they simply wanted a quiet place to idle their days away, and thus they made their plans early on.
But Li Banfeng’s territory was too remote, and the group of Strange Monsters grumbled a lot along the way.
"Seventh Master, where are you taking us? This isn’t an ownerless land, is it?"
"If it’s ownerless, we won’t go. In places like that, no one distributes cultivation levels."
Li Banfeng said with a smile, "It has an owner. The Local Deity of that place is quite generous and amiable!"
Upon arriving at the territory, Li Banfeng first instructed the group of Strange Monsters to find their own places to settle down.
The group of Strange Monsters didn’t move.
"Seventh Master, where is the Local Deity? Please summon him out, and let’s sign a Contract Book first," they said.
Li Banfeng had never written one before and didn’t want to show weakness, so he went to Meng Yuchun’s house and learned from her.
The content of the Contract Book was quite complex. The first part contained the background: on what year, month, and day, and for what reasons someone came to this territory.
The second part detailed the obligations of the Strange Monsters, principally in two areas. First, they had to follow the rules of the land and couldn’t leave their plot at will. Second, they had to obey the commands of the Local Deity and fight for the Deity when needed.
The third part outlined the Strange Monsters’ rights, defining under what circumstances cultivation levels could be distributed to them.
In the Contract Books Meng Yuchun had written for other Strange Monsters, Li Banfeng saw one provision: "Those who fight well before the mirror, great rewards."
Li Banfeng asked Meng Yuchun, "What does ’Those who fight well before the mirror’ mean?"
Meng Yuchun shook her head, "You don’t need to write that."
Li Banfeng copied a Contract Book as a template, returned home, and had everyone help transcribe it.
Hong Ying was blind, but his calligraphy was quite extraordinary. While his wife read aloud beside him, Hong Ying would write, quickly producing over a dozen sheets. His characters were vigorous with a delicate beauty, pleasing to the eye.
The Gloves also wrote quickly, despite the handwriting being a bit sloppy, but in the blink of an eye, thirty to fifty sheets would be finished.
Li Banfeng was eager to see the calligraphy of the Judge’s Pen, and the Judge’s Pen was just as eager to show off.
It struggled to stand upright, flew to the side of the table, spread out a sheet of Contract Paper, dipped the pen in ink, and was just about to start writing when the Gloves and Hong Ying had already finished writing all of the contracts.
Looking at the Judge’s Pen, Li Banfeng said, "Don’t worry, you can write slowly."
"HUMPH." The Judge’s Pen wiped off the ink from its body and went to rest.
Li Banfeng could not let it rest; he still had to meet his new subordinates.
He first set up the scene with the Projector, which the Projector was very familiar with.
Then he borrowed some authority from Hong Ying, which wasn’t a problem as long as it was arranged in advance.
Li Banfeng notified a group of Strange Monsters to wait at the designated spot.
Then, taking advantage of the perks of being a Traveling Cultivator, he arrived at the designated place first, concealed his form, and had the Wine Gourd slowly spray out wine, creating a green flame to assume the image of a Local Deity.
With everything in place, Li Banfeng commanded the Judge’s Pen, "Fly."
Half an hour later, Li Banfeng finally took to the air, less than a foot off the ground.
When he got close to the crowd, Li Banfeng did not speak; talking too much could easily expose his timidness.
He took out a Contract Book from his bosom and accurately threw it at the Jujube Tree that liked to cause trouble, never missing within five meters. The delivery of that contract was exceptionally precise.
After distributing all the contracts in this manner, no one else had objections, save for an Ox-headed Man who shook his head and said, "This Contract Book is not right; it’s different from Master Qiu’s!"
Li Banfeng did not want to speak, but he encountered such a troublemaker.
Li Banfeng asked the Ox-headed Man in a hoarse voice, "Where do you think they’re different?"
"The quality is far inferior!" The Ox-headed Man took out a Contract Book from his bosom, which Qiu Luoye had returned to him.
Li Banfeng took the contract, which had a scroll format and was made with exquisite materials, an impressive exterior.
Li Banfeng unrolled the scroll and saw it had just eight large characters: "From now on, follow me, Qiu Luoye!"
Below the eight characters were the Ox-headed Man’s blood hoof print.
The Ox-headed Man shouted, "On Master Qiu’s contract, I recognize the character for ’leaf.’ On your contract, I don’t recognize a single character. The quality of your contract clearly isn’t up to standard. You’re not trying to deceive us, are you?"
Li Banfeng looked at the Jujube Tree and asked, "Who else among you can read?"
The Jujube Tree snorted coldly, "Lao Niu is pretty impressive in this regard; I don’t recognize that ’leaf’ character."
The others nodded in agreement, all praising Lao Niu’s capabilities.
Helpless, Li Banfeng read through the contract out loud.
...
All the contracts were signed, and Li Banfeng brought them back to the Portable Residence.
His wife glanced over the contracts and said to Li Banfeng, "My dear, all these Strange Monsters who have signed the contracts are both the human energy and the fighting force of this territory. Once we reach Above the Clouds, they will be your foundation. However, a hundred or so is too few; you must find more."
PS: Thanks to Alliance Hierarch Hejian_Shouhu for the strong support.