Chapter 170: Cleaned Out

Because the entire village was in an uproar, and everyone knew that the missing people had been rescued by Immortal Master Lin, when Lin Zhangqing returned to Chen Zi Ya's home, the Chen family was already waiting in the living room!

As soon as Lin Zhangqing entered, he received a warm welcome from the entire Chen family. Despite the late hour, the Chen family had prepared a sumptuous table of food and wine to host him.

It was hard to refuse such hospitality, and since they were Chen Zi Ya's father and elder brother, Lin Zhangqing certainly had to give them face, so he simply invited everyone in the household to take their seats.

Because it was just mundane food, Lin Zhangqing only tasted a moderate amount of each dish.

His main focus was on conversing with the Chen father and son; after all, they were families of several hundred years of friendship, and they exchanged some information about their respective households.

Lin Zhangqing also took the opportunity to introduce his own family. Father Chen had experienced his fair share of worldly affairs, and coupled with the fact that Lin Zhangqing had accompanied Chen Zi Ya back this time, he actually already had some guesses in his heart.

Later, Chen Zi Ya's eldest brother invited Lin Zhangqing to recount the experience of rescuing the villagers to everyone.

This was exactly what Lin Zhangqing had hoped for. Storytelling was something he was quite skilled at; after all, he had served as a storyteller for his younger sister before, telling the story of the Monkey King causing havoc in the Heavenly Palace.

However, this time it was an event he had personally experienced, so he appropriately added some embellishments and processed the details slightly.

He had everyone in the Chen family listening, utterly mesmerized, as if they were there in person. With the ups and downs of the narrative, they were truly unable to stop listening! When they heard the exciting parts, they wished they could have gone up to help Lin Zhangqing beat those few rogue cultivators to vent their anger.

After all, that feeling was like a dull knife cutting meat; it was truly too uncomfortable.

The two agreed to come to Lin Zhangqing's place for tea the next morning before returning to their respective rooms to rest.

Lin Zhangqing returned to his room, practiced the Thunder True Scripture for another hour and a half to expend his excess energy, and after enjoying the muscle massage service provided by Xu Meiniang, he finally lay down to rest.

Early the next morning, many villagers from other villages whom Lin Zhangqing had rescued the day before came to the Chen family's doorstep to kowtow. After thanking Lin Zhangqing once again for his life-saving grace, they set off for home.

The earliest of these people had been away from home for over two months, and even the most recent had been missing for several days.

The luckiest one was the villager Lin Zhangqing had saved from Bai Jingde's hands yesterday. But now, everyone was eager to return home, rushing back to reunite with their families.

In the early morning, not long after Lin Zhangqing finished his cultivation, Chen Zi Ya came over.

After Lin Zhangqing had pierced through that layer of window paper yesterday, the relationship between the two had warmed up rapidly, and it was different from before.

In any case, after Chen Zi Ya finished brewing the tea, Lin Zhangqing took the initiative to move closer, and the two leaned against each other, their conversation becoming much more casual and intimate.

As they chatted, Lin Zhangqing mentioned the Red Smelted Fire Copper mine cave from yesterday that was almost fully mined, noting that there was still an array disk inside that hadn't been retrieved. Chen Zi Ya said she wanted to go take a look.

Since all the rogue cultivators had been dealt with, there wouldn't be any danger in going over now, so Lin Zhangqing agreed.

The two operated the spirit boat and arrived in no time; this was many times faster than the speed at which the villagers had returned the day before.

Lin Zhangqing cast a spell onto the concealment array, and the two entered inside.

Chen Zi Ya began to observe, and soon determined the position of the array disk and the method for retrieval, but she didn't act immediately.

Instead, she pulled Lin Zhangqing inside to check the situation within the mine cave, with Chen Zi Ya occasionally casting spells onto the cave walls.

She was likely surveying the remaining reserves of the mine. Lin Zhangqing didn't understand these things and couldn't help, so he could only accompany her by her side.

Chen Zi Ya busied herself for about an hour before finally arriving at an approximate answer.

"Senior Brother, this mine vein can only be considered to be between a micro-scale and a small-scale mine vein. After this period of violent mining, it is basically considered mined out."

"The three mine caves remaining at the very back can only be considered tailings. I took a look, and they can only yield about twenty or thirty cubic meters, and the quality looks very ordinary as well."

"Plus, with so many villagers rescued and returned to the village this time, the Nanhe Liu Family might send people over to investigate very soon. Do you have any plans for this side?"

Lin Zhangqing couldn't help but laugh upon hearing this. What plans could he have? In any case, he wouldn't let others benefit from it.

After thinking it through, he said to Chen Zi Ya: "Junior Sister, why don't we blow up this mine cave? Whoever wants to mine can go dig it themselves; in any case, it has nothing to do with us."

"It must be that those few rogue cultivators who escaped came back and blew up the mine cave just to cover their tracks." After hearing Lin Zhangqing's shameless words, Chen Zi Ya rolled her eyes at him, then couldn't help but giggle.

The matter was settled just like that. However, before blowing up the mine cave, Lin Zhangqing went inside alone for a moment, though he came back out very quickly.

Chen Zi Ya thought he had gone to see if there was anything left behind, so she didn't think much of it.

Subsequently, Chen Zi Ya retrieved the array disk for the concealment array, while Lin Zhangqing recalled the twenty-four Purple Crystal Scorpions he had left to guard the place yesterday.

Then, the two began to bombard key parts of the cave walls with Fireball Techniques. In particular, Lin Zhangqing's near-Great Perfection instant-cast Fireball Technique, fired in rapid succession, was even more powerful.

After one or two hundred fireballs, the entire mine cave collapsed. If anyone wanted to go down to mine now, they would have to spend a great deal of effort to clear it out.

It would be impossible without a month or two, and even if someone really went to clear it, they probably wouldn't find a single bit of mineral slag. In any case, he believed Lin Zhangliu certainly wouldn't waste anything.

After clearing the traces they had left behind once more, they operated the spirit boat and returned, arriving back at Tongshan Village in no time.

As soon as they returned, they heard the bustling noise of the household. The two looked at each other, and subsequently decided to fly directly to the courtyard where Lin Zhangqing was staying to see if they could find some peace and quiet.

Unexpectedly, after a while, Chen Zi Ya's eldest brother came to invite them, saying that the village was going to hold a grand banquet and wanted to invite Lin Zhangqing to eat, to thank him for his grace in rescuing the villagers.

After Lin Zhangqing politely declined, it wasn't long before Chen Zi Ya's father came over. This time, he couldn't refuse to give face, as this was his future father-in-law after all.

He could only agree to go to the Chen Family Ancestral Hall at noon for the banquet. Chen Zi Ya's father then left, beaming with joy; it seemed that being able to invite Lin Zhangqing made him feel very honored.

Seeing Lin Zhangqing give her father so much face, Chen Zi Ya was very satisfied and performed a tea ceremony for Lin Zhangqing again.

At noon, accompanied by the Chen father and son, Lin Zhangqing went to the Chen Family Ancestral Hall to attend the banquet, enjoying the highest level of treatment, with a large group of elderly men and grandfathers accompanying him for the meal.

There was no help for it; the protocol was just that high. During this period, people kept coming over to offer toasts, and Lin Zhangqing accepted them all.

In any case, he drank them into the space where Lu Xinyi was staying in the Spirit Beast Bracelet, and he could just let him clean it up later.

This grand banquet lasted for two or three hours, drinking dozens of men under the table, while Lin Zhangqing remained calm and composed. Only then did everyone realize how formidable Lin Zhangqing was, and no one dared to come over to offer toasts again.

By the time they returned to the Chen residence, it was almost evening. He returned to his room.

Thinking that he hadn't seen Chuyi for two days, he prepared to summon it back.

Chuyi had been very happy these past two days. This place was not far from the outskirts of the Qingyun Mountain Range, and Chuyi could reach the outskirts of the Qingyun Mountain Range after flying for just a short while.

It had been playing wildly these past two days, so he had to summon it back quickly, or it would become too wild.

Not long after, Chuyi returned. Unexpectedly, summoning it back brought Lin Zhangqing a surprise: it had actually lured back a wild Golden Winged Bird.

It was just that the Golden Winged Bird didn't dare to land and kept circling in the sky. Lin Zhangqing's heart stirred, and he returned to his room, only to go back out a short while later.

Then he summoned Chuyi over, took out a Vermilion Fruit, and let it send it to its mate as a welcoming gift from Lin Zhangqing.

Soon, Chuyi flew up with the Vermilion Fruit, and the two Golden Winged Birds communicated in the air for a while.

Soon, Chuyi landed beside Lin Zhangqing again, and the Golden Winged Bird hesitated for a while before landing as well.

It was just that the landing spot was relatively far away, about twenty or thirty meters from Lin Zhangqing. It seemed it was still very wary of Lin Zhangqing.

So he didn't approach it either and returned to his room. He would talk about anything else tomorrow; he would let the newly arrived Golden Winged Bird get used to things first.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 171 =====