Chapter 18: One Slip Leads to Eternal Regret

He raised his head bit by bit and saw the female cultivator still working hard to harvest more than thirty-three meters away on the opposite side. She straightened up from time to time, hands on her hips, wiping sweat from her forehead. The moonlight shone on her face, making Liu Xiaolou's heart stir: She's truly beautiful, twice as beautiful as Sister Qing at the entrance of Tou Tiao Lane in Wuchao Town!

Now was not the time to admire beauty under the moon. Liu Xiaolou withdrew his wandering thoughts and focused on her every move. Seeing that she hadn't discovered him at all, he threw out the Illusory Fragrant Tendon and began to harvest.

No other thieves came to disturb them now. Although he worked carefully, he prioritized stability. Since he was stable, he naturally wasn't slow.

He harvested continuously for half an hour. The four or five tenths of a mu in front of him had been plucked bald, and he had transported the rice ears to the forest several times. The distance between him and the female cultivator was getting closer and closer, down to six or seven zhang.

One must not be too greedy!

Liu Xiaolou gave himself a warning, tied up the last bundle of rice ears, and carefully turned around to crawl back.

Stop while you're ahead; he needed to change places.

Just as he crawled a few steps, he suddenly heard a voice behind him: "Harvested enough?"

Liu Xiaolou's scalp went numb. He knew he had been exposed. Well, perhaps he had been exposed long ago. After all, he wasn't a great white goose and wasn't skilled in this craft; a slip-up was inevitable.

At this moment, his heart actually relaxed. He simply stood up openly, turned his head, and saw the female cultivator holding her long sword, looking at him with a cold sneer.

Caught red-handed, Liu Xiaolou wasn't afraid. He cupped his hands and said: "I was just passing by by chance and was worried that you wouldn't be able to finish harvesting in time, missing the season, so I helped out. Well, it's about done..."

The female cultivator laughed: "So, you're helping out of righteousness, seeing injustice on the road?"

Liu Xiaolou said solemnly: "Just a small favor, no need to thank me. It's getting late, I'll take my leave."

Saying this, he turned and dashed toward the dense forest.

The forest was close at hand. That guy surnamed Han from the Dongyang Sect couldn't catch him, so he didn't believe she could!

Just as he was darting through, he suddenly felt a gust of wind behind his head, truly fierce. He was greatly shocked, subconsciously dodging three inches to the side. A flying sword flew past his ear and chopped off a cedar tree as thick as a bowl in front of him!

The sword light circled in the dense forest and flew back to the female cultivator's hand. The female cultivator said coldly: "Run! Keep running!"

A flying sword!

Liu Xiaolou froze instantly.

At this moment, he truly wanted to cry but had no tears.

An expert at at least the tenth level of Qi Refinement, the Great Perfection, came to work as a helper to harvest spirit fields?

When harvesting spirit fields, she was clumsy, neither releasing sword light nor using a flying sword?

Are you sick? Are you sick?

A few more steps forward would be the forest, but Liu Xiaolou didn't dare to run another half step. Instead, he slowly turned around, looking at the female cultivator pitifully, feeling extremely depressed.

"Who gave you the guts to come to this girl's place to steal rice?" The female cultivator raised her neck and asked disdainfully.

Liu Xiaolou answered honestly: "My family is poor, and we really can't make ends meet."

"Poor? Is poverty the reason you steal rice? No matter how poor, you shouldn't abandon your aspirations!" The female cultivator lectured him without hesitation.

"Senior is right..."

"Ha, Senior?"

"Ah, Miss is right. I was confused for a moment, I will definitely reform in the future..."

"I ask you, is the pay given by the owner not enough?"

"Enough, it's enough..."

"Then why do you have such base thoughts?"

"People inevitably have moments of confusion. One slip leads to eternal regret..."

"Let's go, go to the manor and tell the owner!"

"This matter... I am willing to compensate!"

"Compensate? Aren't you too poor to make ends meet? What can you afford to compensate with?"

"However much spirit rice I took, I am willing to return double..."

Hearing Liu Xiaolou's compensation terms, the female cultivator couldn't help but laugh: "What does this girl want with your spirit rice? Can I finish it?"

If you don't care about spirit rice, why did you come here to work as a helper? Liu Xiaolou slandered in his heart, his brain spinning rapidly. Spinning and spinning, he found that he really had nothing to compensate with. Under the female cultivator's urging of "Follow me," he became anxious: "Miss, let me go this one time. As the saying goes, we don't get to know each other without a fight. In the future, if you have any orders, I will go through fire and water without hesitation!"

This sentence still didn't have any effect. The female cultivator clearly had no interest in Liu Xiaolou's "going through fire and water": "Are you going yourself, or do you want me to tie you up and drag you? By the way, take off the face cloth and show your face, you sneaky guy..."

Liu Xiaolou helplessly took off the black cloth, tidied his slightly messy hair, and tried hard to blink at the female cultivator—he only had one last trick left: seduction. He was, after all, a person known alongside Wei Hongqing as one of the "Two Beauties of Wulong Mountain." He wouldn't dare say he was dashing and handsome, but he was at least good-looking.

Once the black cloth was removed and the hazy moonlight shone on him, he looked even more handsome.

This trick seemed to be really useful. Seeing his appearance, the female cultivator's expression froze for a moment, staring blankly for a long time without a word.

Liu Xiaolou could only continue blinking, pleading incessantly: "I know I was wrong..."

"Turn around, turn left..."

"Ah? Okay..."

The female cultivator suddenly asked: "What's your name? Where do you cultivate? Tell the truth."

"I... am a rogue cultivator from Wulong Mountain, Liu Xiaolou." Liu Xiaolou didn't dare to hide it. His face was already exposed; she could find out clearly once she went to the manor head. The only way now was to admit his mistake with the most sincere attitude, which might save him.

"You are from Wulong Mountain?"

"Yes, right on Gan Zhu Ling. If Miss has any orders, I will obey without fail!"

After another moment of silence, the female cultivator waved her hand: "Go."

"Ah?"

"Go..."

This... did the beauty trap work? Liu Xiaolou was a bit stunned for a moment, but didn't dare to ask more, drilling into the dense forest while looking back every three steps.

Looking back, he saw her looking up at the sky, wondering what she was thinking. He couldn't care about that much, so he quickened his pace and left.

When he left, he also took the rice ears he had stored in the forest. She didn't say to return them, nor did she say he couldn't take them, so of course, he was going to take them.

Liu Xiaolou's pace became faster and faster. With his true qi circulating, he used all his strength to escape from this place. He found a quiet place, hurriedly processed the night's harvest into grain, put it in a bag, and rushed to the manor to report.

These two days were the last days of the emergency harvest. The manor's grain warehouse didn't close, even in the middle of the night. Liu Xiaolou handed in the grain, totaling fifty-six catties, still fifty catties short of the required amount.

He had no heart to stay longer, so he accepted the penalty of one hundred and fifty taels of silver. He didn't have that much silver on him, but he had gold and jade pendants taken from Jinping Manor. He used all his ten-plus taels of gold and a jade pendant to offset the penalty, and this helper job was considered finished.

He hurriedly carried the four bags of spirit grain buried in the fields and left Eyang Mountain overnight. By dawn, he was fifty or sixty miles away from Eyang Mountain. Seeing the Wuchao River, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. ===== CHAPTER 19 =====