With the Blade

Chapter 311: Chapter 262: Self-Sufficiency

We came here just to live and work in peace.

This is not only Du Chengfeng’s idea, it’s also the collective wish of the villagers. Wanting to live in seclusion without disputes, they chose to follow Du Chengfeng to this remote place—where in their simple thinking, as long as you live well, it’s enough; you just need a safe place to live, no need for fighting, and no need for killing...

"No need for killing!"

In the hall used for discussions, Liu Bolun stood up and looked at Du Chengfeng and Cui Yuan seated at the side.

"Come on, give me a number, how many have you killed recently?"

"Eight hundred and sixty-three."

Cui Yuan reported the number precisely.

His swordsmanship was precise, leaving no severely injured survivors. His sword always struck to kill; that is his swordsmanship.

"Six bandit camps, four batches of roadside thieves, two nests of assassins, and those guards yesterday... all together, probably around three thousand people. No, who would keep track of these things?"

Du Chengfeng immediately began scratching his head, finding it a bit difficult to report such numbers.

After all, when people gather in heaps, it’s hard to count them. With a sweep of the fire blade, they are all killed, it’s just a matter of swinging the blade, as easy as eating and drinking... Who would remember how much water they drink each day?

"Kill a bit less..."

Upon hearing these numbers, Liu Bolun was stunned for a while, not knowing what to say.

Originally, he wanted to offer a few words of persuasion, because this was completely different from the secluded life he imagined. He thought that as long as they avoided the world and lived in seclusion, they could live a peaceful life and do what they wanted.

But who would have thought that after secluding themselves, the number of people they killed was even...

"Old Liu, I understand your point."

Sighing, Du Chengfeng still spoke.

"It’s not just you; everyone here wants a peaceful life. Everyone traveled thousands of miles to come here just to live safely... But as you’ve seen, things aren’t as we thought. Just talking about yesterday’s incident, I landed, and directly faced two volleys of arrows. Was it I who started it?"

"This... sigh."

Liu Bolun sighed.

Indeed, there was no other way. Du Chengfeng was already persuaded to use a relatively peaceful method to get those captured Forget Sorrow Village people out, but the Dengzhou City side still set up a killing trap, ready to strike hard against Du Chengfeng... Of course, if it were ordinary people or those emitting Evil Qi, this setup would have been enough to take the initiative, but the problem is, what went was not ordinary people.

So what was Dengzhou City’s people thinking, did they have to play black against black?

"It’s not entirely incomprehensible."

After drinking a cup of tea, Du Chengfeng sighed.

"After all, playing black against black is indeed the most profitable."

Upon hearing this, everyone present fell silent.

The first to be choked was Liu Bolun. After all, his distillery was still operating, and brewing wine requires a large amount of grain. So where did this substantial grain come from?

You should know that Forget Sorrow Village had just harvested autumn, relying only on previous stored grain, which couldn’t sustain the distillery’s consumption—it was obvious that what operated Liu Bolun’s distillery was the grain snatched back by Du Chengfeng after raiding those bandit camps.

Then there was old Yang Xuan. Having previously managed the Yang Family Fort, he now also managed Forget Sorrow Village’s assets. As for the source of these assets... You should know those bandits’ blood on the gold, silver, and jewels hasn’t been wiped clean yet.

As for the ridged pasture... Grassland folks don’t care much about these things. After all, when they were on the grasslands, raiding each other’s pastures was common, so where the livestock producing meat came from, everyone tacitly didn’t bring it up.

And Du Chengfeng and Cui Yuan, there’s no need to mention them. Evil Qi itself is gained through killing and taking lives, which is the most basic and most naked form of plundering.

"Why are you looking at us? We haven’t done black against black."

Facing the collective gaze, the two gatekeeping attendants immediately started shaking their heads.

"The Ziyang Academy is still clean."

"That’s true."

Everyone nodded.

The academy on the mountain was indeed clean, not involved in any black against black dealings, but if it were truly calculated... Supplies from below weren’t lacking in being transported up the mountain either.

After everyone settled down, amongst those participating in the meeting now, the person who truly hadn’t been involved in black against black was Woodman Li Carpenter.

Li Carpenter not only refrained from any involvement in black against black, he even helped everyone build houses. All the buildings in Forget Sorrow Village, without exception, had his design involvement, even personally bringing Du Chengfeng over for construction.

Of course, it’s not that Li Carpenter didn’t work himself, but mainly because Du Chengfeng’s work efficiency was too high. If someone liked yellow earth walls, Du Chengfeng could press the wall with a wave of his blade to make it sturdier than a city wall. If someone liked to live in a brick house, a swing of his fire blade could instantly bake a kiln of red bricks.

Moreover, Du Chengfeng had the power to change the terrain, making it fastest to process lumber... Normal people need ten days to half a month to build a frame, whereas Du Chengfeng could have people move in by afternoon.

"So, should we actually export construction teams?"

Seeing everyone’s gaze on him, Woodman Li Carpenter began to spur his thinking.

"If we go out and help people build houses..."

"That’s not necessary; we’re not discussing this now."

Du Chengfeng quickly shook his head.

"My point is, since we’ve all settled here, why not be self-sufficient? After all, there is plenty of empty land in this valley, and many things we can do... Since the outside world is so unfriendly to us, we don’t need to insist on going out. We can figure things out ourselves, can’t we?"

"This... requires time."

Liu Bolun thought for a moment, finally speaking.

Running the distillery gives him the most say in this matter; grain takes time to turn into wine, and many other things are the same. You can’t just decide things with a slap on the head.

"That’s actually okay."

Du Chengfeng laughed immediately.

In the past, when they were migrant farmers, time might have been an issue for them, but now they have permanently settled in Forget Sorrow Village, time is actually the one thing they have in abundance.

After all, if people are idle every day anyway, why not get active, giving everyone something to do?

"Then let’s try it. Those living supplies, and more things we need to buy... let’s make them ourselves!"