With the Blade

Chapter 315: Chapter 264: When Willpower Is Enough to Change Reality (Part 2)

"But the problem is, where do we find enemies now?"

Du Chengfeng started scratching his head again. The bandits in the nearby mountains had almost all been taken care of by him, and new ones had yet to appear. It was really hard to say who to target next.

Moreover, if we’re talking about the prairie bandits...

"Why are you all looking at me?"

Seeing everyone’s gaze subconsciously shift towards him, Zhierhuo, who had long since surrendered and no longer wore armor, suddenly became anxious.

"I’ve surrendered for so long, can I still be considered an enemy? That makes no sense, it really makes no sense."

"No, actually we don’t need an enemy."

Saying this, the two gatekeepers gestured with their hands and then cautiously pulled out a small pouch.

"We can use this."

"This is..."

Looking at the faintly visible powder in the pouch, Du Chengfeng was taken aback.

He felt a strange familiarity with the powder.

"This is Master Ruan’s ashes."

The two gatekeepers respectfully placed the pouch on the table.

"Oh! It’s him!"

Du Chengfeng suddenly realized.

So it was his cheap teacher, no wonder it looked so familiar.

According to the two gatekeepers, it wasn’t necessary to use the enemy’s ashes for it to work. The blessing of heroic spirits could also ensure a bountiful harvest—the crops would flourish, and naturally, the tea trees could too.

Moreover, they had no other options at the moment. What else could they do but give it a try?

So, after a brief discussion, Ruan Shantao’s ashes were scattered onto the village’s only hope.

"It will definitely work, it definitely will."

Returning home, Du Chengfeng believed more than ever before. After all, those were Ruan Shantao’s ashes, and the old man had great abilities. If the blessing of heroic spirits could ensure a bountiful harvest, then Ruan Shantao should be counted as the hero of heroes. The effects of his ashes would surely be much better than those of the prairie bandits, right?

As it turned out, it was indeed much better.

Even a bit too good.

"This..."

The next morning, everyone who was initially preparing to tend to the tea seedlings was left speechless, staring at the tea trees that had grown vigorously overnight.

In just one night, the tea seedlings had completely matured.

"This... smells pretty good. Let me try some first."

Saying this, Liu Bolun couldn’t help but reach out to pinch a few tea leaves.

Such an outlandish action was naturally stopped by everyone, but faced with the tea trees that had matured overnight, they were at a loss for words.

The scene before them defied all common sense. Tea leaves, like crops, are seasonal—there was no way they could mature overnight. But remembering that it was Ruan Shantao’s ashes, they were unsure. After all, Old Ruan held an extremely high position in their hearts.

"Maybe... it’s the old man’s blessing?"

After thinking for a long time, everyone could only explain it this way. Even the cleverest Liu Bolun couldn’t think of another reason.

Only Du Chengfeng thought of something.

"It’s not just the old man’s blessing, or rather, it’s not only that."

Gently touching the tea tree before him, feeling the reality, Du Chengfeng took a deep breath.

Determined will is enough to change reality.

For the first time, he deeply understood what this sentence truly meant.

No matter how exaggerated or absurd something is, as long as people have a reason to believe in it, as long as they want to believe it’s reality, it will become reality—just like this tea tree before them. When everyone believed that Old Ruan’s ashes on the tea tree would yield the best results, the tea tree truly became optimal overnight.

Defying common sense and even reality, within one night, it had grown from a seedling into a perfect tea tree, akin to legendary magic.

Yet in this ghostly Idealist World, such things truly existed.

This is the power of belief.

"Wishes do come true..."

Thinking of this, Du Chengfeng couldn’t help but scratch his head.

Based on what he knew, whether it was the Chu people, the Yu people, or the Yin people, many had already realized "this world is very idealistic." So why did people prefer to accumulate Evil Qi for killing rather than using it for this?

"Somehow this seems like the real way to use that wish-granting power..."

Du Chengfeng became increasingly puzzled. Why had he basically never seen anyone using this method to enhance productivity? Was it because they didn’t want to?

But then it hit him that this method wasn’t really that easy to execute.

With this thought in mind, Du Chengfeng tried a few more times, like imagining that there were salt wells underground or that oil would just gush out—but unfortunately, these attempts failed. Clearly, changing reality wasn’t that easy.

Making everyone’s thoughts resolute was difficult enough, and unifying these diverse determined thoughts was even harder. Forget Sorrow Village achieved this effect purely by chance, with a relatively small population and a shared deep impression of Old Ruan, creating an unrepeatable miracle.

But is it truly unrepeatable?

"You mean Master Ruan’s ashes?"

Seeing Du Chengfeng visit, the two gatekeepers sighed.

"It doesn’t really matter. Master Ruan himself said while alive that if he passed away, his ashes should be scattered in the fields. He’d become part of Yanzhou City, forever with that land... Of course, since Yanzhou City’s no longer there, we brought him out. Using it in Forget Sorrow Village, I’m sure Master Ruan would be happy... What? You weren’t asking about this? You just wanted to know how much of the ashes are left?"

Saying this, the two gatekeepers simply turned around, went inside, and brought out several sacks.

"Here they are, and there’s more inside."

Du Chengfeng was overjoyed.

This might be the most generous inheritance Ruan Shantao left for everyone. Although in his final days, the old man became a huge monster due to Evil Qi, that resulted in an extraordinarily large amount of ash. The two gatekeepers spent days on the mountain to fully cremate him, and their most important luggage along the way was Master Ruan’s ashes.

Now, just like the two gatekeepers said, using the old man’s ashes in Wangyou Village was indeed making full use of them.

Having inherited the Yin people’s memories, Du Chengfeng already knew how to arrange rituals to make people believe, especially since he held the item of utmost trust—the ashes of Old Ruan. Under Old Ruan’s blessing, Wangyou Village quickly had its own various mines, resources, tools, and even its own oil field.

"Thank you for Master Ruan’s gift."

As he said this, Du Chengfeng scattered Ruan Shantao’s ashes into the wind.

Recently, many people had colds due to seasonal changes, but with Master Ruan’s blessing, everyone would surely recover quickly.

Du Chengfeng finally felt firsthand that even this ghostly Idealist World had its unique virtues.

If there was any issue at all, it was that Master Ruan’s gifts were simply too plentiful. Because everyone had so much trust in Ruan Shantao, the production of all resources in Forget Sorrow Village had far exceeded what they needed—although it seemed like a good thing, if the villagers couldn’t consume all of it, huge piles of goods would just rot there, stinking and taking up space.

"We must find a way to handle this."

Du Chengfeng started to feel troubled again. Having too much stuff was actually not a good thing.

So, after a long hiatus, the trade caravan mobilized once again.

Only this time, they weren’t buying, but selling.

"The price doesn’t matter, as long as we can get rid of it."

That was Du Chengfeng’s only instruction to the trade caravan.