Druid Fairy

Chapter 19 The Battle for Water
The Zhou family's martial arts training ground.

"Brother Pingfu, say something again! Let me hear the duck quack!"

Li Yuan draped his arm around Li Pingfu's shoulder, chuckling maliciously.

Li Pingfu glared at him, but kept his lips tightly pressed together, not uttering a single word.

The reason is that he went through puberty, and his originally clear voice became high-pitched and thin, which his friends jokingly called "duck voice".

Seeing Li Pingfu, who was usually so proud and arrogant, acting so cowardly, Li Yuan laughed with his hands on his hips until Li Pingfu punched him hard on the shoulder, at which point he finally grimaced and restrained himself.

This Pingfu guy is getting stronger and stronger; he hits people like a hammer!

The two laughed and joked for a while.

Li Pingfu took out three doses of herbal medicine from his pocket. These were basic tonic soups called Four Seasons Soup, which were relatively inexpensive, but they still cost him a full three hundred copper coins.

The money I had saved for the New Year was all spent, and it still wasn't enough. I had to work several odd jobs over half a month to make up the difference.

He presented the Four Seasons Soup to Li Yuan.

Back then, regarding Li Fang's incident, it was Li Yuan who, seeing the situation was not going well, secretly went to find the village chief and unexpectedly encountered Li Rongzhou, who explained the whole story.

True friendship is revealed in times of crisis.

Li Pingfu deeply cherished this brotherhood and repaid it with his actions.

"Brother! This is for me?! You're so kind, I'll never make fun of your hoarse voice again!"

Li Yuan was overjoyed. He had recently been struggling with his martial arts practice and desperately needed help, so he accepted the gift without much thought.

"If you mention 'duck voice' again, I'll get angry!"

Li Pingfu tried to lower his voice, but it couldn't hide his thin, long voice, which made Li Yuan laugh uncontrollably.

I don’t know what’s so funny!

Li Pingfu angrily struck Li Yuan with the hammer again, causing the latter to scream in pain.

Taking advantage of his voice changing period, he has naturally become silent and low-key. In just half a month, he has stopped attracting attention and disappeared among the group of martial arts-practicing teenagers.

…………

“These kids will be ‘fellow disciples’ in the future.”

Zhou Enxian smiled and stroked his beard, looking at the boys' warm and affectionate interaction with great satisfaction.

Even if they stop practicing martial arts in the future, when they grow up, they will still have a complex network of connections in the future.

Thinking of this, Li Fang's face suddenly flashed through my mind.

Zhou Enxian's expression suddenly darkened.

Since being poisoned, Li Fang has never come to the training ground again, which is equivalent to dropping out of school.

Li the wealthy man arrived at the Zhou family's house in a menacing manner, conducted a suspicious inspection of the property, and finally left with a gloomy expression.

"Could it be that the Purple-Gold Blood Centipede is really lost?"

After a moment's thought, Zhou Enxian made a guess.

He didn't seek out the Blood Centipede because he knew of King Li's methods.

But judging from Li Wang Zihong's complexion and her lips as white as paper, she had clearly suffered severe internal injuries, seemingly a backlash from the contract.

This can shorten your lifespan.

"Heaven's justice is clear, and retribution is swift."

“If King Li falls, Li Fang and Li Yuan are too young to support the family. But Li Pingfu broke through to the ‘Flesh Realm’ at the age of twelve, which is a little better than I was back then. His future is promising.”

"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, the fortunes have turned in Brother Li's house. Old ginger is spicier, the old village chief has stood firm for many years, truly a good eye!"

Thinking of this, Zhou Enxian asked the village cook to prepare a feast, and with a big smile, he went to the Li family to drink, poured out his grievances, and drank to his heart's content.

…………

Spring goes and summer comes.

As the weather gradually becomes hot and dry, the new batch of peach tree leaves are wilting, and the chirping of insects in the grass is becoming increasingly noisy.

Li Rongzhou, his muscular, bronze-colored upper body bare, looked up at the blazing sun and his expression darkened. "This year, it's probably going to be a long-awaited drought."

However, compared to the "disaster of the immortals" that struck four years ago when the sun was hanging upside down, this increasingly apparent drought seems rather endearing.

Having gone through that ordeal, there's nothing you can't overcome. It just means you'll have to work harder and fetch water from a more distant stream.

……

I returned home in the evening.

"Dad, you're back!"

Li Pingcan was used to his father's body odor and didn't find it disgusting. He asked, "When will our family plant more peach trees?"

"Where can you grow so many? You're really treating your father like an ox!" Li Rongzhou flicked his youngest son's forehead and laughed in exasperation.

Can'er is exceptionally intelligent. At a young age, she not only excels in martial arts but also grasps basic literacy quickly and can apply what she learns to other situations, often leaving Ping An feeling inferior.

What's most commendable is that he's not impetuous in his work. Even when faced with difficult tasks, he takes a down-to-earth approach, overcoming obstacles step by step until success comes naturally.

It's difficult for adults to do, let alone a four-year-old child.

Like all fathers who hope their sons will succeed, Li Rongzhou had high hopes for Li Pingcan.

But why does this child just love planting trees?!
If it weren't for the sweltering summer heat, and his refusal to allow Can'er to come out with him, she would probably still be digging holes with him on the mountain right now!
What strange problem?
"Ouch!"

Li Pingcan covered his forehead with both hands.

He didn't want to either, but to upgrade to LV3, he needed a full 500 tree-planting experience points.

Even with my father planting a batch of peach trees in the spring and my own daily efforts, we've only completed less than half of the work.

"A young person's words carry little weight!"

It seems I can't count on my dad if I want to plant trees to level up; I'll have to rely on myself.

I wish I could grow up to sixteen and plant trees every day.

"Stop fooling around, wash your hands and eat," Qin said.

There is no rule of not speaking while eating or sleeping in a farmer's home; the family can chat about what they have seen and heard that day while eating.

However, Li Pingfu, who is usually very active, is less willing to talk due to puberty, which makes the conversation less lively.

Li Pingcan swallowed a mouthful of mushroom. "Dad, the centipede can now produce a drop of venom every half month."

For the past few months, I've been either grinding proficiency or on my way to grind proficiency every day.

[Nature's Gift] has been upgraded to LV8, and the speed at which the centipede produces venom has doubled thanks to this gift from nature.

My intimacy with Centipede has successfully increased from the initial 60 points to 96 points, and it's about to reach the maximum level and upgrade.

"Haha!" Li Rongzhou laughed heartily, "That Prince Li trained the Purple-Gold Blood Centipede for ten years, but he's not as good as my son who raised it for four or five months!"

Regardless of how things seemed on the surface at the time, Li Rongzhou, who had suffered a small loss, always remembered this debt; he was not the kind of person to repay evil with kindness.

In this way, the production of purple centipede ointment doubled, and the three of them could practice martial arts together without being too reserved.

Just as I was about to clear the table, a lot of noise suddenly came from outside the door, as if the villagers were arguing about something.

"I'm going out to take a look."

Li Rongzhou solemnly instructed his wife to lock the hospital door, then led Li Pingfu toward the source of the sound.

Li Pingcan, on the other hand, threw a mushroom at his father and older brother.

From the mushroom's perspective, one could see many villagers gathered in a circle under the dim sky, filled with righteous indignation and spitting as they spoke.

"That damned Peach Leaf Village cut off our village's water supply upstream, and the stream has dried up!"

"The peach trees are dying! Isn't this going to kill us?!"

"This is outrageous! Folks, grab your weapons and fight them!"

Li Pingcan's face tightened as he listened.

Although the peach trees that survived will not lose experience points if they wither and die in the face of natural disasters, this peach orchard was planted by my father with great effort and is still an important source of income for the family!

(End of this chapter)