Chapter 531: Chapter 530: The Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains, Touches the Human Emperor

“Master, can this thing be counted as a weapon?” The junior cultivator looked at Jiang Li in confusion, not understanding what he could do with the thing in his hand.

“Absolutely. They say that the peak of military skill is not laying siege to a fortress, but attacking the enemy’s mind, which is exactly my plan. Go on, you’ll understand my meaning.”

As the fight started, neither the junior cultivator nor his opponent were armed.

“Where’s your weapon?” The opponent was puzzled. His weapon was a magnet. Without a weapon on his opponent, his magnet would be useless.

With no other choice, the junior cultivator steeled himself and said: “Just wait and see during the fight.”

And so, the two began to fight bare-handed.

Midway through, when the junior cultivator found it hard to determine who was winning, he followed Jiang Li’s instructions, took out a small iron box, and pressed a black button.

Out of the box came an emotionless voice: “I surrender, I surrender, I surrender…”

The opponent thought that this was a sign of surrender and instinctively slowed down his attack.

Seizing his chance, the junior cultivator gained the upper hand.

“Referee, he has admitted defeat, yet he is still hitting me!” the opponent was haughty.

The referee came to inspect the situation and found that it was the weapon that was speaking, which couldn’t represent the intent of the junior cultivator, so he allowed them to continue fighting.

“I surrender, I surrender…”

The emotionless and repetitive voice annoyed the opponent. His focus was continually disrupted, and he was consistently on the backfoot. He couldn’t turn the situation around.

In anger, the opponent took out his magnet and sucked the little iron box away.

Then, he discovered that he could only turn on the little iron box and could not turn it off. Now he was the one with the constant repetition of “I surrender” by his side.

The opponent went into a frenzy, his mindset exploded, and threw both the magnet and the small iron box aside.

With equal strengths, but a disrupted mindset on one side, it was inevitable that the other side would win.

The junior cultivator representing Jiang Li won.

Jiang Li scratched his cheek, he had only intended to use words to disrupt his opponent’s thoughts, but he hadn’t expected his opponent to use a magnet. The final disturbance effect was even better than he had anticipated.

The second round ended with half of the participants eliminated.

Yu Yin sighed in regret upon seeing Jiang Li and his companions advance.

“The third round will be held elsewhere.”

With a wave of his hand, Yu Yin carried everyone off, flying towards a remote area of the Tianyuan Emperor Dynasty.

After a full day of competition, it was already night.

They saw a small rustic village surrounded by mountains on all sides.

Yu Yin plainly said, “The villagers are all mortal. They are facing various difficulties in life. Considering that the skills of the Artifact Refiners participating in this third round vary, you are required to help them solve their problems using refining techniques that do not exceed the Foundation Establishment Stage, without the use of mana. The one who solves the most problems will be the final winner.”

“In this competition, you can form teams freely.”

“The time limit is five days.”

After announcing the rules of the competition, Yu Yin disappeared.

“Shall the three of us team up?” Jiang Li suggested.

Reluctantly, Bai Hongtu and Ji Zhi agreed.

“Where are you from?” Seeing a large group of people, the village chief asked with a furrowed brow, growing wary.

“Village Chief, we are cultivators from the Great Zhou Dynasty, passing through this area. We’d like to stay here for a few days, and we will pay you.”

Hearing that they were cultivators from the Great Zhou Dynasty, the village chief pushed his caution away. Cultivators from the Great Zhou Dynasty were trustworthy. He waved his hand, “You don’t need to pay us. We have enough to sustain you.”

Jiang Li and the others thanked the village chief.

“Village Chief, do you have any problems we could help you solve?”

“The weather has been sweltering lately. Even wiping our bodies with towels, it’s hard to fall asleep at night. If we can’t sleep at night, we feel listless during the day and unable to work.”

Bai Hongtu jumped at the chance to answer: “That’s simple, I can tell you some ghost stories. After I finish, you’ll be so cold you’ll easily fall asleep.”

“Nobody tells ghost stories quite like me.”

Jiang Li kicked Bai Hongtu to the side: “Shouldn’t the first solution be to refine air conditioners and electric fans? Why is your first idea to tell ghost stories?”

Ji Zhi was the reliable one, refining an air conditioning unit powered by spiritual energy and giving it to the village chief.

At this stage, the combination of cultivation and technology was still being explored. This air conditioner was one of those products.

“Looks like we can have a good night’s sleep tonight.” The village chief was delighted.

“This air conditioner would only be useful in this small village. In any other place, there would be no need for an air conditioner. An ordinary cooling talisman would suffice.” Bai Hongtu complained, feeling that this round was limiting his talent.

Cooling talismans were basic talismans. By now, the automated production of basic talismans was taking shape, and they were so cheap that even mortals could afford them.

After bidding farewell to the village chief, Jiang Li and his companions went to another household to deliver an air conditioner.

“Ma’am, besides the hot weather, have you encountered any other problems recently?”

“Yes, indeed. My child doesn’t like to exercise. Even when asked to lose weight, he refuses.”

“Just give him a good beating, and he’ll behave.” Bai Hongtu popped his head in to comment.

Ji Zhi gave him a sidelong glance: “How many times has Jiang Li thrashed you? Haven’t seen you settle down.”

Bai Hongtu responded confidently: “That just goes to show that my will is strong and I am not influenced by external forces.”

“…Impressive.”

“I have an idea.” Bai Hongtu rolled up his sleeves and began refining a spiritual treasure on the spot.

“What in the heavens have you refined?”

Jiang Li noticed that Bai Hongtu had refined a large iron cage with rotating tracks at the bottom.

“Put their child in the iron cage, lock the door, let the tracks rotate to force him to exercise. Don’t let him out until he completes his daily target.”

Bai Hongtu was somewhat dissatisfied with the spiritual treasure he had refined.

“The cage should be electrified. That way, the kid wouldn’t dare to lie down and slack off.”

“If this cage ever appears in our Great Zhou, I’d charge you with child abuse.”

“Why doesn’t the child want to exercise?” Jiang Li felt that he had to figure out a plan himself.

The old lady sighed, “He feels indifferent to whether or not he loses weight because there are more girls than boys in the village. Even if he’s fat, he isn’t worried about not being able to marry.”

“Isn’t he worried about the village girls leaving?”

“No, our village is cut off from the outside world. Even if they go out, they’ll be disoriented and ultimately have to return to the village.”

“I thought about setting off for the outside world, but as soon as I got there, I was swindled, and all my assets were taken. I was even sold off and used as labor for three months. I found an opportunity to escape and returned here, abandoning any plans of leaving the village.”

Ji Zhi sighed, few words could describe the law and order situation in the Tianyuan Emperor Dynasty.

“Actually, everyone in the village is discussing whether or not to move the mountains to establish a pathway for communication with the outside world.”

“Move the mountain?” Jiang Li found this amusing.

“Haven’t you heard the story of The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains? It was told by the Human Emperor. I thought everyone in the outside world knew it.”

“According to the story the Human Emperor told, the foolish old man was determined to move the mountain and would keep doing so for generations until the mountain was eventually cleared. The Immortal Emperor was deeply moved and sent an immortal to move the mountain.”

“Although there’s no Immortal Emperor now, we have the Human Emperor.”

“As long as we continue to move the mountain and impress the Human Emperor with our determination, the Human Emperor will send cultivators to help us.”

“By the way, can you help us move the mountain?”