Chapter 1: Rural Spiritual Realm
Zhao State, Black Cloud City, Shengfeng Territory.

The forest and mountains were shrouded in a thick fog, the sea of ​​fog rolled, and the sky and the earth looked vast.

However, in this vast sea of ​​fog, there is a small village standing, as if there is an invisible barrier blocking the fog above it.

This makes the area of ​​more than ten miles extremely clear, like a bright island in the foggy world.

In the core of the village, there is a courtyard built of bricks and stones.

"Water, cough, cough, water, water, water."

Zhou Qingshan was lying on the bed, making faint calls.

Xiao Xiao, the personal maid who was standing by, saw Zhou Qingshan wake up and her face suddenly lit up with joy. She hurried out of the room and shouted:
"The young master is awake! The young master is awake!"

Soon.

The maid Xiaoxiao returned with a bowl of steaming medicine, followed by a middle-aged man with an untidy beard and a machete on his waist.

"Young master, drink some hot soup..." The maid blew on the hot soup to cool it down a little before feeding it to Zhou Qingshan.

After taking a sip of hot soup, Zhou Qingshan felt a trace of warmth and strength returning to his body. He barely supported himself on the bed and turned his gaze to the middle-aged man.

"Uncle Zhao, what's going on?"

Zhao Gang said in a muffled voice: "That beast injured seven brothers in the guard team. Four of them were bedridden and three died... and the beast ran away."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Qingshan frowned immediately.

Shengfeng Territory is just a small spiritual realm in the countryside, covering only a few dozen miles and with more than a hundred households. As the lord of this place, his Zhou family can only barely support a team of ten guards, and Uncle Zhao is the captain of the team.

Now three people died at once, four are still bedridden, and the remaining people, including Uncle Zhao, only have four people.
There is a mountain range in the southwest of Shengfeng Territory. Every winter, hungry wild beasts come out to attack the village.

If it was just an ordinary beast guard team plus Uncle Zhao, they could still handle it, but what if that 'strange beast' came again? !
"I wish I was an inbound warrior like my brother."

Zhou Qingshan thought secretly in his heart.

In his previous life, he was an Earthling, a typical office worker. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor when he was only thirty years old. He continued to work all night to finish his manuscript, and finally died suddenly in front of his computer as he wished.

When I opened my eyes again, I arrived in this strange spiritual world.

This world is extremely special!

There is always thick fog. Or the world is a sea of ​​fog, and the spiritual realm is the island.

Only near the spiritual realm can people farm and live, wild beasts roam in the fog, and the "strange beasts" among them can only be matched by warriors who have entered the realm!
Due to the special foggy environment, the dynasty was composed of pieces of spiritual realms that were like isolated islands. Information was cut off and it was difficult to manage in a unified way. The national policy of Zhao State was similar to the feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty in the previous life.

When the resources produced by a piece of spiritual land cannot support more warriors and civilians, the dynasty will provide certain resource support to ambitious down-and-out nobles, generals, warriors, and meritorious officials, and lead the human race to open up spiritual habitats in the wilderness and fog farther away.

The big one is a country, the medium one is a city, the small one is a town, and the smallest one is the countryside.

The king, the princes, the city lords, the noble families, and the lords.

Below them are warriors, soldiers, professionals, civilians, and slaves.

The system is clear and the hierarchy is strict!
And the Zhou family is the lord of Shengfeng Territory!
Let’s talk about Zhou Qingshan’s family. His father, Zhou Dashi, was originally from an ordinary farmer’s family in Shitouling, Jianyang City. He was the sixth of nine brothers in his family. Once, there was a plague of rats and a poor harvest, so they could not afford to support themselves.

In desperation, the family decided to have a fist fight to decide who would leave home and make a living on their own.

After a fierce battle, Zhou Dashi won first place with a bruised face and nose, and thought he would definitely be able to stay.

I didn't expect that my family would say that the one who wins the fight has the greatest ability and has the greatest chance of surviving!
Therefore, Zhou Dashi had no choice but to go to Jianyang City to make a living. He worked as a handyman in a blacksmith shop for five years. He was honest and hardworking but could barely make ends meet. At that time, General Xu got the royal certificate and went to the wilderness to open up a new city and recruited soldiers in Jianyang City.

He followed General Xu and became a soldier. During this time, he cleared out alien tribes, strange beasts, and demons in the wilderness. He fought for ten years and luckily survived.

He also broke through to the level of a strongman warrior. After General Xu established Black Cloud City, he became the city lord and divided the nearby rural small spiritual realms among the generals and soldiers.

Zhou Dashi obtained this rural spiritual land of dozens of miles, with more than a hundred households and five hundred people, and could be called a lord.

Of course, this is just a nice way of saying it. In fact, Zhou Dashi is just the chief of a small village!
When Zhou Dashi settled down here, he was already 33 years old. He married and started a family. Later, he took two concubines and had five children.

The wife has two sons. The eldest son is named Zhou Dashan, and the second son is Zhou Xiaoshan, who is ranked third.

Zhou Xiaoshan has been weak since childhood. When he was six years old, a serious illness almost took his life. Fortunately, Dr. Mo, the only literate doctor in the village, came to his aid and changed his name.

The third one is Zhou Qingshan.

However, this serious illness left a root of disease, making Zhou Qingshan's body unable to transport qi and blood and condense source blood.

The third wife had two daughters, one named Zhou Huilan, who was his second sister, and the other named Zhou Xuefei, who was his youngest sister.

In addition, the third wife gave birth to a son named Zhou Chengshan, the fourth child in the family.

As for why it is Zhou Qingshan’s turn to be in charge now?
When Zhou Qingshan was eight years old, Zhou Dashi led his guard team to hunt and encountered a powerful "strange beast". Only more than ten people escaped from the thirty people. He himself was also seriously injured and could not recover. Before his death, he handed Shengfeng Territory to the thirteen-year-old Zhou Dashan.

There are no adults in the Zhou family, nor any inbound warriors. The family is supported by the two brothers and the second sister.

It was not until a few years ago when Zhou Dashan became an incoming warrior that the situation in Shengfeng Territory stabilized. Just as things were getting better, Zhou Dashan and Zhou Huilan unexpectedly followed the Changfeng Escort Agency to Feiying City.

Counting the time, it has been three months.

Zhou Qingshan asked someone in Heiyun City to inquire about the more than one hundred warrior escorts from Changfeng Escort Agency, but they have not returned yet.

As for this world, there has been no news for three months, and I am afraid it has long been lost in the wilderness and fog.
Seeing Zhou Qingshan remained silent for a long time, Zhao Gang hesitated for a moment and then said:
"I'm afraid that Black Cloud City won't be able to pay its tribute this year."

As a lord, you are obliged to pay tribute to the city lord who governs this place, in the form of precious coins, grain, cloth, and treasures.

If the tribute is not paid within a year or within half a year, Black Cloud City will send officials to take back the spiritual realm!
Hearing this, Zhou Qingshan rubbed his brows and remained silent. Under the care of the maid, he slowly drank the medicine. Then, he raised his head and asked in a low voice:

"How many treasures are left at home?"

Zhao Gang respectfully reported:
"My dear young master, there are still 52 treasure yuan and 3,700 coins. The food reserves are enough to last for one and a half months."

In the State of Zhao, the value of one Baoyuan was approximately equivalent to one thousand coins, and in normal times, three coins could buy one pound of rice.

Zhou Qingshan pondered for a while, then asked:
"When will the people from the Fifty-Two Treasure Yuan Yunhe Chamber of Commerce arrive next time? Can we hire a warrior of the Power Warrior Realm to eliminate that 'strange beast'?"

Zhao Gang thought for a moment, shook his head slowly, and said in a heavy tone:

"This year, the mountains are blocked by heavy snow, and the roads are impassable. The wilderness is even more dangerous. The people from the Yunhe Chamber of Commerce may have to wait until the beginning of next spring to arrive."

"Next year?! Ahem."

After hearing this, Zhou Qingshan couldn't help but cough a few times, frowning, with a worried look on his face:

"By next year, I wonder how many more people in Shengfeng Territory will die at the hands of that strange beast."

(End of this chapter)