The hoes and shovels were procured—one per person.

“Lu Er and Lu Qi form one team. Lu Wu and Baixing are another. Wen Jue, you’ll come with me.” Qin Zhou swiftly assigned the groups. He directed them to dig inward from the four edges of the entire Spirit Heart Fruit plot.

Lu Er nodded. Lu Qi was about to curse his luck, but holding back out of respect for the village chief, he reluctantly gave a nod instead.

Lu Wu and Baixing had no objections either; the master and apprentice shared a deep understanding.

Wen Jue naturally had no objections either, grabbing his shovel and standing beside Qin Zhou.

Leaving Shisi to look around, “Village Chief, what about me?”

Qin Zhou: “You dig the fastest. You shouldn’t need any help.” Even if you did, there’s no one left.

Shisi: “…”

Village Chief, let me remind you—he’s no longer that young lad who’d be tricked into digging from mountain top to valley bottom with just a “Shisi’s the best farmer!”

“Dig,” Qin Zhou commanded, then added, “The top team gets a reward.”

Lu Qi’s ears perked up.

Lu Er also found himself looking his way.

Shisi turned his head back immediately.

Lu Wu and Baixing glanced over curiously.

Wen Jue was surprised. He knew pretty well how much money Qin Zhou had in his pocket, but if Qin Zhou said there was a reward, then there definitely was one.

Competitions like this had actually been quite common in the past.

Qin Zhou enjoyed these competitive, upward-striving activities. He loved the vibrant, bustling energy they brought. The villagers weren’t about to dislike it either, because the village chief never broke his word. Moreover, whatever the chief gave away was always top-tier, truly exceptional.

Take, for instance, the hairpin on Wen Jue’s head—impervious to decay for ten thousand years, its luster as radiant as the day it was made. Take the Thousand Mechanisms Bell on Shisi’s wrist—it was nothing short of a supreme treasure in the entire cultivation world. Then there was Lu Er’s sword, the protective talisman around Lu Qi’s neck, Lu Wu’s Dao-Protecting Alchemy Furnace…

Almost every treasure that had endured for ten thousand years came from Qin Zhou’s hands.

Even during the millennia after Qin Zhou vanished, they had speculated whether he might be the very embodiment of the Dao. After all, the treasures in the Village Chief’s vault far surpassed those of any sect treasury, both in quantity and value, despite their millennia of accumulation.

“We absolutely can’t lose,” Lu Qi muttered.

“Yeah, we can’t lose.” Lu Er nodded.

“Wait, Village Chief, this isn’t fair!” Shisi burst into tears. “There are two of them, and I’m all alone!”

“One of you is worth two of them,” Lu Qi chuckled.

“I’m fired up now, too,” Wen Jue narrowed his eyes.

Qin Zhou: “You’re not part of this.” Don’t get fired up.

Wen Jue: ?

Qin Zhou: “You’re not a Lu. Besides, you’re on my team.”

Wen Jue choked. “But—”

The price of having the wrong surname.

“Disciple, we must do our best too,” Lu Wu clenched his fist, addressing Baixing, who was braiding his hair behind him.

Seeing several senior disciples so enthusiastic, even their normally indifferent master showing rare fighting spirit, Baixing couldn’t help but ask, “Master, what exactly is the reward Grandmaster mentioned…”

“It’s a treasure,” Lu Wu stated firmly.

“The winner gets one wish granted by me,” Qin Zhou added promptly. “It’s the New Year, so the reward should be a bit bigger.” “

Everyone present sucked in a sharp breath.

This was far more than just a little bigger!

”I want to join!“ Wen Jue grabbed Qin Zhou’s arm. ”I want to participate. It’s fine if it’s one person per team.“

Qin Zhou shook his head. ”You can’t.”

Wen Jue felt crushed. “Why not…?”

Such a golden opportunity. A single request!

Qin Zhou: “This is the Lu family’s game.”

“I’ll change my name right now!” Wen Jue was stubborn. This reward seemed ordinary, but they all understood what it meant to make a request of the village chief!

Even if his true identity as a demon lord were exposed someday, he could use this request to cover it up. Qin Zhou was absolutely a village chief who never backed down!

Qin Zhou shook his head.

Not even that? Wen Jue protested anxiously, “But I… I was here before them!” If not for the crowd nearby, Wen Jue would have wanted to plop down on the ground and throw a tantrum.

“You won’t be participating,” Qin Zhou observed with a hint of amusement in his eyes. “If you joined, the game wouldn’t be fair.”

Wen Jue was speechless.

How was it unfair? He was only slightly stronger than they were!

Yet the moment Qin Zhou spoke, the others chimed in in unison, “That’s right! The village chief is absolutely correct!”

“You can’t join! It’d be unfair if you did!”

“You’re better off watching from the sidelines.”

Wen Jue: “…”

Fine, fine, fine. They were all ganging up on him.

Lu Qi didn’t join in the chorus. He just glanced at the Village Chief, then at Wen Jue, before finally rolling his eyes. Love really does make people stupid.

Idiot Lu Yi, does he really think the village chief can’t tell who he is?

Forget the shiny hairpin on his head—anyone else in the village besides that Lu Yi would make the village chief say something so blatantly unfair like “if you join, the game won’t be fair”?

After the laughter died down, Qin Zhou continued announcing the rules. He took out a flag and planted it in the center of the field. “The first team to dig up this flag wins the round. Remember, if you damage the fruit… you’re disqualified.”

“Grandmaster, can we ask for anything?” Baixing, being a first-time participant, couldn’t help but ask again.

Qin Zhou nodded. “Within my power.”

Baixing nodded, indicating he had no further questions.

“Then, begin.”

At Qin Zhou’s command, everyone eagerly started digging.

…

Lu Qi, wanting to win, couldn’t resist goading Lu Er: “Hey, asking for a lifesaver for Lu Xiao—no problem, right?”

Lu Er nodded. “Sure.”

The Erqi Group was brimming with fighting spirit.

…

The Shisi Solo Group dug fruit with tears in their eyes. “I’m doing the work of two.”

…

Baixing: “Master, I’ll do it.”

The master-disciple team had clear divisions of labor.

…

Wen Jue and Qin Zhou’s team……

Qin Zhou worked steadily, neither rushing nor dawdling. He dug up the Spirit Heart Fruit, cradled it in his palm, then gently placed it into the basket.

Unable to bear watching him toil alone, Wen Jue picked up a shovel and dug as well.

Occasionally, when tired from digging, he’d rise to check each team’s progress.

What he saw startled him.

“Qin Zhou, guess which team’s fastest?”

Qin Zhou didn’t pause his work, replying after a moment’s thought: “Lu Wu and Baixing’s team, I’d say.”

Wen Jue was surprised. “How do you know? Why not Lu Er and Lu Qi?”

“This is a fruit-harvesting contest, not a cultivation competition,” Qin Zhou explained. “Lu Wu and Baixing are both healers and alchemists. They handle alchemical ingredients daily, so processing Spirit Heart Fruits comes naturally to them. Lu Wu mentioned that Baixing cultivates many alchemical herbs in the upper realm, too. Farming tasks come much easier to them.”

“If things go as expected, I suspect Team Shisi might even surpass Lu Er’s group.”

Wen Jue didn’t show surprise this time, merely nodding.

Qin Zhou stared at the fruit in his hand and murmured, “It seems I’ve been playing matchmaker.”

Hearing this, Wen Jue, who knew the truth, felt an inexplicable flutter in his heart. Could Qin Zhou see it? Could he see that Lu Er and Lu Qi had already…

No, that meant…

“Did you know all along who would win this competition? Did you deliberately let Lu Wu and his disciple win?”

“How can you say I let them win?” Qin Zhou denied it. “I never favor anyone.”

Wen Jue: “…”

He was the village chief whose partiality was common knowledge.

Qin Zhou continued, “Lu Wu can’t even refine a sixth-tier Soul-Stabilizing Pill anymore. “

Wen Jue raised an eyebrow. ”So what?“

Qin Zhou pondered, ”His Dao-Protecting Alchemy Furnace was personally forged by me. That furnace can refine sixth-tier elixirs. It was my gift to him for his hundredth birthday.“

”And then?” Wen Jue crouched down, ready to hear the story. Though he knew the story Qin Zhou was about to tell, he simply wanted to hear the past recounted by this man’s own voice.

“With Lu Wu’s talent, he should have been able to refine sixth-tier pills by the time he reached a thousand years old. I had originally planned to replace his Dao-Protecting Alchemy Furnace once I found the materials.”

In fact, he had even prepared the materials for casting a new furnace.

“But now, nearly ten thousand years later, he still can’t refine a sixth-tier Soul-Stabilizing Pill.”

Wen Jue’s first reaction upon hearing this was astonishment. Qin Zhou understood the villagers far better than he’d imagined. He’d even made plans long ago…

“Unable to refine a sixth-tier Soul-Stabilizing Pill… Could it be that the furnace you gave him is faulty?” Wen Jue asked tentatively.

“The tier of the pill one can refine has always depended solely on the pill furnace. The furnace is merely an auxiliary tool.” Just like him—even when he was mortal, even using an ordinary furnace, he could refine a Tier 1 Spirit Pill.

Given Lu Wu’s talent, this shouldn’t be happening.

“His Dao Heart shattered,” Qin Zhou said, his gaze growing heavy. The Dao-Protecting Alchemy Furnace that had sworn allegiance to its master failed to shield his Dao Heart.

With the Dao Heart shattered, the pill furnace itself was likely…

Wen Jue fell silent.

“But with the Dao Heart shattered… what can you possibly do?” The words came out with a bitter weight.

“I don’t know,” Qin Zhou replied. “But I can’t just sit idly by.” At the end, he let out a small laugh, too.

He liked to act first, to find out whether something worked, only after doing it.

Wen Jue sighed. “You really are a good village chief. Too bad I don’t bear the Lu surname. Otherwise, I’d definitely be your little kid.”

Qin Zhou: “…If you ever want to change your name, just let me know.”

Wen Jue crouched on the ground, tilting his head at him. “If I did change my name, what number would I be? I’ve always been strong-willed. I won’t settle for being the youngest. If I’m going to be anything, it’s the first.”

Qin Zhou: “That won’t work.”

Wen Jue: “Why not?”

Wen Jue listened intently, loving to hear this person describe Lu Yi’s uniqueness.

“Well… he’s one of a kind,” Qin Zhou said.

One of a kind… Wen Jue’s ears burned, grateful Qin Zhou couldn’t see his face now. “How… unique is he?”

Even Qin Zhou, who was constantly saying things Wen Jue loved to hear, felt a growing restlessness within.

But precisely because he couldn’t see his face at this moment.

Some things seemed easier to say.

Qin Zhou thought for a moment and said, “I’ve been here for hundreds, even thousands of years. I’ve only ever had one wish. It was to see him attain enlightenment and ascend, becoming the greatest under heaven.”

That was Lu Yi—the dream that had once filled Qin Zhou’s youth.

A dream of cultivating immortality, a delusional dream of becoming the world’s greatest.

Eight years had consumed all of Qin Zhou’s youth.

What Qin Zhou didn’t mention was that even in the game project he later joined, he’d overruled objections to preserve and incorporate the name Lu Yi.

Every word seemed to underscore how utterly unique ‘Lu Yi’ was to Qin Zhou.

Wen Jue’s expression darkened with every word.

Attaining enlightenment and ascending?

What kind of enlightenment could a demon lord like him attain?

Wasn’t being the greatest under heaven enough?