The visitor who arrived bearing gifts was Zhao Hanguo, the village chief of Zhao Family Village, located sixty or seventy kilometers away from Dawan Village.
Zhao Family Village was the nearest cultivator settlement to Dawan Village.
Its founding was not much different from that of Dawan Village.
Decades, or even a century ago, some Low Tier Cultivators had discovered a Spiritual Spring in the vicinity, then built a settlement around it after cultivating the Spiritual Land.
It was just that Zhao Family Village's Spirit Fields were far smaller than Dawan Village's, totaling only about two mu.
Zhao Hanguo, the strongest person in Zhao Family Village, looked to be about fifty years old.
But his strength was not impressive; his Cultivation was only at the Qi Introduction Fourth Layer.
For his age, this level of power could be considered low.
"Greetings, Young Master of the Shen Family!"
Inside the reception hall in the center of Dawan Village,
the moment Shen Changchuan walked in—before he could even greet his guest—Zhao Hanguo scrambled to his feet and performed a deep, formal bow.
He looked like a servant paying respects to a high official, his expression filled with reverence and fear.
He was just short of dropping to his knees.
"Brother Zhao, there's no need for such ceremony. You're embarrassing me!"
Shen Changchuan, taken aback himself, quickly helped the man to his feet.
"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare..."
Zhao Hanguo repeatedly demurred, trembling with trepidation.
He seemed completely overwhelmed by Shen Changchuan's polite attitude.
So much so that when Shen Changchuan gestured for him to sit in the guest's chair,
the man only perched on the edge of the seat, ready to spring up at a moment's notice, not daring to sit properly.
And when he saw Shen Changchuan pick up the teapot to pour him some tea,
he shot to his feet, took the teapot from him, and poured the tea for himself.
He looked terrified at the thought of troubling Shen Changchuan in the slightest.
"Young... Young Master! My station is low. I am unworthy of such hospitality from you, Young Master. Please, let me do it myself!"
"Well... Brother Zhao, I am merely at the Qi Introduction Third Layer. Surely this isn't necessary?"
Zhao Hanguo's reaction
left Shen Changchuan speechless. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
This kind of treatment...
he had never once experienced it back in the snobbish Shen Family Mansion, where everyone looked down on everyone else.
For a moment, he was at a complete loss.
"It is! It is necessary!"
"Young Master, you are the son of the Shen Clan Patriarch! The Shen Clan is a great and noble house in the Tian Nan Immortal Cultivation World. Your status is exalted. For you to even grant a lowly person like myself an audience is more than I could have hoped for."
Zhao Hanguo's wrinkled face was plastered with an ingratiating smile.
It was as if Shen Changchuan simply speaking to him
was the greatest honor of his life.
This left Shen Changchuan at a loss for words.
Fortunately, he had a steady disposition
and showed none of his inner turmoil.
However, driven by curiosity,
Shen Changchuan began to subtly probe for information about the surrounding area as they spoke.
After quite some time,
after he had gained a general understanding of the situation around Dawan Village, it all clicked into place. He finally understood the reason for Zhao Hanguo's deferential behavior.
The whole story,
was a long one.
Dawan Village was located several thousand li south of Tian Nan City,
a rather desolate region where one could travel a hundred li in many places without seeing a single soul.
It was on the border between the untamed wilderness and the lands of human civilization.
A long time ago,
this place had been a barren and desolate wilderness.
That was, until three hundred years ago.
The century-long war that led to the destruction of the Xiangshan Sect swept through the entire Southern Marsh Domain, bringing immense death and chaos.
Consequently, many low-level Cultivators and large numbers of mortals fled south with their families into the wilds, hoping to escape the brutal conflicts of the Immortal Cultivation Realm.
These refugees settled here, gradually populating the southern wilds.
But these were, after all, undeveloped lands.
Demon Beasts roamed the wilds, and even the settlements were subject to frequent attacks.
As a result, population growth was very slow at first.
It was only in the last century, as the transplanted humans gradually adapted to their new environment and Cultivators continuously hunted the wild Demon Beasts, that the area finally became relatively stable.
Even so,
traveling in the wild still meant facing the occasional beast attack.
The whole area was still permeated by a savage, law-of-the-jungle atmosphere.
It was for this very reason
that Dawan Village, despite possessing twelve mu of Spirit Fields, was considered an undesirable post within the Shen Clan—which was why Shen Changchuan had been sent here.
After all, the development of Spirit Fields and Spirit Veins around Tian Nan City was a mature and perfected process. The income was high, and it was safe.
One could simply stay put in a village and still rake in a substantial annual income.
But that was an aside.
Returning to Zhao Hanguo's attitude, it was deeply connected to how the Shen Clan came to possess Dawan Village twenty years ago.
Dawan Village was thousands of li away from the Shen Family's main stronghold.
It certainly hadn't been established by them.
Twenty years ago,
this village had belonged to another of the Minor Immortal Cultivation Clans.
The ancestor of that clan had migrated here a century prior and discovered a Spiritual Spring in the mountains, its waters rich with Spiritual Qi.
They then used that Spiritual Spring as a source, channeling its water to saturate suitable fields. Through continuous fertilization, aided by the rich power of the local earth veins, they gradually developed the land over generations, eventually creating the twelve mu of Spirit Fields that existed today.
As it grew, it became one of the more prominent villages in the area, and its ruling family gained some renown in the surrounding towns.
But twenty years ago,
the Patriarch of that Immortal Cultivation Clan, for some insane reason, killed a member of a Shen Family branch clan who had come to the area for training and adventure.
His work was sloppy, however, and someone noticed the inconsistencies and reported them to the Shen Family.
After that, there was no 'after that'.
At the time, the Shen Clan was embroiled in lively internal power struggles.
But they weren't so distracted as to ignore one of their own clansmen being murdered by some backwater upstart,
especially not after the matter had been brought to light.
And so,
the Minor Immortal Cultivation Clan that once occupied Dawan Village ceased to exist.
The Shen Family dispatched a Soul Emergence expert, who solved everything.
Thus Dawan Village, with its twelve mu of Spirit Fields, became a spoil of war for the Shen Clan.
Twelve mu of Spirit Fields could produce, at a minimum, over 2,400 jin of Spirit Grain annually. In terms of Spirit Stones, that was a value of more than 240 stones.
Two hundred and forty Spirit Stones a year.
For the major figures within the Shen Clan, this wasn't a huge amount.
But it was by no means insignificant enough to be discarded.
And though the journey was long, it was on the edge of the Shen Clan's sphere of influence. If it could be used to settle some branch clan members, that would be for the best.
And so, Dawan Village was absorbed into the Shen Family's assets.
It became a place to station members of the Shen Clan's branch families.
However, even though the Shen Clan had a just cause for their actions,
the outside world knew little of the inner details. Even if the Shen Clan publicly stated they had only acted because the smaller clan had killed one of their own,
as for the real truth of the matter...
the nearby minor clans and small-time Cultivators were all deeply unsettled.
After all, this wasn't a world with security cameras. The Shen Clan hadn't presented all the evidence for them to see. Who really knew if the original Dawan Village clan had actually killed a member of the Shen Clan?
As such,
the surrounding powers were naturally terrified, living in constant fear.
Ever since Dawan Village changed hands twenty years ago, the surrounding Minor Immortal Cultivation Clans and smaller powers had all begun to look to Dawan Village for leadership.
Every year, during festivals and holidays, the leaders of the surrounding small cultivation powers would visit with gifts, offering flattery and trying their utmost to curry favor, all in the hopes of forging some kind of connection with the Shen Clan.
If nothing else,
they at least wanted to avoid having some baseless accusation suddenly pinned on them, followed by the annihilation of their entire family.