Shen Xingyan took a long time to mentally prepare himself to accept this astonishing fact.
He leaned back and collapsed heavily onto the ground, contemplating how bright and exciting his life had become since his Awakening!
The little skeletons working in the field, hearing the noise, instinctively rushed towards him to protect him.
Seeing them gather around, Shen Xingyan smiled happily and waved his hand, signaling for them to continue their work.
Checking the cooldown on his professional skill, he set the Star Source reminder function and, indulging in pleasant dreams, fell into a sweet sleep.
After a full day of training, the recent surge of emotions, and that impressive number, the emotional rollercoaster had exhausted him. The moment he closed his eyes, he fell into a deep sleep.
He had no idea that his actions as the "main culprit" had enraged one of the uncles of the famous Liu Clan from the Central District!
"Useless! Just a bunch of useless people! You can't even catch the lowest-level rat! What good are you to me? Good-for-nothings!"
The man, who was in his forties, was scolding the group of people standing before him with the air of an experienced elder. If you looked closely, you could recognize them as the same men in black who had appeared near the border just a few hours ago.
"Uncle, it's not our fault! When you discovered it was missing, an unknown amount of time had already passed. The fact that we were able to find the tracks is a good thing. You yourself wasted time and allowed it to escape beyond the base. What could we have done?"
The burly man from the border replied with an indifferent expression, completely unimpressed by the uncle's rage.
Looking at his relative's face, he maintained an appearance of calm, but inside he was filled with contempt:
"To think, the old man is already over eighty, yet he spent a huge amount of money to look like his own son. Shameless! That money would have been better spent on increasing strength instead of on this effeminate nonsense. It's disgusting to watch."
"If you weren't older than me, I would have taught you a lesson long ago with your pathetic strength."
"You just got lucky, being born in a period of stability when the clan helped you become a high-level pharmacist, hoping you'd become a source of income. Now, with your weak professional skills and mediocre talent, you would have been thrown out of the base to fend for yourself long ago."
"And worst of all—you spent 10,000 gold on a Bodhi Leaf for your recently awakened, spoiled grandson! What brazenness!"
That's 10,000 gold! They could have been used to extract 1,000 attribute points for members of the clan! And all of it was spent on your grandson, who only knows how to have fun! Dammit, this is infuriating!"
Although the burly man could have said all this out loud, he held back. After all, this "money-making machine" still held a certain authority in the clan, and an open confrontation would bring more harm than good. So he only expressed his discontent internally.
"Is that your excuse? Do you call that an excuse?! Get out of here! Get out!" The uncle, hearing the response, fell into an even greater fury, especially seeing the burly man's indifferent expression, which only worsened his already bad mood.
He had originally caught this rat so his precious grandson could practice in the real world. Who knew that the rat would have the innate talent "Flicker"—a spatial ability—thanks to which it not only stole the surprise prepared for his grandson, the Bodhi Leaf, but also managed to escape.
That money was the result of decades of his "blood and sweat," and now it had all vanished in an instant. His heart was literally bleeding from the loss.
The burly man, hearing this, simply ignored him, muttering something under his breath as he led his people away.
As he left, he quietly mumbled: "Serves you right! Always meddling in indecent matters. How many young girls have you ruined over the years under the pretext of research? You old pervert, ugh!"
The uncle, with his level of strength, of course, heard this muttering. In a rage and mortified, he wanted to rush forward to demonstrate the authority of an elder, but after taking a few steps, he stopped.
The burly man was an outstanding representative of his generation in the Liu Clan. It was usually enough to maintain a semblance of respect, but the uncle didn't dare to truly do anything to him.
Besides, if he were to argue, it would only worsen his reputation. Although he was enraged, he understood that the game wasn't worth the effort.
Even though Uncle Liu thought so, his accumulated resentment had no outlet.
Having lost his money and been publicly shamed, he became more and more agitated. Finally, his eyes went dark, and he almost fainted. Fortunately, a servant next to him quickly reacted and supported him, preventing him from being shamed even more.
…..
Meanwhile, Shen Xingyan, who was having wonderful dreams in his cultivation space, knew nothing of this. When the reminder signal he had set up from the Star Source sounded, he woke up.
Sitting up and stretching, he felt that his body and mind were significantly refreshed. Checking his stats panel, he saw that there were only a few seconds left until his professional skill finished its cooldown.
Feeling invigorated, he stood up and mentally summoned the staff into his hand.
When the countdown ended, Shen Xingyan began to softly chant a spell. 25 points of Primal Energy gathered from his body into the staff and, when the incantation was complete, the energy burst forth, instantly covering the entire field.
The wheat and potato sprouts, which had already turned green from a day's growth, looked as if they were on fast-forward—each plant desperately stretched upwards, and the soil, which had been visible before, was instantly hidden by the vegetation.
When Shen Xingyan finished the spell, the plants didn't stop growing. They continued for about half a minute more before the "fast-forward" effect stopped and they returned to their normal growth rate.
However, for Shen Xingyan and the little skeletons, the "battle" was just beginning, as the prompts from the Star Source began to appear with increasing frequency.
The twelve workers, already ready for action, immediately got to work.
Shen Xingyan, along with three skeletons, first tackled the prompts for the central one mu of wheat, while the remaining skeletons, led by Wangcai, divided into pairs, each responsible for one mu of land.
With such a clear division of labor, the Star Source prompts were being cleared at an incredible speed, and the frequency of the basic prompts began to gradually decrease.
Just as Shen Xingyan was thinking the day would pass in this rhythm, a new prompt suddenly appeared above the wheat field, causing all the workers, including himself, to freeze in place.