Fairy, Please Forgive Me, I Never Meant to Impersonate Your Husband
Chapter 42 - Volunteering to Join

Chapter 42: Volunteering to Join

At present, Wu Yuan’s private treasury had dedicated rooms for storing pills, spirit tools, and important elemental artifacts, as well as separate rooms for money, elemental stones, and spirit pearls.

Since the treasury had expanded many times over, now consisting of nine rooms—each with a capacity of one million cubic units, he no longer had to worry about running out of storage space anytime soon.

Of course, he had already begun deliberately leaving some low-level cultivation resources, including pills, in the public treasury of the relay station.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to give more, but his subordinates’ cultivation levels were generally low. Even Chen Yong had only just broken through to the peak of the Skin-Refining Realm and would need at least another month of tempering before reaching the Bone-Forging Realm.

In truth, giving away too much for no reason wasn’t a good thing—it could easily lead to resentment, as the saying went: Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile.

Now, he had quietly started planning a contribution-based system for distributing cultivation resources to his subordinates. However, with only a little over three thousand followers, it was still far too early to divide them into specialized departments. For now, he could only proceed gradually.

After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Once the “Treasure Hunt” event concluded, Wu Yuan kept Cai Yu behind alone to discuss his plans for recruiting refugees from Windreturn Town.

“Has the boss finally made a decision?” Cai Yu blinked her large eyes, her face clearly excited.

“I decided long ago—otherwise, wouldn’t the ten thousand homemade passes I bought earlier have gone to waste?” Wu Yuan chuckled.

“I was afraid you’d completely forgotten about it.”

“There was no rush before, but how could I forget? I estimate the whole process still needs to be handled carefully. Just because the Windreturn Town bandits can’t use the official roads doesn’t mean we should underestimate them. I’m leaving this to you and Chen Yong—can you handle it smoothly?”

“Yes!” Cai Yu nodded vigorously.

Wu Yuan nodded as well and handed her a prepared cloth bag filled with homemade passes.

“There are three thousand passes inside. The original plan was to recruit two thousand people, but there might be some loss in the process. I’ll allow flexibility in how you manage it, but the upper limit is three thousand.”

“Chen Yong will take charge of the operation. He’ll assign personnel to go to Windreturn Town. As for you—you’ve just reached the peak of the Tendon-Tempering Realm, so you won’t be participating directly. There’s no need for you to go to Windreturn Town. Stay back, oversee communications, and handle logistics.”

Cai Yu pouted, clearly disagreeing with Wu Yuan’s decision. But when she saw him narrow his eyes as if about to scold her, she reluctantly agreed.

Afterward, Wu Yuan called Chen Yong over and gave him further instructions.

At present, the relay station still lacked capable personnel. Chen Yong was the only one qualified to carry out missions far from home.

Wu Yuan felt somewhat helpless. He couldn’t easily leave his post, and his clone had range limitations. He could only hope that among the Windreturn Town refugees, a few capable individuals would emerge—then he wouldn’t have to rely solely on Chen Yong for everything.

“Actually, there’s someone more suitable for this task than me,” Chen Yong suddenly said after listening to Wu Yuan’s instructions.

“In the wooden fort, I heard that just a day ago, someone arrived with a group of followers seeking refuge. Miss Liu Yan sent people to the relay station several times to inform you, but you were in seclusion, so you didn’t hear about this person.”

Wu Yuan’s face flushed slightly. He hadn’t been in seclusion—he’d been indulging in pleasures with Madam Fang Yan.

Who would’ve thought that a momentary lapse would nearly cause him to miss a more suitable candidate? The fact that Chen Yong had proactively suggested this person showed his selflessness and loyalty.

Still, Wu Yuan needed to meet the man himself to judge whether he was reliable.

At the same time, he was curious—who exactly was this person?

Was he an escaped slave from the Huan Su caravan, or did he have another identity?

And how many people had he brought when seeking refuge in the wooden fort?

Filled with questions, Wu Yuan didn’t bother summoning Liu Yan. Instead, he went straight to the wooden fort.

In the newly built government hall of the fort’s supervisory office, Wu Yuan sat in the main seat and met the person he wanted to see—except, contrary to what Chen Yong had said, it wasn’t just one person, but two: a man and a woman.

The man was a thin, elderly fellow who appeared to be around two hundred years old by the standard time of the Tianyuan World. He had a shrewd look, his eyes brimming with intelligence.

Notably, he had body-refining cultivation, roughly at the early stage of the Tendon-Tempering Realm.

The woman had a heroic bearing. In her twenties, she stood over 1.85 meters tall, with a healthy, well-proportioned figure that exuded a blend of strength and grace. Even the rough linen clothes she wore seemed to take on the appearance of martial attire.

She also had cultivation, though only at the high stage of the Muscle-Training Realm.

“Zhuge Liu pays his respects to the lord.”

“Feng Xunyu pays her respects to the lord.”

Both clasped their fists and bowed, speaking in similar tones. As Wu Yuan had learned upon arriving at the supervisory office, they had come together with a group seeking refuge in the wooden fort. However, neither was a slave from the Huan Su caravan—they had escaped from two other slave-trading groups.

Those two groups had been enemies. Two months ago, they had encountered each other about six hundred miles from here. One group had launched a nighttime ambush on the other, but the attack failed, leading to an open battle. This had given the slaves a chance to escape.

“I can see you both have cultivation. Were all the slaves in those two groups like this?” Wu Yuan asked after listening to their account.

Zhuge Liu quickly replied, “You misunderstand, my lord. Less than one in ten slaves had any cultivation. Even my early-stage Tendon-Tempering cultivation was considered quite strong among them.”

“Why did you come to seek refuge in my wooden fort?”

“This old man and Miss Feng led three to four hundred people when we escaped. Along the way, we gathered another four to five hundred, including slaves from the Huan Su caravan.”

“The wilderness was too dangerous, so we could only flee along the foothills of the mountain ranges. From west to east, over hundreds of miles, no matter how careful we were, the terrain was treacherous. We had to scavenge for food, facing countless dangers along the way.”

“By the time we reached this area, nearly half of our people were gone. We had no other options left, so we sought shelter in your fort, my lord.”

“I see.” Wu Yuan nodded. “Your plight is unfortunate, but my fort has limited resources. We only support our own people—”

“We’re willing to join the wooden fort,” Feng Xunyu suddenly interrupted, her tone resolute.

“My wooden fort isn’t something you can just join at will.”

Wu Yuan shook his head. “My need for slaves is limited. The fort already has plenty of slaves—they work for me, and in return, I provide them with food, clothing, and protection.”

“But I’m not a saint.”

“A slave without an identity tag is of little use to me. Without one, they can’t use blood essence from hunting to quickly boost their blood qi cultivation. That means I have to invest more resources into their manual cultivation.”

“The cost of raising them this way is high, and I can’t afford to support too many.”

“This old man understands your meaning, my lord,” Zhuge Liu said. “But I believe the people we’ve brought are of greater value to you.”

“Out of the five hundred and seventy of us, over a hundred and fifty have some level of cultivation. Though most are only at the Muscle-Training Realm, they’re still more useful than slaves without any cultivation.”

“Whether they’re useful to me is for me to decide, not you.”

Wu Yuan’s tone turned slightly cold. Then, pausing, he abruptly changed the subject.

“I’ve reviewed the identity records you submitted to the fort. You and Miss Feng are from Windreturn Town?”