Chapter 5

Just after taking a few steps, Zhong Shitao shouted, "Xiao Fei, don’t run too far, you have to return with us later!"

The big men immediately laughed, "Shitao, you are quite a devoted brother-in-law, aren’t you?"

Zhong Shitao shrugged his shoulders in a mock helpless manner, "What can I do? I am his brother-in-law, and Yuxia loves him so much. I have to keep a close eye on him, or it won’t do."

This immediately drew a chorus of sighs.

Shen Fei casually responded, knowing exactly what his future brother-in-law was thinking. He just wanted to show off his status as the fiancé of his sister.

After all, his sister was very popular in town. Before his future brother-in-law came, although she was still young, she was already a little beauty and was skilled at managing the household. She took care of everything for the eldest brother and himself. At that time, many leaders of the sub-chapters and wealthy gentry from the town came to propose marriage. If it weren’t for her nature of staying indoors and only going out to buy things in town, the threshold of their house might have been worn down by the proposals! In the end, they had no choice but to have his future brother-in-law join this sub-chapter.

Although the appearance of his future brother-in-law did indeed calm down the wave of proposals, it also provoked many sub-chapter members to challenge this "toad that had eaten swan meat."

However, this toad indeed had some skills, being the strongest among his peers, almost defeating all the challengers in town. This made no one dare to provoke him anymore, but there were still many people who admired his sister, which forced his future brother-in-law to often flaunt his status.

Thinking about all this, Shen Fei saw that the light point representing himself on the map had completely covered the shining light point. He immediately squatted down to search carefully.

After searching for a while, he found only a bunch of weeds under his feet, and a few stones in the weeds. What could shine like his light point? Shen Fei picked up the stones one by one to examine them.

The first few were ordinary stones, not looking like any treasure, so he temporarily put them aside, thinking he might not recognize their value.

When he picked up the last stone, an oval, water-blue stone about the size of the last joint of his little finger, a thought suddenly popped into his mind: "Energy-containing object detected. Energy type: Water. Energy level: E6. This energy can be directly absorbed to improve the detector’s capabilities. Do you wish to absorb it?"

"Water? E6? What does this mean? Water should be water energy, but what does E6 mean? What is E? What is 6?" Shen Fei ignored the continuous prompt to confirm, instead muttering in confusion.

Feeling the oval stone, it was very smooth. Holding it up to his eyes, the sky was dark, and he could only vaguely see the water-blue color in the moonlight. After some thought, he still ignored the confirmation prompt, focusing on the stone and silently chanting, "Expand!"

As the map locked onto the object and expanded, the stone occupied the entire map. Under this clear and bright view, Shen Fei discovered the beauty of the stone. The water-blue color was very pure and rich, like fine jade. With a slight shake of his hand, the water-blue color seemed to be wrapped in a transparent film, flowing like water.

Shen Fei sighed in relief. Even without the detector’s identification, anyone would recognize this stone as a treasure in broad daylight. Letting such a treasure be absorbed by the detector?

Shen Fei pursed his lips. He wasn’t that stupid. This stone could probably fetch at least one gold coin. If the detector absorbed it, it would only slightly expand the map’s area or add a zoom function. What’s the big deal? Could it buy new clothes and jewelry for his sister? Could it buy good tea for the eldest brother? Could it buy him something delicious?

Thinking about this, Shen Fei prepared to put the water-blue stone in his pocket. But the detector, sensing his thoughts, urgently prompted him: "Absorb the energy. After the detector upgrades, it will provide more functions and easily detect more energy objects."

Shen Fei blinked. Although he was mischievous, he wasn’t stupid. He understood that this was like getting an egg and deciding whether to eat it directly or hatch a chick, which would provide more eggs in the long run. In such a situation, unless it was a special case, like being on the brink of starvation, a fool would choose to hatch the egg.

Shen Fei wasn’t a fool, so he was tempted by the idea of "easily detecting more energy objects." He nodded firmly and silently chanted, "Confirm absorption!" As he chanted, the stone in his hand immediately turned into a liquid and seeped into his skin.

This sudden change almost made Shen Fei jump. He hurriedly used his mind to sense his hand and arm but felt nothing, as if the liquid hadn’t seeped into his skin at all. Had the detector absorbed it through his skin? Damn! Using his body as a channel without giving him any benefits!

As Shen Fei fumed, a warm current suddenly flowed from the bump on the back of his head, rushing to the top of his head, then down through several major acupoints, spreading throughout his body.

Shen Fei was initially delighted, but then he pouted in dissatisfaction. If this warm current could stay in his dantian, he could at least break through the fourth level of the basic cultivation technique. Even if he couldn’t break through, he would reach the peak of the third level. But this current spread throughout his body, not staying in his dantian or meridians.

Damn! This only made his physical body stronger! For Shen Fei, whose goal was to surpass the eldest brother, such a benefit was almost negligible, as martial artists’ bodies were already incredibly strong and robust.

Shen Fei initially wanted to shut off the map, but a thought popped into his mind: "Energy saturated, upgrade successful. Advanced from basic to level 1. Please use the new functions."

Because of this prompt, Shen Fei temporarily didn’t shut it off and curiously looked at the map to see what new functions it had. But this look made him pause.

What did Shen Fei see? The map didn’t get bigger, still a palm-sized circular map. The ground scene didn’t change much, but there was a significant change: the light points representing people now had colors.

"Huh? Fifteen light points, why are thirteen green and one yellow?" Shen Fei blinked, looking at his map and then at the people blocking the valley entrance, chatting. He was completely puzzled.

Because these people were lined up at the entrance, Shen Fei easily recognized the yellow light point as his future brother-in-law.

This confirmation made Shen Fei suspect that the detector could distinguish between close and distant relationships. Could the yellow light point represent family? Then the green light points must represent allies?

Thinking his judgment was correct, Shen Fei wasn’t particularly happy. A stone worth one gold coin had been absorbed by the detector for such a function, which was really boring.

With nothing to do, Shen Fei prepared to try to find other new functions. But apart from the addition of colors, the display distance hadn’t increased, still a radius of ten meters. In the end, the only new function he found was an additional zoom in and out, meaning he could now zoom in four times and zoom out four times, one more than before. Apart from this, no other functions were discovered.

Just as he was feeling bored, three light points suddenly appeared on the map. It was obvious that the eldest brother and the others had returned, but why were two green and one red?

Shen Fei immediately ran over, preparing to confirm who the red light point was. If it was the eldest brother, it would mean that different colors represented different levels of closeness.

But when Shen Fei came close, he ignored the tense expressions of the eldest brother, Uncle Three, and Uncle Four, and was instead shocked to see that the eldest brother and Uncle Four were green, while Uncle Three was red.

How could this be? Uncle Three was red? The future brother-in-law was yellow? And the eldest brother was green like the others?

At this point, even if Shen Fei had little experience, he could determine that green represented allies, as the eldest brother’s light point was green.

And yellow, thinking about how the future brother-in-law often looked at him unfavorably because of his sister’s doting, could this yellow represent dislike? If so, then red must be...

Shen Fei didn’t dare to think further. Uncle Three was the eldest brother’s right-hand man, following him for twenty to thirty years. He had watched Shen Fei grow up, and Shen Fei had urinated in his arms many times as a child. Uncle Three always saved the best food for him and secretly gave him pocket money. Like Uncle Four, Shen Fei considered them as close as family.

The detector in his mind came from nowhere, and who knew if it was accurate. Right! It must be wrong. So what if Uncle Three is red? Who knows what red means?

Maybe Uncle Three was in the process of breaking through to the ninth level of martial artist, with his blood boiling, which is why it showed red.

Thinking about this, Shen Fei silently chanted, "Close." The prominent red immediately disappeared, and Shen Fei felt a wave of relief, immediately perking up and listening to the eldest brother’s words.

The eldest brother, with a stern face, ignored the subordinates’ questions and directly ordered his two brothers, "Uncle Three, immediately return to the town, take three fast horses, and gallop to the county headquarters to inform the boss. Uncle Four, immediately go to Qiancheng Village to inform the sub-chapter leader."

"Understood!" Uncle Three and Uncle Four saluted and immediately turned to leap away, covering five to six meters in a single bound.

Seeing the two leaders use their internal energy to travel, the crowd was in an uproar. What had happened? But everyone’s eyes were shining because one was informing the sub-chapter leader, and the other was directly informing the boss, clearly indicating that something extraordinary had been discovered in the valley.

"Draw your weapons, be on guard outside!" The eldest brother’s command made the dozen subordinates immediately draw their daggers from their chests and spread out to guard the perimeter.