As soon as Cerberus saw the trio, he knew that they were no troublemakers as he could make out who two of them were. He was quite shocked to see the two of them together but let them through without questioning them.
Zhang Jian, who was still soaked in sweat while working in the fields with Wang Yan, was delighted to see some friends and took a break in order to chat with them.
Previously, he had worked Wang Yan too hard and she couldn't move an inch after he announced the break.
Seeing Wang Yan try so hard, Xiao Luo thought that Zhang Jian must have been a very strict teacher and she must have been making a lot of progress under his tutelage, but he would probably be utterly shocked to find that what she had been learning until that moment was only the farming skills of the normal peasants and countryside folk.
All of them had planned to beg the master to help Wu Ming but before they could implement their plan, Zhang Jian spoke up in a very pleased manner.
"Boss Wu, how has it been? I thought that you had moved away. I don't know what brings you back but I am happy that you came to see me."
Xiao Luo was dumbfounded that Zhang Jian already knew Wu Wei. He cast a piercing gaze towards Wu Wei in order to get an answer out of him but was even more shocked to see that even Wu Wei looked blank to the point of looking dumb. It wasn't until Wu Ming replied that they came to know that it had been Wu Ming that Zhang Jian was talking to.
They had never expected that Wu Ming and Zhang Jian were acquaintances. Their task had become even easier now that there was a common ground between the two.
"There must be some remaining karma between the two of us since we met each other again so soon."
Wu Ming could not hide his shame as soon as Zhang Jian mentioned fate because it had not been karma at all that had brought them together again but his own weakness and inability to survive that had brought him back.
"I should have come sooner but business has not been well ever since I left the village." Wu Ming said while trying to hide his shame. He did not want to tell Zhang Jian about his matters
"Well your way of conducting business is rather peculiar, isn't it? I reckon your business partners must have ousted you for not working to their advantage."
Zhang Jian's reply absolutely stunned Wu Ming and caused his breathing to become heavier. Wu Ming thought that Zhang Jian was using business as a metaphor for cultivation in order to tell him that he already knew what had happened to Wu Ming.
Seeing that Wu Ming's soul had all but left the mortal world, Xiao Luo and Wu Wei began to plead Zhang Jian to get him to help them out of their predicament.
"I am ashamed to say that I have come here to bother you with yet another request. It is good that you already know what happened to Wu Ming. Both Wu Wei and I are worried that Wu Ming will not be able to survive on his own for much longer. As such we beg of you take him under your wing as you had taken my Wang Yan before. We would be eternally grateful and would be willing to cross heavens and earth at your call."
Seeing to old men plead so sincerely, Zhang Jian's heart melted and he agreed immediately.
"All right. My business has'nt been going that well lately anyway. It would be good if Boss Wu helped me out with it."
Wu Wei felt that he had met a truly benevolent master this time. He not only agreed to accept their unreasonable request without any excessive demand but also made up a reason to make them feel better about begging him for help.
Wu Wei took out a fan that had been in the Eastern Clan for ages and could be counted as their ancestral treasure or the manifestation of all the karmic luck that the Eastern Clan had built up until that moment.
The fan had been built entirely of bone, the joints were so finely crafted that it seemed that this fan had been a natural treasure instead of an artificial one.
The golden runes on top of the bones showed that the bones had been taken from a high level holy beast because only such beasts had the ability to engrave their knowledge and their techniques on their own bones and pass it on as inheritance.
He presented the same fan to Zhang Jian due to the boatload of gratitude he had towards this master.
Zhang Jian thought that the gift was not very suitable for him. It seemed to him that the fan was only suitable for girls and not for himself.
Although he felt the gift to be quite unsuitable, he could not bring himself to reject the sincerity of the good old man who was also the father of Boss Wu.
As such he took the gift from Wu Wei and handed it to Wang Yan to hold for the moment as he felt embarrassed to hold such a girly item.
With the acceptance of the gift, Wu Ming had become a part of Zhang Jian's household and was now under the protection of Zhang Jian as well.
Wu Ming from that onward had become free to live his life as he pleased since with Zhang Jian's protection, he could steer clear of both the Immortal World and the Devil World as no one would dare to butt heads with Zhang Jian over the trivial nobody that was him.
"Since you are going to be living here, you have to do something in return as well. Wu Ming you are going to be the steward since I don't have anything else to give you at the moment and I will make sure that you not only survive but live a free and happy life in return."
"I look forward to working for you. Then I will be in your care." Wu Ming bowed slightly in gratitude.
"Also, I know I agreed to you staying here with us but I don't have any place for you to stay right now. You will have to make yourself a temporary one for now. I will ask Wang Yan to help you with that."
"It's okay, I don't mind at all." Wu Ming didn't think that a temporary residence was bad at all since this was the only place where he could stay alive. It didn't matter if he slept a little uncomfortably, it was still obviously better than falling asleep permanently.
"Wang Yan, help out Steward Wu in building a straw hut as a temporary residence since we don't have enough room for him in the hut. We have some leftover straw from the last crop. You can make use of that."
Wang Yan instinctively wanted to reject since she had been training in Zhang Jian's cultivation technique the whole day and was dead tired but abstained from doing so because he was her master.
It took her a moment to realize what had just happened but when she did; she was shocked out of her words to find that Zhang Jian had so easily given away such a treasure for Wu Ming to build a hut with. Either this treasure wasn't worth anything in Zhang Jian's eyes or Zhang Jian considered Wu Ming to be that important.
Zhang Jian was already turning back towards the hut when he conveyed his intentions to Wu Ming and Wang Yan. He wanted them to work on Wu Ming's hut while he went to his own hut in order to prepare dinner as they had already finished working the fields for the day.
As soon as Zhang Jian left, Wu Ming noticed that there were several weird and piercing gazes aimed at him. He almost wanted to run away but he decided to face these gazes head on.
"You are quite lucky that master gave away the straw from his last crops for your hut. You won't find a treasure like that even in the Immortal World." Wang Yan sneered while being somewhat jealous of the differential treatment between her and Wu Ming.