When Chen Qingshan saw the cesspit, he realized just how truly malicious Ma Youcai was.
With a cesspit of this size, even if Chen Qingshan and Wang Dahai worked at it earnestly, there was no way they could finish shoveling it all out in a single day.
However, Chen Qingshan had never intended to do this work in the first place.
"Brother Liu, bring your two brothers and get started. If you don't finish, none of you get to eat!"
Liu An gave his lackey a glance, hoping to signal him to slip away and fetch Ma Youcai to rescue them.
Before the lackey could even move, Chen Qingshan kicked him sprawling to the ground.
"Don't even think about running off. I'll be right here watching you!"
With no other choice, Liu An and his two lackies had to endure the stench and start shoveling the nightsoil.
To their utter despair, Chen Qingshan and Wang Dahai simply sat nearby watching, giving them zero opportunity to slack off or escape.
To make matters worse, Wang Dahai actually went into the mountain, caught two wild chickens, and roasted them right there in the distance.
While the three of them were working themselves to exhaustion and starvation, Chen Qingshan and Wang Dahai were sitting nearby eating until grease was dripping from their chins. This absolutely infuriated Liu An.
One of the lackies crept up to Liu An and muttered in a low voice, "Brother Liu, what should we do? We can't seriously spend the whole day shoveling shit here!"
Liu An said helplessly, "I'm injured right now and no match for them. We'll just have to endure it for now. Once we get back, I'll go find Senior Brother Ma. Once Senior Brother Ma steps in, we'll make them pay!"
Only by invoking Ma Youcai's name was Liu An able to pacify his two lackies.
Of course, exacting revenge later felt great, but right now they were bone-tired.
Moreover, they hadn't eaten all day and had been starving for a while.
Even as practitioners in the Body Tempering Realm, they were starting to reach their limit.
Especially that wicked bastard Chen Qingshan, who was still eating roast chicken in the distance.
The aroma of the roast chicken was so strong that even the stench of the nightsoil couldn't mask it.
Unable to take it any longer, Liu An hurled his bucket of nightsoil to the ground and shouted, "Chen Qingshan, I'm not doing this anymore unless you give me some chicken!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a "hidden weapon" hurtled straight toward him.
Instinctively, Liu An slapped it away with the back of his hand, sending it splashing into the cesspit.
Taking a closer look, he saw it was no hidden weapon at all—it was clearly a chicken backside.
Chen Qingshan chuckled and said, "Look, I offered it to you, but you're the one who refused to eat it!"
Glaring at Chen Qingshan in a rage, Liu An said coldly, "Aren't you afraid of Senior Brother Ma settling accounts with you?"
Chen Qingshan replied offhandedly, "What, aren't disciples in the Servant Quarters allowed to help each other out?"
"As a senior, you proactively came over to help us juniors with our work. I'm sure Senior Brother Ma will commend you for it!"
Deciding it was a waste of energy to argue further with Chen Qingshan, Liu An lowered his head and sullenly went back to shoveling nightsoil.
He had figured it out: Chen Qingshan was utterly unafraid of Ma Youcai. He might as well just save his strength and work!
Liu An and the others had been at it for the better part of the day before Ma Youcai finally caught wind of the situation and rushed over.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Arriving on the scene, Ma Youcai bellowed at the top of his lungs, boiling with anger.
He had assigned Liu An to supervise Chen Qingshan, yet this fellow ended up doing the work for Chen Qingshan instead.
It was obvious to him that Chen Qingshan had forced them into it.
This only made him angrier.
Liu An was a veteran of the Servant Quarters, yet he had let himself be bullied to this extent by a newcomer.
Utterly useless!
Seeing Ma Youcai arrive, Chen Qingshan and Wang Dahai, who had been sunbathing nearby, hurried over.
"Senior Brother Ma, are you here to inspect our progress? With Brother Liu and the others helping out, we'll definitely finish today!"
Gazing coldly at Chen Qingshan, Ma Youcai said, "I gave you that work to do, and you passed it off to someone else. You clearly have no regard for my words!"
Seeing that Ma Youcai still wanted to make trouble for him, Chen Qingshan put on a troubled expression and said, "Senior Brother Ma, I didn't want to either, but Brother Liu insisted on helping out. I couldn't stop him no matter how hard I tried!"
"I never expected the disciples in the Servant Quarters to be so enthusiastic and so caring toward us two newcomers!"
Hearing this, Liu An rushed over from where he was walking and shouted, "Chen Qingshan, you're talking nonsense! You're the one who forced me to do this work!"
With an innocent look, Chen Qingshan said, "Brother Liu, you're at the Fourth Layer of Body Tempering, and I'm not even at the First Layer. Who would believe you if you say I forced you to work?"
Naturally, Chen Qingshan's words made complete sense, but Liu An stubbornly stuck out his neck and protested, "If I weren't injured..."
"If you were injured, why didn't you say so earlier? Brother Liu, you came to help me even with your injuries—I am so touched!"
Cutting Liu An off and seizing the initiative, Chen Qingshan put on a deeply moved expression.
Anyone who didn't know the truth might actually have believed that Chen Qingshan was genuinely touched.
Ma Youcai certainly didn't believe a word of it, but he couldn't be bothered with Liu An anymore either.
In his eyes, Liu An was truly a piece of trash.
An expert at the Fourth Layer of Body Tempering, yet he let himself be forced into shoveling nightsoil by a newly joined servant disciple.
Among immortal cultivators, the strong reigned supreme. If not for the sake of Liu An's older brother, Ma Youcai wouldn't have bothered helping him at all.
Looking at Chen Qingshan, Ma Youcai said in an icy tone, "Chen Qingshan, I had you shovel nightsoil as punishment. Now you've made someone else do it for you—do you still consider me your senior brother?"
Chen Qingshan chuckled dismissively. "Senior Brother, I've heard that we servant disciples aren't even official disciples yet, so we can hardly be called fellow apprentices, can we?"
"If you insist we are official disciples, then Brother Liu is also my senior brother. Isn't it a good thing for fellow apprentices to help each other out?"
Ma Youcai gave a cold snort. "A sharp tongue! You deserve to be punished!"
With that, Ma Youcai leaped forward abruptly and threw a punch straight at Chen Qingshan.
Gathering his focus and summoning every ounce of his concentration, Chen Qingshan unleashed his full strength and met Ma Youcai's fist head-on.
Chen Qingshan knew that the only thing he could use to contend with Ma Youcai was his Innately Divine Strength.
Bang!
Chen Qingshan's fist collided with Ma Youcai's.
After the blow, Chen Qingshan retreated five steps.
However, Ma Youcai retreated seven steps.
Judged by this alone, Chen Qingshan actually had the upper hand.
Liu An stood dumbfounded nearby. Although he had been defeated by Chen Qingshan earlier, that was because he had been ambushed.
He refused to believe that Chen Qingshan's strength surpassed his own.
Now, seeing even Ma Youcai pushed back by Chen Qingshan, a mixture of shock and terror gripped his heart.
Ma Youcai wore a grim expression as he stared at Chen Qingshan.
He hadn't expected a newly arrived servant disciple to possess such formidable strength.
Right now, Ma Youcai wanted nothing more to do with this matter.
Although he was an official disciple, he couldn't just murder Chen Qingshan.
Judging by Chen Qingshan's current display of strength, he would likely become an official disciple very soon.
Glancing at Liu An without uttering a single word, Ma Youcai turned around and walked away.