Chapter 3

At a loss, the villagers surrounded Cheng Duo in the center. Suddenly, he accidentally caught sight of a familiar figure—a thin figure with lowered brows and eyes, who had helped him up after he kicked away the burly man. Wasn't it the same mysterious person who saved him?

Although Cheng Duo didn't see clearly at that moment, having heightened vision was a basic ability in the apocalypse, so he couldn't be mistaken.

The mysterious person seemed timid and became nervous when he noticed Cheng Duo staring at him, as if he had recognized him. His movements became stiff.

However, his embarrassment disappeared the next moment because, after being helped up, the burly man not only showed no gratitude but also rudely pushed away his savior. "Get lost! Do you think I'm not embarrassed enough?"

Cheng Duo squinted his eyes and suddenly felt that he had kicked the man too lightly!

"Oh, Third Master Li, please help us!" Seeing Village head Li and the others, the woman who had been causing a scene seemed to have found her savior. She quickly got up from the ground, first pleaded with him, and then grabbed a black, thin, and short middle-aged man beside her. "Head of the family, say something too! Look at what that wretched man did to our family's Changsheng!"

The young man called Changsheng was supported by his own younger brother, rubbing his chest. His face turned red, but luckily, his dark complexion only showed a thin layer of redness. However, the embarrassment on his face couldn't be concealed.

Cheng Duo coldly snorted, "The wicked first cries foul! I haven't accused you of condoning the mad bull injuring people yet, and you've already accused me? If we talk about fighting, it was you who started it. I was just defending myself."

The woman, preoccupied with her own cow, hadn't noticed Cheng Duo's appearance at all and didn't know he could be so fierce. Now, when she was glared at by him, she was immediately frightened and didn't dare to say anything. She hurriedly hid behind the head of the family.

Village Head Li frowned and asked, "Changsheng, can you explain what happened?"

The rustic peasant named Changsheng was honest and truthfully explained the situation, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. He said, "I couldn't help but teach him a lesson when I saw him lay hands on my mother… But who would have thought that it didn't work, and instead, I was thrown out along with my second cousin… It's really embarrassing."

"Why didn't you say that earlier?" The burly man, supported by the mysterious person, looked at Cheng Duo with dissatisfaction.

"What a joke! You guys didn't intend to talk to me nicely either! If you're not satisfied, come over here, and we can fight again?" Cheng Duo realized that his plans to integrate into the village were likely to fail, so he decided to be as straightforward as possible.

However, he didn't know that he himself was tall and robust, with thick eyebrows and deep eyes, and his heavy killing intent, accumulated in the apocalypse, made him look as fierce as the King of Hell when he frowned.

The burly man, also known as Li Da, didn't say anything.

(T/N: Da is not his name. It signifies he must be eldest of his siblings and Er signifying second born)

Fight? How could they fight? The two brothers couldn't even beat him with just one hand!

In fact, Li Da and Li Er were accustomed to being bullies and tyrants in the village. In the past, if someone couldn't beat them, they could only accept their misfortune and pay compensation. But now, someone even more fierce had appeared, and with their nature of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, they were more cowardly than anyone else.

In fact, when they rushed out earlier, they didn't genuinely intend to help their uncle's wife, Wu Guihua, and their cousin, Li Changsheng. They just saw Cheng Duo alone and wanted to gain some benefits from him.

Li Da remained silent, and Li Er hid behind him. The village ruffians were frightened by the other party, while the other villagers were honest and hardworking farmers. Village head Li, unable to do anything, had to apologize to Cheng Duo in a friendly manner and asked, "I don't know what brings you to our village, sir?"

If he was here to demand money or food, they should gather some and give it to him as soon as possible. They really couldn't afford to provoke him!

Cheng Duo pondered for a moment and responded with a counter-question, "Why did they run when they saw me earlier?"

Upon hearing this, the villagers carrying farming tools such as hoes and shoulder poles looked at each other, and in the end, it was Village Head Li who answered on their behalf, hesitating for a moment. "Our Tenfang Mountain area is not very peaceful, so everyone gets scared when they see a stranger."

He paused and tentatively asked Cheng Duo, "By the way you're dressed, it seems like you've come back from beyond the borders?"

Although Cheng Duo spoke the same language as them, the intonation was quite different, and he also had short hair. The people from beyond the borders, due to the hot weather and their lack of emphasis on etiquette like the people from the Great Xia, often had their hair cut in strange and unusual styles. Some people who had spent a long time beyond the borders also imitated them, which was why Village Head Li asked the question.

Of course, in reality, some bandits also adopted this appearance for convenience, but Village Head Li didn't need to explicitly mention that. They couldn't even handle Cheng Duo alone, let alone a group of bandits.

Cheng Duo's gaze flickered. From Village Head Li's implication, it seemed like they were very close to the border? However, it wasn't the time to delve into that matter. Cheng Duo put aside this question for now and thought for a moment before improvising a background story for himself.

"No, my name is Cheng Duo. I'm a lay disciple who returned to secular life from Shaolin Temple. When I came back to my hometown, I discovered that there had been a major flood a few years ago. Either my family members were drowned or they escaped with the villagers. I inquired along the way, but I didn't get much information about my relatives. I found it hard to survive on my own… Later, I saw that the people here were extraordinary, and since my relatives are gone anyway, I decided to settle down here."

"Shaolin Temple…?" Village Head Li's heavy accent made him smack his lips and ask, "Does that mean a Buddhist temple?"

Cheng Duo was momentarily stunned but nodded, saying, "Yes, in Songshan, Henan."

Songshan, Henan… What place is that? Village Head Li glanced behind him and saw that the villagers had blank expressions, even worse than his own.

"Someone like Master Cheng… can also become a monk?" Village Head Li looked at Cheng Duo with doubt in his eyes. He had seen monks and Taoists who lived a rough life, looking thin and yellow-faced, always wearing a smile and speaking kind words when they came to beg for alms.

Someone like Cheng Duo would probably resort to direct robbery… 

Fortunately, despite Cheng Duo's ferocity, his eyes were clear, and he spoke reasonably. Plus, during their earlier fight, he clearly held back his strength and didn't harm anyone. Village Head Li had a favorable impression of him.

"I am a warrior monk," Cheng Duo said straightforwardly. Seeing Village Head Li's gaze fixed on the game in his hands, he explained further, "I have already returned to secular life, so there are no dietary restrictions. I can eat meat and drink alcohol without any taboos."

He casually handed the game to Village Head Li and continued, "But these are not for my own consumption. Consider them as a gift. I would like to settle down in the village. I was wondering if there is any vacant land of about one and a half acres where I can build a house."

Village Head Li was truly stunned this time and didn't dare to accept the gift. "You really want to stay in our Yang Village?"

It wasn't that he underestimated himself, but behind Yang Village stretched the endless Tenfang Mountains. The land in the village was thin, and wolves and wild boars often came down from the mountains to plunder livestock and crops. Every household was poor.

Village Head Li had something he wanted to tell Cheng Duo, but after a moment's thought, he swallowed the words back. He had a feeling that Cheng Duo could bring some changes… Fine, he would observe for a while first. If Cheng Duo turned out to be a good person, he would find a way to keep him in the village.

"Of course, as I said," Cheng Duo stuffed the five chickens and the wild goat into the old man's hands. "If you agree, I will become a hunter in the village."

This time, Village Head Li couldn't refuse, and because the game was heavy, the elderly man stumbled accidentally. Thanks to the help of his eldest son, Li Da Zhuang, who was standing beside him, he managed to steady himself and prevent the game from falling to the ground.

Village Head Li secretly gave his eldest son a signal, instructing him to take the game home quietly when no one was paying attention.

However, seeing this pile of game, Aunt Wu, who had been protesting earlier after her cow was struck, couldn't stand it anymore. "So he beat our cow, and that's it?"

Their cow was still lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth. It seemed to be on the verge of death!

That was a whole cow, worth at least five taels of silver!

Cheng Duo also found it a bit strange. He approached the big yellow ox, lifted its eyelids with his hand, and sniffed it with a bit of saliva. "This ox seems to have eaten something poisonous…" As for the specifics, he didn't know.

"If you say it's poisonous, then it's poisonous. You're not a doctor!" Aunt Wu couldn't help but retort. If it was true that their cow had eaten something it shouldn't have, wouldn't she lose her five taels of silver?

"Wang Daifu has arrived." Just as they mentioned the doctor, Cheng Duo turned around and coincidentally saw his savior leading a barefoot young physician with a medicine basket.

When the man noticed Cheng Duo looking at him, he timidly lowered his head and stopped walking.

Cheng Duo found it amusing. This person seemed to be around seventeen or eighteen years old, yet he was so timid. How did he have the courage to save him back then?

Cheng Duo was initially a bit curious about how the ancient physician would examine and diagnose patients. Unexpectedly, this Wang Daifu directly took out a cloth bundle from his personal pocket and carefully unwrapped it to reveal a silver needle, treating it as if it were a precious treasure.

Well…

"It's poisoning," Wang Daifu declared after testing with the silver needle, thus proving Cheng Duo's innocence.

Aunt Wu was disappointed, but her two sons, Changsheng and the young man who had warned Cheng Duo earlier, gathered around Wang Daifu. "Poisoning? What kind of poison?"

"Wang Daifu, you must save our big yellow ox. Our farmland depends on it."

Seeing that it had nothing to do with him anymore, Cheng Duo took the opportunity to observe his savior. Honestly, his savior's appearance was really not that great. He looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, thin and dark, with cracked cheeks and lips from the northern winds, very rough. He was dressed in dirty clothes and a patched animal fur cape, resembling the style of a fur blanket from a mountain cave.

However, Cheng Duo noticed that his eyes were very beautiful. The eye sockets were deep, with long and black eyelashes, and the irises, upon closer inspection, seemed to be a gray-blue color, suggesting some mixed ethnicity.

But he rarely made direct eye contact with others, always keeping his head down as if afraid of drawing attention to himself. He deliberately left his messy hair to cover half of his face. Except for Cheng Duo, almost no one in the village paid much attention to him.

Cheng Duo remembered that the two brothers from earlier seemed to be unfriendly towards him. He glanced around and found that they had already disappeared. Well, he would find an opportunity later to ask what the other person needed. He didn't like owing favors to others and would feel relieved once he repaid them.

Cheng Duo observed the mysterious person's expression and realized that he didn't want to acknowledge him. He touched his nose and averted his gaze—after all, repaying kindness with enmity by hurting the person who saved him and their loved ones would make Cheng Duo, no matter how ferocious, feel a bit embarrassed.