Chapter 12: Beast!

"Yes, I understand," Shen Zhui felt a chill in his heart.

He's no fool, he wouldn't be so foolish as to give the Li Family an opportunity.

As an ordinary Eighth Rank underling, the young master of the Li Family had mobilized two elite squads to deal with him, employing crossbowmen, archers, and even brought along an Innate martial expert as a retainer.

If not for Wang Long's timely arrival and his breakthrough to the Great Achievement Realm, he would have likely died in these mountains.

"Li Family, you commit countless atrocities. Once I have enough strength, I will surely bring you all down!" thought Shen Zhui.

"Let's go, back to the city."

.........

Meanwhile, back in the county town.

Yang Wu was leading a group of people on patrol around the streets.

Though it was supposed to be a patrol, it felt more like leisurely strolling.

After all, no one would dare cause trouble in a city monitored by divine methods, because it would be easily detected and hard to escape from.

"Since the young master is personally taking action, Shen Zhui's death is inevitable. Only thing is, I don't know if the young master has succeeded yet,"

As Yang Wu strolled about, these thoughts ran through his mind. He was fairly familiar with the young master's temperament.

He handled matters cautiously, even to kill a low-level warrior, he would deploy forces several times more powerful than the enemy.

As the young master once personally said, he enjoyed the look of despair on his prey as they died.

"In a few days, news of Shen Zhui's death will likely come... hmph, Shen Zhui, you brought this on yourself by being arrogant and offending me. Not knowing your place and opposing the Li Family?"

"Shen Zhui, oh Shen Zhui, if you don't die, who will?"

When the Li Family eventually overthrows the county magistrate, won't the Heyuan county still be controlled by the two big families?

Thinking of this, Yang Wu felt increasingly smug.

Walking up to a fruit stall at the corner of the street, Yang Wu casually picked up a green fruit, and asked the stall owner, "Old Zhang, are these fruits fresh?"

"They're fresh, absolutely fresh! If you don't believe me, sir, why don't you try some?" The stall owner hurriedly nodded and bowed.

"How could I do that? I'm on county magistrate's orders to patrol, I can't just take things from people!" Yang Wu replied seriously, but he did not stop his actions, immediately biting into the fruit.

Old Zhang silently cursed inwardly, but dared not show any dissatisfaction on his face. Instead, he took the initiative to offer more fruits to Yang Wu: "You're joking, sir. It's hard work patrolling, we commoners should reward you with some fruits to quench your thirst."

"Hmm... you seem to know your place." Yang Wu was pleased with his behaviour. "Come on, boys, have some. We shouldn't refuse a good deed."

"Thank you, Brother Wu."

The yamen runners immediately lined up, unceremoniously reaching out to grab fruits from the stall.

Within a short while, about half the layer of fruits on the stall was wiped out.

Old Zhang was silently crying in his heart, but he didn't dare voice any complaints.

Next to him was a dry goods stall manned by a strong man, who was about to stand up for him.

"Old Brother Zhang, you..."

"Take care, sir!" Old Zhang quickly sent Yang Wu off with a boisterous laugh, and then gave the man a warning look.

Waiting until they were far away, the muscular stall owner immediately got anxious, "Old Brother Zhang, you earned these fruits with much toil, half of them have just been emptied, isn't that going to put you out of business?"

Old Zhang shook his head, "Believe me, I don't want to allow this either. But you are new in town, you don't understand the intricacies. If I had dared to ask those martial experts for money, I would be out of luck!"

The muscular man was wide-eyed, "What, they dare to beat people and smash stuff in the city? We're supposed to be under divine protection here!"

Old Zhang sighed, "Why would they need to go as far as beating and smashing things? All they have to do is say there's a problem with what I'm selling, bring me and my goods to the county office for a check, and make me wait a full day."

"In the end, they would return me and my goods completely damaged, without leaving any evidence. The divine, huh, as if they would care about such minor matters?"

The muscular man laughed, "If they return both the man and goods, what's there to be afraid of? I've never been to the county office before, and I'd like to have a look!"

"But my friend, what if they come to pull the same stunt every few days?"

"That..." The muscular man was lost for words.

Indeed, just this one move was enough to eat up small vendors like them.

"Wouldn't the county magistrate do something about it?"

"How would he handle it? They're the ones who are supposed to handle it. Would the county magistrate really bother with such trivial matters?"

Old Zhang sighed, "Even if he did, considering the time and money spent, it would probably exceed the cost of a few fruits."

"Sigh..." The muscular man sighed, said no more, and went back to attending his customers.

......

Yang Wu didn't know what the two tradesmen were thinking, and even if he did, he probably wouldn't have cared.

Influenced by Li Ming, he believed it wouldn't be long before this county of Heyuan would be under the reign of the wealthy and powerful clans.

"Creak~" A single-wheel tricycle laden with charcoal slowly rolled over a bluestone road. An elderly man with somewhat grey hair pushed it strenuously, his body trembling with the burden.

Suddenly, the wooden wheel of the tricycle ran over a small pebble causing it to lose its balance.

"Hey! Wu, be careful!"

The shout awakened Yang Wu from his pleasant daydream.

Seeing the charcoal cart skewing towards him and about to hit him, Yang Wu swiftly gave it a kick.

The man who was barely keeping the cart's balance staggered and collapsed with the whole cart on the ground.

"How can you be so careless? You almost rammed me!" Yang Wu cursed. Had the cart hit him, it would have made his clothes dirty. Despite this, a layer of dust got kicked up and stained his trousers.

"Aiyah," said the old man who was kicked to the ground. His face turned pale as he seemed to have twisted his back.

"You've ruined my clothes; can you afford to pay for them?" Yang Wu shot a disgusted look at the filthy old man. Although as an innate Eighth Rank martial artist, he could have easily dodged the charcoal cart, he blamed the old man for his negligence instead.

"Huff...huff..." The old man carefully got up, "I'm sorry, sir. Please accept my apology." As he spoke, he bent down to collect the scattered charcoal.

"Get on with it!" Yang Wu looked at the mess with disgust. The narrow lane was immediately filled up when the charcoal cart tipped over.

"Bloody old fool, bringing bad luck." Yang Wu muttered to himself.

To Yang Wu, selling charcoal was a lowly job. Not only was the earning paltry, but it also kept him dirty all the time. He felt that such persons had no place in a prosperous place like Heyuan.

"Right away, sir, right away." The old man's clothes were soaked in sweat. Though he had twisted his back and despite the pain, he slowly gathered the charcoal.

"Don't dillydally, you're obstructing the road, affecting public movement." Yang Wu, covering his nose with disgust, kicked the tricycle again.

"Ah!" The elderly man who was busy stacking charcoal back to the cart was once again toppled over with the cart.

This time, the old man's injury seemed more severe. He struggled for a while but couldn't get up again.

"Haha, he deserved it!" The accompanying footman laughed uproariously.

"You really mess things up, old man."

"Such a nuisance."

Lying on the ground, Shen Shan was speechless and sighed as he looked at the scattered charcoal.

"Gentlemen, why must you be harsh with an old man?" Shen Shan knew well that these men were deliberately venting their anger on him.

"Cheeky old man! It's your poor driving that almost rammed us, and yet you dare to bite back?"

"Hmm? Wu, this old man looks familiar." One of the chubby footmen gave the old man a glance.

"Now that you mention it, I feel like I've seen him somewhere….Ah yes, he's Shen Zhui's adoptive father!"

"Shen Zhui's adoptive father?" A flash of joy appeared in Yang Wu's eyes. "Indeed it's him! This Shen Zhui has arrested my nephew and repeatedly made life difficult for me...but he won't be able to do anything now… Today I'll punish him by teaching his adoptive father a lesson!"

Thinking this, Yang Wu tried to appear indifferent, but aimed a kick at the wooden tricycle.

If his foot were to land, not only the wooden tricycle would fall apart, but the old man, who had already fallen and unable to get up, would be hurt again.

Just as Yang Wu raised his foot, intending to kick, suddenly--

"Stop it!" A voice came from behind.

At this moment, Shen Shan was lying on the ground, his body smeared with charcoal dust. He clutched his waist, his face pale with pain.

"Hmm?" Yang Wu and the few footmen turned to look.

They saw a tall figure - furious and panting, sprinting towards them from afar. Yang Wu quickly recognized him and exclaimed in surprise, "Shen Zhui, it's you. What do you want?!"

"Beast!" Shen Zhui's eyes turned red at the sight of his adoptive father Shen Shan lying in pain on the ground.

Ever since he arrived in this world, his adoptive father Shen Shan, who made a living by selling charcoal, had nurtured him and given him a second life. The least he expected was that his father would be humiliated this way.

One of the fat footmen tried to intervene.

"Yang Wu!!"Shen Zhui roared and forcefully kicked and a gust of wind rushed towards the fat footman who hastily raised his hand to block.

"Bang!"

The might of this forceful kick sent the fat footman flying several feet away.

"Shen Zhui, how dare you create a disturbance in town!" Yang Wu yelled, "Are you rebelling?!"

"I'll kill you, beast!" Shen Zhui, his eyes filled with rage, roared.