Chapter 394 Into The Village
Most people believe that the ox represents honesty. But are oxen really as straightforward as most people think they are?
At the very least, this particular bull was no stranger to feints and deception by its lashing of the little boy called Pi using its tail.
“Pi!”
His two companions cried and scrambled to him.
It was bad. The bull’s tail came as hard as a steel whip and lashed so savagely on Pi’s chest that it caved in with his flesh red and raw as the boy immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood before he lost consciousness.
“PI!” cried his friends.
Moo!
The raging beast wheeled around after emitting a deep roar and galloped furiously at the children, barreling towards them.
“Quick! Let’s go!” cried Qi to his other friend as he pulled the wounded Pi up.
CRASH!
Like a haywire bulldozer on a binge of destruction, the bull knocked down more trees in its fury, trampling on the timber as it ploughed through.
“Quickly! It’s coming!” screamed the other boy in panic.
The bull was unstoppable with nothing being able to stand in its path. Its hooves thundered on the ground ferociously as it charged towards the children at great speed.
Three boys – including one wounded and unconscious – could hardly outrun the blustering bull and it quickly caught up to them.
“Quick! Behind there!”
The boys found a huge boulder weighing at least ten tonnes, and at Qi’s signal, they rushed to seek refuge behind it.
From his perch, Chu Xun expected to see the bull slamming into the boulder due to momentum. But instead of that, it leapt over the rock with a gravity-defying jump and spun around as soon as it hit ground to face the children. Its nostrils flared with two strong gusts of air, tossing fallen leaves into the air.
The children backed themselves into the rock, regretting their folly to antagonize this beastly animal.
Moo!
With another angry roar like a thunderclap, the bull’s horn glinted a morbid flash of red as the animal aimed the horns at the children and charged again,
It was too late to run for the children who had their backs against the surface of the rock. They stared with horror at the incoming blitz of the tempestuous bull, screaming loudly as they shut their eyes like the helpless minors they were.
Boom!
A powerful pulse of force swept forth and reduced every falling leave in its path into dust.
The children opened their eyes slowly and the sight of a stranger withdrawing his fist after delivering a blow left them stunned with their jaws hanging.
The bull was rolling on the ground, groaning with pain. A few more trees laid fallen on the ground, knocked down when the bull was knocked off-course before crashing to the ground with a resounding tremor.
The boys stared blankly at the figure of the stranger who had been the instrument of their salvation.
Chu Xun turned around to look at them and he knelt down.
“Please, sir!” cried Qi when he saw Chu Xun examining the wound on Pi, “Please save Pi!”
Chu Xun nodded and placed a hand on the fainted Pi’s chest and injected a spurt of Hong Meng Immortal Qi into him to help his recovery.
The effects were obvious. Pi’s chest wounds began to heal at a noticeable rate and the fractured rib bones of his caved-in chest began to grow back.
The children were flabbergasted. As warriors themselves, they could feel Pi’s aura steadying.
Whoosh!
Three two-meter-long iron arrows screamed through the air, streaking straight at Chu Xun’s back.
The two little boys yelped with fright.
Chu Xun did not take his hand off Pi’s chest. Instead, a purplish screen of light rose from the ground and enveloped him and the three children in a cocoon-like barrier.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
All three arrows hit the barrier, causing no damage but only scores of ripples on its surface. The arrows fell to the ground, shattered into several pieces instead.
At the same time, Pi’s face slowly regained its rosy complexion. His breathing became normal and Chu Xun withdrew his hand and stood up to turn around.
Whoosh!
Another three arrows came just in time at Chu Xun, each of them with enough force to perforate the bull just now.
Chu Xun stared coldly at the incoming barrage. The arrows reached just within an arm’s length of him when he swatted on them fiercely, destroying the arrows into pieces once more.
The two little boys gawked at what just happened. “This stranger had just splintered iron-wrought arrows into several pieces with just a swat with his hand! That’s incredible!”
“WHO GOES THERE! SHOW YOURSELF!”
An angry Chu Xun bellowed loudly, his voice turning into a sonorous thunder that echoed off the ring of mountains around them like the deafening rumbles of a dragon.
The sonic blast hit a handful of burly men cowering behind another boulder not faraway, rendering them dizzy and weakened like a group of drunkards, wobbling on their feet unsteadily. All of them were clad in the same roughspun tunics, each armed with long cast iron bows as long as three meters.
“The enemy’s a powerful one! Careful!” cried one of them.
When the dizziness was gone, they leaped out of hiding with their arrows nocked and aimed at Chu Xun.
“Where are you from? Let the children go!” shouted one of them.
The men looked apprehensively anxious.
“Father!” cried Qi to one of the burly men.
“Don’t worry, Qi, and you too, Shan!” yelled the leader of the group, a muscular person more than two meters tall. He must be the one who had been firing the arrows before.
“This is a misunderstanding, Father!” Qi cried to them, “This man saved us!”
That stunned the men.
“It’s really a misunderstanding,” Qi scampered over to them.
That Chu Xun did nothing to stop Qi lent enough credence that Qi was telling the truth.
“What happened just now?” asked the leader.
Qi quickly told the adults what happened.
The men exchanged doubtful and uneasy looks at first before they strode towards Chu Xun.
“Our apologies, sir. We’ve wronged you. Please forgive our brashness,” said the men, bowing together to convey their remorse.
Chu Xun waved a hand and an invisible burst of force gradually eased the men up.
“It’s fine. Just a little confusion,” said Chu Xun, who had already guessed the men must be related to the children.
His healing of the young child named Pi had caused them to mistake Chu Xun as doing harm to him.
The beefy men were astonished. This stranger could discharge power to lift them up but just enough to stop them, a bunch of Fifth-grade Human Kings, from bending down an inch.
“You don’t look familiar, sir? Have you come from outside?” asked the leader of the group. As much as they were thankful for Chu Xun’s gesture in rescuing their children, they needed to be wary.
Chu Xun nodded.
“But the entry into this vale is kept by an enchantment. How did you manage to come in?”
The tone of the message pleased Chu Xun not one bit. Placidly, he breathed, “I just walked in.”
“Let’s go back to the village. We can have the village headman look into this,” suggested one of the men.
Whoever this young man was, he wielded enough power for them to fear him. In fact, he alone could easily defeat everyone here. However, the tables could be turned if they could just get back to the village.
“Our village is just up ahead, sir. How about you stop by for a rest,” said the leader to Chu Xun.
“I’m afraid I’m still busy at the moment,” declined Chu Xun. He was here to look for the Silver Dragon Guard, not going for a road trip.
“Our village is the only one you’ll find around these parts, Big Brother,” said the little Qi to him, “It’s getting dark and wild animals will come out. It’s not safe to be out here alone. Please come to our village!”
“Only one in these parts?!” Chu Xun thought, then he asked, “What do you call your village?”
“Silver Dragonsville,” said Qi.
“Silver Dragonsville?! Silver Dragon Guard?!” Chu Xun immediately noticed the connection.
“Very well then!” Chu Xun nodded readily.
That seemed to put the boys into a jovial mood, who, unlike the apprehensive adults, only wanted to repay Chu Xun for saving them.
Chu Xun followed them on a one-hour trek until they reached the quiet little hamlet.
The village was made up of stone-built cottages that glistened gold and orange in the luminescence of the setting sun, casting a shroud of mystery and serenity over the little hamlet.
Many people were huddling around and when they saw the children, they mobbed right at them like a wave.
“What’s wrong with Pi?!” cried a woman when she saw the unconscious Pi, her eyes turning red and moist.
“Don’t fret. He’s just a little hurt. Give him a day or two and he’ll be back springing around like a bunny,” scowled one of the men who came back with Chu Xun.
But most of the focus was on Chu Xun.
“Shan, who is this?” asked one of the villagers.
“This was the man who had saved the children,” said Shan the Senior, telling everyone about Chu Xun.
The villagers were all simple and honest folk and they thanked Chu Xun for his help.
But Chu Xun was rather amazed by the townsfolk here. Even the rosy-cheeked womenfolk were powerful warriors themselves.
“Ah, there’s the village head!” cried Qi.
Chu Xun looked up and saw an old man with hair and beard as white as snow, leaning on a rattan staff taller than him, wearing a gentle and benign smile as he drew near.
Chu Xun’s pupil contracted as he studied the elderly village head. He looked very old indeed, but not as frail or weak as advertised, for Chu Xun could feel that he wielded powers well beyond a Ninth-grade Human King’s. A dangerous person, so to speak.
The crowd parted as a few of the burly men stepped forward to hold the elderly village head’s arm, but he declined their gesture, chuckling.
“Surely I’m not so weak that I need help walking?” he giggled.
He looked up at Chu Xun with a piercing stare through his wrinkled eyes despite his smile, “Thank you very much, sir, for saving the children.”
“Just a piece of cake. Please don’t mention it,” remarked Chu Xun thinly.
“It’s been so long since we’ve had guests from the outside. Pray forgive their curiosity,” said the old man gently.
Chu Xun chuckled leisurely.
“Old and crafty one, eh?” Chu Xun mused. This elderly man was a cunning one. He might put up a warm and friendly smile one second, like Father Christmas, but he could just as easily become vicious and deadly when the need so arose.
“Off with you all,” said the old man, “It’s unbecoming to surround a guest like that.”
“Ah yes, that reminds me,” he said to Chu Xun, “I’m Long Qingquan, head of this little village.”
“Chu Xun,” answered Chu Xun, introducing himself.
“Chu Xun it is then,” said the old man as he carelessly stepped ahead and gently pushed aside the children still trying to steal a glance at Chu Xun, “Come. We’ll talk at my place.”
“But Village Head, how about we let Big Brother stay at my house?” asked Qi.
Long Qingquan stroked the hair on Qi’s head, grinning, and said, “I have something to speak to this Big Brother of yours about. How about tomorrow?”
Qi nodded reluctantly.
Chu Xun stepped into the village, following Long Qingquan’s lead to his home.
It was but a small and little village, but Chu Xun saw enough to be amazed.
First, he saw a group of children, at ages barely seven or eight, playing with rocks weighing almost hundreds of kilograms.
Then he saw another group of children barely in their early teenage years, lifting rocks also almost hundreds of kilograms and hurling them into the distance, causing the earth to rock.
Then he saw another group of children about four to five, playing with the tail of a golden-maned lion three meters tall and five meters in length.
More than that, the lion was a Fifth-grade Beast Lord, but it rolled on the ground playfully, enjoying a fun time with the children like a demure kitten.
“Heavens, what have I really stumbled into?!”
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