Beastly World!

Outside the pigsty.

His sister-in-law, Wang Cuilian, frowned as rustling sounds came from inside the pigsty. Impatience showed on her face, and she could not help shouting, "Are you done yet? He's practically dying, and you're still wasting so much time? What are you even good for?"

The moment her words fell, her eyes suddenly widened as she looked toward the pigsty.

A figure emerged directly from within, dressed in tattered clothes and reeking strongly of pig dung.

When she saw him, she could hardly believe her eyes.

"Y-you... Lu Chen..."

"Yes, who else could it be?" Lu Chen forced a broad smile onto his face.

"Your injuries are healed? Where's your brother? Well, well, Lu Chen, you actually dared to fake your injuries. Your nerve is getting bigger and bigger! I'll teach you to fake being hurt!"

Wang Cuilian had a fierce temperament. Without stopping to think, she grabbed a wooden stick and swung it viciously at Lu Chen.

One look was enough to tell that she was used to beating him.

Even now, she still thought Lu Chen could be kneaded and pinched however she pleased.

Smack!

Before the stick could fall, Lu Chen's slap had already lashed across Wang Cuilian's face, swift and savage. She screamed miserably as a mouthful of teeth flew out, and her whole body crashed into the distance like a torn sack, blood filling her mouth as she was nearly stunned senseless.

[You punished a wicked wife and safeguarded harmony in the village. Merit Points +2]

Another line of text surfaced.

"Wang Cuilian, didn't you want to kill me? Didn't you beat and curse me all the time?"

Lu Chen's face was icy as he looked at Wang Cuilian, whom he had sent flying with a single slap. His heart felt utterly unburdened as he strode over.

Wang Cuilian's face filled with terror. She simply could not believe it.

Had she seen a ghost in broad daylight today?

She hurriedly scrambled and rolled toward the outside.

"Help! Lu Chen..."

Squelch!

Before she could finish, Lu Chen seized her by the hair and yanked hard, wrenching her upright before smashing a vicious blow into her stomach.

Bang!

That savage strike made Wang Cuilian spew out a mist of blood on the spot, her face twisting in pain.

"Don't, Lu Chen, don't hit me anymore..."

Wang Cuilian cried out in terror, "I'm begging you, stop hitting me. If you keep hitting me, I'll die."

She was utterly terrified, completely unable to understand what had happened to Lu Chen.

Lu Chen frowned.

No Merit Points this time?

Could it be that only the first beating counted?

And there would be nothing afterward?

Smack smack smack smack...

He released Wang Cuilian and struck with both hands, doing nothing but slapping her across both cheeks. Her facial skin split open, blood streaming down as her cheeks swelled grotesquely, a miserable sight to behold.

Yet no further prompt appeared.

"So it really is gone?"

Lu Chen pondered.

In the end, he stopped wasting time and smashed a fist viciously into Wang Cuilian's forehead. Bang!

Wang Cuilian's corpse flew backward and slammed heavily into the distance. She died a miserable death on the spot.

"Refreshing. My great vengeance has been repaid, and my heart feels clear and bright. Truly refreshing."

Lu Chen let out a long breath.

It was not just Lu Dahu and his wife. He also had to settle accounts with the owner of that porcelain shop.

Docking his wages?

Beating him?

Not a single one of them would get away!

He turned and walked to the well, drew several buckets of water, and began washing himself from head to toe, rinsing away every trace of pig dung. Then he entered the house, dried his hair, found a clean set of clothes, and put them on.

After finishing all that, he began turning the house upside down, searching through Lu Dahu's home.

Unfortunately, he found only a few dozen copper coins.

"Poor bastards. No wonder Wang Cuilian wanted to extort the shop."

Lu Chen cursed inwardly.

When people were poor to the extreme, they truly could do anything.

Just as he was about to leave and seek revenge, he suddenly spotted a figure crawling on the ground outside. Dressed in rags, the person was laboriously crawling toward this place from afar.

His body was covered in blood, his hair hung loose and disheveled, and countless flies buzzed around him. He looked utterly miserable.

He was even more wretched than a beggar.

Lu Chen was stunned at first, but once he saw the man's face clearly, his expression changed drastically.

It was him!

The original owner's only friend from childhood to adulthood, Zhao Shan!

"Shanzi, how did you end up like this?" Lu Chen rushed over, his heart shaken.

He remembered that Zhao Shan had gone into the city to find odd jobs a month ago. At the time, Zhao Shan had even visited him at the porcelain shop.

But Zhao Shan had not been like this then.

Back then, both his legs and both his hands had been perfectly intact.

Yet now, both his legs were broken, one eye had been gouged out, his face was covered in burn scars, and his hair fell over his shoulders in a wild mess. He looked even more like a beggar than a beggar. What had happened in between?

"Brother Lu, you're all right?"

Zhao Shan was incomparably excited. Having crawled all the way from the city, his body was covered in blood.

"I heard people say that you'd caused a huge disaster at the porcelain shop and had been beaten by the shopkeeper until you were almost at your last breath. I was worried about you, so I came to see you one last time. If you died, I... I wouldn't want to live either!"

Zhao Shan was an orphan from the village and had suffered endless bullying.

From childhood to adulthood, only Lu Chen had never bullied him. The two depended on each other for survival, encouraging one another whenever anything happened.

"Shanzi, what happened to your legs? And your eye? What exactly happened over this past month?"

Lu Chen asked in shock and fury.

Who had been so vicious as to break Zhao Shan's legs and gouge out one of his eyes?

"I... I'm fine."

Zhao Shan lowered his head and choked back sobs. "As long as you're all right, that's enough."

"Shanzi, tell me. What happened?"

Lu Chen crouched down and grabbed Zhao Shan's hand.

Zhao Shan's hand was covered in blood, with dirt packed beneath his fingernails.

Over the past month, he had clearly suffered who knew how much torment.

Lu Chen only knew that Zhao Shan had come looking for him once before, but afterward, it was as if he had vanished, and Lu Chen had never been able to contact him again.

"I... I was abducted by a group of beggars. To make me beg for them, they broke both my legs and gouged out one of my eyes. They said it would win people's sympathy and let me beg for more money. Brother Lu, you can't beat them. As long as you're all right, none of this matters."

Tears filled Zhao Shan's eyes.

This past month had been the darkest time of his life.

He had originally gone into the city to find odd jobs, but he accidentally smashed a beggar's begging bowl. A group of beggars then surrounded and attacked him. Their leader saw that he was thin and small and looked pitiful, so he broke both Zhao Shan's legs and had someone gouge out his eye, making him beg in the city every day.

Several times, he had tried to secretly escape, only to be discovered by the beggar chief, dragged back, and brutally beaten again.

Who knew how much suffering he had endured over the month.

They had even burned his cheeks several times with hot coals.

Today, he had heard that Lu Chen was not going to make it, so he had gathered his courage and crawled all the way out, wanting to see Lu Chen one last time.

"What?"

Lu Chen was both shocked and enraged.

Beasts!

What kind of beasts were these?

"Come on, I'll take you to get revenge!"

Lu Chen gritted his teeth.

The beggars!

The porcelain shop!

Not one of them would have an easy time!

"Brother Lu, don't. There are too many of them..."

Zhao Shan hurriedly said.

"Too many of them? So what if there are too many of them? Let's go!"

Lu Chen grabbed Zhao Shan from the ground in one hand, slung him onto his back, and ran straight out of the village.

Zhao Shan was stunned by Lu Chen's strength.

Since when had Brother Lu become so strong?

And he always felt that Brother Lu was different from before.

The instant he had first seen Lu Chen, he had faintly felt fear, as though he were facing a human-shaped tiger. There was something in Lu Chen's bearing that made him tremble.