The Locals Are Pretty Polite

Jili Pier.

This was the territory under their hall master's jurisdiction. After last night's bloody battle, the pier was still running as usual. A group of dockworkers sweated as they labored to haul cargo.

As a low-ranking member of the gang, his daily job was to wander around the pier whenever he had nothing else to do.

"Brother Lin, why'd you head home last night? You have no idea—we had a feast with the hall master, eating and drinking our fill. There were women, too."

"Women?"

Lin Fan was stunned. As far as he knew, their hall master wasn't that generous. There was no way he would find women for them.

"Heh, there were women, all right, but we could only look, not touch. They were the hall master's mistresses."

Hearing this, Lin Fan was hardly surprised.

Their hall master was a bit of a lecher. As far as Lin Fan knew, he already had a family—a son and a daughter—but he just couldn't keep the two ounces of flesh in his pants under control. He had several mistresses.

He'd seen two of them during his time here.

Sigh.

Lin Fan had nothing to say about it. The hall master had no ambition whatsoever. There were five hall masters in Loyalty Hall. Who had the smallest territory and the fewest underlings?

That would undoubtedly be their hall master, Wang Changhai.

Otherwise, the Fierce Tiger Gang's Yuan Jiang and his men wouldn't have come to seize Jili Pier.

"Oh, right, Brother Lin. This is for you."

"What?"

Lin Fan took a look. To his surprise, it was a piece of broken silver, darkened and covered in bite marks. It looked like it weighed at least half a tael.

"Heh, the hall master handed it out last night. The first few to make a move got a hundred wen each, while you guys got half a tael of silver apiece. Honestly, I can't even remember the last time I saw silver."

The speaker was called Wu Yong. He'd joined the gang a little later than Lin Fan, and whenever he ran into something he didn't understand, he'd ask Lin Fan about it. Over time, the two had grown close.

In the gang, Wu Yong was the one closest to Lin Fan.

Lin Fan grinned as he took the silver and put it in his pocket. "By the way, where did that Iron Fist King Chen Niu go last night?"

He thought of Iron Fist King Chen Niu. The man could snap a wooden stick with his bare arm without feeling any pain, and Lin Fan still thought he must be a martial arts expert. At the very least, he had practiced Iron Body martial arts, though he hadn't trained it to a high enough level—Lin Fan had taken him down with a single blow from a stick.

So whenever Lin Fan came across a clue related to martial arts, he wouldn't let it slip by.

There was no point relying on others if he wanted to make a life for himself here. He could only rely on himself. Only his own strength was true strength.

When he'd first transmigrated here, his cheat hadn't activated yet. His thinking had been simple: take things one step at a time. If he could make something of himself, he'd work hard at it.

If he couldn't, he planned to make a living with his body. He'd see which family was looking for a live-in son-in-law and marry into it. He didn't care what the woman looked like. Once the lights were out at night, he'd get the job done all the same.

He'd just get himself a better life first.

But then his cheat appeared, and his plans truly changed. He had to learn martial arts, cultivate immortality, and rise above the rest.

But it had already been two months.

He still hadn't found the slightest lead. He was really starting to panic.

Wu Yong said, "Speaking of that guy, I saw him when I first got here. He'd just set off toward the city gate. Looked to me like he was running away."

After learning where the man had gone, Lin Fan patted Wu Yong on the shoulder. "I'll be gone for a bit. Cover for me."

With that, he turned and headed for the city gate.

"Brother Lin! Broth—"

Outside the city, on the main road.

Chen Niu, who'd been swaggering around the pier last night, full of hot air and eating hotpot in the dark, was now trudging down the road in a sorry state. One of his arms was bound with bamboo slats.

He was still wondering what had happened last night.

He'd blocked the front just fine.

How had he failed to block the back?

He had great confidence in his iron arms. He'd endured countless hardships before finally managing to train them.

Twenty taels.

Just like that, gone.

Just then, Chen Niu had the distinct feeling someone was behind him.

"Hey."

A voice called out.

Chen Niu turned around in confusion. His pupils suddenly contracted. A wooden stick came swinging down toward him, and, out of habit, he raised his unharmed arm.

Thump!

"Ah..."

Chen Niu collapsed to the ground, screaming. "It's broken! It's broken!"

His mind was completely blank. He had no idea what was happening. He was on the main road, not some country lane. How could there be bandits here?

"Please spare me, big brother! Please spare me!"

Chen Niu was close to tears. Ever since what had happened last night, it felt like bad luck had latched onto him. He'd already left Yong'an City, so why was he still so unlucky?

At that moment, Lin Fan looked at the wooden stick in his hand, now cracked and nearly broken. It only confirmed what he'd suspected.

He glanced around.

There wasn't another soul in sight.

Without a second thought, he grabbed Chen Niu by the ankle and dragged him into a small grove.

"Let me go!"

"Don't hurt me! Whatever you want, I'll give it to you!"

Chen Niu pleaded. He desperately hoped someone would see this abuse and step in to rescue him from his plight. But even when the darkness ahead swallowed half his body, no one came to his rescue.

In the small grove.

Chen Niu trembled all over, looking pitifully at Lin Fan.

He truly didn't recognize the man in front of him at all.

"Do you want to live or die?" Lin Fan asked.

"Live! I want to live!"

The moment the other man spoke, Chen Niu was so terrified his soul nearly flew out of his body. Was he really that ruthless? Asking him to choose between life and death right off the bat? What was wrong with security in Yong'an City? It was awful.

"If you want to live, that's easy. Hand over your martial arts manual," Lin Fan said.

"Huh?"

Chen Niu had been wondering what unreasonable demand the other man would make. He'd even prepared himself to sacrifice his backside. But who could've guessed the first thing out of the man's mouth would leave him completely dumbfounded?

A martial arts... manual?

What the hell was that?

"Hm? So you want to die, then," Lin Fan said coldly.

"No, no! Big brother, I really don't have a martial arts manual. Isn't that stuff just in storybooks?" Chen Niu said quickly, afraid that if he spoke too slowly, the other man would beat him to death with a stick.

Lin Fan frowned. He hadn't expected the man to be so tight-lipped. Without another word, he reached out and started feeling him up.

"Big brother, don't do that! I'm a man. I'm not into this!"

Chen Niu trembled in fear as he was groped. He felt his good name was about to be ruined. This perverted man was going to force himself on him! It was a terrifying breach of gender and moral boundaries!

A little while later.

Lin Fan looked at Chen Niu, whose clothes he'd thoroughly disheveled, and felt deeply disappointed. What was going on? He really didn't have anything. The man was practically homeless, wandering from place to place; something as important as a martial arts manual should've been on him at all times.

Now Lin Fan had felt him up from head to toe, and hadn't even found a corner of one.

Chen Niu curled up, like a young wife who'd suffered a terrible humiliation, and looked timidly at Lin Fan.

"Answer me. How did you train your arm until it could break a stick? And when I hit it, I could see you didn't feel any pain at all. How'd you manage that?" Lin Fan asked.

"Big brother, you just get used to it."

"Get used to it?"

"Yeah. I had no home, and when I was out on the road, I often got hit from behind with a stick. After a while, whenever someone swung a stick, I had to raise my arm to block it, right? It really hurt at first, but after long enough, I got used to it. Look, the skin on this arm's rough as tree bark."

"...!!!"

He couldn't accept an explanation like that. But when he looked into the other man's sincere eyes, it didn't seem like he was lying.

Seeing that the man still doubted him, Chen Niu quickly swore an oath to heaven.

"Big brother, every word I said is true. If there's even a bit of a lie in it, may lightning strike me dead! I've just been relying on my arms being thick and sturdy to get myself the title of Iron Fist King. Besides, where's there any martial arts in this world? If there really were, people would've opened schools and made a fortune taking students ages ago."

Lin Fan looked at Chen Niu, then at the level displayed on his status panel.

I don't understand.

Who had placed such strict controls on martial arts that even ordinary people weren't allowed to know they really existed?

Who?

Who was it?

Suppressing his discontent, Lin Fan took out all the copper coins he had and placed them in front of the other man.

"Sorry. I didn't know you really didn't have one. Take these coins and get your injuries treated."

"Thank you, big brother! Thank you, big brother!"

Chen Niu thanked him again and again. He thought the man was pretty decent. After realizing he'd hit him by mistake, he hadn't just apologized—he'd even paid his medical expenses.

The locals were pretty nice, after all.

After Lin Fan left, Chen Niu picked up the coins with his arm, which looked broken but wasn't. He endured the pain, stood up, straightened his clothes, and stumbled out of the small grove.

As for what had just happened, he wasn't angry at all.

The man had just made a mistake.

He'd apologized and paid compensation.

What more could he want?