Bai Yang's mind had gone blank. A beautiful girl was personally feeding him. He'd never experienced anything like this before. Even back on Earth, there weren't many people rich enough to enjoy this kind of treatment.
So whatever the girl fed him, he obediently opened his mouth and ate, and whatever she gave him to drink, he drank.
With the girl feeding it to him, he drained a whole bowl of emerald-green wine. A few seconds later, blood streamed from his nose, and he toppled to the floor, unconscious...
The entire hall fell silent. More than a dozen pairs of eyes stared at Bai Yang sprawled on the floor, dumbfounded.
The girl who'd been feeding Bai Yang blinked and looked at the people around her. She hurriedly waved her hands. "I didn't do it! I didn't do anything to him. I don't know what happened..."
"What are you standing around for? Hurry and carry him to a room!" the white-bearded old man said urgently, snapping out of it. Then he looked around the hall and called, "Hu Zi, go get Old Man Mu, right now!"
Hu Zi—that was Bai Yang's name for Number Three Barbarian—froze for a moment, dropped the meat bone in his hand, and dashed out.
Bai Yang, unconscious and still bleeding from the nose, was carried in a flurry of activity to a room on the second floor of the treehouse. A crowd of people milled anxiously around him. If the white-bearded old man hadn't sent them away, a dozen burly men would have packed the little room to bursting.
The girl who'd fed Bai Yang kept wiping the blood from his nose with a rough piece of cloth, but it kept flowing no matter how much she wiped.
Before long, an old man in a rough blue robe arrived. He shooed the people around him aside, sat by the bed, removed the glove from Bai Yang's hand, and took his pulse. Then he lifted Bai Yang's eyelids and examined his eyes.
Throughout the process, everyone held their breath and didn't dare make a sound.
Once the old man in the blue robe had finished, the white-bearded old man hurriedly asked, "Old Man Mu, what's wrong with this young man?"
The old man in the blue robe stood up and said irritably, "There's nothing wrong with him. He's just too weak. The White Fruit Brew you gave him contains a lot of things that replenish Blood Qi. His body couldn't handle the tonic; his Blood Qi surged to his heart, and he passed out. Give him some cooling medicinal broth in a little while, and he'll be fine."
"Thank goodness he's all right," the white-bearded old man said, letting out a sigh of relief.
What a mess. Who could've guessed that Bai Yang couldn't even handle a single bowl of the White Fruit Brew they drank like water?
White Fruit Brew was fermented from dozens of kinds of fruit and a few ingredients that replenished Blood Qi. It could be called fruit wine or medicinal wine. For these people, who seemed to grow muscle instead of brains, they could drink as much as they wanted without any trouble. But how could Bai Yang's "frail" body take it? Fortunately, he'd only had one bowl. If he'd drunk any more, his Blood Qi might have surged to his heart and burned him to death.
When Bai Yang came to, groggy and confused, he saw a pair of bright eyes staring unblinkingly at him. The girl smiled, said something in a stream of unintelligible words, and ran off.
Bai Yang scratched his head. After thinking back, he vaguely remembered drinking something and then passing out for no apparent reason.
Once he figured that out, he nearly slapped himself. That's what you get for stuffing your mouth with anything. You're lucky you didn't die.
"I think I passed out after drinking wine, and my nose started bleeding too. Was there poison in that wine? No, that can't be right. I'm fine—in fact, I feel full of energy, like I've got strength to spare. My head's especially clear..."
Bai Yang racked his brains but still couldn't figure out what had happened. Then he turned his head and froze, almost laughing himself to death.
In the room, Number One Barbarian and Number Three Barbarian were each examining one of his belongings. Number One Barbarian was wrestling with his glove, trying to force it onto his hand, but it wouldn't go on. He accidentally stretched it until it tore, and now he was scratching his head.
Number Three Barbarian was even more ridiculous. He was examining Bai Yang's flashlight, which doubled as an Electric Rod. He found the flashlight's ability to light up at the press of a button amazing, and kept pointing it at his own eyes, turning it on and off. But when he pressed the red button, it crackled and snapped. Every hair on the guy's head stood on end as his whole body convulsed, and he fell straight over with a heavy thud...
Bai Yang had just woken up in time to see it, along with the girl who'd left and then returned with the white-bearded old man.
Bai Yang could barely contain his amusement. An Electric Rod wasn't worth much, so he didn't care if they broke it. The best part was seeing someone jab himself with one for the first time. The guy was built like a bull, so Bai Yang wasn't worried he'd get seriously hurt by the shock.
The others, however, froze for a moment before scrambling to check on Number Three Barbarian. They only breathed a sigh of relief when he staggered back to his feet and refused to touch the Electric Rod on the floor ever again.
Then the white-bearded old man carefully carried Bai Yang's Electric Rod over and set it beside him. He babbled something unintelligible, then babbled some more to the girl before leaving the room with Number One Barbarian and Number Three Barbarian.
"%&...*￥...%￥," the girl said, looking at Bai Yang with her big eyes.
Who the hell knew what she was saying?
The girl's outfit had the stylish look of an urban beauty dressed for summer, but Bai Yang wasn't in the mood to admire her. He gave a soft cry and felt around his body. Thankfully, his phone was still in his pocket. While she wasn't paying attention, he checked the time, then immediately scrambled to his feet.
"Oh no, oh no, it's already twelve. It's noon back home, and there's no signal here. If I'm out of contact for too long, my parents will probably call the police."
Muttering to himself, Bai Yang grabbed the Electric Rod beside him and rushed out. In his panic, he forgot the house had been built in a tree, and nearly pitched headfirst out the door.
The girl chased after him, babbling away, but Bai Yang couldn't understand her. He didn't have time to care. He hurried down the stairs and came to the hall where he'd been eating before he passed out. The people were still there, gathered together and discussing something.
The moment Bai Yang appeared, more than a dozen pairs of eyes fixed on him.
"Um, you guys carry on. I've got something to take care of, so I have to leave. I'll come back."
Whether they understood him or not, Bai Yang dropped those words and ran outside. It looked to be around noon here, too. Brilliant sunlight streamed through the leaves, scattering beautiful spots of light across the forest.
He ran down the stairs to the ground and dashed toward the village gate. He didn't want to disappear into thin air right in front of their eyes.
But when he took off, the people behind him, who had no idea what was going on, froze for a moment before chasing after him. Then someone shouted something, and before Bai Yang had run twenty meters, they'd brought him down.
A brawny youth who was barely more than a boy pinned Bai Yang to the ground with one hand and grinned foolishly at the people running up behind him. The white-bearded old man smacked him aside with a stick, then carefully helped Bai Yang to his feet, babbling something unintelligible. Judging by his expression, he was apologizing.
You little punk, couldn't you go a bit easier? Do you think I can take a beating from you Barbarians? Bai Yang gritted his teeth as he stood up, muttering to himself.
But he couldn't understand a word the white-bearded old man said. So there they were, each talking past the other in an awkward mess.
Next came a whole lot of wild gesturing. Both sides guessed at what the other meant, and slowly pieced together a rough understanding.
Bai Yang guessed that they were trying to persuade him to stay a while longer. They even brought the pretty girl over to show him, though he couldn't tell if they meant to offer her to him or if they were saying she'd look after him while he was there.
But it took Bai Yang gesturing all morning to make them understand that he had something urgent to take care of and had to leave, though he promised he'd come back.
It was exhausting. Something that could've been explained in a couple of sentences had turned into a long bout of frantic gesturing because they didn't speak the same language.
Once the old man understood what Bai Yang meant, he had someone bring over a black jar and gave it to him. Then he gave him a cloth bundle wrapped into a ball as a parting gift. Bai Yang indicated that he had nothing to give them, but promised to bring them gifts next time he came.
Then Bai Yang walked out through the village gate. He didn't care whether anyone was secretly following him. After turning a corner, he slipped away and vanished from this world...
After Bai Yang left, the girl looked utterly dejected. Her eyes red, she ran off, and the white-bearded old man could only sigh helplessly.
Before long, several people came running back from outside the village to report what had happened.
"Village Chief, we secretly followed him, but once he was out of our sight, he just disappeared," said the village's most experienced hunter.
"I understand. Leave it at that. Let's pretend none of this ever happened. Sigh..." The white-bearded old man sighed and waved his hand, then turned and walked toward his treehouse.
"He must be the young master of some wealthy family from somewhere. We hill folk have never seen cloth like what he was wearing. He's so pampered he can't even feed himself, and he carries a magical treasure crafted by a divine path cultivator—the Electric Rod. He left without a sound; a powerful servant probably came and took him away... I hope we've forged a good connection, and that he'll come back to visit someday... Poor Little Cat, though. He clearly wasn't interested in her. Otherwise, he would've taken her along when he left..."
The white-bearded village chief sighed helplessly. He was completely convinced of Bai Yang's "identity."
For people like them, who lived in the mountains, hosting a powerful and wealthy person was an honor!
As for the fact that Bai Yang couldn't understand a word they said, that was no problem at all. The world was vast beyond measure. Ten miles apart, and the accents changed; a hundred miles apart, and the languages changed. It was only natural for a visitor from afar not to understand them...
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