Still More Experts? The Tiny Tang Village, a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!

That night, the stars were dim and the moon was dark.

After Grandfather and his younger sister had fallen asleep, Qin Yao, disguised, removed his shackles and climbed over the wall.

By then, he had transformed from a graceful young man into a middle-aged man with disheveled hair, waxy yellow skin, and slightly sunken cheeks. He headed straight for the east side of the village.

"Huh? That is..."

When Qin Yao reached the boundary between east and west, he was startled to find a row of bamboo barricades resembling cheval-de-frise set up there, blocking the passage wide enough for several people to walk abreast.

On this side of the barricade stood nothing but squat, shabby houses—the sort of old streets where people were too stingy even to light candles.

On the other side, however, there were quite a few pavilions, courtyards, shops, and businesses hung with red lanterns.

The main road running straight ahead had even been paved with bricks and stone, far better than the rotten dirt roads elsewhere, where every step sank deep or rose shallow!

To many residents of West Village, this single barricade stretching between east and west had already divided the world into two separate heavens...

When Qin Yao drew closer, the four men gathered behind the barricade, warming themselves by a fire and playing pai gow, immediately rose to their feet. "Stop!"

"What are you doing here?"

Qin Yao stretched out a hand and pointed at the two-story building not far ahead, smoke rising from its kitchen. "Going to buy some food."

"Buy food?"

Upon hearing that, a potbellied man cocked his thumb and pointed behind his shoulder. "Did you sleep yourself stupid?

"The game meat shop in East Village—is that something a poor bastard from West Village like you can afford to shop at?"

Another man, a sturdy bald fellow, gave a sleazy grin. "Heh heh, you can go through if you want. Two hundred coppers. Pay up, and we'll move aside."

The moment he finished speaking, the lean, wiry man who had been toying with pai gow tiles stepped forward as well, looking Qin Yao up and down.

Seeing Qin Yao's waxen complexion and skinny, malnourished appearance, he looked down on him even more. "Listen carefully: two hundred coppers to cross over, and another two hundred to come back.

"If you haven't left East Village by dawn, then if you want to return to West Village, you'll have to pay double the toll! Got that?"

Qin Yao frowned, thinking, Do you people have something wrong with your heads?

We're all from the same village, and you're setting up a checkpoint to charge tolls inside it?

I don't care about your 'East Village' or 'West Village.' I just want a decent meal with some oil and meat in it!

If this road is blocked, I'll just take another one!

With Qin Yao's current physical abilities at the third level of the Body Tempering Realm, let alone this low bamboo barricade before him...

Even the one-and-a-half-man-high ring of wooden stakes outside the village would pose no difficulty for him to climb over.

So the youth turned and left.

"Stop!"

But the moment he turned around, those four fellows grabbed wooden clubs and moved in to surround him.

"You think you can come whenever you want and leave whenever you want? Do you think this is your home?"

"Exactly! I was winning hand after hand at pai gow, then you dog suddenly popped up and broke my winning streak...

"If you don't cough up two or three hundred coppers in compensation, this isn't over!"

As they spoke, the four deliberately waved their long poles and short clubs, their threat impossible to miss.

"You said it costs money to pass through. I didn't want to pay, so I chose to leave on my own.

"But now you've made up some so-called 'compensation' excuse to extort two or three hundred coppers from me..."

Qin Yao's gaze gradually turned icy. "Isn't this going too far? Who gave you permission to set up a checkpoint and collect tolls in the village?!"

"Oh my? Looks like we ran into a greenhorn today?"

"If we don't teach you a lesson, you won't recognize your place as a 'lowborn wretch from South Village'!"

The sturdy bald man cracked his neck, raised the short club in his hand, and pressed it straight toward Qin Yao's nose.

He shouted harshly, "Either obediently hand over three hundred coppers, or we'll break your dog legs. Your choice!"

Four strong men on their side, armed with long poles and short clubs—dealing with a skinny, dried-up middle-aged man would be as easy as taking something from the palm of their hands.

For a moment, they looked at Qin Yao as though he were a lamb awaiting slaughter.

"I'll give you three breaths. If you still don't say anything, I'll use what's in my hand to help you choose!

"One, two..."

"My choice is..."

Qin Yao said flatly, "Breaking your dog legs!"

"???"

Everyone froze at his words.

Then the bald brute was the first to recover. "Motherfucker, get him!"

Four men, four clubs, came crashing down on Qin Yao like a torrential downpour!

All that could be heard was a rapid series of crisp CRACKS!

The long poles and short clubs in the four men's hands all shattered and flew apart the instant they touched Qin Yao!

"Wha..."

Their pupils constricted.

Before they could recover their senses, Qin Yao's counterattack had already arrived—"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Beneath the dim stars and moon, no one could see how the youth had struck.

The four vicious-looking road thugs had already fallen to the ground in unison.

"Arghhh!"

"My leg! My leg!"

Under the night sky, cries of agony rang out...

This was not like the west side of the village, where the lowborn households clustered.

In the dead of night, such pig-slaughtering screams in the east side of the village were bound to draw attention.

Before long, quite a few villagers came rushing over at the sound.

Even Gao Chang, Tang Village's "guard officer," whose status stood second only to the village chief and headman, had been alarmed!

This broad-shouldered, thick-waisted man rested his right hand on the hilt of his saber and bellowed aggressively, "What are you making such a racket for in the middle of the night? What happened?"

The fellow whose kneecap Qin Yao had shattered with a kick sat on the ground, pointed at Qin Yao, and accused him first, "Captain Gao, it was this brat who maliciously attacked us! You have to uphold justice for us!"

"That's right, Lord Gao. This brat has no regard for law or order—he's simply too arrogant."

"Look, this bastard even broke my leg. Hurry and arrest this criminal and throw him in prison..."

Qin Yao let the four of them wail miserably and hurl accusations, utterly unmoved.

Yet his gaze had become like chunks of ice freshly hauled from an icehouse, glinting with chilling frost!

"Why don't you tell them why I attacked?

"We're from the same village, yet you charge a toll just to go from west to east?

"I refused to pay and only meant to take a detour, but you blocked my way and wouldn't let me leave...

"Oh, when extortion failed, you decided to rob me outright, is that it?"

Upon hearing Qin Yao's words, quite a few people had already pieced together the rough outline of what had happened.

Setting up checkpoints within the village had always been a common tactic used by the influential "big households" of the eastern side to join forces and squeeze the common folk at the bottom of the western side.

During the day, the people of West Village could freely travel to East Village. After all, there was plenty of filthy, exhausting work in East Village that needed doing.

But once night fell, if people from West Village had not yet returned, or if someone from the west had urgent business in the east, they had to pay a "toll" to the lackeys the eastern "big households" took turns sending to stand guard!

Their method of setting up checkpoints and collecting money had never failed them.

They simply had not expected to run into a tough opponent today...

Guard Officer Gao Chang's cold brows rose as he strode toward Qin Yao. "No matter your reasons, privately injuring others is wrong in the end.

"Come with me to the guard post."

These days, quite a few people in Tang Village called the "guard post" the "yamen."

As the mining area was developed at full tilt, Tang Village had grown from its original state as a mere "village" into something on the scale of a "township," qualified to establish a rudimentary yamen.

Gao Chang's thoughts were simple—whether this lowborn man from West Village was in the right or not, he would first drag him back to his own turf.

If the other party knew what was good for him, Gao Chang would extort a little silver and call it settled.

If the other party did not know what was good for him...

Heh, Gao Chang had plenty of ways to make him learn!

However.

When he put a hand on Qin Yao's shoulder and prepared to haul him away—

The guard officer's expression changed sharply. "Hm? I-I actually can't push this bastard?!

"Last night, some 'Nighttime Black Madman' appeared and flattened both a man and his bed with a single punch; today, another expert has turned up—someone I, at the second level of the Body Tempering Realm, can't budge even when using all my strength?"

"Since when did this tiny Tang Village become so full of crouching tigers and hidden dragons?!"