What Good Is Being Able to Fight? I'm a Minion

Gao Chang, broad-backed and bear-waisted, actually could not move Qin Yao even half an inch after placing a hand on his shoulder?

The Tang Village guard officer's expression changed drastically!

Yet those road thugs failed to notice this detail.

Seeing Gao Chang personally move to seize someone, they immediately decided that the "lowborn wretch from west of the village" was dead for sure.

They began shouting one after another, "Son of a bitch, weren't you so good at fighting? What fucking use is being able to fight?"

"Exactly! Once you get into the guard station, even if you don't die, they'll skin you alive!"

"Lord Gao is mighty, Lord Gao—"

Before they could finish their bootlicking, their vision suddenly blurred.

Gao Chang had whirled around and struck.

Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!

The four road thugs who had set up the toll barrier each took a solid slap across the face!

Gao Chang's slaps were no light matter. They sent the men flying backward with both feet off the ground, noses twisted and faces askew.

"???"

"Wh-what's going on?!"

The bystanders watching the spectacle were collectively dumbfounded.

It was not as though they had never witnessed similar incidents before.

Whenever such things happened, Lord Gao of the guard station never bothered to determine who was right and who was wrong.

He had always shielded the road thugs, currying favor with the wealthy households in the east of the village; then he would find every possible way to squeeze a little more oil and water from the lowborn residents in the west!

So why had this fellow suddenly changed his tune today?

"You bastards!"

A thunderous roar rang through the night sky.

It was Gao Chang.

With his left hand braced against his waist and his right pointing at the four men on the ground, whom he himself had slapped so hard they could not rise, he angrily rebuked them, "Who gave you the nerve?

"You actually dared to set up a toll barrier here without permission and block a martial warrior's path?!"

"A-a martial warrior?"

Everyone could not help sucking in a cold breath at those words.

"That sallow, scrawny middle-aged man is actually... actually a martial warrior?!"

One had to know that in this remote mountain village, the words "martial warrior" carried extraordinary weight.

Even someone like overseer Li Gang, who had barely reached the first level of the Body Tempering Realm, could eat meat at every meal, sleep with someone every month, and wear new clothes every year.

For ordinary people with no cultivation whatsoever to later move into the east of the village and live far better than the residents in the west, there were usually only two possibilities.

Either they were related by blood or marriage to a martial warrior.

Or they were lackeys and henchmen who hovered around martial warriors all day, providing them with every kind of service.

"Still, every martial warrior in Tang Family Village is somebody of standing. This man looks awfully unfamiliar."

"He's probably an outsider just passing through our village, right?"

"Exactly. Otherwise, this mess wouldn't have happened."

"Yeah. Xiong Paozi and his lot only dare throw their weight around against the lowborn wretches in the west of the village.

"The moment they find out the other party is a martial warrior, they'll be wagging their tails and scrambling to flatter him before anyone else!"

"Mm, judging by how Lord Gao addressed that yellow-faced fellow, this man's martial cultivation realm is probably even higher than Lord Gao's."

"Hiss, no wonder..."

At this moment, it was not only the bystanders who understood what had happened.

Even the road thugs who had been slapped until their noses were crooked and their faces twisted miserably realized that they had not been beaten unjustly.

Their earlier mockery of Qin Yao—"What fucking use is being able to fight?"—had been based on the assumption that he was not a martial warrior.

But once one became a martial warrior, it meant one had stepped beyond the category of "ordinary people," achieving what was, to a great extent, called "a leap in class."

You had become someone who could stand shoulder to shoulder with those martial warriors in the east of the village!

And in this tiny mountain mining village, the value of the title "martial warrior" was equivalent to receiving a ticket of entry into the ranks of the village's wealthy households in the future.

On one side were a few dogs raised by the wealthy households.

On the other stood a martial warrior in person, one possessed of formidable strength...

How was there even a choice to make?

No wonder Gao Chang had suddenly turned his face and disowned them.

"You dared demand toll money from a martial warrior, you dogs must be blind!"

Gao Chang roared at those men, "Why aren't you hurrying over to offer compensation and beg milord to calm his anger?"

At the guard officer's command, how could those crooked-nosed, twisted-faced fellows dare delay?

Even with broken legs and shattered knees, they had to endure the piercing pain and crawl before Qin Yao.

"Mercy, milord! Have mercy!"

"This lowly one had dog eyes that looked down on others and offended milord."

"Please be magnanimous, milord—treat this lowly one like a fart and let me go!"

As they kowtowed to Qin Yao and begged forgiveness, they rummaged through their entire bodies for every last coin and respectfully presented it to him.

There was not much money—only five or six hundred coins in total.

But however small a mosquito was, it was still meat. Why turn it away at the door?

Qin Yao decisively accepted it and nodded. "It is never too late to mend the fold after the sheep are lost. The grievances between us are now settled."

The moment those words fell, the four men felt as though they had received a great pardon. They repeatedly kowtowed and thanked him for his mercy.

Qin Yao could not help sighing to himself. "When you are weak, there will always be ill-intentioned people trying every possible way to stomp on you.

"But once you are strong enough, these vicious little men who bully the weak and fear the strong will all crawl at your feet, wagging their tails and begging for pity..."

Gao Chang waved impatiently. "Enough, enough. Get lost already. Stop being an eyesore here."

"Yes, yes, yes!"

The four road bullies limped away into the night.

Yet the crowd that had gathered to watch did not disperse. Instead, with remarkable tacit understanding, they chose to remain.

They were not doing so because they had nothing better to do.

They wanted to take a few more looks at this newly emerged martial artist, until his facial features and appearance were etched deep into their minds.

That way, if they ever failed to recognize him and accidentally offended this most distinguished martial artist, it would truly be disaster falling from the sky—by then, it would be too late even to cry.

Whenever Qin Yao's gaze happened to sweep their way, the deferential, ingratiating smiles on their faces became even brighter.

Perhaps this was the way ordinary people without cultivation survived.

"May I ask how I should address you, brother?"

Gao Chang, who had remained at Qin Yao's side all along, asked with great politeness.

As the deputy with real authority in Tang Village's martial officer system, Gao Chang naturally could not simply ignore this newly appeared martial artist.

After all, Qin Yao was very likely a formidable expert at the third level of the Body Tempering Realm!

In Tang Village, where even the village chief and village head were only at the third level of the Body Tempering Realm, such strength was already top-tier!

Take the dozen or so stewards in the Iron Mountain Mining Area, for example. Every one of them was at the third level of the Body Tempering Realm.

If any one of them were picked at random, even the village chief would greet him with polite pleasantries.

Even if they truly committed some offense, the village chief would often turn a blind eye, reducing major matters to minor ones and minor matters to nothing...

Thus, Gao Chang thought that even if he could not befriend this man today, he absolutely could not let him bear a grudge against him.

Otherwise, he would never again sleep peacefully!

Qin Yao considered his current disguised appearance—his complexion was waxy yellow.

He might as well choose a name related to "yellow."

So he blurted out, "My name is Little Yellow Man... cough, cough, Xiao Huangren."