Feral Ox Physique

More than a hundred refugees, old and young alike, stared with numb eyes. They wore tattered hemp clothes and were gaunt as sticks.

As they passed Zhang Yu and Li Yue, they saw the two eating meat buns. Three men immediately rushed over.

The men said nothing, their eyes glowing green as they lunged to snatch the buns. Zhang Yu said nothing either. He rose to his feet and drew his willow-leaf saber.

Splat! Splat! Splat!

In an instant, he slashed three times and chopped off the three men's heads.

"Get lost. If you don't leave within ten breaths, I'll slaughter every last one of you," Zhang Yu said coldly.

The food he carried was only enough for himself and Li Yue. For the past decade, calamities had never ceased across the Western Desolate Continent, and refugees numbered in the thousands upon thousands. He could neither help nor save them all.

Seeing the three corpses, the refugees were not afraid. On the contrary, dozens of them rushed out, dragged the bodies aside, and began making a fire to cook.

Zhang Yu frowned slightly. The words from his textbooks—in years of great famine, people ate one another—had taken tangible form before his eyes.

It was beyond his control. Turning to Li Yue, whose face had gone pale with fright, he said, "Let's go."

"Mm!" Li Yue nodded at once, hurriedly rising to follow him.

Suddenly, a woman among the refugees ran up to Zhang Yu with a child of three or four in her arms. She then dropped to her knees and kowtowed. "My lord, please, take this child with you."

Behind her stood several male refugees with green-lit eyes, their gazes fixed on the child in her arms.

Zhang Yu glanced at them, a trace of struggle rising in his heart.

He was not made of stone. He knew what would happen next if he ignored them. In the end, he said, "Stay within two zhang of me. If you can't keep up, then that is your fate."

With that, he turned and continued forward with Li Yue, never looking at the woman holding the child again.

The woman hurriedly got up and staggered after Zhang Yu with the child in her arms.

Not far away, Niu Mancang lay on the ground, feeling as though he were about to starve to death. From the depths of his soul, he rejected the idea of eating human flesh, so he had endured hunger all this time.

He had already resigned himself to death. So be it if I die. My whole family is gone anyway. I'm the only one left.

When he saw the woman beg Zhang Yu with her child in her arms, he sneered inwardly. Would a martial artist help lowly commoners like us? Hmph!

But the next moment, he heard Zhang Yu's words and watched the woman leave with Zhang Yu. His eyes widened, and he was left dazed and incredulous.

This martial artist... his heart isn't bad.

My matter...

Niu Mancang was from Niu Family Village. Half a year ago, he had still had a happy family: his father, mother, wife, and two children. They had seven mu of farmland. Life was hard, but they could survive.

But Hu the Landlord from a neighboring village had set his sights on Niu Mancang's wife and forcibly took her away. When his parents tried to stop him, Hu the Landlord killed them. One of the children bit him, and Hu the Landlord immediately smashed the child to death on the spot.

When Niu Mancang returned from the fields, his parents and two children had all been murdered, while his wife had been taken away.

Gripping a woodcutter's blade, he charged madly at Hu the Landlord's home. Unfortunately, he did not even make it through the gate before the martial artist Hu the Landlord employed beat him half to death.

He had thought he should have died, but for some reason, he stubbornly pulled through.

Niu Mancang did not go back to throw his life away. He returned home, buried his parents and children, sold the house and land, then took the money to the county town to file a complaint.

Half a month later, the silver from selling his land and house had all been swindled away by the yamen officials, and he was driven out.

His home was gone, his land was gone, and he could only join the stream of refugees.

He wanted revenge.

He was willing to pay any price for revenge.

But he was a nobody, a lowly commoner. No one would help him. He did not even have the qualifications to sell his life to someone else.

He had begged many martial artists, wanting to be their dog, even to sell them his life, hoping only that they would help him take revenge.

But every martial artist had not even spared him a glance. In their eyes, his life was not worth a single coin.

That was why, when the woman had begged Zhang Yu with her child in her arms, he had mocked him inwardly.

Yet he had never expected Zhang Yu to help the woman. Though he had merely allowed her to follow with the child, he had still saved that child's life. Otherwise, the child would have been eaten.

Niu Mancang had seen the trace of pity in Zhang Yu's eyes just now. He thought secretly, This martial artist is different.

The way he looked at that woman and child was as though they were people. Niu Mancang thought, Perhaps my matter...

None of the martial artists he had met had ever regarded lowly commoners like them as human. He knew that look all too well. But the emotion in Zhang Yu's eyes just now had been different.

The next moment, Niu Mancang, who had been too hungry to even crawl, somehow found the strength to rise and chase after Zhang Yu's group.

After wandering for half a year, this was the first time he had seen a martial artist who regarded people like them as human.

Zhang Yu walked at an unhurried pace. Earlier, he had used the Eye of Truth-Piercing to inspect the child in the woman's arms. Since she had come to beg him, he had thought perhaps Heaven had arranged for a talented disciple to come before him.

Unfortunately, after looking, he realized he had thought too much.

The child's cultivation aptitude and comprehension were both poor, and the child had no fate pattern.

Zhang Yu shook his head and muttered inwardly, Web novels really poison people. The protagonist runs into a genius at every turn, usually one no one else can discover, then they come begging to take the protagonist as their master. Female emperors, heavenly emperors, demon sovereigns, sacred physiques—what bullshit. There isn't a single one in reality.

As he was grumbling inwardly, hurried footsteps sounded behind him. He turned and saw a middle-aged man with a head full of white hair staggering after them. (After Niu Mancang's family was destroyed, his hair had turned white overnight. He was actually only thirty-one.)

Zhang Yu stopped, one hand resting on his saber hilt as he stared at the man.

Thud!

Niu Mancang knelt two zhang away, then began kowtowing.

Bang! Bang! Bang...

After knocking his head against the ground more than a dozen times, he said, "Martial artist sir, my name is Niu Mancang. I want to live. I'll just follow behind you and absolutely won't disturb you."

Zhang Yu narrowed his eyes and was about to refuse. He had allowed the woman to follow with her child because he could not bear it, but he did not have that much sympathy for a middle-aged man.

After all, he himself was fleeing disaster, and he was probably wanted by now.

For some inexplicable reason, he used the Eye of Truth-Piercing to look at Niu Mancang.

[Name: Niu Mancang]

[Age: 31]

[Cultivation Aptitude: Excellent]

[Comprehension: Poor]

[Fate Pattern: Feral Ox Physique (Unawakened), Pure Loyalty]

Hiss...

Zhang Yu's eyes lit up. Aside from Li Yue, this was the second person he had seen with a fate pattern, and the man's cultivation aptitude was excellent as well.

[Feral Ox Physique, ranked 69th among the 72 Earthly Fiend physiques. Tough skin and thick flesh, enduring stamina, boundless strength. Cultivating body-tempering techniques yields twice the result with half the effort. Awakening conditions...]

Not bad, not bad, truly not bad! Zhang Yu thought inwardly. He had been preparing to cultivate the third-rate technique Iron Shirt, and just as he was about to sleep, someone handed him a pillow.

And there was the fate pattern Pure Loyalty as well—honest and loyal, never betraying one's master once accepted. How could Zhang Yu not be tempted?

Bang! Bang...

Niu Mancang was still kowtowing. Zhang Yu nearly stepped forward to help him up, but immediately restrained himself.

Stay calm, stay calm. I'm a martial artist. I have to keep up the bearing of an expert, he thought.