Pei Family Village Turned Away

Pei Family Village was not large.

It had perhaps four or five hundred people.

Everyone was crammed into this mountain hollow, with houses scattered here and there, utterly without any planning.

Some were built from rammed-earth bricks, some pieced together from wooden planks, and a few were simply thatched shacks, leaning crookedly from the mountainside.

By the time the group entered the village, dusk had already fallen.

Three or four middle-aged women were squatting at the village entrance, beating clothes against stone slabs with wooden sticks. The thudding echoes reverberated through the mountain hollow.

Seeing figures approach, one sharp-eyed woman stood up and shouted toward the back:

"Qiang and the others are back!"

The other women immediately tossed down their sticks and hurried over, calling out:

"What good stuff did you catch?"

"How was today's haul?"

Before they could finish speaking, they saw the corpse on Pei Qiang's back.

"Ah..."

The woman in front let out a startled cry and covered her mouth.

Another, bolder woman stepped closer for a look, and her face turned deathly pale. "Is... is that Da Lin?"

Pei Qiang said nothing. With his head lowered, he carried the corpse past them.

The other three followed in silence, carrying the wild boars.

The women remained where they were, staring at one another.

A moment later, one of them suddenly came to her senses and bolted into the village, shouting as she ran:

"Da Lin is dead! Da Lin is dead!"

Her cries echoed through the twilight, setting off a chorus of barking dogs.

Zhou Qi walked at the very back, watching the scene with great interest.

Before long, the village stirred into commotion.

Lights were lit in every household. Men, women, old people, and children emerged from their homes and gathered in the slightly more open patch of ground in the village center.

There were old men draped in clothes, women holding children, and four or five half-grown youths of sixteen or seventeen with bare feet, craning their necks to look this way.

A figure slowly stepped out from the crowd.

He was an elderly man with a goatee. Though not tall, his back was straight, and wherever he went, the villagers made way for him.

Zhou Qi swept his gaze over him, and the System Panel appeared:

[Name: Pei Yunyang]

[Realm: Sixth Layer of Qi Refinement (Peak)]

[Techniques: Basic Fist Technique (Mastery), Hunting Art (Mastery)]

[Weaknesses: Declining qi and blood, potential exhausted]

Pei Yunyang walked to the center of the open ground. His gaze first fell on the corpse on the ground, and he fell silent for a moment.

Pei Qiang had already laid down the corpse. Now, with a thud, he dropped to his knees, his forehead touching the ground.

"Uncle Yunyang, I'm sorry. I failed to take care of Pei Lin."

His voice choked with sobs.

The other three hunters also knelt one after another, lowering their heads without daring to make a sound.

That left Zhou Qi as the only one standing in the clearing, his hands clasped behind his back.

He stood out conspicuously.

At last, Pei Yunyang's gaze fell upon him. After studying him for a moment, he slowly spoke:

"This young hero is..."

Pei Qiang raised his head and hurriedly said, "Uncle Yunyang, this is... this is a senior who saved our lives!"

He pointed at the two wild boars on the ground, speaking rapidly. "We encountered the Black Boar King—the Eighth Phase of Intelligence Awakening Black Boar King at the foot of Qingling Mountain!"

"Pei Lin was killed by it. This senior saw injustice on the road and stepped in to kill that beast!"

Pei Yunyang's expression changed as he lowered his head to look at the two wild boars.

The smaller one was one thing, but the larger one—the enormous corpse weighing nearly two thousand jin—had been split cleanly in half down the middle. The cut was so smooth, it looked as though it had been measured with a ruler.

His pupils contracted slightly.

That slash...

Anyone who slaughtered pigs regularly knew that an animal's skull was its hardest part.

Yet before him, this two-thousand-jin behemoth had been cleaved apart with a single strike.

And it had been an Eighth Phase of Intelligence Awakening Black Boar King?

Pei Yunyang had lived in the Qingling Mountains for over sixty years and knew full well how formidable that beast was.

Which household in the villages within ten miles had not lost someone to it? Whenever people went out hunting, their greatest fear was running into that beast.

And now, that beast lay before him.

It had been chopped into two halves with a single slash.

Pei Yunyang took a deep breath and gave Zhou Qi a deep bow.

"This old man is Pei Yunyang, village chief of Pei Family Village. Many thanks, young hero, for saving the able-bodied men of our village!"

Zhou Qi waved a hand. "It was nothing."

Pei Yunyang straightened up, his gaze circling Zhou Qi's face as he was about to continue speaking...

"Da Lin!!!"

A heart-rending cry came from beyond the crowd.

The villagers opened a path, and a young woman stumbled forward.

She wore coarse patched clothes, her hair disheveled and her face streaked with tears.

She threw herself beside Pei Lin's corpse, her trembling hands reaching for his already deathly pale face.

"Da Lin... Da Lin, wake up... You said you'd bring me back a piece of good meat today... Wake up..."

She wept as if her heart had been torn apart, sprawled over the corpse with her shoulders shaking violently.

The eyes of several women nearby reddened. They stepped forward to help her up, only for her to shove them away.

Pei Qiang knelt beside her, his forehead pressed to the ground, his fists clenched until they cracked.

The other three hunters' eyes were also red as they bit their lips hard.

Zhou Qi stood where he was, silently watching the scene.

The woman's sobs echoed through the mountain hollow, lingering for a long while.

After a long time, Pei Yunyang sighed and signaled to several women at his side.

The women stepped forward, coaxing and consoling her until they finally helped the woman, who was nearly fainting from grief, to her feet and led her into the village.

Pei Yunyang withdrew his gaze and looked at Zhou Qi.

"My apologies for letting young hero witness such a scene."

Zhou Qi shook his head without speaking.

Only then did Pei Qiang raise his head. He wiped the tears from his face and said to Pei Yunyang:

"Uncle Yunyang, this senior... he wishes to stay in our village for a while."

Pei Yunyang's brow lifted slightly.

Pei Qiang hurriedly added, "The senior had no choice but to hide in the mountains because of certain matters. He said he is willing to pay two Spirit Stones in exchange for a place to stay."

Two Spirit Stones.

The moment those words were spoken, the surrounding villagers immediately stirred.

"Spirit Stones? Those are Spirit Stones!"

"I've lived fifty years and never even seen what a Spirit Stone looks like..."

"Two Spirit Stones—how much silver would that be worth?"

Whispers sprang up all around.

But Pei Yunyang's brow furrowed even more deeply.

He was silent for a long while, his gaze repeatedly studying Zhou Qi's face.

Zhou Qi's expression remained calm as he let him look.

After a long time, Pei Yunyang slowly spoke:

"Young hero, this old man dares ask—what matter forced you to hide in the mountains?"

Zhou Qi said, "Someone from Blackstone City is hunting me down."

"Who is it that is hunting you?" Pei Yunyang continued to ask.

Zhou Qi looked at him and spoke two words:

"An enemy."

Pei Yunyang's eyelids twitched.

That answer was no answer at all.

He fell silent again for a moment before finally sighing.

"Young hero, it is not that this old man lacks human feeling. It is simply... as you can see, Pei Family Village has only this little foundation. Counting everyone we can, there are only twenty or thirty able-bodied men who can fight. The rest are old people, the weak, women, and children."

He looked at Zhou Qi, his gaze carrying a measure of helplessness.

"You saved four lives in our village. This old man will remember that kindness in his heart, but if your enemies come knocking..."

He paused, leaving the rest unsaid.

But the meaning was already clear.

Zhou Qi nodded. He understood as well—melons forcibly twisted were never sweet.

Besides, he had learned along the way that Pei Family Village was not the only village nearby.

Zhou Qi turned to Pei Qiang and extended his left hand.

"Since that is the case, return the Spirit Stones to me."