My Name Is Liu Da Niu!

The twilight deepened. In a secluded backyard of Listening Waves Mountain Manor, Wang Lang, dressed in a close-fitting dark blue short tunic, sat on a stone bench.

He had just emerged from three months of cultivation at the bottom of the Dadu River, and the moisture from the water had not yet completely dissipated.

Although his cultivation had improved significantly during the three months of secluded cultivation at the riverbed, the experience was no different from being in a water prison.

Even though he was dedicated to becoming stronger, he found it incredibly tedious. At this moment, he desperately needed some worldly warmth to balance it out.

On the stone table sat a pot of clear wine and a few small dishes.

He held a wine cup in one hand, taking shallow sips, while cradling a slightly old-fashioned thread-bound book in the other. It was the Confucian classic, The Great Learning.

"Therefore, a gentleman must first cultivate himself before seeking to cultivate others, and first reject faults in himself before rejecting faults in others."

Wang Lang's voice was calm and gentle, as if he were reviewing or explaining.

Opposite him, the little fox Su Yao was curled up in a ball, her furry head nodding rhythmically with his recitation, on the verge of falling asleep.

The profound meaning within The Great Learning had the effect of the strongest calming spell on her.

Wang Lang glanced at her and continued, "What is meant by cultivating oneself in rectifying the mind is that if one has anger, one cannot achieve rectitude..."

The continuous chanting finally disturbed Su Yao's sleep.

She lifted her little paw and rubbed her eyes, mumbling drowsily, "Langzi, why are you reciting these brain-hurting things again when you're not cultivating?"

"You work yourself to death when cultivating, why can't you let yourself rest?"

Wang Lang put down the book and picked up the wine pot, pouring a small amount of clear wine into the dish in front of her. He said calmly, "When people are bored, they always find something to do."

Su Yao leaned forward, her pink tongue quickly lapping up the clear wine.

"If you ask me, if there was anywhere to play dice or listen to music, you would have thrown this book miles away by now."

The man and the fox, amidst the twilight and the aroma of wine, chatted idly.

Meanwhile, outside Liu Manor in Qinglin City.

Liu Da Niu was a household servant and guard at Liu Manor.

He wasn't originally surnamed Liu. He was a villager from Creek Water Village, next to Creek Stone Village, outside the city.

Fate had been extremely harsh to him. His mother died in his childhood, and in his youth, his father fell off a cliff while gathering herbs in the mountains, and not even a complete corpse was recovered.

Before he could recover from his grief, his elder sister, who was married and occasionally returned to her maiden home to help him, was spotted by a noble young master passing by and seeking a place to rest. He forcibly defiled her.

His elder sister, with her strong will, could not bear the humiliation and drowned herself in a well that very night.

The series of blows made Liu Da Niu feel that heaven was blind.

He had hated, he had resented, especially hating the young master who had ruined his elder sister and his last shred of hope.

But he had secretly inquired. That young master's status was incredibly noble. Not to mention him, a commoner, even his current master, Liu Manor, was like an ant in the eyes of that person.

Revenge? With what could he take revenge? It would be like an egg hitting a rock, courting his own destruction.

He remembered his father often saying, earn more money, marry a wife early, and have a chubby son.

But Liu Da Niu, looking at the dilapidated thatched hut, felt only immense irony.

Continue the lineage? Let his children continue to wallow in this mire, repeating this fate of being trampled upon at will?

He couldn't even figure out his own life, how could he continue the family line?

Disheartened, he sold himself to Liu Yuanwai, a wealthy man in Qinglin City, as a slave.

He exchanged it for ten taels of silver, and also took his master's surname, changing from Shi Niu to Liu Da Niu.

When the villagers found out, they gossiped behind his back.

Saying he didn't do the job of a good person, and instead chose to be a dog for someone.

Hearing this, Liu Da Niu merely sneered.

Be a dog? If he didn't have a sturdy frame and look strong and powerful, he wouldn't even qualify to be a watchdog for Liu Manor!

He touched the indigo-blue guard uniform on his body. The fine cotton fabric was something he never dared to imagine back in Creek Water Village.

Now, as a dog, he wore it.

Not only did he wear it, but because of his loyalty and obedience for three years, and his willingness to exert himself, he had even become a minor leader among the guards, earning a monthly salary of two qian of silver.

Occasionally, when he had some spare money, he would sneak to Yi Hong Courtyard on the west side of the city to find his old flame, Miss Cui Hong, to enjoy himself and relieve his inner distress and emptiness.

Thinking of Cui Hong, a lewd and satisfied smile appeared on Liu Da Niu's face, which had been numbed by the hardships of life.

That woman's skin was as white as a freshly peeled egg. Especially her skills, each time she made this rough man exclaim he couldn't take it.

Unfortunately, Cui Hong was good in every way, except her price was too high.

He had to save up three months' salary to be a master for once.

Liu Da Niu sighed. It wasn't Cui Hong's fault, only his own lack of money.

He subconsciously glanced at the two subordinates following him, Liu Er Niu and Liu San Niu.

These two were brothers, who, like him, had sold themselves into service. Because they were given the names Er Niu and San Niu, they happened to fall under the command of Da Niu, their elder brother.

The moonlight tonight was still quite bright. Liu Da Niu, lost in thought, led his two subordinates on their routine patrol along the tall courtyard walls of Liu Manor.

The Liu family was a well-known wealthy household in Qinglin City. Great wealth attracted envy, and they were always targets for petty thieves.

These guards of theirs might not have had much real skill, but they served to gather a crowd and bolster their reputation.

As they reached a ginkgo tree at a corner of the wall, Liu Da Niu's peripheral vision suddenly caught an unnatural shadow at the base of the tree roots.

He immediately became alert, placed his hand on the wooden-sheathed iron knife at his waist, gathered his courage, and shouted:

"Who's there? Get out here, you bastard!"

He was tall and burly, and his shout carried considerable authority in the silent night.

The shadow under the tree froze at the sound, as if it had just been an illusion.

Liu Da Niu felt a prickle of fear, but his duty prevented him from retreating.

He braced himself, took the lantern from Liu Er Niu, held it in one hand and his knife in the other, and cautiously approached the base of the tree.

"If you don't come out, don't blame me for being merciless with my blade!"

Liu Er Niu and Liu San Niu also nervously gripped their cudgels, following closely behind him.

Just then, a slightly flustered voice came from the shadows:

"Sirs, please don't attack! It's a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding! I was just passing by, I had an urgent need, and was just... relieving myself here..."

Before he finished speaking, a fat man with a large head and big ears, wearing a short jacket, emerged from the shadow of the tree with a sheepish grin.

Seeing this, Liu Da Niu's heart first relaxed, then anger surged: "Relieving yourself? Do you think the entrance to Liu Manor is your outhouse!"

The fat man didn't get angry, he just chuckled merrily. His smile, under the dim light of the lantern, seemed somewhat eerie.

Liu Da Niu felt a chill run down his spine from his smile. Just as he was about to reprimand him again, he saw the fat man's face begin to contort and distort before his eyes!

His mouth protruded forward, his nose caved into two black holes, his ears grew large and pointed, and coarse, black bristles quickly sprouted on his skin...

In just a breath or two, the person standing before them was no longer a fat man.

He was clearly a pig-headed creature with tusks bared, panting and snorting!

"A... a monster!" Liu Da Niu and the other two were terrified, their legs turned to jelly, and they turned to flee.

But the Pig Demon was faster. It bared its wide mouth, let out a snorting, grunting laugh, and produced two large, greasy cleavers from who knows where with its plump hands!

The blades flashed past. Liu Da Niu felt a sudden coolness on his neck, and his vision spun.

The last thing he saw was his own headless body slowly falling, and the equally bloody necks of Liu Er Niu and Liu San Niu beside him.

The Pig Demon flicked the blood droplets from its cleavers and grunted, "I intended to sneak in for a snack, but since I've been discovered, this Pig Grandpa won't pretend anymore!"

It strode forward on its thick legs, no longer concealing its presence, and swaggered towards the magnificent gates of Liu Manor.

Soon, a strange demonic aura with a sweet, fishy scent silently enveloped the entire Liu Manor, like an invisible net.

Deep within the mansion, sporadic shrill screams from women and the sounds of panicked servants running began to be heard.

However, all these disturbances were firmly sealed by the mist-like demonic aura, not a single bit of which could escape to the outside.