An exciting world

Wang Tianlei shielded Zhou Hua behind him. A saber had appeared in his hand at some point, and he held it across his body as he faced Old One-Eye.

By then, the guests had also reacted. Many were young, sturdy men, and they each grabbed a weapon and surrounded Old One-Eye. These men were all seasoned hunters with considerable skill, and Old One-Eye could not afford to take their encirclement lightly.

The wolf bent its hind legs slightly, arched its body, and gave a low howl before shooting forward like an arrow, straight at Wang Tianlei. Refusing to give an inch, Wang Tianlei let out a low roar of his own and charged at Old One-Eye with his saber swinging.

In an instant, man and wolf were locked in battle.

Wang Tianlei's saber strokes were heavy and fierce, brimming with a murderous aura. Goudanzi could even clearly see a blood-red glow rising along the edge of that thick-backed blade.

What's that? Battle aura? Internal energy?

Wang Tianlei and Old One-Eye traded blows in a furious battle. Though many people surrounded them, none could lend a hand-the man and wolf were simply moving too fast.

Roars and piercing howls mingled together. Gradually, all anyone could see was a red blur tangled with a black one. The red blur was naturally Wang Tianlei in his bright red wedding robes, while the black one was Old One-Eye. With such speed and strength on display, no one nearby could intervene.

Still, their struggle gave the others an opportunity. The young hunters watching suddenly scattered, and when they returned, each carried a heavy bow. They nocked their arrows and aimed into the ring, ready to shoot the moment man and beast separated.

After fighting for roughly the time it took to drink a cup of tea, man and beast abruptly broke apart.

Wang Tianlei sprang backward, still guarding Zhou Hua with his saber held across his body. Old One-Eye's sharp claws had shredded his bright red wedding robes into strips. Beneath the torn cloth lay wounds so deep that bone showed through. Blood mingled with the red fabric, leaving no one able to tell how much he had lost.

The moment the two separated, the young hunters around them seized their chance and loosed their waiting arrows at Old One-Eye.

With a series of whooshes, dozens of arrows tore through the air toward Old One-Eye.

Clang, clang, clang...!

The arrows struck Old One-Eye with the ringing clash of metal and bounced away. Dozens of arrows had failed to leave so much as a scratch.

"Awooo!" Old One-Eye shook its body and suddenly unleashed a piercing howl. It thundered so loudly that the people around it scattered. Its tiger-sized body sprang into the air, and within a few bounds, it vanished without a trace.

"Steel tendons and iron bones-it actually has steel tendons and iron bones! That beast has grown so formidable!"

Pale-faced, Wang Tianlei stared in horror in the direction Old One-Eye had disappeared, muttering to himself.

Only after a long while did everyone recover their senses. They all crowded around him at once, pelting him with questions until the scene dissolved into chaos.

As for Goudanzi, a mere little brat, everyone naturally left him off to the side.

Were my eyes playing tricks on me? No, even if I imagined it the first time, what about the second and third? I clearly saw light flashing on that fellow's saber. And when he fought Old One-Eye, he jumped several meters into the air, far higher than any high jumper. I couldn't have imagined that. Could I have come to a martial arts world?!

After witnessing such a heart-pounding scene, Goudanzi felt no fear. On the contrary, excitement filled his heart. He seemed to have discovered that the world he had come to was nowhere near as dull as he had imagined. Not only was it not dull, but there was a very real chance that, just like in the novels he had once read, he had truly transmigrated into a world where he could cultivate martial arts and even Daoist magic!

If that's really true, wouldn't I have a chance to live forever without growing old?

Even if I can't live forever,

the people who cultivated internal energy in legends could live for hundreds of years. Maybe I'll have that chance too?

No one cared what a three-year-old child was thinking. Under the circumstances, no one paid any attention to how a three-year-old was doing either. Everyone's attention was on Wang Tianlei.

What should have been a lively wedding had suddenly taken such a turn. To the mountain villagers, it was a terribly inauspicious occurrence. Fortunately, no one had died.

The groom, Wang Tianlei, soon fainted from excessive blood loss. Luckily, he had a strong body and a robust constitution, and after a few bowls of medicinal decoction, he woke again.

It should have been an ill-omened affair, yet once their panic subsided, the mountain villagers found waves of delight rising in their hearts.

Zhou Xing, the village chief, was especially pleased. He stood beside Wang Tianlei the entire time, looking at him with growing warmth and tenderness, as though gazing upon a priceless treasure.

Of course, Goudanzi paid no attention to this. Even if he had, he would not have found anything strange about it.

The strength displayed in that fight, though insufficient to defeat Old One-Eye, had far surpassed that of the village hunters. Zhou Xing might only have been the chief of a tiny mountain village, but a village chief was still a village chief. To borrow a saying from Goudanzi's previous life: don't think a village chief isn't an official.

He, too, had seen the red glow along the edge of Wang Tianlei's thick-backed saber, and he understood what it was.

For life in a mountain village, nothing mattered more than a sturdy body and good fighting skills. Those two things were the foundation of survival here. The surrounding mountains had always teemed with wild beasts, all of them exceedingly fierce. Even leaving Old One-Eye aside, the snakes, insects, tigers, and leopards in the mountains were not to be trifled with. The village hunters could bag little more than wild boars and the like. When they encountered truly ferocious beasts, their only option was to flee. After all, life often mattered more than food, and losing a hunter to kill a fierce beast was unquestionably a bargain where the loss outweighed the gain.

Wang Tianlei's arrival had shown him hope. He could even foresee that, in the near future, under Wang Tianlei's leadership, the village's supply of meat would increase greatly. Given enough time, it might even become one of the strongest villages in this old forest.

Often, it did not take many people. A single strong man could lead a village to prosperity. How could his gaze toward Wang Tianlei not be warm?

The days hurried past. More than a month later, the uproar at the wedding gradually died down. The villagers' initial fear that Old One-Eye would return for revenge also slowly faded with the passing of time.

Those who farmed went on farming, and those who hunted went on hunting.

The only difference was that, whenever they had free time, the village's young hunters gathered in an open stretch of land north of the village, lined up in several rows, and trained under Wang Tianlei.

To Goudanzi, the scene looked much like those he had seen in the film Once Upon a Time in China. Only the instructor was not Wong Fei-hung, but his brother-in-law, Wang Tianlei.

Overall, this brother-in-law of his was a decent man. An incident like that at a wedding, with injuries and spilled blood, was terribly inauspicious. By Chinese custom, people always tended to lay the blame for such things on the woman. Though this world was not the China of Goudanzi's previous life, its customs were almost identical. Old Zhou and his family had therefore worried that Zhou Hua would become a target of misplaced anger, be branded a harbinger of disaster, and suffer mistreatment in her husband's household.

As it turned out, their worries were needless. Wang Tianlei might have looked big and burly, but he doted on Zhou Hua. The newlyweds lived as sweetly as honey blended with oil, making everyone else green with envy. A great stone finally lifted from the Zhou family's hearts.

Wang Tianlei had a strong constitution. Though his injuries had been serious, after only a few days of recuperation he was as lively as a dragon and vigorous as a tiger. With his excellent martial skills and Village Chief Zhou Xing's wholehearted support, he became the leader of the village hunters.

The village chief also proposed that, during the winter lull, the village's young men learn some martial arts from Wang Tianlei to improve their abilities. Having witnessed Wang Tianlei's prowess, the hunters-especially the younger ones-naturally welcomed the suggestion. Thus, the scene before Goudanzi had come about.

Still wearing split-crotch pants, Goudanzi sat on a small stool at the edge of the clearing north of the village. He watched closely as Wang Tianlei earnestly taught the hunters each move, his heart brimming with excitement.

After a month of learning about this world, he had finally confirmed that martial arts truly existed here-not merely external arts, but internal arts as well.

He just did not know whether this world's martial arts were the same as those in martial arts novels.