Chapter 3: The Locals Are Pretty Polite, Huh
Jili Wharf.
This was the territory under their hall master’s jurisdiction. After last night’s bloody battle, the wharf was still operating as usual, with a group of wharf workers sweating and laboring to move the goods.
And he, as a low-level thug of the gang, had the daily job of wandering around the wharf when idle.
“Brother Lin, why did you go back last night? You didn’t know, the hall master took us along, we ate the best food and drank the finest liquor, and there were women too.”
“Women?”
Lin Fan was stunned. As far as he knew, their own hall master wasn’t that generous; it was absolutely impossible for him to find women for them.
“Hey, women, but we could only look, not touch; they were the hall master’s concubines.”
Hearing this.
Lin Fan was accustomed to this. Their own hall master was somewhat lecherous. As far as he knew, the hall master already had a family, with one son and one daughter, but the hall master just couldn’t control the two taels of flesh in his pants; he had several concubines.
In this period of time, he had seen two.
Sigh.
Lin Fan had nothing to say about this. This hall master had no ambition at all. Loyalty Hall had a total of five hall masters; whose territory was the smallest and who had the fewest subordinates?
It had to be their hall master Wang Changhai.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible for Fierce Tiger Gang’s Yuan Jiang to bring people to seize Jili Wharf.
“Right, Brother Lin, this is for you.”
“What?”
Lin Fan took a look and unexpectedly saw some blackened broken silver full of bite marks; it looked like at least half a tael.
“Hey, the hall master gave it last night. The few who struck first got one hundred copper coins each, while you, Brother Lin, and the others got half a tael of broken silver each. To be honest, I haven’t seen silver in a long time.”
The speaker was named Wu Yong, who joined the gang a bit later than Lin Fan. Sometimes when he encountered things he didn’t understand, he would ask Lin Fan, and over time, the two became familiar.
In the gang, Wu Yong was the closest to Lin Fan.
Lin Fan chuckled and took the broken silver, putting it in his clothes pocket, and asked, “By the way, where did that Iron Fist King Chen Niu go last night?”
He thought of that Iron Fist King Chen Niu, who could break a wooden stick with his bare arm without any pain at all; he still felt he was a master of martial arts practice, at least practicing external hardening martial arts, just not high enough, and was taken down by him with a club.
Therefore, he wouldn’t miss any clues related to martial arts manuals.
To establish a foothold here, relying on others was useless; he could only rely on himself. Only being strong personally was true strength.
When he first transmigrated here, before the cheat activated, his idea was simple: take one step at a time. If he could make something of himself, he’d work hard at it.
If he couldn’t make it, he planned to rely on his body for a living, see which family was recruiting sons-in-law, and directly marry in, no matter what the woman looked like; at night with the lights out, it was all the same.
First, get his days to a better state.
But later the cheat appeared, and his ideas truly changed: learn martial arts, cultivate, and he must become someone above others.
It had been two months now.
And still no clues at all; he was really anxious.
Wu Yong said, “Speaking of that guy, I saw him when I just arrived; he headed toward the city gate not long ago. I think he’s trying to run.”
Learning the other’s whereabouts, Lin Fan patted Wu Yong’s shoulder. “I’m leaving for a bit; cover for me.”
With that, he turned and headed toward the city gate.
“Brother Lin, Lin…”
……
Outside the city, official road.
Chen Niu, who was full of bravado at the wharf last night in the darkness loving hot pot, was walking very wretchedly on the road, with one arm fixed with a bamboo board.
He was still wondering what happened last night.
Clearly the front was blocked.
How could the back not block it?
He was very confident in his pair of iron arms; that was what he had endured countless hardships to finally train.
Twenty taels.
Just gone like that.
At this moment, Chen Niu always felt like there was someone behind him.
“Hey.”
A voice came.
Chen Niu puzzledly turned his head to look, and suddenly his pupils contracted; what met his eyes was a wooden stick swinging down from above, startling him into habitually raising his still intact arm.
Bang!
“Ah…”
Chen Niu collapsed to the ground screaming in pain, “Broken, broken.”
His mind was blank now, completely unaware of what happened. He was walking on the official road, not a country path; how could there be mountain bandits.
“Big brother, spare me, big brother, spare me.”
Chen Niu wanted to cry but had no tears. He felt that after last night’s ordeal, bad luck had befallen him. He had already left Yong’an City, yet he was still so unlucky.
At this time, Lin Fan looked at the wooden stick in his hand that had cracks and was about to break, further confirming his thoughts.
He glanced at the surroundings.
No one around.
Without thinking, he grabbed Chen Niu’s ankle and dragged him toward the small forest.
“Spare me.”
“Don’t hurt me; whatever you want, I’ll give it.”
Chen Niu begged for mercy, hoping desperately that someone would see this atrocity here and step in righteously to save him from the fire and water. Unfortunately, until the darkness ahead enveloped half his body, no one came to save him.
In the small forest.
Chen Niu trembled all over, looking pitifully at Lin Fan in front of him.
He truly had no impression of the person in front of him at all.
“Want to die or live?” Lin Fan asked.
“Live, I want to live.”
The other opened his mouth, scaring Chen Niu nearly out of his wits. So ruthless, directly asking about death or life; what was wrong with Yong’an City’s public order? It wasn’t good at all.
“Wanting to live is easy; hand over the martial arts manual,” Lin Fan said.
“Ah?”
Chen Niu had been thinking the other would make some excessive demand, even preparing to sacrifice his butt, but who would have thought the other would stun him with his words.
Martial arts… manual?
What the hell was this?
“Hm? Looks like you want to die then.” Lin Fan said coldly.
“No, no, big brother, I really don’t have a martial arts manual. This stuff is only in storybooks, right?” Chen Niu hurriedly said, afraid that if he spoke late, the other would club him to death.
Lin Fan frowned; he didn’t expect the other to be so stubborn. Without another word, he went straight to searching.
“Big brother, don’t do this; I’m male, I don’t go for that.”
Chen Niu trembled in fear from the groping, feeling that his reputation was ruined today. He was about to be violated by this pervert in front of him; this was a terrifying thing that broke through gender and moral ethics.
Moments later.
Lin Fan looked at Chen Niu in front of him, whose clothes he had messed up, feeling very disappointed. What was going on; there really wasn’t any. Logically, the other had no fixed abode and wandered everywhere; something as important as a martial arts manual definitely wouldn’t leave his body.
Now he had searched the other’s entire body, yet hadn’t even touched a corner of one.
At this time, Chen Niu curled up his body like a mistreated little wife, timidly looking at Lin Fan.
“Let me ask you, how did you train your arm to the point of being able to break a stick, and when I hit your arm, you didn’t feel any pain at all; how exactly did you achieve that?” Lin Fan asked.
“Big brother, you just get used to it.”
“Get used to it?”
“Yeah, I’m homeless, out in the world, often encounter sneak attacks with clubs, and over time, when people swing sticks at me, I definitely have to raise my arm to block, right? At first it really hurt, but after a long time, I got used to it. Look, this arm’s skin is rough like tree bark.”
“……！！！”
For such an explanation.
He couldn’t accept it, but looking at the other’s sincere gaze, it didn’t seem like a lie.
Seeing the other still doubting, Chen Niu hurriedly swore to the heavens.
“Big brother, everything I said is true; if there’s half a lie, may I be struck by lightning and die a horrible death. I just relied on my arm being thick and tough enough to barely get the title of Iron Fist King. Besides, in this world, where are there martial arts? If there really were martial arts, someone would have opened a school to take disciples and get rich long ago.”
Lin Fan looked at Chen Niu, then at the realm displayed on the panel.
I don’t understand.
Exactly who controls martial arts so strictly, not even allowing common people to know of their real existence.
Who?
Exactly who?
Suppressing the dissatisfaction in his heart, Lin Fan took out all the copper coins on him and placed them in front of the other.
“Sorry, didn’t know you really didn’t have any; take these copper coins to see a doctor for your injuries.”
“Thank you, big brother; thank you, big brother.”
Chen Niu thanked him repeatedly, feeling this person was pretty good; he knew he had hit him by mistake, not only apologized but also compensated medical fees.
The locals are pretty nice.
After Lin Fan left, Chen Niu used his seemingly broken but actually not broken hand to pick up the copper coins, endured the pain, stood up, straightened his clothes, and wretchedly walked out of the small forest.
As for what just happened, he wasn’t angry at all.
The guy just made a mistake.
He already apologized and compensated.
What more could he want?
