Chapter 9: Initial Display of Power
In his euphoria, Little Fatty’s nose detected a foul stench. Looking around, he realised that the stench emanated from him and that he was sticky all over. It was as though he had taken a dip in the mud. Since Song Zhong was a practitioner, he would naturally know that this was the dirt excreted from his internal organs when he had undergo a bodily transformation. It seemed that he received several benefits just from circulating his energy. That made him feel euphoric.
However, Little Fatty felt really uncomfortable being dirty all over. With a thought, he exited the dimension, and sped to a nearby lake for a bath. While bathing, he realised that his skin had became rougher, in addition to a faint copper hue, much like the colour of the copper bell.
This filled him with dejection as he recalled that when a practitioner advances in their cultivation, their skin colour would become fairer, and the skin would also permeate a faint glow, making the males more suave and ladies more elegant. However, when it came to him, his skin became more rough, and there seemed to be indications of him growing horizontally.
He was already originally fat, if he carries on like this, wouldn’t there be no difference between him and a pig? Seeing his barrel-like chest and waist, Song Zhong felt devastated.
But, he has already started on this cultivation, and it would seem impossible to abandon it. He could only force himself to continue walking down this path. At least the cultivation method seemed to be not bad, more importantly, it was suitable for him. This would save him the precious time and effort required to search for other cultivation methods.
After his bath, Little Fatty put on some random clothes, and was hit by hunger pangs, as though he had not eaten for dozens of days. This left Song Zhong confounded since he recalled that he had just eaten yesterday, and should not be so hungry today. After all, he was in the XianTian stage, where his demand for food had already greatly decreased. He can even survive without food for a few days.
Although it was weird, he still had to solve the fact that he was hungry. Raising his head to look at the sky, Little Fatty realised that it was now dusk, or in his language, dinner time. He summoned his tattered flying sword and flew straight to the canteen.
Under normal circumstances, being an outer court disciple, Song Zhong should have gone to the canteen for outer court disciples. But the last he went there, everyone stared at him with disgusted faces. It was not surprising that they all looked down on a complete trash like Song Zhong, regardless of how hard he worked. Everybody had already determined that Little Fatty’s progress had reached the end of the road, and he could no longer progress any further unless he stuffed himself with expensive elixirs everyday. But for an orphan like him, this was clearly impossible.
Since Little Fatty had just entered into the outer court disciple community, without any backing, plus the fact that he was weak, he was not audacious enough to casually start a fight. Thus, he could only bear with it and leave. In future, unless he becomes stronger, he would not dare to go there again.
Since he did not go to the outer court canteen, he could only continue going to the servants canteen. Although the food here could not be compared to that of the outer court canteen, but Song Zhong had already eaten this for over 10 years and was already used to it. In addition, since he was the only outer court disciple here, nobody would dare to bully him. Thus he was more willing to go there.
With a flying sword, Little Fatty’s speed was a lot faster. In less than half an hour, he arrived at the entrance of a large yard, which consisted of dozens of temples. This is where the many thousands of servants ate and slept. In the past, Song Zhong also stayed here, but because he could not bear with the steward bullying him, he went out on his own to stay.
The moment Song Zhong landed at the doorstep, before even walking in, he heard a din coming from the inside. There was even a child’s miserable shriek mixed within.
Once he heard this voice, Little Fatty felt incensed. Because he recognised this voice, and it was his best friend, Little Monkey’s voice. Little Monkey’s surname was ‘Hou’ (T/N: It means monkey in chinese), and did not have a name. He was an orphan who was brought back by an outer court disciple. His body frame was small and skinny, earning him the nickname Little Monkey.
Here, even though everybody were lowly servants, there was still a hierarchy within. Most of the people who from the outside, came in through bribery. Thus, almost every one of them had a backing or faction. Only a very small amount of people did not have any external support, and those people naturally become the target for bullying. In the past, Song Zhong was like the current Little Monkey, and belonged to the lowest class of people.
When Little Fatty just arrived, the both of them were always forced to do chores for the rest. In the first few years, they worked together very often, thus they came into contact more often than not. Suffering under the same circumstances made them the best of friends. Only later, when Song Zhong entirely focused on cultivating, added the fact that he was not willing to be bullied here, did he move out to stay. Because Little Monkey was afraid of affecting his cultivation, he did not follow suit with Song Zhong but continued to suffer in silence.
Although the time which they met became few and far between, but every time Little Fatty came here to eat, Little Monkey would accompany him to gossip. This was also the few times that Little Fatty was filled with contentment. In fact, if not for Little Monkey taking care of him under the counter, whether or not he could even have a full meal would be a problem!
So, Little Fatty really treasured Little Monkey. Thus, when he became an outer court disciple, he also made use of meal times, to specially come here to warn everyone that they are not to bully Little Monkey any more. But, he didn’t think that the moment he came here he met such a thing.
An infuriated Little Fatty rushed in directly. Looking in, he saw that there were many people in his surroundings, watching Little Monkey being beaten up by 4 to 5 servants. Although they had not learnt any martial techniques, they were still cultivators of the way, thus there is still a large increase in strength when compared to any ordinary man. The 4 or 5 servants were very arrogantly punching and kicking Little Monkey, and from the heavy sounds the fists were giving out, one could tell that they were not showing mercy.
Little Monkey’s skinny figure could be seen and his clothes were torn long ago, revealing plenty of bruises. He could only cuddle into a ball, bereft of energy to even wail, and blood spewed from his mouth, landing at quite a distance.
“Beat him to death! Your father I do not believe that I cannot take care of this stupid monkey! Don’t think that you have that stinky fatty as a outer court disciple I am afraid of him. In my eyes, he is nothing but a pig! A dead pig!” A fierce looking guy was incessantly shouting.
This man was called Gan Xing, who was the boss of this area. Relying on the fact that his cousin was an outer court disciple with a bit more of a future, he resorts to all sort of malicious acts here. Nobody ever dares to do anything to him. Even those old bastard elders do not dare to easily offend him, because nobody could predict when his cousin would enter the inner court. Once a person becomes an inner court disciple, taking care of an outer court elder would be child’s play. You have to know, in the sect, even a dog inside the inner court is considered more valuable than an outer court disciple!
Over time, this fostered Gan Xing’s arrogance. In the past he bullied Little Fatty and Little Monkey. Now, even when Song Zhong became an outer court disciple, he was not the least bit afraid and continued to bully Little Monkey, as though he does not place Song Zhong in his sights.
From Gan Xing’s perspective, even if Little Fatty became an outer court disciple, his status was still far from that of his cousin’s. So, even if he bullied Little Monkey, he thought Little Fatty would not dare to stand up for him, resulting in his arrogance.
Unfortunately, Gan Xing made a big mistake. Just as he finished speaking, he felt a wave of killing intent coming from behind him. He was also a practitioner, although he had not entered into the XianTian stage, but he was still a big figure in the HouTian stage. Knowing that someone was ambushing him from behind, he immediately wanted to dodge to the side.
However he was an instant too late. He felt his back being slapped by something very heavy, and directly face-planted the ground. His whole face slammed on the floor, at that instant, that sharp nose of his was flattened. Blood spewed out like a fountain, and he was blinded; his eyes were filled with stars and his brain felt woozy, as though he did not know where he was.
The people who beating Little Monkey up heard the noise and turned to look. ‘Eh? Why is boss lying flat on the floor?’ Before they could comprehend anything, they saw a black shadow streak by each of them, followed by a solid bench rushing towards them.
“Damn it, it’s Song Zhong, quick, run~!” one of them shouted and tried to escape.
A pity, it was all too late. The angered Little Fatty was like an enraged black bear. As though his fat body was filled with energy, the spectators only saw a black streak followed by a strong wind blow, after which, ‘Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!’ four loud sounds were heard, punctuated by miserable screams in between. In only a blink of an eye, the whole battle was over. This could be called efficient.
5 big men, under Song Zhong’s ambush, without even a glimpse of his face, they were all beaten down by a bench which he casually picked up.
The benches in the canteen could each sit up to 4 people, thus they were really sturdy. They were all made of solid hardwood, and weighed dozens of catties. Together with Song Zhong’s body which was tempered by the XianTian stage, even an elephant would be beaten down by that strength. Even though all these people had all cultivated before, they could not withstand this bench. They were all directly beaten down to the ground, the bones in their back akin to being broken. The pain made them roll on the ground continuously, moaning without end.
The bench, which was an inch thick, was broken into pieces. One could tell how much strength he exerted.
Seeing such a horrifying scene, the spectators in the surroundings were all scared. They all hurriedly moved to a far away place, afraid they may be pulled into the mess as well.
After beating them down, Song Zhong hurriedly checked Little Monkey’s injuries. Upon seeing his injuries, Little Fatty was enraged to the point his eyeballs turned red. Little Monkey had already fainted, his chest indented, wrist twisted, he was obviously beaten to the point of multiple bone fractures. If he came one step late, Little Monkey would have died here without question!
“Song Zhong you stupid fatty, dare to hit me?” This time, Gan Xing who was beaten down by Song Zhong finally slowly came to his senses. He withstood the intense pain in his back, face filled with blood, shouting, “Just you wait, I’ll get my brother to take care of you!” After saying this, he prepared to climb up and walk outside.
When Little Fatty who was quietly simmering heard this, his anger rose anew in his heart. He thought, ‘Since the grudge has already been formed, it doesn’t matter if I go to the extreme. Rather than let this brat bully others in the future, I should cripple him directly!’
Thinking about this, Little Fatty roared, and like a gust of wind, rushed over. The bench in his hand, spun like a windmill, facing Gan Xing, who was suddenly overwhelmed with a wave of fear.