Chapter 298: Chapter 199: Fisher Family_1
The night was dark and windy, the autumn deep and the mist cold.
In a natural harbor amidst a reed marsh, two dark-covered boats were moored.
At the bow of one boat, two people faced each other, locked in a standoff.
“Qing, why do this? Have I ever wronged you by taking you with me?”
“Back off, or I’ll scream for help!”
“Heh heh, in the dead of night and out on the lake, who are you going to call to?”
“I think you’d better come with me. I guarantee you’ll live a life of luxury.”
“Pah, Scar face, you can’t even take care of yourself, yet you want someone to be your wife? To starve with you or be sold to a brothel?”
“Hmph, you ungrateful wench! You won’t drink a toast, only a forfeit. Do you really think I am interested in you? Let me be clear, I saw the person you fished out of the water just now. Hand him over and I’ll spare you tonight; otherwise, both you and your good-for-nothing brother will end up feeding the fish in the lake!”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Hahaha, do you think I wouldn’t?”
The chilly air, the damp bed, the scent of reeds mixed with the fishy smell of a fisherman’s home, the sounds of wind, waves, and talk – a familiar yet strange environment roused Xu Yang from unconsciousness.
He opened his eyes and found himself lying on a narrow plank bed with a frail child standing beside him, his skinny, chicken claw-like hands feeling around Xu Yang’s body, seemingly in search of something valuable.
Xu Yang did not speak; he let the child continue his search while casting his eyes toward the cabin, where two people were arguing.
At that moment, the child happened to catch Xu Yang’s gaze.
“Ah!”
The child screamed and fell on the floor.
“Little brother!”
Hearing the commotion inside the cabin, the two people at the bow of the boat were startled and then turned and barged in.
A girl in a straw raincoat holding a fish spear was the first to enter.
She looked terrified as she rushed into the cabin, her fear only growing upon finding Xu Yang awake and her little brother on the floor.
Despite her panic, she didn’t act rashly but grabbed her brother, pulling him to the edge of the cabin and looking at Xu Yang with unease and suspicion.
Another person, a large, bare-chested man with a scarred face, also entered.
Scar face barged into the cabin, and upon seeing Xu Yang awake, frowned but soon relaxed and smiled. He then approached Xu Yang, feigning concern, “Young master, you’re awake. You fell into the water, and it was my sister here who fished you out. How do you feel, all right?”
Xu Yang looked at him, wordless, his expression calm.
Scar face kept his smile, continuing, “The waters of Wuzhe Lake are terribly cold in late autumn. With your esteemed self being unaccustomed, it must have been harsh. Let me get you a bowl of fish soup to warm you up.”
With that, he turned to leave the cabin.
But unexpectedly…
“Bang!”
Xu Yang suddenly exploded into action, pouncing like a tiger, and in a flash, he was upon him, thrusting his right elbow forward like a spear, slamming it hard into Scar face’s neck.
“Bang!!!”
“Crack!!!”
A loud crash was heard, followed by the clear sound of breaking. Scar face hit the ground hard, convulsed for a moment, and then lay still and silent.
The siblings behind were petrified by the scene. Qing’s pupils shrank with terror, unable to scream, clutching her little brother tightly behind her.
Xu Yang ignored them, squatting down to look at the now lifeless Scar face. He extended his right hand, fingers formed like a sword, and thrust straight into the man’s chest.
Although this incarnation of Xu Yang had no cultivation, he was still a physically fit adult male with considerable strength. Coupled with his martial arts technique and clear understanding of human anatomy, his sword-like fingers easily pierced through flesh and chest bone, reaching the heart to extract a small amount of blood from its core.
The blood from the heart, essence of life, contained a wealth of Qi Blood power and could be used in place of mana if necessary.
Now lacking cultivation and Internal Yuan Mana, Xu Yang could only resort to clever tricks to use Daoist techniques.
Withdrawing his bloodstained finger, Xu Yang raised his left hand, palm facing up. Using his blood as ink, his finger drew a talisman in the air.
He then slapped his left hand down, and with a flash of red light, the blood talisman went straight into his forehead.
The Spirit Talisman could enlighten the mind and help a cultivator communicate with various entities; the minor effect was to “speak the human tongue to people, the ghost tongue to ghosts,” while the major effect was to comprehend the principles of heaven and earth, enhancing the cultivator’s perception of the universe.
After applying the talisman, Xu Yang turned back to the shaking siblings and said, “I have some questions for you.”
The words that came out were in a dialect, the same local vernacular the siblings had used.
Seeing him speak the local dialect so fluently, Qing was taken aback, then suddenly realized what was happening and fell to her knees in a panic.
“Great, great one, I’m not involved; I don’t know anything. It wasn’t me who caused your fall into the water…”
The girl’s words were a frantic attempt to absolve herself of blame.
She could never have imagined that the “nobleman” she had pulled from the water would be so terrifying, taking down Scar face without a word, although Scar face, known among the fishermen as a notorious thug, had shown not the slightest disrespect to Xu Yang, even greeting him with a smile and offering to warm him with fish soup.
Yet, without a word, Xu Yang had attacked, and just like that, Scar face was dead.
Indeed, these nobles all had fickle tempers, their moods as changeable as the weather, killing on a whim without any regard for the lives and deaths of those beneath them.
He must have been out of his mind to have pulled such a person from the water, and even thought of looting his belongings. If he were to find out…
Qing’s gaze trembled, and she quickly lowered her head, not daring to meet the other’s eyes.
Seeing this, Xu Yang didn’t mind.
He was well aware that her rescuing him from the water was not out of the simple kindness typical of fishermen’s families.
“Tough times breed tough people,” although not entirely appropriate, this saying wasn’t without basis or aimed without cause.
The heavy pressure of reality, the hardships of life, forced many with no other choice to become “tough people,” and even bandits.
Fishermen’s families were no exception. During his days fishing in Dongting Lake, Xu Yang had seen plenty.
Many fishermen by day turned into bandits by night, robbing and murdering not a few.
These siblings were no exception, but their having pulled him up presumably was also to see if his corpse had anything of value.
They were not good people, nor did they possess good intentions, but after all, they had saved his life.
Otherwise, he, having just transmigrated here, would have died a suffocating death in the lake.
As for Scar face… he looked like an old river bandit, and the talk of cooking fish soup to warm up the body was more likely a pretext to go call for help.
“All right!”
Watching the young fishing girl kneeling on the ground, full of anxiety, and the skinny boy crouching behind her, Xu Yang shook his head and calmly said, “I ask, you answer.”
“Yes, yes!”
Though frightened, Qing knew not to make any rash moves and agreed with a trembling voice.
“What is your name?”
“Qing, Qing!”
“Where is this place?”
“Wu, Wuzhe Lake!”
“Wuzhe Lake, which Wuzhe Lake?”
“This… this Wuzhe Lake here.”
After a discussion, Xu Yang finally understood his current situation.
This lake was Wuzhe Lake, under the jurisdiction of Jiangning Mansion, which in turn was part of the Great Xing Dynasty.
An apparently normal ancient world, a feudal dynasty.
But only seemingly normal for now. Just considering the Demonic Qi from the Divinity Transformation he had drawn before, this world was not so simple.
Not to mention, the malice he felt upon entering this world, the world’s own cries of pain and grief…
This world was corrupted!
A force was eroding it, polluting, desecrating, destroying this world!
That was Xu Yang’s first impression upon transmigration.
To others, such a sensation might be dismissed as a delusion caused by temporal and spatial chaos.
But Xu Yang was not just anyone; he was a Daoist Celestial Master.
Even as a Yang God incarnation, his perception of heaven and earth could not be so mistaken.
Therefore, this world was indeed corrupted.
By what was it corrupted?
A demon?
An evil spirit?
Or humans?
It was unknown.
The little information this young fishing girl could provide him was limited to Wuzhe Lake, Jiangning Mansion, and the Great Xing Dynasty.
Other matters were beyond the reach of a fisherman’s daughter.
Looking at the two shivering figures, Xu Yang didn’t press further, but turned around, picked up Scar face’s corpse, and left the cabin.
A moment later, he returned, and under the alarmed gaze of the siblings, he threw down a purse and a few other items: “If you don’t want trouble, pretend tonight never happened, and don’t tell anyone.”
Having said that, regardless of their reaction, he turned and went back to Scar face’s dark-cloaked boat.
Qing stared at the items on the ground for a while before coming to her senses, picked up the purse and looked inside to find a bag full of copper coins and several pieces of silver in small denominations.
“Big sis, meat, meat, and salt…”
The frail boy tugged on her clothes, his eyes fixed on the salt jar and salted meat on the ground, his whole being finally regaining some vitality and spirit.
Qing was stunned for a moment before lifting her head, peering through the gap in the cabin door’s curtain, only to see a dark-cloaked boat gradually moving away, soon disappearing into the thick autumnal mist of the night.