42 A night at the hamlet

Chi Yan brushed his clothes off and looked around the mortals' house that he entered.

It seemed that this house only had one large main room and one more small room which was probably a storage room. The main room was a living room that seemed to serve all kinds of purposes: it was the kitchen, the dining room and the bedroom all at the same time.

Near the kitchen corner there were many pieces of dried meat and sausages hanging all over with various bunches of herbs. On another wall next to it and close to a kang stove hung clothes left for drying. All of these decorations caused the room to feel a bit clustered.

There was a specific homely and ordinary smell in the room, making Chi Yan think of the world 'grandmother's place'.

"Lord Gu Master, thank you for sparing my daughter," the mortal man lowly bowed his body, speaking in a humble tone.

Chi Yan hummed indifferently as he looked back, and noticed the young mortal girl bowing as well.

"No problem," Chi Yan replied lightly.

All that he did was not rape a random girl… He really was a great hero.

But Chi Yan was not entirely surprised by the attitude of the father and daughter duo or the mortal woman earlier.

Mortals' status in this world was truly not much higher than that of cattle and then could be slaughtered at a whim for no reason at all, being plucked like a wild flower by the road.

In fact, animals back on Earth might have better lives than mortals here.

From Gu Masters' point of view, mortals are like weeds with strong vitality - wildfires can't burn them and wind can't root them out. No Gu Master would care about their life and death, treating them like pigs, and if some 'peasants' die, they could be simply snatched from somewhere else.

Upon transmigrating in this world Chi Yan was born in the ruling class and was not a slave, so it was rather easy for him to ignore slavery and go alone with the flow of his new reality. 

Chi Yan was not the one enslaved and enjoyed the benefits of others' servitude, so he could accept it. He understood the system of slavery and why it was in place, but it was impossible for him to not feel pity for the hopeless mortals in his heart.

He naturally cared about himself much more and was rather indifferent, but he wasn't a crazy psychopath and didn't enjoy pointless cruelty. If someone didn't stand in his way, then he would naturally ignore them and perhaps even extend a helping hand if it cost him nothing.

In fact, Fang Yuan is the same and he's quite a bit of a pacifist in normal times.

There is a saying on Earth - kindness begets kindness.

Naturally there is nothing like karma or a divine being which counts one's good deeds, but it's never known if someone is watching us or if the person we're helping might not be able to perhaps reciprocate in a mysterious way now or in the future.

It's a common theme in novels where the 'villain' beats up or vulgarly berates a random insignificant person and the watching hero or heroine sees it. The strong hero would then go in and hypocritically cripple the 'villain' young master ten times worse, acting rightfully so, while the beautiful heroine would heavily dislike the 'villain' from then on and be disgusted by him over this little thing.

There is also the aspect of the energy exchange. No matter who it is, helping others feels good and puts one in a better mood, so it isn't really 'for free'. One still gets something out of it.

As for the matter of good reputation, this topic is simply too deep to dive into. Reputation is a bridge that allows one to cross through the abyss. It's a travel token that allows one to open many doors...

All of these thoughts subconsciously flashed in Chi Yan's mind in an instant, but all that he did was… do nothing. He didn't flail an unknown mortal woman for spilling some water and didn't rape a young girl he had no interest in.

Yet for these mortals it was a great kindness of the Lord Gu Master.

This was the situation of those born in mortal families in this world - they are at the Gu Masters' mercy.

This current situation was in fact similar to a time in the novel when a little girl bumped into Fang Yuan on the streets of the Gu Yue village by accident.

Upon seeing the Gu Master's uniform on Fang Yuan's body, the girl's father immediately began kowtowing and begging for forgiveness. Because the young girl began to cry, the father was ready to slap the young girl into silence, but Fang Yuan stopped his hand.

It was simply because there was nothing that Fang Yuan could get out of them.

After patting the young girl's head and consoling her, receiving heartfelt gratitude from the two mortals, he simply resumed walking on his path.

Chi Yan turned away from the two mortals expressionlessly and sat down at one of the chairs in the room, preparing to begin cultivation.

"Lord Gu Master, please sit down by the kang." The mortal man invited Chi Yan to sit down near a soft-layered platform.

A kang or a bed-stove was a heated platform in this world which served as a bed for people to rest on or sleep during winter, being connected to a stove.

It is cold in the mountains and it's simply impossible to spend a hard winter night without a burning stove or a kang.

"No, thank you. If I sit down by the kang, I'll probably cook myself alive. I would rather sit here." Chi Yan chuckled.

The two mortals looked at Chi Yan in confusion.

"I have a Gu worm that raises my body's temperature," Chi Yan explained.

"Ah," The man exclaimed. After a while he said, "Lord, we shall prepare dinner for you. Do you first want tea or something to drink?"

"Just water is fine," Chi Yan replied.

"As you wish, Lord."

The man then began to rummage through the kitchen equipment while the girl Xiao Li picked up some clothes from one of the closets and went to the other room to change her attire which was full of dirt.

But Chi Yan hadn't seen any of that, because he already closed his eyes and focused on cultivation.

At this moment Chi Yan's Primeval Sea was at 100% and was overflowing, so it would be a waste if he simply nourished his aperture walls.

Instead, Chi Yan began to summon a fireball in his right palm and after some time dispersed it, performing an exercise that he could do safely in this mortal house.

In this world the word 'cultivation' had multiple meanings and didn't only mean raising one's cultivation level. It also referred to the Gu worm usage practice, to the study of Gu worms, to experimentation and creation of killer moves and so on.

The fireballs created by Fire Pellet Gu are originally fully orange in color, but the ones that Chi Yan attempted to create right now had strings of red flames added in it on their peripherals.

This was the result of the combination of Fire Pellet Gu and Red Fire Gu, both being Rank 2 Gu worms to increase the difficulty and drain Chi Yan's primeval essence quicker.

What Chi Yan knew from the novel was that fire attacks can merge. An example is how at the end of Yan Tu's fight with Bai Ning Bing, Yan Tu controlled two Fire Dragons and had them merge into one more powerful one, before the match ended prematurely.

Chi Yan certainly wanted to grasp and master this kind of method if possible.

Right now he performed an exercise that was similar to this method, yet it took it even a step further.

The orange Fire Pellet Gu and Red Fire Gu are two different Gu worms using two different types of flames.

In this world red fire was cooler but more versatile, malleable and tameable, while the orange fire was hotter, more destructive, though its weakness was that it was more uncontrollable and wild.

Chi Yan's ultimate goal was to be able to merge Red Fire Gu into all of his other fire attacks to make them more powerful and condensed, apart from being able to merge the same kind of Gu into one.

In fact, the Fire Claw Gu and Fire Snake Gu which are both destructive and have a form are formed by a mixture of red and orange flames, so Chi Yan took inspiration from this.

He knew that killer moves are in essence incomplete Gu worm refinement recipes, so he hoped that perhaps in the future he might be able to merge multiple Red Fire Gu into an attack to make it more condensed, then add in Orange Fire Gu to make it more destructive and then once again add in more Red Fire Gu to condense the flames.

At this time Chi Yan was still far from accomplishing the merge of red and orange fire inside a killer move, but he felt that the idea wasn't fruitless.

At the very least, what he was doing now was a good exercise to practice merging fire attacks and the control of his flames.

Once Chi Yan exhausted his primeval essence, he began to nourish his aperture walls, before he was called in for dinner by the mortals.

The dinner that Chi Yan ate was stewed beef with rice, while the mortals ate meat stew soup at the side.

"Are you the only two living in this house?" Chi Yan asked at one point during dinner, looking at the two mortals.

The evening of a winter time was already approaching and there was no one else inside the house. From what he knew, Chi Yan felt that it was strange for only two people to live inside a house, so it could be that the man was a widower.

Upon hearing Chi Yan's question, the expressions of the two people turned dejected.

The hunter replied after hesitating for a while, "We were originally a family of four. Xiao Li had a younger brother and a mother, but they are not with us anymore. Since five months ago only Xiao Li and I are left to depend on each other."

"Hmm." Chi Yan hummed and didn't continue the conversation.

After dinner, Chi Yan continued cultivation for a few short hours, including using Copper Skin Gu, until it turned completely dark outside.

In this world there is no television, no computers and no mobile phones. When the late evening comes, most people simply go to sleep and then wake up when the sun rises in the very early morning.

The sky behind the windows was dark, traces of fire inside the stove dimly lightened up the room.

It was time to sleep.

The house that Chi Yan was staying in only had one large and spacious kang stove-bed and not even a sofa.

It's often that mortals only have one bed and share it all together. Whether it's male, female, young or old, they all sleep together clothed, because otherwise it's too difficult to stay warm in winter with the poor heat insulation of the bamboo houses and a single stove.

When it was time to go to sleep, the two mortals respectfully yet hesitatingly offered to free the only kang for Lord Gu Master. If Chi Yan only said a word, they would have no choice but to scram and sleep around on the cold ground, likely catching a cold.

But Chi Yan didn't care and allowed the two mortals to sleep on the large kang as well, earning their gratitude.

In the end, the hunter and his daughter slept at a far corner of the kang, one meter away from Chi Yan's spot.

Chi Yan then also got onto the large heated bed, only using a thin comfortable silk blanket to cover himself that he asked for. The night was especially cold that night though, so he increased the intensity of Double Ortifice Stove Gu to keep himself warm from the inside.

In the dark cold night of the mortal hamlet on the Qing Mao Mountain, Chi Yan laid on his side on the bed.

Time slowly passed and only the crackling of the fire coming from the stove was heard.

Thinking of the two mortals sleeping nearby, Chi Yan felt some pity, but focused on the matter at hand. He thought, 'According to my estimates the small mixed beast horde should form around the village in around two days. I hope we can finish the tiger hunting mission tomorrow and leave quickly, not staying here so far from the Gu Yue village…'

However, at one point during the night Chi Yan was suddenly woken up by an alarm sounding out across the hamlet.

…

In the darkness of the night countless pairs of shining blue eyes could be seen rushing through the streets of the village. From various places, one could hear growls and howls of wolves, and sounds of fighting.

"Wolves! A pack of wolves attacked the village!"

"It's actually lightning wolves!"

The shouts of mortals suddenly came from various places and the guards at the entrance of the village sounded the village alarm. 

'Damn, how could there be a lightning wolf pack tonight?! Counting the time it's not the time for the wolf tide to break out at all!' Gu Yue Shi He frantically pushed away the two mortal women at his side, got up from bed and started putting on his shoes.

A single lightning wolf is not scary and even mortals could kill one with spears and sabers if they worked together, but once the lightning wolves form a pack they're very dangerous and difficult to deal with; even a wild boar king might not handle a large pack of lightning wolves.

More importantly, lightning wolves have high endurance and fast speed, and are the best beast at chasing and killing. They have perfect night vision and are especially troublesome for humans to deal with at night.

However, once Gu Yue Shi He got onto the streets of the village, his face paled.

Just a pack of six or seven lightning wolves was a bit troublesome to deal with, but there seemed to actually be tens of them running all over the hamlet!

The wolves' torsos were noticeably thin, they were hungry and ferocious, beginning to barge into the houses, slaughter and feast on the villagers left and right.

In the dark night, the screams, battles, and shouts of mortals constantly echoed in the village. 

It is always like this on Qing Mao Mountain - at one point there are too many lightning wolves inside the Wolves' Den and it slowly forms a disaster.

The Wolf Den overflows and the old and weak wolves are chased away. Those expelled wolves then form packs and end up chasing away other beast groups from their territories near the Gu Yue village when hunting. Gradually there is less and less food for the wolves, and such tightly packed stationary human settlements are great temptations for these beasts.

That being said, such a large horde of crippled lightning wolves attacking a human settlement at this point in time was quite unnatural.

"Damn, there are too many lightning wolves." 

"Put up a line of defense. Forget about the other people near the entrance of the village. We must hurry up to build a line of defense, otherwise the whole village will be annihilated..." 

"The southwest has been breached by the lightning wolves, go and support it!"

The situation was even more serious than Gu Yue Shi He expected. From the moment of the discovery of the wolf pack, it took almost no time for the wolves to break through a gap in one of the village's defense lines. 

Right now the wolf pack had already broken into the village and it was too late to react. 

"Aaaah--!" 

"Save me, save me!" 

"Take up arms and fight for your lives!"

"Running is useless, fight, fight!"

Looking around at the countless blue wolf pupils beginning slaughter, Gu Yue Shi He had quickly decided. 'Escape, I must escape! No, there's no chance of escape. I must find Lord Chi Shan!'

After fighting just a few lightning wolves, Gu Yue Shi He started madly rushing to the house which he assigned Chi Shan to sleep in, seeking his protection.

"Lord Gu Master!"

"Lord, please save us!"

The two mortal women that were Gu Yue Shi He's playthings and that he slept with were calling out to him. Because of the Gu Master behind them, these two had a high status among the villagers. At this moment, as everyone was assaulted by wolves, they hoped to capitalize on this connection.

'Tsk! You peasants be useful and stall these things for me!' Gu Yue Shi He cursed inwardly as he sent a brief look behind him, before he began running even faster, leaving the two women behind to get ripped apart by the wolves.

A moment later he heard miserable feminine screams from behind him, but it didn't slow down his running speed at all.

******

(AN: Originally I didn't plan to say some things in this chapter, but I think it isn't bad and a bit interesting. I had some people complain after the last chapter, but I find it a bit autistic. Anyway, there is no reason why a 'villain' cannot be kind sometimes. The things that he did in the previous chapter weren't even detrimental and only potential beneficial, but in general Chi Yan does evil things when it benefits him and he also does good things sometimes when he feels like it :shrug:.)