Chapter 325 - The Secondary Forest’s Rule!
Chapter 325: The Secondary Forest’s Rule!
Although Yang Tian had gauze wrapped all over him, Ye Chen saw the scales that covered his body through his Divine Consciousness as soon as he stepped into the house. They looked like snake scales.
The scales grew deep in his skin. Fortunately, Yang Tian had herbs spread all over him that suppressed the scales from growing further into his body temporarily.
That was the reason why Ye Chen had mentioned that Yang Tian was turning into a snake.
“Old Ye, you’re finally here.”
Yang Tian was dying to hop off the bed as soon as he saw Ye Chen. He was so happy that there were tears in his eyes. “I thought I’d never see you for the rest of my life.”
Tingting was secretly observing Ye Chen while standing aside, and she immediately pouted. ‘Brother Yang’s friend doesn’t seem as powerful as he said. He looks mediocre and he isn’t even as handsome as Brother Yang. He doesn’t look like an expert at all.’
However, she looked extremely uncomfortable to hear what Yang Tian said. She could not believe this was a scene of two men meeting…
“Oh, please!” Ye Chen shook his head in between tears and laughter. “Oh, you, you just can’t change the fact that you’re always joking.”
“Oh, yeah, let me introduce you guys. This is Shi Ting. You may also call her Tingting,” Yang Ting glanced at Tingting and introduced Ye Chen.
“Hi, Brother Ye!” Tingting greeted out of courtesy. She could not help but say, “Brother Ye, you shouldn’t have come. If even my aunt can’t save Brother Yang, then you…”
“Thank you for taking care of Yang Tian.” Ye Chen smiled calmly and then sat down. He said while looking at Yang Tian, “Tell me, what happened to you? Didn’t I ask you to go to Changbai Mountain? How did you offend a chumaxian family?”
What confused him even more was Yang Tian’s presence in this little county town? Also, how did he know Shi Ting and her aunt?
All hell broke as soon as he mentioned that. Yang Tian was suddenly sobbing as he spoke, “How dare you ask me that? It’s been two months, two full months! Do you know what I’ve been through the past two months? You took my wallet and my phone, and I had no money. I had to pick up trash along the journey to survive.”
As a full-grown man, he cried out loud although he was in the presence of a lady. “To save time, I chose to go through alleys and mountain roads. The problem was that there were no water bottles or cans along the way. I would have to go hungry sometimes…”
While Ye Chen listened quietly, he learned about Yang Tian’s two months of living like a monk completely.
Throughout his journey, Yang Tian’s main job was to pick up trash while carrying a plastic woven bag. If there was no trash, he would work at construction sites. He would make 80 to 100 yuan, and then walk for five days.
The saddest thing was that he thought there should be more trash when he got to Beijing since it was the capital. Therefore, he thought his life would be easier. Never had he thought the beggars in the capital would have beaten him up and take the 500 yuan that he made with every drop of sweat and blood.
Yang Tian looked even more wronged by now. “I’ve finally made it to Huludao. Before I had the time to rejoice, a marketing organization captured me and took the 80 yuan I had from me. They were trying to brainwash me, asking me to give them my relatives and friends’ phone numbers.”
He paused as he spoke to this point. He proceeded, “They captured me for a full eight days. If the police officers hadn’t found their den, I might have still been captured now.”
The corner of Ye Chen’s lips twitched slightly.
How lowly was that marketing organization to be taking a beggar’s money? It was no wonder that they were raided by the police.
On the side, Tingting’s eyes turned red. “Brother Yang, I-I didn’t know you went through so much.”
Before this, she had never heard Yang Tian mention those stuff at all. She thought he was just a regular beggar.
It was easy for girls to sympathize with someone. Now that she found out it was Ye Chen who had caused Yang Tian to go through the series of unfortunate events, she could not help but glare angrily at Ye Chen. Her angry expression made one eager to laugh.
Ye Chen shook his head lightly. “But isn’t this your decision?”
If Yang Tian had given up halfway, it would have proven that he was not suitable for cultivation. The truth confirmed that he did not disappoint Ye Chen.
“So, what happened after that? How did you offend a chumaxian family?” Ye Chen looked at him curiously.
Yang Tian told the story while looking upset.
It turned out that he had traveled through the mountain road since it would take twice as long to use the highway. He had saved Shi Ting who had sprained her foot while collecting herbs in the secondary forest.
Yang Tian wanted to carry Shi Ting out of the secondary forest out of kindness before her family came to pick her up when they saw two animals fighting in the forest.
It was a snake and a fox. The snake was bigger, and it looked like a python, which made the fox looked tiny before it.
Noticing that the fox had the lower hand, Yang Tian stuck his nose in when the snake was going to eat the fox. He picked up a staff and rushed over to smack the snake’s weak point directly.
He did not kill the snake as it escaped into the forest. The fox ran away too, so Yang Tian thought he had done something good.
Never had he thought that Shi Ting would have exclaimed in horror, “Brother Yang, it was a Staff-upstanding Battle. You shouldn’t have interrupted! You’re in great trouble now.”
Ye Chen could not help but look at Shi Ting, who was standing aside, as he listened to this point. “What’s a Staff-upstanding Battle?”
“There are many animals in the mountain. Some animals are more powerful, so they terrorize an area of the mountain. We call those things ‘staff’. Just like the gangsters out there, gangs fight to decide whose territory it belongs to. The animals do the same too.”
Shi Ting sighed and said, “If animals want to colonize an area, the staff of the area would have to challenge it. It’s called the Staff-upstanding Battle. According to the secondary forest’s rule, they would have to fight with their abilities, whereby nobody should ask for help and no outsiders can interrupt.”
She could not help but look at Yang Tian as she spoke, “What happened was that the fox initiated the Staff-upstanding Battle but it couldn’t fight that python. According to the rule, it would become the python’s food if it lost. It was fair and square. However, Brother Yang interrupted and broke the rule. He offended the python, as well as the entire secondary forest.”
Yang Tian looked terrible. He had no idea that such a rule had existed back then.
Ye Chen responded while in deep thought, “Who set that rule?”
“Naturally, those terrifying existence in the secondary forest created it,” Shi Ting said looking serious, “All of the villagers living outside the secondary forest know about the rule. Therefore, they wouldn’t interrupt when they saw such a situation while hunting in the mountains. Instead, they would walk away.”
“So, the python is taking revenge on Yang Tian?” Ye Chen blinked a few times.
“No!” Shi Ting shook her head and said, “Brother Yang hit the snake’s weak point. Although it managed to run away back then, it died later on. It’s Zhu Chao of the Zhu family who is taking revenge on him!”
“Why is an outsider involved in this?” Ye Chen was puzzled.
Shi Ting took a deep breath in and said, “It’s because the Zhu family is a chumaxian family. They worship the snake immortal. The snake that Brother Yang killed is from the same progeny as the snake immortal. I guess you should understand what happened by now.”