Chapter 58: Tit for Tat

Chapter 58: Chapter 58: Tit for Tat In this world, survival was tough... Hu Ma got up that day, silently pondering. Wanting to learn a skill had dragged him into so many entanglements. He was fortunate to have Granny’s Blood Food Pills to nourish him and the care of fellow Reincarnators. What would his fate be without them? Perhaps Second Master was the best example. He didn’t bother with those messy thoughts, only knowing he needed to learn the dharma method quickly to save himself. After silently weighing things in his heart and thinking through various matters, he took out the piece of meat Second Master had given him. He grabbed the waist knife Zhou Datong had thrown into the bedding roll and cut off a small bit from the very tip of the dried meat strip. It was a chunk about the size of a baby’s fist. He wrapped it in a clean cloth, tucked it into his bosom, put away the rest of the meat strip, and left the house quietly. He didn’t know what kind of meat it was, only that it wasn’t Blood Tai Sui. After all, he could consider himself an expert on Blood Tai Sui now. Even an old miner like Second Master probably hadn’t seen as much Blood Tai Sui as he’d eaten. But since Second Master had specifically instructed him, it certainly wasn’t an ordinary thing. The meat mountain was huge and bloated, not limited to the four types—black, white, blue, and blood. There were also many rare and strange varieties, hard to find, but often considered priceless treasures by the old Masters. Leaving the house, he found Zhou Datong in the yard, cutting grass to feed the horses. He whispered a few words to him. Zhou Datong, hearing this, was startled, then immediately beamed with joy, "Hu Ma, you’re ready to go after them?" Hu Ma gestured for him to be quiet and smiled, "You thought I’d take action?" "Didn’t think so, but I can’t stand being bullied anymore," Zhou Datong said. "Those bastards, following that young master from the Xu Family, they bully us. Now, they don’t even let us from Dayang Village help Red Lantern Lady with night patrols. Instead, they have us feeding horses, chopping wood, fetching wash water for the Shopkeeper’s feet—treating us like servants." "I can’t deal with them, so I endure when I can." "But I know your temperament, Hu Ma; you’ve been enduring for so long, you must be planning something big!" "..." "What nonsense are you talking?" Hu Ma felt uncomfortable being described this way. "We aren’t bad people..." But Zhou Datong clearly didn’t buy it, leaving eagerly. As evening arrived and dusk approached with the setting sun, the attendants scheduled for night patrol had already lit their lanterns and were waiting in the courtyard. The richly-dressed youth, Xu Ji, had yet to emerge, but his two followers sat arrogantly by the well. Stretching their legs, they lazily pointed at Li and a few other attendants who were trying to join them for the night patrol, laughing as they said, "So, you want to go out on patrol with us, eh? "But you know what to do when you return, right? "Go to the third house from the town’s street entrance—the one with the black-lacquered facade and small tiled roof, with a wine banner hanging outside. Knock on the door, buy a catty of wine, and have the owner wrap up some pig’s head meat for us. "We’ll have a drink together tonight, and it’ll be a good chance to teach you the rules. How about it?" "..." The few eager attendants nodded repeatedly, not daring to refuse. Just then, Zhou Datong strolled over, hands clasped behind his back. He looked at Li, who was standing beside them, and said, "Brother Li, how much money did your father give you, that you’re buying meat for these guys?" "..." Li, who was also from Dayang Village, blushed with shame and stammered, "Brother Datong, please don’t say that. Brother Hu and Brother Da Long have truly taught me a lot these days..." Seeing Zhou Datong question Li, the two men’s expressions changed, and they squinted at him. "What do you mean by that?" "No, nothing..." Zhou Datong hastily put on a smile. "I was just wondering if I could tag along too?" Hearing this, the pair’s expressions softened, and they grinned at Zhou Datong. "What’s this? You want to buy us drinks too?" "I’ll buy!" Zhou Datong boldly reached into his robes. "Take a look at this!" The sky was already dimming. Combined with Zhou Datong’s mysterious and smug demeanor, the two lackeys assumed he was showing them something valuable. They craned their necks to look, but Zhou Datong suddenly opened his palm—it was empty. Then, he swiftly slapped them across their faces. "I’ll buy..." Having landed the slaps, Zhou Datong immediately turned and bolted. "I’ll treat you to a taste of my palm!" "You son of a bitch..." These two attendants had arrived with the richly-dressed youth, Xu Ji. Since Xu Ji held a superior status in the manor and was accustomed to bossing people around, his two followers were even more arrogant. Among the newly arrived attendants, few dared to talk back to them, let alone try to curry favor. To be suddenly slapped like this was unthinkable. They immediately grew furious, leaped down from the millstone, and chased after Zhou Datong with raised fists. Zhou Datong ran swiftly out of the manor before shouting, "They’re hitting me..." "They want to kill me..." "..." This made the two attendants even angrier. They did indeed want to beat Zhou Datong, but they hadn’t even touched him yet. However, the thought of giving that scoundrel a sound thrashing once they caught him made them feel it wasn’t entirely wrong. But after only a few steps, a figure suddenly appeared from behind a wall, blocking Zhou Datong—it was Hu Ma. He reached out to block them, asking chidingly, "What’s going on? Are you about to beat someone up?" Zhou Datong immediately piped up, "They told me to buy them meat tonight, otherwise they’d beat me!" Hearing Zhou Datong’s accusation, Zhuzi and Liangzi felt both ashamed and enraged. "You! Get out of our way!" they shouted. "This rascal started it! Everyone saw it!" "..." They had long suspected Hu Ma was the leader of the attendants from Dayang Village. Coupled with Hu Ma’s usual taciturn nature, they hadn’t dared to bully him much. But now, having been tricked by Zhou Datong, how could they tolerate it? Shouting for Hu Ma to move aside, they prepared to attack. "How could he dare to hit you?" Hu Ma didn’t budge, asking with a smile, "Isn’t there some misunderstanding?" "I have a huge red palm print on my face, and you call it a misunderstanding?" Zhuzi retorted angrily. He suddenly turned and grabbed Li, who had followed them. "You tell him! Wasn’t it?" Li was extremely embarrassed; he never expected things to escalate like this. Feeling their glares, as well as Hu Ma’s gaze, all fixated on him, Li became extremely nervous. He slowly lowered his head. After a long moment, he mumbled, "It... it was indeed Brother Datong who struck first." Hearing this, the two attendants tried to push forward again, and Hu Ma’s expression darkened. Zhou Datong was even more infuriated. He jumped up and down behind Hu Ma, yelling at Li, "You can drop the ’Brother’! From now on, just call me Zhou Datong! I don’t have a brother like you! And Dayang Village won’t have a place for someone like you anymore!" "The nerve! Still daring to act tough?" Zhou Datong’s words, however, further infuriated the two attendants, Hu and Da Long. They were somewhat wary of Hu Ma, though they didn’t consider him particularly formidable. Now that they felt they were in the right, why would they hold back? One stepped forward to push Hu Ma, while the other swung a punch. Hu Ma didn’t know their origins, but since they had arrived with Xu Ji, he assumed they were part of Xu Ji’s faction. During their group practice sessions, he had already secretly observed them and knew they had some skills. Since Zhou Datong had provoked them at his instigation, Hu Ma naturally couldn’t let him suffer for it. Thus, he stepped forward and employed the Banlan Hammer technique taught by Second Master, executing a horizontal block to intercept the two. He felt their fists were heavy, and a strong force pressed in on him. He shifted his stance, slightly retracting to absorb the impact, then suddenly redirected it outwards. The techniques Second Master taught were not as flashy as those taught by Shopkeeper Wu, but they were extremely practical. This Banlan Hammer technique could be used to fend off evil spirits or to parry physical blows. If an opponent’s strength was greater than his own, he could retreat to neutralize the force, using three parts of his strength to defend against seven parts of theirs. If their strength was weaker, he could both block and counter-attack, rebounding their force back at them. The attendant called Hu hadn’t even reacted before he was sent flying by Hu Ma, crashing into the other attendant. The two of them tumbled like gourds, shaken by Hu Ma’s force. They were both dizzy and disoriented, struggling to get back up for a good while. The surrounding attendants watching the commotion were stunned. Firstly, they hadn’t expected Hu Ma’s strength to be so formidable, toppling two attendants with a single move. Secondly, everyone understood that while these two followers themselves weren’t significant, they were associated with the richly-dressed youth, Xu Ji. Among all the newcomers in the manor, who wasn’t afraid of Xu Ji? Was Hu Ma intending to have a complete falling out? RUSTLE... Amidst the chaos, the sound of many footsteps could be heard as other attendants, drawn by the commotion, rushed over to watch. "Hu Ma! Datong! Are you guys fighting?" A few shouts rang out. Zhou Liang, Zhao Zhu, and others from Dayang Village heard the commotion. Seeing Hu Ma and Zhou Datong seemingly surrounded, they immediately sensed trouble. Zhou Liang grabbed a club, Zhao Zhu snatched up a dung fork, and they hurried over to provide backup. However, when they arrived, they saw Hu Ma and Zhou Datong standing perfectly fine, while the other two were still on the ground, not yet having managed to get up. This left them momentarily baffled. "Breaking the rules, brawling in a group—are you all trying to get yourselves thrown out?" Just as the crowd was in an uproar, a voice that sounded as if it were squeezed through clenched teeth cut through the noise. Xu Ji had arrived, his face cold. At the sight of him, the group of youths was startled. They all quickly lowered their heads, as if to indicate the matter had nothing to do with them. Even Zhou Liang and Zhao Zhu instinctively hid their club and dung fork behind their backs. Young Master Xu Ji hadn’t been at the manor for long, but he had already established himself as an absolute authority. Technically, his status was the same as the other attendants, yet no one dared to look him directly in the eye. But just then, another voice cut in. Hu Ma pushed through the crowd and slowly walked forward, directly confronting Xu Ji. "So, attempting to extort wine and meat, and then resorting to violence when that fails—is that what you call ’keeping the rules’?" Xu Ji was slightly taken aback when he saw it was Hu Ma. His expression immediately turned gloomy. His piercingly cold eyes stared fixedly at Hu Ma, and the temperature around them seemed to drop. Hu Ma simply met his gaze calmly, without backing down. Not far behind him, Little Hongtang peeked out from behind a wall. Her head, adorned with two small pigtails, tilted as her wide eyes stared intently at the wooden sword tucked into Hu Ma’s waist. WHOOSH...