Walking back to Dachen Village, Chen Ku felt relaxed. He had finally shaken off the status of an unaffiliated individual and now possessed a channel to advance his standing.
Medicine King Hall, Medicine King Hall...
As Chen Ku walked home, he thought to himself, From now on, my path will probably be to follow the way of the Medicine King Hall and develop in the county. All of this depends on the Transformation Diagram.
Although I will be going to the county soon, Baojiao County is certainly not the end of my ambitions. I just don't know when I'll be able to leave Baojiao County and head to higher, larger, more prosperous places.
Anyone with a dream is remarkable!
Chen Ku was in high spirits and had already reached the road back to Snake Fish Town. Along the way, he saw the town's wheat was already ripe, its golden waves tumbling. Many families had started harvesting in preparation for the autumn grain tax.
Qiu Dragon Mansion's territory was characterized by three parts mountains, four parts water, and three parts farmland. They grew both rice and wheat.
Dachen Village was the same, with rice planted in the hollows and wheat on the flat land. Chen Ku's family used to own three acres of paddy fields and four acres of wheat fields, but these now all belonged to Guo Xiangshen.
Now, during the busy farming season, with the wheat harvest underway, even Zhao Bocai's elder brother and Master Li had to put aside their hunting and herb gathering to focus on the crops in their fields.
After all, the grain from the soil was their fundamental livelihood. Hunting and herb gathering were only side jobs for when the fields were quiet and people couldn't afford to be idle—merely a means of survival, squeezing every ounce of effort out for a bit of extra household income.
However, when Chen Ku returned to the village in his long gown, he didn't see the usual adults at the village entrance, only a few children running around.
"Bao'er! Hu Zi!" Chen Ku called over his nephew and Zhao Bocai's son.
"Second Uncle, Second Uncle!" Hu Zi happily trotted over. Looking at Chen Ku's long gown with a snotty nose, he said naively, "Second Uncle, why are you wearing the village chief's clothes?"
Chen Ku patted Hu Zi's head and pulled out some candied hawthorn he had bought in the county. He divided it between him and Zhao Bao, then asked, "Where are the adults in the village?"
"Second Uncle, I... don't know..." Hu Zi blissfully munched on the candied fruit, his voice muffled, cheeks puffed out, "What is this? It's so yummy... You have one too... Second Uncle..."
He offered one to Chen Ku, who smiled, shook his head, and declined, telling him to eat it.
"I know!!" Zhao Bao exclaimed after taking the candied fruit. "Uncle Chen, I know where they've gone! All the adults are fighting in the wheat field! My dad told me. He went too. He said he's gonna beat those from the Guo Family to death!"
"A fight?!" Chen Ku's expression changed. Then he told the two children, "Eat up and then hurry home."
A fight at this time?
Chen Ku looked towards the Dachen Village wheat fields, guessing what might be happening.
A vast spread of wheat undulated, wave upon wave. In one section, however, it was trampled down where villagers were brawling furiously. Fists were flying, and faces were bloody and bruised, a large area of the wheat flattened beneath them.
"Ah, murder! Someone's been killed!" one ignorant village woman shrieked, sitting on the ground, smacking the earth, and wailing to the heavens.
Not far off, many other villagers from Dachen Village were watching the spectacle.
"Sigh, such things happen every year." Zhang Xianmin, who owned the brick kiln, shook his head and said, "That second son of Guo Huaizhong's family always tries to reap others' wheat to gain a small advantage. He ends up fighting every year and never changes."
Old Sun squatted on the edge of the field beside Zhang Xianmin, watching the commotion. "TSK TSK," he said, "Last year it was Zhao Bocai's family, but this year his family has a younger brother who practices martial arts, so they didn't dare to provoke them. Instead, they went to bully the Li Family. This Jiyang kid looks strong enough, but it turns out he's pretty bad at fighting."
Zhang Xianmin watched the drama unfold and said, "What can you do? The Guos are a big name in the village and are also related to Guo Xiangshen. Whenever trouble arises, their relatives rush over. Even if Zhao Bocai can't stand by and comes to help, it's hard when you're outnumbered."
BANG!
Li Jiyang was being pinned down by a man in a short jacket with an open chest and bronze skin—Guo Huaizhong's second son, Guo Qiang. Though Guo Qiang also had injuries on his face, it was obvious that Li Jiyang, underneath him, was far worse off, with a Palm Seal on his face.
The two men squatted there, enjoying the spectacle.
Suddenly, they heard alarmed cries from behind them—the village's young wives and mothers:
"Who is that? He looks so familiar!"
"Chen Ku! It's the kid from the Chen Family!"
"What... what is he wearing?!"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Xianmin and Old Sun quickly turned around.
They saw a young man dressed in a grey-white long gown with a serious face approaching them and asking, "Uncle Zhang, Old Master Sun, with such a fight happening in the field, why don't you go find the village chief instead of just watching?"
The two villagers looked at Chen Ku in his long gown and were instantly startled.
"Chen family's kid... The clothes you're wearing are..." Zhang Xianmin's eyes were filled with disbelief.
Chen Ku, how did he end up wearing a long gown? thought Zhang Xianmin.
Perhaps it was because Old Sun had an innate reverence for anyone wearing a long gown. He subconsciously ignored the fact that this young man in front of him belonged to the family with the lowest status in the village. Instinctively, he muttered in response, "Why would the village chief care about that? That's Guo Xiangshen's kinsfolk. You also know that only he and the village chief wear long gowns in our village. Why would the chief bother with this?"
After he finished speaking, his gaze fell upon the long gown Chen Ku was wearing.
Now there are three people wearing long gowns in the village? Old Sun wondered.
Before Old Sun had a chance to ask Chen Ku where his long gown had come from, Chen Ku had already walked towards the group of seven or eight people fighting in the fields.
Old Master Li was also pinned to the ground. But after all, those who laid hands on him knew it was a fight, not a matter of life and death. They simply used a rake to pin Old Master Li down, preventing him from getting up. The man doing this was Guo Fu, Guo Qiang's older brother.
Just as Old Master Li's eyes were bulging with rage, and he was unable to struggle or rise, BANG! The figure of someone wearing a long gown suddenly appeared beside him and Guo Fu, kicking Guo Fu away. Guo Fu cried out in pain.
Old Master Li was dazedly helped to his feet by Chen Ku.
"Is that you, Ku boy?"
He also saw the long gown on Chen Ku.
As Old Master Li was about to speak, Chen Ku turned his back to him. He looked towards the people still fighting—Guo Qiang, Li Jiyang, Zhao Bocai, and some of the Guo Family men—and shouted lowly, "Let go, all of you!"
Guo Qiang's attention was first caught by his brother's painful scream. Then he heard the voice and recognized it as Chen Ku's—the one with the least status in the village. Guo Qiang's first instinct was to curse and ask who the hell Chen Ku thought he was. But when he turned his head, the first thing he saw was the conspicuous long gown.
Guo Qiang stared at the long gown, stupefied, the garment holding him at bay.
Underneath him, Li Jiyang seized this opportunity to bite Guo Qiang's hand. Hearing Guo Qiang scream in pain, Li Jiyang struggled to his feet and hurriedly came to stand beside Chen Ku and his grandfather.
The other few people tangled up together, including Zhao Bocai and several other men from the Guo Family, were all similarly awed by Chen Ku's garment.
"Brother Chen..." Zhao Bocai wasn't injured. He had single-handedly handled three men from the Guo Family; his skills as a hunter weren't for show. But at that moment, all he could see was the garment worn by Chen Ku.
Chen Ku, looking at Li Jiyang's bruised face and the Palm Seal on it, couldn't help but speak with disdain, "What about you? You're bigger than him, yet you couldn't win the fight?"
"Never mind that now!" Li Jiyang was staring wide-eyed, ignoring the dirt and wheat awns on his body, looking Chen Ku up and down. "Where did you steal this outfit from?"
Normally, rural folks fought over water and grain. Brawling over a small piece of land was common. Therefore, after Chen Ku separated them, no one from Dachen Village thought much of the fight anymore.
It was the long gown Chen Ku was wearing that was truly intriguing.
"This is the long gown of the Medicine King Hall." Old Master Li, having worked many years as the chief herb gatherer, recognized the origin of Chen Ku's long gown at a glance.
Chen Ku nodded towards Old Master Li and said, "Yes, Master Li, I was lucky. I found a Treasure Herb. Today I went to the county seat and successfully joined the Medicine King Hall."
As soon as he said this, even the onlookers not too far away erupted into a commotion.
"Medicine King Hall?!"
"Good Lord, someone from our Dachen Village actually joined the Medicine King Hall?!"
Yet, Chen Ku was more concerned about Li Jiyang, who had been good to him. He frowned and asked, "Apart from the injury on your face, are you hurt anywhere else?"
"I'm not hurt at all," Li Jiyang said with a tearful face.
Chen Ku frowned. "You were beaten to tears, yet you claim you're fine."
"You're full of it! Am I crying because of the fight?"
Li Jiyang cried profusely.
He didn't care about his injuries at all. For rural folks, getting injured in a fight was nothing.
In his heart, he was crying over this:
You little scoundrel actually found a Treasure Herb! That's a Treasure Herb! I've never even seen one before, and you managed to find one and even joined the Medicine King Hall! Chen Ku, oh Chen Ku, we agreed to suffer together, but how come all of a sudden you're wearing a long gown?
When Chen Ku was suffering hardship, he felt sympathy for his brother.
But the fact that his brother's fortune had improved so suddenly was even harder for him to handle!