Chapter 347: The Village
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When Ye Chong got back to the village, Old Jalopy was exchanging warm greetings with the villagers. Clearly, Ye Chong and Rui Bing's heroic act had gained trust of the villagers. The mommas were holding Rui Bing's hands, muttering some words imperceivable afar that made Rui Bing's face reddened as her lead lowered with a kind of embarrassed expression.
Rui Bing quickly welcomed Ye Chong upon arrival.
"Are things alright?"
Ye Chong shook his head, "The guy ran away, he took a blow from me though."
Rui Bing could not be more shocked than this. She was well-aware of her man's skill, seriously what kind of human could ever escape his grip? That person must be quite a deal. Knowing her man's battle style, he would not let go of his prey till the prey died.
"Well..." Upon seeing Rui Bing's expression, Ye Chong elaborated, "The guy disappeared right after he got into the woods. I felt strange too."
"It must be your first time of encountering the Abductor, I suppose. They are the kinds who abduct not everybody but children and are extremely skillful in hiding themselves. The more puzzling the surrounding, the more confusing they get." The villagers had been mesmerized by Ye Chong's performance before, so he was quite dignified in their words.
Ye Chong nodded and asked on, "What does the Abductor do?"
The villagers were shocked by his question, it seemed like a common sense for everyone here to know who the group of child abductors were. "Mister, are you truly unaware of the Abductor?"
"Hahahaha... Forgive my friends." Old Jalopy came into the scene hurriedly, "They came from the far, faraway. They aren't really aware of the things here. Sigh, can't help it, they are so fascinated by the scenery here that I was asked to get them over here. Hahahahaha, and so I did you see. Please don't take it by heart if they had done anything offensive."
"Ohh!" The villagers showed understanding, with one old adult laughing brightly, "Haha, don't have to be so formal. The Abductor would have gotten their job done if there weren't you guys. That fine young man has some skills you know what, better than myself back in his age! The pretty lassie there too."
Old Jalopy smiled and turned back to Ye Chong and the group, "Abductor is a group of child-abductors. Nobody knows who they are and what they work for. They just hide in the dark and capture any child with potential who had never returned since then. People have no idea where the children had gone and what the Abductor wants them for. There would be a batch of missing children annually but somehow these child-abducting oddities seem to be extremely skillful. I swear they would make serious fortune if they ever utilize their skills by conducting classes, parents would send them the children themselves."
"Right!" Sighed the man, "With their skills, people would be flocking to their classes. And words have been heard, saying how those abducted children must have a certain standard of potential, judging by how skillful and insightful those child abductors are, though it's quite astonishing to see them here too... Man, our village actually has talented kids to be abducted. What a waste if nobody guided them to harness their talents..." And he took a look at Ye Chong, passionately.
"Hahaha!" Old Jalopy laughed and said, "Congratulations for the village still having the two talented angels intact! Once they grew up happily, the condition here surely would change! Hahaha, sadly we won't be witnessing such achievement, we have things to do or we would have taken them as apprentices." Indirectly he turned down the offer.
"Oh... Ha..." The man seemed disappointed, though his happy-go-lucky tone unchanged, "Well they have their own fate, their own tale to make. So, not to worry histories like us. I must say all of you seemed to have a long journey. All worn out and that, why don't all of you get in and have a rest? I could offer some drinks and both of us, the old men could have a nice conversation."
"Sure, sure!" Smiled Old Jalopy, "It's been quite sometime since I ever took a journey myself. I no longer know how the outside world looks, I really would be glad to get some insights from you!"
The villagers were kind as they welcomed Ye Chong and his mates in group.
The houses were broken, the pipes were broken, the barrels were broken, the people were... Ye Chong was as speechless as his mates, since they had finally come to an understanding of what Old Jalopy meant when he said the place was pretty bad in productivity. They almost thought they had turned back in time and returned to the hunting-and-gathering era. No one could see a single touch of the technologies. The fish webs were a knit of ropes, which only could be seen in the museum in today. There were fish poles, wooden chairs and porcelain basins, crudely produced. What kept the oil lamps ignited on wall was the fat of fishes they caught, as one could smell the fishiness of the room upon entry.
The walls were a fascination to Ye Chong's eyes, as every brick of them was made out of Celestine, one could even see the cuts over each piece. Apparently these bricks were removed pieces by pieces from a giant boulder of it, with bare hands. How many bare hands would that need? Ye Chong finally understood why the place respected the potency of humanity more than anything.
Anyone who could dice Celestine by bare hands must not be an ordinary. No one could cut Celestine into bricks even by brute force.
The women passed them a bowl of water each, with a sweet smile. Ye Chong took a sip. Although the water was a little muddy, it was exceptionally refreshing that Ye Chong gargled it like the others. The women seemed very pleased by their reaction.
Old Jalopy was having conversations with the villagers nearby.
"So why are the child-abductors this active today?" asked Old Jalopy.
"That was a question for us too. It was the first time we encountered this. If it weren't you and your group, those children might never see their parents again. Sigh, those abductors raided our village just because we have a weaker defense after the other major villages reinforced their security. But well... sigh, we are also as harmless as you can see. If there are some people who would consider sparing their kindness protecting us, we won't be under a plight like this. I guess we would have to send these two kids to the larger village afterwards, since both of them would never have a bright future staying with us." One of the elderly expressed. The villagers were seemingly grim as well.
"Don't feel bad about it," comforted Old Jalopy. "You can't force things to happen. At least the villagers are alert enough to see us. Things would be totally different if that did not happen."
"I had heard similar things happening in the neighboring villagers. The Wang family had informed us about the abductors days before. That was why, well, we tried hard to prepare. We would be sending the kids to Wang family maybe tomorrow. At least the family has good fighters to protect them while teaching them techniques to protect themselves. Unlike somebody, the family would be in favor of taking these kids, since they were the one eyed by the abductors at least..." Added the other villager, with somehow an undertone of Ye Chong taking those kids along.
Old Jalopy was feeling a little awkward of the situation, "Well don't look at their skills, they are still kids, they won't be considering apprentice that soon."
"Wei! How could you speak to our guest like that?"
The villager whose name was Wei responded in embarrassment, since he himself was well-aware of how inappropriate his words were.
"Hahaha... Don't mind that, we are just having small talks!" Old Jalopy tried to keep the rage down as he made a drastic turn in the topic, "Speaking of Wang, may I ask who are the Wangs? I remembered no one of the Wang family 30 years back when I traveled here?"
"So you've been here 30 years ago? Well, we moved here only 20 years ago. The former villagers here had migrated to somewhere else when we came. And the Wang family joined the area on our second year here. The family is a very huge one I must say, 800,000 of them I heard? I have no idea why they moved here. We have also hardly spoken to each other, though I must say the place had become quieter ever since their arrival. Nobody would dare to challenge the area and our days got brighter," he said.
"This big? 800 grands of them? Such family..." Old Jalopy was astonished by the figure.
"Isn't it unbelievable? And the family had talents, lots of them. There was once a group of thieves around 300 of them scurried somewhere nearby and it only took around 50 of the Wangs to slaughter them on spot. They are surely merciless when they wave their offense, no one had survived on the day. We even travelled to the Buffalo Hill and we saw an extremely large sack laying there. And not one single thief was seen around the village ever since." One of the villagers told the tale expressively.
"Okay..." Old Jalopy frowned. It seemed like a chore to deal with this family.
"Well don't worry!" The elderly saw the worry in Old Jalopy's brows, "The Wang family usually shows no concern towards the outsiders, as long as the outsiders behave. Nothing would happen! And the Wangs are rather friendly in nature. They would likely offer their help whenever we asked for it. Also, the village of the Wang family is the largest market you could find within the area. Whatever you need, you could get it there. If you want something sold, you could approach them too, they have fair prices you know, way better than those heartless merchants. So we would get everything to the Wang family market from time to time."
"That's great." Nodded Old Jalopy vigorously, "Now they sound quite friendly. I'm sorry but there *are* in fact some nasty clans out there so..."
And that was when a man's voice rang by the door, "We were informed that the village has been under an attack of the Abductor, so the Wang family sent 5 of us for assistance."
Wow, when Wang family was mentioned, they had come.
The elderly went to the door and saw 5 men standing in a row.
Ye Chong was shocked. All 5 of them were fairly armed with a green suit as their uniform. They seemed reliable and strong.
Ye Chong could tell by a glance that those men possessed some skills.