Big Data Cultivation

Chapter 134: Chapter 134 Let There Be Light

The people of Zhao Family’s stronghold retreated to a distance, leaving four individuals to watch from afar while the rest scampered away.

Lang Zhen watched them coolly, making no move to stop them.

He appeared indifferent, but Deng Family’s Second Son was quite excited, “Brother Wolf, you really are formidable, striking without a word.”

Being at the exuberant age of youth, what he liked most was swift and decisive revenge.

As for the aftermath of injuring someone, he wasn’t particularly concerned- humiliating a martial master deserved such retribution.

Lang Zhen, however, merely snorted, his face expressionless as he spoke, “Be on your guard, the real battle is about to begin.”

“If it’s a tough battle, then it’s a tough battle,” said Deng Lao Da, who rarely spoke. There was no expression on his face, but his eyes also blazed with flames, “Having earned this money, we must exert the effort… right?” “Exactly,” said Deng Lao Er, his face full of eagerness to try, “Their actions show that these people came to test us. If extortion doesn’t work on us, they will get serious. But, heh… are we afraid?”

A young man in Jianghu is as old as it gets. Every young martial artist stepping into the world has a heart full of irrepressible passion.

Lang Zhen looked at them and remembered his own younger days, smiling rarely, “The key is, fear is useless.”

Indeed, when the opposition’s offer was two hundred silver dollars, trouble had already arrived. Since there was no way to avoid it, one could only face it head- on.

Deng Lao Da glanced at the room where Feng Jun was, hesitated for a moment, and uttered four words, “Do we have to hold out?”

Fighting was not something he feared; no martial artist would shrink from battle. But with the opposition having an entire village as their backing, including martial masters, it was simply an insurmountable force.

In such a situation, fleeing after a fierce battle was not shameful. To stubbornly hold out would be tantamount to courting death.

However, if they didn’t hold out, the stones that the Divine Doctor had purchased would have to be abandoned, which went against the professional ethics of an escort master.

Therefore, Deng Lao Da thought it necessary to seek guidance from his senior on what choice they should make.

Lang Zhen shook his head, smiling as he replied, “We’ll see what the Divine Doctor says. If he says go, we go; if he says stay, we stay.”

Even if he had no confidence in himself, he had considerable confidence in Feng Jun—that was a cultivator.

However, Deng Lao Da was stubborn and couldn’t help but ask again, “But… isn’t the Divine Doctor just an initial-rank martial master?”

Two martial masters and two high-rank martial warriors, facing an attack from a whole village, were likely… also hard-pressed to survive.

Lang Zhen shook his head, “The capabilities of the Divine Doctor are beyond your imagination… you and your brother need not worry. Do you think Brother Wolf looks like he’ s tired of living?”

Upon hearing these words, Deng Lao Da no longer spoke—though not talkative, he was astute, so how could he not understand that the Divine Doctor had a method to deal with a group beating?

After a while, it began to rain again from the sky, and as the day was not getting any earlier, after discussing with each other, Lang Zhen and Deng Lao Da entered another room to avoid the rain, while Deng Lao Er stood under a makeshift awning, responsible for the surrounding vigilance.

Feifei was starting a fire to cook food under the eaves of a room nearby.

As the sky gradually darkened, a loud noise came from the room where Feng Jun was. Immediately after, he pushed open the door and came out.

When the Divine Doctor emerged, he was not empty-handed; he was dragging along a long, strange rope lasso, the end of which was attached to a transparent, colored glaze-like, spherical object.

This was the electric light that Feng Jun was trying to make. The bulbs were also those types with focusing xenon lamps, capable of lighting a great distance in the night.

He connected four bulbs at once and then hit the switch. In an instant, the space was bathed in brightness.

The Deng Family Brothers were dumbfounded at this sight, “What is this thing?”

They had seen things used for illumination at night before. Not to mention bonfires, ordinary households used candles and oil lamps, and those who were a bit more sophisticated used luminous pearls—their lighting effect was modest, but they came without smoke.

Luminous pearls looked like ordinary stones during the day but could glow at night. Moreover, this light did not require burning anything; it only required placing the luminous pearls under the sun to bask during the day.

The longer they were exposed, the brighter the glow of the luminous pearls at night.

Besides these, Deng Lao Er had seen even more upscale illumination tools, only used by top families in Xijing when hosting guests. At the time, his father had high hopes for him, taking him to broaden his horizons,

Deng Lao Er distinctly remembered how the Luminous Pearl was dazzling in the night. It was precisely because of this that he gained a clear understanding of the nobles of Xijing—such godlike pearls were not something ordinary people could afford, were they?

It was said that this treasure came from some top-tier entities. Although Escort Head Deng did not elaborate to his son, how could Deng Lao Er not guess that it was from cultivators?

Yet, even a Luminous Pearl could not compare to the four objects before them. These devices were so bright that they were almost blinding, their radiance piercing the pitch-black night, illuminating the distance as if it were daylight. Even the fine raindrops were rendered crystal clear.

Deng Lao Er was the best at getting excited about things, and shouted when he saw the spectacle, “Amazing, with this divine artifact, we won’t have to worry about the enemy sneaking into our camp… That’s the kind of move a Divine Doctor should make.”

As expected, war is the driving force behind human technological progress, and even a chuunibyou youth like Deng Lao Er thought of the convenience it brought to warfare upon his first glance at the xenon lamp.

“Hmm,” Feng Jun hummed, “It’s almost dark now, we’re not afraid to fight them, but it would be a bit too much of a loss if someone sneaked up on us in the dark.”

In fact, the four individuals from Zhao Family Fort responsible for surveillance were already terrified by the magnificent sight before them.

Just as Deng Lao Er had guessed, the people from Zhao Family Fort came to sell jade, and from the very beginning, they had no good intentions.

In fact, even a chuunibyou youth like him could guess the Zhao Family Fort’s ambitions, which were blatantly obvious.

The reputation of Feng Jun and his companions had been growing in the nearby area recently, and such large-scale, high-priced purchases of stones had never occurred in Zhige County before—in fact, as far as records show, nothing like this had ever happened.

The people of Zhao Family Fort initially didn’t take it seriously, and there were villagers who made special trips to sell their stones, which wasn’t strange; after all, the village was indeed dominated by one surname, but just as ten fingers are not of the same length, even with the same surname Zhao, there was a disparity in wealth.

Feng Jun was picky when purchasing stones; he wouldn’ t take stones that hadn’t been cut.

At first, although the people of Zhao Family Fort complained, they could barely accept it, after all, it wasn’t up to the people of Zhao Family Fort to decidewhat to sell and what not to—the buyer was king.

But they kept buying, and it was always cash on delivery. Over time, people from Zhao Family Fort began to have crooked thoughts—these guys must be wealthy.

In those days, it wasn’t the fear of being stolen from that concerned people, but rather the fear of thieves coveting what they had. Once they set their sights on this place, it was inevitable they would start to inquire about the background of the newcomers.

And when the Deng Family Brothers came here, they had visited the local notables, so the people of Zhao Family Fort knew that among those who bought stones, there were two young lads, sons of the deputy head of Xiongfeng Escort Bureau.

It’s just that Lang Zhen had left the Escort Bureau many years ago and had long since been forgotten.

When the people of Zhao Family Fort heard that the other party had the descendants of the Xiongfeng Escort Bureau, they started to back off, as that was an escort bureau that operated in Xiyin city and not something their small surname-dominant village could contend with.

Such an escort bureau, even if their combat power was slightly lacking, could basically guarantee that they would have ten to eighteen martial masters on hand.

And Zhao Family Fort had only a total of three martial masters—in fact, this number was already quite astonishing.

Keep in mind that in most villages of this realm, it was impossible to find a single martial master.

The three martial masters of the village: one made a living in Xijing, one was in the military in Xiyin, and another taught cultivation at a martial arts school in a neighboring county.

Which meant that ordinarily, there were no martial masters in Zhao Family Fort.

This time, encountering people from the Xiongfeng Escort Bureau, they were habitually inclined to sound the retreat.

In the hearts of most people, those who escorted valuables were seen as highly mobile individuals who roamed freely from the north to the south, defiant and imbued with a heavy killing air, and were not to be trifariously provoked.

As for the reliance of Zhao Family Fort’s people on having three martial masters with their own connections?

Stop joking, a martial master from the Xiongfeng Escort Bureau would only be more numerous than three, and besides, how could an escort bureau operate without connections?

The people of Zhao Family Fort had already decided to give up, but unexpectedly, two days ago, the martial master from the neighboring county returned

Actually, he came back often. Of the three martial masters, only he stayed close to home. One reason was that he was getting on in years and didn’t want to continue wandering outside, and the other was to take care of the people in the village, to prevent others from bullying the Zhao Family casually.

Unable to resist the temptation, some villagers went to consult him: those buying stones seemed to have a disdain for our Zhao Family Fort.

Who was this man? A simple inquiry gave them the answer: It was probably not that they were bullying you, but that you were envious of their wealth.

However, accusing others of discrimination just because you’re envious of their wealth… That makes sense!

If you didn’t look down on us, you should have obediently brought the money over, right?

As for those buying stones having hired the bodyguards of Xiongfeng Escort Bureau, upon careful questioning, he immediately burst into laughter, “A Ye family member? They’re long since not with Xiongfeng, and I’ve heard that they had some conflict with Xiao Yun from the Hall of Heroes… Don’t worry about them!”

However, if the bodyguards were two martial artists from the Ye Family, then what was the background of those buying stones?

Since they hadn’t figured out Feng Jun’s origins, and they didn’t want to be too aggressive on their doorstep—in front of so many fellow villagers, they couldn’t just openly rob them, could they?

That’s why they came up with today’s approach: let’s start with forcing a buy and sell, if the other party tolerates it, we can consider encroaching further.

The people of this realm seemed very adept at such tactics; Feng Jun had encountered similar situations outside Xiyin city—others incrementally testing his limits.

The people of Zhao Family Fort really did not expect that among the four of them, the disabled one would turn out to be a martial master, and moreover, they acted on the spot, not only cold and decisive but also extremely ruthless. Now, those keeping watch looked towards the rising brilliance in the distance and couldn’t help but be shocked together, what kind of unusual phenomenon was this?