Chapter 13 – Fury
“Dad!” Pi Hou rushed out of the village while wailing and threw himself towards his father. He held one of Shi Shoushan’s arms while tears rolling down. “What happened, who injured you?”
His mother ran over with tears dripping and grabbed another one of Shi Shoushan’s hands while crying on the side.
“Why cry? So what if I got shot by an arrow, I often get hurt when hunting vicious beats. Bleeding a bit like this is nothing.” Shi Shoushan stared right at them and did not cry. He was a strong-willed man.
Half his body was bloodstained, and an iron arrow pierced through his iron armor. It penetrated his right lung right through the back, and a 1.3 meter long arrow shaft, shiny, cold and stained with blood stuck out. This was a ghastly sight.
“Elder sister-in-law and nephew, don’t cry anymore, brother Shoushan is still in a critical condition. After supporting him for a while, he will be as strong as an ox. He will get better really quickly.” Fei Shijiao urged.
This was not a light injury. Even though Shi Shoushan had a strong body, he could not be incredibly careless or else he might suffer a grave condition and lose his life.
Fortunately, Shi Linghu and the others had already treated his injuries using crushed medicine from within the old mountain and applied it to his wound. At the same time he consumed the medicine made from a fierce beast’s true blood that the elder provided.
“Stop crying, being able to return alive is already a fortunate event.” Chief Shi Yunfeng approached and suddenly pulled out the iron arrow. A stream of blood spouted out. He rapidly flashed his hands, and mysterious symbols that were as bright as constellations immediately pressed down, closing the wound and stopping the blood flow.
Shi Yunfeng took out a jade jar from his chest and poured out two fragrant purple medicinal pills. He squeezed one of them into powder and applied it onto the wound while giving Shi Shoushan the other to swallow.
Shi Shoushan was lifted back home. The village’s men and women both young and old gathered to visit him, and they brought all kinds of different supplemental medicine and dried meat as gifts. It was bustling and the villagers were all sincere and warmhearted.
“Uncle will certainly get better soon!” The little guy also gave his kind regards and brought him a basket of his favorite red berries.
“Alright… what happened?” In the chief’s courtyard, a bunch of important people gathered. Shi Yunfeng furrowed his eyebrows and asked.
“Chief, it was certainly Wolf Village causing trouble. They overstepped their boundaries into our territory, and plundered a six footed camel that Shoushan killed. There was a clear killing intent, but thankfully, Shoushan promptly dodged. That was indeed a shot aimed at the heart.” Shi Linghu angrily said.
Everyone’s complexion changed; this was an intent to kill.
“To go this far, they really are ignorant of what is considered upright and honest. Although our two villages are only separated by 10 li, we both have our own territories to defend and almost never meet each other. However, we both live on the same mountain range, so no matter what, we should still give each other some face right? It definitely was not like this before.” An elder exclaimed.
Shi Feijiao said: “A child shot the arrow, at least 14 or 15 years old, his outward appearance wasn’t bad, as he was rather fair and attractive. However, he truly had a vicious heart, as he shot the arrow straight at Shoushan as if he was killing a wild beast. There wasn’t a hint of wavering in his eyes; they were cold and fearsome.”
At that moment, Stone Village’s villagers were all infuriated, and all of them rushed forward together. However, their opponents were not weak either, and roughly ten individuals from the opposing party gathered right away while unyieldingly holding their ground.
Fortunately, from within the mountain range appeared a mad Suan Ni whose roar made the mountains tremble. Both parties were anxious and rapidly retreated, otherwise, a blood battle might have occurred there.
“Why are they being so aggressive? Don’t tell me that they feel so superior that they can ignore our feelings. How could they take advantage of people like this!?” A few elders were also furious. As they all lived within the mountains, strong and robust males were all extremely important to a village. The other clan unexpectedly acted in such a fashion and dared to kill whoever they wanted.
A few people added: “That child was not very simple. He gave us the feeling that he was up to no good. Looking at him felt like facing an adult Pi Xiu, strong, savage and callous.”
“It seems like Wolf Village has developed an exceptional youth, and have strengthened by quite a bit. Right now, they are flourishing so their ambitions are also growing.” The village elder said while squinting his eyes towards the Wolf Village.
Soon after, he turned his head towards Shi Linghu and the others and said, “We do not want to cause any trouble, but we are also not afraid of trouble. Be mindful of them in the days to come. If they act up again, do not hesitate in taking action.”
“I understand.” Shi Linghu nodded.
In the blink of an eye, half a month passed. Wolf Village overstepped their boundaries so often to the point that they even set up many traps for the fierce beasts. Many of Stone Village’s people accidentally set off the traps and were almost stabbed by the iron spikes underneath.
Precisely because of these events, blood was almost shed. Ultimately, however, Wolf Village retreated.
“How can you be this crazy in hunting fierce beasts? Even if their population increased, acting in this way is quite abnormal. A major event must have happened within their village.” Chief Shi Yunfeng inferred.
After several conflicts, Wolf Village’s people mostly disappeared. However, the villagers of Stone Village were not relieved one bit. They decided to send some people over at night. The spies heard yelling from within the village; it was quite strange.
“Do not take action first. As long as they do not go overboard, there’s no need for bloodshed. Living in this mountain range is not easy.” An elder said.
Just like this, peace was restored again.
After a few days, Stone Village’s luck was pretty good, hunts were rather successful. In the mountains, they came across several carcasses of fierce beasts after internal conflicts. There were many strong mysterious beasts that engaged in battles, and brought disaster within the mountain wherever they went, causing many wild beasts to suffer.
In the depths of the mountain range, Archaic descendants conflicted from time to time. They were fighting with the intent to kill each other, causing irreparable calamities. This was the case, but fortunately, it did not spread to the village.
“Chief, just Dragon Horned Elephants alone accounted for eight of the bodies, and there were also several Snow White Moon Rhinoceros, as well as other types of huge beasts. If we made them into dried meat, it could feed us for a long time to come.”
Shi Linghu brought people to drag some pieces home, and gathered even more to once again transport those fierce beasts.
“Good, good, good!” The elders were all elated.
A large part of the villagers all left together to provide support in the mountains.
“Ao, so many huge beasts, let’s go too. We can certainly gather a lot of true blood!” A group of children clamored and shouted.
After seeing the little guy’s skills improving more and more over these past few years, none of the children could bear it any longer and no longer resisted medicinal baths. They were all very cooperative and obediently baptized themselves within the copper cauldrons. Now that they found out a large amount of precious blood was available, they were naturally all rather excited.
“I’ll go as well. Da Peng, Xiao Qing, Zi Yun, wait for me in the village and behave yourselves.” The little guy Shi Hao also followed.
However, when everyone were just halfway to their destination, they all saw Shi Feijai covered in blood returning with a group of villager. Their appearances were in a mess and they miserable.
“Feijai what happened?” Shi Linghu asked loudly.
“Brother Linghu, it’s Wolf Village again, they wanted to chase us away and take away all the leftover fierce beasts!” Shi Feijai clenched his teeth in anger.
“What! Truly intolerable. We’ve been putting up with them repeatedly and they take our good temperament as a sign of weakness?” Shi Linghu was furious.
Stone Village’s people could no longer ignore this matter. Again and again, the opposing clan arrogantly took advantage of them; this was not the first time the other clan provoked them.
“Did any of our brothers lose their lives?”
“No, but there are a few with severe injuries. Their Spleens were penetrated by iron arrows, and we do not know if their injuries are fatal.
“What! To commit such fierce actions, if it’s a fight they want, it’s a fight they’ll get!”
The villagers immediately exploded. After repeated humiliations, even a reserved person would be somewhat angry.
“That 14 or 15 year-old child was truly vicious. All of those arrows were shot by him, and had it not been for one of their village elders shaking his head at him, he truly would had killed many of us.” Er Meng’s father said while his entire body was bloodstained.
“He’s just a child whose hair hasn’t even grown yet, how strong can he be? Don’t tell me that you guys are unable to do anything about it?” A crippled villager resentfully spoke in support.
“Naturally we are not scared, except they have much more people. Their numbers are many times more than we have.”
“That child is quite formidable. Despite having a rather attractive appearance, he truly has a ruthless heart. Do not be careless, a few brothers were covered in three layers of iron armor, yet they were still all penetrated by his arrows. In our village only Shi Linghu and I can do that.” Shi Feijiao added.
“We need to take back what is rightfully ours. We absolutely cannot take this lying down!” Everyone felt as if a flame ignited within their hearts, as if their five viscera were doused with oil, burning with anger.
A formidable group of people rushed into the depth of the mountain. This time, Wolf Village truly went too far and crossed the bottom line.
“Uncle Fu, you’re hurt too. Everything will be alright, it will get better quickly.” The little guy looked at the bloodied body of Shi Linghu who helped him pick up his favorite berries every time. He clenched his tiny fists, and after comforting him a bit, he began to chase after the group that went ahead.