Shameless

The atmosphere was tense as if two great armies were facing each other. Wu Zhengyi looked so nervous; it looked like he would squeal at any moment. Cold sweat was pouring down on every person present at this moment.

Even Cui Bei couldn't help but take a few gulps staring at the man in the lead among the people who had just arrived after him. Many knew the identity of this man after all it wasn't their first time to hunt in the mountains only a select few present here had not seen him in person but they had already speculated who this man was.

Like a giant boulder, only two words floated in everyone's mind, weighing down on them

Village chief!!!

This was the man who oversaw the affairs of the village.

Even though Duoli Village had five big families that governed it. The village chief naturally stood above them all. It was unknown how a single man could keep the five big families in a stalemate. Their relationship was akin to a spear where the big families were the handle, although bearing a large area and influence, but the village chief was the spear head.

To the common people, they appeared to be interdependent, but only the large families knew for a fact that that was not the case.

Though not exactly from a large family, Li Tian was from quite a successful family and could tell by the bearing the chief gave that this was not a simple man.

Although many felt nervous and pressured. There were a few who seemed to look at the chief in awe, and some looked unfazed as if they couldn't feel anything special about the village chief.

Bai Ming seemed to be among the former. To him, the village was the perfect idol and a symbol of greatness. A wave of unnatural energy seemed to fill him as thought himself to be like the village chief. Of course, all this was just in his mind.

On the other side, Cui Bei seemed to have noticed the look on Bai Ming's face and suddenly felt a wave of shame and inferiority washing over him.

It couldn't be helped all he had only been told by his grandfather who was the current Cui family's head about the village chief. Even for someone like him from one the big families, it was very rare to have an encounter with the village chief. He seldomly appeared in person as he did now.

The only people who had the most interaction with the village chief were the family heads and a select few members.

How could he a young lord have such an honor, at this point he didn't want to be bothered with Bai Ming anymore and moved to pay his respects to the village chief.

To him, this was a way to show the commoners that they were not the same kind.

He walked up to him with his head held high, and the group of minions didn't follow him at this time. Only the mysterious man who had been accompanying him followed him.

Everyone could clearly see the smug look on his face as if he were the guest of honour.

The village chief turned to look at him and didn't say anything, but Cui Bei felt as if he had been washed with cold water.

The common people present saw this and couldn't help but elevate the image of the village chief higher in their minds. They could all see that the cold temperament and stern look he carried would even make babies cry even in their sleep.

Cui Bei got close, then stopped and cupped his hands.

"Cui Bei, grandson of Verga lord greets the chief."

The village chief looked at him calmly, or so he thought. To him, it seemed like he had relaxed his appearance to appear more welcoming, but it only served to make him look more terrifying.

Cui Bei couldn't help but start sweating buckets.

Even the mysterious man behind him found himself to have fallen into a pit he didn't even know how he got there in the first place.

Why is he looking at me like that?

Did I say something wrong?

Should I have addressed him as Senior?

Did I not bow low enough?

Should my head touch the ground?

Many thoughts flashed as his mind raced to find the cause and how to resolve the problem.

But was his mind fast enough? The answer was obvious, before he could even finish thinking of what the cause was, he was interrupted by the chief's voice.

"Hmm, Cui???"

At this point, the chief had begun looking him up and down, but this only served to heighten Cui Bei's fear. It looked like a vicious serpent was eyeing a mouse. At this time, his mind seemed to have decided to skip the problem search phase and jumped straight to response.

He was just about to say something to try and quell the chief's anger, but the chief spoke first before he did.

"I see, that's quite the resemblance, so you're that old viper's grandson he's been going about."

"Eh…"

Cui Bei seemed to have been struck silly by this turn of response.

Did I hear wrong?

Was that a compliment?

Is he actually expressing surprise?

He had thought he would be struck in the next moment for sure as it turns out it was him just overthinking things.

No, that's not right, I'm definitely not overthinking here.

It was only a short moment, but Cui Bei had already pieced a small part a realized that the chief seemed to have an expression that conflicted with his attitude and behavior, and that he wasn't angry but still, that terrifying gaze was still hanging up there.

The village chief looked much bigger in body size, height, and muscles.

It was just not pleasant to be looked at like that, but Cui Bei seemed easily adapted and took it with great stride.

"The chief praises this little one too much, Senior has an upstanding image even the Patriarch praises so much,"

Hearing this, the village head gave a hearty laugh and found Cui Bei to be quite interesting as he thought to himself.

Only a moment ago, the kid looked like he was about to wet his pants, but in only a second, he got into act and even thought out such words.

It seemed the village head had noticed his state of mind. Of course, it would have been weird if he didn't when Cui Bei was standing right in front of him.

Hehe, even this slippery tongue reminds of that old viper.

Could it be that that old snake has already taken over this little one's body?

How can they be so alike?

Although the chief thought this, he spoke differently.

"Oh, so that old viper has told you of me, how kind of him"

The village head laughed it off again. However, this threw Cui Bei off as he was struck silly once more and didn't know what exactly to think.

Eh, did the chief just call grandpa old viper?

It was only now that he realized that the village chief had said this on his first statement, but it was just that he had not gotten the time to process this.

Isn't a viper a snake?

What's the meaning here?

Ah, forget it. It's too troublesome to start digging into old gramps matters.

"Since we have met like this, then it is by the great immortal's guidance, and so I'll gift you this weapon."

As he said so, the chief turned to the men who had come with him and just as him, each of them looking mighty and fierce to the extreme.

A short young man looking much like Bai Ming's size came out from the group of men holding an item covered with a cloth, although not completely covered by the cloth the handle could be seen by everyone else as it had a come neat engravings on them, looking exquisite.

Even the on lookers could see from that handle that this was a work of art and couldn't be something that could be seen in any street.

Cui Bei, seeing just how splendid the item looked, couldn't help but lick his lips a bit. This was indeed a fine material. A second had passed, and he was so engrossed the item that his intentions were plain to see that even everyone present was now looking at him.

He couldn't help but feel that he had been too absorbed but, he didn't think it was such a huge problem and given his image and bearing of the young lord of the Cui family, he didn't want to bring shame to his household.

"Senior, this…this is simply too much for this little one,"

Everyone present at this moment, seeing this act couldn't help but drop their jaws as they thought to themselves.

What?

Just now wasn't this guy about to drool looking at that item?

Yet now he still dares to play an act after showing such a greedy look?

What too much? It's clear as the day that he wants the item. 

It wasn't just the crowd who had these thoughts. Even the chief couldn't help but twitch his mouth a bit.

This pretentious little thing!

Seeing that it had come to this, the chief had to hand off the item by making up an excuse that he was simply returning the favour paid to him by the Cui family's Patriarch.

It was only after this that Cui Bei gladly accepted the item and had the man behind him receive it. Everyone saw this and thought once more.

We are here for a hunt in the mountains, and you still need a helper to hold the item for you?

No one here was stupid; it was clear Cui Bei was holding back the intention to grab the item himself.

After this, Cui Bei gave his thanks once more, giving out empty promises. He was just a young lord and didn't exactly own anything of the sort but still dared to do so. The chief was now finding this encounter annoying and made up an excuse to send him off to his original position.

At this time, it seemed to be about time to leave. It was only now when the last group was seen approaching from the distance. As it got closer, the men were now able to see it was a group of women.

This drew the full attention of the men. Although none of them found it strange,after all, no matter what the social norms were, there would always be those women who acted and behaved more like men, some even going out for a brawl. Since there was no rule prohibiting this, the idea of female warriors was partially acceptable. Although there would be some who begged to differ, their opinions weren't considered as relevant.