The Rice Fields

"70 vengeance points to go before I can level up my physique."

Lin Fan looked at the system's information panel and said to himself.

He breathed in hard, panting from the exhaustion of using the abilities.

The air in the open field is now filled with the sweet and metallic smell of blood.

A smell he had now gotten familiar with.

After Lin Fan caught his breath, he started to check for stuff to 'recycle' while he waited to recover some of his energy.

As an educated person from Earth, he must continue with the great virtue of caring for the environment and not let anything go to waste.

Rummaging through the bodies of these men, he found a few strings of copper coins, and a manuscript titled 'Flowing Cloud Sword Style'.

"This must be the sword technique these men were using."

He kept the manuscript just in case he could start cultivating or simply sell it for money.

When all was done, Lin Fan decided to leave.

Clunk.

Before he left, Lin Fan stepped onto something on the ground.

A black-colored wooden slab with a lotus carved onto it.

"Must have dropped from one of the men when we were fighting," Lin Fan thought to himself.

He picked it up and kept it as it might be important information as to who these men were.

The only thing he can confirm right now is that these men were sent here by Housekeeper Lee to ambush him.

Lin Fan then ran and tried to get back to the village as fast as possible.

If his hunch is right, Housekeeper Lee must have something else ready for the village's defense team.

...

In the rice fields not far away from the village.

All the rice for autumn has been harvested and what's left are fields of barren mud.

From afar, many wanderers and vagrants can be seen squatting down, scouring through the mud, trying to look for pieces of rice grain that might have been missed by the villagers.

Those wanderers and vagrants without any strength left just sat in the mud with their hands supporting them upright, looking up into the sky, as if asking the heavens for mercy.

"All of you get out of our fields!"

An angry shout erupted, startling the wanderers and vagrants in the fields.

The two defense teams, made up of twenty men from the village, approached the rice fields with weapons in their hands.

"Lin Ke, what are you doing? The village head told us to wait for his order."

"Ho Fu? Forget about that old man. Look at them, with nothing much on them. All thin and frail. We can take care of them."

Lin Ke, as the team leader, didn't want to wait and decided to make the first move.

"At least wait for Liu's team to come. I feel safer if he was here."

"Yeah, I think so too."

When he heard them say Liu's name, Lin Ke sneered at them and said, "You stupid fools. It's obvious that Ho Fu is being biased towards that Liu, trying to keep him out of harm's way."

"Come to think of it... Lin Ke, you may be right."

"Gosh, how could we be so stupid."

"That Ho Fu. Let's ask for justice and fairness after we drive these wanderers and vagrants away."

The others were convinced by Lin Ke and decided to listen to him.

They gripped the weapons in their hands tight, took a deep breath, and ran towards the wanderers and vagrants to drive them away.

Unbeknownst to them, Uncle Liu's team had been tasked to make a detour and go around the wanderers and vagrants.

So that they could come at the wanderers and vagrants from behind.

Lin Ke's decision had now spoiled Ho Fu's plan and put the two defense teams at risk.

"Get out of our fields."

Lin Ke waved the stick in his hand at the vagrant in front of him.

The vagrant turned and looked at him and smiled.

"Stop smiling, you..."

Before Lin Ke could finish, the vagrant pulled out a knife hidden in the mud and slashed at him.

Lin Ke held the stick with both of his hands, placing it in front of him to block the knife.

Crack.

The stick couldn't withstand the sharpness of the knife.

"Argh..."

The knife caught Lin Ke's chest, and his cloth slowly got wet with his blood seeping through.

Lin Ke stepped back and he fell on his back.

The vagrant didn't waste this chance and hacked down at Lin Ke.

Lin Ke quickly rolled and dodged the attack in the nick of time.

"Stop. My nephew has quite a bit of money, I know where he hides it. Let me go and I'll let you have it."

With his face now full of mud, Lin Ke begged the vagrant to spare his life.

The vagrant stopped and said, "Or I can just kill you and still have the money. Hahaha."

Seeing that the vagrant wouldn't let him go, Lin Ke tried to crawl away from the vagrant.

Luckily for Lin Ke, a villager came to his rescue.

The villager charged at the vagrant and knocked him out cold, lying unconsciously on the ground.

"Lin Ke, are you all right?"

The villager asked as he pulled Lin Ke up on his feet.

"You could've come earlier. Where are Ho Fu and that bastard Liu!"

The villager shook his head.

This Lin Ke is always droning on about how others have wronged him, one way or another.

He started to doubt everything Lin Ke had said about Lin Fan.

Maybe Lin Fan was really desperate and helpless.

Not the ungrateful nephew this Lin Ke portrayed him to be.

But now they had other things to worry about.

"Argh..."

"Someone, help me!"

"Ouch... My arm."

All around the field, there was chaos.

The wanderers and vagrants with their surprise attack worked.

They now had the advantage.

"Die!"

A vagrant held up the knife in his hands, stared at the villager on the ground, ready to decapitate the villager.

Whoosh!

The sound of an arrow breaking through the air whistled by.

The vagrant now froze, with the arrow in his neck.

Blood then started to squirt out of the vagrant's neck.

"Hang in there everyone. Here we come!"

Uncle Liu's voice echoed in the air.