Martial Arts: I Have a Wilderness World-Chapter 51: Do You Two Want to Kill Me?
The sudden commotion startled everyone in the main hall.
Mrs. Zhou of the Cheng Family and the two other women ran in from the kitchen, their faces filled with panic.
Cheng Zongyang ignored them and continued applying the medicine. Then, he said to his two uncles:
"Eldest Uncle, Youngest Uncle, help my father sit up."
"Alright!"
The two brothers immediately went to help, ignoring the continuous banging on the main gate outside.
After applying the ointment, Cheng Zongyang carefully wrapped the wound with hemostatic bandages.
BANG!
Suddenly, the main gate was kicked open. The already old wooden door collapsed instantly, throwing up a cloud of dust.
"What do you think you’re doing?!"
Zhou Hansong had his brother support their brother-in-law, then grabbed a nearby Firewood Knife and ran out, tensely blocking the entrance to the main hall.
However, the intruders weren’t the vagrants, but a dozen or so Jin clansmen led by the brothers Jin Detai and Jin Deshui.
All of them were covered in blood and filth, their faces contorted with savagery.
However, right behind them were Li Ming and Li Dashan, along with people from their two clans.
They followed them into the courtyard, stopping before Jin Detai and his men with unfriendly expressions and demanding:
"Jin Detai, Jin Deshui! What do you think you’re doing?!"
Jin Deshui pointed at Li Ming and Chen Dashan and roared, "Get out of the way! This is none of your business!
"That little bastard could have run off on his own! What right did he have to order a full retreat and get so many of our clansmen killed!"
Li Ming laughed in fury. "So we shouldn’t have retreated? Should we have just let our people throw their lives away for nothing? If you hadn’t suddenly started screaming for blood, those vagrants would have already fled. They wouldn’t have launched a last-ditch counterattack. We haven’t even settled that score with you yet!"
"We can settle scores later!" Jin Detai shot back at Li Ming, completely unintimidated.
With that, he roared toward the main hall at Cheng Zongyang’s family, "You little bastard, get your ass out here! Or I’ll tear your house down!"
"What’s all the shouting for!" Zhou Hansong, now furious himself, sneered. "The vagrants killed your people, so why don’t you go after them? Are you just here to wail about it?"
Inside the main hall, after tying a final slipknot in the bandage around his father’s waist, Cheng Zongyang turned to his anxious mother and said:
"Mother, let Father rest. When he wakes up, give him some brown sugar water to drink."
Mrs. Zhou of the Cheng Family nodded and hurried to her husband’s side, her eyes welling with tears as she watched over him.
Cheng Zongyang then picked up the Long Saber he had tossed aside. He went into his room and quickly retrieved his Ironwood Bow and Arrow from the Wilderness World, slinging them over his back before walking out into the courtyard with a grim expression.
He turned to his eldest uncle. "Eldest Uncle, could I trouble you and Youngest Uncle to carefully carry my father into the inner room so he can rest properly?"
Zhou Hansong nodded but asked with concern, "And out here?"
Cheng Zongyang smiled. "Don’t worry. I’ll handle it."
Zhou Hansong said no more and turned back into the main hall.
Cheng Zongyang walked into the courtyard and cupped his fists at Li Ming and Chen Dashan, saying,
"Thank you, Uncles, for speaking up for justice. This is a Cheng Family matter; please allow me to handle it."
But Chen Dashan immediately refused, "Absolutely not! If it weren’t for you, who knows how many of us would have died. We won’t be ungrateful cowards who abandon our conscience."
Hearing the pointed jab, Li Ming also chimed in:
"That’s right. Unlike some heartless beasts. They don’t even know who helped the village. Do they really think they could have driven off the vagrants by themselves?"
Cheng Zongyang said no more and simply walked to the front.
He faced the two brothers, Jin Detai and Jin Deshui, his expression calm but his tone frigid.
"So, you want trouble with me? Fine. Let’s take this outside. If you don’t follow, you’re sons of bitches."
With that, he pushed through the crowd and walked out.
The Jin brothers’ faces went from pale to livid with rage, and with a murderous glint in their eyes, they followed him out.
Immediately, everyone else followed them out.
The scene outside was absolutely horrific.
Countless people lay in pools of blood, and the air was filled with the wails and screams of the wounded.
They were both villagers and vagrants.
Of the sixty to seventy men who were the pillars of their families in Golden Bridge Village, fewer than thirty now remained!
In a battle that lasted less than the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, their numbers had been cut by more than half!
It was a good thing there were no Martial Artists among the vagrants; otherwise, Golden Bridge Village would have been wiped out!
Then again, Martial Artists wouldn’t normally stoop to robbing people for grain—unless they had ulterior motives.
Golden Bridge Village was already sparsely populated, and now, with so many dead, an untold number of families were shattered and plunged into despair!
Just then, having carefully moved their brother-in-law to the inner room, Zhou Hansong and Zhou Hanchang instructed their wives to watch over the children and the elderly. They then grabbed a Firewood Knife and a Hunting Fork respectively, ran out, and shut the courtyard gate behind them.
With furious expressions, they flanked their nephew, glaring daggers at Jin Detai and the others.
Cheng Zongyang looked at the two brothers, Jin Detai and Jin Deshui, and asked calmly,
"Tell me, do the two of you intend to kill me?"
This one question from Cheng Zongyang silenced Jin Detai and his men.
’Kill him?’
If Li Ming and the others weren’t present, Jin Detai truly would have killed Cheng Zongyang to vent his rage.
Cheng Zongyang’s sudden call to retreat had caused the vagrants to turn on them in a frenzy, getting another seven or eight of the Jin clansmen killed.
But with the Li and Chen clansmen siding with Cheng Zongyang, killing him was now impossible.
He was also confused. ’Since when had these two families started backing the isolated Cheng Family?’
But in a standoff like this, he couldn’t retreat, nor could he show weakness. They were outnumbered, so continuing the fight was impossible. He immediately said:
"Kill you? The Jin Family isn’t that depraved! But you acted on your own initiative, which led to the deaths of many of my Jin clansmen. My demand is not unreasonable: kneel and kowtow to us three times! Then, we’ll consider this matter settled!"
"Not. A. Chance." Cheng Zongyang bit out the three words, his face devoid of expression.
Hearing this, Jin Detai’s face darkened as he glared at Cheng Zongyang.
"So, you’re determined to throw face away, then?"
"Jin Detai, you’re a grown man bullying a boy, and you have the gall to talk about giving face when you clearly have none yourself?"
Chen Dashan sneered. After today, they no longer needed to give the Jin Family any face.
The village was already broken.
"Jin Detai, Jin Deshui, you’d better use this time to go back and treat your wounded. Who are you putting on this tough-guy act for?" Li Ming sneered.
But Jin Detai completely ignored Li Ming and Chen Dashan, his gaze fixed solely on Cheng Zongyang.
"Let’s do it."
Cheng Zongyang suddenly took a step forward and said calmly,
"From the moment you came to my house and kicked in my door, you came with hatred.
"I don’t know the source of your hatred for my family.
"But that’s not important. I am certain that you will never let go of the resentment in your hearts. You aren’t making a move right now only because these two Uncles are here.
"But since the seed of hatred has been sown, action will inevitably follow.
"If you can’t do it today, you’ll do it in the future. Even if I kowtowed, it wouldn’t dispel your hatred; you would only continue to find ways to destroy my entire family.
"Therefore, I will not kowtow, and you will not let go of the hatred in your hearts."
"Night is falling, and we’re out of time. I’ll give you two choices. One: you kill me. Two: I kill you!"
