Cultivating for Immorality: I Evolved Martial Arts into the Immortal Path – Chapter 5

Chapter 5: A-Liang is Seriously Injured, the News Spreads

“Dead?”

“The bear is dead?”

“Master Hu is amazing!”

“……”

The villagers cheered.

That was a terrifying beast over three meters tall, and it was killed with a single palm strike!

You have to understand, Chu Liang, as a hunter, young and strong, was already one of the strongest people in the village. But yesterday, he paid such a heavy price and only managed to drive the bear away.

But Master Hu could kill a bear with one palm!

The difference between the two was simply too obvious.

“A martial artist! I also want to become a martial artist!”

Chu Liang secretly made up his mind.

Many villagers were still celebrating.

While celebrating, everyone was also a little worried.

“Another bear coming into the village, this kind of thing used to happen less than once a year. Why have two come in the past two days?”

“Luckily we have Master Hu. What would our village do without Master Hu?”

“There’s also A-Liang from the Chu family!”

“Yesterday’s bear was driven away by A-Liang.”

“Yes, Master Hu is powerful, but the Hu family has taken all our fields… A-Liang would never take our land…”

“But I heard that A-Liang is not doing well. He was seriously injured yesterday…”

“……”

The villagers were not fools. They all knew why Master Hu had intervened.

As the biggest landlord in the village, Master Hu owned almost all the good land in the entire village. Although it was nominally purchased, it was actually seized by force.

Most of the villagers were tenant farmers of Master Hu’s family.

If the villagers were all dead or seriously injured, who would work the land for Master Hu?

“Each family count your people and see if anyone is missing!”

Master Hu suddenly spoke, his voice deep and powerful.

Hearing this, the villagers hurriedly began to count their own people.

Every time a wild beast entered the village, the entire village had to be counted. This was a habit for many years, because some villagers might be dragged away by wild beasts.

Early last year, several wolves came down the mountain and entered the village. The villagers drove the wolves away and thought everything was fine. But when they counted the number of people afterwards, they found that the child of the Lin family at the entrance of the village was missing. In the end, they only found pieces of bloody clothes in the mountains.

“Zhao Hu, are all your family members here?” The steward of Master Hu’s family began to ask each one.

“Yes.”

“What about the Wang family?”

“Everyone is here, thank you for your concern, Master.”

“……”

On the other side, Chu Liang’s Second Uncle began to count the people of the Chu family.

He stood among the crowd and looked at each one.

“Fifth Uncle’s family is all here, Fourth Uncle and the others are also here, Third Uncle… Huh?”

Second Uncle made a surprised sound, noticing that only Third Aunt and a few children were at the entrance of the courtyard, but his Third Brother was nowhere to be seen.

And Third Aunt’s expression was not quite right.

Second Uncle’s heart skipped a beat. He immediately ran over and asked, “Sister-in-law, where is Third Brother? Didn’t he come out?”

“My husband, he… he…”

Third Aunt’s expression was evasive, and she stammered.

Late at night, Third Uncle told her to wait at home.

She waited for a while and fell asleep, only waking up at dawn.

When she woke up, she found that Third Uncle was not at home, and she was worried… Just then, the incident of the bear entering the village happened…

She was anxious, but she didn’t dare to go out. It was not until the bear was killed and Master Hu told each family to count their people that she dared to come out and look for someone.

“Sister-in-law, speak up!”

Second Uncle was a little anxious. He looked into the courtyard, but Third Uncle was not there.

“Where is Third Brother? Did he go out to work?”

“I… I don’t know…”

Third Aunt unconsciously looked towards Chu Liang’s small courtyard.

Last night, her husband had planned to kill Chu Liang.

But now Chu Liang was standing at the entrance of the courtyard, safe and sound, but her husband had not returned.

Could it be…

◈◈◈

Soon, the news of Third Uncle’s disappearance spread throughout the village.

◈◈◈

The village was not big. News spread quickly, and almost every villager knew about it.

“Chu Sanniu is gone?”

Chu Sanniu was Third Uncle’s name.

The names of the previous generation of the Chu family were very simple. Chu Liang’s father was called Chu Dani, Second Uncle was called Chu Erniu, and so on.

“Is he working outside?”

“If he went to work, wouldn’t his wife know?”

“But there was only one bear, and it was killed by Master Hu. Could it be… could it be that the bear that was driven away by A-Liang yesterday also came?”

“……”

Thinking of this, the villagers became a little panicked.

Yes, there was another bear!

Could Chu Sanniu have been dragged away by that bear?

At noon that day, Master Hu spoke—Chu Sanniu was a tenant farmer of the Hu family. If he was alive, they needed to see him; if he was dead, they needed to see his body.

“Master Hu said that if Chu Sanniu was dragged away by the bear, try to find his bones and clothes… If he was killed by someone, the murderer must pay with their life…”

“Master Hu also said that there is a reward for providing information.”

“……”

At noon, when Second Uncle came to cook for Chu Liang, he told him this news.

Chu Liang was lying on the bed recuperating. The medicine pot beside the bed was steaming, with bubbles gurgling inside.

“Dead, we need to see his body?”

Hearing this news, Chu Liang was stunned for a moment.

Luckily, he had disposed of the body.

Before his strength surpassed Master Hu’s, this matter could not be known to anyone.

“Yes, Master Hu has spoken, and the reward is not low,” Second Uncle sighed.

Although he didn’t like Third Brother’s harsh and selfish personality, he was still his own brother, and they had grown up together.

“A-Liang, I won’t be able to take care of you in the afternoon. I’m going out with your cousins, Fourth Uncle, and Fifth Uncle to look for your Third Uncle…”

Second Uncle paused for a moment. He ultimately couldn’t bring himself to say the word “corpse.”

Death was too heavy a subject, and he didn’t want to mention it too much in front of Chu Liang.

After all, Chu Liang still had a life-or-death hurdle to cross.

From last night until now, Chu Liang’s complexion had not improved at all. He was still pale, his face extremely haggard, and there was not a trace of life in him.

Doctor Wang from the village had come again just now, but he just shook his head and left, telling Second Uncle to prepare early—perhaps he could go find a carpenter to make a coffin.

The doctor’s words made Second Uncle’s heart even heavier.

The time came to the afternoon, and the sun was scorching.

Encouraged by Master Hu’s reward, most of the village took action, and the villagers began to search everywhere around the village.

“Sanniu, can you hear me?”

“If you can hear me, make a sound!”

“Chu Sanniu…”

Shouts of calling for him rose and fell, from one end of the village to the other.

Some bolder villagers even went into the mountains to search.

The harvest had not been good these past few years, and every household was struggling. Master Hu’s reward was enough for many villagers to risk their lives.

At this time, some villagers noticed that almost all the able-bodied men of the Chu family had come out to look for someone, but Chu Liang was nowhere to be seen.

“Huh, why isn’t Chu Liang from the Chu family out?”

“Yes, A-Liang is very good to his relatives in the Chu family. He always shares his extra prey with them.”

“His Third Uncle is missing, there’s no reason why he wouldn’t come out to look.”

“Could it be that A-Liang is really seriously injured?”

“……”

Regarding Chu Liang’s injuries, many villagers had their guesses.

After all, yesterday evening, they saw with their own eyes that Chu Liang was hit several times by that bear.

These discussions were naturally heard by Zhao Hu.

“Brother Hu, I told you, A-Liang must have been pretending this morning!” one of his followers said confidently.

Another follower also said, “Yes, yes, A-Liang is already done for. He’s useless even with that treasure bow!”

“That treasure bow should have belonged to Brother Hu. It was just that the old man was biased and gave the treasure bow and several hunting dogs to A-Liang… Now it’s perfectly justified for Brother Hu to go and take it back from A-Liang. If A-Liang dares to resist, we’ll… hehe…”

“Even if he doesn’t resist, we can find an excuse to cripple him to prevent him from taking revenge in the future…”