Yang Bairao looked at the photos of the beautiful grassland scenery he had secretly taken over the past few days, wanting to post them on Moments to show off, but he found there was no signal, which prompted him to curse for a long time.
Just then, as he was about to exit the communication app he had just opened, he noticed a new message in his contacts, showing an unknown delivery time. Opening it, he saw the sender was "Dearest Miaomiao".
He was extremely excited and tapped on the message. Inside was a compressed archive file. As for what was in it, he had no idea, as it kept showing as downloading interrupted.
"The textbooks I wanted are here, hahaha. Once I thoroughly read these textbooks and recall what I've learned, conquering this little transmigration world will be an absolute breeze."
Yang Bairao wasn't in a hurry. Knowing his phone's signal came and went, he just needed to quietly wait for the download to finish. Once the files were extracted, he could flip through the textbooks in his spare time, summoning the same drive he had during the college entrance exams, and any problems here would be small matters.
"Yang Bairao, you in there?"
Lü Neng's voice came from outside. Startled, Yang Bairao quickly put away his phone, straightened up, and stood.
Lü Neng's voice arrived before his person. As soon as he stepped inside, he pulled Yang Bairao along and said, "The chieftain wants to see you."
Yang Bairao knew the real business had arrived. He had to make a great first impression on the chieftain the first time around.
As long as he could learn a few tricks from the chieftain and step onto the path of cultivation, the world would be his oyster, wide open for him to gallop across however he pleased.
Lü Neng was anxious, and Yang Bairao was excited.
Before long, they reached the council tent. Guided by Lü Neng, Yang Bairao pushed aside the curtain and walked in.
From the outside, the thatched hut looked quite large. Stepping inside, he saw that the center of the hut was supported by a massive main beam woven from numerous grass stalks, holding up the wide thatched roof.
Aside from a stool woven from thatch where a person sat at the head of the room, there was no other seating.
In front of the person in the main seat lay a tall thatched cushion, and upon the cushion sat a lidded pottery jar and a stone cup. Steam rose from the stone cup, but other than that, there was nothing else.
"Oh, wait, there are a few natives too!"
Thinking to himself, Yang Bairao noticed that the middle-aged man in the head seat was examining him closely.
"What is your name?"
The man at the head spoke in a slow, measured tone, carrying a hint of cordiality.
Yang Bairao stated his name, then turned to look at the people around him. On one side were people he recognized, while the other side consisted of scarred, fierce-looking men radiating a murderous aura.
The chieftain didn't mind Yang Bairao looking around. If Yang Bairao had walked in and done nothing at all, that would have been what seemed strange.
Those who showed curiosity were much easier to earn everyone's approval.
"This is our Lü Village chieftain."
Seeing Yang Bairao looking toward him, Lü Yi hastily made the introduction.
"I know he's the chieftain! He's sitting while you guys are standing, and they built such a huge thatched hut—could I possibly not know? Such a waste of breath!"
Yang Bairao complained inwardly.
"Do you have any special skills? Are you good at fighting or skilled in a craft?"
The chieftain asked proactively.
Yang Bairao had already learned from Lü Neng that the village did not feed idlers. Having followed the Grain-Levy Squad for a month without being abandoned, he had naturally won their approval.
Before he could even claim to be a polymath proficient in all eighteen martial arts, Lü Yi hastily chimed in from the side, "Chieftain, he is skilled at riding. If he has no other skills, he can join my Grain-Levy Squad on grain-gathering runs."
Lü Yi meant well, because if Yang Bairao lacked talent and skill, being driven out of the village was the best-case scenario. But right now, the Beast-Taming Team was clearly short-handed. If the chieftain threw Yang Bairao—who was noticeably leaner and smaller than the others—into the Beast-Taming Team, it would simply be sending him to his death.
The chieftain ignored Lü Yi's explanation, merely watching the calm and collected Yang Bairao, waiting for Yang Bairao to speak for himself.
In his heart, Yang Bairao felt confident in all eighteen martial arts, but he certainly couldn't say that out loud. If he actually claimed that and the chieftain made him spar with someone, getting beaten up and embarrassed would be a minor issue—these people didn't know him anyway—but actually getting pummeled was a major problem.
He had no desire to be a punching bag for these battle-hardened men. If he accidentally got beaten to death, tomorrow's headline on the Transmigration Web would definitely be:
"Shocking: First Transmigrator on the Web Beaten to Death for Bragging."
No way, absolutely not.
Yang Bairao quickly dismissed the thought.
"Good at riding? Good at shooting the breeze? Good at moving masonry and playing in the mud?"
In an instant, Yang Bairao thought of many possibilities. He truly knew how to do a bit of each, but that was all—just a tiny bit.
His eyes darted around. The chieftain and the others watched Yang Bairao in silence, while Lü Ba and the others were already growing angry.
They were out there risking their lives in bloody battles, yet Lü Yi had brought back a dead weight. The Beast-Taming Team, which fought tooth and nail for their lives, was expected to feed this useless piece of trash—anyone would be furious.
Yang Bairao, whose eyes kept spinning, was no fool. He suddenly remembered that after walking all through the village, he hadn't seen a single piece of iron.
Then he recalled seeing several villages utterly and tragically massacred along the way; those who were killed bore no residual weapon fragments in their bodies, clearly slain by sharp weapons.
Looking again at the injuries on Lü Ba's group and the broken, damaged stone tools they had brought back, his confidence hardened. He understood that now he had come to the village, he was bound to soar to greatness, and eventually become the second-in-command right under the chieftain.
At this thought, his imagination ran wild again: *"Little Brother Bairao, from now on, this village depends on you! Here, take this—these are my insights on cultivating Yuan Qi over the years, take it, take it!"*
*"Brother Bairao, henceforth whatever the brothers do, we'll listen to you! Here, take this military grain we gathered today."*
*"Lord Bairao, there's a gorgeous maiden in a certain village—how about the brothers go snatch her for you?"*
*"Get lost! Am I that kind of guy?"*
Yang Bairao almost drooled.
"Drag him down and send him to the Beast-Taming Team!"
The chieftain's patience was running thin.
In peaceful times, the chieftain had a very good temper. Today, for Lü Yi's sake, he had suppressed the irritation caused by the Beast-Taming Team's defeat at the hands of the bandits and granted Yang Bairao an audience.
Yet right now, seeing Yang Bairao's flippant attitude, his suppressed irritation was about to turn into rage.
"Chieftain, how about he joins our Grain-Levy Squad instead?"
Lü Yi hurriedly pleaded.
The chieftain waved a hand. "Scratch grain-gathering. From now on, he is assigned directly to the Beast-Taming Team. Half a year from now, our Lü Village will fight to the death with those bandits. Everyone go back and rest; you're all tired."
Disturbed by Yang Bairao's spacing out and annoying antics, the chieftain had made up his mind.
"Wait, wait! What about the old folks, women, and children in the village?"
Lü Yi wanted to make the chieftain change his mind.
"If the Beast-Taming Team is wiped out, Lü Village won't have any reason to exist either. At that point, they'll just have to fend for themselves and find their own way out."
The chieftain was tired, a resolute gleam in his eyes.
"Don't, hold on a second!"
Yang Bairao's daydream was forcibly interrupted by the chieftain's words, and he hurriedly explained.
Unwilling to listen, the chieftain waved his hand, signaling for Yang Bairao to be dragged away.
Sighing, Lü Yi called out to Lü Tian and Lü Di, preparing to leave with Yang Bairao in tow.
Since their Grain-Levy Squad had been absorbed into the Beast-Taming Team, any further requests made to the chieftain would be redundant.
"I haven't even told you what I can do yet! Don't drag me, don't drag me!"
Panicking as he was being hauled out of the thatched hut, Yang Bairao looked at Lü Ba's dissatisfied expression and shouted desperately, "You guys were definitely injured by iron weapons! Your weapons were slashed to pieces in one blow by the enemy, and you can't possibly win bare-handed. Their weapons—I know how to forge them!"