Having said it all in one breath, Yang Bairao was still hauled outside by Lü Tian and Lü Di.
Just as they stepped out of the house, the voice of the village chief and the voice of Lü Ba rang out almost simultaneously:
"Wait!"
"Chief, keep him!"
Lü Ba’s voice was loud and clear. He had already reached the door, carrying a mix of anxiety and excitement.
"Let him enter."
Lü Tian and Lü Di, who had just stopped, dragged Yang Bairao back in.
They hoisted Yang Bairao like a captured animal, pinning his legs so he refused to touch the ground, perversely wanting to make the two men do a bit more heavy lifting.
With their strong arm strength, the two men didn't mind. They set Yang Bairao down, and the others gathered once again on either side of the village chief.
"Lü Ba, you tell it."
The village chief temporarily ignored Yang Bairao and asked Lü Ba to explain where they had gone wrong in their previous major battles against the bandits.
Standing in place, Lü Ba spoke in a low, resonant voice. With his thick beard, he glared with wide eyes as he recounted the events sentence by sentence.
Watching him, Yang Bairao couldn't help worrying that Lü Ba might suddenly blurt out, "Me too."
"Everyone, I, Lü Ba, have led our men into battle against the bandits many times, and every time we have suffered a crushing defeat and fled."
"In these recent encounters, many of our men in Lü Village have died. It is not because the strength of Lü Village is lacking, but entirely because the weapons in the hands of those bandits are completely different from ours."
"Our people use stone tools, grass whips, or wooden sticks. All along, our people have possessed great strength, and when driving beasts across the grassland, we have never tasted defeat."
"Until half a year ago, a band of bandits came to the grassland. This group has been burning, killing, looting, and committing every imaginable crime within our village's territory. Whenever they encounter a settlement, it always runs red with blood."
"As the guardians of the grassland, the heavy responsibility of driving out these bandits naturally falls upon Lü Village, upon us members of the Beast-Taming Team."
"Those bandits are actually not much different from us in martial prowess, but the trouble is that their weapons are far superior to ours."
"Not only are their weapons sharp, but they are also incomparably hard. Our stone knives and grass whips simply cannot compare. You can understand how painful this is just by looking at the injuries on our bodies."
With that, Lü Ba unwrapped the hemp cloth bound around his wounds, revealing a shocking gash. Although the bleeding had stopped, the flesh around the scabbed area was turned outward and slightly swollen.
Lü Yi and the others gasped upon seeing it.
It wasn't out of fear, but rather because looking at Lü Ba’s wounds, they imagined that if such injuries were on their own bodies, they would have long since been howling in agony.
"This Lü Ba is quite a man."
Looking at Lü Ba’s wounds, Yang Bairao thought that if he were to suffer such an injury, the pain would surely drive him half to death.
If anyone dared to give him even a tiny wound like that, he would sue them until they went bankrupt.
Lü Ba continued recounting the bloodshed and thrills of the battles, and then explained how they managed to escape by relying on the familiar terrain of the grassland.
Only after Lü Ba finished speaking did the village chief look at Yang Bairao and ask, "Well? Do you have a solution?"
A cold glare flashed in the chief's eyes. This chill was clearly directed at the band of bandits, not Yang Bairao.
Yet to Yang Bairao, it felt as though it were aimed right at him. That cold gaze carried an astonishing murderous intent, as if the chief would definitely strike and execute him on the spot should he utter an unsatisfactory answer.
"Naturally, I have a solution. We just need to forge weapons identical to the bandits', but you must agree to one condition."
Holding a winning hand, Yang Bairao was not afraid to meet the chief's gaze.
He knew the chief would prioritize the survival of the village; as long as he could help them turn the tide of battle, the chief would certainly not harm him. Making a demand was simply part of his plan.
"What condition?"
The village chief was a decisive man. As the head of a settlement, every choice he made was directed toward what benefited the village.
"I want the village chief to teach me how to cultivate!"
Although Yang Bairao was brimming with confidence about helping the village, he worried that the chief might jealously guard his secrets and prefer to abandon the village rather than pass down cultivation methods to an outsider. After all, why had no one in either the village or the settlements ever mentioned anything about cultivation?
If cultivation were common knowledge and passed down by everyone, naturally many people would know about it.
Feeling a bit insecure inside, he had already prepared countless strategies to help the village grow stronger. If the chief refused the first time, he would simply offer a second way to improve the village, then a third, until the chief agreed.
"Very well."
The chief had expected Yang Bairao to offer some far-fetched reason, never imagining he would make such a simple request.
It was so simple that the moment Yang Bairao joined the Beast-Taming Team, he would immediately be rewarded with the cultivation methods required for its members.
"Huh?"
Yang Bairao had already prepared numerous arguments in his mind, even mapping out titles for them, but the chief's reply—so nonchalant it felt like a relief—suddenly made him wonder if his condition was wrong after all.
"He's not going to throw some Evil-Warding Sword Manual at me to screw me over, is he?"
Yang Bairao’s stomach tightened in disbelief. He glanced at the people around him, but they all looked normal, lacking the sly demeanor of accomplices plotting with the chief to trick someone.
"As long as we can forge the weapons as soon as possible, you may also request manpower. You have the final say in everything."
Seeing Yang Bairao’s half-believing look, the chief also harbored some doubts, fearing that Yang Bairao was all talk and no substance. He decided to use this opportunity to assign people to keep an eye on him.
"Relax, relax. Forging weapons is a piece of cake. We can arrange for people to get started tonight."
Yang Bairao put his hands on his hips, looking quite full of himself.
Forging weapons might not be as effortless in reality as it was on his tongue, but he felt that at last, he wouldn't have to carry bricks and make test samples anymore, and he could even lead his own subordinates and form his own crew.
"Call me the Head of the Blacksmith Team from now on."
Yang Bairao was supremely happy. What made him happy wasn't just changing jobs, but the anticipation that the long-sought-after cultivation method was finally within his grasp.
When night fell, things did not proceed with immediate forging as Yang Bairao had claimed.
After casually getting through a meal, Lü Neng called out to Yang Bairao—who was busy scrolling through photos on his phone—from outside the doorless thatched hut.
Although there had been no continuous source of hydro-power recently, whenever he rode the flat-beaked beast alone, the wind blowing against him could turn a wind turbine connected to a charger, successfully completing a power generation project that required no human labor.
"Brother Bairao, are you asleep?"
Lü Neng’s voice drifted in. Yang Bairao hurriedly put away his phone, sat right up from the pile of straw, and walked out.
"What is it? Staying up so late—I have zero interest in having a heart-to-heart with another man!"
Yang Bairao looked at Lü Neng with a scrutinizing gaze. Lü Neng was holding a thin book with pages that were already yellowed and slightly damaged at the corners.
"Can a heart-to-heart keep out the cold?"
Lü Neng roughly grasped Yang Bairao's meaning and retorted.
"Disgusting!"
Yang Bairao deliberately put on a shudder of disgust.
"If there's nothing else, I'm going to bed. I have an early shift tomorrow, you know."
Lü Neng reached out and handed over the yellowed booklet:
"The chief was afraid you wouldn't believe it, so he brought out the original copy treasured by the village. Just remember to return it after you finish reading."
"Aren't you afraid I'm a fraud and will run away with it?"
Yang Bairao took the booklet, suppressing the excitement in his heart.
"Anyone who comes to our village is won over by the chief's spirit; you won't run. But if you really are a fraud, you won't survive on this grassland. Those bandits kill everyone they see; without relying on our village, you won't last long."
Lü Neng smiled, shook his head, and left, deliberately putting on a relaxed air. Deep down, however, he harbored worries about the village's future.
If Yang Bairao truly turned out to be a fraud and could not help the village's Beast-Taming Team, the chief's presence meant the village wouldn't necessarily perish, but the loss of many companions was a certainty.
Watching Lü Neng depart, Yang Bairao hurriedly turned and went back into the house.
Turning on his phone's flashlight, he carefully opened the pages. The inner excitement made his hands tremble uncontrollably.