Chapter 2: Laoying Village

On the vast Star Continent, there are hundreds of large and small kingdoms.

The Yunlei Empire is a remote area located in the northwest corner of the continent, but it is a small country with a long history, covering more than two million square kilometers of land under its jurisdiction.

Laoying Village belongs to the Yunlei Empire, on the southwestern edge of the empire. The village is also located around the Ziheng Mountains, one of the nine major mountain ranges on the mainland, at the foot of Qingfeng Mountain, with the huge Fengling Lake to the southeast.

Laoying Village is surrounded by mountains and lakes, and the village is surrounded by a simple retaining wall built in a rectangle to prevent harassment and invasion by wild beasts in the mountains. The retaining wall is constructed of rammed earth stone layer five meters high and four meters wide above the ground. The top of the rammed earth stone layer is connected and fixed by thick logs with a diameter of 1 meter, and the perimeter of the retaining wall is enclosed. On the four sides of the earthen wall, there are wooden watchtowers with a height of 3 meters, and one person is on duty in each watchtower.

Over the years, the outer walls were covered with ringworm and long vines, covering the paw prints and battle marks on the walls. The long vine silk hangs down, the breeze blows slowly, and the two vertical and upright ginkgo trees on the left and right at the south entrance of the village are more than 3 meters in diameter at breast height and more than 20 meters high, and the leaves move with the wind. Under the trees stand rows of four-meter-high stone monuments, which are inscribed with lines of names, each with a concise or two specific descriptions underneath each name.

On the first stele, a brief introduction to Laoying Village is engraved.

Laoying Village, long ago, was built by a group of veterans of the empire who gathered here and reclaimed it. After that, veterans continued to come to the city, and gradually intermarried with the locals, and slowly developed over time. Laoying Village inherits the style of soldiers, and in both life and other aspects, it has trained many generals for the empire based on the standard requirements and considerations of the troops.

The other steles are full of people and deeds that have fought for the empire and made outstanding contributions.

There are nearly 1,000 households in the village, the houses are built by the north wall, built in rows, sitting in the north and facing south, scattered, generous, each household has a 1 meter high in front of the door, a fence built by stones, forming a small courtyard courtyard, there are fruit trees, small vegetable gardens, stone tables and stone chairs in the courtyard. In front of the courtyard is a path, paved with stone strips and gravel, about five meters wide.

In the village, there is an open field in the south, which is usually used for various activities in the village, which is a place for children to play and a place for adults to practice martial arts. The village is surrounded by fertile fields cultivated by the villagers, where various grains are grown, and various fruit trees are transplanted and planted in the mountains. In the off-season, the village will organize a men's hunting group, or go into the mountains to hunt, or go to the lake to fish; Most of the time, women spend their time planting mulberry and silkworms, weaving cloth, and making clothes for their families.

The head of the martial arts sect in the village is leading a group of half-grown children in the village square to teach them the most basic fitness and strengthening techniques.

"Wang Qiang, keep your arms level and your waist straight", the head of the sect gently patted Wang Qiang's waist with a bamboo stick while talking about the essentials of the movement.

The head of the sect shouted: "Continue", and the children neatly punched their left fists and shouted in unison: "Ha"...

In a corner of the square, the old village chief sat on the ground, preparing to tell the children around him the stories that had been circulating on the mainland.

The village chief kindly stroked the hair of a child next to him, and said happily to a group of children: "What story do you want to hear today?" ”

A slightly older girl with two ponytails and pigtails hurriedly stood up and said loudly to the village chief: "Grandpa the village chief, grandpa the village chief, we all want to hear from you the mythical story of Emperor Zhantian."

The village chief asked the other children with a smile and said, "I've talked about it many times, do you still want to hear it?" ”

The children replied one after another: "I want to hear... Think..."

"Okay, I have a lot of time today, so I'll give it to you from the beginning, sort it out, and talk about it well," the village chief smiled.

"You see, above our heads right now, there are all kinds of small floating islands, large and small, and there are two huge islands in particular, right?

"Yes, Grandpa the Village Chief," one child replied.

"In ancient times, these suspended islands were connected to our continent to form a supercontinent called the Azure Continent. There are many different races of creatures, living on the Azure Continent, there are elves, demons, demons, dragons, Chenyuan beasts, sea tribes and many other races. Of course, there were also our human race, and at that time, among the human race, there were also giant races, dwarf races, force races, blood races, dragon races, etc., many magical human races."

"Grandpa the village chief, do the dragons all have a pair of dragon horns," asked the little boy next to the village chief.

The village chief smiled: "Hahaha, not only do they have dragon horns, they all have pointed nails on their hands", and stretched out his hands to grab the little boy who asked the question, and the frightened little boy hurriedly ran behind another child to hide.

The village chief continued: "Among these beings, many powerful cultivators were born, as we just said, in addition to the Emperor of the Battle Heaven, there are also a number of strong people such as the Law God Emperor, the Sword Immortal Emperor, the Martial Emperor, the Demon Emperor, the Demon Emperor, the Soul Emperor, the Dragon Emperor and the Phoenix Emperor. These emperors and cultivators led their respective races and tribes to live happily in this land. But the good times didn't last long, and there was a group of supreme beings outside the continent, leading their alien races to invade our Azure Continent. Those alien creatures are different from the races on our continent. Their bodies are completely different from ours, and if we Terrans are made of water, then they must be made of another material."

A child asked, "Grandpa the village chief, how did they come to our mainland?" ”

"The boats that come by boat are like the boats in our lake, but their boats can fly," the village chief replied.

Another child asked, "Grandpa the village chief, my father said that their alien race is made of fine iron, right?" ”

The village chief said, "Probably, one of them is like a race made of iron. After being broken, it can also be actively fused together; There is also a memorable one, that is, a large lump, irregularly like a disc-shaped ball of meat, our ancestors of human beings said that they exude a pungent odor, and after killing, they will corrode the surrounding flowers and trees, and will not disperse for a long time."

A little boy said loudly to the other children, "My father said that this kind of meat ball must be made of sulfur stone, and it will be highly poisonous."

The village chief continued: "These are just some ordinary alien creatures, just like the Chenyuan beasts on our continent, but those strongest people in the alien race are different."

"They can manipulate all kinds of energy between heaven and earth, move mountains and reclaim seas, go up to heaven and earth, and do anything. As soon as their fleet entered our Azure Continent, they cut through the center of the continent and absorbed the energy from the depths of the continent. In the end, under the leadership of the Emperor of War, the living beings of the entire continent worked together, and even the Chenyuan beasts on the continent, which had been living in the depths of the mountains, took the initiative to participate in this battle and jointly resist the strongest beings from outside the continent, but the battle at that time was extremely tragic, and many races were completely wiped out, and now it has become a legend."

"The final result, under the leadership of Emperor Zhan Tian and a group of strong men, defeated the invaders. But our blue continent has been devastated, and the continent has been shattered and disintegrated. Thanks to the efforts of all the powerhouses in our continent to repair it, it has become what it is now, and each broken continent is scattered everywhere like a suspended island."

A little girl said worriedly to the village chief, "Grandpa the village chief, will those invaders come again?" ”

The village chief said: "It shouldn't come again, they were defeated by the Emperor of War."

Worried, the little girl continued, "Were they really defeated?" What if I come back? ”

A child said loudly: "When you grow up, you must cultivate hard, and I will protect you."

The village chief was amused by his serious expression and laughed, "Hahaha... How can there be so many whatevers", the old village chief smiled happily on the surface, but deep down he kept asking: "They won't come again?" Are they really not coming back? Who can give the answer that really gets".

The child asked again, "Grandpa the village chief, where did the Emperor Zhantian go?" ”

The village chief came back to his senses and said, "On the suspended continent farthest from us, he has been silently guarding us." Whenever a child asks this question, the village chief will guess that maybe they are still fighting with aliens outside the land in the distant starry sky!

"Bell... Clang... "The bronze warning bell on the northern watchtower was struck, and the sound was rapid and long.

The village chief hurriedly got up and said loudly to the children around him: "Children, go home first, I'll go see what's going on?"

Someone trotted all the way, and after a few jumps, he came to the village chief and said: "Village chief, on the edge of the fertile fields in the north, a large number of pig badger beasts have appeared, and there are nearly two hundred of them, and it is estimated that the grain in the field is being eaten and destroyed by them."

The village chief walked all the way to the northern guard tower and asked, "What is the strength of the leading pig badger beast?" ”

The person who came replied, "Visually inspect the eighth-order realm of refining the body."

The village chief said: "It's almost the same as I judged, Qingfeng Mountain belongs to the edge of the Ziheng Mountain Range, and generally there will be no high-level Chenyuan beasts, like these low-level pig badger beasts generally don't dare to come, only the leading pig badger beasts have reached the late stage of the day after tomorrow, they dare to do so."

The village chief continued: "Lu Qin, you go and inform Wan Ming and Cai Kunyu in the village who are in the Qi refining period, I will go to the North Sentry Tower first to see the specific situation, and everyone will gather there."

"Okay, you slow down, I'll go and inform right away", Lu Qin then changed direction and trotted away.

In the corner of the village square, an old man with a broken leg and an eight-year-old child, still basking in the sun, leisurely played black and white backgammon.

The old man slowly spoke: "Mu Qing, it seems that this time, you kid has to do it again", black hair, bundles raised high, tied tightly by wooden hairpins, handsome face slowly raised, looked at the old man, and asked: "Grandpa Feng, why is it me again, isn't there Wan Ming and Cai Kunyu."

"They have already been predicted by others, and this time, I'm afraid it's not as simple as before. Since you decided to make a move the first time, you can't help it, you have to fill the hole in the back", the old man sighed.

Mu Qing said slightly angrily: "I also happened to pass by, counting this time, it is the third time, who is behind the layout, bent on killing the village chief's grandfather?" ”

The old man smiled: "Guess what? After thinking for a while, Mu Qing said, "Could it be Qian Qiong, if I go, he can also be the village head?" Take 10,000 steps back, even if you become the village head, what can you do? Without noble character and prestige for the well-being of the villagers, who will obey him? ”

Feng Lao nodded, "You can teach your son, but don't take the village chief or be a cadre." Although the village chief and thousands of people are at the bottom of the society, the head of a village can manage the food, drink and Lazar of hundreds of people. Tell me why you guessed it was Qian Qiong and not someone else."

"Qian Qiong quarreled with the village chief last time in order to be a teacher in the village. He also said that in the Ziheng Mountains, there is a big brother of a hunting group, who is strong, and who in the village wants to harm the village chief's grandfather except him", Mu Qing replied.

Feng Lao said: "I remember I once told you that everything in the world is for profit, but it is obvious that the person who benefits the most from this matter is not Qian Qiong."

"Who could that be?" Mu Qing asked.

"Whoever has the ability to take over as the village chief is," Feng Lao looked at Mu Qing and said.

Mu Qing whispered: "There are only three people who can be qualified as the village chief. Among them, Qian Qiong's friendship with Grandpa Hu Degang is him, is it him? ”

Feng Lao smiled and said, "Don't be fooling around here, hurry up and go home and get the steel gun I gave you, and fight those beasts first." In the future, the soldiers will block it, and the water will cover it, and there will always be a way."

"Okay" Mu Qing trotted and dodged away.

Back in the front yard of his house, Mu Qing shouted: "Mother, little sister, I'm back", at this time, a five-year-old girl ran out of the house, hugged Mu Qing, and said: "Brother, you want to play with me."

Mu Qing took Mu Jie's little hand and said, "Isn't my mother at home?" ”。

Mu Jie said: "My mother is in the small vegetable garden behind the house."

Mu Qing squatted down, looked at Mu Jie's eyes, his fingers bent slightly, gently crossed the bridge of her delicate and small nose, and said, "Good, go to find your mother, just say that my brother is going to go out of the village and come back later."

Mu Jie ran to the back of the house, shouting non-stop: "Mother... Mother..."

Mu Qing got up and went into the house, and took out a silver steel gun, the head of which was wrapped in a holster sewn from animal skin. He then left the front yard and strode out of the village.