Chapter One: Blessings and Disasters

  In the late afternoon, the setting sun hung low in the sky, dyeing the limited clouds with a bright orange-red color. The sunlight shone on the earth, and the trees on the continuous mountains were also dyed, piece by piece. If you looked closely, you could occasionally see a few wisps of twisted air slowly rising, looking exceptionally scorching hot.

  Although it was already four or five o'clock, the sky was still bright due to the scorching summer weather, and there was clearly a while before nightfall. Among the mountains were scattered several rough houses, some of which were clustered together, forming a small village. Most of the houses in the village were surrounded by bamboo fences, with smoke rising from their chimneys, indicating that people were preparing to cook dinner. Under the shade of several tall trees, a group of idle old men were busily fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans, with towels draped around their necks, chatting idly, creating a peaceful and serene scene.

  Suddenly, a black shadow flashed from under the tree, and upon closer inspection, it was a large black dog with a plump rabbit in its mouth, running non-stop.

  "Halt! You wretched dog! Thief of my rabbit! Don't run! Hoot hoot~~ If you have the guts, don't come home tonight! Stop right there!!" A youth in the midst of puberty shouted loudly as he quickly ran forward. The boy was dressed simply, wearing a pair of tattered shoes, with an old-fashioned hunting rifle slung over his shoulder, which had some uneven spots and was clearly quite old. Two brightly colored pheasants and a snake as thick as a baby's arm hung from the gun.

  The young man was very fast, and although he had a lot of things on him, judging from the dust flying up behind his feet as he ran, this speed could at least run under 11 seconds, which was quite astonishing.

  "Hey, Xiao Wu! Today's harvest is not bad, and you even caught a snakehead fish! How about it? Tonight, bring the mountain chicken and that snake to my place, and we'll have a good drink together, just the two of us!" said a middle-aged man with a pointed chin and a mole on his chin, from which a few hairs were swaying in the wind.

  "Li Dama! You also want to eat my stuff?! I'm afraid you'll choke to death!" The young man shouted while running.

  "Hey! You little turtle egg! I kindly invited you to my home for a drink, and not only did you decline, but you also dare to talk back to me?!...!" Just as he was about to unleash some harsh words, it seemed like he remembered something, and touched a scar on his forehead, changing his tone to say, "You little brat, remember this: the thing on my chin isn't a mole, it's a birthmark!!" As soon as he finished speaking, the surrounding crowd burst into teasing laughter.

  But the young man obviously had no interest in arguing with him, and after a moment, his running figure had already disappeared from everyone's line of sight.

  This young man is called Wu Yeyu, an orphan who was picked up by Old Wu Tou when he went to the countryside to sell hunting goods. He had nothing on him that could prove his identity, so he followed Old Wu's surname Wu and was named after being picked up at night in the rain.

  Old Wu was a number one figure in this small village, who had been a soldier when he was young and fought against the Japanese devils, with quite a few war medals in his drawer at home. He was said to be a regimental commander, which was all passed down from the mouths of several old men who had drunk with Old Wu, so it should be very credible. However, because he didn't want to fight in the civil war later on, he retired and went back home, but somehow ended up drifting to the village again, never married, and made a living by hunting. He contributed a lot to the village, as the leader of the village's hunting team, under Old Wu's leadership, people who went hunting in the mountains rarely had any accidents, which was very impressive and earned him people's love and respect.

  Let's talk about Wu Ye Yu, this kid has been a handful since he was little. No matter how many times he got knocked or bumped, he never cried or made a fuss. He was very mischievous and always running around, getting into all sorts of trouble every day. Sometimes he would fall down and scrape his knee, bleeding profusely, but he wouldn't stop, and before the wound had even scabbed over, he'd be at it again, getting hurt once more. He's really a little rascal, and almost every household in the village has been affected by him.

  He would climb trees to steal apricot flowers, dig up sweet potatoes from other people's fields, and set fire to the village's granary multiple times. I don't know how many times he got beaten by Old Wu, but he just wouldn't change his ways. Whoever saw him would get a headache. When Old Wu was still around, things were slightly better, at least there was some restraint. But after Old Wu passed away last year and left this world behind, Wu Ye Yu became even more unmanageable.

  Recently, several older rascals in the village saw that Wu Yeyu no longer had Old Wu to back him up. They colluded with each other and wanted to steal something from his home. As a result, they were severely beaten by Wu Yeyu and the wild dog he raised, chased from the west road of the village to the countryside, until the rascals were forced to kneel down and beg for mercy, slapping themselves in the mouth more than a hundred times before it was over, which is really astonishing.

  From then on, whenever several people saw Wu Yeyu, they would nod and bow their heads. If they saw him from a distance, they would take a detour to avoid him, and would never dare to provoke this person again, having been thoroughly intimidated by the beating.

  Wu Ye Yu's fighting power, apart from his innate talent, is also due to Old Wu's good training. On the battlefield, Old Wu can naturally kill several people in a row, and he has his own reliance on the family's traditional boxing techniques, which have been improved to the extreme through years of battle experience. It's a real killer punch. Additionally, he occasionally obtained a breathing and exhalation method from a Taoist priest, which greatly enhanced his physical strength, mental energy, and blood circulation.

  Wu Yeyu was mischievous since childhood, but whenever he saw Old Wu's red eyes, he would be respectful and reverent. Under his guidance, Wu Yeyu's fist techniques and breathing exercises became second nature to him, seamlessly integrated into his every move. Although still young and lacking in some areas, he could occasionally hold his own against Old Wu for dozens of moves, enough to take down a few local thugs.

  At night, when the lights were first lit up, Wu Yeru's courtyard also brightened up. Under the light, a wooden table was placed in the courtyard, with several pots of game dishes on it, obviously the wild chicken and snakehead fish caught today, steaming hot, wafting out a few strands of enticing fragrance that filled the entire courtyard.

  The courtyard was surrounded by iron thorns from the mountain, with large and lush branches emitting vigorous vitality. The root thorns on the branches were also shining brightly in the light, obviously, there were hardly anyone who would enter from here. The gate of Wu Yeru's house was made of solid wood, although not very beautiful, without a gatehouse, and there were many gaps between the wooden planks, but it was sturdy and durable.

  At this time, Wu Yeyu was standing with a cold smile on his face, his arms crossed and his chin raised high. His contemptuous eyes gleamed with a hint of triumph. "You dare to come back? Hmph! I'm going to deal with you today. I said I wouldn't let you enter my home, and now you're not allowed in. You've got some nerve! You caught a wild rabbit but didn't hand it over, instead sneaking away to eat it. Heh heh heh, you're quite bold!"

  "Woof! Woof woof!" A big black dog was standing outside the wooden door, looking pitiful as it stared back at me with its hind legs squatting on the ground, still scratching itself occasionally.

  "Hmph! Isn't it a bit late to beg for mercy now?! Honestly, if you can get past me and into the courtyard today, I'll let bygones be bygones. But if you can't... Hmph! Then just stay outside!" Wu Yeyu said, walking over to the lamp and picking up a chicken leg from the table to start eating, intentionally making loud smacking noises with his mouth.

  The black dog outside the door stood up as soon as it saw, stood upright and put its front paws on the gate, pushed hard several times, only to find that the door was already locked, unable to enter, suddenly furious.

  "Woohoo...!!!!!!"

  Wu Ye Yu ignored him and continued eating with his head down. The big black dog barked twice more, then retreated and disappeared in the blink of an eye. Wu Ye Yu got up and came to the gate, but didn't open it. This black dog he raised himself couldn't be dealt with using common sense. It was cunning and had played tricks like this before, trying to lure him out. After being tricked a few times, Wu Ye Yu had learned his lesson and refused to open the door.

  After five or six minutes, seeing that the black dog had not returned, Wu Yeyu's heart was also a bit anxious. Had it really run away?

  Just thinking about it, then only heard a dense footsteps, came, suddenly felt at ease in my heart, hum ~ indeed been guessed by me, looked up.

  Only to see the black dog rushing towards here quickly, when it rushed to the thorny wall, it suddenly jumped up, and with a brush, it actually jumped over the 167 cm high thorns and came in. After landing, it didn't stop, but directly pounced on the meat on the table.

  Wu Yeyu had just come back to his senses when he saw the black dog eating, and without considering anything else, he rushed up and started fighting with the black dog for the meat.

  Wu Ye Yu kicked the dog twice and didn't feel much anger anymore, simply tidied up a bit, and one person and one dog entered the room.

  Lying in bed, Wu Yeru picked up a comic book from the head of the bed and started reading. It was one of those obvious pirated copies, with many similar comics piled up on the bedside table. Some were bought by himself when he went to the countryside, while others were secretly stolen from other families in the village. There was no TV or computer at home, so whenever Wu Yeru felt bored at night, he would use these things to pass the time.

  The comic book in his hand was just snatched from the village chief's son yesterday, called "Knight Errant", and he hasn't finished reading it yet. As Wu Yeyu read on, he quickly became engrossed, immersing himself in it. Meanwhile, the big black dog also dragged its own quilt into the room, lay down on it and pretended to sleep, with its ears perked up, paying attention to the movements around it, while the room was quiet and still without any noise.

  Outside the atmosphere, a brilliant light flashed and flew towards the Earth, emitting flames. The speed of this light was extremely fast, unlike ordinary meteorites, which would give people some reaction time. Moreover, the satellite display instruments and radar observation equipment of various countries did not show any reaction at all.

  The beam of light plummeted towards the ground at an extremely fast speed, and its direction happened to be facing Wu Ye Yu's home. A loud rumbling sound was heard, breaking the tranquility of the mountain village. The ground shook violently, waking up everyone in the village. They were all shocked and frightened, but they didn't know what had happened. Was it an earthquake? Thunder on a clear night? Under the bright moonlight, people got up one after another to check around the village.

  Because the villagers lived relatively scattered, it wasn't until dawn that they realized something had fallen from the sky and hit Wu Yeru's house, creating a huge crater tens of meters deep and wide. Wu Yeru himself was nowhere to be found, and it seemed unlikely he would have a good outcome. The yard was completely destroyed, with nothing left behind. The crater was eerily smooth, without even a single stone. The villagers were shocked and silent, and those who had phones quickly called the police. Yesterday's lively young man was gone, leaving everyone with an unspeakable feeling.