NINE STAR HEGEMON BODY ARTS

Long Chen slowly opened his eyes. He didn't know how much time had pa.s.sed, but seeing the light caused him to sigh in relief. He was still alive.

He realized he was lying on a simple bed. Although the bed was made from coa.r.s.e wood, the bedsheets had been arranged very carefully for him and even had a faint fresh scent.

He was in a wooden room. The walls had a couple animal hides, bows, arrows, and spears on them. Not far from his bed was a small stove that was releasing warmth. The smell of freshly cooked rice floated out of it.

With a creaking sound, the door was opened. A maiden wearing a simple dress walked in.

That woman appeared around sixteen years old. She was slender and tall. Her arms and legs were both bare, and her skin gave off a healthy glow.

She wore her hair in a medium length ponytail. She wasn't overly beautiful, but her bright eyes gave off an extremely friendly feeling.

That woman first put down her backsack before hastily opening the iron cooking pot atop the stove.

That young lady let out a relieved sigh when she looked at the food inside. "Ah, close. I almost burnt it," she muttered to herself.

But she suddenly sensed something was a bit off and slowly turned to see that Long Chen was looking at her in confusion.

"Ah, you've awoken! Great!"

She quickly happily ran over to Long Chen and hugged him excitedly.

"Cough… miss, isn't this a bit unsuitable?"

Being hugged by a young lady, he could feel her chest against his as well as smell a fresh and energetic scent from her.

But being hugged by a stranger truly did cause him to feel uncomfortable and awkward.

"What's unsuitable about it? I pulled you back here, so now you're my man. That's the rule of our village, so who would dare criticize?" That maiden was still hugging onto Long Chen completely untimid, acting as if everything was as it should be.

"You? ...pulled me back?" Long Chen was startled. His last memory was of the Cliff Leopard. He hadn't seen this maiden before.

Seeing his confusion, the maiden released him and said, "That day when you fought with the Magical Beast, at the last moment I shot it with my arrow. Frankly speaking, your life was saved by me. In the future you'll be my man and so your task in the future will be to go hunting and make babies with me."

Looking at her serious expression, Long Chen's expression became extremely odd. Hunting? And making babies?

When she saw that Long Chen was still as puzzled as ever, she began to explain what had happened that day.

That woman was a huntress of the village. The village people all relied on hunting to survive. Other than some essential metal tools that they had to get from a distant place outside the mountains, they were completely self-sufficient here.

There weren't any true experts in their village. The majority of them were only at Qi Condensation. According to the maiden, their ancestors had escaped to this place in order to avoid the flames of war. They gradually became accustomed to living here, and now hundreds of years had pa.s.sed.

The main food in the village was meat. They survived by relying on hunting and gathering. But their best targets were wild beasts.

As for the larger Magical Beasts, they had to treat them extremely carefully. If they wanted to handle a powerful Magical Beast, they required the entire village to partic.i.p.ate.

This time they had noticed that there was a Cliff Leopard in the vicinities a while back. After a bit of investigation and after getting the approval of the village chief, they decided to kill this Cliff Leopard.

Although killing Magical Beasts was extremely dangerous, the benefits were also accordingly great. The core of a first rank Magical Beast was enough for the entire village to live off of for half a year if exchanged for goods.

In order to handle this Cliff Leopard, they had prepared for over a month. They had refined enough poisons to apply on their weapons and also stealthily set up many traps. They were prepared to ambush it.

But just as they were about to take action against it today, they watched dumbstruck as a youngster walked over to its territory.

That woman had been hiding in secret along with many other hunters. She hadn't dared warn Long Chen. That would have alarmed the Cliff Leopard and ruined all the plans their village had spent over a month preparing.

The result of failure was extremely severe. Many of their lives would be the price. That was why they had only watched stupefied as Long Chen was ambushed.

Originally they had all been feeling guilty about that. They could only hope that the Cliff Leopard would soon enter one of their traps so that they could take their revenge for Long Chen.

But the scene that played after that caused all of them to be astonished. Long Chen's sword almost killed the incomparably vicious Cliff Leopard in one blow.

They then realized that Long Chen had actually been wounded severely beforehand. The sword left his hands but he was still able to fight without a weapon, exchanging several blows that sent the Cliff Leopard flying.

At last they saw that Long Chen was unable to support himself anymore. She had been unable to bear it any further and shot out an arrow at the Cliff Leopard, killing it.

But when she said that she had killed it with one arrow and saved Long Chen, she was actually somewhat embarra.s.sed.

Her archery skills weren't actually so great. In a moment of desperation, she had shot without even thinking that much. But in the end, her arrow which had been aiming for the Cliff Leopard's mouth actually went straight through its forehead.

That was coincidentally the same place that Long Chen had hit it with his sword. His slash had already caused the Cliff Leopard's skull to crack, so her arrow had managed to coincidentally pierce through that crack, killing it.

When everyone had rushed forward to check out her attack, they couldn't help taking a cold breath. If it weren't for that luck, then the villagers which had angered a Magical Beast would definitely lose many lives.

An injured Magical Beast was the most frightening. They would become crazy because of their fear and do their best to attack.

"Many thanks." Only then did Long Chen finally learn what had happened. He respectfully cupped his hands at her.

"You'll be my man in the future, so there's no need for that." She giggled and supported Long Chen at the shoulders. "Before, I would send prayers to the forest divinity everyday in hopes of him bestowing me a powerful man who would go hunting and make babies with me. Heehee, the forest divinity has finally heard my prayers and sent you to me."

She was completely infatuated with him. Looking at his heroic and handsome appearance, she was extremely satisfied.

"Cough, miss…"

"Call me Xiao Hua."

"Uh, miss Xiao Hua, as for the matter of a man, let's discuss that later. Can you tell me just how my wounds were healed?" asked Long Chen. That was because he had noticed his miraculously recovered completely. But according to Xiao Hua, this was only the third day after encountering the Cliff Leopard.

Without eating a single medicinal pill, not only had he miraculously healed in just a short three days, but even his body's cracked meridians had completely recovered. That greatly startled.

"The forest divinity helped heal you," replied Xiao Hua.

"Forest divinity?" Did this world really hold divinities?

"That's too many questions for right now. Let's eat first."

Xiao Hua cut off Long Chen's questioning and brough the large pot from the stove outside.

Long Chen didn't want to fake being injured, so he hastily went to help. He found that the large pot was filled with merely thin porridge.

Only after carrying the pot outside the wooden house did Long Chen realize this was a village built against the side of a mountain.

Thick fences made of thistles and thorns ten meters high surrounded the village. Those thistles and thorns were a very poisonous plant. Most wild beasts would generally avoid them.

Within the village were dozens of simple wooden houses. After Xiao Hua's call, all of them walked over to her house. There were a dozen children and five or six seniors.

But the majority were all youths or adults in their prime. Since they survived through hunting, it would be extremely dangerous if their physical strength lagged behind. A single person's carelessness could lead to a loss of life.

That was why the majority of the people in the village were all in the prime of their lives. That was due to a natural elimination over time. Life was simply heartless.

A healthy old man walked up to Long Chen and nodded. "Excellent. A person capable of fighting against a Magical Beast on his own."

Long Chen swept his senses out and found that this senior was a Blood Condensation expert. However, he was only at the early stage.

If Long Chen's guess wasn't wrong, that old man should have only managed to enter Blood Condensation very late in his years. His Blood Qi had already started to decline. Despite stepping into Blood Condensation, his combat ability probably hadn't increased by much at all.

"Senior flatters me." Long Chen bowed slightly.

"I don't dare be called senior by you. Even in my prime, I was unable to compare to." That old man was filled with admiration for Long Chen.

"Grandpa, hurry up and eat!"

Xiao Hua had already split up the porridge for everyone. She brought two bowls for Long Chen and the old man.

"Let me introduce you two. This is my grandpa, the village chief. Oh right, I still don't know your name," suddenly asked Xiao Hua.

"Thanks. My name is Long Chen." Long Chen laughingly received his bowl of porridge.

Everyone from the village, young and old, male or female, now came over to welcome Long Chen. He had to hastily put down his bowl to greet them all.

They had saved his life. That favor had to be remembered. This people were all very simple and sincere people. Their etiquettes were a bit strange to him, but the friendly warmth in their eyes already said everything to him.

There were over a hundred people in the village. There were only thirty females in the village, and Xiao Hua was the only young maiden amongst them. The rest were all still babies.

"Big brother, I heard you're really strong! Did you really send a giant leopard flying with a single punch?"

A small child that didn't even reach his knee hugged Long Chen's leg. He looked at Long Chen with wors.h.i.+p.

"Of course it's true. My dad told me big brother is a true warrior. Once he's with big sis Hua, their babies will be the strongest fighters in our village!" Long Chen didn't even know how to respond before another child scrambled over.

That child then looked at Long Chen eagerly. "Big brother, when are you going to let our village's strongest fighters be born?"

Long Chen's expression stiffened and the surrounding people all laughed heartily. Even Xiao Hua laughed, making Long Chen feel more embarra.s.sment.

He quickly changed the topic, "Didn't you guys kill the Magical Beast? Why aren't you eating its meat?"

As soon as he said, the joyous atmosphere immediately became strange. They were all looking at their village chief.