Genius Daddy in the City

Ye Chen and the Dragon Soul members stood next to a paddy field outside the base. It was a space that was reclaimed exclusively for the field that was approximately two acres large. According to Li Ying, the sect had reclaimed it for themselves with the main objective of being self-sufficient.

There was not only paddy fields, but orchards, vegetable farms, and even livestocks. Apart from performing their daily tasks, they would work in the field and cultivate. Those were the rules the Dragon King set.

At that moment, the paddy fields before them were filled with water. Both man and bull were busy in the field. Soon, they had plowed half of the two-acre field.

They were none other than the Dragon King and the bull.

Ye Chen watched them while feeling rather surprised. He then turned his head and asked Li Ying next to him, “So, your Dragon King has such a hobby?”

The almighty Dragon Soul’s king was behaving like a farmer, working in the fields. People might not have believed it if the news spread.

Li Ying smiled, not daring to say much.

In reality, Ye Chen was not the only one who thought so. So did the others. Take away his identity as the Dragon King, and the man in the field was really like an ordinary farmer.

Another half an hour passed, and the two-acre field was plowed. The Dragon King led the bull under a big tree and sat up with his bare feet. He took out his pipe and began smoking, seeming satisfied and relaxed.

Li Ying got everyone else to leave while she went to the canteen to get the people to cook. She even cut some grass for the bull. At that moment, two men and the bull were the only ones left.

“Do you want a puff?” The Dragon King squatted on the ground and handed the pipe to Ye Chen.

Ye Chen shook his head lightly.

The Dragon King did not mind that. He lifted his eyes to take a good look at the paddy field after taking a long puff. He said, “Amazing! This feels so good! Do you think I’m weird?”

He mumbled to himself for a bit and proceeded without waiting for Ye Chen to respond while looking at the blue sky and the water, “Don’t you think plowing a field is the greatest and most satisfying thing to do in the world? A human’s purpose of being born is to live. Besides that, we have to live a good life. Meanwhile, fields and lands are the grace that God has given us.”

He continued smoking the pipe. “To me, working in the fields and growing crops conclude China’s timespan of up to 10,000 years of human civilization. Humans are born on land, and they return to the land after death. They became soil, nourishing the next generation!

“However, there are people who are born on land and change when they possess the ability to reach the sky and their successes. They belittle the lands and lives. They think that they no longer need the lands, and think they can control nature, as well as the world.”

“Dragon King, what are you trying to say?” Ye Chen asked.

The Dragon King lifted his head slowly to look at him. The wrinkles on his face were like dry tree bark. “Don’t call me Dragon King. Call me Niu Qingshan. They call me Tyrant Niu, but I don’t like that nickname. That came about because I was born at the end of the Qing dynasty. I was a farmer’s son, and my parents were tenants of a landlord in the northwestern region.

“My future was supposed to inherit poverty, foolishness, and a life living in the doldrums. I was supposed to feed the bulls for my master, plow the fields and grow crops. I’d have married a lady who’d have been as poor as I was to pass my inheritance, and my son would’ve continued the cycle. However, everything changed.”

Perhaps he smoked a little too fast, so he only spoke after coughing hard for a few times, “The Qing Dynasty was coming to an end. A man named Sun Yat-sen directed the uprising and overthrew the Qing Dynasty. As soon as that was done, he passed the baton to Yuan Shikai who messed up the society that had once been saved!

“War began. I remember only being 16. Our lives became even harder, whereby my family sent me to an auto repair shop in the city to be an apprentice.

“My boss was very strict, and he’d always yell at me. However, I knew that he was actually kind inside. The reason being there wouldn’t be any rice in the pot every time I returned from work. My boss would call out to me and scold me before giving me a bowl of rice, and there would be two pieces of braised pork on it.”

Ye Chen said nothing as he just listened quietly.

“Just when I completed a month at the auto repair shop, a bunch of people came in and shot my boss to death!” Niu Qingshan puffed a smoke ring. “The boss’s daughter had attempted to secure them. They killed the others too. I was feeding the red pony that the boss had bought for his daughter in the backyard. The pony went berserk when the gunshots rang out. It pounded the ground, and I fell into my boss’s cellar. That was how my life was spared.

“I hid in the cellar for three days and three nights. I ate sweet potatoes that had sprouted with mold when I was hungry and drank underground water when I was thirsty. I only snuck out when I was sure it was safe. There were dead bodies everywhere. The boss was dead, and so was his daughter. Those apprentices that had bullied me were also dead!

“I’ll never forget my boss’s eyes being wide open even after death for the rest of my life. Neither will I forget the scene of the rest lying in a pool of blood. I ran out of the city like a lunatic. I no longer wanted a fortune to make money to get married. All I wanted was to go home.

“I fell severely sick as soon as I left the city. I thought I’d definitely die back then. When I woke up, I realized I was lying in an old Taoist priest’s embrace. Meanwhile, there were three kids who were younger than me before the priest. They looked at me with a numb and expressionless look on their faces.”

Niu Qingshan looked like he was reminiscing as he spoke to this point. His eyes were wet. “The old Taoist priest became my master later on while the three kids were my junior bothers. I’ll never forget the first thing my master asked when I woke up. He said, ‘You must be hungry, kid!’.

“I nodded and said I wanted meat. Master laughed and got someone to buy us pork buns with his own money. The fear in me faded significantly when Master appeared. I saw the auto repair shop’s boss’s shadow in his smile and kindness.

“That night, Master took us to a warlord’s house for a meal. The warlord was called Commander Ma, and he looked ferocious. He called my master Master Qin. It was a sumptuous banquet. My junior brothers and I did not dare to look at him or to even eat.”

Niu Qingshan flicked the tobacco bag on his shoes and took a puff. He proceeded to speak, “At the banquet, I saw the man who killed the boss of the auto repair shop. He was Commander Ma’s adjutant. I even saw the boss’s daughter, Sister Hong. I called her on the spot, but she insisted that she did not know me. I panicked, so I told them everything that happened at the auto repair shop. I even said that the adjutant was the murderer. Sister Hong cried, saying that she was not Sister Hong and that she did not know me.

“Master shoved me a chicken drumstick and asked me to keep quiet. After the meal, he took us out of the residence. Over 30 people pointed guns at us when we were on our way home. They were Commander Ma’s people, and they wanted to kill us so that the secret would die with us.

“Master asked me, ‘Are you scared, kid?’. I said I was. I was very scared! He smiled in a loving manner and said, ‘There’s no need to be scared, kid. You will no longer be scared after I’ve killed all of them’. Master attacked as soon as he said that. He grabbed a handful of sand and killed the over 30 people with just the sand!”

Ye Chen squinted a little as he listened to this point.

The Dragon King’s master must be at least a Martial Dao master to possess such an ability!