C1

At the border of the Sky Sun Empire, in Sang Mo's village —

At dusk, the village market was still bustling with noise and excitement, but today was the annual harvest. Every year, regardless of whether the harvests were good or not, the villagers would always buy meat and wine from the market to add to the food, consoling themselves with the hardships they had gone through over the past year.

On the main street, an old man about sixty years old with grey hair at his temples was leading a sixteen-seventeen year old teenager towards his home. The youth blinked his large, intelligent eyes as he looked left and right from time to time. His childish face revealed a maturity that was different from his age. On the other hand, the old man had an expression of unconcealable joy on his face. He had made a small profit today at the market. Although it was only three taels of silver, it was still equal to half a month's worth of his usual income.

"Old Lei, are the fish for sale today?" "Look how it makes you happy."

When he passed by a tavern, the fat storekeeper at the counter greeted the old man. With the blessings of a bountiful harvest, today's tavern's business was exceptionally popular. As a result, even the fat storekeeper, who usually disdained dealing with the poor, rarely became enthusiastic.

"Tofu, tofu, there's no way to compare with Boss Wang." The old man quickly returned the greeting with an expression of being overwhelmed by the unexpected favor.

At this moment, the youth behind him said, "Grandfather, you go back first. I'll make a pot of bamboo shoot wine for you."

The words of the teenager triggered the alcohol in the elder's stomach. He gulped down a few mouthfuls of saliva, but he seemed reluctant to part with it. Although it was the Harvest Festival, he was always diligent and frugal so he did not want to be too extravagant.

After thinking for a while, he took out half a tael of silver and passed it to the young man, "Half a pot is enough. Grandfather is old, drinking wine will hurt your body, and you can buy some meat for the rest of the money. We'll have more tonight."

"Alright." The youth happily agreed and quickly ran away. However, he did not enter the opposite restaurant.

"This child." The old man shook his head, a pleased smile on his face.

In order to let the old man drink half a cup more, the young man had specially bypassed the market to the tavern in the north of the village to buy wine. He had said that drinking alcohol was harmful to the body, and he would not be able to fool anyone.

The old man's surname was Lei. When he had a brother in his family, he was ranked third, and his name was Lei San. Those who knew him all called him Old Lei Tou, or Old Yu Tou, because he was a fisherman.

Old Lei's wife died early, and did not leave him any trace of her burning incense. This young man was picked up when he went fishing seventeen years ago, and when he grew up, he became known as Lei Ao. From then on, he treated him like his own grandson.

Lei Ao had been different from ordinary people since he was young. When he was three years old, he was able to teach Old Lei how to read. He could recite the whole story after that and squeezed out all the ink from Old Lei's stomach within ten days. The villagers all said that he had picked up a top scholar and returned. Every time he heard these words, Old Lei would smile, because he did not want Lei Ao to become an official.

All of them had a secret on Lei Ao, there was a purple phoenix tattooed on his back.

The phoenix was originally an auspicious beast, but there were different colors to it. The purple phoenix was a great and ominous sign. It was a legendary vicious beast. Once it was born, it would inevitably set off an era of war. Therefore, Old Lei reminded Lei Ao every three to five days. He must not let anyone discover the tattoo on his back, or there would be a disaster.

Lei Ao agreed. He did not mind Old Lei's trembling, because he understood the meaning behind the tattoo on his back. It was unknown since when his strength had become so much greater than that of an ordinary person. Even the robust middle-aged man's full strength was unable to break one of his wrists.

After living for seventeen years, he didn't even know how much strength he currently had. This was because he hadn't used his full strength since he was eight years old. One time when Old Lei's fishing boat ran aground, Lei Ao dragged the boat back by himself. He was twelve years old then, a boat weighing eight to nine hundred pounds, and he only used half of his strength.

Aside from his extraordinary strength, Lei Ao also had another characteristic in his body, which was his self-recovery ability. No matter what kind of injury he suffered, even if he had broken tendons and broken bones, even if he didn't have any treatment, his body would automatically recover in at most a night.

With regards to these two points, other than Old Lei Chen, who knew about it, Lei Ao had never mentioned it to anyone else. Old Lei did not know that every time Lei Ao used too much strength or was injured, the phoenix tattoo on his back would become hot. Lei Ao had a feeling that these two special abilities were brought to him by the purple phoenix tattoo.

Although it was called a tattoo, he was actually born with it. When Old Lei had picked him up, he was still a newborn baby. At that time, there was the picture of a phoenix on his back, but there wasn't any trace of a prick on it.

Whether it was a natural born vicious beast or a reincarnated divine beast, Old Lei could not tell. Legends were, after all, legends, and no one had ever seen a divine beast. No matter what, in these seventeen years, Lei Ao had never let Old Lei down. Even if he really was a berserk beast, Old Lei was still willing to shoulder this responsibility.

Lei Ao held half a tael of silver in his hand as he happily walked in and out of the market. In the blink of an eye, he ran from the east side of the village to the north side of the village. Like a wisp of smoke, he entered the small tavern at the village entrance.

"Second brother, give me a pot of bamboo shoot wine, let me have some jerky." Lei Ao placed half a silver on the counter and looked at a busy figure.

Due to the fact that the north side of the village was close to the main road, other than the people in the village, most of the guests were also passing by merchants. The shopkeepers here were quite fair and didn't sell alcohol for much, so regardless of whether it was the holidays or not, the business was exceptionally flourishing.

"Little Lei, I'm busy right now, why don't you sit for a while." The waiter was carrying three plates of food. Indeed, he did not have the time to greet Lei Ao.

"It's nothing, you go ahead." Lei Ao didn't mind. He often helped Old Lei get some wine, so he was very familiar with the waiter in the shop.

At this time, the shopkeeper, who was settling accounts at the counter, raised his head and laughed, "Xiaolei, you haven't been here for quite some time."

"A while ago, Uncle Zhang's aunt fell ill, so I helped her collect the wheat." Lei Ao said.

"Haha, you are so enthusiastic. "Come, I'll help you pack some wine. Today is the holidays, go back early and drink two cups with Old Lei." The shopkeeper stopped the account in his hand and picked up an empty pot. He turned around and went to the inner room to fill up the wine cup.

Both of them were orphans, while the second brother was a few years older. However, he was not as lucky as Lei Ao, he wandered around for a long time when he was young before meeting the current shopkeeper, and was forced to adopt him as an adopted son.

"Lei, come out later to play. A few days ago, a merchant passed by and left behind a few bundles of fireworks. Let's go play it tonight."

Fireworks? Lei Ao's eyes lit up: So many? That's the stuff of the rich. "

The second brother laughed, "A dozen or so. That person is very unlucky. He was clearly drunk, but he still insisted on rushing. He fell not far from the door and dropped the fireworks."

While the two of them were busy chatting, a shadow suddenly rushed in like the wind, looking around, opening his mouth and shouting at Lei Ao, "Lei Zi, why are you still here, hurry up and go back, something's happened."

"Stop asking, hurry up and come with me. Old Thunder uncle is being bullied by that bastard Wang Ba." Without another word, Uncle Zhang pulled Lei Ao and left.

Wang Ba? Lei Ao was stunned at first, but soon after, he shook off Uncle Zhang's hand and ran home like a madman.

Wang Ba was a tyrant in the village, and he had grown big and tall. When he was young, he had coincidentally saved the life of a Taoist. That Taoist had taught him some godly skills in order to repay his gratitude.

As he was famous for his ruthlessness and ruthlessness, as well as his elder sister marrying Sang Mo City's City Lord and Head Third Aunt, he became even more lawless. In this small Sang Mo village, calling him a local tyrant was not an exaggeration.

To the villagers of Sang Mo village, the head steward of Sang Mo city was like an emperor. It was impossible for the emperor to pay attention to the small village of Sang Mo, but this village was under the direct control of Sang Mo City. Therefore, the people behind Wang Ba always dared to be angry whenever they were bullied. On the surface, they called him the overlord, but in the dark, they called him a bastard.

Wang Ba never worked. All these years, he had plundered many fertile land and lived his days renting it out. Every month, he would even come to the village to collect the so-called safety fee, which was based on the number of people. Over the course of a year, a fifth of the villagers' income fell into his pocket.

This protection fee was also paid monthly, so logically speaking, he shouldn't offend Wang Ba, but Uncle Zhang definitely wouldn't joke about such a thing. Although Lei Ao didn't understand the reason, the fury in his heart burned even hotter.

Earlier on, he wanted to teach this Wang Ba a lesson. However, Old Lei never allowed him to do anything. Even if he got beaten up, he couldn't retaliate. He was afraid that the secret on his body would be exposed.

This time, Lei Ao swore to himself that if anything happened to his grandfather, he would definitely make Wang Ba pay ten times the price.

He sprinted all the way back to his house, which was completely surrounded by the villagers. When they saw him, they all made way for him. At the same time, they all shook their heads and sighed with eyes full of sympathy.

Lei Ao's heart skipped a beat. He rushed to the door and found Old Lei's head lying on the ground. His body was trembling violently as if he was enduring a great deal of pain. He was groaning in pain.

Lei Ao panicked and quickly ran over to help him up, "Grandpa, what's wrong?"

When Old Lei saw Lei Ao, it was unknown where Old Lei's strength came from, but he forcefully pushed Lei Ao to the side.

"Yo, I hit the old one, I'm coming out." It just so happens that this month's safety fee has been increased by ten times. Obediently hand it over. "

Not far from the door stood a few raiding youths. These were all thugs raised by Wang Ba's residence. In this era, he had charged them a sum of money for their safety. The one who spoke was holding a wooden stick, and just now, Old Lei was knocked down to the ground.