You are my man

I do not know how much time had passed, but Long Chen opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was light, which made him sigh in relief. Very good, he was still alive.

Afterwards, he discovered he was lying on a crude bed. Although it was made of rough wood, it looked to be padded very carefully and even carried a faint fragrance.

Inspecting his surroundings, he saw it was a wooden hut. On the wooden walls hung some animal skins, bows and arrows, and some spears. Not far away on the ground was a small stove, and an iron pot in the middle was emitting steam, with waves of appetizing food scents drifting out.

Just as Long Chen was examining the wooden hut, with a creak, the wooden door opened, and a young girl wearing a coarse cloth short skirt walked in.

The girl looked to be sixteen or seventeen years old with a slender figure. Her arms and thighs were exposed, and her skin had a wheat-colored tint, giving her an extremely healthy aura.

A medium-length ponytail was tied at the back of her head. Her face was not overly pretty, but those bright, lively eyes gave one a feeling of approachability.

After entering the room, the girl first placed the backpack she was carrying on the ground, then hurriedly ran to the stove and lifted the lid of the iron pot.

"Oh my, that was close, it almost burnt."

The girl looked at the food in the pot, sighed in relief, and muttered to herself.

However, she suddenly felt something was wrong. She slowly turned her head and saw Long Chen looking at her with a confused expression.

"Ah, you're awake! That's great!"

Seeing Long Chen sit up, the girl was overjoyed. She ran to his side, threw her arms around him, and was incredibly excited.

"Cough, cough… Senior, isn't this a bit inappropriate?"

Long Chen was held in the girl's embrace, his face just happening to touch her chest. He could smell the scent of healthy vitality on her body.

However, being held by a strange girl made Long Chen extremely uncomfortable. If he pushed her away, it would seem unfeeling, so he said with some embarrassment.

"What's inappropriate about it? You were picked up by me, so you are my man. This is our village's rule; who dares to gossip?" The girl still held Long Chen, her face devoid of any shyness, instead speaking as if it were only natural.

"You?… Picked up?" Long Chen was stunned. His last memory was of that Rock Leopard; he hadn't seen this girl.

Seeing Long Chen's confused face, the girl let go of him and said, "That day, you were fighting the Demonic Beast. At the final moment, I shot and killed that Demonic Beast with an arrow. To put it plainly, I saved your life. From now on, you are my man. Your task from now on is to hunt and have babies with me properly."

Looking at the girl's earnest expression, Long Chen's expression turned strange. Hunting? And having babies?

Seeing that Long Chen still looked puzzled, the girl explained the events of that day to him.

It turned out the girl was a hunter from a village. The entire village relied on hunting for a living. Aside from going to the distant mountains outside to purchase some essential ironware, their lives were basically self-sufficient.

The entire village of over a hundred people were basically all skilled hunters. Even some of the children often ran outside the village to set traps and catch small wild beasts.

In their village, there were no true experts; most were only in the Qi Gathering stage. According to the girl, their ancestors had fled here to avoid the ravages of war and had gradually adapted to life here, which had been several hundred years ago.

The village's main food source was meat. They lived by hunting and gathering, but their targets were basically just wild beasts.

As for large Demonic Beasts, they needed to be extremely cautious. If they wanted to deal with a powerful Demonic Beast, the entire village had to mobilize.

This time, they discovered that a Rock Leopard had just arrived nearby. After some discussion and obtaining the village chief's consent, they decided to deal with this Rock Leopard.

Although the risk of dealing with a Demonic Beast was great, the rewards were equally large. A Rank 1 Demonic Beast's core could be exchanged for enough goods for their entire village to live on for half a year.

To deal with this Rock Leopard, they had prepared for over a month, refining enough poison to coat their weapons, and secretly setting up several traps nearby, preparing multiple ambushes.

But just as they decided to act today and lure the Rock Leopard out, they were dumbfounded to see a youth walk into the Rock Leopard's territory.

The girl was hiding in the shadows, anxious but helpless. She didn't dare to warn Long Chen, because if she startled the Rock Leopard, their entire plan might fail.

The consequences of failure were very serious; it meant someone would have to pay with their life. Therefore, they could only watch helplessly as Long Chen was ambushed.

Originally, they were filled with guilt over this matter, only hoping that in a moment, they could lure the Rock Leopard into the trap and avenge Long Chen.

But the scene that followed stunned everyone. Long Chen's sword strike had almost finished off the incomparably fierce Rock Leopard.

Later, they discovered that Long Chen had been injured to begin with. Even after losing his sword, he still managed to send the Rock Leopard flying several times with his bare hands, filling them with shock.

Finally, when Long Chen could no longer hold on, the girl could finally bear it no longer. She shot an arrow and killed the Rock Leopard.

However, when the girl spoke of shooting and killing the Rock Leopard to save Long Chen, her large eyes kept looking at the ceiling, and her face looked somewhat unnatural.

It turned out the girl's archery skills weren't particularly superb, and in her anxiety, she had lost her aim. But this was a happy accident; the arrow that was originally aimed at the Rock Leopard's mouth ended up hitting its forehead instead.

Coincidentally, that spot had been struck by Long Chen's sword, cracking its skull. The girl's arrow happened to penetrate through the crack into the Rock Leopard's skull, killing it in one blow.

Afterward, when everyone rushed over and saw this arrow, they couldn't help but gasp. If it hadn't been for luck, they would have faced a furious Demonic Beast, and it likely would have been dire for them.

An injured Demonic Beast is the most terrifying; they fall into a frenzy due to fear and attack desperately.

"Thank you."

Long Chen finally understood the sequence of events and respectfully cupped his fists at the girl.

"You are my man from now on, you don't need to be so polite with me." The girl giggled, grabbed Long Chen's arm, and said affectionately:

"I used to pray to the Forest God every day, hoping he would grant me a strong man to hunt and have babies with. Hehe, the Forest God finally heard my heart's desire and gave you to me. This is just great."

The girl looked intoxicated, gazing at Long Chen's handsome face, her eyes filled with excitement and satisfaction.

"Cough, cough, Miss…"

"Call me Xiaohua."

"Um… Miss Xiaohua, about this 'man' business, let's discuss it later. Can you tell me how my injuries healed?" Long Chen asked.

Because Long Chen discovered that his body had miraculously recovered. Listening to Xiaohua's account, today was the third day since he was rescued.

In just three short days, he hadn't taken a single Medicinal Pill, yet not only had his injuries fully healed, but even the cracked meridians inside his body had completely recovered. This gave him a huge shock.

"This was the Forest God helping you recover," Xiaohua replied.

"The Forest God?" Long Chen was greatly shocked. Did gods truly exist in this world?

"Alright, alright, don't ask so much, it's time to eat."

Seeing that Long Chen still wanted to ask more, Xiaohua interrupted him, took the large pot off the stove, and carried it outside.

Seeing this, Long Chen felt embarrassed to just sit there acting like a wounded patient, so he hurriedly came over to help. He discovered that the large pot was filled with congee.

When they carried the congee out of the wooden hut, Long Chen noticed that this was a small village built against a mountain.

Surrounding it was a fence made of thick thorns, over three zhang high. Those thorns were a type of highly poisonous plant; usually, wild beasts would stay far away upon seeing them.

Inside the fence, there were dozens of simple wooden huts. Following Xiaohua's call, everyone walked out of the huts, including over a dozen children and five or six elderly people.

However, most were in their prime. Long Chen knew that when relying on hunting for a living, if your physical strength couldn't keep up, it was the most dangerous thing during a hunt; a single moment of carelessness could cost a life.

Therefore, most of the village consisted of young and strong adults. This was also the Law of nature's survival of the fittest; life was just that ruthless.

A spirited old man walked up to Long Chen, nodded, and said, "Well done. A single person, and you were able to fight a Demonic Beast."

Long Chen sensed him and discovered that this old man was actually a Blood Condensation stage expert, though only in the Early Stage.

If Long Chen guessed correctly, this old man must have entered the Blood Condensation stage very late. His blood energy had already declined, so even having entered the Blood Condensation stage, his combat power would not have increased significantly.

"Senior, you flatter me," Long Chen said, bowing slightly.

"I dare not accept the title of Senior. Even in my prime, I could not compare to you." The old man looked at Long Chen, his eyes filled with admiration.

"Grandpa, stop being so polite, hurry up and drink your congee."

Xiaohua had already portioned out the congee, one bowl for each person. She brought two bowls over and handed them to Long Chen and the old man respectively.

"Let me introduce you; this is my grandpa, and also our village chief. Oh, right, I still don't know your name," Xiaohua suddenly asked.

"Thank you, my name is Long Chen," Long Chen said, smiling as he took the bowl of congee.

At this moment, all the men, women, and children of the village walked over to greet Long Chen. Long Chen hurriedly put down his bowl and returned the greetings one by one.

After all, they had saved his life, and he needed to keep this debt of gratitude in his heart. These people were very simple and knew nothing about etiquette, but the intimacy in their eyes said everything.

Long Chen calculated that among the hundred-plus people in the village, there were only thirty-something women, and Xiaohua was the only young girl; the rest were just a bunch of snot-nosed kids.

"Big Brother, I heard you are very amazing, that you can send a leopard as big as an ox flying with one punch. Is that true?"

A child only a little taller than Long Chen's knees hugged his thigh and looked up at Long Chen with adoration.

"Of course it's true! My daddy said this Big Brother is a true warrior. The babies he and Big Sister Ah Hua have in the future will definitely be our village's strongest warriors!" Before Long Chen knew how to answer, a seven or eight-year-old boy blurted out.

However, after the seven or eight-year-old child finished speaking, he eagerly asked Long Chen, "Big Brother, when will you let our village's strongest warrior be born?"

Long Chen's face stiffened. The men, women, and children all around burst into laughter, and even Xiaohua covered her mouth and laughed non-stop, making Long Chen quite embarrassed.

He hurriedly picked up the congee and took a few sips, changing the subject: "Didn't you kill that Demonic Beast? Why aren't you eating its meat?"

Just after Long Chen said this, he noticed the atmosphere around him was a bit strange. He looked at the old man, and saw the old man was about to speak.

Xiaohua chimed in, "Let me tell you about this."