The sudden finding of the demonic beast scale was unexpected for every villager in Yellow Soil Village. No one wanted to do nothing and wait for their own death.
Requesting help from the Yellow Village was just the first step, from the Yellow Village there will be some discussion and in the end they will also request help from a bigger and stronger faction, Heichen city.
It would take half a day from Yellow Soil Village to Yellow Village and it would take another one day from Yellow Village to Heichen city.
The sudden appearance of wandering martial artists naturally was good news for the villagers and they treat these martial artists with utmost hospitality.
Considering the safety of the entire village and her own life, Qin Qing finished her internal calculation and chose to lend Niu Chang a hand.
"Ahem, you can come in first." She widened the entrance by pushing the door and gesturing to Niu Chang to enter.
'In the end, he was just a boy. If he dares to do anything funny. Hmph, I want to see him do it.'
Niu Chang was slightly surprised but he didn't show any change of expression and entered the house without any delay.
'She is surprisingly kind?'
Niu Chang almost never had direct contact with Qin Qing before, so he only heard stories about her.
The rumor says that on the day her parents died, she didn't even cry. The exact reason was unknown but many speculated their own theories.
Some say she was just in denial and unable to process the sudden misfortune while the others lean towards her as just a heartless girl.
The house interior was not too big but not too small either. Looking around, Niu Chang found not much furniture inside the house except the essential ones.
Then his gaze fixed on the table in the room, the few wooden cups and two kinds of food were placed on it.
'It is only rice and some stirred vegetables.'
Niu Chang was already used to this kind of food. He too, after the death of his parents, having rice itself was already a luxury for him and his sister.
Niu Bai always complained about their food, but Niu Chang always told her not to be too demanding lest she overworked her small body.
He needed her more to stay alive than having more food, only with Niu Bai working could Niu Chang have a good time to study martial arts.
Qin Qing who on the side followed Niu Chang's gaze immediately commented. "Don't think about it. It's only natural for those who work to eat, since you didn't work you can't eat."
The decision was final, except if Niu Chang could give her something in exchange.
But seeing that Niu Chang no longer looked at her dinner, Qin Qing snorted inwardly then walked towards the dinner table to continue her dinner.
But when she sat down and was ready to pick her chopstick, she saw a small shadow was following her.
"Didn't I already tell you?" Qin Qing stared directly at Niu Chang's face without hiding her displeasure.
It was still the same old Niu Chang with the placid face, that was effective to trigger those who weren't close with him.
"I will pay you for it." Niu Chang extended his fist and opened it. There was one coin on his palm.
Qin Qing who at her limit immediately stupefied looking at the coin on Niu Chang's palm. She was taken aback by this sudden turn of event and the gears in her head were stopped.
With a blank look, she then shook her head to regain the focus. "Are you sure?"
She shifted her gaze from the coin towards Niu Chang's face. She was rather uncomfortable, although she was short tempered, she was also rather kind.
One coin was more than enough to buy her entire dinner, but Niu Chang offered her directly.
'Is this kid's head problematic? Didn't they say he is learning how to read and write? Did his sister not teach him the value of money at all?'
The more she thought about it, the more she felt the fuse in her mind slowly burn out.
"Just take it as food money for the time I stay here, if it's not enough I will pay you later."
"Ah," finally Qin Qing found her salvation from overthinking and looked at Niu Chang with a gentler gaze.
"Okay, sit down and eat." She was no longer repulsive about Niu Chang taking shelter in her house and eating her food. "Just don't eat too much."
Niu Chang sat down and stared at the dinner table. Since it was a dinner for one, naturally there was only one set of utensils.
Qin Qing, who already picked her chopsticks and brought the food to her mouth, stopped once again.
"Can't you not look at me like that? Can't you be more normal? Okay, okay, I will get you your bowl and chopstick."
Her tone was harsh but she only did it because Niu Chang kept interrupting her.
She pushed her chair back and stood up, walking towards the kitchen.
Niu Chang sitting on the chair, now can carefully inspect the food on the table. The rice was not that high quality, it's not pure white and the texture was too mushy. The smell was clouded with some other smell that Niu Chang didn't know of.
Then he glanced at the vegetable, the main dish of this dinner. Overcooked and the age of vegetables were too old, they are mainly the ones that grow all year round and are easy to cultivate.
Hearing the footsteps approaching, Niu Chang raised his head and looked at the Qin Qing who brought a small bowl and chopstick on each hand.
Short hair, small eyes, small nose, small mouth, and short. The overall score according to Niu Chang's taste was slightly below average.
It was at the level of passerby, not worth being detailed drawn.
Niu Chang couldn't help but ask himself. 'Is this the legendary, short-tempered, short-stature, and bad at cooking tsundere?'
Being watched by Niu Chang's scrutinizing gaze, Qin Qing only gave him a fierce look in her eyes.
She sat down noisily and pushed the bowl and chopstick harshly towards Niu Chang.
Then she only focused on her dinner and didn't make other sounds.
Niu Chang took the bowl, filled it with the bad rice, then he picked the chopstick and started picking the overcooked vegetables.
He didn't expect too much, in his mind as long as he could have something to fill his stomach, nothing worth his attention.
Surprisingly enough, his tranquil state of mind was disturbed by the amazing flavor brought by the rice texture which propelled his tongue off the way and the vegetables caused his mouth to be sour both by their taste and their hardness.
There was only a slight change on his face, but that's all. He chopped the drive to spit the food away and turned into his emotionless, unfeeling and unworldly mode.
The time passed by without any sound, only the cold wind of the night could be heard accompanying the duo's dinner.
Qin Qing then remembered something important, she stopped her hands from stuffing more food into her mouth and looked at Niu Chang in front of her.
She was having a difficult time coming up with words and her face was a mix of various emotions, such as guilt, shame, and hatred.
But everything was washed away when she saw Niu Chang without any emotion with machine-like movement eating calmly.
Not even batting an eye to her.
Qin Qing: "..."
And more silence followed.
In the end she only swallowed her thoughts and followed suit by eating quietly.
After having 'a dinner', Niu Chang with his emotionless, unfeeling and unworldly mode looked at Qin Qing.
There was no need for him to talk or bother with small things, in this mode he only cared about results and practicality only.
Qin Qing unexpectedly does not make any scene and understands what Niu Chang wants to say and opens her mouth. "Go there and choose any room that you like."
After nodding his head, Niu Chang walked towards the direction that Qin Qing pointed. After leaving the scene, he turned off his machine mode.
"Bah." Niu Chang opened his mouth without any sound, he felt disgusted by the feeling in his mouth. Nothing could wash away this awful taste, not even the soda from his previous life.
'If it's only the taste then so be it, but my mouth felt stiff too.'
He was helpless and could only complain in his heart.
'Maybe I should take the task of cooking the food next time. For my mouth health and to not affect my cultivation.'
Niu Chang arrived and stopped. In front of him were two doors, left and right. After giving it a thought, he opened the right door.
Taking a peek into the room, he then went to the left room to compare them. The left room was bigger and more neat, so he chose the left room.
There was no dust on the surface of the furniture and the floor.
'It seems that she was not that heartless after all to take care of her deceased parents? Or maybe she is just a clean freak.'
Suppressing the uncomfortable feeling in his mouth, Niu Chang sat down on the bed and started his nightly routine.
To ponder and deduce his ideas. To digest the experience he gathered on the day and learned from any mistakes he made.
The first one that Niu Chang chose to start his study was the qi utilization and the creation of martial skills that utilize qi in their methods.
With a thought, Niu Chang controlled the Transformation Energy qi in his body with utmost importance.
He watched how they behave under much stimulation to test his conjunctures.
Then he moved to the next step to watch how the qi moved in his body.
These two were the fundamental knowledge of qi in general, he took his time efficiently and moved to the third step.
The third step was to explore the nature of his ultimate qi cultivation method which uses transformation as its core.
All-encompassing, unlimited growth, and endlessly evolving.
There were more than twenty cultivation methods smelted into Transformation Energy, so it was granted that Transformation Energy qi also could transform into twenty different types of qi with different attributes and nature.
This night would be a long night. But the moon was there accompanying Niu Chang for the whole time, watching silently and giving him the dim moonlight.