"Papapapa" was indeed "Papapapa", it always disappeared as quickly as it appeared, just like a ghost. It was a figure that would only stay in the onlookers' vision for a fleeting moment. The next moment, all they could see was those young masters lying on the ground, unable to stand up.
Despite being beaten half to death, at this time, those young masters all knew about Wang Lu's intention.
Indeed, the total number of villagers was not one hundred and twenty. Indeed, they were stupid enough to forget one obvious very important character!
The mysterious black shadow, the "security guard" of Peach Blossom Village: "Papapapa!"
This "Papapapa" could be described as the number one mysterious character in the village. Whenever any participant tried to ask the villagers about this mysterious person, the villagers would always respond by saying what are you talking about with a confused expression and immediately change the topic. "Papapapa" seemed so elusive; so far, it only appeared a dozen of times, and each time it appeared, it was just at the perfect time to stop physical violence - although much to Wang Lu's delight, it seemed to be indifferent to non-physical violence like insulting someone. Its skill was extremely high; even those participants with magical treasures could not resist its punches and kicks. The most ridiculous incident happened when Xie Qianlong and his two friends, who, at that time, obviously hadn't yet to learn their lesson, tried to set up a trap to ambush "Papapapa". They had prepared their magical treasures while waiting for it to appear. When it did appear, they became extremely excited. But the end result was that the black shadow had bare-handedly broken the Frozen Seal Shower Talisman and Flowing Cloud Invisible Sword, leaving the three young masters beaten and badly battered.
After that, nobody had thought that the black shadow was a villager of the Peach Blossom Village. They all thought, how could there be an extremely powerful barehanded expert in such a peaceful little village? It was obviously a disciple of the Spirit Sword Sect who was sent to guard the peace in the village! How could there be a method to gain favorability from a Spirit Sword Sect disciple!?
However, it seemed that... could it be that...?
Sure enough, this time, after the black shadow "Papapapa" appeared, it did not immediately disappear, but it stopped in front of Wang Lu.
This was also the first time the people had seen the mysterious black shadow figure up close... Well, it was pretty much the same as seeing an invisible person. Indeed, It was just a mass of black shadow; it barely had a semblance of a person, and all the details were hidden in the black shadow. Its style didn't look like a Spirit Sword Sect disciple at all, but rather an evil cult's old devil.
Wang Lu did not seem scared at all. His pair of eyes showed an expression of someone who had been waiting for this moment for a long time. "Chivalrous hero, teach me martial arts. I have good bones and outstanding aptitude. I will definitely be able to shoulder the heavy responsibility of protecting the world's peace!"
The black shadow was stunned, it did not expect Wang Lu's opening line would be so direct. After pausing for a moment, it somewhat gruffly said, "You've produced good karma by helping others throughout this village, which is great... but it's not enough."
With that, it disappeared with a whooshing sound.
Wang Lu had already got what he wanted, so he did not feel disheartened by the black shadow's response. It said that "it's not enough," which obviously meant that he had not gained enough favorability. Although he had meticulously planned for a whole month until he finally designed a perfect chain of quests completion strategy, Wang Lu's favorability accumulation was still limited because he had only implemented his strategy for a day.
But because he had this perfect strategy, it wouldn't take too long for Wang Lu to gain a sufficient amount favorability. Those short-sighted participants, who had thought that a villager would have no value anymore once another participant took a quest from them, were hopelessly stupid. Indeed, once a participant had screwed up their quest, that villager could not help those participants out of the village. But that did not mean that the villager would be useless; they would just become extremely rigid and monotonous in their interaction with the participant regarding their quest. This was shown by Wang Lu yesterday; with a simple barter, one could gain a large amount of favorability, and this method could be infinitely repeated. The accumulation of this favorability, to a large extent, would affect the completion evaluation of the trial.
Right now, most of the participants who were still stranded in the village already got their "tickets" to leave; they just stayed to further enhance their completion evaluation by trying to gain more favorability. However, they didn't use the simplest method, insisting on fighting to monopolize the quests, which, in Wang Lu's view, was the evidence of inbreeding.
As for Wang Lu, his goal had been different from the others since the beginning.
If this was a competition on another field, Wang Lu did not have the confidence in winning against all the young talented elites from the Nine Regions. However, in this Immortal Path... it was as if it had been tailor-made for him. His skill and ability perfectly suited to complete each of the trials. Since that was the case, he might as well do his best.
With a clear target, Wang Lu continued to do the same method of increasing the favorability from the one hundred and twenty villagers until he could trigger the next step of the quest from the black shadow, "Papapapa."
This continued for about half a month. In this half a month, more and more participants chose to leave the village. Mainly because there were pretty much nothing left for them to do anymore; to do more would not necessarily have a good result. This was was proven by the prince who was fond of older girls that suffered a heavy defeat in the hands of the village girl, Little Fang.
Peach Blossom Village existed to test one's EQ, which was reflected by the people who stuck until now. Most of them were sociable people who could smoothly interact with the villagers. However, everyone has their limits; it was not easy for anyone to increase the favorability of the villagers in their quests by trying to please those said villagers everyday nonstop.
What's more, watching how easy for Wang Lu to please all the people in the village and gain more and more favorability was a huge blow to their ego and confidence. For those with poor mental fortitude, they were tempted to resort to evil acts, ultimately harming themselves.
Half a month later, in addition to those who were already destined to live a wretched life of a loser in the village, most of the participants had already left. Even the incredibly stupid Wen Bao, who had obviously taken up an A level quest and had received Hai Yunfan's help but almost screwed up his quest, was finally able to accumulate enough favorability to pass the trial. He left the Peach Blossom Village with Auntie Liu, grinning from ear to ear.
Right now, apart from a few hopeless losers, the only person who was still in the village was Wang Lu.
Perhaps it was because Wang Lu had stayed for too long, or perhaps it was because most sensible people had already moved on. Rumors and slanders about Wang Lu began to gradually spread throughout the Peach Blossom Village. Or rather, they were just sneering in derision.
The first person to come out of the Cloud Wave Map was so amazing, wasn't it? Exclusively residing at the Village Head's guest house was great, wasn't it? Personally guiding Hai Yunfan to be the first one to leave the village gave you a sense of accomplishment, right? Gaining favorability from one hundred and twenty villagers made you feel invincible, didn't you?
And now, you're stranded here with us losers. It must've been terrible, right?
You were so full of yourself, allowing the one hundred and twenty opportunities to pass away, and deluding yourself to try to grab that nonexistent 'hidden quest'. Now, you're promising future had been destroyed by your own hands. You've ruined your chance at the Immortal Path. Apart from living in the Village Head's guest house, was there any difference between you and us?
Receiving such malicious remarks reeked with the aroma of defeated losers. In response, Wang Lu did not choose the high way and pretend to ignore those rumors, but rather, he very openly came to the village square, vehemently fighting off those rumors and slanders.
His way of fighting was very direct.
"Stupid cxnt, your mom was fxcked by dogs."
With just one sentence from him, the entire Peach Blossom Village fell into silence. Dozens of shocked eyes glued at him, unable to believe that Wang Lu, who had seemed so illustrious, would use such a vulgar insult.
However, in Wang Lu's opinion, shouting abuse in the street was very effective; not only did the humiliation effect of the insult increase, but the Area of Effect was very wide too, even the Enrage effect was superb.
Sure enough, the usually noble young masters flew into a rage.
"Wang Lu, you're courting death!?"
"You fxcking animal, don't think that we're afraid of you just because you used some foul play!"
"I'm going to make you experience pain that you'd wish you'd die!"
Suddenly, the remaining ten or so participants in the village began to launch a punitive attack against Wang Lu; the fiercest one among them was a young master with surname Xie and name Qianlong.
In response, Wang Lu loudly sneered, "Oh, are you guys offended by that? If so, then come at me! Let's see if sons of bitches like you can actually hurt me! Come and get me you bastard!"
Under such provocation, everyone eventually lost their self-control as they their arms and legs towards Wang Lu.
Then, once again, a black shadow descended from the sky.
"Papapapapa!"
Watching the crowd lying crookedly on the street, Wang Lu smiled and said to the black shadow, "I've been waiting for you for a long time."
The black shadow was quite grumpy. "Your mouth is too evil! I'm not here to be your bodyguard!"
Wang Lu nodded. "I know, you're here to teach me Kung Fu. I've already maxed out the favorability from one hundred and twenty people."
Speaking to this, Wang Lu couldn't help but sigh. When he first walked into the village, he had suspected that there would be a hidden quest. This was because he always felt that he and the designer of this trial had some sort of connection. If it was him who designed this trial, he would have definitely designed a hidden quest!
However, he also did not expect this quest to be so troublesome! He needed to max out the favorability of one hundred and twenty villagers before the next step could be triggered... Thinking back, if he wasn't the first to come out of the Cloud Wave Map, the one who first lodged in the Village Head's Guest House, and the one who used the Village Head as the leading source of information, he definitely wouldn't have been able to formulate this perfect chain of quests completion strategy.
And without this perfect chain of quests completion strategy, it would be almost impossible for anyone to gain favorability from one hundred and twenty people, even for the most sociable person. The difficulty was extremely high.
But the greater the difficulty, the higher the rewards would be. And Wang Lu was very, very curious about what the rewards would be!
However...
"I have seen... your ability in helping others," the black shadow said and lowered its head to look at those unconscious participants on the ground. "But this is not enough."
Wang Lu wrinkled his brows. "Not enough?"
"If you want to learn Kung Fu, you need to give me tuition fee."
"... Tuition fee?"
The black shadow laughed, "I am not asking for too much, I just want a single coin."
Wang Lu also laughed, "You sure have an unusual tuition fee. One coin, isn't that simple. Here it is."
At the Ru Family Inn in the Spirit Creek Town, Wang Lu had almost spent all his money, but he still had some pieces of silver and copper coins.
However, when he took out his money bag, the black shadow shook its head. "What good is your outside money? I just want money from this mountain."
Wang Lu's face immediately sunk.
Money from the mountain? Where could he find money on this mountain? The people in the Peach Blossom Village lived an easy and comfortable life. Their monetary system was so primitive that it made people want to cry. They did not even use shells, let alone gold and silver. The popular method of transaction was bartering.
Wang Lu stood there with a distracted look, seemingly deep in thought. The black shadow was not in a hurry to leave either, quietly waiting for him to finish his thought.
Money from the mountain... this mountain was clearly referred to as the Spirit Sword Mountain. The Spirit Sword Sect certainly had their own form of currency, but they were too far away from him. In addition to that, where else would he get money from this mountain?
Wait a minute, there is...
As an expert in strategy, Wang Lu's adventurer nerves suddenly quivered; a certain memory flashed through his mind.
He opened his money bag and chose one copper coin from his last ten or so coins.
That copper coin was the coin that the Lady Boss of the Ru Family Inn had given him. Since it came from the Spirit Creek Town, surely, it would count as money from the mountain... right?
Sure enough, when it saw the copper coin, the black shadow stretched out its hand.
Wang Lu carefully observed the black shadow's movements. It was odd. The black shadow's movements were usually fast as lightning. Even magical treasures could be shattered by its flurry of punches and kicks. However, this time, its action was even slower than the average people.
Strange, very strange. His adventurer's intuition was setting off alarm lights in his mind. Wang Lu wrinkled his brows and squeezed the copper coin hard. Because of the excessive force that he used, his hands began to go white.
The next moment, he seemed to hear an almost inaudible sigh from the black shadow, and so, he made a prompt decision.
Wang Lu immediately took the copper coin back.
The black shadow was startled. "What's the matter?"
"I'm sorry, this copper coin is the only thing that was left to me by my deceased wife. It has a very important meaning to me."
The black shadow froze for a moment and muttered some incomprehensible grunts. The next moment, its fist silently came flying towards him.
"Deceased wife my ass!"