296: Turning sheep into wolves

“Relying solely on me, your village cannot survive.”

Li Dong's voice was not loud, but it felt like a basin of ice water poured over everyone's heads.

The fanatical villagers instantly calmed down, replaced by a trace of bewilderment and panic.

That's right, the benefactor can drive away a dozen tax collectors, but can he drive away a hundred? What about a thousand? The Baron's army has thousands of men!

A young man, the same one who had first picked up a hoe earlier, named A Mu, gathered his courage and asked with a flushed face, “Then... then what should we do?”

Li Dong looked at him, then at everyone else.

“Turn the sheep into wolves.”

He offered no explanation.

Action is the best explanation.

Li Dong walked to the village's open space and casually picked up a withered tree branch.

“Watch closely.”

He slowly thrust it into the air.

The movement was simple, unadorned, just like any farmer swinging a pitchfork.

The villagers watched, feeling somewhat dazed.

Is this... the Move that can turn sheep into wolves?

Li Dong didn't speak, he just beckoned to A Mu.

“You, hit me with all your strength.”

A Mu was stunned and waved his hands repeatedly, “No, no, no, I wouldn't dare. How could I dare to lay a hand on my benefactor...”

“That is an order.”

Li Dong's tone allowed no room for doubt.

A Mu gritted his teeth, clenched his fist—which was a size larger than an ordinary person's—took a deep breath, and slammed a punch toward Li Dong's chest!

This punch carried the sound of wind; it was the hardest punch he could throw!

The villagers let out a gasp.

However, just as the fist was about to touch Li Dong's lapel, Li Dong moved.

The withered branch in his hand tapped lightly at an inconceivable angle.

It tapped onto A Mu's elbow joint.

It wasn't a block, it wasn't a parry, just a light, airy touch.

Hum!

A Mu only felt a strange vibration travel from his elbow. His full-force punch felt like it had hit a ball of spinning cotton; all the force was instantly diverted and twisted, uncontrollably slamming into the empty air beside him!

Because he had used too much force, he stumbled and almost fell.

The entire scene was deathly silent.

Everyone's mouths were wide open, enough to fit an egg inside.

What is this?

A Demonic Technique?

Li Dong ignored everyone's shock; he only looked at the incredulous A Mu.

“Did you understand?”

A Mu stared blankly at his own fist, then at the branch in Li Dong's hand, his mind a complete mess.

“My... my strength... is it gone?”

“It's not gone, it's reflected back,” Li Dong said calmly. “Your enemy is as strong as you are. This is 'balance.' What I want to teach you is how to break this balance and use the enemy's power to attack him.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Mo Chen's brush began to dance in the Void Realm.

He didn't use paper; instead, he used the world as his canvas and Mental Energy as his ink.

A huge, vivid diagram unfolded in mid-air.

On the diagram, a small figure of light precisely replicated Li Dong's Move from just now, and next to it was another figure, representing A Mu's punching posture.

Mo Chen used the most vivid lines to clearly mark the process of how that force was “tapped,” “guided,” and “deflected.”

That drawing was more than just a drawing.

As the villagers looked at the diagram, they felt as if something indescribable had entered their minds; they seemed to have experienced the same sensation of losing control of their bodies that A Mu had just felt.

“A miracle! Another miracle!”

The villagers were in an uproar again; this time it wasn't fanaticism, but the excitement of seeing real hope!

“Everyone, start learning.”

Li Dong dropped the branch and turned to walk toward the edge of the village.

There stood a crude wooden fence and mud wall.

He reached out and pressed his hand against the cold, rough mud wall.

[Attunement].

Hum—

A low hum spread from his palm.

The entire mud wall came to life!

The particles of mud squirmed and rearranged themselves, their color changing from earthy yellow to a deep, iron-like shade.

Inside the wall, faint rays of light like plant roots spread instantly, intertwining to form an indestructible net of Law.

The wooden fence nearby also creaked; its wood fibers rapidly tightened and strengthened, and a metallic luster appeared on its surface.

A villager subconsciously reached out and touched it; the texture was hard and cold, just like stone!

He couldn't believe it, so he picked up a rock and smashed it against it with force.

“Clang!”

With a crisp sound, the rock shattered, but not even a white mark was left on the wooden fence.

The villagers were completely speechless.

If the previous battle and Martial Skill were “Divine Might,” then this act of creating something out of thin air was true “Creation”!

Li Dong didn't stop.

He walked past the blacksmith shop, where the blacksmith named Old Tie was worrying over a pile of scrap metal, unable to forge even a decent piece of farm equipment.

Li Dong just flicked his finger, and a barely visible spark fell into the cold furnace.

Boom!

The furnace fire was instantly ignited. The flames were no longer the usual orange-red but a strange, pale white, with a temperature so high it made the air distort.

“Use it to re-temper your iron.”

He walked past the farmland, where several women were worrying about how to process the golden grain.

Li Dong just made a grabbing motion in the air; a handful of grain ears flew into his hand and spun rapidly in his palm. The husks fell off automatically, revealing rice grains as plump as pearls.

“To husk, you can do it this way. To grind into flour, it can be faster.”

He moved like a ghost, weaving through every corner of the village.

He didn't give long speeches or instill any profound concepts.

He just gave a gentle “push” wherever each person needed it most.

A hint.

A change.

A seed of a “Variable.”

At first, the villagers were in awe and were imitating him, but gradually, a different light began to shine in their eyes.

When practicing Martial Skill, A Mu was no longer confined to the Moves Li Dong had taught him; he tried to incorporate his own punching habits, and although clumsy, it had his own style.

When forging, Old Tie discovered that striking with different rhythms and quenching at different angles resulted in ironware with vastly different hardness and toughness.

The women discovered that when grinding flour with a stone mill, the flour ground clockwise versus counter-clockwise actually had subtle differences in texture.

Once the desire to create was ignited, it would spread like a wildfire.

The village was transforming at a speed visible to the naked eye.

And this transformation, like a bonfire in the dark night, attracted hungry travelers from the darkness.

Three days later, the first group of refugees arrived.

They were ragged and gaunt, their eyes full of wariness and despair; they were people driven to a dead end by the harsh taxes and levies of the nearby lord.

They had heard rumors of this “miracle village” and, holding onto a final shred of hope, had trekked here.

Their arrival immediately triggered the first real conflict in the village.

“We cannot let them in!”

At the entrance of the village, a villager named Shi Tou, leading a group of people, blocked the road with their bodies. He held an iron spear that had just been forged and was still glinting with a cold light, confronting the old village chief.

“Old Village Chief, our food was bestowed by the Divine Venerable; it is our life! Why should we share it with these outsiders? Once they come, what will we eat?”

“That's right! Who knows if they are spies!”

“Make them leave!”

The old village chief's face flushed red, and he stamped his feet in anxiety, “Everyone is a poor soul; how... how can we stand by and watch them die?”

“Save them, but who will save us? The Baron's army could come at any time; the food must be saved! It cannot be shared!”

Shi Tou stiffened his neck, not yielding an inch.

This, this was the reality of human nature.

The light that had just risen in the eyes of the new refugees dimmed again, turning into deeper despair and a hint of resentment.

Mo Chen frowned, wanting to step forward to mediate.

But Li Dong stopped him.

He just watched quietly, watching this argument.

Until the conflict between the two sides reached its peak, with Shi Tou even pointing the spear tip at the old village chief.

Only then did Li Dong speak slowly.

“Is there not enough food?”

The voice was not loud, but it made everyone quiet down.

Shi Tou's eyes were red, “Of course not! With this little land, it's barely enough to feed ourselves!”

“Then why not go and cultivate more land?”

Li Dong asked back.

Shi Tou was stunned, “The... the land is dead! Only the patch under your feet, Divine Venerable, is alive!”

“Is that so?”

Li Dong smiled.

He walked to the dead, cracked wasteland outside the village.

Under the gaze of everyone, including those new refugees.

He raised his foot and tapped it lightly.

Hum—

With the point where his foot landed as the center, a visible ripple of life, like ripples on water, spread wildly in all directions!

The earth was breathing!

The dead-gray soil turned dark and fertile at an astonishing speed!

In an instant, the hundred acres of wasteland around the village were all transformed into fertile soil exactly like the wheat field at the village entrance!

“Now, is there enough land?”

Li Dong turned, looking at the dumbfounded Shi Tou and all the villagers.

“Is there not enough manpower?”

His gaze fell again on the group of refugees who were also in a state of stupor.

“If a pond is full, and you don't introduce fresh water or dig it bigger, it will become a stagnant pool of foul water.”

“Whether you choose to become foul water or become rivers and seas, that is for you to choose.”

After Li Dong finished speaking, he paid no more attention to them.

He believed that these people, in whom he had planted the seeds of a “Variable,” would make their own choices.

The old village chief's body shook, and an unprecedented gleam erupted in his cloudy eyes.

The iron spear in Shi Tou's hand hit the ground with a “clatter.”

He looked at the endless black fertile soil, then at the desire and strength erupting in the eyes of the refugees, like drowning people grabbing onto driftwood, and he suddenly understood something.

His face flushed red, and he held it in for a long time before shouting at the refugees:

“What the hell are you still standing there for! If you want to eat, pick up your tools and come clear the land with us!”

A crisis that could have split the village was thus dispelled.

A brand new rule, where labor is exchanged for the right to survive, formed spontaneously without any decrees or force.

The village, like a hungry beast, began to devour the surrounding wasteland, transforming it into its own flesh and blood.

And all of this was being coldly watched by a pair of eyes from a very high, very distant place.

In that gloomy Baron's castle standing atop the mountains.

A pale man dressed in luxurious silk was looking through a huge black crystal at the village that was expanding rapidly like a green plague.

His fingers tapped lightly on the edge of the crystal.

“A miracle? A Variable?”

A cruel and playful smile curled at the corners of his mouth.

“How interesting.”