Venerated Venomous Consort

Mr. Di looked lively and energetic. He spoke to them in such grace. “I am not as good-tempered as Brother Stone. What you are about to have is a set of arrangements regarding the array formation. You are required to memorize everything in an hour. I will come back and check later. If anyone fails to accomplish the aforementioned condition, you may leave the team.”

The crowd was shocked. They were not prepared to obey him so readily, so they did not take his words very seriously. Briefly, they answered with a low spirit.

Di Fuyi threw them a look of disdain. “All of you sound so weak. Can’t you survive the mere 500 push-ups? Are you out of your strength already?”

The men were astonished by his sarcastic remarks. They believed that he must have heard their perverted discussion earlier, so he was here to give them an eye for an eye. All of them were young men full of vigor and vitality, so they were not ready to be underestimated. Someone expressed his disapproval, “I am not a weak man. Forget about the 500 push-ups; I can even do a 1,000 and still be a great man.” The man who spoke was Tie Niu.

He was indeed a man of steel. There he stood, solid like a mountain. His physical strength was the best among the men. Certainly, he looked down on Di Fuyi the most. He thought that the newcomer had stolen his favorite person and that Di Fuyi was no match for Brother Stone.

Di Fuyi smiled in return. His smile was a charming one, like a breeze of warm spring air sweeping across the land. However, what came out of his mouth was not as equally heartwarming as his smile. “That is great. You may proceed with a 1,000 push-ups. I would really love to see how great of a man you are.”

Tie Niu had not realized that his words were actually a trap. He was not ready to commit to his quick promise. Indignant, he threw Di Fuyi an angry look and complained to Gu Xijiu instead, “Brother Stone, I think we should practice the array formation now.”

Gu Xijiu gave him a quick look and answered slowly, “I think your push-ups are our priority at the moment.”

The crowd looked at Di Fuyi in disbelief. They could not believe that Brother Stone would put the relationship before brotherhood. Gu Xijiu then swept her eyes across the crowd and gave them a stern warning, “From now on, you have to listen to Mr. Di’s command if you wish to leave this place safely. Any violators will be severely punished. I want all of you to be in high spirit from this moment onwards. Don’t embarrass us all as a clan.”

Di Fuyi had to give them a lot of orders to perform different tasks. If they chose to disobey him, their entire mission would most probably fail as a result of their distrust of one another in the team. Therefore, Gu Xijiu had to make Di Fuyi the authority figure.

The clan leader was very well aware, so he spoke before the crowd as motivation before the journey. His speech was long and inspiring, but the crowd was not very focused on his words. Instead, they slowly fell asleep, one by one. Just when one of the men was about to snore out loud, the clan leader finally ended his speech.

The men finally understood the importance of Di Fuyi’s role. They were now ready to listen to him. Di Fuyi did not let his expression show. He only looked at their faces briefly with a smile. His smile was quite sarcastic. The sight of his smiling face sent chills to their hearts. Finally, they stopped joking around with him.

Before Di Fuyi taught them the steps, he had to pull Gu Xijiu aside and make her sit on a rock. Then, he presented a few dishes and a bowl of porridge to her as her breakfast. The setup attracted many hungry souls.

Throughout the years, they had only been surviving on the meat of the beasts or some simple boiled vegetables, so they had never seen such exquisite dishes. They stared longingly at the food.