Chapter 208: The Tough Old Man
While teaching Yan Xu kung fu, Guo Yizhan also kept his promise and used his personal connections to help Yan Xu gain fame and reputation.

So even though Yan Xu was not in the martial arts world during this period, his legend was still circulating in the martial arts world.

Although it has not yet reached the level where people would bow down to it, it is somewhat more positive.

In fact, this is also related to what Yan Xu did. If he killed innocent people indiscriminately and was greedy for money and lustful, Guo Yizhan alone would not be able to whitewash him, and his connections would not give him the face to help with publicity.

Fortunately, although Yan Xu killed people like crazy, he hated evil and was very caring towards the lower class people, especially vulnerable groups such as women and children. Therefore, his actions were highly praised by the lower class people. This was the reason why they were willing to help publicize him, not just for Guo Yizhan's sake. He didn't have that much face.

It's not easy to survive in the underworld. You have no place to live, no food or clothing, and you may be found dead in the wilderness at any time. This is the norm.

If they could meet a kind person like Yan Xu, perhaps they would not have to live on the edge of a knife.

If one can have a stable job, marry a wife, have a few children, and take care of his parents in their old age, who would still want to hang around in the underworld?

It is this inner regret that makes the lower-level people in the underworld, who make up 90% of the underworld, willing to help Yan Xu.

When Guo Heizi's injury was almost healed, Yan Xu carried the luggage in one hand and pinched his neck with the other, bid farewell to the cheerful Guo Yizhan, and set out again towards Renjia Town.

Yan Xu was no longer alone along the way. Every now and then he would see the silly Guo Heizi flying out of the car. As for the reason, there was no reason. If he didn't obey, he would be beaten. This was the method Guo Yizhang told him.

There is no way. Guo Heizi's brain is not flexible. Instead of trying to reason with him, it is better to use fists to tell him what to do. Anyway, he is very tough.

I have to say that this method is really effective. Guo Yizhan couldn't bring himself to beat his own son, but Yan Xu had no such scruples. He beat Guo Heizi eighteen times a day, which made Guo Heizi very angry, but he couldn't beat him. No matter how angry he was, it was useless. He beat this fool until he lost his temper.

Yan Xu originally didn't have such good patience, but he was too bored along the way, so since he had nothing to do anyway, he might as well beat the child for fun.

However, no matter how tough Guo Heizi was, he could not withstand Yan Xu's naturally powerful fist. He had been as obedient as a quail during this period, so Yan Xu could not find a reason to beat him up for a while.

Apart from eating, sleeping and playing scoundrel, Yan Xu's favorite thing to do on weekdays is to chat with the coachman Lao Ma.

Lao Ma doesn’t have a real name. He had smallpox when he was a child, leaving his face full of pockmarks, so people called him Da Ma Zi. When he got older, he was called Lao Ma.

Lao Ma is in his fifties and has been on the road for most of his life. He has a very rich life experience. He was kidnapped by bandits in his early years. With his eloquence, he worked as a minion in the mountain stronghold for half a year. If the leader of the stronghold had not been chopped off and several leaders had not discussed disbanding, he would have probably completed his career change.

In addition to almost becoming a bandit in the mountain village, he was also conscripted by the warlords, carried guns and corpses for the marshal, fought against foreigners, and chopped down rebels.

Later, the commander died and he became a defeated soldier and then became a horse thief and a trader. Anyway, if he met a strong person on the road, he was a merchant, and if he met a weak person, he was a horse thief. The key was to find employment flexibly according to the market environment.

Along the way, he has also seen living sacrifices to the river god, the mountain god marrying a wife, and immortals walking into the underworld. It can be said that Lao Ma is still alive now, all thanks to the strong relationship of his eighteen generations of ancestors in the underworld. If it were a little worse, he would have been dead long ago. The rich life experience allows Lao Ma to maintain a calm attitude when facing Yan Xu, the killer king of the Demon City, because he can see that this is a rare good man. The most important thing is that he is very capable and ruthless enough.

Good people don't live long these days. Lao Ma has seen too many people who were kind-hearted for a while, but ended up not only killing themselves but also getting their families involved. So he didn't intend to be a good person, nor a bad person. As a result, he successfully survived. Although he didn't do well and had no children or family to rely on when he was old, he had no worries and compared with the hardships he had seen in his half life, his life could be considered happy.

In Lao Ma’s mind, it is not easy to be a good person. Without strong power and ruthless means, the so-called good person is just a piece of meat that can be slaughtered at will.

Therefore, Lao Ma admires people like Yan Xu who are ruthless, strong and willing to do good things, because he did not abuse his power, but did a lot of good things in a down-to-earth manner. Countless people were able to survive because of him. Therefore, he does not hide anything when speaking and says whatever he thinks.

Yan Xu often bought some braised meat, peanuts and other things in the town, accompanied by two pots of wine, and the two of them could talk until the next stop.

Lao Ma has experienced the true bottom of this world, and his every word and action has given Yan Xu deep insights.

Overall, it's chaos.

Although the Qing Dynasty has not been disbanded, it has lost 90% of its control over this land. In fact, the Qing Dynasty can no longer control even the Forbidden City, allowing eunuchs and palace maids to work together to resell things in the palace, not to mention the local area.

Although some places are still flying the banner of the Qing Dynasty, they are the ones who refuse to obey orders or proclamations. Not to mention obeying orders, they don't even pay a penny of taxes.

It can be said that the Qing Dynasty was only one breath and one fire away from its complete collapse. A breath of wind could blow it down, and a fire could ignite the only remaining skin, and the Qing Dynasty would come to its final end.

It is still maintained now. Apart from the historical inertia of nearly three hundred years, there has not yet emerged a group that can take over the ruling power.

That writer and educator who left behind many famous quotes for future generations, which no one knows whether they were said by him or not, and who did not study medicine well, has not yet reached the peak of his life, so the transition from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China has not yet officially begun.

In fact, whether it is opened or not, these things are too far away from the people. They only know that their lives are getting harder and harder.

Government officials, bandits, soldiers, warlords, gentry, and landlords took turns to plunder from macro to micro, leaving the people without a place to live or food to eat. Otherwise, how could the Magic City attract so many outsiders and so many people choose to leave their homes? It's because they have no way to survive and they can only take a chance.

This is already bitter enough, but the key is that there are gods and ghosts in this world, which makes things even worse.

Lao Ma showed Yan Xu his treasure bag, which was filled with glutinous rice, incense ash, cinnabar, and boy's urine. He proudly said that with these, he had escaped from ghosts and monsters several times.

Yan Xu lamented that Lao Ma's horoscope was so hard that it could be used as an anvil. Didn't he see that Uncle Jiu's apprentice Qiu Sheng was almost drained of his yang energy after encountering a ghost? Wencai was even worse and almost turned into a zombie.

This is for those who have practiced a bit and have relied on the support of some big guys. If ordinary people encounter ghosts, it is so dangerous that they can't even describe it as a life-and-death situation. Most of the time, not only will they die, but their souls will not be able to escape.

(End of this chapter)