I'm Just a Beast Tamer

Chapter 29: Chapter 27: Cowherding Village

Among the crowd of gamblers, one man stood out as particularly different.

Two dark red Beast Patterns were tattooed on his cheeks. A white feather was tucked into his hair. Around his neck hung a shabby-looking beast bone necklace, and a nearly identical beast bone bracelet was on his wrist.

This man was currently crowded around a gambling table, shouting excitedly.

Aside from his special attire, which marked him as someone from Cowherding Village, he was no different from the gamblers around him.

"I’ll wait for you outside. Bring him out to me, and I’ll give you another Five Hundred Copper Coins. Don’t draw any attention, or you won’t get paid."

Jiang Zuo said to the middle-aged man before turning and leaving the casino with his little black dog.

"No problem. You can count on me."

The middle-aged man’s spirits lifted instantly.

It wasn’t easy to pull a gambler away from the tables, but for him, it wasn’t a difficult task.

Jiang Zuo left the casino and waited for a while at the end of the street.

Soon after, the middle-aged man brought the man from Cowherding Village over.

Right in front of the villager, Jiang Zuo gave the middle-aged man one tael of silver and told him to leave.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?"

Qi Xiao took in the scene and asked proactively, a hint of sycophancy in his tone.

"You’re from Cowherding Village, right? I want to go there."

There was no need to waste words on a gambler, so Jiang Zuo got straight to the point.

"I can take you, sure, but you’ll have to give me ten taels of silver."

Qi Xiao said after a moment’s thought.

"Ten taels of silver just to show me the way? You really know how to ask for the moon."

"If I were willing to pay that much, believe me, I could just shout right here, and a whole crowd of people would pop up, ready to take me."

Jiang Zuo scoffed.

Ten taels was a small sum to him now. If the man were hardworking but dragged down by his family, so impoverished that he couldn’t even afford to eat, Jiang Zuo wouldn’t mind being charitable.

But he had no desire to give that money to a gambler.

"I have no choice. I stole something from home and pawned it. If I go back without getting it, my legs will be broken."

"As for people who know the way, there are others besides me. But if you want to buy some antique bones in the village, I think you’d be better off taking me."

"I may have fallen from grace, but there are still plenty of people in the village who believe in the Beast God. Those bones are their treasures. Forget about buying them; you won’t even get to see them."

"But if you take me, I know the situation of every family in the village. I know who might let you see their family treasures."

"And if you see something you want to buy, I can even help put in a good word."

Qi Xiao shrugged nonchalantly.

But then he enthusiastically began to pitch the benefits of hiring him as a guide.

"To the pawnshop."

Jiang Zuo said after a moment of thought.

He never believed a word a gambler said, but Qi Xiao had a point.

Some of the people in Cowherding Village had become secular, but there was also a portion that still clung to their faith.

Those who were willing to secularize had likely already traded away any good items they had with the merchants who visited.

If Jiang Zuo wanted to find an Obsession Relic, he would probably have to deal with the villagers who held fast to their beliefs.

In that case, bringing Qi Xiao along was essential.

Qi Xiao had indeed pawned an item at the pawnshop.

It was a white Beast Bone Ring, but he had only pawned it for five taels of silver.

Jiang Zuo redeemed the ring, glanced at it in his hand, and tossed it back to Qi Xiao.

The ring was exquisitely carved and quite hard, its color like white jade. Unfortunately, it was just an ordinary Beast Bone Ring.

"I’ll give you the remaining five taels when we get to Cowherding Village."

Qi Xiao had no objections; he was looking to return to the village anyway.

There was nothing to complain about, earning ten taels of silver so easily.

It was noon. Jiang Zuo bought a pile of steamed buns, and the two men and one dog left Chongming Town.

Qi Xiao was in his early thirties but looked younger than his age. He chattered endlessly on the road. If Jiang Zuo hadn’t seen him engrossed in gambling at the casino with his own eyes, it would be hard to imagine such a person was a gambler.

’Gambling truly ruins people,’ Jiang Zuo thought.

It was clear that Qi Xiao was very interested in the outside world. He constantly asked Jiang Zuo about the places he had been, and the people and things there.

Unfortunately, Jiang Zuo had only been to two other places and couldn’t say much of interest.

Knowing the other man was a gambler, Jiang Zuo had no intention of getting close to Qi Xiao, so he gave vague, dismissive answers to most of his questions.

Instead, Jiang Zuo learned a lot more about the situation in Cowherding Village along the way.

Compared to ancient times, Cowherding Village had actually grown quite a bit. It now had over a hundred households, with a population of six to seven hundred people.

The villagers mainly survived by farming and hunting.

Although they believed in the Beast God, there were no taboos in the village against hunting or eating wild animals.

Currently, Cowherding Village was mainly divided into two factions.

One faction believed the village should secularize, leave its isolation, and connect with the outside world. They felt that clinging to a Beast God who never showed any miracles would only lead to starvation.

The other faction still insisted on their faith in the Beast God, believing that contact with the outside world was a blasphemy against their deity.

Secularization was the prevailing trend in the village. After all, it allowed people to eat better and live better lives.

After watching others live better lives for decades, or even centuries, how many people could truly remain steadfast in their original beliefs?

Even if they could, it was incredibly difficult to expect their children, who were influenced from a young age, to also uphold the faith without being swayed.

Because of this, the villagers who still believed in the Beast God had once tried to make the secular villagers move away.

They wanted to go their separate ways, lest the secular faction poison the minds of their children.

But the secular villagers were no fools.

On the contrary, they were shrewder than anyone.

Their current source of income came from trading with outside merchants, leveraging the village’s fame as a place that worshiped the Beast God.

After centuries of faith in the Beast God, Cowherding Village wasn’t without its benefits.

At the very least, the various Beast Bone Jewelry and implements they made were not only beautiful but also possessed a unique style.

If someone else tried to make the same things, they just wouldn’t have that special charm.

In some places, these items from Cowherding Village were very popular.

Merchants would come periodically to buy up this Beast Bone Jewelry and these implements.

If they left the village, not only would they have to find new homes...

More importantly, without the "blessing" of their identity as Beast God worshipers, the merchants might not even buy the things they made.

And even if they did, the price would likely be drastically reduced.

Getting them to leave Cowherding Village was absolutely impossible.

Of course, the secular villagers also knew when to stop.

Aside from trading beast bones, they staunchly refused to break certain rules that had been considered blasphemous since ancient times.

For example, the village’s only inn allowed you to eat and sleep, but it didn’t provide water for bathing or washing your face.

This was because the dirty water left behind by outsiders bathing or washing was considered a desecration against the Beast God.

...

Cowherding Village was indeed in a remote location, and the path was difficult to travel.

Some parts of the path required pushing through dense thickets of weeds and shrubs to move forward.

After passing through a natural rock cave and walking a long stretch of winding mountain road...

...it was evening when Jiang Zuo finally saw a stretch of paddy fields in the distance.

People dressed as farmers were working in the fields.

Farther on were rows of wooden houses, with wisps of cooking smoke already rising from some of them.

"Qi Xiao, you dare to come back! You even dared to steal the ancestral White Tooth Ring! I’ll beat you to death!"

In one of the paddy fields, an old man spotted Qi Xiao. He immediately grabbed a wooden stick, fuming with anger, and strode over with purpose.

"Dad, don’t! The ring is here! I just took it and forgot to put it back!"

Qi Xiao quickly took out the Beast Bone Ring and shouted, afraid he was a second too late.

Seeing the Beast Bone Ring, the old man’s anger subsided considerably.

He took the ring back, examined it carefully in his hand, and only after confirming it wasn’t a fake did he cautiously put it back in his pocket.

"Dad, this is Jiang Zuo. He’s very interested in antique beast bones and wanted to come to the village to see if there were any that caught his eye. He’s willing to pay a high price. I think we could show Jiang Zuo those few beast bones we have at home."

Seeing his father look over, Qi Xiao quickly introduced Jiang Zuo.

"Those were passed down from our ancestors. They are not for sale."

Old Qi snorted coldly.

"Fine, then. I’ll take Jiang Zuo to see some other families in the village. I’ll come home later."

Qi Xiao said. Old Qi just glanced at him, ignored him, and returned to the paddy field to continue his work.

Qi Xiao led Jiang Zuo into the village. When he saw that Old Qi wasn’t following them back, he immediately said to Jiang Zuo, "Follow me!"

Jiang Zuo said nothing and followed him.

"Wait here for a moment."

After walking a short distance, a wooden house appeared ahead. Qi Xiao told Jiang Zuo to wait under a tree.

Then he ran quickly toward the house by himself.

"Qi Xiao, don’t you run! Get on your knees and wait for your father to come back and break your dog legs!"

Soon, the voice of a woman, full of vigor, rang out.

"I’m not running! I brought the ring back to Dad! He’s farming at the village entrance, I was just talking to him."

Qi Xiao said quickly. Hearing this, the middle-aged woman didn’t bother with him anymore.

As soon as he finished speaking, Qi Xiao ran back.

"Jiang Zuo, take a look at these bones. See any you like?"

Looking at the bones, Jiang Zuo had to hand it to him.

’A gambler through and through. His old man forbids him from selling, so he just sneaks them out himself.’

If Jiang Zuo had taken a liking to them, he would have definitely sold them in secret.

Unfortunately, although these bones looked ancient, exquisite, and beautiful, they were not Obsession Relics.

"They’re not what I’m looking for."

Jiang Zuo shook his head.

"Is that so? Well, can’t be helped. I’ll take you to some other houses in the village then."

Qi Xiao was very disappointed.

He had a feeling that if Jiang Zuo had liked the items, they could have fetched a very high price.

Besides merchants, very few outsiders came to Cowherding Village.

Many of the villagers were quite hostile to outsiders. If it weren’t for Qi Xiao guiding him, Jiang Zuo would likely have been unable to move an inch in the village.

Let alone try to buy their family heirlooms.

From this perspective, giving Qi Xiao ten taels of silver was well worth it.

Qi Xiao led Jiang Zuo into more than a dozen homes in a row, where they looked at many antique bones.

But in Jiang Zuo’s eyes, these so-called antique bones were worse than the ones from Qi Xiao’s home. Some were just outright fakes and had nothing to do with antiques.

It was impossible for items like these to be Obsession Relics.

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