Chapter 18: The Cow That Ate Tree Leaves
If a nose ring on a person was for the purpose of decoration, then on a cow it was to conveniently control it.
A cow was a very stubborn and disobedient animal. To ensure that it listened to orders, people would pierce a ring inside its nose. Since there were much nerve endings inside a cow’s nose it would hurt a lot when the nose ring was pulled. Once it was hurt, then the cow would learn to obey.
All in all, the nose ring was a simple method culminated through actual practice by the labouring proletariat ma.s.ses to control livestock. Yue Qiang knew about this.
But since when could a nose ring qualify as a ‘treasure’ and appear inside the game?
Moreover, judging from the village chief’s att.i.tude this thing was quite the high ranking treasure. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be the whole village swearing their lives to protect this nose ring, people sent by powerful states to rob it and this whole war started all because of this one nose ring..
The nose ring came from the cow, and the cow came from Green Cow Village.
Yue Qiang suddenly recalled something. After he finished his training, he had run into the blacksmith Tan Xiong. At the time the NPC was extremely surprised to find that his const.i.tution had improved by leaps and bounds; thinking that he had met someone from ‘Green Cow Village’. Now that he thought about it, he believed that it would be an arduous task to enhance one’s const.i.tution in a short amount of time. On the other hand, if he ran into someone from Green Cow Village, then it would be a simple thing to happen.
Here comes the question: Just what kind of a place is Green Cow Village?
On what basis that the blacksmith Tan Xiong thought that if Yue Qiang had run into someone from Green Cow Village, then it would not be surprising that his const.i.tution was increased?
Without a doubt, the answer to this question lay with the village chief. Therefore Yue Qiang inquired respectfully, “For such a place to be named after something as common as ‘Green Cow Village’. What is this place?”
“I have never been to Green Cow Village myself; I’m afraid that even if you put together every single person in this world, you won’t find too many people who have gone to Green Cow Village.” The old village chief said. Then his tone took a turn, “But I have seen someone who came from Green Cow Village.”
Yue Qiang grew even more curious, “I wonder what kind of magical power do they have?”
“He wasn’t an adult. He was just a child; a little shepherd.”
Yue Qiang did not say anything and simply watched quietly at the village chief recounting. He too wanted to know urgently exactly how strong was this person from Green Cow Village.
“Back in those years, when I was still very young, I chopped wood at this mountain for a living. On that day I saw a shepherd holding a cow and walking in the mountains. There were many wrinkles on the cow’s skin; it looked to be a very old cow. I have never seen such an old cow before in my life. Therefore I walked forwards wanting to take a closer look at it. However when I walked closer, I heard the herding shepherd was speaking, and he seemed to be talking to the old cow.
He said, “You should listen to me obediently and come back to the village.” That cow seemed to understand human language and shook his head to express disagreement.
Then the shepherd said again, “In that case let us make a bet. If you can eat the tree leaves from the tall and huge trees of this mountain, then we will go out and play for a couple more days. I can even take off your nose ring to keep you from being uncomfortable. However, if you cannot eat the tree leaves of these tall trees, then you will obediently come back with me.”
The teacher Chen Zi Han paused for a moment before continuing, “You were young, young sir, and hence you do not know about this. The trees in this mountain are called gum trees, and they are very rare. Not only that this tree is tall, huge and tough, the most peculiar thing is that along the long distance between the floor and the crown, there is only one trunk and no other branches. You can imagine that even if that cow is something special, how can an animal that can only bow its head and graze, how can it possibly eat the tree leaves that are a few hundred feet away?”
Yue Qiang quietly watched the screen as the old teacher Chen Zi Han said those words with a leisure and fascinated look. It was as if this was a true story and not a background designed by some game writer. Even he was somewhat curious about what the cow was going to do next. Chen Zi Han continued,
“The cow seemed to agree to the bet. Next, it leaned actually rubbed itself against the tree trunk as if it was itchy. It repeated the same thing on every gigantic tree, and in just ten minutes it had already rubbed against tens of trees. It is a strange thing to say, but all tens of tall and st.u.r.dy gum trees fell down in a crash after it had rubbed against them. It was as if that green cow was able to unleash infinite strength just by scratching its itch!
Then, the cow ate every single one of the leaves from the fallen trees. To this day this old me still cannot imagine how a cow’s stomach can consume so many tree leaves.
After that, the shepherd had no choice but to take off the cow’s nose ring in accordance to the bet. Then he saw me at the side and threw the ring carelessly towards me. At the time, I had also chopped a good amount of wood due to the many fallen gum trees.”
Finishing his story, Chen Zi Han pulled the topic back on the right track, “You must have seen by now the giant crossbow log house in front of the village. The main body of the giant crossbow was built using the wood from the gum tree!”
Yue Qiang knew very well the strength and toughness of that giant crossbow log house.To think that such quality timber would fall in a crash after being rubbed by the cow from Green Cow Village just like that.
Following Chen Zi Han’s words, the reason why the current Yue Village existed; the reason why the tens of people inside Yue Village had a physical strength far exceeding that of a normal person was simply because of a bet between a pa.s.sing by shepherd and his cow.
After finishing listening to the story, Yue Qiang did not limit himself to just shocking emotions. While he watched the dialog box beneath Chen Zi Han’s avatar, he had sunk into deep thought.
Did you know? No matter how realistically a game was made, it was still just a game in the end. If he did not consider the illusory yet all powerful magic of celestial beings, then the story Chen Zi Han had told him could still be explained. Moreover, the explanation was quite simple and could be clarified in just one sentence.
This cow, has stats.
Moreover, its stats must be pretty high. It was possible that its strength had to exceed 100 points to achieve what the elder had told him.
There was no doubt that this was a G.o.dly cow that had broken through the limits of a common cow. Maybe I can call it the Earthshaker? (T/N: Yes, the author is totally referencing DotA’s Earthshaker)
Now he could connect all the dots with this explanation in mind.
The people from Green Cow Village had an extremely powerful ability that would allow a person to break through their body’s limits. This ability was so incredible that even an ordinary cattle could be affected to the point it could do what a normal man would normally view as a miracle.
Yue Qiang vowed in his mind that if he had the chance in the future, he would definitely visit this Green Cow Village and have a look. Perhaps only after he had reached that place that he would be able to find the true way to become stronger.
As of now, the foremost matter was without a doubt increasing his strength as much as possible in order to face the next chain of quests.
Yue Qiang did not forget that he had only just completed one ‘a.s.sist in the defense of Yue village’ quest. There was yet a dark red and skull level quest waiting for him!
At this point he couldn’t help but click the teacher Chen Zi Han’s avatar again, and he realized that he was also able to accept these two quest from him. After a thought he quickly figured out why. This person was a village chief, and the letter delivery quest he obtained after clicking the letter had also specified the village chief as the recipient.
Although this village chief’s ‘character design’ was that of a person who loved being flattered, whereas the blacksmith Tan Xiong was a bit peremptory, but they both – or should he say every villager in the village – shared the same att.i.tude towards Zhao State’s invasion: They might not be able to resist the Zhao State and the village was soon going to be destroyed, but even then they would fight!
The question now was whether this skull level quest is a hopeless plot driven fight, or if it will change to dark red difficulty later as my strength increases. Regardless, increasing his strength sat at first priority and was more important than anything else.
“Does teacher Chen have any method that would swiftly increase my strength to teach me?” Yue Qiang typed and after a thought, added another sentence, “This kid wishes to contribute a greater strength towards the defense of Yue Village.”
“I see that your previous method is quite good.”
Yue Qiang smiled wryly. Bodybuilding, huh? He checked the time. Before he knew it time had pa.s.sed swiftly. In that case he might as well go back and have a look, and he had a very important question to ask Luqiu Duanyi anyway. This question would be the one he thought during combat; the question about the game’s death penalty.
After moving his game character back to the room carefully, only then he returned to the game’s main menu. Yue Qiang gave his back a long stretch before he stood up, packed his stuff and got ready to go out.
He did not shut down the computer. He also did not notice the blue progress bar of the tricolor progress bars at the corner of the screen had progressed a little more.