The village also wanted to teach these people a lesson, so they agreed to Si Cheng's request. Soon, their families gathered the amount of grain they had previously agreed on and added a gift for each person as compensation.

Only after watching Gao Shitou and the others tie all the grain to the backs of the ox did Si Cheng release the stick in his hand, and the dozen or so people who had been trapped underneath finally stood up with the help of their families.

Village Chief Cen gave Si Cheng a deep look. People like them, small fry, had their own way of surviving. Seeing the imposing aura of the other party, he knew that his village rascals had met their match. It was a good opportunity to teach them a lesson so they wouldn't be so arrogant all the time.

"I still don't know where you're from?" Seeing that everything was resolved, Village Chief Cen finally tried to be friendly.

“We are from Pinghe Village in X County. We’re short of food, so they asked us to bring out some salt to exchange for some food to take back,” Wu Yong replied, his words a mix of truth and falsehood.

Village Chief Cen didn't believe his story; these people didn't look like they were starving.

Sicheng helped tie the things up and then put them on as well.

How's your harvest going? Is the water supply sufficient?

Speaking of this, Village Chief Cen couldn't help but sigh. "There's no sun now, the crops aren't growing much, so the harvest is naturally going to be poor. We're lucky if we can even keep the seeds. Right now, the village is just living off the grain we had stored up. Otherwise, these kids wouldn't have been so bold as to try and cheat you."

Village Chief Cen was crying about being poor, but he forgot that the people in front of him also came from the village and knew exactly how much the crops could yield.

“This is no excuse for them to do bad things. Luckily, they ran into us this time. If it were someone else, they would have wiped you out.” Si Cheng didn’t agree with this statement at all. You can’t just take advantage of others because your own harvest is poor. “Besides, you have many mountains around you. You must have had plenty of wild vegetables and mushrooms from the mountains. That should be enough to make up for some of the losses.”

"By the way, does your village still have a lot of salt? If you have any left over, could you exchange some with us?" Although they felt that those dozen or so families had given so much in compensation, they had also received a batch of salt in return. This was a necessity right now, especially since the village was running out of salt. Thinking about it this way, they weren't really at a disadvantage.

"We can't exchange it for you right now. This salt took us more than two months to bring back from the neighboring province. The journey was fraught with danger." Wu Yong and his close associates knew Si Cheng's idea and supported it. Their success in exchanging the salt for supplies showed that the deal was profitable.

"It takes so long to get there? Can you tell me exactly where it is?" Village Chief Cen thought that if the journey were easy, his village could organize people to go and exchange for a batch of salt.

“It’s in the neighboring S province, where there are salt wells. It will take more than two months to prepare for the trip, and they need supplies to exchange for them.” Si Cheng wasn’t afraid to tell them all this. If they had the perseverance, he could go on the trip himself.

“But if you’re going to go, be careful. One of our teammates was almost dragged away by a leopard before.” Wu Yong wasn’t just scaremongering them; it was a true story. The two couples, Gao Baiyun and Gao Shitou, nodded honestly in agreement. Thinking back to what happened, they still felt lingering fear, which was unconsciously shown on their faces.

When Village Chief Cen saw their expressions, he knew that what they said was true, and he couldn't help but have some reservations.

"If it was so dangerous, how did you manage to escape unscathed?" The person who had tricked them into the village came to his senses and, seeing that the matter was even, immediately retorted.

"You guys were just piled up like a mountain, and you've already forgotten how quickly you were done?" Wu Yong gave him a disdainful look. "As long as my brother is in our team, he's the pillar of strength."

Si Cheng couldn't help but glare at him when he saw him boasting like that; the more he talked, the more outrageous it became.

Only then did they realize that they hadn't seen clearly before and didn't know how they ended up piled up on top. They couldn't help but shudder; they had encountered a master.

"When will you be able to go again? Could you bring back some salt for us? We certainly won't treat you unfairly." Village Chief Cen had lost a lot of hair due to the shortage of various supplies.

"We dare not go now. The drought there is terrible, and we almost didn't make it back." Although Wu Yong was tough on the outside, he was actually afraid to go there again.

"Is it really that dry outside? The army came to investigate here before because they all migrated here from the north due to the drought." This was the second time in the past two days that Village Chief Cen had heard about the drought, because his village usually didn't allow anyone to go far away except when working in the fields.

"It's really tough. In many places, you can't find any water at all, and even the weeds on the ground are starting to wither. You can't even find any wild vegetables along the way." Si Cheng told them the truth. If they excitedly organized their people to go out and then encountered these problems, it would be hard to back out.

"It seems like fate isn't giving us a way out. We'll discuss it then." Village Chief Cen asked someone to bring paper and pen, and asked Si Cheng to write down their village's address and draw a simple route map. If they really needed it, they could see if they could exchange some salt from them to last for a while.

Si Cheng calculated that the village's salt reserves should be enough to weather the drought, but if they were to be exchanged, it would have to be the public salt the village had just acquired through the exchange, and he wasn't sure if the villagers would be willing. Nevertheless, he left behind the route map and name; if he could find some transport animals, the salt transport route would still be feasible.

With so much grain, Si Cheng and his men didn't linger. They led the cattle back without heading into the city.

After walking a long way out of the village, Wu Yong patted his chest.

"Luckily, this isn't a black village, or we would have been in serious trouble on this trip."

"Now you're scared? I thought you were fearless, since you were so high and mighty before." Gao Shitou finally calmed down and was in the mood to joke. You have to understand how nervous he was before.

"But we have Brother Cheng here, and seeing how timid those people are, we know they're just bluffing. The main thing is we're afraid of their whole village. If the whole village thinks like them, then we're in big trouble." Wu Yong wasn't that clueless; he was just trying to intimidate them with his sheer force of will.