Cave Refuge

Despite Ward's young age, he started his hustling life quite early.

Pengcheng, located at a major traffic hub, has always been a contested battleground since ancient times, hence the tough and rugged local customs.

During the Three Kingdoms period, even though it seemed that Pengcheng didn't produce any famous military units, in reality, there were two units deeply associated with Pengcheng.

Although the Danyang soldiers were supposedly originally mobilized from Danyang County by Peter, during his tenure in Pengcheng at the peak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, everyone should understand the heavy damages suffered in ancient warfare.

So, as the Yellow Turban Rebellion progressed, most of the Danyang soldiers were from Pengcheng, as Peter, governor of Pengcheng, obviously couldn't return to Danyang to recruit more soldiers.

Besides the Danyang soldiers, another military unit associated with Pengcheng was the White Ears soldiers.

The reason is quite simple. When Liu Bei first formed the White Ears soldiers, it was mostly due to the heavy losses of the Danyang soldiers, combined with the desire to diminish Peter's influence, so he renamed them as the White Ears soldiers.

The formation of the White Ears soldiers took place in Pengcheng, Skelton conscripted soldiers in Pengcheng, but later as Liu Bei left Pengcheng, like the initial Danyang soldiers, no more recruitment took place in Pengcheng.

A rumor circulated in Pengcheng that at the time of the invasion by foreign forces, the invaders encountered repeated failures in a certain county in Pengcheng. Eventually, they just unconsciously ignored this region during general sweeps.

Dong Tianyu wasn't very clear about the events of the forties and fifties, but he had heard about the seventies and eighties, and had personally experienced events in the nineties and the new century.

The Pengcheng of the nineties truly observed the principle of "There is less altercation when fists are involved."

People might start fighting just because of a glance in the crowd.

Even though it is uncertain whether barbecue originated from Pengcheng, in the nineties, it could be boldly stated that there was definitely a barbecue stand in every block, and they were basically all open-air setups.

Here's an incident that might surprise many. Once evening fell, the tables of the barbecue stands would fill the streets and even take up two-thirds of intersections.

Fighting was nearly a regular event at these barbecue stands. Although it didn't happen every day, it happened a couple of times a week especially during summer.

During those times, men in Pengcheng would eat their barbecue bare-chested, and would be sweating all over after eating. Add the stimulation of ice-cold beer, and people would become exhilarated.

So, even the smallest sparks could ignite a battle.

When Ward was young, he used to monitor these barbecue stands.

In contrast to the vibrant nightlife of bars and karaoke bars in major cities, the summer nightlife in Pengcheng originally consisted of barbecue and more barbecue.

(They would normally start eating around six or seven, finish at eleven or twelve, then move to another barbecue stand and start over.)

That's why the streets of Pengcheng were filled with barbecue stands.

Also, it would explain why hotheaded individuals would start brawling during barbecues.

However, compared to incidents elsewhere where fights lead to deep-seated resentment, individuals who fought over the barbecue stands could find themselves becoming familiar with the person they fought with over a shared meal the next day.

That's why people used to say, "What problem can't be solved with one barbecue meal? If there is, then have two."

Of course, fights require someone to clean up afterwards and collect money, after all, the upturned tables and chairs cost money. Back then, one of Ward's duties as a stand watcher was to collect money from drunkards.

If you couldn't suppress them immediately after a fight, regardless of whether they lost or won and were still high on adrenaline, not only would you not collect any money, but you also might be beaten up.

Therefore, while watching over these stands, Ward not only learned to be ruthless, but also accumulated plenty of combat experience.

When the new century arrived, Pengcheng underwent several severe crackdowns. Hustlers like Ward turned to various professions.

Such as bar and karaoke bar security, demolition persuasion officer, debt-collection officer, and outsourced security personnel.

Ward was fortunate enough to follow a good boss, and although he switched professions multiple times, his superior boss never changed.

After the arrival of the Cold Catastrophe, they followed their boss into the underground Refuge Center, and even unwittingly took up security duties for the Refuge Center.

By leveraging his boss's heavy-handed management, they were finally able to quell the unrest, despite the several upheavals that happened in their Refuge Center.

Just when Ward believed they could spend the rest of their lives bossing others around in the underground Refuge Center, the climate warmed up again, allowing survivors to return to the surface.

While others argued that no matter what happened in the world outside, as long as they remained underground without venturing outside, their days of comfort would not end.

However, Ward's boss did not agree with these sentiments. He took with him the people who were willing to follow him and left the Refuge Center.

Those who didn't want to leave continued to exploit their power inside the Refuge Center.

Later, Ward heard that those who had stayed in the Refuge Center were put in their place by officials a few days later and were completely taken away. Since then, there has been no further information about them.

After hearing this news, Ward had even more admiration for his boss. He had unconditional trust in any arrangements made by his boss.

The task of exploring the mountain this time was also volunteered by him. Although there was a bit of a hitch, with the failure to open the gate to the cave, when he spotted Dong Tianyu, Ward guessed that he should know how to get the gate open.

With this thought in mind, Ward made a sign to his two lackeys, then rolled up the long sleeve covering his arm, showing Dong Tianyu what was inside.

"Hey brother, come and have a chat. I'm inviting you, you wouldn't refuse, right? If you refuse, my brother here might become unhappy. If he invites you personally and you end up getting hurt, well that would be very unfortunate."

Ward rolled up his sleeve to reveal a crossbow strapped to his forearm, with two crossbow bolts on it. It was apparently a double-shot weapon.

In Daxia, where firearms are strictly prohibited, this weapon may be illegal, but it's much better than firearms. At close range, its lethality might not necessarily be less than that of regular firearms.

Upon seeing the weapon strapped to the man's forearm, Dong Tianyu felt somewhat helpless. Aren't thugs in movies supposed to use cleavers wrapped in newspaper? How did it change from being a warrior to a sniper when it came to him?

However, as a Qi practitioner, Dong Tianyu did not feel threatened by the crossbow on the man's arm.

Of course, even if Dong Tianyu was quite agile, he did not intend to engage in close combat. Instead, he placed both hands behind him and took two items out of the Shadow Space.

After spinning these two things flamboyantly in his hands, he said to the three slack-jawed henchmen, "Actually, these two 'brothers' of mine also want to have a chat with you three."