The legend of Tiedan

[jackwong1978]

There was once a fisherman living happily with his mum. He was stung by a scorpion, and when he was panicking, a travelling swordsman promised to take him to the nearest doctor. But instead, this man taught him all kind of cultivation and fighting techniques, gave him some of the best gears in the world, and took him fighting bandits. Tiedan was worried he was going to die from the poison, but he went along with the swordsman anyway. He finally decided to ask the swordsman: when are you taking me to the doctor? The swordsman says: do you think you need to see a doctor? Tiedan then realized, there is nothing wrong with him, if anything, the scorpion has helped him got stronger.... He continued to travel with this swordsman and became the strongest villager there ever was..
By the way, after your first mission with Wudong, you can go back to qinghe village, walk near tiedan and an event should play out, just don't complete the mission and you should be able to keep him. I believe he is the only random NPC you can deploy in a battle.

[dragnier1]

Don't worry, there's a mod whereby you could recruit anyone. Also, if you could somehow sneak the 3 kids past luo village...

[titanopteryx]

Stung by a scorpion and it made him stronger...

Scorpionman?