Chapter 197: Is it a natural calamity or a man-made disaster?
Translator: Stardu5t Editor: Kurisu
The arrogant man stepping on a bottle gourd bore the dao name ‘Daoist Half Gourd’. For loose cultivators, to reach the Fourth Stage was actually pretty rare.
Daoist Half Gourd knew the hardships of the loose cultivators. The higher the stage he was at, the more resources he needed for practice, and hence being by himself—without a sect’s support—made him feel more and more burdened as time went by.
Thus, he did everything in his power to become friends with Branch Leader Jing Mo.
The process of becoming good friends with Jing Mo was... one painful memory.
This silly chap, Branch Leader Jing Mo, had an explosive temperament—nobody knew when he would suddenly go berserk and starting beating people up.
In order to obtain Branch Leader Jing Mo’s friendship, when Jing Mo went berserk and wanted to hit people, Daoist Half Gourd would prepare and put himself in the mode of ‘getting beaten’. He wanted to allow him to feel enough gratification from beating him, while at the same time showing a bit of resistance to display his powers, in a way telling him that he wasn’t weak.
Hence, he had to fight with crazy Jing Mo more than one hundred rounds, and eventually show that his strength was not on par with his and ultimately "lose" each time. He had acted out this scene more than ten times. It was honestly not easy.
The only good thing that came out of it was that he got rewarded for his efforts—he successfully became good friends with Branch Leader Jing Mo.
Because of his personality making it hard for him to make friends, Jing Mo treated this ‘friend’ extra nicely and cherished him a lot—except that when he went berserk, he would still beat him up.
But, when he had something good going on, he would always think about his only friend.
Daoist Half Gourd managed to enjoy quite a number of benefits from the Limitless Demon Sect using his relationship with Branch Leader Jing Mo. Right now, he just had to wait for an opportunity to reach the Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor to obtain a chance to join the Limitless Demon Sect and possibly become a branch leader himself!
As for him tagging along this time, it was because he wanted to keep up his act of being at Branch Leader Jing Mo’s beck and call to deepen the friendship between them.
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Senior Brother Three Realms sent Song Shuhang back to the village—he looked for an empty spot with no one nearby before landing and dropping him off.
"Shuhang, I’m gonna go ahead first. After capturing so many ghosts, I can’t wait to get cracking," Senior Brother Three Realms smiled at Song Shuhang.
"I wish you quick success," Song Shuhang smiled as he waved his hand.
Senior Brother Three Realms placed his palms together and bowed.
The flying sword reappeared and off he went, disappearing without a trace.
Song Shuhang was dragging with him a box and a large package, walking towards Tubo’s grandfather’s house.
‘At this moment, if only there were space rings or storage bags, etc., it would be so much easier,’ Song Shuhang complained inwardly.
He was merely fantasizing about it—Medicine Master had once said that his entire fortune put together was not enough to exchange for a space ring. Unless his luck was extremely good, otherwise he could just forget about owning such a high level equipment.
After all he wasn’t Senior White, who would get whatever he wanted.
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Upon returning to Tubo’s grandpa’s house, the first thing he did was to put the box and the medicinal herbs in the back of the hatchback.
However, the trunk had limited space; it was very inconvenient for storage.
Ah, if I had known, I would have gotten Senior Brother Three Realms’ help in regards to performing some illusory art on these items to conceal them. Either that or I should have driven a normal sedan to J-City in the first place. All I can do now is to hope that nothing happens to the items in the car…
After locking up the car, Song Shuhang prepared to enter the house.
At this time, Tubo and his grandfather—together with Li Yangde—donned comfortable clothes, carrying a couple of bamboo baskets. They were just about to leave the house.
"Ah, Shuhang, you’re back," Tubo saw Song Shuhang and laughed. "I was just about to call you, we are preparing to go up the mountain to pick some waxberries. Let’s go together."
"Alright, let’s go together!" Song Shuhang smiled.
"Do you wanna change your clothes? There are a lot of mosquitoes on the mountain," Tubo suggested.
"It’s okay, I’m not that delicate," Song Shuhang grinned—he still had the ‘spirit-binding ice bead’ on him. Ordinary mosquitoes wouldn’t dare to go near his body. If they were less fearful and approached him a little, they would die immediately from the cold emitted by the ice bead.
"Then let’s head out!" Tubo and Li Yangde were in high spirits and led the way in front. Song Shuhang followed them behind.
As for Tubo’s grandfather, after walking a certain distance, he slowed down to walk together with Song Shuhang.
His facial expression showed that he seemed to have something he wanted to say.
"Grandfather, is there anything you wanna tell me?" Song Shuhang smiled as he asked.
"Shuhang, I wanna ask, are you close to the young lady you came with the last time? When will you bring her here to play again?" Tubo’s grandfather tried his best to make it sound as natural as possible.
Song Shuhang blinked his eyes and said, "Yeah, that young lady is occupied with something recently. She rarely goes out these days."
If he invited Soft Feather to hang out together, she would definitely be overjoyed. But recently, she was in the midst of synchronizing with a ghost spirit, so she was still in seclusion.
Tubo’s grandfather’s face twitched a little and he sighed in disappointment.
After a while, he asked again, "Then Shuhang, do you have a way to contact her and describe the strange happenings in this village to her? Can you ask her for some advice?"
The main point was, the villagers completely ran out of solutions and ideas… not only were they unable to diagnose the cause of weakness in their bodies, there was also a lot of strange and mysterious happenings in the village, causing everyone to feel very anxious. Even people who did not believe in the supernatural still felt uneasy.
Song Shuhang lightly shook his head—there wasn’t a need for this anymore, since all the ghost-related problems in this village have been solved after the eradication of the ghost beings.
Tubo’s grandfather sighed once again in disappointment. Lastly, he asked him, "Shuhang, do you have any solutions to solve the problems in this village?"
"Grandpa, it’s not my specialty," replied Song Shuhang.
Tubo’s grandfather was utterly disappointed.
Song Shuhang couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. After thinking for a bit, he said softly, "But Grandpa, perhaps these health problems are only temporary? Perhaps in the next couple of days, it would get better?"
"It would get better in the next couple of days?" Tubo’s grandfather zoned out for a bit.
He suddenly recalled that not long ago, his body felt a chill for a moment before quickly reverting to its original state. He felt a glimmer of hope.
He simply nodded and said, "I sure hope so."
After a long pause, he secretly asked, "Shuhang, are there really ghosts in this world?
"If you believe they exist, then they do. And vice versa," replied Song Shuhang. He was not going to walk Tubo’s grandfather through the mindset of the world of cultivators. He didn’t want to say too many things about it as to avoid involving Tubo’s grandfather and bring him trouble.
"Regardless of whether they do exist or not, after listening to your words, I feel a lot more relaxed," Tubo’s grandfather laughed.
After that, Tubo’s grandpa brought the three young men to waxberry yard.
Maybe it was that Song Shuhang’s assurance was effective, but Tubo’s grandfather felt that most of the weakness in his body was gone. He felt more energetic.
Eventually, the four of them went home after harvesting a few baskets worth of waxberries.
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It was nighttime.
After Song Shuhang finished meditating, he got up, went to the window and looked up into the sky full of stars.
All was quiet and still outside the house, there were only a few houses with the lights on. This area was quite a distance away from downtown, hence it wasn’t as bustling. It allowed people to feel relaxed and at peace.
"I can’t fall asleep somehow," Song Shuhang sighed and took out the list.
At the bottom of the list was the message left behind by Senior White: "Little Friend Shuhang, I hope that your trip to J-City would be a successful one. I also wish you success in finding the medicinal herbs for the qi and blood pill on the list!"
Meditating, he recalled ‘Senior White’s blessing’ as he thought back to today’s entire day’s worth of loot and rewards.
Just like Senior White’s blessing, this trip to J-City went so smoothly that it made people boil with anger.
It was practically as though whatever you lack, you get it! When he needed help, Senior Brother Three Realms rushed to his side from afar and helped him get rid of the resentful ghosts; when he needed cultivation techniques, Senior Brother Three Realms sent him a supplementary body refining technique.
And at the same time, just like Senior White’s message, he successfully gathered all of the medicinal herbs needed for the qi and blood pill—the quantity was not small as well.
Come to think of it, he constantly felt that his luck today was extremely good—could it be because of Senior White’s blessing?
Senior White’s luck... could it be that it was not limited to himself? And that it could follow his will and affect the people around him?
If it was really Senior White’s blessing… then he had to be more careful. Senior White’s good luck belonged to the category of ‘wealth comes with great danger’.
Right now, the wealth was in his hands— where’s the danger then?
Could it be a natural calamity? For example, a meteorite crashing down from the sky in his sleep, leaving him half dead?
Or could it be a man-made disaster? For example, when a formidable cultivator was fighting with someone, he would suddenly get caught up in it, leaving him half dead?
The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.
He felt that there was an impending danger approaching him!
As the time went by, this premonition of danger got stronger and stronger, causing him to be unable to calm down.
If there was really some danger approaching… I can’t drag Tubo and his grandpa into this!
Every cultivator had to trust their own intuition when it came to danger—better to be safe than sorry!
After thinking, Song Shuhang first put the car keys on the table.
After that, he put away the list.
Then, he put the talisman treasures, the disposable flying sword, the treasured saber Broken Tyrant, and Doudou’s dog fur, and so on his body.
He lightly pushed the window open and executed the ❮Virtuous Man’s Ten Thousand Mile Walk❯ footwork. He lightly leaped, and disappeared into the night.
After landing nimbly, he went forward, running towards the former base of Altar Master.
Under the stone wall, there was a huge piece of empty land.
This area was behind the graveyard—nobody would be here at night.
If it was really a meteorite that came crashing down from the sky, the impact on the village would be the smallest here. And if it was a battle between cultivators, this would also be a good location.
As he was immersed in his thoughts, his mind sensed some sort of danger and his mood became heavier and heavier.
Song Shuhang squeezed Doudou’s dog fur and that armor talisman in one hand, while holding tightly onto the sword talisman with the other. His state of alertness heightened as he looked around his surroundings as well as the sky.
From the sky… there was indeed something falling at an extremely high speed from the sky, coming toward him!
But, it wasn’t a meteorite.
It was a huge bottle gourd—its color the same as that of red wine—which was emitting a sheen that normally surrounded magical treasures.
From the looks of it, it was a man-made disaster?
"Armor!" Song Shuhang immediately activated the armor talisman, and a layer of pale golden light enveloped his entire body.
At the same time, without having to activate it, Doudou’s fur started floating out from his hand as though it was bestowed with life and inflated. In the blink of an eye, it took on the form of a formidable big pekingese.
It looked just like Doudou, but this big pekingese seemed slightly weaker. It should be one of Doudou’s clones.
"Woof!" The big pekingese that was formed from Doudou’s fur pounced onto that big bottle gourd...
