Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Jiang Haoyan jumped back in fright, shouting, “It’s covered in your spit! That’s so gross!”
The elderly group outside let out a chorus of “Heh heh heh~”
I quickly drew a talisman on Jiang Haoyan’s chest, then reached out to hook my arm around his neck, lowering my voice.
“When Chen Zhen and the others climbed up from the fields just now, their feet were covered in leeches, but they didn’t feel a thing. Do you know why?”
Jiang Haoyan paused. “Yeah, why?”
I sighed and patted Jiang Haoyan’s chest. It felt pretty good, so I patted it a couple more times.
“Young man, you’re new to the world. You don’t understand how sinister people can be.”
As it turned out, these leeches were called Broad-bodied Bloodline Leeches. The biggest difference between them and ordinary leeches was that once they gorged themselves on blood, they didn’t digest it immediately. Instead, they stored it in their bodies. After being sprinkled with a special medicinal powder, they would secrete the blood back out.
Chen Zhen and the others were all afflicted with corpse poison, which numbed their limbs so they couldn’t feel the leeches biting them. Furthermore, these bloodline leeches could filter out the corpse poison from the blood. On the surface, someone wanted them to do farm work, but in reality, they were after their blood.
I cautioned Jiang Haoyan, “To want that much blood, this person must be setting up some kind of evil formation. I haven’t figured out exactly which one it is yet, but we’d better be careful. Don’t eat anything they send us.”
Jiang Haoyan realized the gravity of the situation and sucked in a breath of cold air, staring at me blankly. “Are you saying we weren’t kidnapped by human traffickers, and Boss Hou isn’t planning to sell us to someone else? They came for us specifically?”
I nodded. “That’s exactly it. However, while he has his schemes, I have my ways. Heh heh, there’s no need to fear them.”
With a group of old men suffering from corpse poison on my hands, I naturally couldn’t take on the villagers by myself. But I had helpers. Once night fell and the elderly group’s corpse poison flared up, I could use a special secret technique to instantly amplify the aura of their corpse poison a thousandfold. When that happened, it would attract their own kind.
Jiang Haoyan was stunned. “Their… their own kind? You mean-real Jiangshi will show up? Real ones? Like the ones on TV that jump around with their arms stretched out?”
“Exactly. Don’t be afraid. The talisman I drew on you is a special mixture of pot soot, wood ash, pangolin scales, and rat tails. It can hide a human’s yang energy. As long as you don’t move around recklessly when the time comes, the Jiangshi won’t notice you.”
Hearing this, Jiang Haoyan hurriedly started swatting at his chest in disgust.
“Rat tails? Ugh-that’s disgusting!”
I got annoyed. I didn’t even find it gross when I was chewing it up in my mouth, yet you think it’s gross just having it smeared on you? I pulled another talisman from my pocket and pried Jiang Haoyan’s mouth open, trying to stuff it in.
Jiang Haoyan struggled desperately. “Help! Let go of me! Qiao Moyu-let go!”
The elderly group cheered, “Heh heh heh, the Sect Master is amazing!”
Jiang Haoyan and I dawdled in the woods all afternoon. Boss Hou personally came to call for us several times before we finally took our time straightening our clothes and walking out of the forest.
Boss Hou’s face was ashen, his inquisitive gaze scanning us several times.
“Go back for dinner.”
I looked up at the sky. The setting sun hung halfway down the mountain, teetering on the edge, dyeing a corner of the lush green mountains crimson. There was clearly some time left before the corpse poison would flare up, so I gave Jiang Haoyan a look.
Jiang Haoyan caught the signal and reached out to stop Boss Hou.
“No! Labor is the most glorious thing! I haven’t worked enough yet! I want to keep planting rice seedlings. No one leaves until that half-acre is finished!”
Boss Hou was taken aback.
“What’s wrong with you, kid? You like farm work that much?”
Jiang Haoyan lifted his chin. “I am a proud member of the Young Pioneers. Labor creates the world; labor creates the future! No one can stop me from sowing hope and reaping the fruits of my labor!”
With that, he rolled up his pant legs and stepped into the field to plant seedlings.
The bystanders were all dumbfounded. Boss Hou tried to stop him again, but I narrowed my eyes and sized him up. “Boss Hou, didn’t you bring them here to work for the villagers? Now that someone actually wants to work, you’re unhappy about it? Could it be that you have some other motive?”
As soon as I said this, Boss Hou’s pupils shrank, and he let out a guilty cough.
“Ahem, whatever. Suit yourself!”
He gave a cold snort, crossed his arms, and stood to the side to watch us.
The elderly group was furious, each of them cursing Jiang Haoyan. However, under the pressure of my murderous glare, they didn’t dare leave. They could only stand in the field with their hands on their hips, grumbling as they worked.
President Xu kept his head down as he planted. “I’ll plant your lungs, I’ll plant your black heart, I’ll plant your rotten guts!”
In this manner, we wasted another hour or so. It wasn’t until the sky was almost completely dark that I waved my hand and told Jiang Haoyan to come up.
Sure enough, not long after they climbed out, the corpse poison in the elderly group flared up.
One by one, they stretched out their arms and bared their teeth, howling and wailing.
“Oh no, the corpse poison is acting up! Boss Hou, I really wasn’t lying to you. If we don’t find the Sun-Returning Herb soon, these people are going to die. You wouldn’t want all your hard work to go to waste, would you?”
While pretending to treat them, I quietly used a small knife to nick the skin on the backs of their necks, then sprinkled a bit of medicinal powder to let the scent of blood diffuse into the air.
Boss Hou’s footsteps faltered. He looked at the elderly group with a conflicted expression, gave me a few perfunctory words, and promised to take me to find the Sun-Returning Herb tomorrow.