Chapter 126
Chapter 126
When Liu Ye brought the Heartwood back, Physician Zhou was dumbfounded.
Was this man some kind of monster? He had gone out to gather a few herbs and casually killed an evil being of this level along the way.
One glance at the Heartwood told Physician Zhou it had existed for a very long time.
“Uncle Zhou, do you think this herb will work?” Liu Ye asked.
Physician Zhou stared at him.
Humans could not eat this thing!
Fortunately, Qiqi was far more dependable. She had gathered several of the actual medicinal herbs.
“Oh, right. We chopped some firewood too. This stuff is amazing-it can even move.”
Liu Ye dropped a huge bundle of branches onto the ground.
Physician Zhou watched green blood drip from the twitching wood, his mouth jerking uncontrollably.
If they burned those branches, the poison would kill everyone inside the temple.
“Lord Liu, this firewood is far too wet. It won’t burn. Please find some dry wood instead,” Physician Zhou said helplessly.
“Oh. All right! I’ll go now.”
Liu Ye turned around and took Qiqi out again.
Elsewhere, Qing’er and Fang’er returned with Lord Black Mountain.
The moment the sisters arrived, they saw everyone weeping. Their hearts tightened, and they rushed forward.
The other women were gathered around a pile of branches, sobbing.
“What happened?”
“Granny… Granny is dead!” several Female Fiends cried.
The revelation struck Qing’er and Fang’er like a bolt from a clear sky.
The world was far from peaceful. Granny maintained order throughout the surrounding region. Without her, all the women would be finished.
The two Female Fiends turned and dropped to their knees before Lord Black Mountain.
“Master, please uphold justice for us!”
The others knelt as well.
Lord Black Mountain looked at the piece of wood on the ground and felt a trace of fear.
He could certainly kill the tree demon Granny, but never this easily. Her ability to escape danger was first-rate.
Still, he could not simply refuse. They all operated in the same territory. If he rejected their plea, what would happen to his reputation?
“Rest assured. Leave this matter to me. I will find the man and… speak with him. Yes. Reason governs all things. Surely he cannot be completely unreasonable. Right?”
Besides, Lord Black Mountain’s true body was an entire mountain. Countless corpses lay buried within it, and the resentment of those people at the moment of death had formed him into a Fiend.
So what if the enemy was powerful?
Could a human blow up his true body?
Boom!
Lord Black Mountain’s avatar exploded.
The blast killed several Female Fiends beside him. A deafening roar followed, and the earth shook like the end of the world.
When the trembling finally stopped, the women stared ahead in terror.
Lord Black Mountain was gone.
“What is happening?”
The remaining Female Fiends wailed in fear.
At that same moment, Liu Ye waved dust from his face and climbed out of the rubble. He reached down and pulled Qiqi from a mound of dirt.
“I might have used a little too much explosive. This mountain wasn’t very sturdy. How did it split apart so easily?”
Liu Ye had been gathering dry branches when he spotted a huge black mountain nearby.
It looked like an entire mountain of coal.
That was valuable stuff. Who would bother with rotten branches when coal was available?
After the recent disasters, the survivors had no money. If Liu Ye brought coal to Jingcheng and sold it, they could earn enough to return home for the New Year.
So he headed toward the black mountain.
He swore he had never intended to take much. He only wanted to blast loose a small amount-just enough for their needs.
Who could have known the explosive would be so powerful that it erased the entire mountain?
Fortunately, he did manage to collect a great deal of coal.
He loaded it onto a handcart borrowed from the villagers and pushed it back toward the ruined temple.
When Liu Ye returned, however, he discovered that the temple had collapsed.
“What the-Eunuch Wu! Uncle Zhou! Are you all right?”
Crash!
One dusty figure after another rose from the rubble. Eunuch Wu spat out a cloud of ash.
“We’re fine.”
Fortunately, the temple had been in disrepair for years. Only a few particularly unlucky people suffered injuries, though many more had been frightened half to death.
“What… did you do this time?” Physician Zhou asked.
He did not need to think. Liu Ye had clearly caused something again.
“I only got a little coal.”
Liu Ye pointed at the handcart behind him.
Everyone fell silent.
Their feelings toward Liu Ye had become extremely complicated.
Calling him unreliable seemed unfair. He had saved their lives, brought them coal, and worked hard to gather medicine for them.
But if they called him reliable, then they would have to discuss why they needed that medicine in the first place.
“Sigh…”
The entire group sighed together.
At last, the constable approached Liu Ye.
“Lord Liu, we’ve made a decision. We want to settle somewhere nearby.”
“Why? Wouldn’t it be better to come to Jingcheng with us?”
“No. We’re afraid we couldn’t survive it.”
“What?”
“I mean, the capital is too far away,” the constable corrected himself quickly. “We cannot endure the hardship of the journey.”
“Oh, I see. All right, then. I’ll speak to the nearby county and help you build a village or something.”
“There’s no need!”
The constable seized Liu Ye’s hands.
“Lord Liu, you have already helped us far too much. From this point onward, please allow us to rely on ourselves.”
“That’s right,” the scholar added. “You can help us for a while, but you cannot support us forever.”
In truth, they could no longer endure the constant terror.
They had barely traveled any distance and had already come close to dying again.
Hearing their determination, Liu Ye decided they possessed admirable backbone. It would be wrong to stop them.
He agreed to their request and asked Eunuch Wu to put in a good word with the local magistrate.
The magistrate was delighted to see Eunuch Wu. Eager to curry favor with him, he selected an excellent tract of land where the constable and the other survivors could rebuild their village.
Liu Ye’s party continued toward Jingcheng.
More than twenty days remained on Liu Ye’s timer, so there was no need to rush.
Elsewhere, the System returned excitedly to its post.
After its upgrade, it felt confident enough to face any difficulty.
[Substitute 54250, how have things been lately? Liu Ye hasn’t caused any trouble, has he?]
The System addressed the substitute who had covered its shift.
54250 said nothing.
[Why aren’t you answering? Did Liu Ye cause another incident? Oh, don’t worry. That’s simply how he is. You’ll get used to it. By the way, which instance is he in now?]
[The… the Legend of Nine Worlds Mountain,] 54250 whispered.
The System fell silent.
[What did you say? How did he trigger that instance? Don’t frighten me! I saved for more than twenty years to obtain it. I was keeping it for a future large-scale event. It’s a thousand-player instance! Why did you put him inside?]
54250 dared not answer.
He could hardly admit that he despised the System’s cowardice and had deliberately assigned Liu Ye the instance.
[How far has he gotten?]
[Um… he’s almost eaten his way to Jingcheng.]
[Eaten his way to Jingcheng?]
The System opened the mission interface.
Most of the Fiends in the instance had turned gray.
It checked their death replays.
“Premium ingredients often require the simplest methods of preparation…”
[A Bite of Xia Kingdom… Hahaha… Beep, beep, beep… @#$%!]
[Brother? Brother! What’s wrong? Brother!]