Chapter 115
Chapter 115
This plant grew on the riverbed. Its leaves were probably black and thick, with sap that oozed from them when they broke.
Simply drawing near it would strengthen a person’s three hun souls and seven po souls.
Swallowing it directly would multiply one’s power–and that was the effect of a single tiny fragment of a leaf.
What did the complete plant look like?
And what other heaven-defying powers did it possess?
For now, that was everything we knew.
There were no more clues.
Even this much was thanks to my extraordinary luck in encountering Huihui and Bai Su.
Otherwise, I would still have been groping blindly in the dark.
I glanced back toward the entrance of the cave. It was completely dark outside.
“All right, let’s stop here for today. Even if you’re willing to join us, Miss Bai, we’ll have to wait until you’ve fully recovered. I’ll see if I can bring you some medicine in a few days.”
I needed to hurry home.
I was already two or three hours later than usual. If I stayed out any longer, my parents would be worried sick.
They might even go straight to my Master for help.
I hastily said goodbye to Bai Su and Huihui and prepared to head home.
It was a school vacation. I should have gone straight back to spend time with my parents.
Besides, Master was still waiting for me to bring her dinner.
What if she starved because I didn’t show up?
“Wait a moment, Young Mr. Wu.”
Bai Su stopped me just as I was rushing to leave.
Under my puzzled gaze, she lowered her head and used her teeth to pluck a small tuft of soft fur from her chest.
With a look, she instructed Huihui to hand it to me along with several well-aged medicinal herbs.
“This is fur from my body. Rabbits aren’t fierce by nature, so even after we awaken to intelligence, we aren’t particularly strong in battle. Still, my cultivation is fairly advanced now. The aura in this fur should drive away some unnecessary trouble while you’re walking the mountain paths at night.”
I understood at once.
It was a kind of unconventional Protective Talisman.
By now, Bai Su was at least the equivalent of a powerful spirit that had possessed intelligence for fifty years.
True, the mysterious fragment of black plant had served as a shortcut that catalyzed her rapid growth. And rabbits were gentle by nature, so her actual fighting power might not be anything too outrageous.
But the dense, powerful aura she possessed was entirely real.
It exerted an instinctive pressure on ordinary animals.
Even fierce beasts like wolves and wild boars would probably be deeply wary of it and hesitate to attack, let alone smaller creatures.
It was a pity Bai Su was a rabbit.
If a tiger had cultivated to the equivalent of fifty years after awakening to intelligence…
Damn.
I couldn’t even imagine how powerful it would be.
Even if Old Cao, Yuan Fei, Li Miao, Big Bull, and I joined forces, one swipe of its paw would probably be enough to flatten us all.
In any case, I accepted the valuable, well-aged medicinal herbs and the fur from Bai Su’s chest.
After thanking her sincerely, I left.
A crescent moon had begun to peek over the horizon. Judging by its position, it was probably around seven thirty. I needed to pick up the pace.
As I retraced my route, rustling noises rose from the grass in the distance.
But whatever made them clearly kept its distance and dared not approach.
Bai Su’s aura was indeed intimidating the nocturnal beasts in the mountains and saving me a great deal of trouble.
“Bai Su really is thoughtful and thorough. No matter how the business with the living corpse in Xiaowan Village turns out, befriending a spirit like her will be a huge benefit to me.”
I turned the thought over silently as I walked.
Before today, I would never have imagined meeting a spirit whose intelligence and way of thinking were almost indistinguishable from a human’s.
Yet today, I truly had.
I retraced my path to the country road where I had first met Huihui, then followed the familiar route home.
…
By the time I reached the entrance to the village, the moon had risen.
In the moonlight, I spotted my dad.
He was sitting on the large boulder at the village entrance with a powerful battery lamp beside him, smoking a cigarette.
I saw him from a long way off and waved with a grin.
“Dad! I’m back! What are you doing out here?”
He froze when he saw me, then hurriedly rose from the boulder.
Joy flashed across his face before he deliberately pulled a stern expression and pretended to be angry.
“Where did you run off to, you little brat? Do you have any idea how worried your mom is? She sent me to wait for you at the village entrance. If you’d come back any later, we would’ve gone to ask the Immortal Lady for help.”
Grinning mischievously, I pointed at the cigarette in his hand.
“Dad, I bet Mom won’t let you smoke, so you snuck out here to take advantage of the chance.”
“Why, you little bastard!”
Fuming, Dad raised a leg to kick me.
Of course, I nimbly dodged him and took off running into the village.
He picked up the battery lamp and followed behind me with a grin as we headed home.
Once I got back, there was no escaping another scolding from my mom.
I could joke around and play dumb with Dad, but when Mom lectured me, I didn’t dare talk back.
Otherwise, it would be like kicking a hornet’s nest. She’d probably keep at it for days.
In the end, she brought up Master. I still hadn’t delivered her dinner, so Mom told me to hurry over to the western end of the village.
That was how I finally escaped.
Carrying the lunchbox Mom had prepared earlier, I went down the slope toward the western edge of the village.
When I reached Master’s house, the courtyard gate opened on its own, and her pleasant voice drifted from inside.
“You’re back awfully late, and that spirit aura all over you is incredibly strong. What have you been doing? If you don’t give me a good explanation, your master is going to teach you a lesson today.”
I stuck out my tongue, then hurried inside with the lunchbox.
Master’s face looked astonishingly beautiful in the dim light. I couldn’t help staring for two full seconds before hastily looking away.
I opened the lunchbox and took out the containers of food Mom had prepared that evening, thinking to myself, “No wonder Master used to make herself look like some crazy beggar woman, with her hair hanging over her face so no one could even see what she looked like. She wears a mask whenever she goes out now too. If she showed her real face, who wouldn’t be left in a daze?”
Still muttering to myself, I told her everything that had happened with Bai Su and Huihui on my way home.
I even pulled Bai Su’s fur from my pocket and showed it to her.
Master nodded. “Hmm. I didn’t expect there to be a benevolent spirit nearby.”
After choosing my words carefully, I asked, “Master, is there some kind of miraculous medicine in this world that can multiply someone’s cultivation several times over if they eat just a little–and do it without any side effects at all?”
Her expression changed noticeably when she heard my question.
Her bright eyes fixed on me. “Ah-Zhong, what exactly are you trying to tell me? Just say it.”
So I gave Master a detailed account of the fragment of black leaf Bai Su had described emerging from the river, along with its connection to the living corpse at Xiaowan Village, the River God, and the sunken dead.
By the time I finished, her expression had turned extremely grave.
An oppressive presence emanated from her entire body. Even the air in the room seemed to freeze, and for some reason, breathing became difficult.
A certainty rose in my heart.
Master probably knew exactly what plant that fragment of black leaf had come from.