Chapter 185
Chapter 185
After finishing the apple in its paws, the Bamboo Bear shuffled closer again. Its gaze locked onto the pouch in Nanshu’s hands, and one huge paw reached over to rummage through it.
Nanshu wanted to protect the apples, but how could he fight a Bamboo Bear several times broader than he was?
One swipe of that paw could punch straight through him!
In the end, the pouch containing the last two apples still fell into the Bamboo Bear’s grasp.
Jiang Yunsui rushed over in alarm.
“Give me one! Give me one too!”
Those were the final two. If she did not eat one now, there would be none left.
The Bamboo Bear glanced at her, held one apple in its mouth, and handed her the other.
Excellent. She had managed to salvage one.
By the time the Bamboo Bear finished the last apple, Shen Qingzhu had finally collected all the Taisui and lingzhi.
“Young Master, you should keep these lingzhi. Lingzhi that grows in symbiosis with Taisui is exceedingly rare and far more potent than the ordinary kind.”
Ji Yan’an accepted the pouch.
“Do you want some?” he asked Jiang Yunsui.
He certainly could not use this much lingzhi himself. As for selling it, he had never considered selling anything this precious.
Jiang Yunsui scrunched up her face. “It doesn’t taste good.”
“Medicine is not supposed to taste good,” Shen Qingzhu said with a smile.
Jiang Yunsui fixed her gaze on him.
Shen Qingzhu suddenly had a bad feeling.
“Shen Qingzhu…”
Jiang Yunsui grabbed his hand and began wheedling in her soft, sweet voice.
“Shen Qingzhu, will you make it into tasty candy for me?”
She truly coveted the life energy within those medicinal ingredients. The Snow Lotus candy he had made for her before had been delicious.
“Ask Fat Chef to make it,” Shen Qingzhu said. “I make medicine, not candy pills.”
“Fat Grandpa doesn’t know how to prepare medicinal ingredients.”
Fat Chef quickly nodded. “Exactly. This stuff is so precious that if a cook like me ruined it, the waste would break my heart.”
Jiang Yunsui tipped up her little head and gazed pleadingly at Shen Qingzhu.
Shen Qingzhu looked to Ji Yan’an with a silent question in his eyes: Are you not going to stop her?
Ji Yan’an calmly looked away.
She was not asking him, after all. If he interfered and the little creature asked him to make the candy instead, he would have no idea how.
Shen Qingzhu resigned himself to his fate and promised they would discuss it once they reached the stockade.
Jiang Yunsui brightened at once.
It was time to leave. Qianqian, Houhou, Zuozuo, and Youyou were still waiting above.
With black circles still around her eyes, Jiang Yunsui said goodbye to the Bamboo Bear.
“Goodbye, Big Bear. Thank you for catching me.”
She waved her little arms as Ji Si gathered her up and carried her away with his lightness skill.
The Bamboo Bear raised its head and watched them go.
Two days later…
“How much longer until we get there?”
Jiang Yunsui clung to the two dogs’ tails. The two large dogs were dragging the little burden along behind them.
She was simply too tired to walk.
Several men took turns carrying Ji Yan’an, who also had to swallow a pill every so often.
“We’re almost there,” Shen Qingzhu said.
Jiang Yunsui grumbled, “You’ve said that lots of times already!”
Yet they had walked for another two days. Not two hours. Two whole days!
Little Mushroom was brimming with resentment.
Just as Shen Qingzhu was about to answer, several beautiful butterflies fluttered toward them.
Jiang Yunsui gasped. “They’re so pretty!”
She released the dogs’ tails and reached for one.
“Don’t touch them!” Shen Qingzhu shouted.
The seemingly harmless butterflies drifted down around the group. One had already landed on Jiang Yunsui’s fingertip.
Invisible powder floated from its wings and spread through the air.
Shen Qingzhu hurriedly swallowed a pill, then passed the medicine to the others.
“Take these quickly! Those butterflies are a kind of Gu insect. Breathing their powder will…”
Thud.
Before Shen Qingzhu could finish, Nanshu, who had been grinning foolishly at the butterflies, collapsed unconscious.
Shen Qingzhu managed to push a pill into Ji Yan’an’s mouth in time. Everyone else who had not swallowed the medicine quickly enough, along with the dogs, fell unconscious.
Jiang Yunsui stared in confusion.
“Huh?”
“Zuozuo! Youyou!”
“Don’t die!”
“They aren’t dead,” Shen Qingzhu said. “Give them medicine and they’ll wake soon.”
Little Mushroom had just breathed a sigh of relief when the clear chime of bells rang through the forest.
Even Jiang Yunsui began to feel dizzy.
Shen Qingzhu’s face darkened as he called toward a particular spot. “Stop.”
Through her haze, Jiang Yunsui heard a laugh as bright as silver bells.
“My, my… Little Qingzhu went out once and brought back so many friends?”
A woman in Miao clothing appeared in a tree not far ahead. With a wave of her hand, all the butterflies returned to her.
She vanished from the branch the next instant and used her lightness skill to land before Shen Qingzhu.
Nanmo and the others held their breath, weapons ready as they watched the woman warily.
Shen Qingzhu pinched the bridge of his nose. “Auntie Huan, stop fooling around. I brought them here to see Master.”
The woman pouted. “Oh, I was only playing a little joke on your friends.”
Her gaze swept across the group.
“Oh! Those two roosters are completely unaffected. What handsome birds!”
“Oh! And what enormous dogs.”
“Hm? There’s even a child. Why does she look so ugly?”
Jiang Yunsui had still been swaying with dizziness, but those words instantly roused her anger. She forced her eyes wide and protested in her soft little voice.
“I’m not ugly.”
“I’m pretty and cute.”
Little Mushroom tried her hardest to defend herself. The ink on her face simply had not washed off yet.
Wobbling in place, she looked like a Drunken Mushroom.
The woman crouching before her burst out laughing and pinched her cheek.
“So soft! A child’s cheeks really are the best to pinch.”
Jiang Yunsui shook her head, glared with watery eyes, and reached out to push the woman away.
What a horrible villain, bullying Mushroom like this!
“Don’t bully Mushroom.”
“Oh? Is your name Mushroom? What an adorable name.”
Hearing herself called adorable soothed some of Little Mushroom’s anger. She nodded with complete seriousness.
“Mm. Mushroom is adorable.”
“Hahaha! I can’t take it. Little Qingzhu, where did you find such a cute child?”
Shen Qingzhu had nothing to say.
Jiang Yunsui never heard the rest, because she fainted.
Her last thought was bewildered: could she really be allergic to butterflies?
Shen Qingzhu knew the butterfly powder was not why she had fainted. He already knew the little creature was immune to poison.
Xu Qinghuan’s silver bell had rendered her unconscious.
The others could resist its sound with internal energy. Ji Yan’an had also fainted, but he had gone down even earlier than Jiang Yunsui.
Xu Qinghuan picked Jiang Yunsui up.
“Come. Let’s return to the stockade.”
The group hoisted their unconscious companions and followed Xu Qinghuan.
Soft rustling rose from the forest and undergrowth wherever she passed. A closer look revealed poisonous insects and snakes of every kind.
The dense, writhing mass was enough to make anyone’s scalp crawl.