Chapter 176

Chapter 176

The post had been deleted. Qin Ying just couldn’t tell whether the original poster had removed it or whether some uncontrollable factor was responsible.

Refusing to give up, she searched again, only to discover that nearly all related information across the internet had been wiped clean within a remarkably short time.

On any other day, she would have left no stone unturned to uncover the secret behind it and satisfy her curiosity.

But Qin Ying was in terrible shape today. Her physical discomfort was only part of the problem. More seriously, she had severely overdrawn her mental energy.

Her right hand was perfectly fine, yet phantom pain still flared in her wrist from time to time.

The injuries she had sustained inside the box were not as easy to shrug off as she had expected.

Qin Ying cut the last Yao Grass she had in half and tossed it into her herbal kettle.

While waiting for it to brew, she opened the wooden box connected to the World in the Box.

She had been unconscious for nearly fourteen hours, which meant four days had already passed in the World in the Box.

She wondered whether Chen Zhao and Liang Pu had made it out safely.

As soon as she lifted the lid, the first thing she heard was wave after wave of weeping.

Her heart lurched. Had something terrible happened?

Looking closer, she saw a huge crowd of Sand People gathered in front of the Kuxi Tribe’s village.

At the center of the crowd stood a hollowed-out desert poplar trunk.

Offerings had been placed before it, while wisps of black smoke from burning plants curled upward and dispersed into the air.

It was a funeral.

In front of the desert poplar trunk, which was thick enough for two people to encircle with their arms, Han Lie stood ramrod straight like a tiny toothpick.

Could Chen Zhao and Liang Pu have died?

Before Qin Ying even had time to grieve, someone wrapped from head to toe like a mummy emerged from the crowd.

Judging by the style of his leather armor, it was Chen Zhao.

Chen Zhao was fine. Did that mean Liang Pu had died?

Remembering how Liang Pu had looked after her during the Rust Tide, Qin Ying grew even more upset.

The man might have been a little too ruthlessly decisive, even treating her arm like an ice pop and snapping it off, but Qin Ying did not resent him in the slightest.

He had been an extremely reliable companion.

She had only gotten halfway through her sigh when Liang Pu, who was also wrapped up like a mummy, walked over to Han Lie with the Quanyu Monkey in tow.

The bald patch on the Little White Monkey’s head gleamed brightly in the light.

Everyone was accounted for, so whose funeral was this?

A realization flickered through Qin Ying’s mind. Sure enough, a moment later, she heard Chen Zhao say, “Ah Lie, my condolences.”

“She was a good girl. What a pity.”

They had been holding themselves together until he spoke. The instant he finished, sobs erupted all around him.

Aman and the people of the Kuxi Tribe were wailing in mourning.

Qin Ying’s expression froze.

Three people and one monkey had entered the water cellar, and she was the only one who had been left behind inside.

Who else could this funeral possibly be for?

Hers, of course!

Judging by that desert poplar trunk, it was no modest affair, either.

The Sand People wept loudly and with heartfelt sincerity.

Aman and the Old Shaman of the Kuxi Tribe, both of whom knew about her identity as the Divine Envoy, were especially inconsolable.

Han Lie was the only person present who knew the truth, but he was terrible at pretending. All he could do was bow his head deeply and clench his fists.

To Chen Zhao, however, he looked utterly devastated.

Chen Zhao reached out, intending to put an arm around Han Lie’s shoulders and comfort him.

Only then did he realize that the orphaned son of his fallen comrade had long since grown taller than him. The realization made Chen Zhao even sadder.

Perhaps affected by the atmosphere, the patchily bald Quanyu Monkey glanced from side to side, then placed a tiny pebble in front of the desert poplar trunk serving as the coffin.

Amid that solemn atmosphere, the hollow trunk containing no body was buried at the bottom of the ancient riverbed of the Ancient Chishui River. A Sand Lizard rib was planted above it as a gravestone.

Given the circumstances, Qin Ying was too embarrassed to reveal herself and speak to Han Lie. She was afraid his poor acting would give them away.

She quietly watched her own funeral come to an end.

Since the identity she had supposedly died under was that of a Sand People Shaman, every part of the funeral had been conducted according to the customs of the Sand People.

The only difference was that the body meant to be wrapped inside the desert poplar trunk had been replaced with a clay figurine.

Just as Qin Ying was experiencing a complicated mix of emotions, new activity began in the Kuxi Tribe settlement.

Numerous soldiers from the Fengshan Elite Cavalry came and went, hauling in rocks to fill the underground water cellar.

Qin Ying also heard Chen Zhao instruct Han Lie to persuade the people of the Kuxi Tribe to relocate.

Presumably, he was wary of the Rust Tide and Di Shang inside the water cellar.

Chen Zhao called it persuasion, but both Han Lie and Qin Ying, who was Outside the Box, knew that the Kuxi Tribe’s relocation was inevitable.

Chen Zhao said, “I can dispatch some pack beasts to help with the relocation.”

“I can also provide two wagonloads of Water Jade to secure the Kuxi Tribe’s water supply.”

Out of respect for the dead and consideration for Qin Ying, Chen Zhao’s attitude remained relatively mild. He did not resort to force right away.

Han Lie silently cupped his hands and accepted the order.

He returned to the Kuxi Tribe and told Aman about the matter. Everyone fell silent.

The Old Shaman’s face was covered in tiny holes where the nails had been removed, and the old man’s shoulders sagged helplessly.

For the people of the World in the Box, a mass migration was as serious a matter as one could imagine.

They would face more than the problem of making a living. There was also the threat posed by Monstrous Beast.

Every place where the Sand People currently lived was habitable land their ancestors had identified over generations, often at the cost of their lives.

If they were forced to leave now, where could they possibly go in the vast desert?

The Old Shaman looked sorrowfully at Han Lie, wanting to ask him to plead on their behalf.

Before he could speak, Aman shook his head. “Please don’t make things difficult for Brother Han.”

“The Jade Balance Army has always been overbearing. This time, they warned us in advance instead of simply marching in and slaughtering everyone in the Kuxi Tribe who knows the truth. General Chen has already shown us mercy.”

“There is no room to change this decision.”

After Aman finished speaking in the language of the Sand People, the Old Shaman covered his face in despair.

“We failed to protect the Divine Envoy. Heaven has indeed punished us.”

Aman found his words outrageous and hurriedly cut him off.

Qin Ying had been listening the entire time. At last, she could no longer hold herself back and said to Han Lie, “Tell them the Divine Envoy will return.”
“Tell them they can relocate without worry. I’ll help them build a new home wherever they settle.”

Her sudden voice filled Han Lie with both surprise and joy.

When he heard that she no longer sounded as weak as she had the last time, the worry that had been hanging over him finally eased.

He led Aman and the Old Shaman somewhere private.

When Han Lie told them that the Divine Envoy had merely returned and would descend to the mortal world again, Aman was so shocked that he forgot to translate.

Then Han Lie added that the Divine Envoy would return to guide them in building their new home. Aman’s eyes instantly lit up.

Ignoring the anxious Old Shaman, he grabbed Han Lie by the sleeve and asked, “Then… can our Blackstone Tribe go too?”

The Blackstone Tribe wanted a share of the Divinely Chosen Land’s blessings as well.

While Aman busied himself trying to secure benefits for his tribe, the Old Shaman, who could not understand the language of Great Xia, could only watch Aman’s expressions shift wildly. He was so frantic that he practically jumped up and down beside them.

Herding one flock was no different from herding two, so Qin Ying said, “They can.”

After Han Lie relayed her answer, Aman’s smile spread across his burn-scarred face like a blooming flower.

He hurriedly said, “Then we’ll go back and start preparing at once.”

All his earlier grief vanished. He dragged the Old Shaman of the Kuxi Tribe away with him.

Seeing that the two of them seemed to be in fairly good spirits, Qin Ying shook her head to herself.

Once no one else was around, Han Lie finally looked up and asked, “Supreme Deity, are you all right?”

Looking down, Qin Ying could clearly see the concern written all over his sunburned face.

She gave a soft laugh before assuring him that she was fine.

After chatting with Han Lie for a little while and soothing some of his anxiety, Qin Ying closed the Box’s lid wearily.

Perhaps her journey inside the Box had drained her mentally. Even looking at the Box for too long left her exhausted.

Rubbing her throbbing temples, she took another short nap.

That afternoon, while asleep, she felt something smooth and cold plastered over her face.

Just before she suffocated, she bolted upright in bed and tore the blob of silvery slime away from her mouth and nose.

The mercury-like mass landed on her legs and wobbled like jelly.

Through the mark Qin Ying controlled, it clearly communicated its demand: the gold they had agreed upon. It was time for her to pay up.

Qin Ying examined it closely and discovered that the thing had already devoured all the gold she had given it.

It had precisely spat out the gemstones and other impurities from the gold jewelry offered by the Sand People.

Already irritable from her poor sleep, Qin Ying finally found an outlet for her frustration. She seized the fist-sized Di Shang in her right hand and kneaded it fiercely like a stress ball.

Di Shang changed shape beneath her fingers while repeating relentlessly in her mind: Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold…

It was practically a debt-collecting ghost.

Unable to stand the racket any longer, Qin Ying staggered to her feet and swatted it away.

“I know! You’re so annoying!”

Urged on by that relentless little menace, Qin Ying washed up, changed into casual clothes, put on a face mask, and went out.

Before long, she returned with several shopping bags.

One of them, from a jewelry store, contained two gold bracelets and a pair of earrings.

Buying gold jewelry as a consumable was hardly a good long-term solution. Qin Ying decided she should make time to visit a bank or contact a reputable gold investment company.

She needed to obtain a batch of gold to feed this glutton without drawing attention.

The instant she stepped through the door, Di Shang launched itself into the air, wrapped around her wrist, and slithered toward the bag like a snake.

Qin Ying looked around. When she saw that not even a single nail was missing from the house, she let out a long breath of relief.

It seemed Di Shang was still fairly obedient. At least it had not touched any of the metal in her home.

Qin Ying grabbed Di Shang by its slick tail and yanked it out of the shopping bag. With her other hand, she fetched a glass coin jar.

She tossed one of the earrings onto the pile of loose change, and Di Shang pounced on it like a starving tiger.

The receipt fluttered out of the shopping bag and landed squarely on Wangcai’s head as it pretended to stroll past.

It pawed the receipt in front of its face and studied it.

The puppy could not read very well, but it had seen the receipts from the canned dog food Qin Ying bought before, and it knew how to count zeroes.

Its eyes widened. After counting the zeroes several times in disbelief, it let out an outraged howl and lunged forward to bite Qin Ying’s slipper.

How biased! She was always so stingy whenever she opened a can of food for it.

Yet she did not even blink before buying expensive things for this freak!

Knowing she was in the wrong, Qin Ying opened another shopping bag and coaxed, “I bought you new flavors of canned food and some dog biscuits.”

She then glanced at the Thunderbird perched on her right shoulder. “I bought sunflower seeds for you.”

She had even bought the Hou a small bag of charcoal. She would light it later so they could enjoy a change of flavor.

After making sure everyone had received something, Wangcai finally released her slipper, probably because it saw that she had dragged herself out to buy new canned food and dog biscuits despite looking sick.

Qin Ying breathed a sigh of relief. Just as she was about to collapse onto the sofa, someone suddenly knocked on the outer courtyard gate.

She hurriedly waved for all the little creatures in the house to hide before going to answer it.

When she opened the gate, Granny Shi was standing outside.

The moment she saw Qin Ying, she said, “Ah Ying, Granny Xu from Fifth Street just lost her third son, the one who worked on the railroad.”

“Your maternal grandmother and Granny Xu were quite close when she was alive.”

The neighbors on their street helped each other and observed the proper social courtesies, creating an enormous web of relationships and obligations.

Granny Xu had attended Qin Ying’s maternal grandmother’s funeral. By custom, Qin Ying now had to return the courtesy.

That was why Granny Shi had come to fetch her.

After speaking, however, she noticed how pale Qin Ying looked.

Startled, she asked, “Are you sick?”

After a moment of hesitation, she said, “Maybe you shouldn’t go, then. The energy in a mourning hall isn’t good.”

For some reason, the mention of the railroad made Qin Ying feel that she needed to make the trip.

Besides, Granny Xu had always loved giving her candy when she was young. No matter how she looked at it, she ought to attend.

Qin Ying quickly changed into clothes suitable for a funeral.

After opening a can of food for Wangcai and changing its water, she accompanied Granny Shi to the funeral home.