Chapter 329: Chapter 293: Saving Lives

Upon seeing Sang Que again, Xia Chan clutched the strap of his messenger bag and couldn’t suppress her tears, crying out loud.

Xuan Yu also whimpered, expressing grievances, pausing to lick its fur before continuing its complaints.

The thoughts of the two, one big and one small, were evident enough. Sang Que felt a mix of sourness and amusement, then he gently ruffled the heads of Xuan Yu and Xia Chan.

“Once I find Old Yu, I’ll immediately get you some delicious food.”

Xia Chan sniffled, nodding, and then remembered that Qiao Ling was still following behind her. She turned her head to look.

“Sister, I came here with Aunt Qiao. We found a big bad ghost, the pitch-black one!”

Following Xia Chan’s pointing direction, Sang Que looked across the river and, indeed, there was a woman roughly the same age as his mother, gasping for breath while leaning against a tree.

Seeing the rushing river, Sang Que first took Xuan Yu and Xia Chan and instantly teleported to the other side.

Her sudden appearance startled Qiao Ling into taking a step back. Only after seeing clearly Sang Que’s face did her guard drop.

“You’re really not dead.”

As a butcher who delivered pork to various hotels in Wangshan City, Sang Que was somewhat famous and naturally recognized by Qiao Ling.

Sang Que clasped her hands together, respectfully bowing in thanks to Qiao Ling.

“Thank you for taking care of Little Chan during this time.”

Qiao Ling waved her hand, “I was entrusted to handle this, so let’s not dwell on it. Where’s the Zhuangyuan Ghost?”

Qiao Ling searched around and concisely told Sang Que what she and Little Chan had seen in the woods.

They saw someone entirely pitch-black, dripping with ink, and holding a scroll. Initially, Qiao Ling thought that person was the Zhuangyuan Ghost, but now it seemed that person must be Yu Da, severely eroded by the Zhuangyuan Ghost’s power.

Qiao Ling again scattered her special powder, and they saw the pitch-black figure plunge into the river, the surface gradually turning black. Before long, the scroll rose from the riverbed, slowly unfolding on the water.

Sang Que stared at the figure intently, noting the lean physique, not quite like Yu Da’s but similar in height, with the face obscured by ink.

What happened next blended with this scene as someone across the river noticed the anomaly and went to notify Yao Zhen.

Once the scroll floated up, it encompassed all the people by the riverbank.

“Wait for me here.”

Sang Que continued to teleport along the river downstream, searching to the waterfall at the cliff but didn’t find anyone.

The river often has Water Ghosts with ghostly auras; she couldn’t use this to determine if Yu Da was below.

Sang Que helplessly returned to Qiao Ling and Xia Chan. Qiao Ling was resting under a tree. Seeing Sang Que return empty-handed, she had anticipated it.

“Probably still under the river,” Qiao Ling said slowly, “If it really was Old Yu eroded by the Zhuangyuan Ghost, he very likely intentionally jumped in, seeking the Water Ghost’s help to resist the Zhuangyuan Ghost’s erosion.”

The news from Wangshan City had long spread. As a Bell Doctor from Nine Songs, she already received a briefing from the Ghost Vendor.

The Ghost Vendor was not only a street vendor but also responsible for logistics and intelligence gathering when Nine Songs emerged.

During relatively peaceful times, the Ghost Vendor would gather information on ghosts from various places and store it.

Therefore, Qiao Ling knew about Yu Da’s situation and learned from the previous Bell Doctor that Yu Da was initially to be trained as an ’assassin’ for Nine Songs.

But the tasks for ’assassins’ were usually very dark, having no personal thoughts, unconditionally obeying orders from the leader without questioning.

Yu Da only wanted to be an ordinary man and ultimately didn’t join Nine Songs. In Wangshan City over the years, he occasionally helped people from Nine Songs with minor tasks.

Qiao Ling retrieved a small gourd medicine bottle from her lapel and handed it to Sang Que, “Take one, and within half an hour, the Water Ghosts won’t notice you.”

Seeing that medicine bottle, Sang Que immediately reacted, “Are you the Bell Doctor?”

Qiao Ling neither confirmed nor denied, merely tossing the bottle to Sang Que while stretching her muscles beneath the tree. Xia Chan and Xuan Yu were too energetic, exhausting her chasing them all the way. Babysitting is even more tiring than slaughtering pigs.

Rescuing was urgent, Sang Que took out a pill and swallowed it, and within seconds, she smelled a fishy odor emanating from herself. Xia Chan hurriedly pinched her nose and retreated, but Xuan Yu approached to sniff eagerly.

Sang Que handed over her belongings to Xia Chan, taking only three coffin nails, and plunged into the river without hesitation.

Xia Chan was not worried about Sang Que at all. After receiving Sang Que’s bag, she guarded it against Qiao Ling like a thief, and the two of them, along with Xuan Yu, ran to the side, prying open the bag, investigating with one big and one small head.

After rummaging for a long time, they found nothing, and Xia Chan wailed again.

Qiao Ling frowned and cleaned her ears, feeling that she didn’t want to take care of this child for another day. When well-behaved, Xia Chan is indeed adorable and can help with rescues.

But when hungry or craving, she cries incessantly and is impossible to console, refusing to listen to reason.

Qiao Ling looked toward the riverbank, seeing the temporary cofferdam, the excavated riverway, and the distant slopes with crisscrossed wheat seedlings, pondering.

Since Xia Chan’s sister is alive, why not return to the Evil Suppression Bureau? Is she leading a bandit life in the mountains?

The surrounding environment was quite good; wild medicinal herbs in the mountains were plentiful, enough for blending the medicine for Xia Chan’s advancement, needing a safe place to stay for a while. Once Xia Chan advances smoothly, only then will the obligation to He Buning be fulfilled.

With this thought, Qiao Ling secretly decided to stay with Xia Chan for a while, to observe what Xia Chan’s sister intended to do in these mountains.

Stabilizing the kingdom’s situation is also among the duties of Nine Songs; rebellion is out of the question.

Sang Que wasn’t down for even fifteen minutes before she indeed hauled someone up from the riverbed, throwing them onto the bank and gasping for air.

If only Qin Ze were here, underwater would become his domain. Sang Que took the Bell Doctor’s pill without alarming the Water Ghosts, but underwater she couldn’t hold her breath too long, as the Water Ghosts’ power prevented her from using her teleportation abilities, relying solely on swimming.

After finishing this busy period, she must quickly foster a Yin Walker who can operate underwater.

Once the person was ashore, Qiao Ling hurried over to inspect. The figure was lean, and the ink stains had mostly faded, with wet hair sticking to the face.

Qiao Ling swept aside the hair, and Sang Que and Xia Chan stared at the face for a while, ultimately confirming it was Yu Da.

During this period, who knows what he went through, reducing to skin and bones.

Qiao Ling checked Yu Da’s breath and pulse, “Undo his clothes.”

Without waiting for Sang Que to reach out, Xia Chan quickly and adeptly opened Yu Da’s clothes, laying him face up.

A gash split open on Yu Da’s shriveled stomach, resembling a bloody maw, with something inside slightly stirring.

“At his level, as long as he’s not completely devoured, he won’t truly die. When seriously eroded, he enters a state of deep sleep until external stimuli provide him strength, awakening him again—Old Yu just fainted from hunger.”

Qiao Ling pulled a red thread from her neck, a small gourd medicine bottle dangling below, glazed and showing a blood-red pill the size of a soy bean inside.

Qiao Ling remained nonchalant, uncapped the bottle, and tipped the pill onto her hand.

At that moment, Xia Chan’s hair seemingly lost control, transforming into a black cascade rushing toward the pill in Qiao Ling’s hand.

Qiao Ling abruptly turned her head, unleashing an invisible force from her body. The hair halted in mid-air, unable to get closer, with thunder rumbling from Xia Chan’s stomach, saliva uncontrollably secreting.

Sang Que, too, felt her Yin Child’s agitation, detecting an irresistibly alluring aroma emanating from the pill.

Even the already unconscious Yu Da saw his abdominal maw slowly open, reaching out slender translucent flesh, stretching toward the pill.

An assembly of blood-eyed crows cawed, swirling overhead.

Qiao Ling pried open Yu Da’s mouth and placed the pill inside, calming all surrounding restive auras.

“It’s a pill condensed from the blood of ten thousand people, gathered by me from battlefields,”

Qiao Ling explained to Sang Que, while Yu Da, having consumed the pill, rapidly ’inflated’ visibly.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep