Chapter 174

“Splash!”

Xue Liangliang leaped forward and plunged into the lake like a fish slipping into water.

His entry posture was not the most textbook-perfect, but it was the one that suited him best.

His legs kicked in rapid succession, and in an instant he dove straight to the bottom and vanished without a trace.

No matter how complicated the environment at the lake bottom was, it could not compare to the savage undercurrents in the depths of the Yangtze River estuary. No matter how many corpses lay down there, they were still not as eerie and sinister as the Bai Family Matrons seated in the doorways of Baijia Town.

This was what professionalism looked like.

Li Zhuiyuan lay by the shore, staring up at the star-filled night sky overhead.

But the boy did not feel particularly relaxed.

This crisis had nearly wrung dry everyone involved, himself included. Even Xue Liangliang, who did not even count as unofficial support staff, had taken part in the final cleanup.

In the past, people had been seriously injured during these waves, but never this uniformly battered.

Lin Shuyou had used Dissolution of Evil Talisman Needles. Yin Meng had been struck by Gu poison. Tan Wenbin had used the Ghost-control technique. Runsheng had thrown open all his Qi Gates. And he himself had lost too much blood.

It was like a soaked towel being twisted with all one’s strength until the very last drop had been squeezed out. Just a little more force, and the towel would tear apart.

For other River walkers, resolving a near-death crisis with no actual deaths in the team would already count as a rare blessing.

But to Li Zhuiyuan, this miserable victory, this “good” outcome, was the worst result they had achieved since he began walking the river.

A bird circled alone in the night sky.

Li Zhuiyuan watched it for a long time.

He had long suspected that the intensity of this wave was too high, even beyond the acceptable limit.

Now, he was even more certain of it.

But from another angle,

perhaps,

what had exceeded the limit was not this wave, but he and his team.

Lin Shuyou, Yin Meng, Tan Wenbin, and Runsheng were brought out one after another.

Not only did Xue Liangliang not seem especially tired, after rescuing them he even went to the lakeside to wash the mud from his body.

That stamina, that endurance, had clearly been built through long-term training.

Everyone was loaded onto the tractor, and Li Zhuiyuan was placed in the driver’s seat.

“Little Yuan, lean against me when you sit.”

“Okay.”

Xue Liangliang drove the tractor, carrying the entire load of severely wounded people back to the village.

It was just breaking dawn when they arrived at the寨子.

As soon as they entered the village and reached the outer perimeter of the tulou, Li Zhuiyuan noticed that the formation he had set up before leaving had been deliberately destroyed.

“Brother Liangliang, outsiders have entered the house.”

Xue Liangliang had just been about to turn off the engine. Hearing that, he not only immediately pulled his hand back, he even prepared to drive straight past the tulou and leave.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “They already discovered us long ago.”

The boy lifted his head. The bird above them had kept circling all this time.

This wave might not be over yet, because the real danger had appeared again, hard on the heels of the last one.

Sometimes people were more dangerous than malevolent spirits.

But running was meaningless.

On mountain roads, a tractor could never outrun a bird.

And any drastic move on their part might force the other side to respond with drastic measures of their own.

Xue Liangliang asked, “Then what do we do?”

“We play it by ear.” Li Zhuiyuan turned to look at him. “Zhuge Liang’s Empty Fort Strategy.”

“Little Yuan, don’t worry. I’ll cooperate with you properly.”

“Brother Liangliang.”

“Hm?”

“I’m the one cooperating with you.”

“Hm… hm?”

“Don’t be afraid. They’re wary of us too.”

When the old hag had died completely, there must have been some kind of change in the Feng shui aura above the lake. The fact that they had only sent a bird to investigate showed how cautious they were.

The formation he had set up to keep Cui Hao and Li Ren from running around had been simple and crude, yet the other party had still chosen to force it open. That too was a sign of caution.

Because they could easily have dismantled it cleverly and preserved its appearance as much as possible, trying not to alert him.

But they had not done that. They had destroyed the formation completely. That was also a way of avoiding misunderstanding on his part, almost a frank gesture.

“Little Yuan, I’m going to…”

“Pretend to be an expert.”

“How expert?”

“Brother Liangliang, just do your best.”

“What if I blow the act?”

“It’s fine. At worst, we all die together.”

Xue Liangliang turned off the tractor and sat in the driver’s seat, taking deep breaths over and over.

He had thought he was only a guide. Being able to help with the cleanup already made him feel involved enough. He had never expected that by the late stage of things, he would end up with such an important role to play.

“Little Yuan, I’m ready.”

“Mm.”

Li Zhuiyuan had a lot of confidence in Xue Liangliang.

In the same situation, Tan Wenbin could also have put on an act, and probably done it even better, but there would have been too much craft in it.

Xue Liangliang was different. He naturally had that unique aura about him.

Not only had it made him well liked by his superiors in his professional life, earning him guidance and promotion, even in ordinary life he had won the approval of the Bai Family Matrons.

Even Li Zhuiyuan himself, whenever something involved Xue Liangliang, would willingly run errands for him, and had even helped mediate marital disputes for them.

Xue Liangliang hoisted Li Zhuiyuan onto his back and pushed the door open.

In the courtyard sat a man and a woman dressed in Miao clothing.

At a glance, Li Zhuiyuan spotted the totem patterns embroidered at their cuffs.

The inheritance of Miao territory was ancient, and the traditions of Miao Gu were divided into many branches. Most of those branches only looked frightening in method, but were actually relatively mild. Still, there were inevitably some extreme sects among them.

The patterns on these two people’s clothes showed that they belonged to the well-known corpse-gu sect of Miao territory.

Although they had used a special mountain fragrance to mask the smell of corpses on their bodies, this scent had also been recorded by Wei Zhengdao in Strange Tales of the Rivers and Lakes. It was practically a stereotypical tell hidden beneath the disguise.

In that book, Wei Zhengdao had also gone into detail about the methods of the corpse-gu sect of Miao territory. After condemning them with a long string of negative adjectives, he had concluded with one final comment: Quite interesting.

In the Central Plains, these two would be considered proper evil cultivators.

Even in Miao territory, if anyone in a village practiced their Gu arts or associated with them, nearby Miao villages would unite and attack them together.

Sitting on the edge of the rooftop was a young woman in a flowered skirt. Her legs dangled over the side. She was wearing underpants, so there was no risk of exposure.

Several birds flew around her in intimate circles.

At the stairway entrance on the second floor stood a burly middle-aged man with his arms crossed, leaning against a pillar.

His pores were large, his muscles thick and knotted, and every breath tugged visibly at the muscles all over his body.

The two corpse-gu sect members downstairs were clearly not in the same group as the people upstairs. Though they were in the same tulou, they were maintaining an equal level of vigilance against one another.

At that moment, a door on the second floor opened and an old man came out, holding a pipe in his hand, his face flushed and healthy-looking.

He seemed to have heard the sound of the main gate opening and had come out to check. But the moment he saw them, his expression changed drastically.

The old man recognized Li Zhuiyuan, and Li Zhuiyuan recognized him too.

Old Tian.

Since he was here, that meant Zhao Yi had come as well.

“Young master, young master.”

Old Tian no longer cared about his pipe. He immediately turned and hurried back into the room.

Li Zhuiyuan knew he was acting.

That bird had been released by the girl on the roof, and she was probably one of Zhao Yi’s subordinates.

So they had long known he was here.

Next, it was Zhao Yi’s turn to make his entrance and perform.

Zhao Yi came out.

His emotional shift was complex and gradual.

But Li Zhuiyuan was a born performer, and he had just critiqued his own eight-year-old self’s acting, so Zhao Yi’s performance came off as slightly overdone.

“Brother Yuan!”

Zhao Yi hurried downstairs.

The two corpse-gu sect members sitting in the courtyard immediately looked much more grave.

From their perspective, although their side had fewer people, the two parties had still been evenly matched. But now the other side had suddenly gained reinforcements, and the situation was no longer so easy to control.

Zhao Yi came up to Li Zhuiyuan.

Li Zhuiyuan lightly patted Xue Liangliang on the shoulder.

Xue Liangliang turned toward Zhao Yi and shifted the boy on his back, signaling that he was handing over the wounded.

Zhao Yi naturally reached out and took Li Zhuiyuan onto his own back.

“You’re hurt?”

“Mm. Lost too much blood. I don’t have any strength left.”

“I have excellent medicine for replenishing qi and blood.”

“Give it to me.”

“Fine.”

Zhao Yi carried Li Zhuiyuan up to the second floor. While going upstairs, he even deliberately glanced back at Xue Liangliang, who was still standing by the door downstairs.

One room had been specially cleaned out. Inside were only two bedrolls, one presumably Zhao Yi’s and the other Old Tian’s.

Zhao Yi settled the boy onto his own bedding.

Old Tian came over and asked with great concern, “Are you all right?”

Li Zhuiyuan asked in return, “Looking at me now, do I seem like I’m all right?”

Old Tian looked embarrassed.

Zhao Yi shoved Old Tian aside and said, “Go bring our Returning Qi Pills.”

“Ah, yes, young master.”

Old Tian took a jade bottle from the luggage and handed it over.

Zhao Yi pulled out the stopper and poured out a pill.

The moment it emerged, a refreshing medicinal fragrance spread through the room.

Zhao Yi brought the pill to the boy’s lips, and the boy opened his mouth.

“No.” Zhao Yi pulled the pill back and handed it to Old Tian. “Brother Yuan is too weak right now. This medicine is too potent. His body won’t be able to take such strong supplementation. Go boil it with water. Reduce three bowls into one and bring that for him to drink.”

“All right, young master.”

Old Tian took the pill and left the room.

Just then, from below, Xue Liangliang pointed at the burly man Xu Ming standing on the second floor and shouted, “Hey, what are you standing there like an idiot for? Get down here and help me carry the wounded upstairs. All that size for nothing, and not a bit of sense for work.”

Xu Ming frowned, seemingly unsure how to respond.

When Old Tian came out, Xu Ming turned and looked at him questioningly.

Old Tian nodded to him.

Xu Ming went downstairs and carried the four heavily wounded men, all still unconscious, from the tractor into another bedroom on the second floor.

Xue Liangliang walked over to Old Tian, who was decocting the medicine on the second floor, and patted him on the shoulder. “Elder, do you know medicine?”

Old Tian smiled awkwardly and said, “I’m only dissolving the pill.”

“You’re being modest.”

“I’m really not. My medical skills are very shallow.”

“Then while you’re at it, help look after those four too. No matter how shallow your skills are, you still know something. I understand absolutely nothing. Saving people isn’t my strong suit.”

“Of course. We’re old acquaintances, with some past connections. Even without your instructions, we would have done the same.”

“Mm. Thank you for your trouble.”