"Gone?"
Staring at the smoothly severed leg, Hu Ma narrowed his eyes.
He had to admit, doctors did make a living with their knives, and this skill with the blade...
If it were another sect, being so close even with a concealnt technique, they couldn't have escaped. The Shousui man's recklessness was no joke. Sotis, just relying on this Divine Soul sense, they could pinpoint the direction of those fleeing. Chasing them in one breath, they could catch one with precision. Shousui n could run, and being able to run often ant being able to chase.
But now, as this wild doctor escaped, he seed to have used so technique that filled the surroundings with vitality, even causing the Shousui man's intuition to lose track of his whereabouts. This was indeed the prowess of the Siming Path.
Even though the doctor had escaped, Hu Ma was pondering. First, they want to take away my Great Mighty Sky General Dharma Form, and then they try to lure away from my identity as a descendant of the Hu Family... What do they truly want?
Seeing it was now safe, Fourth Miss Zhou, Immortal Miaoshan, along with Calculation and others, hurried over.
Hu Ma sat with them at the edge of the village, quietly contemplating the sudden assassination attempt. Though he gained one more Column of cultivation, it was the peculiarity of these people that intrigued him more than the joy of this gain.
Twice he had been attacked with little opportunity for communication with these people, yet from the few words spoken, he could confirm a few things. First, there weren't many Reincarnators among them. Otherwise, if various Reincarnators had converged on a target as before, then even at their peak, the ng family wouldn't have stood a chance, let alone a solitary individual like himself. Also, these people hadn't revealed their identities to other Reincarnators yet... Was it because they didn't trust each other, or was it sothing else?
"Um, um..."
As Hu Ma sank deep in thought, Calculation and Immortal Miaoshan, along with others, distanced themselves from him. They hesitated, pointing toward him. Fourth Miss Zhou, who had been supporting Hu Ma and was initially unaware, suddenly jumped three ters away in shock, stamring, "Quick, quick, quick..."
Hu Ma then realized they were eyeing the black bag in his hand. Inside, it was now quiet, with only a snakehead poking out, its wide eyes curiously looking at him. The disaster creature in the bag, undeterred, had erged again?
Startled, Hu Ma felt the intangible pressure emanating from the creature and quickly flung the bag far away. The creature, slightly dazed from the toss, sluggishly crawled out of the bag.
WHOOSH!
As it crawled out of the bag, the sky seed to darken even more, becoming overwhelmingly somber. Dark clouds gathered from all directions, and the wind grew stronger and heavier, fierce enough to nearly strip away the little warmth remaining on people. The re atmosphere was terrifying enough, let alone the sight of the creature itself.
The snake appeared exceedingly bizarre. There was a large, bulging lump midway along its body, as if it had already swallowed the Toothless Lord. In this chilling and frightening ambiance, it vigorously wagged its tail tip, laboriously crawling bit by bit to Hu Ma's feet. Then, it began to slither up his calf, poking its head around curiously as it climbed. It occasionally glanced back, its gaze fixed on the black bag lying on the ground.
? Is it clinging to ?
Hu Ma didn't bother to dodge, as the disaster creature had already stirred up chilling winds, making escape impossible. Wrapped in the black gusts, where could he even flee?
Helpless, he reached out his hand. "Bring the bag here..."
Nearby, Little Hongtang glanced at Little Douguan. Then, holding her recently won prize—a severed leg—she walked to the bag, picked it up, and tossed it to Hu Ma.
Hu Ma caught the black bag. The snake imdiately seed to rejoice, swiftly burrowing into it and wriggling around inside. Then, it poked its head out of the bag's opening, looked around, and retracted it again, its small eyes eerily watching him.
This ti, Hu Ma quickly tied the bag's opening tight, trying to contain the creature completely. Unfortunately, as soon as he secured it, the snake poked its head out again, but simply glanced around before retreating once more.
"This is the Sealing Disaster Bag, ant for the Benefit Sun family. Are you treating it as a nest?"
Hu Ma, puzzled by this bizarre scene, glanced at Immortal Miaoshan. Shouldn't the theft disaster sect explain this?
Immortal Miaoshan, her face grave, stared intently at the snake in the bag for a long mont before solemnly saying, "Sect Hierarch, this is a disaster creature..."
Hu Ma nodded. "It is."
Immortal Miaoshan continued, "And this disaster creature must be incredibly formidable, likely rare in the world."
Hu Ma nodded again. "That's right."
Immortal Miaoshan's eyes widened further. "Then why is it listening to you so obediently?"
Hu Ma could hardly maintain his composure. "Isn't that what I should be asking you?"
"Ask ?" Immortal Miaoshan's expression beca even more animated. "I'm just a diocre practitioner. How could I understand all this?"
Admitting one's own shortcomings is also a form of frankness... Faced with her self-assured, matter-of-fact deanor, Hu Ma wasn't sure what to say.
This disaster creature wasn't initially part of the ng family's plan to invite a disaster. He had invited it personally, borrowing the identity of the Fourth Old Master of the ng family. A disaster creature's appearance signifies debt collection. The ng family were Juehu, their accounts settled, yet this creature hadn't returned... The situation was so convoluted even he couldn't articulate it clearly.
Perhaps this matter could only be clarified in two places: the Ghost Cave Li Family or the Benefit Sun family. Hu Ma wasn't planning to engage with the Benefit Sun family just yet, but writing a letter for Little Hongtang to deliver, asking Xiang, would be prudent. Before that, it seed he could only keep this thing close. At least when it stayed within the bag, it didn't provoke any disastrous phenona and seed unlikely to stir trouble.
But carrying such a major catastrophe around, will it cause to have a streak of bad luck? He reconsidered, then gave a dry laugh. With so many people watching , determined not to let live in peace, my misfortune would only disrupt their plans.
After resting for a while and having Little Hongtang dispose of the leg, they all returned to the village. The villagers there indeed seed much better. During their illness, they had only heard strange noises from the back mountain—sotis like thunder, other tis like strong wind. They had felt disoriented and had even fainted once or twice. Yet, after sleeping, they surprisingly felt their bodies had recovered significantly.
However, while the disaster creature was gone, the pestilence remained. Proper treatnt was still required for them to recover fully, and to treat an illness, dicine was needed. Unexpectedly, the doctor, before entering the mountains, had been boiling two large pots of herbal dicine. These were now ready and could be distributed to the villagers to help cure their sickness. Calculation, out of caution, tasted the brew and confird it was indeed herbal dicine suitable for treating this pestilence.
As Immortal Miaoshan led the hired hands and coachn to distribute the dicine, Hu Ma inquired among the villagers and found the grave of the Ghost Walker. When this Old Ghost Walker died, the affliction in the village hadn't been as severe. The villagers, respecting his past kindness, had buried him by the hillside. Hu Ma, identifying himself as a Hu Family mber, took a handful of soil and scattered it on his grave, then reverently lit a stick of incense.
The outco in this village was genuinely unforeseen. But then again, this probably wasn't the only village affected. The life-and-death struggle between the Hu and ng Families had far-reaching impacts, even when efforts were made to restrain them. To truly relieve these villages of their misfortunes, the incense of the pond gods in Old Yin Mountain would have to be drawn into the world, drawn to these villages. However, those nascent pond gods currently lacked sufficient incense offerings and Mana. Yet, it was unknown how many lives would be lost throughout this process.
Once everything was done, they left half of their grain in the village. According to Immortal Miaoshan's suggestion, leaving all of it would have been fine, but Little Douguan persuaded them to keep so provisions on the cart.
With no further business, everyone camped overnight at the village entrance. They chose an upwind spot, which was Little Douguan's idea; although their employers were strong and not afraid of the pestilence, the hired hands were not, and if they fell ill, it would delay their journey.
They rested, awaiting the next day's journey. In the middle of the night, a low cry from Calculation jolted Hu Ma awake. He had been practicing for half the night and had regained so of his cultivation. Descending from the cart, he saw Calculation's troubled and uncertain face.
"Those demon people... I'll just call them demon people. Since they're targeting you, I'm also very uneasy." Calculation looked at Hu Ma, his eyes flickering, his expression strained. "So, I just sought guidance from the ancestral master and perford a divination."
"You... you really don't intend to turn back?"
Hu Ma frowned slightly, ignoring the question. "What does the divination say?"
Calculation chuckled bitterly and led Hu Ma over to look. On the ground, the copper coins he had tossed lay there. All three showed yin.
Calculation said with another bitter chuckle, "I cast them three tis, and each ti the result was the sa."
Intrigued, Hu Ma smiled. "Nine deaths and one life?"
"Only nine deaths, no path to life." Calculation's face was grim. He waved his hand. "This ti, I used the simplest thod of fortune-telling, directly tossing the copper coins to glimpse the future... Generally, the more complex the hexagram, the clearer the insight, but the old ways tend to be deliberately obscure, not speaking plainly... Yet, it resulted in this divination!"
He continued, "It appears as nine deaths, seemingly with one path to survival remaining. But in our fortune-telling, we usually leave one potential path to survival out of the calculation. That is, we divine the full ten parts of fate but use only nine copper coins. And these nine coins... all of them indicate a dead end!"
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