Chapter Eighty-Seven: Tu Shanqi’s Pet (Fourth Update)

After a moment of thought, Tang Gumo sighed. “You really are quite lucky.”

“Is that so?”

Hearing it from Tang Gumo, Xu Cheng was not entirely convinced.

“For ordinary people, obtaining even one token from the Millet-and-Pouch Way would be considered fortunate enough. I never expected you to get two.”

As he spoke, Tang Gumo was clearing away melon rinds and fruit peels from the ground. The audience had already dispersed after the storytelling, and he had not had time to tidy up. Now he swept the area clean before continuing, “By the way, help me look for Tu Shanqi. Where is she now?”

“That little fox hasn’t practiced your Millet Gate’s concealment technique, has she?”

Xu Cheng was extremely guarded when it came to the Millet Gate’s hidden-trace method.

“She never joined my Millet Gate, so how could she have learned our secret art? Just check freely. That child has been disappearing all of a sudden lately, and I have no idea what she is up to.”

Tang Gumo hurriedly said.

Xu Cheng nodded, closed his eyes, and released the power of his primordial spirit. It spread across nearly the entire town of Jinsui. Yet the little girl was nowhere to be seen within the town. In the end, he found her in a mountain stream outside the town.

However, she was together with a little spirit, and he could not tell what they were doing.

“She’s in the outskirts now. Shall we go find her?”

Xu Cheng opened his eyes and said.

“Of course we’re going. I want to see just what that girl is doing. Oh, and the intelligence fee from earlier, you don’t need to pay it. Thanks for helping me find her!”

With that brief remark, Tang Gumo made as if to leave.

“You really are... stingy!”

As Xu Cheng complained, he suddenly remembered that the Millet-and-Pouch Way’s skill at tracking people should not be inferior to his own. It seemed this fellow was deliberately doing him a favor rather than truly being miserly.

As he was thinking, Tang Gumo had already reached the doorway and muttered, “Seek a man from a thousand miles away, trace him from ten thousand miles off. Manifest!”

Then he turned into a streak of azure light and flew off.

What a strange fellow, Xu Cheng thought.

Still, he had more questions to ask, so he brought Yan Mengdie along with Ju Hua and followed the azure light all the way to the mountain stream outside the town.

Not far ahead was Tu Shanqi. She was lying beneath a tree, with a white snake more than ten meters long sprawled beside her.

As Tang Gumo descended from his escape light, the white snake suddenly reared up and kept flicking its tongue at him, as though warning him not to approach Tu Shanqi.

Hearing the commotion, Tu Shanqi rubbed her eyes, then sat up. When she saw Tang Gumo and Xu Cheng’s group, she wrapped both arms around the white snake’s head and said, “Uncle Gumo! Don’t be afraid, Bai Bai, this is Uncle Gumo!”

But the white snake spirit did not relax. Its gaze remained fixed and alert on Tang Gumo.

“This damned snake has a sharp nose. Looks like it caught the scent of a rat on me!”

As Tang Gumo spoke, a mouse-like divine form suddenly appeared above his head, towering many dozens of zhang high and frightening the white snake spirit so badly that it trembled all over.

So this unassuming fellow was at least at the primordial spirit realm, Xu Cheng thought. He had really... underestimated him.

Under the pressure of that manifestation, the white snake quaked with fear.

“You’re not allowed to scare him! He’s my little darling!”

As she spoke, Tu Shanqi held the white snake spirit even tighter.

“What do you mean your little darling, you brat! Don’t you know your Uncle Gumo is the ancestor of all rats? People say snakes eat rats in summer and rats eat hibernating snakes in winter. We’re natural foes. Do you want him to eat your Uncle Gumo?”

Tang Gumo withdrew his divine form, and the white snake spirit calmed considerably, no longer trembling.

“Uncle Gumo is so powerful. How could Bai Bai possibly eat you?”

Tu Shanqi refused to let go of the snake spirit.

“Either he goes or I go. If I stay, he must leave!”

Tang Gumo said immediately.

“Uncle Gumo, how can you be like this?”

Tu Shanqi cried out angrily, tears streaking down her face.

“I’m just like this! Be good, or I’ll stew this white snake and eat it!”

Tang Gumo planted his hands on his hips, and azure light gathered in his palm, as though he truly meant to cast a spell, seize the white snake spirit, and turn it into a pot of snake soup.

“You... you... you...”

Tu Shanqi was so furious she could not speak, yet she also did not want her pet snake to be harmed. Tearfully, she loosened her arms around the white snake spirit, and the azure light in Tang Gumo’s hand truly withdrew.

“Be good. Come home with me!”

Tang Gumo lifted Tu Shanqi by the scruff, preparing to take her back to the teahouse.

Just as Xu Cheng turned around, he caught sight of something beneath the white snake spirit emitting a faint glow.

He slowly walked over, lowering the snake spirit’s vigilance. As he crouched down, he swiftly took out the glowing object from beneath it. Looking closely, he found that it was actually a bean the size of a fist, though the bean itself was suffused with a dark red light.

“Is this your inner core?”

Xu Cheng asked as he held up the pale red bean.

The white snake understood and shook its head.

Since he had taken something from the other side, Xu Cheng did not wish to take it for nothing. He then imprinted the method of cultivating the Small Five Elements Creation Art into the white snake’s mind. Perhaps in the future, it would become a formidable great demon.

“Wait, wait, let me catch my breath!” Tang Gumo set Tu Shanqi down and then pointed at the bean in Xu Cheng’s hand. “Brother, do you know what this thing in your hand is?”

“I don’t know.”

Xu Cheng kept turning the bean over in his hand, having no idea what it really was.

“Could it be that fools truly have fool’s fortune?”

Tang Gumo was almost howling at the sky.

“Stop beating around the bush. What exactly is it?”

Xu Cheng hurriedly asked.

“This is the token of the Bean Gate! Anyway, all you need to know is that you now possess the tokens of three branches of the Millet-and-Pouch Way!”

Tang Gumo said at once.

“This is the Bean Gate’s token?”

Xu Cheng had not expected to pick it up so casually.

“Yes, all right?” Tang Gumo said irritably, then led Tu Shanqi away from the area.

Seeing that he had gone far, Xu Cheng, Yan Mengdie, and Ju Hua quickly followed.

Once they returned, that girl Tu Shanqi ran to Tu Shanba and cried to him incessantly about something.

“Why are you still following me? Didn’t I already give you the intelligence?”

Tang Gumo, after landing and dismissing his escape light, said.

“The intelligence about Jizhou City was given to us, but I still want to ask about one person.”

Xu Cheng said quickly.

“If you’ve got something to say, say it. If you’ve got a fart, let it out. Don’t disturb my rest!”

Tang Gumo’s words were full of impatience.

Xu Cheng did not rush to speak. He dispelled the Small Five Elements Creation Art covering his body, revealing his skeletal form, and only then said, “Have you ever seen someone like me?”

Indeed, what he most wanted to know now was the whereabouts of the old demon Qiong Yue. He truly did not know where that fellow had gone.

“So it’s that fellow. I’ve heard of him, but I don’t know exactly where he’s hiding now.”

After Tang Gumo finished speaking, Xu Cheng was greatly disappointed. It seemed that even his Millet Gate could not know everything under heaven.