Chapter 1 Hu Ma's Thoughts

Hu Ma didn't really think that Yang Gong would succeed. Most of their Hongxiang disciples came from poor families, with very few exceptions.

It was already a minority to know their home's location and their full name like Yang Gong.

Most were simply ignorant, having forgotten their hometowns. Upon entering the Red Lantern Mother's Society, they risked their lives for a future, exchanging blood for food.

Don't be fooled by their high status and good provisions in the Society, for their lives are often short.

Today, they might be laughing and joking, full of ambition, but tomorrow they might die in a ditch, unnoticed.

Yang Gong seemed to be a typical case. He was proud and had served the Red Lantern Mother for a year, still alive. Of course, he must have some skills. These Hongxiang disciples who could survive a year of elimination might even be more capable than himself, but to want to shoulder a big responsibility alone at this time, to compete with those vicious and evil people for blood food, was still too difficult.

Hu Ma even felt that he would likely lose his life.

But there was no way to persuade him. Yang Gong lived on a fierce nature. If he tried to persuade him, he might even resent him.

Therefore, he simply treated Yang Gong to a meal and helped him feed his horse. Seeing that the night was already deep, he wanted to keep him for the night, but he didn't care. He led the rested horse and left overnight. Anyway, those who served the Red Lantern Mother were not afraid of these ghosts and monsters at night.

Or rather, compared to the living, he was now more like a ghost.

After this incident, Hu Ma was only busy making accounts, and would hand them over to the city together later.

There were many capable people in the Red Lantern Society, and they checked the blood food in and out of each village very strictly, probably to prevent people from embezzling it.

Of course, Hu Ma's village didn't need to worry.

The people in their village hadn't even seen what blood food looked like a few times, and everyone who came here was very careful.

"It's as if someone in our village is thinking about this blood food..."

"...It's either white or green, who would look up to it?"

"..."

The bookkeeping should have been done by the shopkeeper himself, but his heart had already flown away.

He had originally planned to endure for a year, deal with the Red Lantern Society's affairs, and then resign to the higher-ups, taking Sister Wu He out to find someone from the Divine Hand Zhao family for medical treatment.

Hu Ma didn't know if he already had any clues, but he had heard people say that Shopkeeper Wu had already had the old servant sell his house in the city.

Now Hu Ma handled many things in the village on his own, without needing to ask him.

However, as far as Hu Ma was concerned, as long as there were no mistakes in the village, the key was still cultivation.

In the old shopkeeper's eyes, he had now cultivated both hands and one foot, and was about to complete the second-level cultivation, but in fact, he had already secretly begun the cultivation of the five internal organs.

But this was a major matter, and Hu Ma didn't dare to treat it as a game, considering every step carefully.

The heart must be the last one, because it was the most important, and it also represented the mark of completing the third level.

As for the other four organs, it was up to Hu Ma to decide.

Although Hu Ma had his Benming (Natal) Divine Statue illuminating him, and his whole body was dead, making cultivation extremely easy, he still decided to start with the lungs after some thought.

Because the old shopkeeper also started here, and the records in the notes were the most detailed.

Moreover, the lungs inhaled and exhaled yang qi, which was the most important. After he refined them, the power of his True Yang Arrow technique would be greatly improved.

Now Hu Ma could only injure evil creatures half a meter away with a mouthful of True Yang Arrow.

If he refined the lungs, and his qi swallowed mountains and rivers, wouldn't he be able to spit it out more than three meters away in one breath?

Moreover, after refining the lungs, his strength would be long and lasting, which would be of great help to his skills.

"Sigh..."

However, this cultivation also caused a lot of suffering.

Usually, he relied on sufficient blood tai sui (blood spirit fungus) to nourish his whole body, so he didn't feel anything, but when he cultivated, he first withdrew all the qi and blood from his lungs, and immediately felt weak, pale, and short of breath after walking a few steps, as if he had contracted consumption.

Outsiders often misunderstood that shousui ren (year keepers) were unlucky and suffered from many diseases, but in fact, this was a stage of their cultivation.

But precisely because of this, Hu Ma never dared to practice during the day, for fear that the shopkeeper would see it.

Only when no one was around in the middle of the night would he silently cultivate for a while. During the day, he still used the blood tai sui to prop up the qi and blood in his lungs, pretending that nothing was wrong.

He was just like a green tea academic who desperately played games during the day and secretly did homework at night.

He thought to himself, if he could really become the shopkeeper, that would be great, at least he wouldn't have to cultivate secretly.

After a few days like this, the time for harvesting tai sui this year had just passed. Hu Ma was about to prepare for his practice this night when a cool breeze blew past the window for some reason, causing the paper window frames to rattle. Hu Ma felt a slight chill on his skin, and suddenly sat up, looking outside the door, vaguely feeling that something seemed to be standing there.

"Who is it?"

He frowned and asked in a low voice, but no one answered outside the door. Only a weak knock sounded.

"Speak!"

Hu Ma frowned and said, but still no one responded, only the knock sounded again.

Not the shop assistants from the village.

Hu Ma thought to himself, the shop assistants in the village wouldn't fail to answer, nor would they stand there knocking like fools.

Slightly alert, he glanced at Little Hongtang rubbing her eyes on the beam. Seeing that she had also woken up and was curiously looking outside the door, he knew that whoever came was probably not a human.

Raising his hand to catch the mahogany sword thrown over by Little Hongtang, he slowly walked to the door and suddenly pulled it open.

"Woo..."

The moment it opened, a gust of cold air rushed towards him.

Hu Ma's eyes blurred, and he saw a little ghost about waist-high, with a round head and a pale and eerie face.

It had a crippled leg, standing crookedly by the door. Suddenly having the door opened, it seemed startled.

Taking two steps back, it suddenly lowered its head and knelt down, kowtowing to him.

"What the hell?"

Hu Ma was startled and almost slashed his sword over.

Suddenly, in the middle of the night, a little ghost knocked on the door and kowtowed to him, who wouldn't be scared?

But unexpectedly, halfway through the sword swing, the little ghost stuttered and opened his mouth: "Master Yang Gong asked me to find Steward Hu."

"Yang Gong?"

Hu Ma stopped his sword, almost destroying the little ghost.

But the little ghost didn't know the danger just now, and said stupidly: "Master Yang Gong asked me to bring a message, saying that he has succeeded and arrived at the Water God Temple, but the river is too rapid to cross, and the trackers are chasing him closely. Please ask Steward Hu to help him get rescued..."

As he spoke, he took out a piece of clothing and offered it with both hands. It was covered in blood and had the word "Help" written on it.

"Yang Gong actually succeeded?"

Hu Ma was surprised to hear this, and glanced at the crippled little ghost, understanding.

This was Yang Gong's little messenger ghost, the same as Little Hongtang...

...Thinking, he turned to glance at the beam. Little Hongtang was pretty, with her pigtails, curiously stretching her head down to look.

Well, still different, Little Hongtang was so pretty.

But before he could be proud, he first thought of the main business. Hu Ma took the cloth from the little ghost's hand.

Seeing that the two words on it were crooked, it did seem like the style of Yang Gong, who was originally illiterate and only started learning characters after entering the Red Lantern Society.

He hurriedly asked the little ghost a few more questions. It spoke unclearly and ramblingly, but after asking several times, he finally understood.

It was really amazing that Yang Gong had actually snatched the batch of blood food.

However, according to their agreement, Yang Gong should have passed Niujiawan and headed north, sending the blood food into Hu Ma's village before dark.

But now, he should have encountered some danger, not only delaying his journey, but also being trapped opposite Niujiawan.

Unable to escape, he had no choice but to send his little messenger ghost to the village to ask for help.

"Go back first and tell him I know."

Hu Ma said in a low voice, then turned around, lit the oil lamp, and searched for a map.

Seeing that the crippled leg was still standing by the door, kowtowing when it saw him turn around: "Thank you, Master Hu."

"What are you thanking me for?"

Hu Ma frowned, and saw the little ghost kowtow again: "Master Hu is auspicious."

Looking up at Hu Ma, seeing that he didn't seem to understand, he kowtowed again: "Master Hu, may you be blessed with good fortune and peace."

"?"

Hu Ma then understood that it was begging for a reward.

So he took a piece of dried meat from a jar by the bed and threw it into his hand.

Only then did the crippled little ghost happily leave.

"No wonder Yang Gong dislikes his little messenger ghost so much. It doesn't convey messages very clearly, but it's very good at asking for rewards..."

Hu Ma smiled helplessly and continued to search for the map of the Niujiawan area.

Because most of the work they handled was escorting, they didn't lack maps, and they were all self-made. Although they were rough, they were easy to understand.

Hu Ma leaned close to the oil lamp and quickly found the place that the crippled ghost leg mentioned.

"Niujiawan Water God Temple..."

Pondering slightly, he thought for a moment. This place was seventy or eighty li away from his village, not close, not far.

Usually, the shop assistants in the village went out to meet people, and the furthest they went was about this distance.

But that Niujiawan direction didn't belong to the usual activity range of the Red Lantern Mother's Society, it was too far from Mingzhou Prefecture.

Should he really go to meet him?

He pondered silently in his heart, tapping the table lightly with his fingers, and quickly made a decision.

He had to go, this place wasn't far, relying on his shousui ren (year keeper) footwork, he would be there in an hour or two.

If Yang Gong's matter was true, then it was indeed a merit, and it was exactly what he needed now. Now the old shopkeeper was intent on recommending him to be a shopkeeper, but his time in the Society was too short, and he usually didn't have any great merits. In this case, even if the old shopkeeper had this intention, he couldn't help.

If he made a contribution, this matter would still be possible.

Moreover, he himself was not very interested in the position of shopkeeper, but he had to admit that the position of shopkeeper was very useful.

After all, with Shopkeeper Wu here now, he had to be careful in everything he did.

If a stranger came again, who knew what would happen?

Furthermore, if the blood food in Yang Gong's hand was very valuable, then he might be able to earn an extra sum.

Who would dislike having more blood food?

Of course, it could not be ruled out that there were other tricks in this matter, and it could not be completely ruled out that this was the possibility of some unknown trap.

But if that was the case, then he had to go even more, but not in a hurry to show his face. He should go and take a look in secret first to see if someone was plotting against him.

(End of Chapter)