Chapter 174 "Gone?"

Staring at the smoothly severed leg, neatly sliced, Hu Ma narrowed his eyes.

He had to admit, the doctor did make a living with a knife; his swordsmanship…

If it were any other method, with such close proximity, even with concealment techniques, escape would be impossible. The Shou Suiren (Night Watcher)'s recklessness was not to be trifled with; sometimes, with just their spiritual sense, they could pinpoint the direction of the escapee.

They'd chase after them in one breath, catching them with unerring accuracy.

A Shou Suiren who could run usually meant they could also chase.

But as the quack doctor fled, he cast some spell, creating vitality everywhere, so that even the Shou Suiren's intuition couldn't find him.

That was a Si Ming (Fate Master) technique.

Though he escaped, Hu Ma was thinking, "One moment he wanted to seize my Dawei Tiangong (Great Might Heavenly Duke) General Dharma Image, the next he wanted to entice me to abandon my identity as a Hu family descendant…"

"What exactly do they want?"

Seeing that the crisis had passed, Zhou Si Guniang (Fourth Miss Zhou), Miaoshan Xian Gu (Fairy Miaoshan), and Lao Suanpan (Old Abacus) hurriedly came up to him.

Hu Ma went with them to the edge of the village and sat down. He pondered inwardly. This sudden assassination gave him another pillar of Dao practice. But more than the joy of gaining that pillar, it was the strangeness of these people that made him suspicious.

He hadn't had much chance to talk with them during the two assassination attempts. But from their brief words, he had confirmed a few things:

First, there weren't many Reincarnators. Otherwise, like before, when all the Reincarnators received an order and simultaneously lurked somewhere, becoming enemies with someone, not only would he, a lone wolf, be unable to withstand it, but even the Meng family at its peak wouldn't have been able to hold out!

Another point was that these people didn't seem to have revealed their identities to other Reincarnators…

Was it because they didn't trust each other, or something else?

"That, that…"

While Hu Ma was deep in thought, Lao Suanpan and Miaoshan Xian Gu and the others kept their distance from him.

Hesitant, they pointed at him.

Zhou Si Guniang, who had been supporting Hu Ma, didn't react at first. But suddenly she was startled, hopping three zhang away on one leg, stuttering, "Quick, quick…"

Hu Ma realized they were looking at the black bag he was holding. It was now quiet inside, except for a snake's head sticking out, staring at him curiously with its beady eyes.

...That calamitous object was still in the bag, and it wasn't restrained at all; it had crawled out again?

Hu Ma was also startled. He could even feel the invisible pressure from the calamitous object. He raised his hand and threw the bag far away.

The calamitous object was clearly dazed from being thrown. Confused, it crawled out of the bag.

Buzz!

The moment it crawled out of the village, the sky seemed to darken, becoming extremely gloomy. Dark clouds gathered from all directions, and the surrounding wind grew stronger and heavier, almost blowing away the little warmth left in people's bodies.

The atmosphere alone was already terrifying, let alone the calamitous object.

The snake looked extremely bizarre. Its midsection had a large bulge, suggesting it had swallowed Wu Ya Jun (Toothless Lord).

In the eerie and terrifying atmosphere, it wagged its tail tip and laboriously crawled to Hu Ma's feet, then tentatively climbed up Hu Ma's calf.

It kept looking back at the black bag on the ground.

"?"

Was it latching onto him?

It wasn't that Hu Ma didn't want to dodge, but as soon as the calamitous object appeared, the yin wind raged, making it impossible to escape.

He seemed to be wrapped in a black tide; even if he could escape, where could he go?

Helpless, he stretched out his hand, "Bring the bag over…"

Beside him, Xiao Hongtang looked at Xiao Douguan, then, holding the trophy she had just snatched, a leg, she walked to the bag, picked it up, and threw it to Hu Ma from afar.

Hu Ma caught the black bag. The snake was overjoyed and quickly crawled into the bag, turned around, then poked its head out of the bag to look around before retracting it, its small eyes watching him with a ghostly gaze.

This time, Hu Ma quickly tightened the bag, trying to trap it completely.

Unfortunately, as soon as he tightened it, the snake poked its head out, but this time it just looked around before retracting it again.

"Is this the Sun family's Fengzai (Calamity Sealing) bag that brings fortune to the Sun family? Are you treating it as a nest?"

Hu Ma was bewildered by the strange scene and instinctively looked at Miaoshan Xian Gu.

Shouldn't the Daozai (Calamity Thief) explain this?

Miaoshan Xian Gu had a solemn expression, staring at the snake in the black bag. After a while, she said seriously, "Jiaozhu (Cult Leader), this is a calamitous object…"

Hu Ma nodded, "It is."

Miaoshan Xian Gu said, "Moreover, this calamitous object should be very powerful, perhaps rare in the world."

Hu Ma nodded, "That's right."

Miaoshan Xian Gu's eyes widened even more, "So why is it so obedient to you?"

Hu Ma couldn't help but say, "Isn't that what I should be asking you?"

"Asking me?"

Miaoshan Xian Gu's expression was even more colorful, "I'm just a dabbler; how could I understand these things?"

'Admitting you're not good is also a kind of honesty...'

Facing her justified look, Hu Ma didn't know what to say.

This calamitous object wasn't originally in the Meng family's Qingzai (Calamity Inviting) plan. He had invited it himself, but he had also borrowed the identity of the Meng family's Fourth Master to invite it. Calamitous objects came to collect debts. The Meng family was extinct and the debt had been settled, but it hadn't gone back…

…The complexity of this matter was confusing even to himself.

Perhaps there were only two places where this could be clarified: the Li family in the Guidongzi (Ghost Cave), and the Sun family that brings fortune.

Hu Ma didn't have plans to deal with the Sun family yet, but it was right to write a letter and have Xiao Hongtang take it to ask Xiang Yatou (Fragrant Girl).

But before that, he really had to keep this thing by his side first.

At least when it was in the bag, it wouldn't trigger calamitous signs, and it didn't seem to cause any trouble.

But would carrying such a big calamity around make him start to have bad luck?

He thought about it and chuckled...

So many people were watching him, not letting him have an easy time. If he had bad luck, it would only affect their plans in various ways.

After resting for a while, he had Xiao Hongtang quickly throw away the leg. Then the group returned to the village, where they saw that the villagers had really gotten much better.

While they were sick, they had only heard noises in the back mountain, like thunder and wind. In a daze, they had fainted once or twice, but when they woke up, they felt much better.

However, the calamitous object was gone, but the plague was still there. They still had to take good care of themselves and heal their illnesses to get through this calamity.

And to heal the illness, they needed medicine.

Unexpectedly, the two large pots of herbal medicine that the doctor had been brewing before entering the mountain were now ready. They could be distributed to the villagers to treat their ailments.

Out of caution, Lao Suanpan had tasted it and confirmed that it was herbal medicine, and it was effective against the plague.

While having Miaoshan Xian Gu distribute the herbal medicine with the helpers and drivers, Hu Ma asked the villagers and found the grave of the zouguiren (ghost walker).

When the old zouguiren died, the village's calamity wasn't so serious yet, and the villagers respected his usual kindness, so they buried him by the mountain. Hu Ma, in his identity as a member of the Hu family, grabbed a handful of soil and sprinkled it on his grave, and respectfully offered incense.

The outcome of this village was something he hadn't expected, but he thought that this village wasn't the only one that had problems.

The life-and-death struggle between the Hu and Meng families had a huge impact, even when suppressed.

It seemed that to solve the misfortunes of these villages, they could only wait until Bu Shi Niu (Ox That Doesn't Eat) brought the Tang Shen (Pond Deity) incense from Lao Yin Shan (Old Yin Mountain) to the world, to this village. Now those Tang Shen were newly born and didn't have much incense or much magic power.

But in this process, how many people would die and lose their lives was unknown.

After doing everything, they divided half of the grain from the cart and left it in the village. According to Miaoshan's idea, it would be fine to leave it all, but Xiao Douguan persuaded them to leave some rations on the cart.

Then everyone was fine, so they camped at the entrance of the village, choosing the upwind position. It was also Xiao Douguan's idea. Although the owners were strong and not afraid of the plague, the helpers weren't. If they got sick, it would delay the journey.

As they rested, waiting to continue the journey the next day, Lao Suanpan's low roar woke Hu Ma in the middle of the night.

He had practiced his cultivation for half the night, recovering some Dao practice. He got out of the cart and saw Lao Suanpan's uncertain face.

"That group of demons... I'll just call them demons. Since they've targeted you, I don't have confidence."

Lao Suanpan looked at Hu Ma, his eyes flickering, his face strained, "So, I just asked the Patriarch to help me calculate a hexagram."

"You... really don't want to turn back?"

"..."

Hu Ma frowned. He didn't even answer, just said, "What's the hexagram?"

Lao Suanpan smiled bitterly and led Hu Ma over to look. The copper coins he had thrown out were still there, not yet picked up.

All three were Yin.

Lao Suanpan smiled bitterly, "I threw it three times, all the same."

Hu Ma became curious and laughed, "Nine deaths, one life?"

"Only nine deaths, no life."

Lao Suanpan shook his head with a somber face, "This time I used the simplest divination, directly throwing copper coins to see the future..."

"Logically speaking, the more complex the hexagram, the more clearly you can see things, but old things tend to pretend to be stupid, not saying things clearly..."

"...As a result, it became this hexagram instead!"

"It looks like nine deaths, leaving one chance of survival, but in our divination, we usually leave out the one chance of survival, that is, looking at the ten parts of fate, but only using nine copper coins."

"And these nine copper coins show that all are dead ends!"

(End of Chapter)