Front Line of the Beast Tide, Part 23

The moment Ye Mingshi’s hand touched the storage bag, Ye Ruici didn’t move.

Instead, Ye Rong, who was nearby, seemed to accidentally drop his chopsticks on the ground and bent down with his head lowered to pick them up.

He bumped squarely into Ye Mingshi, who was huddled under the table.

At this moment, her hand was still on the storage bag, her face was pitch black, and her eyes were wide and round, reflecting the equally shocked Ye Rong.

Ye Rong: “?!”

He was startled and hadn’t had time to speak when the girl seemed to get an electric shock.

Her messy hair almost stood on end.

A red light flashed in her eyes, and a few fresh red scales popped up on her cheeks.

The next second, her figure paused, then she suddenly moved on all fours like a beast, her body surging forward in segments with a “swish,” and she shot out from under the table.

Her speed was so fast that her figure was indistinct, and she was very sly, only darting through the blind spots under the tables. Wherever she passed, people were thrown into disarray.

Some thought it was a giant rat and quickly lifted their feet in fright. Others, with unsteady hands, spilled hot soup everywhere.

Some bolder ones, seizing the opportunity, wanted to stomp down hard a few times.

Several reproaching voices echoed through the bustling lobby, “You scared me to death! Where did that wild cat come from?!”

“I don’t know what it was, but its fur seemed a bit reddish!”

“So big! Did it snatch some meat and run?”

Ye Rong, somewhat bewildered, picked up his chopsticks from the ground. He even bumped under the table, making a loud noise, then grimaced, clutching his head, and sat up.

The two bowls of rich meat noodles, protected by Ye Ruici, floated slightly above the tabletop, not spilling a drop of soup.

Ye Rong, one hand on his head and the other clutching his chopsticks, grumbled, “Master, did you deliberately throw your chopsticks on the ground because you saw someone under the table? You could have at least told me.”

Ye Ruici said righteeously, “Can that be compared? This move is called ‘luring the snake out of its hole’.”

As for his stolen storage bag, he didn’t care about it at all.

As a poor cultivator, most of his valuable belongings were in his storage bag, but because of this, tracking talismans had long been carved onto it.

And a little girl, even a demonic little girl, wouldn’t have the ability to open it.

Only after finishing all the noodles at the bottom of the bowls and drinking the soup did Ye Ruici say contentedly, “Are you full? If you’re full, it’s time for us to investigate. This recent unrest must have some underlying cause.”

But he didn’t look towards where Ye Mingshi disappeared.

Instead, he looked elsewhere. At the end of his gaze was the man who had caught Su Qing’s attention.

Su Qing diligently and sincerely worked as a follower, yet was abandoned by her Boss in the inn.

To be precise, part of the reason was that most of her attention was on the bloodthirsty man with an ominous aura around him; she had already realized he was very likely an evil cultivator.

An evil cultivator appearing in a mortal town was certainly not a good thing.

And with a pair of cultivator master and disciple also appearing in a mortal town at the same time, Su Qing couldn’t help but suspect they were precisely tracking that evil cultivator.

Only when the Boss’s figure darted out of the inn in a few breaths did she snap back to reality, belatedly following.

When she followed them out of the inn and ran to the designated meeting place, she found that Ye Mingshi’s figure was already gone.

However, Quzi and Caigua were still squatting there, Caigua still sucking on the bone with little meat.

Su Qing walked over and asked, “Where’s the Boss?”

Quzi immediately looked wary at the sight of her. He spoke in a low voice, his gaunt face revealing a threatening intent, “You saw it, didn’t you?”

Su Qing blinked, immediately understanding Quzi’s meaning.

He was asking Su Qing if she had seen the abnormality of the demonic bone on Ye Mingshi’s body. She feigned hesitation and nodded, “Mm, I saw it. It seemed to have a red glow.”

Quzi and Caigua exchanged glances. Caigua pulled out the bone he had chewed down to half, wiped his mouth, and said fiercely, “You better not tell anyone, I’m telling you…” His voice lowered, “When she goes crazy, she’s like a wild dog, she eats people.”

Quzi said ominously, “You’re new here, so you don’t know that we picked her up from the mass grave. That dark night, I saw something moving on the ground from afar. I thought it was a wild dog eating a corpse, so I boldly went closer. That thing heard the noise and turned its head; it was a child with a mouth full of blood, and her fingers and nails were full of rotting flesh.”

Su Qing listened quietly.

She was no longer a child and wouldn’t be scared by Quzi and Caigua’s descriptions.

Although only one night had passed, Su Qing was always perceptive and had long noticed that the atmosphere within this group of beggars was off.

To say they admired Ye Mingshi wasn’t wrong, but fear was also mixed in.

That emotion was more complex, with elements of utilization, fear, and apprehension.

The reason they recognized such a young child as their so-called “Boss” was probably because they saw the extraordinary in her, elevating her so she could be used by them.

Due to the scarcity of survival resources and the difficulty of survival, they had to try every means to cling to Ye Mingshi as a lifeline.

This seemed to be nothing wrong, but emotionally, they feared her, treating her as a wild dog, as “that thing,” and didn’t even give her a human identity, which was somewhat hard to describe.

After Quzi and Caigua finished speaking, they specifically looked up to observe her expression.

They saw her frowning, somewhat displeased, but without a trace of fear on her face.

Quzi’s eyes darted around, wanting to add more fuel to the fire and intimidate her further, but Su Qing asked, “Your name is Quzi, and you’re Caigua. So what’s her name? You haven’t even given her a name yet?”

Quzi never expected Su Qing to ask this question and immediately jumped up, “What does it have to do with names?! Don’t you understand human language? What I mean is, don’t get close to her casually!!”

Su Qing ignored them both and turned to walk into the dilapidated temple.

Her attitude made Quzi grind his teeth in anger. He nudged Caigua, who was still gnawing on the bone, “Stop sucking!”

He snorted, squeezed his eyes hard, and it seemed some malice was about to overflow from his belly.

Back in the dilapidated temple, Ye Mingshi was still nowhere to be seen.

However, her stolen storage bag was in the hands of a few older children, who were trying every way to pull and tear at it, but couldn’t open it. They even used stones and knives to smash and cut it, but to no avail.

“Can’t open it? What the hell, is it cursed?!”

“Which shop made this money pouch? It’s so sturdy! At this rate, all the thieves in the world will starve to death.”

A cultivator’s belongings were naturally not something these children could figure out.

Su Qing might be able to, but her urgent matter now had nothing to do with the storage bag; it was where Ye Mingshi had gone.

When she came back, she asked several times, “Where did Boss go?”

Everyone here said they didn’t know. Some said, “I don’t know, maybe she went somewhere to play.”

“Don’t think that just because Boss let you in here, you can do anything. Boss hates being controlled. Don’t ask too many questions. If she gets annoyed, she might kick you out.”

“Exactly, stop prying. Go sit over there.”

As they spoke, their eyes flashed with cold and wary light, but their body language was entirely different.

Ye Mingshi must be here, but asking them wouldn’t get any answers. Su Qing moved aside to feign sleep, saying nothing, seemingly having taken their words to heart.

These people quietly observed her for a while, seemed to relax, and couldn’t help but look in a certain direction.

Su Qing memorized the direction of that gaze.

In the evening, the children who went out begging and stealing brought back quite a harvest.

Su Qing was new and hadn’t contributed much today, so she only received a small piece of hard cake.

The returning child vigorously sniffed and asked, “Where’s the roasted chicken? I’ve been looking forward to roasted chicken all day!”

“Roasted chicken? There aren’t even chicken bones,” Quzi said. “We stole that money pouch, but we can’t open it!”

“Can’t open it? How is that possible? Even that thing can’t be opened?”

Quzi pouted, “No one can open it.”

Their roasted chicken dreams dashed, the returning people sadly shared some leftovers, barely filling their stomachs.

They wrapped themselves tightly in their ragged clothes, one by one, huddled against the wall and closed their eyes.

Deep in the night, soft snores echoed intermittently in the room.

It was then that Su Qing, feigning restless sleep, forcefully rolled over and tumbled under the offering table.

She crawled under the statue, curled her fingers, and gently knocked.

There was no sound inside.

She took out the small, half-eaten leftover cake  from her pocket and slipped it through a crack in the clay statue. This time, the cake was taken. Su Qing saw a fleeting hand through the crack.

More than a hand, it was like the claw of a cold-blooded animal, with slender, sharp knuckles, long, hard, and pointed nails, and its back covered with many glistening scales.

Faint gnawing sounds came from inside the statue.

She seemed extremely hungry, eating bite after bite, like tearing at prey, not chewing, but swallowing everything directly.

This was a mortal place with no spiritual or demonic energy.

Ye Mingshi’s use of demonic bone power had no source for replenishment.

Su Qing speculated that she likely needed a large amount of food to replenish her energy.

Only after she had ravenously eaten did Su Qing ask, “Can I come in?”

“No!” the voice inside quickly replied.

Su Qing blinked, “Tonight, Boss’s body isn’t itchy? Doesn’t need lice caught? I promise my skill is much better now.”

“Not itchy,” the other side replied quickly.

Su Qing, going with the flow, rephrased, “Then I’m itchy. Boss, help me catch some.”

The little demon inside, pestered beyond endurance, or perhaps because it was truly too dark and cold inside, Ye Mingshi finally conceded, “Then you must come in with your eyes closed. If you dare open your eyes, I’ll gouge them out.”

“Okay, Boss. No problem, Boss.”

Su Qing groped her way into the statue’s interior from below.

As promised, she kept her eyes tightly closed. Only then did Ye Mingshi let out a small sigh of relief.

Her hands had turned into sharp claws; even a touch would cut flesh, so it was naturally impossible to help Su Qing catch lice.

And Su Qing sincerely hoped that she herself did not have these little creatures.

It was very cramped inside the statue. Squeezing two children in was difficult.

After muttering for a while, Ye Mingshi curled up on Su Qing’s lap and fell asleep.

Her breath was warm, and her body’s rising and falling seemed faster than an ordinary person’s. She was still very restless in her sleep, her constantly flailing fists painfully striking her follower’s abdomen.

Su Qing hypnotized herself: ‘It doesn’t hurt, it really doesn’t hurt. Just consider it body tempering.’

The day’s observations told her that this night would not be peaceful.

Something was bound to happen tonight. She closed her eyes, but her mind remained attentive, carefully listening to the surrounding movements.

Sure enough, in the latter half of the night, a very faint cracking sound suddenly came from the roof of the old temple, as if a mouse had run across.

But what kind of place was this? There was no food here.

These beggars, when extremely hungry, would even eat rats with their fur.

There couldn’t possibly be any trace of rats.

It was also at this moment that Su Qing felt an extremely cold and viscous aura spreading around.

This familiar aura made her realize that the evil cultivator had come looking for them.