Front Line of the Beast Tide, Part 24

The other party came with ill intent.

She had long anticipated that this night would be a night of many troubles.

Su Qing opened her eyes. Inside the clay statue, it was pitch black, with only faint light vaguely leaking through tiny cracks.

Outside was quiet, occasionally a sharp sound of wind sweeping over the eaves, and besides that, soft snores, teeth grinding, and sleep talking.

Everything seemed no different from a normal night.

But danger silently descended after all.

Su Qing tensed her body, yet keenly felt the small bundle curled on her lap; its breathing frequency changed slightly.

Ye Mingshi opened her eyes, vigilantly and warily looking into the void.

She didn’t have a name at this time, perhaps because sometimes her behavior was more like a beast’s than a human’s.

Just like now, Su Qing, in this cramped confinement, at such a critical juncture, clearly saw her appearance by the dim moonlight.

Rhomboid red scales covered her cheeks, her limbs were elongated, her hands had turned into sharp claws, the demonic bone on her spine radiated a faint red light, and a crimson tail extended from her coccyx, shaking somewhat uneasily at this moment.

Su Qing looked at her forehead; it was flat, with no bumps indicating horn growth.

She opened her mouth, maintaining a serene facade while her heart churned with tumultuous waves: ‘She had studied basic cultivation. She had studied it, and she even got a special grade!’

‘No, why didn’t anyone tell her that Ye Mingshi’s true form was a red chi?’

Chi, a female dragon.

Refers to a legendary red, hornless small dragon, specifically a female dragon.*

Su Qing cried out inwardly: ‘A dragon! This is a dragon, a genuine dragon!’

‘A dragon, a divine beast above ninth-tier in legends? No, that’s not right, she has a demonic bone. She should be a demon beast from the demon realm. In short, a high-tier demon dragon embryo.’

‘Heavens above, what sin did the demon realm commit, no, what great good deed did it do, to allow a juvenile demon dragon to wander into the human world, to be picked up by a group of beggars and made their boss, living a life of occasional leftovers, and occasional confinement in a dark room inside a statue?’

Even after growing up, Ye Mingshi’s life was extremely poor.

According to Bayin, there were barely any spirit stones in her storage bag, and even fewer valuable magical artifacts. Yet, despite this, she was frequently hunted by evil cultivators.

This was a life Su Qing often lived; she was used to it. But was this the life a noble demon dragon should live?

No wonder Blood Thorns pursued Ye Mingshi relentlessly back then! This, this, this! Su Qing manually pushed her chin, and she suddenly understood everything.

However, what she didn’t know was that Blood Thorns had never seen Ye Mingshi’s true form.

She had merely sensed an extraordinary aura about her and was determined to capture her.

In fact, ever since Ye Mingshi joined the Crimson Leaf Sect, under Ye Ruici’s guidance, she had long learned to conceal her true form and would not casually reveal it as she did when she was young, attracting covetous gazes.

At this moment, Ye Mingshi didn’t mind Su Qing opening her eyes.

She stared unpleasantly outside, her abdomen trembling, seemingly extremely annoyed that her territory had been invaded.

A rustling sound suddenly echoed inside the room. Ye Mingshi’s face changed dramatically.

She suddenly kicked off the ground, her claws spiraling back and forth inside the statue, borrowing two pushes of force.

Then, aiming for a crack in the clay statue, she suddenly shot out headfirst, her figure moving like lightning, weaving back and forth through the air, heading straight for the dark figure on the eaves.

Self-taught, her moves were extremely vicious.

Her strike went straight for the evil cultivator’s lifeline!

The evil cultivator had committed a crime in another city and had been hunted and wanted all along, receiving no small beating from righteous disciples.

Although he repeatedly escaped by luck, he was ultimately weakened. This time, he specifically stopped in a mortal city, also hoping to find some human lives as blood food to replenish his losses.

His goal was clear: to find some local ruffians, drifters, beggars. If these people died, they died, like pebbles falling into mud, causing no ripples.

But what the evil cultivator never expected was for a surprise challenger to appear, and another evil cultivator was already waiting here, ready to feast.

The evil cultivator realized: he seemed to have stolen someone else’s food.

But everyone here was from the same path, only divided by strength, not by who came first.

The evil cultivator let out a cold cackle and engaged the demonic creature in battle.

The clay statue shattered instantly, earth clumps crashing to the ground with a loud noise, startling many sleeping beggars outside who sat up in terror, asking frantically, “What happened? What happened?!”

Su Qing had already retreated from the falling earth.

Her eyes were sharp, and she immediately saw countless tiny black dots wriggling on the old temple walls.

They were flowing downwards like a black tide, about to reach the ground.

Those things were tiny, fingernail-sized insects. Su Qing had attended public classes in the Beast School.

She knew these were actually a type of insect called black pupae. Because they particularly loved to feed on human flesh, blood, and vital essence, and could feed this essence and cultivation back to their master, they were one of the essential tools for evil cultivators’ arson and murder.

Although these insects were poisonous, their grade wasn’t high, only second-tier low-grade.

This showed that the demonic cultivator who was their master was also of ordinary strength, likely around early Foundation Establishment.

If it were in the outside world, Su Qing would still be confident of defeating him.

But now, she was just a young, cultivationless, lice-ridden street child, and Man Qing Sword wasn’t even with her.

But she still had some knowledge.

Su Qing pulled a piece of wood from the bonfire.

Scattered sparks landed on the back of her hand, stinging with pain. She couldn’t care less. She shouted, “Everyone get up, grab a torch! These things are most afraid of light and heat!”

Some bewildered children hadn’t reacted yet, while others screamed in terror at the sight of the insect tide.

And more were clever children like Quzi.

They had already scrambled over to grab torches.

These people had lived a life of constant hunger, accustomed to stealing, robbing, being chased, beaten, and cursed.

Their sensitivity to danger had long surpassed that of ordinary people. Seeing the grim situation, their first reaction wasn’t to scream, but to scramble for a chance to survive.

When all the wooden sticks in the bonfire were used up, these beggars stood together barefoot, huddling and holding up torches.

The firelight illuminated everything around them, and only after they clearly saw the attacking insects did they belatedly become afraid.

Caigua didn’t get a torch. He hid in the crowd, sobbing, “What are those things?!”

Su Qing looked around, mentally counting the numbers.

She shouted, “Torches are limited. One person with a torch takes another. In pairs, don’t get separated.”

She was new among these beggars.

She couldn’t provide money, nor was she very good at catching lice or mending patches, so her experience was very shallow.

But at this critical moment, she acted exceptionally calm. This demeanor actually bluffed these people into starting to listen to her instructions.

Quzi seemed to have completely forgotten his malicious intent from the day, and stammered, “Now… now what should we do?”

Su Qing’s gaze fell on the roof of the old temple.

A large hole had opened there.

She could only hear the fierce wind whistling above, the sound of bricks and tiles shattering and falling, and intense fighting.

Ye Mingshi and that evil cultivator must have been fighting. She just didn’t know who would win.

Although she was a transformed chi dragon, there was no spiritual or demonic energy here after all.

The divine abilities she could manifest now relied entirely on the demonic energy accumulated in her innate demonic bone.

Quzi’s face changed dramatically, turning pale.

He got up quickly and seemed to have seen everything.

He couldn’t help but speculate, “Could that man in black have been attracted by the boss’s abilities?”

At these words, the expressions of the surrounding children changed.

Su Qing glared at him, her gaze extremely stern, “Don’t talk nonsense! How do you know he wasn’t attracted by your flesh and blood?”

“…But we’re just mortals. How could we attract him?”

Quzi still wanted to say something, but due to Su Qing’s gaze, he ultimately didn’t dare to speak.

He just weakly shrank his neck and asked, “Then what do we do now? So many bugs.”

Su Qing gripped the torch tightly.

In just a moment, a section of the wooden stick had burned away, and the flame had shrunk considerably, flickering pitifully in the cold air.

The insects, previously deterred by the flames, began to stir again.

“This swarm of insects has a queen. Only a queen can command the swarm. When the queen lives, they live. When the queen dies, they die.” Su Qing pondered, then suddenly shouted, “Find the queen, kill it!”

Quzi still wanted to ask, “Where is the queen?” but then he realized that such a fatal weakness would naturally be on the evil cultivator himself. In fact, the queen was very likely nurtured in the evil cultivator’s dantian.

This meant that their lives now depended entirely on Ye Mingshi.

It was also at this moment that a violent commotion came from the rooftop.

A slender figure instantly broke through the roof, falling onto the ground before Su Qing’s eyes.

For a moment, dust and debris rained down, and the old temple instantly tilted, half of it collapsing directly.

The evil cultivator gracefully descended, a sinister smile appearing on his grim face. “These beggars, were they originally carefully raised by you, prepared to be your blood food? Unfortunately, I am stronger. This flesh and blood can only be enjoyed by me.”

Ye Mingshi remained huddled in place, motionless. However, as the evil cultivator approached, she suddenly rolled over, her body sinking, her limbs on the ground.

Red light blazed, and she, like a wild beast, lunged at his neck to bite.

This was her territory!

At this moment, the crowd behind Su Qing erupted in a commotion.

It turned out that someone, whose torch was about to burn out, and seeing the poisonous insects about to attack, pushed a companion out in a panic.

The black pupae smelled fresh flesh and blood, already eager to swarm, and in the blink of an eye, covered the beggar.

The person was immediately covered in a mist-like tide of wriggling creatures.

After just a few twitches of his limbs, he couldn’t even let out a scream before completely falling silent.

This scene was extremely terrifying. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, several more people were pushed down.

The remaining few snatched their torches. Pushing and shoving each other, they rushed out through the collapsed gap in the dilapidated temple, fleeing into the distance.

Seeing one person successfully escape, the others became even more agitated.

In the blink of an eye, the group disintegrated. Most people desperately ran outside, fearing they would be left behind.

Many succeeded, but not a few failed.

Many people, as they ran, had insects crawl onto their legs and feet, and were dragged and pulled into the swarm, turning into a pile of white bones. The torch in his hand fell helplessly to the ground, rolling into a pile of ashes.

Quzi saw the chaos and was also very tempted. Just as he was about to rush out, Su Qing grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back.

He looked at Su Qing like an enemy, struggling desperately against her grip on his collar, shouting, “What are you doing?! Are you still protecting her? Didn’t you hear? We are all her blood food, and we’ll die in her hands sooner or later! Better to run now!”

“I didn’t ask anything. Why are you saying this? Feeling guilty?” Su Qing said coldly, “Never mind. Leave the storage bag, and you can leave.”

“What storage bag?” Quzi suddenly realized that what Su Qing was referring to must be the money pouch Ye Mingshi stole today.

He hesitated, but at this life-and-death moment, and since the thing couldn’t be opened anyway, he gave in.

He pulled out the storage bag and fiercely shoved it into Su Qing’s hand. “Satisfied?!”

[Infinite good articles, all on Jinjiang Literature City]

Su Qing let go. He didn’t even have time to glance at her.

He grabbed a torch and ran with the others.

For a moment, some people ran, some died.

Su Qing watched as the bright torchlights scattered into the distance, merging into the cold dark night.

Even knowing that seeking advantage and avoiding harm was human nature, she couldn’t help but feel a chill in her heart, inwardly asking:

‘Ye Mingshi, was everything you did truly worth it?’

But some people remained, though not many, countable on one hand.

Staying didn’t necessarily mean anything. Perhaps it was out of fear, perhaps they didn’t have time to run, or perhaps…

“We have to figure something out,” the remaining person trembled and shivered, forcing herself to speak. “We have to take Little Treasure with us.”

Su Qing turned back in surprise, “What did you call her?”

Although she didn’t understand why Su Qing would ask this now, the three or four half-grown children still stammered, chattering, “She’s the youngest among us, only five or six years old. She’s called ‘Boss,’ but she’s actually the ‘Little One.’ I heard people outside always call the youngest child in the family that…”

Su Qing was silent for a moment, then said, “Don’t be afraid. Tonight’s situation will take a turn for the better.”

She clutched the storage bag in her hand, looking at Ye Mingshi and the evil cultivator entwined above, thinking: ‘It’s reached this point, Master should make an appearance now, shouldn’t he?’

Important characters usually appear at this point.

But before Ye Ruici arrived, the storage bag in her hand reacted first.

Su Qing’s eyes flashed, and she found that just now, the restriction on it had actually been opened.

She understood.

It was her turn to act.