Front Line of the Beast Tide, Part 21

Tang Yueling paced back and forth. Although she was usually bustling and energetic, she was rarely so impatient.

The bright pearls, jade, and gold ornaments in her hair trembled with her hasty steps, appearing somewhat unsteady.

“It’s not that,” she said again. “Even if I didn’t act, the Song family was prepared. I merely made the storm arrive a little earlier.”

She had figured it out.

Whether she acted to “protect” Song Huiyi and Song Huisi or not, the Song family was definitely coming.

She merely went along with their wishes. But she also didn’t lose out. With the Song family’s leverage, the missing Sword School students should be able to be rescued.

However, there was now another problem.

Although the Myriad Beast Forest had abundant beast, spiritual plant, and mineral resources, it couldn’t be these things that moved three Spirit Transformation cultivators.

What exactly had they come for?

“Things have reached this point; there’s no turning back.” Tang Yueling said decisively, “Even if we release them now, the Song family won’t go back, and you and I will bear the blame. We can’t let it go like that. Since we’ve taken hostages, we must use them strategically.”

What was done was done; regret came too late.

She turned to Tian Ning, “What do you think?”

Tian Ning had no objections. She nodded, “Feasible.”

Only then did Tang Yueling’s expression soften slightly.

She mused inwardly: ‘Although this ice block is a bit cold, especially without Su Qing to mediate, she makes me angry several times a day. But fortunately, her super strong execution ability can make up for her clumsy mouth.’ Tang Yueling was still somewhat satisfied.

Su Qing was utterly oblivious to the bloody storm in the outside world.

Upon entering the Heart-Protecting Mirror, Su Qing, like a ball of light, rushed into Ye Mingshi’s mental world with almost no hindrance.

She saw the female cultivator’s brief early life.

Ye Mingshi’s earliest memories began in the human world.

Although she was a descendant of the demon race, for some unknown reason, she ended up in the human world.

With no one to protect her, she wandered the streets from a young age, relying on a group of ragged beggars for survival, living a life of intermittent hunger.

When she was truly starving, she would dig into holes for leftover food from the “rat lords.” Older beggars would often bully her, relying on their larger physique, making her already difficult life even more miserable.

But even in such circumstances, she did not change her pure goodness.

On one accidental occasion, she picked up a white-bearded old man’s purse.

Despite her own dire situation, she returned the money without keeping it, acting righteously.

This person was her later master, Ye Ruici.

Ye Ruici, moved by her kindness, took her as a disciple into the Crimson Leaf Sect, meticulously teaching her. From then on, Ye Mingshi’s fate changed.

After entering the Crimson Leaf Sect, she respected her master and senior brother, and loved her junior brother.

Her arrival brought much joy and laughter to the once-desolate Crimson Leaf Sect. Her senior brother Ye Rong and junior brother Ye Lan both trusted her implicitly, recognizing her as the rightful senior sister of the Crimson Leaf Sect.

However, the demonic bone in her body was ultimately a hidden danger.

It soon erupted after she began cultivating. Demonic energy and spiritual energy clashed, repeatedly causing her to suffer cultivation deviation, often putting her life at risk.

But she was devoted to goodness and compassionate.

Even with great power, she repeatedly chose the side of kindness in her choices between becoming a demon and becoming human, until she grew older, and the matter of the demonic bone became an unavoidable chasm in her cultivation path, forcing her to seek a solution.

At this time, Wang Quan, the renowned Sect Leader of the World Sword Sect, moved by her sincerity and persistence, specifically pointed her to a clear path, instructing her to go to the Myriad Beast Forest to find the demonic bone, to seek an opportunity to transform and be human again.

To avoid implicating her sect and to uphold the human path in her heart, Ye Mingshi chose to leave her familiar sect alone on a stormy night, carrying nothing, and hurried to the cold Yinlan City, seeking the way to be human.

But precisely because of this, she completely fell into the swamp of the Myriad Beast Forest, unable to struggle, only waiting for a fated person to awaken her, allowing them to join forces to resolve this crisis and save all living beings.

These fragmented and chaotic memories, like illustrations and descriptions on book pages, rapidly flipped under an invisible wind, and the corresponding memories entered Su Qing’s mind page by page.

And the last page depicted her peacefully sleeping in a dark, ethereal abyss.

Demonic energy, like twisted thorns, approached her, yet a faint light persisted in her chest, sustaining the last pure land.

Su Qing looked back and forth for a long time, then again for a long time, and hesitated, “I always feel something is not quite right.”

“Although I’m not very familiar with you, I’m quite familiar with our Sect Leader. You can even praise Wang Dog, cough, I mean Wang Quan. You shouldn’t be such a simple character.”

The moment she finished speaking, the memories before her rapidly flipped, suddenly assailing her.

Vast darkness surged forth, enveloping her into the book.

Su Qing didn’t struggle. Transmigrating into a book, it was one time new, the second time familiar.

Her vision went black. When her sight brightened again, she felt an itch all over her body, and her arms and ankles were cold.

She looked down and saw her short limbs and even shorter sleeves and pant legs.

‘What kind of rags am I wearing? I’ve never been this poor in my life.’

Su Qing understood. She had become a beggar.

It was indeed a rare life experience.

She looked around. This should be a dilapidated temple.

The walls were mottled, and the original vermilion paint had peeled off, revealing dark wood.

Cold wind poured in through the cracks in the wooden boards, making everyone shiver one after another.

There was nothing left of the original temple except for a dilapidated long offering table, and behind it, a clay statue of a deity.

The characters on the temple’s plaque and the broken stele in front of the statue were already blurred, making it impossible to tell who was worshipped here.

About twenty beggars were huddled in the corners of the temple, warming themselves together.

Each was gaunt and sallow, with slightly protruding eyes, but they weren’t so weak as to be dying; they still had some vitality.

“Don’t just stand there staring! Listen up, all of you!”

A sweet voice rang out beside her ear, but the tone was extremely domineering.

Su Qing looked up and saw a child, though her clothes were dirty, she was definitely not thin.

She stood on the offering table with her hands on her hips. She looked to be about six or seven years old, her face covered in grime.

From her physique alone, one couldn’t tell if she was a girl or a boy.

But Su Qing looked at her round, innocent-looking eyes and knew that this child was Ye Mingshi.

She looked down at her own scrawny self, then up at Ye Mingshi, who was boldly stepping on the offering table, blocking the statue, her face still a bit plump, and couldn’t help but fall into doubt.

Although she was indeed living a difficult life, it wasn’t as miserable as she described.

She had even become the leader of the beggar gang!

Ye Mingshi, seeing everyone’s attention focused on her, continued with satisfaction, “After my hard reconnaissance these past few days, that old man from out of town who’s staying here—the one with the silly boy beside him. This old man is surprisingly foolish, very soft-hearted, and particularly easy to talk to. Every time I pretend to be pitiful, he gives me money. He must have a lot of silver in his pockets. Tomorrow, we’re going to steal his purse.”

“If this big job succeeds,” her bright, clear eyes darted around, cunning and sly, “we’ll have a much better winter. Then, we won’t have to pick bones and suck meat anymore. We’ll go to the roasted chicken shop and buy ten plump chickens. Everyone will get a big chicken leg, skin and meat! Imagine that taste!”

She looked around and said loudly, “Anything else to say?”

The little beggars in the temple started drooling at the mention of roasted chicken.

They all looked up, raising their fists, their voices excited and fervent, “Listen to the Boss!”

“What the Boss says is always right! Follow the Boss, and there’ll be roasted chicken to eat!”

“Boss is brilliant!”

Su Qing, mixed in with the other children, rhythmically raised her fist and sincerely praised the boss.

So this was what Ye Mingshi meant by “returning lost money.”

She had always said that someone who could praise Wang Quan must have some unfathomable qualities.

If she had truly believed Ye Mingshi’s boastful lies when reading her memories, what would have happened? For one, Ye Mingshi probably wouldn’t have revealed this true memory to her again.

At night, the children huddled together, sleeping. Saliva still dripped, and they murmured about roasted chicken in their dreams.

Sleeping together like that wasn’t too cold, but it was smelly, and their bodies itched intensely.

Before long, a hand nudged her awake. Su Qing opened her eyes and saw Ye Mingshi’s face. She frowned and grumbled, “My back itches terribly; there must be a big louse. Scratch it for me.”

Su Qing only paused for a moment. Ye Mingshi then said indignantly, “What, you’re not listening to the boss anymore? Do you still want to eat chicken legs?”

“I want to.”

“Then hurry up and scratch!”

Su Qing tried her best to scratch for her, but her skill was too poor, drawing a protest from the child, “Your louse-catching skills are too bad. You won’t make it in our line of work, you know?”

Su Qing nodded, “Yes, Boss. Understood, Boss.”

Faint moonlight seeped through the dilapidated walls.

She inadvertently glanced at the back of Ye Mingshi’s neck and, through a gap in her collar, glimpsed a long, vertical red mark on her spine, glowing with a faint crimson luster in the night.

Her gaze slightly froze.

She realized that this was the demonic bone.

Ye Mingshi had actually activated her demonic bone at such a young age, completely unlike what she claimed, finding the problem only after entering the Crimson Leaf Sect and beginning cultivation.

It seemed that her ability to become the boss of a group of beggars at a young age, leading them to eke out a living, and even keeping her face plump, was definitely due to the power of the demonic bone.

This child’s personality was stubborn and too clever.

Her words couldn’t be fully trusted.

Although Su Qing’s technique was poor, Ye Mingshi, in the darkness, didn’t mind.

Soon, when the annoying itch subsided, she lay sprawled out beside Su Qing and fell asleep. Her sleeping posture was very restless; she punched and kicked the surrounding children all night.

These children, awakened by the commotion, were quite accustomed to it.

They all resignedly carried their ragged quilts, wrapped themselves in their clothes, found a space, and continued to sleep.

With no heating around, Ye Mingshi shivered from the cold in the middle of the night.

Su Qing wrapped her tightly in a sheet like a silkworm cocoon, pressing her down to sleep.

No matter what, she was an adult.

Taking care of a child, cough, a little demon, was her duty.

The next day, Su Qing was woken up by the little demon, “Up already? Still want roasted chicken? The big chicken legs are so, so delicious!”