[To Become a River of Stars] Dong Xiange - Chapter 112

Li Xuanci raised an eyebrow, lifted the foot that had been pinning the wrist for so long, and nudged the now limp A’Nian on the floor.

“It seems we have to take on more dead weight.”

Shiliu sighed quietly to herself. Such a large person, so insane and dangerous—bringing him along would indeed be quite a headache.

Her eyes drifted to the old woman still sitting on the floor, and a thought struck her. “The old woman should also have unhatched child gu parasites in her body. Perhaps we can try to force them out, as a backup plan.”

He Chong nodded and said, “You handle it. Snakes have their paths, mice have their holes; you’re always skilled with these strange and bizarre things.”

If it were someone more narrow-minded, they might suspect this was a sarcastic jab, but Shiliu’s heart was more solid and straightforward than a lead-weighted scale weight. She thumped her chest cheerfully. “My brains are worth some money too.”

Such a mercenary statement. Li Xuanci chuckled silently to himself. He pulled a copper coin from his robe, flicked it with his fingertip, and it landed on Shiliu’s head. “Go on. Remember to give me change.”

His mouth was truly wicked. Giving a copper coin as a reward was one thing, but demanding change for a single coin was another.

Shiliu initially wanted to throw it back at him fiercely, but then she remembered her little money pouch had long since perished in the fire. Demonstrating remarkable flexibility, she plucked the coin from her hair bun, glared at Li Xuanci while secretly slipping the coin into her sleeve.

Li Xuanci received her glare without getting angry. Leaning against the wall, he watched her squat down, pull out a blank talisman paper from her robes, produce a very small brush from some hidden corner, and finally, with much effort, pull a small cloth bundle from deep within her sleeve. When she opened it, a fishy smell wafted out.

The corner of Li Xuanci’s eye twitched slightly. “Where do you usually hide all this junk?”

Shiliu ignored him. This wasn’t junk; these were their essential tools. After the fire, her first priority had been to replenish her supplies.

She hadn’t used them before only because she had relied on his pure Yang blood being present, and she wasn’t particularly skilled in offensive spells.

Shiliu didn’t argue further with him. She also took the hairpin from her hair, carefully manipulated a mechanism on it, and retrieved a silver needle from inside.

She took out the inkstick mixed with dog’s blood, but just as she was about to moisten it, she paused, glanced back stealthily at Li Xuanci, then bent even lower, hiding herself completely, and furtively dabbed some saliva onto her finger before carefully applying it to the inkstick.

Unfortunately, these little tricks couldn’t escape Li Xuanci’s notice. Watching Shiliu squatting like a little mushroom, he suddenly felt the impulse to give her backside a light kick, just to see if she’d tumble over.

Fortunately, before he could act, Shiliu had finished moistening the ink. Dipping the fine brush into the dog’s blood ink, she drew fluidly on the talisman paper. Although it looked utterly like ghostly scribbles, Shiliu’s expression was full of confidence and determination, as if guided by divine inspiration.

After finishing, Shiliu used the needle to pierce the old woman’s middle fingertip. A drop of thick, viscous blood slowly welled up and dripped—plop—onto the talisman.

Instantly, the talisman lit up from where the blood had landed. Gradually, even the strokes of the characters took on a fiery, magma-like glow, as if coming to life. It floated up into mid-air, then, with a whoosh, seared into the old woman’s skin and vanished.

Bizarre swellings appeared under the old, worn skin. The characters seemed to burrow through the flesh like living things, searching for traces of the gu worm.

These lifelike protrusions wriggled all the way to the bitten wound on the old woman’s neck. Suddenly, her expression turned ferocious. The swellings bubbled and burst like magma blisters. The old woman coughed violently.

Huaaack—she coughed up a pool of black blood.

Shiliu, quick-eyed and swift-handed, swiftly pulled out a small vial and covered a tiny black mass within the bloody pool.

“The Li Ren Talisman actually works! I always thought this thing could only be used to repel mosquitoes and ants.” She gleefully capped the vial and looked up, seeking praise.

“If Master knew you used the Li Ren Talisman to repel mosquitoes, he’d probably lose three jin from anger,” He Chong said with a sighing laugh.

“Wouldn’t that be perfect? Master’s waist has already widened by an inch and a half from eating too much lately. He’s not ethereal enough; the payment hasn’t been as generous,” Shiliu seamlessly bantered back with her senior brother.

“Enough joking. Hurry and check if the gu worm is still alive?” He Chong brought up the serious matter. Shiliu quickly stood up, casually dipped her finger in some blood, drew a Life Detection Array on the table, and then poured the gu worm from the vial into the array.

She immediately formed a hand seal and activated the Life Detection Array. A golden light appeared on the worn table surface. The black mass in the array suddenly squirmed, desperately trying to move southeast. When it touched the golden lines at the array’s edge, it was flung back but continued desperately trying to move in that direction.

Shiliu watched for a moment, then retrieved the gu worm, observed it carefully, and finally capped the vial. Turning around, she said, “The gu worm hasn’t hatched yet; it’s still trapped in its larval sac. But just now, under the array’s activation, the sac showed signs of cracking. I suspect the mother gu is in the southeast direction. The closer we get, the more the child gu should sense it.”

He Chong’s face lit up with joy. “That makes tracking the mother gu easier for us. Let’s head southeast first and pay close attention to this child gu’s reactions along the way. We should be able to find it.”

Shiliu nodded and was about to tuck the vial into her robe when a hand casually hooked it away.

Shiliu looked up; it was Li Xuanci. She thought he wanted to examine the child gu closely, but he didn’t even glance at it before immediately tossing it to He Chong. Fortunately, He Chong reacted quickly and caught it.

He Chong and Shiliu exchanged glances, both somewhat puzzled.

Only Li Xuanci, standing to the side, wore an expression of natural and aloof indifference.

It had burrowed through another man’s belly, been stained with an old woman’s flesh and blood… He had no desire to touch such a thing.

Since he didn’t want to touch it, then Shiliu wasn’t allowed to either. Otherwise, when he held her, not only would she have a bunch of junk hidden in her robes, but she’d also be carrying bugs. How unseemly.

He was certainly thinking far ahead.