novelraw Chapter 3: The Crayfish General Finally Falls into the Net
Chapter 3: The Crayfish General Finally Falls into the Net
Many things happened in Songlin Village ten years ago.
Hong Yang's parents sacrificed themselves, the Li family's eldest daughter fled in betrayal, and Guan Damu's noodle restaurant opened.
Some things Hong Yang had only just learned.
Some things Li Qiuchen had known long ago, and he knew even more than Hong Yang.
The villagers had no sense of confidentiality. Their usual idle chatter about this family and that family revealed a lot of information, which Li Qiuchen had heard with his own ears, but he'd always pretended not to know anything.
Because Grand Uncle had eyes and ears throughout the village.
Something like two children not sleeping at night and running to the back mountain couldn't possibly escape Grand Uncle's eyes and ears.
The moment Hong Yang set foot in the village, villagers blocked him and tied him up into a zongzi.
"Let me go! Let me go!"
Hong Yang looked in terror at the surrounding third uncles and fourth maternal uncles with expressionless faces and cold eyes. These villagers who usually smiled when they saw him had become especially frightening tonight."Who told you to break the seal on your own?"
Grand Uncle walked out from the crowd with a cold face, sternly questioning him.
"What seal is there? Wait, how did you know I broke the seal?"
Hong Yang shouted loudly, but still no one paid him any attention.
Grand Uncle said calmly, "That's naturally because Qiuchen was worried something would happen to you, so he told me about this in advance. But I never imagined that you, this little bastard, would actually disregard the lives of the villagers and act so recklessly!"
"What?"
Hong Yang suddenly turned his head and stared fixedly at Li Qiuchen, "I treated you like a brother, but you actually betrayed me?"
Everyone's gaze fell on Li Qiuchen.
Li Qiuchen looked at Hong Yang, then looked at Grand Uncle's sinister face in the shadow of the torches, and shook his head, "I didn't."
"You're lying!"
Hong Yang's eyes turned red, heartbroken.
Only the three of us knew about this. If it wasn't you, could it have been Boss Guan?
The villagers escorted Hong Yang away, but Grand Uncle didn't leave. He stood in place leaning on his walking stick, examining Li Qiuchen with a scrutinizing gaze.
These two children had been inseparable since childhood, closer than brothers even if they weren't actually brothers. But even between brothers there would inevitably be rifts. After this incident, the trust between the two of them could no longer be maintained.
"Grand Uncle, why do you lie to people?"
After a moment of silence, Li Qiuchen spoke up and asked.
The corners of Grand Uncle's mouth lifted. This was the reaction a child should have.
What cunning could a little child have? Having suffered such a great injustice, it was impossible for him to hold back from asking.
His reaction was just a bit slow, but that didn't matter. Without their ocular arts, the Li family members were just ordinary mortals.
"You're still young and don't understand anything. Go back to sleep!"
"What about Hong Yang?"
"He's caused a great disaster this time. Without severe punishment, it won't be enough to convince the masses. You've always been a good child, don't you dare learn from his recklessness."
"Alright."
Li Qiuchen silently lamented in his heart that he still wasn't acting like a child convincingly enough. At this moment, his emotions should have been more intense. Children, if they don't cry or make a fuss, what kind of children are they?
Fortunately, Grand Uncle wasn't a professional agent either, and with matters weighing on his mind, he didn't notice these details.
Returning home, Li Qiuchen lay on the bed and closed his eyes.
The image of the Crayfish General immediately appeared in his dark field of vision.
Nine chi long with a pitch-black carapace all over, on which faint traces of sword and blade marks could vaguely be seen.
A thread of blood-colored light extended from the crown of its head down into its body. This was where the crayfish spirit's essence lay, and also its vital point.
It could also be called the vein line.
The village was only so big, and trivial matters spread quickly.
When Li Qiuchen got up and went out in the morning, several little kids made faces at him from afar and threw stones, shouting from their mouths, "Traitor! Spy!"
Before Li Qiuchen could react, those children scattered with a whoosh.
These were all children who usually played following behind him and Hong Yang. They'd slept until dawn, how would they know anything about traitors and spies?
Li Qiuchen raised his head to look at the old willow tree in the village swaying in the wind, and said nothing more.
Hong Yang had been shut in the ancestral hall and given a vicious beating. It was said he was beaten until his skin split and flesh tore, unable even to crawl.
Grand Uncle led a group of able-bodied men from the village in a magnificent campaign to the back mountain, battling the Crayfish General for three hundred rounds. After paying an extremely painful price, they finally captured the crayfish spirit in one fell swoop.
The wounded villagers joyfully carried the crayfish spirit, tied up like a zongzi, back to the village. Its enormous body left those who had stayed behind in the village exclaiming in amazement.
This thing had grown to be like an old sow. After removing the shell, there must be several hundred catties of meat, right?
But ultimately it still wouldn't reach the villagers' mouths. Grand Uncle publicly announced that all the shrimp meat would be fed to Yingcao.
To appease everyone, Grand Uncle tirelessly explained over and over with earnest words that no matter how much crayfish meat there was, divided among each household it would only be one bite per person. As long as Yingcao cultivated to immortality, wouldn't the villagers have big fish and meat at every meal from then on?
Although the villagers were disappointed, in the end they reluctantly accepted this explanation.
After all, they'd gotten through these years this way.
Scholars had a saying, "One general's success..." what was it again? Right, "One general's success is built on ten thousand withered bones!"
How could cultivating immortality be so easy? Songlin Village's ancestors had been prosperous too. Everyone knew the principle that to reap rewards one must first make sacrifices. Gritting their teeth and persisting for a few more years, once the village supported an immortal, wouldn't the bitter days come to an end?
The ancestral hall had one more big fellow.
Hong Yang had a rag stuffed in his mouth and was tied hand and foot and tossed in a corner.
The crayfish spirit was hung from the roof beam, not allowed to touch the ground for fear it would earth-escape and flee.
After everyone dispersed, Grand Uncle walked into the ancestral hall alone. He had just sat down on a chair when he began coughing violently. Coughing and coughing, he spat a mouthful of old blood on the ground.
Seeing this, the crayfish spirit couldn't help but sneer, "Old bastard, you're about to die!"
"Originally, if you had stayed in the village to rest quietly, you could have lived two more years. But you insisted on fighting me head-on. This old man wants to see just how many more days you can live!"
Grand Uncle laughed miserably, "Two years... how is that enough? I still want to live another two hundred years!"
The crayfish spirit mocked, "Do I look like eating me will prolong your life?"
They say eating ginseng, lingzhi, and he shou wu can prolong life. No one's ever heard of eating spicy crayfish prolonging life.
"Things have come to this point. If I don't take a gamble, how will I know?"
Grand Uncle sighed, "I originally wanted to wait for this fool to grow up, use your aquatic demon power as a catalyst to activate the true dragon bloodline in his body. Who would have thought this fool would run to the back mountain on his own, be deceived by your rumors, and nearly ruin this old man's great plan!"
"Things have come to this, I can only settle for second best. I'll dig out the demon core from your body, offer it to the Medicine Master, and seek a few more portions of grace..."
His voice grew lower and lower as he spoke. In the end, he actually closed his eyes and dozed off.
"True dragon bloodline?"
The crayfish spirit glanced at Hong Yang huddled in the corner and said disdainfully, "This old bastard's mouth doesn't have a single truthful word. Do you really think he could wait for you to grow up?"
Hong Yang had his mouth gagged and couldn't speak, only humming twice.
At the same time, Li Qiuchen was standing at the door of Wang Ermazi's house, silently observing the activity inside.
This time Grand Uncle had gone all in going to the back mountain. Over a hundred able-bodied men in the village were all injured, and among them the most seriously injured, like Wang Ermazi, had practically been disemboweled, blood flowing everywhere.
In any other place, the family would already be preparing for the funeral but under the Medicine Master's protection, this kind of injury was far from fatal.
Wang Ermazi lay in the courtyard. Outside the courtyard, the branches of a large willow tree slowly drooped down, winding around his body. A gentle force sprinkled down through the branches, healing the terrifying wound on his chest at a visible speed.
The entire village was quiet. Those injured villagers were all receiving identical treatment.
And their families were all kneeling beside the wounded at this time, silently chanting the Medicine Master's mercy.
Li Qiuchen left without drawing attention, trying to lighten his footsteps as he secretly came to the noodle restaurant entrance.
After glancing at the old elm tree at the entrance that wasn't moving at all, Li Qiuchen pushed open the door and entered.
Boss Guan, sitting behind the counter listlessly playing with copper coins, saw him enter and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
Grand Uncle's eyes and ears were spread throughout the entire village. Everyone's every move was under his surveillance. No matter what you said or did, he knew it all clearly.
The villagers didn't dare speak ill of Grand Uncle privately, but after a few cups of horse urine went down, who could resist the urge to complain?
Li Qiuchen had observed mosquitoes, insects, snakes, and rats, and even searched for hidden cameras. In the end, he'd determined the suspect objects to be the thirty-six ancient trees planted in the village with somewhat peculiar positioning.
Right now these ancient trees were using their full power to heal the village's wounded. Presumably they didn't have extra energy to spy on other people's activities.
Walking to the counter, Li Qiuchen extended his finger, dipped it in some tea water, and wrote three characters on the counter.
"Is it enough?"
Boss Guan smiled honestly, tilted his head to indicate he should follow him into the back kitchen.
Entering the back kitchen, Boss Guan lifted a wooden board underfoot, revealing a passage to the cellar, and led Li Qiuchen down.
As soon as he entered the cellar, Li Qiuchen smelled the strong sulfur stench inside.
The walls were hung full of various oddly-shaped mechanical hidden weapons.
This was originally the craft Boss Guan had learned outside, but Grand Uncle had denounced it as frivolous tricks and ordered it all sealed away.
How could this thing be considered frivolous tricks?
Looking at those pitch-black iron lumps neatly arranged in boxes, Li Qiuchen felt this was the real reason Grand Uncle strictly forbade them.
Palm thunder, also called hand cannons.
Commonly known as homemade bombs.
Is it enough? More than enough!
Boss Guan had actually, right under Grand Uncle's nose, crafted a full two boxes of one hundred palm thunders. And beside them were three large wooden barrels, completely filled with loose black powder.
Li Qiuchen picked up a palm thunder and examined it carefully for a moment, then asked in a low voice, "Will it work?"
"It'll definitely work."
Boss Guan said in a muffled voice, "The question is how to place them in the right location, detonate them at the right time, and not be discovered by Grand Uncle during all this."
"In two days, Grand Uncle will lead the clansmen to worship the Medicine Master."
Li Qiuchen put down the palm thunder and said seriously, "I'll find something to keep Grand Uncle busy. The rest, Uncle, I'll have to trouble you with."