bayedsolid Chapter 420 I Don't Eat Pieces of Rice
Chapter 420 I Don't Eat Pieces of Rice
The red thread made a damp, tugging sound. The paper corpse at the front drooped to the ground, its feet sinking into the withered leaves. The character for "happiness" lit up on its chest, and the entire paper body lunged towards Mo Chengyue.
Shopkeeper Hu raised the lamp to shine it, but Mo Chengyue raised his hand to stop her.
"Don't turn the lights up too high, they're waiting for you to reveal your bloodlust."
Manager Hu turned down the lights.
"Then what are you going to do?"
Mo Chengyue sidestepped the wet hand reaching out from the paper corpse, his sword sheath gliding past the paper arm, deflecting the red thread toward a nearby tree root.
I pretended to be poor.
After the paper corpse missed its target, it turned back, its shoulders and backs stretched flat by the red thread, and then filled with more threads from the tree. Four more paper corpses then fell down, blocking Mo Chengyue's retreat.
A woman's voice, tinged with laughter, came from the mist.
"Where's your thunder talisman? Where's your sword? Weren't you just able to deliver a message?"
Mo Chengyue stepped back in front of Manager Hu, deliberately leaving an empty corner of the talisman bag exposed.
"It's all used up."
Shopkeeper Hu almost looked up when she heard this, but Mo Chengyue lightly tapped her lamp handle with his sword sheath, and she immediately swallowed her words.
A woman softly hummed a wedding song, and water began to seep from the tree trunk. The water squeezed out from the black bark, flowed down the cracks, and reached the ground where it caught the feet of the paper corpses.
Shopkeeper Hu whispered, "The tree is turning into a boat post."
Mo Chengyue looked down at the waterline, but his words were casual.
"The property management in this forest is terrible; the trees even leak water."
"Could you please stop with the nonsense?"
"cannot."
Mo Chengyue retreated again, pushing aside the withered leaves with his heels to reveal a section of old red rope.
"I tend to ramble when I'm nervous."
As he watched him retreat more and more slowly, Manager Hu began to suspect something. Suddenly, he noticed that the paper corpses, in order to chase him, were all scattering from between the trees and crowding towards the center.
She shielded the lamplight from her sleeve and asked in a low voice, "Are you luring them closer?"
Mo Chengyue didn't turn around, but let an old talisman slip out of his sleeve and deliberately let the paper corpse's wet fingers touch the corner of the talisman.
The talisman's horn was immediately bitten open by the red water.
The woman's laughter drew closer.
"So it really couldn't hold on any longer."
Mo Chengyue threw the broken talisman to the ground, his tone tinged with heartache.
"Don't be happy, this one costs money too."
Shopkeeper Hu followed the red lines on the paper corpse and looked into the distance. The white paper lamp could not penetrate the deepest fog, but it could see that each line would deflect when it passed through a patch of old maple roots.
Her heart skipped a beat, and just as she was about to speak, Mo Chengyue stepped on the edge of the lamp.
"Don't look over there."
Manager Hu immediately moved the lamp away.
"I didn't see it."
"You were looking at it too intently."
"I understand."
The paper corpses surrounded him more tightly, and wet paper arms reached out from all sides, grabbing Mo Chengyue's robe hem and sword sheath, with red threads crawling along the fabric toward the red lines on his palm.
Mo Chengyue did not break free immediately, but raised his empty hand, the red pattern on his palm shining brightly.
"Come on, line up."
Manager Hu frowned as he listened.
"Don't actually let them touch blood."
"rest assured."
Mo Chengyue raised his eyes and scanned the direction of the tree roots. His Yin-Yang Qi Observation Technique clearly illuminated all the places where the red lines circled.
"I value my life."
A woman's voice came from behind the old maple tree. The red-clad figure's face was close to the bark, and her voice was soft and moist.
"If you value your life, you should get on the boat. There are lights, wedding clothes, and people waiting for you on board."
Mo Chengyue was pulled forward by the paper corpse, and the sole of his boot crushed a wet red paper money.
Is there a salary?
The woman's voice stopped.
Shopkeeper Hu almost choked, so he pressed the white paper lantern down to prevent the flame from flickering.
Mo Chengyue continued to retreat until he reached a clearing where tree roots were intertwined. His sleeve was torn open by the paper corpse.
"Don't talk about getting a job without a salary. I'm a modern person... I don't believe in empty promises."
Manager Hu didn't understand the word, but he didn't ask. He just pressed his wound and stepped back.
The woman's voice finally cooled down.
"Even the most stubborn person will start talking once they're inside the cabin."
As the paper corpses were reeled in, more than a dozen wet red paper bodies rushed toward Mo Chengyue. The red lantern tassels twisted into thick ropes on the branches, and the water seeping from the tree trunks surrounded his feet.
Shopkeeper Hu stepped forward with a lantern.
"I'm watching the water outlet!"
Mo Chengyue stopped her.
"Don't come any closer, stay on the dry leaf line at your feet."
Shopkeeper Hu stopped abruptly, a white paper lantern hanging in front of her, its light illuminating the blood-soaked strips of cloth she wore.
You are all alone.
"That's why we need to make them stand closer."
The old talisman in Mo Chengyue's hand was snatched away by the paper corpse. With a splash of red liquid, the talisman paper was soaked and turned into rotten pieces in mid-air.
The woman's laughter returned.
"You can't fool me, your talisman is empty."
Mo Chengyue looked at the old maple tree root, and finally the Rain Flower Sword was drawn from its sheath. However, the sword did not cut the paper corpse, but only cut a shallow ditch along the ground, leading the water under the withered leaves to the tree root.
"Who said I was going to use talismans to kill them?"
Shopkeeper Hu's eyes lit up, and he immediately shone the white paper lamp on the ground.
"The red threads are all wrapped around that tree!"
The woman's laughter stopped in the mist.
"Shut up."
The red paper corpse turned and lunged at Manager Hu, several red threads swung down from the tree and headed straight for her lantern-carrying hand.
Mo Chengyue raised his hand and flung out the thunder talisman he had previously stuffed back into his sleeve. The talisman's flames flew along the ground, neither rushing towards the paper corpse nor meeting the red line, but instead burrowing into the shallow ditch that had been cut open by the Rain Flower Sword.
Shopkeeper Hu clutched the soul-suppressing money tightly, muttering under his breath, "You still hid one more."
Mo Chengyue grinned.
"When poor people go out, they always have to leave some money in their pockets to get home."
The lightning bolt shot along the waterline to the roots of the old maple tree. The patch of ground that the red thread had bypassed was torn open by blue and white lightning. The sound of damp wood being burned through came from the tree roots, and the red thread hanging with paper corpses tightened at the same time.
A woman's voice shrieked, "Don't touch there!"
Mo Chengyue flicked his wrist and sprinkled the second layer of talisman ash into the ditch. The water ripples and sword shadows of the Rain Flower Sword Technique spread out along the talisman fire, illuminating the tangled red thread under the tree roots.
"It's too late."
Lightning pierced the red thread ball, the roots of the old maple tree cracked open, the water-soaked bark turned outwards, and the paper corpse hidden inside was mostly burned off.
The paper corpse swayed wildly in mid-air, the wet red double happiness characters on its chest fading one by one. After landing, it did not stand up again, but was dragged backward by the water lines in the withered leaves.
Manager Hu took two steps forward with his lantern, but was blocked by Mo Chengyue with his sword sheath.
Don't step on new cracks.
Manager Hu immediately stopped.
"Is there something inside?"
Mo Chengyue stared at the black hole blasted open by the lightning talisman beneath the tree roots, his brow furrowed.
"It smells like a boat."
Rotten soil and black water were churned out from the cracks in the tree roots. A rotten piece of ship plank lay across the mud, its surface swollen from being soaked in water, with several broken red threads wrapped around its edges.
The woman's voice in the mist receded into the distance, but it did not disappear.
"You've seen it, but you can't leave now."
Mo Chengyue squatted down and used his sword sheath to brush away the mud on the ship's plank, making sure his fingers didn't touch the wooden surface.
Manager Hu shone his lantern over and the light fell on the marks on the ship's planks. Her bleeding hand suddenly stopped at her sleeve.
"There are words on it."
Mo Chengyue sprinkled a circle of Chiyang powder to separate the black water seeping from the cracks in the board.
"Think carefully before you recite it; your name will guide you."
Manager Hu's throat tightened, and the forced bravado in his eyes appeared red in the lamplight.
"It's Shuang'er, isn't it?"
Mo Chengyue did not answer, but simply peeled away another layer of mud.
A line of old words was crookedly carved on the ship's deck, the marks filled with blackened rust, each stroke stitched with red thread.
Manager Hu finally saw clearly, his voice hoarse and cracking.
"Hu Shuang'er, seventh in the boat's eye."