Where on earth did Xie Gou go?
The ruffians in the dilapidated temple were all a bit confused.
"And Chen Ku?" Huang Ba scratched the back of his head, frowning. "Where is he?"
"I went to see today, and his days are as usual; if he's not going into the mountains to gather herbs, he's at the market. It seems like he's intent on digging up a big herb before the autumn tax, to get out of his urgent predicament," said the ruffian Liu Qi.
"Let's hope this kid doesn't accidentally strike it rich." Huang Ba scratched his chin. If that happened, he'd be left with nothing, not even a roof over his head.
"What do we do? Give us an idea," asked Liu Qi.
After some consideration, Huang Ba smirked and said, "Have you all heard about the refugees turned bandits who raided Zhu Family Town half a month ago? They're slowly making their way towards Snake Fish Town."
"What! The refugees are coming this way!" The ruffians all got a little panicked. Those were several hundred refugees. If they really came to raid, you couldn't even go out without worrying.
Who knows if there might be someone so starved they become dizzy, bashing someone with a stick by the road, and robbing them of their clothes and food supplies.
"What refugees? Someone organized those bandits. Refugees don't have the means to raid wealthy landlords," said Huang Ba, a well-known ruffian in the area, with clear understanding. "The autumn taxes are coming up. Every household is saving up grain, preparing for the tax to the Imperial Court. This time is perfect for a raid."
As for what happens to other people's stolen grain, that's none of the bandits' concern.
If they weren't driven by extreme hunger, without any other choice, they wouldn't become refugees or flee from disasters, let alone care about others.
When organized by cunning bandits, these people become a major source of disturbance. They can profit in the chaos, and even if the government suppresses them, it's the refugees who are crushed, not the masterminds behind it all.
"Do you mean to say..." Liu Qi began to understand something.
"When refugees pass through, it's like a comb. When bandits pass, it's like a rake. Whenever refugees pass through an area, stealing wealth is trivial, but in the chaos, a death or two is all too common…" Huang Ba said with a grim smile.
「At Snake Fish Town.」
"There have been sightings of refugees around Snake Fish Town..." Chen Ku noticed the nervousness in the townspeople as they talked animatedly with each other.
"Those damned refugees, if they can't afford to eat, they go and rob others. If they were so capable, why don't they attack the county town instead of bringing calamity to our poor villages?"
"What you're saying... They're not stupid. The county town has walls and County Soldiers. Attacking it means they're tired of living. One volley of arrows, and a bunch of them are dead," someone else said.
"Sigh, that's why they say it's better to be reborn in the city as a dog. Forget everything else, it's just safer there."
"The status of being a County Household is indeed a much-coveted assurance."
"That's true, but for people like us, we're bound to the countryside for life. We don't have the means to mix in with the city folks. Either we need Several Hundred Taels of silver to buy a house in the city or hope to find a job there as an attendant. Best of all would be to work at places like Medicine King Hall, Firewood Iron Shop, or Fish and Dragon Association. Even as a lowly handyman there, you acquire a status equivalent to County Household, a 'Medicine King Hall Attendant Credential'. You can even learn skills and participate in the Imperial Court's martial exams."
"That kind of fortune isn't for just anyone. In the past six months, only Xiaowang Village had an Herbalist who recently found a 'Treasured Medicine' called 'Tiger's Head Ginseng' and managed to get into Medicine King Hall."
"I heard from Wu Fenglei, the martial master in town, that in Medicine King Hall, even menial Disciples get to learn 'Superior Martial Arts'. The medicinal soups for training martial arts are unlike anything the major martial arts schools can compare with. Every meal is a 'Medicinal Meal', far better than the 'Muscle Enhancement Powder' used by ordinary martial masters, both externally and internally," someone else remarked.
Listening to these words, Chen Ku silently looked over the medicinal herbs he had bought from the Medicine and Firewood Market in town, all according to a 'Muscle Enhancement Powder' recipe he had heard about on the black market.
After six or seven days, it had cost him several taels of silver.
But the effects were exceptionally good.
With the experience of the Five-Section Brocade realm and the physical qualities from the Skinny Dog Transformation, the medicinal power from the soups he consumed transformed into strength very rapidly.
As soon as the medicinal power entered his body, it became energy, which, through experience, turned into physical strength.
Now, he had truly obtained the strength of three hundred jin. If he activated the Skinny Dog Transformation and combined it with the explosive force of the Skinny Dog, the two together would yield an explosive force of eight hundred jin.
"Eight hundred jin of strength isn't far from the Perfection of the Strength Training Phase," he thought. "I wonder if I can now match the martial master who killed the wolves."
He had believed that he owed it all to the 'Muscle Enhancement Powder' recipe.
Yet he had not expected... That this Muscle Enhancement Powder was, in fact, one of the most common prescriptions among martial practitioners.
"If I could enter Medicine King Hall and consume those Medicinal Meals, would my strength increase and transform even faster... And...the Attendant Credential of Medicine King Hall is equivalent to the enviable status of County Household... I just wonder if the taxation is the same?"
Chen Ku carried several packs of medicine, two or three jin of pork knuckles, four or five live chickens, and about ten jin of white flour back home in a basket. Given his current appetite, these would only last two or three days, but he dared not buy more, afraid that others would find out about his windfall and thus expose his black market dealings.
His mother and sister-in-law knew that he had recently made some money, but they had no clue it all came from the black market. The inherent honesty of these rural folks made them restrain from showing off outside. They simply quietly enjoyed the improvements in their living conditions.
After dinner at home, Chen Ku thought about the news he had heard in town.
"Refugees passing through town..." He murmured to himself: "When that time comes, if a few people die, nobody will suspect."
A cold light flickered in his eyes.
But before that, he had to get his hands on that Treasured Medicine.
He stuffed the live chickens into the cage and once again set off for Crocodile Pool.
The reason he had waited for seven or eight days was quite simple. Now, with the strength enhanced by the Skinny Dog Transformation, he had about eight hundred jin of force. Even if he couldn't poison all the crocodiles, he had the courage to make his way through Crocodile Bay.
Before setting out, he activated the Skinny Dog Transformation to ensure no one was following him.
「Evening.」
Not a soul hovered above Crocodile Bay, a place that no one would visit during the day, let alone at night.
To ensure his safety, Chen Ku activated the Skinny Dog Transformation once again.
Looking at Crocodile Bay, where Xie Gouzi had recently perished, with its deepest point being over twenty meters under the dimming sky, the shadows beneath the water's surface resembled ferocious beasts ready to choose their prey.
He sliced open the chickens on the shore, cutting them into pieces, and evenly smeared them with the Drugs and Soul Lost Grass.
It seemed the crocodiles in the water had smelled the scent of flesh and blood.
In an instant, images from the Transformation Diagram popped into Chen Ku's mind as a reminder.
[The Diagram Master is being targeted by the crocodiles in the pool, malice has arisen, Chong Sha has been triggered...]
[The Diagram Master is being targeted by the crocodiles in the pool, malice has arisen, Chong Sha has been triggered...]
...
Chen Ku did not care. This was just fine; killing them would yield Evil Qi.
"I wonder how many crocodiles can be poisoned with this bait."
After everything was ready, Chen Ku started throwing pieces of the chicken marinated in the Drugs toward the nearby river bay like a prodigal angler.
PLOP! SPLASH! SPLASH!!
With each piece of chicken meat hitting the surface, Chen Ku watched in trepidation as several crocodiles, each about one to two meters long, leaped out from under the water. Before long, blood appeared on the surface of the water, seemingly from crocodiles fighting over food below.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... eleven, twelve..." Chen Ku, having activated the Skinny Dog Transformation, with his Ears Clear Eyes Bright, even deep into the night, could see and hear the rough outlines of the crocodiles and began to count: "At least twelve crocodiles have shown their heads fighting for the food, not counting the ones that haven't."
Then he silently waited, waiting for the medicine to take effect.
Every Herbalist knows that Soul Lost Grass mixed with Mandala Flower is the main formula for Knockout Drug. One pack could down ten elephants, but its effect on crocodiles was unknown.
Time ticked away bit by bit.
Suddenly, a two-meter-long crocodile with its belly up floated to the surface.
Instantly, other crocodiles in the water surrounded it and started a death roll.
But Chen Ku saw the ghostly image of the dead crocodile drift towards his forehead.
[The Diagram Master has suppressed and killed a crocodile that harbored malice towards you!]
"Huh?" Chen Ku was initially puzzled, as he hadn't even entered the water.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind: "This crocodile was drowned!"
Crocodiles, not being purely aquatic animals, need to poke their nostrils out of the water every half hour or so to breathe. However, if they are affected by Drugs potent enough to down an elephant and end up sinking motionless into the water, unable to move due to paralysis...
Unable to breathe, drowning becomes the only result.
Before long, Chen Ku continuously received the Evil Qi from four crocodiles that had drowned.
Looking at the remaining crocodiles in the water still fighting over the corpses, performing death rolls.
Chen Ku turned his gaze to the Transformation Diagram.
"Another four strands of Evil Qi, now I can perfect the second layer of the Skinny Dog Transformation, 'Shape-Shifted.'"
Having already possessed eight hundred jin of strength thanks to the Skinny Dog Transformation, and with many crocodiles already downed by the Drugs, gaining further enhancement from the Skinny Dog Transformation would make him even more confident in obtaining the Treasure Herb.
"Burn the Evil Qi, transform me!"