“Tut, Bai was cruel!” Fatty was murmuring while rolling a boiled egg on Gyatso’s face, “Alas, look at you. Why did you fight him when he went nuts? Were you stupid? What if you were killed? What were you thinking about?”

Gyatso enjoyed Fatty’s therapy with his eyes closed. He was in bad shape, unlike Su Bai. When Su Bai was hurt, he could heal himself due to his vampire blood, all he needed was fresh blood which was not hard to get, since he was not picky about whose blood it was. But Gyatso could only wait until his human body healed once he was hurt, and it would take a long time. Therefore, under the same conditions, it was not wise to fight against Su Bai with his human body.

Moreover, Gyatso didn’t win that fight. It was Su Bai who actually won that fight in the end. So Gyatso had suffered so much for nothing.

Fatty was still looking pale, but was much better. Apparently, although the ptomaine was still moving towards his heart, he would live for the moment.

Which indicated that although he said he was going to lie in bed until the end of the story, his action gave him away that he was not okay with that plan.

Gyatso didn’t bother replying to his talkative carer. After Fatty finished dealing with his wounds, he immediately sat on the ground with his legs crossed and started meditating.

“As dumb as an oyster!”

Fatty shook his head and went back to lie down. There were lots of paper spells beside him, but he knew they were just common stuff with little influence compared to those tools in the e-shop. But they were better than nothing. He couldn’t really sleep this story over. Besides, he knew that he hadn’t been much useful and now that he was hurt so badly, they would throw him away like a burden if something dangerous came up.

In a story world, no one was as reliable as himself.

When they heard the notification of MT 1 being fulfilled and MT 2 issued, Gyatso, who had been meditating with his eyes closed, suddenly opened his eyes. And Fatty also jumped off the bed in a hurry.

3000 Story Points? Just as good as killing them!

Failure of MT 1 would only cost 300 story points, that was affordable for most of them. It would still be a good deal to eat some of that kid’s flesh even if MT 1 failed. Just like spending 300 Story Points for something far more valuable.

But 3000… Who could have 3000 Story Points in hand?

That last line was as good as “If MT 2 failed, eliminate immediately”.

Fatty was circling around Gyatso while flapping on his own forehead, “Gyatso, you said Su Bai threw the kid into the river before you returned to the hotel, and then you guys fought, right?”

Gyatso nodded, apparently he was thinking the same question that had occurred to Fatty.

“So… are you sure Su Bai can recover that kid from the river?”

Fatty asked. Su Bai wouldn’t eat the kid, and chose to throw him into the river in case the others might eat him. Now it would be great if none of them could find the kid.

The worst scenario, the kid couldn’t swim and was drowned in the river immediately. Then no one could do anything expect for waiting for their death.

It would neither benefit others nor himself. No one else would have done that. But they were not sure about Su Bai. Who could tell what was in his mind?

“The kid can’t be drowned. Because he went downstream after our fight.” Gyatso recalled, “That was to say, he was confident that the kid was alive in the water. But he was hurt almost as bad as I was… Judging by the water velocity, he couldn’t have found the kid last night.”

Fatty let out a long breath, “Anyway, let’s find the kid first.”

“Amitabh, let’s find the kid.”

With an Amitabh coming from outside the room, they knew who had come.

Seven walked in with a black fox lying on his shoulder. It was looking around nervously, and clutching to Seven’s clothes.

Gyatso looked at the fox and then Seven. He smiled:

“You were planning to refine her for her original energy or at least an internal core. But the issuing of MT 2 stopped you.”

Seven nodded and felt the fox’s fur, “A mother will always be connected spiritually with her child. Although her memories are all gone, that natural connection will stay.”

Fatty wanted to laugh but didn’t dare to. “Monk, good for you! That fox demon was so scary, so powerful in that nest, now she’s just your pet! She must have done something really evil in her previous life that leads you to her.”

“Amitabh, everything is a result of previous life.”

Seven didn’t talk much about this topic, just suggested, “Let’s find that kid. The fox can feel him roughly in a certain direction, at least we’ll know which way to go.”

Gyatso managed to stood up, “I’ll recover on the way. Since it’s a 39-day task, I think I’ll have enough time to heal.”

Then he looked at Fatty.

Fatty shrugged and took out a small bottle out of his clothes, “This is Goddess Tear, I begged for it from a veteran audience after going through all kinds of hardships to help her with something. Ptomaine won’t be a problem.”

Clearly, Fatty knew neither Gyatso nor Seven would believe that he wasn’t holding up, therefore they were forcing him to show what he had got. If he really couldn’t move, they wouldn’t bring him along. Luckily, Fatty didn’t let them down. Goddess Tear sounded unique and rare.

When Su Bai met Fatty for the first time, Fatty robbed the bronze chest from him; the second time, Fatty was returning to Litchi for some errand. It could be said that Fatty must be very hard-working on these part-time jobs, no matter in story world or the real world. That must be how he got most of his stuff.

With the fox leading the way, the three of them left the mortuary. Before they left, they walked past Lam Chin-Ying’s room.

Seven stopped and asked: “Chin has not come out after he got back, hasn’t he?”

“No.” Fatty answered, “Forget him. Must be PTSD[1] or something. Let’s find the kid first and come back to check him later.”

…

Su Bai knew he wouldn’t catch up with that fishing boat. But he didn’t felt sorry. That was what Dreadful Radio would always do, teasing its audiences only to make the story interesting.

Luckily, with a sound sleep and the pill from the old man, Su Bai was in great shape. In fact, he was the best recovered of them all, compared to Fatty who was poisoned, Gyatso who was badly injured and Seven who suffered from the consequence of breaking an oath.

Of course, there were both advantages and disadvantages that Su Bai was working alone while the other three must be sticking together.

Walking down the river for a while, Su Bai arrived at an official road. From here, this official road was almost going the same direction as the river.

After walking about half an hour on the road, Su Bai saw a mailman on a horse coming from the opposite direction. Judging by his clothes, he must be a soldier in a post house.

When his horse ran past Su Bai, Su Bai stepped up, dragged him down and knocked him out. Because of that pill, Su Bai wasn’t in need of fresh blood. And before he was starving and craving for blood, he would never drink anyone’s blood just for fun.

Su Bai left the poor guy in the bushes and rode on the horse. He was not very good at riding, but when he was very young, his father used to take him to ride on Xichuan grassland, so he could still remember some basic rules for horse riding. Besides, this horse seemed to have sensed Su Bai’s special scents, and it became extremely tender and obedient when Su Bai was riding on it.

So Su Bai went downstream on the horse.

By the evening, he arrived a small town.

Su Bai didn’t dare to go too far because judging by the plot he was far from the original places, but with the issuing of MT 2, it was okay to run about, as if a new area on the map had become accessible for MT 2.

Walking into the town, Su Bai was curious about the horse. The mailman hadn’t reported his missing horse? Or the traffic and information delivery was too underdeveloped? Nothing had happened after a whole day! He wasn’t quite used to that.

He tied the horse by the stable in front of a hotel, walked in and ordered some dishes and a bottle of wine.

While waiting for his meal to be served, Su Bai thought he could try to ask the waiter about that old man. If the old man didn’t lie to him, he must be kind of famous in the neighborhood since he was a 120-year-old master Taoist.

However, Su Bai stopped before he sent for the waiter, because he suddenly noticed a picture hanging against the wall behind him.

It was a picture of a immortal-like Taoist who looked very similar to that old man Su Bai had met. Beside that Taoist there were some words read:

“Here’s Master Zhang from Mt.Fulong, All Evil Should Keep Off!” [2]

So the old man was indeed very famous. Could serve as a door-god to protect people!

———————————————

FOOTNOTES:

[1] PTSD: post-traumatic stress disorder.

[2] Mt.Fulong: Literally this name means “the mountain where a dragon was conquered”.