Please, Don’t Die - Chapter 4

The grotesque three-winged, two-legged serpent writhed in agony on the ground, its crimson forked tongue lolling out, secreting a viscous, foul-smelling fluid. The earth that came into contact with the liquid instantly turned charred black.

He Qingsheng stood close by. The severed serpent arched its body, launching itself into the air with fangs bared, determined to drag someone down with it even in death.

Having died not long ago, her instincts remained unchanged. Subconsciously, she reached out to strangle the snake.

The moment the Feiyi serpent touched her hand, it let out a sharp, piercing hiss, as if enduring excruciating torment, writhing desperately to escape.

The red-and-black deathly aura swirling around He Qingsheng suddenly sprang to life, viciously and tightly coiling around the serpent. In an instant, the Feiyi vanished into nothingness in her grasp.

He Qingsheng froze for a moment before slowly curling her lips into a smile.

It seemed she could control this baleful energy.

The red-and-black aura lingered around her wrist, affectionately brushing against her fingertips like some docile, tamed tentacled creature.

But to others, the eerie aura within the red-and-black miasma only made the scene increasingly terrifying.

Ying Qujie watched as the deathly aura around the female ghost grew denser, even staining her features with a rich, vivid hue.

Her lips, now dyed crimson with blood, parted and closed as if to ensnare souls.

“Take me to the river.”

Ying Qujie instinctively wanted to refuse.

Jimo Town was suffering from a severe drought, and the scorching heat had induced fire toxin. Yet, despite these conditions, the modest river in front of the town still flowed with an endless supply of fresh water.

Even a fool would know there was something wrong with that river.

And he was no fool, he wasn’t going.

A wisp of scarlet baleful energy looped around his wrist, forming a closed ring like a vivid, blood-red jade bracelet.

Ying Qujie shook his hand slightly, and the bracelet swayed with his movement, the icy chill where it touched his skin piercing to the bone.

The female ghost’s eyes gleamed with amusement, the unspoken threat clear.

Ying Qujie: “…”

Fine. He was a fool.

The riverbank sloped slightly downward. As he descended, he noticed a small figure crouching timidly by the water’s edge, hidden among the riverside reeds.

If he listened closely, he could hear faint sobbing beneath the chirping of insects and birds.

“Wuwu… Mother…”

Ying Qujie couldn’t help but shiver, stealing a glance at the female ghost. He marveled inwardly, ha, a big ghost meeting a little ghost.

He took a few steps forward, his view clearing.

From the back, it was a little girl with twin buns in her hair, her frame frail, half her body leaning over the river.

Just as the girl was about to topple into the water, Ying Qujie strode forward, his long arm reaching out to grab the back of her collar, yanking her back.

At the same time, a fierce gust of wind swept past his azure sleeves. Ying Qujie watched as the female ghost shot into the water like an arrow loosed from a bow.

The once-calm river suddenly churned violently, water splashing in all directions.

After settling the little girl safely farther from the river, Ying Qujie cautiously returned to the bank to search for the female ghost.

The shallow river now seemed to teem with a large school of fish, thrashing and churning the water into froth.

The flowing water couldn’t wash away the blood, and the agonized screams, like those of a slaughtered pig, filled the air.

But the gruesome scene didn’t last long. The river convulsed a few times before gradually settling back into stillness.

Recalling how the female ghost had rushed to save the girl earlier and was now battling whatever lurked in the river with such ferocity, Ying Qujie began to question his initial assumptions about her.

As for He Qingsheng, she was only pretending to struggle.

The school of tuan fish in the water, which fed on human flesh and blood, immediately glowed with green eyes and swarmed toward her upon encountering such a sinister creature.

Cunning by nature, tuan fish often lurked in water sources during droughts. In years of scarcity, when both humans and beasts relied on water for survival, the tuan fish would lie hidden in the shallow mud and silt, waiting for an opportunity. They would seize the moment when people or animals approached the riverbank, biting through their windpipes in an instant before dragging them into the water to be devoured.

Thus, in the cultivation world, tuan fish were universally classified as malevolent creatures.

He Qingsheng strangled and devoured the last tuan fish in the water before finally floating to the surface, satisfied.

She found tuan fish utterly hideous, their voices grating, and their entire species deeply sinister.

But sinister, demonic creatures were now precisely what nourished her the most.

After devouring a feiyi earlier, she had only vaguely sensed a faint connection between herself and the baleful energy.

But after consuming the tuan fish in the river, her control over the baleful energy became far more fluid.

He Qingsheng gazed at the tall, jade-like man in green robes standing on the shore, a fleeting crimson light flashing in her pupils.

So beautiful. She wanted to possess him, to claim him for herself.

Smiling gently, she approached Ying Qujie.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Ying Qujie’s voice was unexpectedly tender, still carrying a youthful tone.

He Qingsheng reached out, and he instinctively moved to take her pulse, only for his hand to suddenly grasp empty air.

Ying Qujie looked slightly embarrassed. “Ah, sorry. I forgot you don’t need healing right now.”

She wasn’t human, after all.

He Qingsheng scoffed inwardly. Just as her hand was about to rest on Ying Qujie’s shoulder, she was violently repelled once more.

She withdrew her hand and turned away in one smooth motion, the red glow in her eyes struggling before fading into darkness.

She had tried to possess him again!

And failed again!

“What’s wrong?” Ying Qujie asked.

“Nothing. I saw some dust on your shoulder and wanted to brush it off, but then I remembered I’m a ghost.”

Her thoughts raced, and her smile deepened abruptly.

She could grow stronger by devouring malevolent creatures. But those creatures influenced the baleful energy, and when the baleful energy grew too dense, it would backlash, clouding her mind.

Yet, during these recent episodes of backlash, simply touching Ying Qujie had restored her clarity.

Though it cost her some of the absorbed power, it was still a worthwhile trade.

In other words, keeping Ying Qujie around to help suppress the baleful energy’s backlash and stabilize her mind within reasonable limits, meant there would be no upper bound to how many malevolent creatures she could consume.

No wonder, among the Twelve Realms of cultivation, most cultivators ascended through righteous paths, yet a significant number of demonic practitioners still existed.

This terrifying rate of cultivation growth was enough to drive people to madness.

“Ah? Thank you.” Ying Qujie felt slightly unnerved under He Qingsheng’s gaze.

His conscience told him the ghost girl had just done good deeds, but his intuition whispered there was more to it.

Conscience and intuition warred within him.

He Qingsheng used the wind to slap a few strands of his hair against his face, her tone teasing. “What? Staring at me in a daze? Don’t just stand there, go check on that child.”

This ghost had rushed to save people so swiftly and was now thinking of the child’s safety before he was. And here he was, doubting her goodwill over a mere fluctuation of baleful energy!

Thus, Ying Qujie’s conscience thoroughly defeated his intuition.

He didn’t even notice the increasingly translucent red jade bracelet on his wrist.

The little girl was curled up in a corner, an old wooden bucket placed in front of her. She was so small and frail that the bucket obscured most of her body.

Ying Qujie crouched in front of the little girl, soothing her gently with a soft voice.

He Qingsheng didn’t approach. Mortal children couldn’t withstand the fierce, baleful aura of a vengeful ghost.

“Physician brother, I’m scared, wuwu…”

The little girl whimpered for a while before slowly explaining why she had come to the riverside as night fell.

At the beginning of the drought, there had been no strange fish in the Jimo River, and the people could still rely on the water to survive. But a few months ago, a bizarre fish had suddenly appeared in the river, covered in pig-like bristles, squealing like a pig, and with the same omnivorous appetite as one.

It ate everything.

Including people.

Though the river still held water, the people could no longer safely draw from it.

Those with foresight, who had wanted to abandon the prosperity of Jimo Town, had been the first to leave. Yet, the fire toxin struck them far more swiftly and violently than those who remained in the town.

Not a single one of the early departees survived.

The remaining townsfolk could only linger in the settlement, listless and resigned, gambling their lives each time they tried to draw water from the river.

The lucky ones failed to fetch water and were torn apart by the monstrous fish along the way.

The unlucky ones succeeded in drawing water, only to continue their agonizing, thirst-ridden existence, repeating the cycle of terror the next time they neared death.

The little girl was named Yuan Baoyin, the daughter of the winemaker from East Street. Her mother brewed liquor, while her father gathered mountain fruits. They had a son and a daughter.

Seeing her mother and younger brother on the brink of death from thirst, Yuan Baoyin had overheard her father telling a neighbor that more people succeeded in fetching water at night.

So, she had sneaked out, hiding in the riverside weeds, hoping to draw water under cover of darkness to save her mother and brother.

A surge of irritation rose in He Qingsheng’s heart, laced with boundless malice as she speculated.

Yet, even as the shadow of death coiled around the little girl’s forehead, her eyes remained clear and bright, sparkling with innocence and purity.

He Qingsheng suddenly found herself at a loss for words.

Fine. Maybe this was for the best.

“Was it the pretty sister who scared away those scary fish just now?” Yuan Baoyin asked timidly, her small face flushing red. “Baoyin already thanked big brother, but I should thank big sister too.”

Ying Qujie was surprised. “She can see you too?”

He Qingsheng forced a stiff smile at Yuan Baoyin, her expression far from pleasant.

Yuan Baoyin was eleven, long past the age when children could see ghosts.

Mortals who consumed the five grains and lived in the mundane world would see their sensitivity to spirits and supernatural beings rapidly diminish with age.

Those with the innate Yin-Yang Eyes could be recognized at a glance by cultivators, but Yuan Baoyin clearly didn’t belong to that category.

He Qingsheng was a full-fledged vengeful ghost. For her to be visible…

Unless the little girl was someone lingering between life and death, bound by karma.

Yuan Baoyin’s lips were dry and cracked, tiny wounds splitting open as she spoke, yet no blood seeped out even after a long while.

He Qingsheng motioned for Ying Qujie to dump the filthy water left in Yuan Baoyin’s wooden bucket. Crimson-black baleful energy swirled up from the river, forming a natural arc in the air before filtering into the bucket in front of the girl, letting her drink a little to quench her thirst.

Yuan Baoyin shook her head in surprise, blurting out, “No, sister, I’m not thirsty yet.”

Under He Qingsheng’s murderous glare, Ying Qujie patted the little girl’s messy hair. “Drink. It’s fine. Your mother and brother will have some too.”

Yuan Baoyin hesitated.

Ying Qujie chuckled helplessly. “Go on. Think of it as helping me out, so your sister doesn’t secretly beat me up later.”

“Thank you, big brother and big sister.”

Yuan Baoyin stole a glance at He Qingsheng before turning back to Ying Qujie, offering a shy, faint smile. Then she scooped up the clear water from the bucket and gulped it down in big mouthfuls.

He Qingsheng watched as the little girl’s lips gradually moistened, feeling slightly relieved in her heart.

Once the girl had drunk her fill, she added more water to the old wooden bucket.

He Qingsheng gazed at the dimming red-black miasma and felt troubled. The water she had just used cost more than what she had painstakingly devoured.

What should she do?

Increase income and reduce expenditure?

He Qingsheng dismissed the idea. Back in modern society, she had been the type to spend a hundred when she only had fifty.

Frugality simply didn’t work for her.

At that moment, Ying Qujie picked up the old wooden bucket with one hand and held the little girl’s hand with the other, motioning for He Qingsheng to follow.

Wait… cutting costs might not be feasible, but as for increasing income… an idea began to form in her mind.

The small river lay to the west of the town, while Yuan Baoyin’s home was to the east. Before they had even covered half the distance, Yuan Baoyin was so exhausted she could barely keep her eyes open.

Ying Qujie hoisted her onto his back without a word.

He Qingsheng drifted beside him, lost in thought.

Ying Qujie lowered his voice. “Was that the tuan fish recorded in ancient texts just now?”

He Qingsheng nodded.

“The Classic of Mountains and Seas mentions it, the tuan fish resembles a crucian carp but has bristles like a pig, and its cry sounds like a piglet. Its appearance heralds great drought in the land.”

Ying Qujie sighed. “I never thought such mythical creatures truly existed. I always assumed they were just legends.”

He Qingsheng cut short his musings. Under the heavy night sky, her eyes were as cold as autumn water.

“Physician Ying, if a butterfly falls into a spider’s web, what would you do?”

Ying Qujie answered naturally, “If a butterfly falls into a spider’s web, saving it means the spider dies. Not saving it means the butterfly dies. I would do nothing.”

“Birth, death, withering, and flourishing are the laws of nature. Cause and effect follow one another, indeed, there’s nothing to be done.” He Qingsheng smiled faintly, her tone ethereal. “But what if the butterfly’s fall wasn’t natural?”

“What do you mean?”

“Feiyi and tuan fish do not belong to this world. Neither is the cause of ‘great drought upon their appearance.’ The fire toxin in Jimo Town is no natural disaster.”