Chapter 97: Hu Hanmin's Spring
Translator: AstralGhost Editor: Kurisu
Bei Feng spent a long time searching all over the yard before finally finding the two little fellows on a flowerbed overgrown with weeds.
After drinking a few mouthfuls of the medicinal wine, the two little wolfdogs slowly opened their small beady eyes as they looked around in confusion. After seeing the familiar figure of Bei Feng, they crawled up and wrapped their front paws lazily around his ankles as they rested their heads against his legs, yawning cutely all the while.
After a hearty breakfast, Bei Feng came before the Ancient Well and, with a thought, summoned the White Jade Fishing Rod into his hands.
'I wonder if this sleeping gas will disperse after passing through the Myriad Heavens Fishing Portal...'
Bei Feng took out the jar which he had extorted from He Jiawei and pulled out a stick of the incense inside.
The reason he had 'requested' the sleeping incense from He Jiawei was because he had a sudden inspiration--what if he attached the incense to the hook, light it up and send it into the Myriad Worlds?
As long as the incense was not snuffed out, its properties would definitely be of great use!
Theoretically, if the powerful sleeping gas were to appear at a critical point of his target location and spread outwards in all directions while his targets were unguarded against it, wouldn't he be able to fish freely, choosing any item as he pleased?
Of course, whether such a plan would work out still depended on the actual conditions at the other end of the line.
Cutting the incense in half, Bei Feng attached one half of it to the fishing hook as he carefully kept the remaining half into the jar.
Then, he took a lighter and burned one end of the incense until a light green smoke drifted upwards from it.
After that, he quickly cast the line into the well, praying silently that the incense would not be extinguished while going through the vortex.
"Haha, it succeeded! My theory was correct!"
Bei Feng yelped in delight as he saw the incense continue burning steadily after passing through the portal.
However, the incense was burning at a much faster rate than he had expected. At this point, Bei Feng was beginning to feel unsure if it would last until the hook landed...
***
In one of the Myriad Worlds, at the foot of a mountain much like Mt. Qing Ling, sat a small village.
A portion of the people in the village who had no particular skills, depended entirely on farming to sustain themselves. Another portion would spend the entire day deep in the mountains, picking wild herbs to sell in the village for additional income. The last group of people were the most numerous-- they were the hunters who based their lives around tracking and hunting wild beasts.
Hu Hanmin was a rather lackluster middle-aged man. He had little ambition, and was also a bit lazy. He relied only on farming and although his living conditions could not be said to be great, he could still manage to take care of himself.
The one thing he regretted the most was that as a 40-plus-year-old guy, he didn't even have a single person to warm his nest at night!
Hu Hanmin gulped down a bowl of porridge with a heavy sigh as he picked up his hoe and stepped outside of the hut.
Hu Hanmin actually had a secret which he kept deep within his heart, one which he had never dared to tell anyone about.
Two months ago, when he was working in the field, he'd came across a small black fox being chased by an eagle. At the time, he saw that the little fox had a nice shiny coat of fur like that of top grade silk and satin. Thus, he immediately thought to catch and sell the animal's fur for a tidy sum of money.
But by the time he managed to chase the eagle away with much effort, the little fox had already disappeared without a trace!
Strange things started to happen after that day. A bowl of porridge would appear on his kitchen counter every single day!
The amazing thing was that after drinking it, he would feel a warm and comfortable feeling spreading through his body! It was like he had inexhaustible energy while he worked.
"Sir, please hold your steps!"
A monk dressed in an old and worn out set of robes which seemed to have been washed too many times suddenly appeared behind Hu Hanmin, calling out to him in a polite voice.
Jumping a little from being called out of the blue, Hu Hanmin turned around and saw a 50-60 years old Daoist monk. In an instant, his face changed and he waved his hands impatiently. "What's the matter? I don't have any spare coins to give you."
The old monk did not seem to have heard Hu Hanmin's words. Instead, he continued staring intently at him.
"Sir, an evil spirit has recently attached itself to you, and I'm afraid you might fall into an unexpected calamity soon!"
Right when Hu Hanmin was beginning to feel creeped out by the old monk's stare, the old monk abruptly opened his mouth and warned in a loud voice.
Hu Hanmin was momentarily stunned, not sure of how to react to the abrupt news. However, he soon smirked slyly as he looked at the old monk. This was undoubtedly a ploy to scare him into spending money on some bogus ritual to get rid of the so called 'evil spirit' and resolve his 'unexpected calamity'!
"Venerable monk, do you have any proof that an evil spirit has attached itself to me?"
Hu Hanmin did not believe a single word of the old monk's. He had a humoring look on his face as he observed the old monk, anticipating what other tricks the old monk would display.
Qing Songzi widened his eyes in disbelief. This fellow was actually unable to tell good from bad; it was such a rare thing that he'd decided to do something out of the kindness of his heart, but the person did not even believe him!
But the more it was like that, the more Qing Songzi was determined to prove to this country bumpkin that he was correct in his judgement!
Qing Songzi had a strange mocking smile on his face as he asked, "Did you encounter any hard to explain incidents lately?"
"Thump!"
Hu Hanmin's heart skipped a beat as he suddenly remembered the bowl of porridge on his kitchen counter. Wasn't that an inexplainable incident?
Being the simple minded fellow that he is, Hu Hanmin had heartily enjoyed the porridge without investigating even the slightest bit. Now that this Daoist monk mentioned that he was being harassed by a spirit, Hu Hanmin could feel all the hairs on his body standing up on its ends.
"Venerable monk, you said that an evil spirit had attached itself to me. In that case, what kind of evil spirit is it?"
On the surface, Hu Hanmin still managed to hold himself back from pouring all his worries at the old monk. But in fact, he'd already begun to believe the old monk's words.
Qing Songzi had a leisurely smile on his face as he looked at the panicky Hu Hanmin. What a joke, even the royalties and nobles were easily taken care of by him, so what did a country bumpkin like this count as?
"From the view of this poor Daoist, it's most likely a fox spirit!" Qing Songzi lowered his voice mysteriously as he looked Hu Hanmin straight in the eye.
'A fox spirit?!' Hu Hanmin's eyes lit up with shock.
Those story tellers always talked about foxes who achieved a higher realm and took on the form of a human, falling in love with human scholars. In those stories, the fox spirits were each more beautiful than the other, and were akin to fairies descended on earth!
'Could it be that the little fox I'd saved the last time is back to repay the favor?'
Hu Hanmin fell into a deep misty thought. Whenever he thought of the fact that a girl so beautiful as to overrun cities and ruin states was painstakingly showing up at his hut every morning before the sun had even risen just to make porridge for him, he would get a sour and tender feeling in his heart.
"How unbecoming that a respected monk like you is uttering such nonsense just to cheat this Granddaddy of a few coins! Get the hell out of my sight!"
Hu Hanmin was still immersed in the smug feeling, in anticipation of this detestable country bumpkin falling to his knees with tears and snot all over his face, begging him to save his life. Instead, he was suddenly treated with hostility and greeted by such a harsh stream of vulgar words!
"Sir, you've really been targeted by an evil spirit! If you do not exorcise it immediately, you will meet with a huge calamity!"
Qing Songzi was only slightly taken aback by the scolding as he quickly composed himself and advised fervently. He was after all, a self-sacrificing monk! Wasn't it just a few harsh words? Saving a life was worth more than building a seven-storied pagoda!
"Exorcise your mum! You evil monk, do you believe that I'll let you lie down here for good if you still dare to block my path?!" Hu Hanmin spat furiously as he waved the hoe above his head aggressively.
"F*ck off with your seven-storied pagoda, you d*mned b*stard! Go off and get ready to die! See if I care!"
Even a refined monk like Qing Songzi exploded with rage as he turned and left huffily.
Hu Hanmin watched the strange Daoist walk off before letting loose a sigh of relief. He excitedly ran back home immediately, not even bothering to farm the field anymore.
'Fox spirit, oh fox spirit! Even if you're a fox spirit, I'm still fine with it! After being single for so long, even a fox spirit is not bad! Both figure and a pretty face would not be lacking!'
Hu Hanmin laid down on the bed gleefully. Tomorrow - he just needed to wait until the morn to find out how the fox spirit looked like, and also take the chance to communicate with it!
After dinner, he returned to the bed immediately and laid down thinking, wide awake. After some time, he finally fell asleep. By the time he woke, it was already 8 in the morning.
Normally, the lazy Hu Hanmin only woke up around 10 am. Looking at the brightening sky, he did not even bother to put on any clothes and hurriedly scrambled out of bed as he rushed to the kitchen.