Chapter 20 The Stench of Pigs

When I saw Huang Sanniang in the day, Liu Lieyun did not regard her as anything special, so I had thought she did not have any skills. However, right as I was running away with Liu Longting, she managed to ambush us with so many weasels. If she were to report this back, we probably would not be able to run away.

Liu Longting maintained his calm when he saw Huang Sanniang and did not even back into his human form. He laughed and asked Huang Sanniang in a sinister manner if she wanted to die.

When Liu Longting said that, Huang Sanniang smiled. The wrinkles on her face were so numerous that they were uncountable.

“Third Master Liu, please don’t joke around like that. This old lady still wishes to live for a long time. I stopped you today because I heard you were leaving Mount Changbai. I wanted to ask for the third master’s help. If you help me, my 108 descendants and I will gladly swear loyalty to you. You’ll be our leader, and all of us will listen to your command.”

Even though Huang Sanniang was not that skillful, Liu Longting was quite intrigued by her conditions and reverted into his human form. He walked toward her and asked, “Then speak up. What do you want me to help you with?”

“Help me kill someone. That person burned my youngest child Huang Taotao to death.”

“If you need me to kill someone, I’d need to know more about the specifics. How was your child murdered?” Liu Longting asked Huang Sanniang.

Huang Sanniang was initially being courteous to Liu Longting, but the moment he asked her to talk about Huang Taotao, she started to cry uncontrollably. She sat on the ground and cried loudly in despair. The dozens of small yellow weasels surrounded her and started to console her, asking her not to cry. Those voices all sounded like that of young children.

Huang Sanniang petted their heads and she told us while sobbing, “Longting, you’re often out and about so you would not know this. I actually had three children. The eldest and the second both died of natural causes, leaving behind my youngest, Huang Taotao.”

“I know all that. The last time I met your youngest, hadn’t he just been born? How did he die?” Liu Longting asked.

“When Taotao last met you, he was indeed just a newborn. You haven’t been back in dozens of years. Taotao was killed ten years ago. It’s all my fault because my cultivation isn't great. I’ve already cultivated for almost a thousand years, yet I can't even compete with those kids with one or two hundred years of cultivation, and always end up being bullied. Ten years ago as I was hunting, my leg got hurt by a hunter and could not move out of my nest. At that time, Taotao had only cultivated for less than forty years. He saw that I was lying in the nest crying in pain every day and felt sorry for me, so he decided to go get some meat for me to eat. However, it was winter then so snow covered the whole mountain and there was no meat to be found. Taotao ended up going down the mountain to one of the surrounding villages, wanting to steal a chicken for me, never would he have expected…”

Huang Sanniang’s throat clamped up at that moment and could no longer continue.

“Never would he have expected to be beaten to death by the villagers?”

“No, no, no, he wasn’t beaten to death. A large group of them surrounded my Taotao and used a pitchfork to push my Taotao into a pot. They sealed the mouth and put it into the furnace, roasting my kid alive! Seeing that he was not back even after three days, I went down the mountain to look for him. I couldn’t even find his corpse. All I could find was a half-eaten head.” Huang Sanniang told Liu Longting in a sharp and horrified voice.

Liu Longting was not as compassionate as me when it came to these matters. He remained composed as he asked, “Your son died and you didn’t avenge him?”

“My power is limited, and there’s too many of them. I’ve been trying to figure out who was the mastermind behind it all and managed to find out the leader was someone in the village named Zhu Dagui. Zhu Dagui’s family serves a pig sage, and that sage had a few thousand years of cultivation. I’m outmatched by him, which is why I sought a master with some power in Mount Changbai, hoping my master would help me with my revenge. However, they’re very righteous spirits and do not kill. On top of that, I didn’t have power or skills, so they just treated me as an irrelevant servant. No one was willing to help me.”

“Then why do you think I would help you?” Liu Longting asked Huang Sanniang.

Hearing what Liu Longting said, Huang Sanniang pushed away her hurt expression and sobered up. She said something to Liu Longting that I could not quite understand, “Because in your heart, there’s something more important than becoming a fairy or a deity. Even though I don’t know what it is, if you’re willing, I’ll devote my life to you as long as you help me with this grudge.”

“I currently don’t have much use for your life, but I’m willing to help you with this matter. I left without warning this time, so my second sister will definitely be pissed. Wait for her to mellow down and then seek shelter from her. Tell her I asked you to. The reason why your cultivation has been stuck all this time is because you have yet to reach enlightenment. There are plenty of books on cultivating the mind in the Liu Family. If you can study them, you’ll be able to hold some power in Mount Changbai in the future. That way you’ll be able to take care of your descendants, so they don’t follow the footsteps of your son.

After saying that, Liu Longting turned back into a snake. As we were leaving, Huang Sanniang and her pack of small weasels kowtowed to Liu Longting, thanking him for his generosity.

On the way down the mountain, I worriedly asked Liu Longting if he was really going to kill someone. If sages killed people, their cultivation would be harmed. On top of that, Liu Longting seemed to have had a problematic past. If he really killed someone this time, would he lose everything in the future?

Liu Longting saw that I was worried and told me not to bother about this. He said that when we reach the airport later, I should go back first and he would follow after he settled Huang Sanniang’s matter.

Liu Longting’s attitude was really throwing me off.

“No way.” My arms tightly hugged Liu Longting’s round body with force. “I go wherever you go. If I leave and you run back to that woman who proposed to you today, then I…”

Halfway through the sentence, I felt too abashed to continue. I did not know why I said those things—it was as if I was a newly married bride.

“Are you jealous?” Liu Longting was way too direct! How many women did he have in the past to be able to guess my thoughts so accurately?

“Who’s being jealous? Who do you think you are? How could I possibly be jealous?” I explained frantically—so frantically that even I knew it was obvious I was covering something up. I hated myself at that moment. Why could I not be calmer? If Liu Longting really finds out, and he decides he did not like me, then I would lose all my dignity.

“Do you want to marry me? Then you’ll need to seduce me, just like how I seduced you. If you seduce me enough that I’m happy, I might just marry you.”

Liu Longting childishly said that, causing me to raise my hands in dissatisfaction to hit him. I asked him how I would possibly want to marry a snake. The only reason I asked him earlier was because Jiao’er told me I could become prettier if I married a sage.

After that, we did not talk much. Upon reaching the bottom of the mountain, I obstinately wanted to follow Liu Longting and he did not reject me. However, he told me not to get involved. He was not going to possess me and would appear in front of everyone in the name of a sage to handle this matter.

Based on the directions we got from a local sage, we managed to find the village where Huang Taotao was roasted alive. It was called Zhu Village, and everyone in the village had the surname Zhu.

I followed Liu Longting into the village, and an extremely unpleasant stench reached my nose. It was difficult to describe the smell, but it stunk and I felt dizzy just smelling it.

I asked Liu Longting if he could smell it too. Liu Longting looked around the village and said, “That’s the stench of a pig. There’s no sage in this village. It’s a demonic smell.”