One more catty, one more attribute point

The banquet ended.

But the dishes served were never going to be enough to satisfy Su Heng's appetite.

He also had the kitchen prepare a more substantial supplementary meal for himself, to aid in his cultivation and to gain more attribute points.

Su Heng returned to his abode.

Soon, the servants came in bearing basin after basin of rice, tender stewed meat, and a variety of precious medicinal dishes.

All this food, a quantity enough to satiate seven or eight sturdy men, was placed on the long table before Su Heng.

Yet, Su Heng didn't immediately reach for his chopsticks.

Instead, he sat in his chair, raised his leg, and shortly afterward two young maids came forward to help him remove his boots.

Two wooden tubs were placed under the table, filled with special broth beneficial to the body.

"Huff..."

Su Heng placed his feet into the tubs.

Feeling the scorching heat spreading from his soles, gradually permeating through his entire body.

His body, which had been tense due to an anomaly, also slowly relaxed, and the myriad thoughts in his mind were temporarily cast aside.

His body came into contact with the water.

The talent inherited from the Water Ghost Poison Sack began to take effect.

Su Heng opened his eyes, his metabolism enhanced, his mouth secreting a large amount of thick saliva.

So much so that when he opened his mouth, strands of semi-transparent silvery-white threads clung between his teeth, displaying Su Heng's vigorous vitality at the moment.

The sizzling sound emitted when the steaming hot dipping sauce, splattered with hot oil, was poured over the tender stewed meat.

The fragrance of the meat and the spicy taste of the sauce were instantly stimulated to the fullest.

Su Heng opened his mouth wide.

A pork foot weighing about half a jin was swallowed whole by him, bones and all.

Ordinary people chew their food slowly and thoroughly, but Su Heng wasn't like that. His consumption of food was akin to downing liquor in big gulps.

Various foods...

Whether it was rice, stewed meat, or other stir-fried dishes.

Su Heng just tilted his head back and swallowed.

Each movement of his throat signified that about half a jin of food was devoured, quickly digested and broken down.

In this manner, an entire table of dishes.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Su Heng had wiped it all out.

Only the greasy plates and pots remained, slightly messily arranged before Su Heng, still emitting a faint scent of grease.

"Comfortable..."

Su Heng's prolonged breath expelled a mouthful of stale air.

He slightly loosened the belt around his waist and casually leaned against the back of the chair.

Raising his leg,

Two young maids struggled to carry away the tubs.

Then, another pair of maids came with clean towels, wiped the dampness from Su Heng's feet, and dressed him in his shoes and socks.

The food was quite satisfactory, but Su Heng felt something was missing.

He pushed back from the table and went out into the courtyard.

After a moment of thought.

He realized where the problem lay.

"Where is the Taishui meat?" Su Heng was taken aback for a moment, looking toward the charioteer Li Si who wasn't far off.

"Those villagers from Heikui Mountain said that the Taishui meat has disappeared from the village," Li Si approached Su Heng and replied in a low voice.

"Is that so?"

Su Heng touched his chin, his gaze lingered on Li Si for a brief while.

For some reason, he always felt that Li Si's expression, compared to the past, seemed somewhat vacant.

Was he ill?

Or had he encountered some difficult troubling issue?

"Perhaps those villagers are deliberately deceiving us, just looking for an excuse to hike up the price," Li Si added, offering his own conjecture.

"Yes, that's also a possibility," Su Heng nodded in agreement.

"Should we send someone to check it out?"

Su Heng furrowed his brows in thought, but did not immediately give an answer.

The flesh of the Water Ghost had already been consumed in large part by him. And though the Taishui meat, while not as effective as true demon flesh, the abundant quantity and the help it brought him was obvious.

Unless absolutely necessary, Su Heng naturally did not want to give up this vast source of attribute points.

But Heikui Mountain...

Su Heng remembered the bizarre demons he encountered in the mountain that day.

However, Heikui Mountain was vast, and the place where the Taishui grew was on the eastern side of the mountain base, while the place where the fog demon appeared was towards the west.

The two locations were separated by a considerable distance, and there was no need to worry that an encounter was certain.

Moreover, during this period of time,

No more incidents of fog demons harming people had been heard.

It seemed as though with the death of the Water Ghost, the other demons near Changqing County also felt fear, retreating into the forest and keeping a certain distance from human society.

"No matter, I'll go there myself," Su Heng quickly made up his mind.

"Then I'll accompany you," Li Si immediately said, "The environment in Heikui Mountain is complex; I can lead the way for you."

"Good!"

Su Heng agreed without further thought.

He turned around and strode toward the archway.

Behind him, Li Si watched Su Heng's receding figure, lowered his head, a strange white mist flashed in his eyes.

...

...

...

Yaowang Village.

A dilapidated little mountain village in Heikui Mountain.

The village isn't large, housing only a hundred or so families.

The residents lived off the mountain, making a living by hunting and gathering medicinal herbs.

They also farmed on the mountain, but due to poor soil fertility, the harvest was meager and barely enough to fill their stomachs.

The upside was its seclusion.

The government didn't interfere, so basically what they grew, they ate.

With additional yields from the mountain forests, life in the village was surprisingly decent despite their remote location.

"Thud, thud, thud!"

Under Li Si's guidance, Su Heng arrived at Yaowang Village.

He reached out and knocked on the weathered wooden gate before him.

"Creak!"

After a moment, footsteps came from inside, and the wooden gate was pushed open.

An old man with white hair and a hunched back appeared before Su Heng; he was the village chief of Yaowang Village, nameless, and simply referred to by the villagers as Old Yaosou.

"I would like to ask about the Water Ghost Poison Sack," Su Heng politely began, extending a piece of broken silver.

The old man didn't reach out to take it, "Haven't we already told you everything we know?"

His gaze fell on Li Si.

"Well, alright..." Su Heng's gaze drifted toward the courtyard before asking, "May I borrow a hoe for a moment?"

"Suit yourself," Old Yaosou nodded and stepped aside.

Su Heng bent down to pass through the wooden gate into the courtyard, took a hoe leaning against the wall into his hands, and gave a grateful bow to the elder, "Thank you. I'll return it to you shortly."

With the tool in hand,

he no longer lingered, leading Li Si out of Yaowang Village.

It seemed that the villagers seldom saw outsiders, as they passed through the streets, doors on both sides opened.

Figure after figure walked out from the pitch-black rooms.

Without speaking a word,

they simply turned their heads, revealing eerie smiles on their faces.

A pair of eyes misted with a white fog looked at Su Heng, watching until his figure had completely disappeared from their sight.

The noon had just passed,

and under the bright, scorching sunlight, the figures of Yaowang villagers seemed ghostly and unreal, giving a chilling sensation up one's spine.

...

Bang!

At the foot of the mountain, Su Heng slammed the hoe into the soft soil.

This was the place where the Water Ghost Poison Sack was unearthed.

It looked like a hole created by a meteorite, seven or eight meters in diameter, surrounded by a quiet environment.

Dense trees grew all around, blocking the sunlight, casting shadows.

The chirping of birds from the treetops made one drowsy,

but occasionally, a mountain breeze would blow, bringing a touch of coolness, dispelling the drowsiness, and sending a shiver through one's body.

Su Heng held the hoe in his hand, swinging it with force.

A sharp, piercing sound of air being cleaved filled the air, and the dull thud of the hoe striking the ground was continuous, as large amounts of dark, moist soil were thrown aside, piling up into two mounds as tall as a person on either side of Su Heng.

In just a short time,

a pit more than a meter deep appeared before Su Heng's eyes.

Splat!

A muffled sound came from the pit ahead.

Su Heng's heart leapt with joy, thinking he had finally found the Water Ghost Poison Sack.

He tossed the hoe aside, jumped into the freshly dug pit, and bent over to clear the black soil inside.

He tossed aside fragments of rock and dirt.

Su Heng's fingertips felt a soft, eerie sensation, as if...

The eagerness in his eyes vanished, his expression turned cold, and he slowly cleared the loose soil.

Eventually,

the secret buried there was fully exposed in front of Su Heng.

Even for someone as brave and strong-hearted as Su Heng, seeing what lay before him made his heart skip a beat, feeling a chill spread up his spine.

"You..."

Buried in the hole beneath him,

was not the Water Ghost Poison Sack he was searching for, but a rotting, bloody visage.

That face was very familiar to Su Heng.

It was none other than Li Si, the driver who had been following him.

But if the real Li Si had been dead here all along, then the Li Si who had been following him... what exactly was he?