Chapter 43: This Is... Poppy Fruit!

Lin Chunjiu was momentarily stunned, and Ah Ying also fished a banknote out from her bag.

"Eldest Sister-in-law, look at this money... Should we return it?"

Lin Chunjiu pressed her lips together: "We'll talk when they get back. Anyway, I have no intention of ever stepping foot in that house again."

Ah Ying gave a dry laugh: "Actually... our mother-in-law, it seems, just has a foul mouth, but she isn't a bad person at heart."

Lin Chunjiu hummed: "A foul mouth is quite enough to deal with. I'm a harbinger of bad luck, and you're a sickly weakling; she'd love nothing more than to curse us from head to toe... Anyway, I only came today to thank the youngest brother, but I won't be going over there ever again."

Ah Ying shrank her neck and fell silent.

Su Xiaoyan found Su Mao out in the fields and saw that he was in the midst of building up the ridge of a paddy field. She looked closely at his face and asked what had happened.

Hearing him say that he had accidentally slipped and fallen while in the mountains, Su Xiaoyan was shocked: "Eldest Brother, did you guys really go into the mountains last night?"

Su Mao propped his hoe on the ground, leaned against it, and looked at Su Xiaoyan: "Of course we went in. It was almost dark when your eldest sister-in-law and I heard from Ah Hui that Ah Liang had gone into the mountains, and we were terrified. I got Ah-De to go into the mountains with me, but only a few hours after we got in, we got disoriented and ran into a ghost wall."

Thinking about it now, Su Mao still felt a lingering fear.

He recounted how they made marks, how they found the marks were wrong, and how a dark shadow fell from above before the two of them fled in panic. In the end, he sighed: "I burst into the fog—that was Little Immortal's protective barrier, and the mountain ghouls couldn't get in. Ah-De was different; he kept being chased. Fortunately, Ah-Chen caught up in time."

Su Xiaoyan fidgeted uncomfortably and asked hesitantly, "Eldest Brother, do you think it's possible that Ah-De just scared himself and there weren't any mountain ghouls at all?"

"Nonsense! If there weren't any, how could Ah-De describe it so clearly? Even Ah-Chen said that the mountain ghoul was formed from the gathered resentful spirits of monkeys and the like in the mountains. How could there not be?"

Su Xiaoyan gave a soft hum: "Eldest Brother, you speak with such certainty, but you didn't see it clearly yourself, did you? Relying on just Ah-De... it's not entirely believable."

Su Mao looked closely at his third younger sister and said helplessly, "Even if you don't believe in this stuff, it's true that Ah-De and I spent six or seven hours in the mountains until the early morning hours, right? And it's true that Ah-Chen got us out less than two hours after he went in, isn't it?"

Su Xiaoyan raised an eyebrow.

"There you have it. Anyway, Ah-Chen is much more capable than Ah-De and me."

Su Xiaoyan: "..."

She slowly stood up: "By the way, Eldest Brother, Little Brother said he wants to host a longevity banquet for Dad, scheduled for the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. Remember to bring Eldest Sister-in-law and the children along. Little Brother has already paid for everything, so you just need to show up."

At the mention of this, Su Mao fell silent.

He picked up his hoe again, swung it twice, and piled the turned-up soil onto the field ridge. After a long while, he muttered awkwardly, "We'll see."

Su Xiaoyan knew that over the past few years, her eldest and fourth brothers had a poor relationship with their parents, and expecting the ice to break all at once was utterly impossible. She simply nodded in acknowledgment.

"Well then, Eldest Brother, I'll head back first. If you have time at noon, come over and have a drink with me. I brought those pig intestines you love so much."

"No, no need. Save them for them to eat."

"Fine, alright."

While Su Xiaoyan reluctantly headed home, Zhao Dongsheng had already parked the car at the foot of Dragon Mountain.

Seeing Zhao Dongsheng get out of the car as well, carrying a backpack on his back, Su Chen cast a suspicious glance his way.

"Oh, the Boss said that you need to have your food and drink prepared, Master. Going into the mountains like this is no joke, so I have to tag along."

Su Chen: "Really, there's no need."

"Master, you don't want me to lose my job, do you?" Zhao Dongsheng put on a pitiful expression once again.

Su Chen rubbed his forehead: "Fine, alright then."

It was just... adding an extra tail, that's all.

Su Chen tugged at the strap of his cloth bag and stepped forward to walk up the mountain.

He had never been to Dragon Mountain before, but Zhao Dongsheng seemed somewhat familiar with it, taking the lead and starting to guide the way.

Climbing over the first mountain and standing on its peak, Su Chen looked toward the direction of Dragon Mountain and narrowed his eyes slightly.

Dragon Mountain—as the name suggested, this mountain range was shaped like a small dragon. However, viewed from this particular peak, only a few summits were visible, making it somewhat unclear.

Seeing that Su Chen was observing intently, Zhao Dongsheng took out a bottle of purified water, unscrewed the cap, and handed it to him before speaking. "Master, my brother-in-law's family lives in a village deep inside Dragon Mountain. She told me that in the highest mountain of Dragon Mountain, there's a giant snake as thick as a water bucket. When she was little, there was a massive flood in the village with torrents of yellow mud rushing down, and people said it was caused by that giant snake. They said it was transforming into a dragon."

Su Chen didn't say anything.

The original host also knew about serpents transforming into dragons, having read about it in his previous world's sect texts, but... he had truly never witnessed it with his own eyes.

"Master, do you think dragons really exist in this world?" True to form, Zhao Dongsheng asked the ultimate philosophical question.

Su Chen took a sip of water and simply replied with a meaningful look, "There are gods in this world, what do you think?"

Zhao Dongsheng's eyes widened abruptly, and then he hastily turned his head to look toward the highest mountain. "Master, does that mean dragons really exist?"

"Let's go. We need to pick up the pace."

Driving from Liangshan to Dragon Mountain had taken two and a half hours, and by the time they had hiked up this mountain, it was already past nine o'clock. Thinking about the highest peak, there were still three or four more mountains to climb.

Zhao Dongsheng swung his backpack over his shoulder and strode to the front.

"Master, what are you going to do today in Dragon Mountain?"

"Oh, catching ghosts!"

Zhao Dongsheng's left foot paused while his right foot kept going, nearly tripping himself up.

He stumbled a few steps to steady himself, turned around in disbelief, and looked at Su Chen while walking backward. "Master, are you serious?"

"What do you think?"

Recalling the situation at his boss's house last night, Zhao Dongsheng subconsciously touched the peace amulet resting against his chest.

The master had said earlier in the car that this peace amulet could fend off ten instances of harm. There shouldn't... there shouldn't be any problems, right?

Thinking about how he had once charged through hails of bullets without ever feeling a shred of fear, he was actually feeling timid now.

Ah~ Indeed, the more one knows, the smaller one's courage becomes.

Zhao Dongsheng's steps visibly steadied, and his gaze grew much more alert.

Seeing this, Su Chen smiled and quickly caught up.

The two of them steadily climbed over two mountains, and Su Chen stopped once again—though this time, it wasn't at a peak, but rather on a mountainside.

"Master, is something wrong?"

Su Chen nodded. From where he stood, despite the bright, sunny day overhead, the mountain forest was dense with oppressive yin energy.

"This should be the place." Su Chen unslung his cloth bag. "Brother Zhao, take a seat over there for a moment while I draw a talisman."

Zhao Dongsheng asked out of curiosity, "Master, can you only use talismans to catch ghosts?"

As he spoke, he threw a few punches in the air. "Aren't there things like... martial arts techniques for this?"

Su Chen's mouth twitched.

"Can your fists beat a ghost?"

Zhao Dongsheng waved his hands repeatedly. "Hehe, definitely not."

"Celestial Masters generally use Dharma instruments or formations to trap ghosts and evil spirits. Unfortunately, Dharma instruments are hard to come by, so I can only draw a few more talismans to set up a formation," Su Chen explained.

Zhao Dongsheng understood.

He looked around and frowned, "Strange, there don't seem to be any villages nearby. I remember the closest village, Qingshan Village, requires crossing yet another mountain. Why are ghosts haunting this place?"

As he muttered, he subconsciously kicked a stone at his feet, and his body suddenly froze.

Su Chen had just picked up his writing brush and asked, looking puzzled, "What is it?"

Zhao Dongsheng squatted down, pushed aside the bushes beside the path, and quickly retrieved a yellow dried fruit from within.

At the top of the dried fruit, it looked as though a flower had bloomed.

Su Chen's gaze locked onto it.

"This is..."

Zhao Dongsheng gritted his teeth. "An opium poppy pod!"

At that moment, he completely forgot about Su Chen being a master and started cursing directly. "Dammit! Who the hell is growing drugs in this mountain? I'll dig up the graves of their ancestors for eighteen generations!"