When the Golden Finger Lands in the Hands of the Villain

...

The appearance of this third contestant is a little unexpected. Thanks to Jiang Chen's ‘blessing’, there are many famous pill masters from other places who came to explore the secret collection of Pill Emperor Chu.

There are enough second level pill masters here as there are ants in any given anthill. However, in the end, such an ordinary local pill master won the upper hand in the competition. Moreover, when he arrived with Jiang Chen, he was only slower than Jiang Chen for a few seconds, he's really amazing.

The third man easily falls into a friendly salute with one hand cupped over the other fist. “My name is Bai Heng, please teach me.”

Jiang Chen disdains this. “I won’t. Don't hinder me."

Soon, the space changes again, and a gate appears in front of them and begins to speak.

"Hello, three challengers. Welcome to my inheritor's gate. In the next few days, what you need to do is to capture the Golden Toad in the dense forest. The person who successfully catches the Golden Toad is my successor."

The door is actually talking, which is really extraordinary.

As the voice of the door falls silent, the ground underneath them trembles and shifts into a dense forest. Everything is full of life, all kinds of plants are scattered over the area, fully grown, and occasionally a small spirit beast peeks up from behind the flora.

A beautiful forest, but it would be very difficult to find a little Golden Toad in such a large place.

Jiang Chen is calm despite such a fact. On the contrary, he turns to Kong Wuying and Bai Heng. “Let's separate here and look on our own, don't follow me. If I find someone playing tricks on me, you won’t like what happens!”

Jian Chen throws down 二五八万 and then takes the biggest, smoothest path out.

(^ er wu ba wan = a mahjong metaphor for arrogant and cocky, cuz the tiles referenced are important in the game)

Now that he’s gone, it’s time for Kong Wuying to set out as well. He picks a path at random and begins to move forward.

After a few steps, he turns back. "Master Bai, why are you following me?"

Bai Heng's simple and honest face has a strange smile. He blinks at Kong Wuying and suddenly hums, “The winds of Beiling ~ the light of Xingtai ~ the pansy flowers blooming in spring all across the sky ~ "

There is no shadow in the sky, certainly no flowers. It seems to be some kind of secret language. It sounds like a ballad in Yeying. Because Beiling and Xingtai are landmark buildings of the Yeying continent and the pansy is the most common flower.

Is this man one of Kong Wuying’s people? But he hasn't heard this ballad before.

Kong Wuying is familiar with all 300 ballads of Yeying, which absolutely does not include this one.

So Kong Wuying keeps his face blank. “What are you talking about?"

Bai Heng smiles. "Master Ning, don't pretend, I know."

Kong Wuying says nothing.

Bai Heng looks at his blank face and exclaims, "You don't know? Don't you know such a well-known ballad?”

His face is incredulous for a moment before he claps his hands and finishes the rest of the song. “The age of blood ~ all of us here ~ our lord has a ~ fat head, fat big head ~ la la la ~ “

Kong Wuying twitches. What fat head? He's not fat at all, okay?

Bai Heng looks at Kong Wuying, slowly becoming confused. Is he wrong? This is not...

As soon as this thought flashes through Bai Heng’s mind, Kong Wuying chuckles in a low tone, his smile gaining sharp edges.

“So,” Kong Wuying muses. “Could it be that you are also…”

Bai Heng nods and his left arm moves. A beautiful bug slips out of his sleeve, dark blue all over and round eyes peering at Kong Wuying with fright. "This is my soul puppet. I could tell that the one following you is also a soul puppet."

Such a lifelike soul puppet, far too real. Bai Heng feels instinctively fearful inside, knowing that the lifelike soul puppet has transcended the material realm level and reached the human realm level!

Bai Heng shrugs. "Well, after seeing your soul puppet, I immediately thought of the theft of the road a while ago. The precious Night Shadow stone is only for our people!"

Kong Wuying realises something. "So you’re the one that took the stone in the road?"

When Kong Wuying went to steal some, he found that the Night Shadow stone under the surface had been taken away, and so he could only scrape off the surface stones. It must be this man.

Bai Heng nods firmly, his eyes tearing up. "Fellow countryman!"

The next second, they both shook hands vigorously.

"How nice to see you!"

After the excitement, the two men begin to chat. "I am the Anbu’s executive officer for King Kong Wuying, leader of the 11th district. I was ordered to hide in Mingguang to search for something.”

"Treasure?" Kong Wuying muses.

"As proud as Yeying is, how can we be interested in Mingguang's treasure? But that Chu Liyuan put some drawings amongst this treasure. This drawing was originally Yeying’s. It was stolen and kept away by that Chu Liyuan for many years. Now I was ordered to retrieve it. "

"Drawings? What drawings?”

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you. What about you, Ning-ge? How did you come to Mingguang? "

"Oh, I've learned, I've traveled around, I've grown my knowledge,” Kong Wuying says vaguely.

"Study tour? In Mingguang? This place where you can't even eat peanuts without wanting to spit it out? Are you serious?”

“...Yes?”

After a brief talk about their background, Bai Heng quickly shifts his focus to the competition in front of him. “Since we’re fellow countrymen, I hope we can reach an alliance. After we’ve obtained the treasure, I only need the drawings, and all the remaining treasures belong to you. How about it?"

This is a reasonable proposal, so Kong Wuying nods. "Do you have a plan?"

"My plan is to rob!" Bai Heng's eyes show a sinister light. “The Golden Toad is a kind of toad that can quickly find rare medicine and tools, they like that kind of stuff best. As long as there is enough to attract it, the toad will come.”

Bai Heng shrugs. “But between you and I, the resources we can grasp are limited, far less than Jiang Chen, who was born into the Shengdu clan. We just have to follow him quietly until he catches the Golden Toad. A mantis preys on the cicada, but the oriole stands behind, that kind of thing.”

(^ mantis, cicada, oriole = phrase about a person being so focused on something, they don’t see something bigger coming along.)

Bai Heng points to his insect soul puppet and says, "I'm good at tracking. Just now, my soul puppet spat out silk onto Jiang Chen. I can follow him easily. I’ll lead him away, you grab the Golden Toad. Remember, you must be quick!"

Kong Wuying nods. "Alright.”

Bai Heng's face suddenly changes. "Damn! He found traces of Golden Toad so quickly! Come with me!"

Bai Heng rushes away with Kong Wuying following, until they reach a valley.

Bai Heng says, "Jiang Chen and the Golden Toad are below. I'll go in and lead him away. Later, I'll give you a smoke signal, go in as soon as you see the smoke. You must act quickly. I'm not good enough. I'm afraid I can't lead him away for long."

Kong Wuying smiles. “Don’t worry.”

Bai Heng darts down into the valley.

Kong Wuying waits outside the valley for a while, then sees white smoke waft up from the tree cover. It seems that Bai Heng has already led Jiang Chen away.

With a smile on his face, Kong Wuying turns without hesitation and walks away from the valley.

At the same time, on a wet meadow by the river, a Golden Toad looks at the rare elixir in front of it, his small eyes greedy.

It vigilantly sweeps its gaze around, finds no danger, and boldly hops towards the medicine.

A big bowl falls from the sky and covers the entire toad, trapping it. Jiang Chen comes out of his hiding place with a happy look on his face.

He walks quickly to the bowl and is about to put away the Golden Toad when he abruptly crumples to the ground.

Bai Heng is holding a stick with a proud smile on his simple and honest face. He kicks Jiang Chen away without any politeness and picks up the Golden Toad in the bowl.

The Golden Toad struggles in his hands, but he holds on tight. Bai Heng says with a smile, “Little cutie, don't be afraid, I won't hurt you - ah!”

Bai Heng drops the bowl and the Golden Toad quickly turns into a golden light before disappearing.

Bai Heng collapses on the ground, his face is blue and purple, his whole body stiff as he stands there, frozen.

Kong Wuying saunters around Bai Heng and takes a seat on the ground, reclining his back against a tree, petting the Golden Toad in his hand. He smirks. “What’s that saying again? Something about a mantis eating cicadas and an oriole watching from behind and laughing.”

"You… why are you here? " Bai Heng asks in shock.

Kong Wuying pets the Golden Toad and raises an eyebrow. “You set a trap in the valley. I’d have to be pretty stupid to go there. By the way, I'd like to introduce it to you!" Kong Wuying raises the Golden Toad in his hand. "This is my new soul puppet. Spider-Kong, say hello."

Under Bai Heng's shocked eyes, the ‘Golden Toad’ turned into a little spider about the same size.

"How did you find out?" Bai Heng asks reluctantly.

Kong Wuying rolls his eyes. “There are so many things, do you really want me to elaborate on them one by one?”

Bai Heng: “...”

THIS CHAPTER UPLOAD FIRST AT NOVELBIN.COM