Chapter 578: Binding the Child-Bearing System to Become a Winner in Life Chapter 579 Infinite Flow Cannon Fodder (26)

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

Splash—

When the rain fell, the sky had not yet darkened; Shen Yao, through the open window, could feel the damp breath blowing toward her.

Although the raindrops took away the stuffy heat in the air, the abnormally rising temperature still made them extremely uncomfortable staying in the cabin.

Raising her hand and waving it, Shen Yao frowned, somewhat worried that this rain would affect their scheduled arrival time at Xining County.

"Don't think too much; the shop assistant said that rain at this time won't last long."

Perhaps the rain would stop tomorrow morning; then the ship would sail normally, and they could arrive according to the scheduled time.

Shen Yao did not have such a good mindset; she felt that no matter how you put it, this instance was of medium difficulty, and in the previous instance's general difficulty they had lived miserably, so how could medium difficulty possibly go smoothly?

Afraid that her jinx would cause trouble, Shen Yao closed the window tightly and sat back on the bed.

The quilt beneath her was just a thin layer; Shen Yao raised her hand to light the candle placed on the table, and by the faint glow she brought the pastries the shop assistant had delivered to the two of them, saying, "Tonight's dinner doesn't suit my appetite; eat some to fill your bellies."

Hearing this, Xu Ningchen raised his hand, pinched up a piece of pastry, and put it into his mouth.

To be sure, although the pastries on the ship could not compare to those from a proper pastry shop in the city, compared to the industrial products from the System Mall, they still had a bit more of the aroma of food.

Perhaps it had something to do with being artificial; a plate of pastries was soon eaten up by the two of them.

Shen Yao rubbed her belly, chatted with Xu Ningchen for a while, then turned around and lay down.

The night passed, and dawn arrived.

The worried water bandits did not appear, but the falling rain did not lessen in the slightest.

For safety's sake, the ship's speed slowed down; the steward went out to soothe the passengers on the ship, and only after guaranteeing sufficient food and drinking water did he temporarily quiet the noisy crowd.

But this was only temporary; only when they reached their destination could it be considered truly over.

On the tenth day of the ship's voyage, the time they were supposed to arrive at Xining County, they instead encountered the vicious water bandits.

Looking at the ships constantly drawing near them and the masked burly men standing on the deck.

Everyone in the cabin was panicked, not knowing what to do.

Shen Yao pulled Xu Ningchen and ran back to the room early on; they needed to find a secluded place to hide, and once the situation turned bad, they would abandon ship and escape.

The ship in the Space Backpack was far more advanced than the ancient wooden ships; they sped up the ship, and these water bandits simply could not catch up.

But that way, the two of them would have to deal with the matters ahead; they were unfamiliar with the place, and recognizing directions on water was more difficult than on land; they really did not want to take this step.

Xu Ningchen listened intently to the sounds outside, then pulled Shen Yao and quickly took a detour to run to the cabin, where the shop assistant, livestock, and living things were stored in the warehouse and residence; basically no one would come here.

Raising his hand to make a hushing gesture, Xu Ningchen pointed to the window not far from the cabin, saying, "If the negotiation fails, we'll jump ship and leave from here."

The window of the cabin was at the stern of the ship; this was also the reason Xu Ningchen pulled Shen Yao over here. The ship was being attacked from both sides by the water bandits, greatly reducing the range they could escape.

To avoid conflict with the water bandits (mainly because they did not want to expose tools from another world), even though both of them had the ability to take action and deal with the water bandits, they still chose to hide.

Crack—

The tightly closed window was pulled open; Shen Yao had just poked her head out to check the situation when she heard someone outside shouting that someone wanted to escape.

It turned out there was a traitor on this ship; the windows that could be used to escape were all guarded by the water bandits, and these people had become targets the water bandits could control.

The option of temporarily escaping was forced to be abandoned; they now had only to face the enemy head-on.

"Perhaps the steward on the ship can persuade the water bandits," Xu Ningchen said to himself without hope, because all around were vicious and ruthless water bandits; he feared that the purpose of their coming this time to rob was not pure.

The two of them slowly returned from the cabin.

Because there were more people on the first floor, walking at the back, they were not noticed much.

It was a pity that the guests on this ship were truly unlucky; the steward offered an astronomical ransom, but the water bandits still did not agree to this proposal; the leader standing at the very front wanted to press them all to death.

Why?

They had no grudges in the past and no enmity in recent days.

"Stop the nonsense; blame only yourselves for boarding this ship," someone paid money to buy their lives, and the water bandits also had to observe the code of the martial world; they could not take money and not do the job.

Hearing this, everyone's faces turned deathly pale, understanding that they were more likely to die than live.

The steward was not yet resigned; he wanted to bluff and find out who had spent a large sum to buy his life.

"Hmph! Wait until you go down and tell King of Hell yourself."

The leader of the water bandits took the lead, suddenly ordering his subordinates around to swarm up and attack.

"With life and death at stake, I ask everyone not to panic; only by striving hard can there be a glimmer of hope for survival."

The steward threw down these words and followed by rushing up to cross swords with the water bandits.

On the ship, besides the passengers, there were the steward and the shop assistant; the rest, some who had not yet recovered their senses, and those with presence of mind, all understood that at this moment, to survive, they had to compete with this gang of water bandits.

But they did not even have a handy weapon; could they really defeat these water bandits who had experienced a hundred battles?

Of course

After Shen Yao kicked a water bandit flying with one foot, Shen Yao only then realized how strong her stat allocation was.

Mm

There was no need to escape at all.

Hum, ha, hey, Shen Yao took down one small fry with one punch, cooperating with Xu Ningchen not far away to move together; soon they threw the water bandits who had swarmed up off the ship.

The number of water bandits was originally no match for them; it was just that the water bandits had tools in hand, and each looked very unfriendly, giving everyone great pressure, which was why the people on the ship fell into a disadvantage in the initial confrontation.

When everyone later rose up to resist and stimulated the potential within their bodies, it was the water bandits' turn to find it troublesome, fighting while retreating.

"Don't let them escape!"

The water bandits who came this time were just a small wave; letting them escape was no different from letting a tiger return to the mountain.

Xu Ningchen rushed forward first, broke a water bandit's joints and limbs, and threw him aside. "Capture them alive. After the ships reach shore, send them to the government office."

These water bandits had run rampant and tyrannical for many years; who knew how many lives they held in their hands.

The rest of the people echoed in agreement. One-on-one wouldn't work, so they'd do many-on-one. Although they weren't as nimble as Shen Yao and the others, things were still developing in a good direction.

This dispute didn't conclude until noon. The water bandits' plan failed, and the vast majority of people on the ships preserved their lives.

The steward had someone directly seize the two-faced traitors hidden among them, and took out the silver money previously set aside, distributing it according to the headcount at the scene.

Just like that, Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen took a boat ride, not only spending not a single coin of silver money, but also collecting ten taels of appeasement money.

…………

At noon on the twelfth day, the ship finally arrived at Xining County. Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen stood on solid ground for the first time in a long while, feeling an unprecedented sense of steadiness in their hearts.

The ship's head steward was responsible for taking these water bandits to the government office to report the case and handle it, while they, as the parties involved, naturally each went their own way home.

Behind the steward followed a great clan. Since these water bandits dared take money to do the job, they had to be prepared to be retaliated against upon failure.

Anyway, Shen Yao saw that these water bandits were doomed, and the two of them wouldn't be staying long in Xining County, so naturally there was no need to get mixed up in it.

"First find an inn to settle in, then buy some useful supplies." Their mule cart was still in hand, so they didn't need to purchase a new means of transport.

And this fight also made them clearly aware of their own strength.

As expected, the Infinite World is still very reliable. It's just that the method of adding enhancements is limited. When they reach the point where nothing more can be added later on, they'll have to find another way.

Xining County is very similar to Tonglin County. Because of the wharf, this place looks even more prosperous than other county cities.

The two walked along the street for a short while before running into an inn bustling with voices.

It was truly an extremely large flow of people.

Shen Yao blinked her eyes, pulled Xu Ningchen over to watch the spectacle.

They discovered that the inn had hired a storyteller, who was telling stories in the inn's main hall.

Not to mention, the story content leaned toward the fantastical, but it also mixed in all kinds of shadows of humanity.

Shen Yao listened with great relish, and simply spent money to book a first-class room at the inn. After all, they'd made money. Not spending money when you have it isn't a Tasker's setting. They couldn't take it out of the Copy World anyway, so they might as well use it to enhance their enjoyment.

"Honored guests, please come inside."

Little Two was very good at his job, grinning as he arranged the two noble guests in the elegant seats, serving tea and delivering snacks. Compared to the people standing at the doorway or roadside, the treatment was worlds apart.

Shen Yao happily lifted the tea and took a sip, then beckoned with her hand, calling Little Two to her side, and conveniently tossed a piece of broken silver to him as a tip.

Little Two: ……

Little Two's eyes lit up, and he treated Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen with even greater respect.

"Where do the stories the storyteller tells come from?" Shen Yao pointed at the storyteller standing in the innermost spot, thinking to herself that this person was quite capable of talking. Even though they had never experienced these events, after hearing the story they would still have a feeling of being there in person.

Perhaps the stories are all true. This Copy World is slowly unfolding hidden circumstances they don't know about.

"Replying to the honored guest, some of these stories happened right within Xining County, some in different county cities." Little Two sighed, expressing that outside was unsafe. Ordinary people like them didn't dare go out easily.

Shen Yao, who had already been fleeing for quite a few days: …… So the two of them were the recklessly bold ones.

"Oh? There really are fox spirits, ghosts, and monsters? Those Daoists and Buddhist Gate"

"That's also true. Right within our Xining County there's an Old Taoist. When ordinary families run into difficult matters, they all invite this Daoren to come help."

For the sake of the broken silver, Little Two even praised the Old Taoist a few extra sentences.

In his words, that Old Taoist has real ability.

Has real ability?

Shen Yao's spirit stirred, and she hurriedly pulled Xu Ningchen upstairs to rest.

"Let's go find this Old Taoist, see if we can get some inheritance."

Haven't forgotten the Strange Instance matter. They'll enter Strange Instances later too. Compared to relying on System Mall supplied items, it's still more convenient to master skills themselves.

And once they have skills at their side, they can continuously earn points. The previous Changping Guild was walking this route.

Xu Ningchen's thoughts stirred slightly. To say he wasn't interested would be false. But the two of them going to find the Old Taoist, "we need to make preparations in advance."

The preparation here isn't anything else, but an opportunity to make the Old Taoist loosen his mouth and agree to teach them arts. Arts are not passed on lightly. After all, this kind of thing isn't something that can be casually agreed to.

The two simply stayed in the room for a night. When early morning came the next day, they didn't rush to drive the mule cart away directly, but went to the Daoist temple where the Old Taoist was.

The Daoist temple was right in Xining County, near the county city's edge. The area looked not large. Inside, besides the Old Taoist, there were also two Daoist children adopted by the Old Taoist.

At this time, Sheng Kingdom was unstable. Many families had to sell sons and daughters just to have a way to survive.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen had seen many beggars and refugees along the way. Compared to Qingzhou, it was no better.

"This"

Shen Yao pursed her lips, feeling that this Instance's difficulty would be harder than anticipated.

Xu Ningchen held Shen Yao's wrist steady. The two bypassed the messy lanes and finally reached the Daoist temple where the Old Taoist was.

Somewhat unexpected yet also within expectations, the Old Taoist was still at the Daoist temple. However, he had business to attend to, and would leave on a long journey in a few days. His return date was uncertain.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen hurriedly stated their purpose for coming this time.

"This"

The Old Taoist wore a Daoist robe washed white but very clean and proper. His hand stroked his well-groomed white beard. He only said learning arts is not achieved in a single morning or evening. Moreover, entering the arts requires one's own comprehension. He also couldn't guarantee he could definitely teach them anything.

"Daoren is courteous. We husband and wife merely seek a means of self-preservation.

We won't delay Daoren's departure time. Regardless of whether we two can successfully enter the gate in the end, we won't resent Daoren."

After Shen Yao finished speaking, she also presented the silver she brought. Some was left over from before, and some was exchanged by the two of them.

After all, becoming a disciple to learn arts, however you put it, tuition must be paid.

Old Taoist: ……

The Old Taoist looked at the silver handed before his eyes, blinking repeatedly. After confirming he hadn't misunderstood, he accepted it all with some embarrassment.

Cough cough

Even a cultivator needs to eat and dress. Without silver money, how could it do.

"You two have a karmic connection with this Old Taoist; come in quickly."

Even his speaking voice unconsciously softened a few degrees; the Old Taoist could be said to have thoroughly understood the meaning of the word 'service' — although he only had three days left, he guaranteed that during these three days he would absolutely not perfunct or cut corners.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen directly moved into the Dao Guan; although it could not compare to the Inn in comfort, who asked them to be pressed for time with a heavy mission.

They had finally encountered such an Old Taoist from whom they could harvest wool; if they missed him, they could not guarantee they would find another.

The two young Daoist novices in the Dao Guan were not old; the most they did on a daily basis was sweeping.

There were also several vegetable plots in the Dao Guan, planted with freshly sown vegetables sprouting green shoots; because the weather was hot, they had to water them every day.

During the three days Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen spent in the Dao Guan, what they mainly learned was Talisman Drawing.

Don't know how the others' progress was; anyway, the Old Taoist directly passed down his family-inherited several categories of Talismans to them, and during the process there were also practical demonstrations, but their Spiritual Intelligence might not compare to those high-IQ geniuses; by the time they left the Dao Guan, they had only barely mastered two kinds of Talismans among them, the remaining seven kinds limited to memorization.