Chapter 609

The fat catfish swims wildly.

The old toad rushes forward against the wind, its fat cheeks shaking wildly.

The moon climbs the branches.

Clear waves ripple.

Yuan General suddenly opens its eyes, a disgusting aura approaching from afar, creating a sharp white wave peak under the moonlight.

The tranquility of the night vanishes.

The secret revealed the day before yesterday feels like being skinned of its shell and thrown into a cold wind, its skin and flesh shriveling.

Being able to be found at any time feels like an ice pick stabbing into its body.

Damn turtle.

Its lifeline is held in someone else's hands; the more it thinks about it, the more furious it becomes, wanting nothing more than to crush the toad and the fish with one palm.

Swish!

The old toad pulls the long whiskers hard, the fat catfish turns sharply and stops, a wave several feet high surges out, splashing the turtle's face.

Yuan General: "..."

The old toad shakes its round belly, looking proud: "Old turtle! The Dragon Maidens are coming, have you prepared the silver?"

The turtle's intense anger is suppressed by the toad's mention of the Dragon Maidens: "Tonight?"

"Tonight! Hurry up and pay!"

The old toad rubs its webbed claws.

For every twenty taels the Dragon Maidens earn, three taels go to it!

If they stay for two hours, it will earn enough for a whole acre of pond!

Yuan General is overjoyed.

Mentioned yesterday, and here today.

Such high efficiency!

The appearance of that tricky brat isn't entirely without benefits.

"Prepared long ago."

The turtle waves its claw.

Monkeys carry heavy cloth bags down the mountain; seeing the old toad, they scratch their ears and cheeks, feeling extremely excited.

Xu family residence.

Tree shadows cross, starlight mottled.

"You want to go?"

Long Long Eying nods: "I'm just not quite at ease."

"With me watching..."

"Elder, Elder, we want to go too!"

Long Yao and Long Li raise their hands.

"What are you two joining in the fun for?"

"Elder, you only take Long Eying sister to play; we haven't been to Peng Ze at all!"

"Play what play, it was so dangerous the night before last, we almost didn't make it back. If you meet Old Yuan, it might sell you two off!"

Long Li rests her head on her hand, sighing, then collapses into Long Yao's arms, singing with dramatic flair.

"If you really must be so heartless, Elder, don't sell me off cheaply. Earn a few more silver coins, exchange them for some good medicinal plants, and if it benefits your cultivation, just remember us from time to time..."

Long Long Eying smiles.

"Stop reading those trashy books, be careful I'll deduct your monthly allowance!" Liang Qu says nothing, waving his hand, "Go, go."

"The Elder always loves to wrong people." Long Li stands up happily, "We didn't read trashy books, the opera in the garden during the birthday banquet performed this."

"I parted with Cheng Lang for over ten years, without a word of news, and he has long forgotten this ill-fated person! I only hate that the ungrateful wretch has lost all conscience..."

They performed this at the birthday banquet?

Liang Qu is puzzled.

A tragic drama is unlikely.

Closed

Closed

Closed

Jumping off a cliff to commit suicide, meeting a master by chance, and killing the ungrateful wretch."

Vortex waterway.

Boom!

A large anchor strikes out, smashing into the water floor, kicking up a large cloud of mud and sand.

Frog Lieutenant drills out of the waterway, landing steadily, waving its palm to clear the sand mist, looking left and right.

Before it are rows of Dragon Maidens, led by two Long Ren.

Long Pingjiang and Long Pinghe cup their hands in salute.

"Frog Lord!"

Frog Lieutenant pulls out the large anchor, shoulders it: "No need for more talk, take me to see the Elder quickly!"

"Frog Lord, please wait, we need to wait for a few more people before seeing Frog Gong."

As soon as the words fall.

A water mass rushes closer like a shooting star, crashing and dispersing.

Liang Qu arrives with the Dragon Maidens.

"Long Eying sister!"

"Long Eying sister!"

Originally, the Dragon Maidens were quite uneasy about working in unfamiliar waters, but seeing Long Long Eying, they gradually calm down, gathering to talk.

A full 129 Dragon Maidens, all beauties, the shortest over 1.8 meters, the tallest over 2.2 meters, tall and upright.

A unique and beautiful landscape in the entire Jianghuai Great Marsh.

Long Long Eying joining them is like the finishing touch on a painting.

Worthy of being the number one Dragon Maiden.

Long Yao and Long Li look around, finding acquaintances, gathering in small circles to whisper.

Honestly speaking.

Their looks are also top-tier; when Long Long Zong Yin picked people, he definitely put in the effort.

"Do they all know?"

"Elder, rest assured, it was explained very clearly."

Long Pingjiang guarantees. Liang Qu nods.

As a Long Ren Elder, he naturally wouldn't force the Dragon Maidens to do things.

Formal housekeeping, even the profit-sharing ratio was discussed very clearly.

"Croak, it's you brat."

Frog Lieutenant hops forward.

"Lieutenant General!" Liang Qu bows in greeting, "It's been a while since summer, the Lieutenant General's style remains the same."

In summer, they gathered Heavenly Water Morning Dew; at that time, Frog Lieutenant smashed the Iron-Headed Fish's brain with one anchor, fierce and extraordinary, a memory still fresh.

"I'm not here to reminisce today, I am under Frog Elder's orders to specifically escort the Dragon Maidens."

"Thank you for your trouble, Frog Lieutenant."

Once familiar, twice practiced.

Yuan General's scrubbing business couldn't be overseen by it personally every time; it couldn't stand waiting for several hours, but it was worried the Dragon Maidens would be mistreated and not speak up, so it had Old Toad find some capable frog experts to help.

Frogs keep their word and are trustworthy.

If there is any trouble, no matter what kind of demon head it is, they would definitely dare to strike Yuan General's head with an anchor.

"Go!"

Water wraps around them.

Liang Qu performs 【Water Travel】, arriving in a flash with over a hundred Long Ren and a large frog.

In an instant.

A large light shines over their heads.

Yuan General's turtle eyes widen, reflecting the waning moon, raising its claw to grab.

Swish!

A figure flashes to the tip of the claw.

"Old Yuan, how was it agreed before, did you forget in less than two days?"

Yuan General looks dissatisfied.

Liang Qu looks at Longevity Mountain, sizing it up, humming: "A good season for all four seasons."

"Pfft, didn't forget, 129 people, start with one hour!"

Yuan General snorts through its nose, waving its claw to pay.

Two large monkeys carry heavy silver bags forward.

Count them.

2580 taels of silver.

Didn't use medicinal plants to pay the bill.

"Good monkeys! I'll give you good fruit to eat!"

Liang Qu reaches into his pocket; he brought a few fruits today specifically, rewarding the monkeys. The monkeys are overjoyed, catching the apples, not eating them, rubbing them on their bodies, but as soon as they brought them back, they were snatched by a crowd of monkeys.

The fruit falls, palms slap it away.

Back and forth, never hitting the ground.

Yuan General tries hard to convince itself to get used to it, stretching its limbs: "Since you've taken the money, don't be sloppy, scrub it clean!"

"Rest assured, in our line of work, we have a good reputation."

Long Pingjiang distributes tools to everyone, including but not limited to small shovels, scissors, brushes, and small iron hammers.

Over a hundred Dragon Maidens have clear divisions of labor, most going to the plastron to remove algae, the rest spreading out to the limbs to flush out mud and dust in the crevices.

The "Algae Forest" on Yuan General's plastron has grown for hundreds of years, like rooted whiskers, deeply embedded; clearing it requires using a shovel to scrape, and as they scrape, the green algae flies everywhere.

Including the limbs, long periods of immobility, drifting with the waves, many places have dead skin hardened, generating rock-like hard tissue; a knife handle pries it, and it cracks into fine pieces, falling off in large handfuls.

Plop.

The shiny black armor is revealed.

The broken hard pieces roll, bouncing as they fall into the Great Marsh, splashing water everywhere.

Hiss!

Tingling and numb.

An indescribable sense of satisfaction surges from the depths of its soul.

Pleasure.

Refreshing!

The scales that had been stifled for so long are exposed to the air.

Yuan General feels its whole body light.

Two thousand plus taels.

Worth it!

Done.

Liang Qu sees this, distributing 387 taels to Old Toad.

"Let's go!"

Reminding Liang Qu not to forget its overtime pay if the turtle adds time, Old Toad drives the A-Fei fish away.

Watching for half a quarter of an hour.

Telling Long Pingjiang not to forget to collect overtime fees, Liang Qu also turns to rush to the Twenty Jiaoren tribe.

A long time later.

Yuan General's turtle eyes rotate.

Swish.

Frog Lieutenant holds the large anchor, half-floating out of the water.

Large eyes stare at small eyes.

"..."

Twenty Jiaoren tribe.

Bubbles drift quietly.

Old Clam is telling stories to young Twenty Jiaoren, three layers inside, three layers outside, water-tight.