Chapter 47: It is meant to be

Ma Tian glanced at Hu Xiaocao, his eyes showing a look of disdain.

"Why are you so picky about everything? This kid's hair looks like straw, she's small, obviously malnourished—she won't fetch a good price at all."

Yang Cheng shook his head. "You just don't get it—good-looking ones have their place, ordinary-looking ones are the same: either break their legs and make them beggars, or sell them abroad. Isn't that perfect?"

After women and children are trafficked, they aren't sold to old bachelors in remote mountains as wives, or they're resold to others and smuggled abroad.

Yang Cheng and his group have wide-reaching channels—not only domestically but also overseas, and some of their overseas methods are even more cruel and bloody.

Selling kidneys and organs is considered the quick, painless kind, but there are also kinds that make life worse than death.

Some overseas black-market underground performances will stop at nothing to attract attention; a notorious example is the "person in a bottle," where a person is stuffed alive into a bottle.

Besides that, there are also "animal people" methods, extremely bloody, so horrific they're hard to look at; since they're not natural, the victims must endure tremendous pain.

It's quite possible that, due to harsh conditions and lack of care, victims are tortured to death during the process.

There are also pedophiles who train children from a young age.

In short, traffickers deserve death a thousand times over; this trade is dark to the point of horror.

Ma Tian nodded. "You make a bit of sense; when it gets darker, we'll take her out."

Perhaps their voices were too loud; Hu Xiaocao blinked open her eyes in a daze and found herself deep in the mountains, surrounded entirely by strange men.

She tried to sit up, but the drug's effect hadn't worn off completely, leaving her limbs limp and weak.

"Who are you!"

Ma Tian followed the sound and met a pair of dark eyes. "Yang Cheng, what did you do? She woke up so quickly."

Yang Cheng gave a hehe laugh. "Definitely because I acted too hastily earlier—the rag didn't have enough drug, so she woke now, but it's no big deal."

Hearing this, Hu Xiaocao couldn't help but widen her eyes, quickly realizing who these people were.

Child traffickers!

"Help! There are bad people here."

Hu Xiaocao shouted loudly, hoping someone would notice her.

However, it was already nearing dusk, smoke rising from every household's kitchen, and no one would go up the mountain at this time.

Moreover, their location is near the center, and with Hu Xiaocao's small voice, even a passerby wouldn't hear her.

"Little girl, stop shouting—no one will come to save you in these remote mountains."

Yang Cheng and his crew are clearly no saints; they're especially impatient with the child's shouting.

"Smack!"

Ma Tian then flashed a heavy slap, snarling, "Shout again and I'll sew your mouth shut!"

Hu Xiaocao's head was knocked to the side, her left cheek swelling instantly—showing just how strong he is.

Tears quickly welled in her eyes, but fearing Ma Tian's threat, she bit her lip, refusing to cry out, only daring to sob softly.

……

The deep mountains truly see no passersby, but snakes do appear.

Today Ye Qin came out a little earlier than usual; although the sky was still somewhat bright, a thin crescent moon had already risen.

From afar, it looked as if it were hanging from the treetops.

Summer is like that; once the sky is fully dark, it's at least around seven or eight o'clock.

Just as he was about to begin his cultivation, he heard a shout carried on the wind; Ye Qin straightened his body, his snake's tongue flickering nonstop.

"This voice sounds familiar—like that girl's? But why would she suddenly be on the mountain at this time?"

At least having had some contact with Hu Xiaocao, Ye Qin was still fairly familiar with her voice.

Besides that, he also smelled several unfamiliar scents.

"Something feels off."

Ye Qin turned direction and crawled toward the source of the voice and smell.

It wasn't that he liked to meddle; rather, that girl had unintentionally stumbled upon his cultivation and then mistaken him for the Mountain God.

She also made offerings to him, even building a tiny shrine at the mountain's foot, worshiping daily rain or shine—her devotion could be said to be extreme.

This amounts to having established incense offerings.

As for incense offerings, they actually can't be used for cultivation; in Daoist teaching, they are merely a medium for communication between mortals and spirits, and also a medium for spirits to enjoy offerings in the human world.

Therefore, the incense offerings are actually of no use to Ye Qin; the offerings mean little to him unless he's starving and eats the offerings, which would have practical effect.

But all things have their destined affinity.

Just as he first embarked on cultivation through the Yellow Emperor's Yin Fu Inner Classic, that is fate.

And the little girl saw him, mistook him for the Mountain God, and sincerely made offerings—this too is the affinity between him and the girl.

In the unseen workings of cause and effect, no matter what, Ye Qin has received the girl's offerings and accepted her kindness; if he were to ignore it, it would likely not benefit his state of mind.

Ye Qin acts with a clear conscience; he isn't a great saint who always tries to help, but neither is he a cold-blooded, unfeeling person who can remain unmoved.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Hu Xiaocao was still struggling to call for help, glaring at Yang Cheng and Ma Tian, but her malnourished face made her fierce expression look utterly lacking in intimidation.

"I tell you! The Mountain God Grandfather will protect me; if you don't release me, he will surely punish you."

"This little girl isn't old, yet she's quite good at talking nonsense—do you really think we'd be scared? Even if there were a Mountain God, he'd have to kneel and call us grandfather!"

Yang Cheng and Ma Tian merely smirked, full of disdain.

Facing their insolent remarks, Hu Xiaocao flushed red with anger and howled, "You just wait, you scoundrels—the Mountain God Grandfather will definitely not stand by and do nothing."

Seeing Hu Xiaocao's serious demeanor, Yang Cheng and Ma Tian gave it no thought at all, even suspecting she had something wrong with her head.

"This girl is already ordinary-looking; if her mind were also off, she'd be even harder to sell."

"An idiot is fine—easier to control."

The few traffickers spoke in the most ordinary tone, yet their words were utterly devoid of conscience.

No one noticed that, in the grass, a pair of beastly eyes glowed with a faint light.

Ye Qin looked at this group of human traffickers with a blank expression.

Ma Tian seemed to sense something; an inexplicable chill came from behind him, and in the corner of his eye he caught a fleeting silhouette.

「What the heck! 」

The others were also startled by him, followed his gaze, and a cold beast's pupil flashed by, followed by a bright red snake tongue.

But it quickly hid in the grass and vanished; all that was visible was a section of green tail, and judging by its size it didn't seem particularly large.

Yang Cheng also saw the snake and couldn't help rolling his eyes. 'It's just a snake, and a non‑venomous one at that—look how scared you got.'

Ma Tian scratched his head. 'This snake appeared silently—where did it come from?'

This snake posed no threat to them, and nobody gave it a second thought.

They just thought it had accidentally passed by.

Besides, in the deep mountains and old forests, what's not lacking are snakes, insects, rats, and ants.

(End of chapter)