Chapter 140

After a woman gives birth, there are many taboos before the lochia is clean, let alone before the placenta has fallen.

As soon as Xu Qing finished speaking, the farmer woman's face turned the color of liver.

She said uncomfortably: "What do you know about women's affairs as a man? I let my sister-in-law drink a bowl of hot soup to warm her body, is there something wrong with that..."

Seeing the people in the courtyard gathering around, the farmer woman seemed to have something to rely on, and her momentum increased by a few points.

Xu Qing bared his teeth and said: "You don't think you're the only one who knows this harmful method, do you? I might as well tell you, I was the one who pushed down the Son-Sending Temple. I interrogated quite a few of those nuns about the methods of harming mothers and killing infants, I just don't know how much torture you can withstand!"

Hearing that Xu Qing was the fierce person who pushed down the Son-Sending Temple and killed so many nuns, the farmer woman's face turned wax yellow in an instant.

The maid helping Midwife Liu lifted the curtain and asked what was going on. After learning the cause and effect, the maid hurriedly returned to the room to tell Midwife Liu.

Before long, Midwife Liu came out of the room with a gloomy face. After seeing the broken soup bowl on the ground and the farmer woman who was dodging her gaze and didn't dare to look at her, Midwife Liu spat and cursed: "What a rotten-hearted old biting worm, you have no children yourself, so you can't stand others having children. How can there be such a poisonous person in the world!"

Li Mugen couldn't get a word in, his brain buzzing. It wasn't until Midwife Liu turned her head and said: "Mrs. Li, your wife gave birth to twins, a dragon and a phoenix, but this old pig-dog had the heart to harm your wife. You handle this matter yourself!"

Midwife Liu made it clear. Li Mugen was happy first and then angry upon hearing this.

When the farmer woman who brought the soup saw Li Mugen rolling up his sleeves and walking over, the woman, who was shaking like a sieve, knelt on the ground and begged for mercy repeatedly.

"I was crazy, I was confused. Mugen, you must not tell this matter to the outside. If it spreads, I won't have the face to live!"

Green bamboo snake's mouth, yellow bee's tail needle.

Xu Qing watched coldly. The woman kneeling and apologizing wasn't because she knew she was wrong, but because she was afraid of the matter spreading. As for the intention to harm people, she had absolutely no remorse!

Li Mugen clearly loved his wife and children very much. This could be seen from his unhesitating agreement to let Xu Qing go in to assist in childbirth earlier.

After knowing what was inside, Li Mugen dragged the woman out of the house.

It looked like he was going to drag her out to parade through the streets.

Midwife Liu said with some embarrassment: "In the countryside, it's all dirty things, making Fellow Daoist Xu laugh."

Xu Qing shook his head slightly and said: "As long as mother and child are safe, everything else is a small matter."

Saying this, Xu Qing took out paper and pen and transcribed all the knowledge he knew about midwifery, childbirth assistance, and postpartum care.

"Sister Liu, as far as I know, halls like the White Immortal Hall and the Willow Immortal Hall are good at healing illnesses and driving away disasters. You can take these methods of midwifery and pass them on to these halls, and also to midwives in other villages and townships."

"These are all things of immeasurable merit. Not only can you accumulate virtue for yourself, but perhaps one day your descendants will also benefit from it."

Hearing this, Midwife Liu hurriedly reached out and wiped her hands on her body, then took the handwritten copy transcribed by Xu Qing as if it were a treasure.

"What is the name of this book?"

Xu Qing thought for a while and replied: "Books that should be popularized to the world shouldn't have difficult names. Why not call it 'Midwifery Manual'..."

When Xu Qing left Li Mugen's house, he heard a piece of news: Mrs. Li Shan had hanged herself.

Between social death and biological death, the other party clearly chose the latter.

Xu Qing smelled the corpse, but he was not picky. He followed Li Mugen to Li Shan's house. As soon as he entered the door, he saw a farmer woman with her tongue sticking out and her eyeballs rolled out lying on a wooden board.

Although this person was dead, the procedures that should be followed still had to be followed.

"Are you her husband? This matter is not a big problem, don't worry. I know some medical skills, let me see if she still has breath."

Xu Qing stepped forward and took the corpse's pulse.

A zombie taking a pulse—even if there was really some warm air, it would be taken away!

Xu Qing's face was solemn. The "Transcendence Sutra" in his mind flipped pages, and the shadow of the Wangchuan River carrying corpses and ghosts flashed by.

There was nothing to see in the farmer woman's life. Xu Qing quickly skipped those trivial matters and looked directly at the reward.

Corpse evaluation: Human grade, low quality.

The "Transcendence Sutra" rewarded one: Thousand-Insect Gu Jar.

The Gu records say: Gu is a mysterious thing, a gathering of insects, placed in a vessel, eating and killing each other, the survivor is Gu.

It is also rumored that there are Gu women in the remote southwest, all beautiful women, but with vicious hearts.

Their method of making Gu is very strange. For example, take a hundred insects, place them in a jar, the Gu-refiner recites incantations, making the insects kill each other, and the last survivor is the Gu insect.

The Thousand-Insect Gu Jar Xu Qing obtained, as the name suggests, is a vessel that can hold thousands of poisonous insects. As long as you put poisonous insects in and let them kill and eat each other, the last survivor is the Gu King.

However, poisonous insects are mostly found in the south. In the Jinmen area, there really aren't many poisonous insects that can be provided for him to refine Gu.

Putting the Thousand-Insect Gu Jar into the Mountain and River Map, Xu Qing stood up, shook his head, sighed, and then left the farmer's house without saying a word.

That style was exactly the same as an old physician who had diagnosed a patient with a terminal illness.

Outside Jiugou Village, Xu Qing rode a five-flower horse, took the little yellow skin, and bowed to the crow circling in the sky.

Now that he was out on business, the job of holding the funeral for Granny Guanhu was finished, and the hidden danger left by the Son-Sending Temple had also been solved. It was time for him to set off and return to Linhe.

At dusk, just before the Linhe city gate closed, Xu Qing's figure appeared on the official road.

The gatekeeper recognized Xu Qing and intentionally let the city gate soldiers slow down the speed of closing the city.

"Shopkeeper Xu, have you finished the business for that fatty?"

Xu Qing nodded, then couldn't help but ask about the effect of the funeral notice he had posted.

The gatekeeper's brows jumped, thinking what effect could this have? Could it be that everyone would line up to lie in a coffin to take care of your business?

Seeing Xu Qing ask seriously, the gatekeeper was helpless and had to bare his teeth and mumble a few words to finish it.

To put it bluntly, this is not selling daily groceries. If things were cheap and discounted, people might go and buy some.

But that is funeral business after all. Even if your discount is great and there are many offers, do you want people to die on the spot for you?

Hearing the gatekeeper's answer, Xu Qing couldn't help but sigh: "Business is really hard to do these days. I even want to be a coroner. No matter what, that's an iron rice bowl..."

The gatekeeper had a toothache-like expression. Let's just say, there are so many jobs in the world, why must it be related to the dead?

How unlucky!

After entering the city, Xu Qing strolled along the familiar streets. Huang Xiaoliu was a newcomer and felt everything was novel.

The sky was getting dark, and there were not many pedestrians on the road. The little yellow weasel ran and jumped behind Xu Qing. Occasionally, when it encountered something fresh, it would stand up like a human and stop to look.

By the time Xu Qing walked a bit far, the little yellow weasel hurriedly took back its thoughts and quickly caught up.

Crossing the Tanggu Bridge and walking about two miles, Xu Qing suddenly stopped.

He saw that at the corner of the road, there was half a stump of an elm tree scorched by thunder and fire, still rooted in the soil.

"..."

Xu Qing blinked, feeling a bit surprised in his heart.

He remembered that there used to be a large elm tree with lush branches and leaves here. Whenever he came over with an umbrella at noon, he could always see people holding fans or moving small stools, sitting underneath to enjoy the shade.

Such a good road scene, how could it be struck by thunder and disappear?

This thunder was simply too wicked!

Xu Qing walked up and looked around the stump.

Opening the Qi-Gazing Technique, the energy of thunder and fire lingered on the stump and did not dissipate.

Tsk, it's still a natural thunder-struck wood.

Xu Qing looked around and saw that no one at the intersection was paying attention. He set his horse stance, reached out to hug the elm stump, and with a slight force, pulled the thunder-struck wood out by the roots.

Huang Xiaoliu didn't know what Xu Qing was doing, so it followed suit and went to pull the elm sapling next to it.

Seeing the little yellow weasel drag the elm sapling to him like a treasure, Xu Qing couldn't help but be happy.

"Well done!"

Xu Qing didn't skimp on praise.

After putting away the elm stump, Xu Qing turned around and buried the elm sapling that Huang Xiaoliu had pulled out in the original position of the old elm tree.

After tamping the soil and taking out a water bowl to pour some water, Xu Qing found some bricks and stones and set up a small Feng Shui formation.

After finishing this, Xu Qing turned his head and saw Huang Xiao.

The yellow weasel that had become a spirit had exceptionally sharp teeth; even hard stones could be chewed to pieces in one bite!

But even if that black chess piece was chewed by Huang Xiaoliu until it creaked, it remained intact.

Xu Qing was curious. Under the observation of the Qi-Gazing Technique, there was still thunder and fire energy remaining on the chess piece, and it was clearly much thicker than the thunder and fire energy on the thunder-struck wood.

"Xiaoliu, lend me that thing in your hand to play with."

Huang Xiaoliu ran to him immediately upon hearing this and offered the black chess piece to Xu Qing.

"This black piece, why does it look so familiar?"

Xu Qing played with the fingernail-sized black chess piece, always feeling he had seen it somewhere. He injected Yin energy into it, and electric snakes actually coiled on the surface of the black piece.

He only felt his palm go numb and almost threw the black piece away!

"What kind of ghost thing is this?"

On the way back to Jingxia Street, Xu Qing made many attempts on the black chess piece in his hand.

The Mountain-Driving Technique was ineffective; the Qi-Seizing and Origin-Returning Technique and the Point-Stone-to-Gold Technique had no effect either.

Xu Qing didn't believe in evil and roasted it with Yin-burning fire, but it induced an electric snake the thickness of a little finger, which split a small pit on the bluestone road surface.

"..."

Xu Qing decisively gave up the idea of testing the hardness of the black chess piece with his own zombie teeth.

Entering Jingxia Street, as he was about to reach the Mortuary Worker Shop, Xu Qing casually used the black chess piece as a material for the Heaven-Deceiving Technique and began to pinch the incantation.

"Breath of all things, gather and send to my body; form of all things, borrow to my body..."

As soon as the incantation fell, Xu Qing, who had not expected anything, saw the indestructible black chess piece emit a dazzling white light. The next moment, the fingernail-sized chess piece shrank rapidly and finally turned into a mustard-seed light spot, disappearing completely.

"?"

Xu Qing was dumbfounded. My chess piece, so big and so hard, how could it just disappear?

At the same time, outside Luojing City.

Jiangbei Divine Calculator Jiang Banxian was resting in a chicken-feather shop.

What is a chicken-feather shop? The cheapest, most rudimentary shop where the poor use chicken feathers to keep warm is called a chicken-feather shop.

This kind of inn has no bedding, only a large communal bed, with a horizontal board hanging above it, covered with chicken feathers.

Every night, the poor lie on the communal bed, the shop assistant loosens the rope, and the wooden board covered with chicken feathers is lowered, which is the quilt.

Jiang Banxian, the Jiangbei Divine Calculator, never lacks money, so logically he shouldn't stay in such a poor shop.

But there's no way, people always have unlucky times when even drinking cold water gets stuck in their teeth!

Just a few days ago, he secretly calculated a few hexagrams for someone behind their back. As a result, he didn't calculate what he wanted to know, but instead violated the taboo of the "Surprise Gate" and brought down heavenly punishment.

In an emergency, he had to take off his clothes and throw them on a tree, using a substitute method to help himself block this calamity.

But he forgot that his money bag was also on that hexagram robe!

Jiang Banxian only felt unlucky, but there was no way. The matter was just like that, and he was also afraid of offending a high-level person, so he had to leave Jinmen overnight and rush to the capital.

The capital is a big place, a place where the luck of a dynasty gathers. Ordinary people don't dare to make trouble here. As long as he reaches the capital, he will be completely safe!

But just after arriving in the capital, he discovered another strange thing: why did the national luck dragon above Luojing shrink by a large circle?

Strange, truly strange.

Jiang Banxian pinched his fingers to calculate, and dark clouds gathered in the sky. Moreover, those dark clouds didn't go anywhere else, just covering the top of his head in a small patch.

"..."

Hexagrams don't exceed three; he hadn't calculated this matter before! How could he calculate it once, and the heavenly punishment would come again?

Is there no reason at all!

Jiang Banxian took off the only coat he had left, and painfully threw away the white mole on his face. By the time the sound of thunder and lightning rang out behind him, he only had two copper coins left on his whole body.

Just right, outside Luojing City, the price of staying in a chicken-feather shop is two copper coins.

Lying on the communal bed, Jiang Banxian tossed and turned and couldn't sleep.

The snoring of the poor laborers around him was like thunder, making people feel irritable.

Fine! Let's go out and walk around!

After getting off the bed, Jiang Banxian swayed into the courtyard. The moon tonight was very round, and the dog in the backyard was barking.

Jiang Banxian breathed in the fresh air, raised his head, and began to observe the stars at night.

As a hexagram master, this was his only hobby.

While watching, a black-and-white light spot in the sky suddenly got closer and closer, and that light spot kept expanding and changing during the descent. Finally, a dazzling white light lit up.

Just as Jiang Banxian was wondering what kind of star phenomenon this was, the white light suddenly tore into white thunder, and it fell down on his head!

Ah! Not good!

Jiang Banxian turned and ran wildly. The next moment, the white thunder landed.

The chicken-feather shop instantly became as bright as day. Those sleeping laborers and poor people rushed out in a panic. When they arrived in the courtyard, everyone only saw a scorched mark in the middle of the courtyard, and a few chicken feathers scattered.

"What's going on? Who set off firecrackers?"

"Why do I feel like it's thunder?"

"With all these stars in the sky, where did the thunder come from?"

Just as everyone was discussing there, a completely naked middle-aged man suddenly emerged from the chicken coop in the courtyard.

"I was wondering where the clear-sky thunderbolt came from. It turns out it was you, this ugly man, harming the chickens in my shop!"

Those staying in the shop immediately realized what was going on after hearing the shop assistant's words.

It turned out there was a man obsessed with lust who had done such a big ugly thing that even the heavens couldn't help but send down thunder!

In the chicken coop, Jiang Banxian's face turned red.

This time he hadn't even calculated a single hexagram, so why was he still being chased and struck by thunder?

Isn't this clearly bullying an honest person!

(End of chapter)