Chapter 296

"Scripture of the Living"

The characters on the booklet are ancient and solemn; although Xu Qing has never learned this type of script, he can recognize the meaning of the characters at a glance.

Xu Qing has a feeling in his heart and holds his breath, covering the booklet with his divine sense.

In an instant, bright light flows on the surface of the booklet, and a power different from the Scripture of Saving People spreads out; at the same time, the Scripture of the Living also slowly opens a page under Xu Qing's control.

The page is not paper; it emits a faint scent of Blood Lake incense. In the smoke, many pale golden, looming names of people appear on a page, some bright and some dim, some new and some old.

Before Xu Qing's divine sense actively touches the text on the page, the content contained in those characters appears very clearly in his mind.

Xu Qing instantly realizes that this "Scripture of the Living" records all the names of children who have been protected by the divine power of the Baosheng Mother or have had karmic entanglements with her!

And the clarity and brightness of the children's names directly reflect the real-time status of the corresponding children.

The clearer and deeper the name, the stronger and more lively the child; the more blurred and dim, the weaker the child, or even on the verge of death.

Disappearance means the passing of life.

Xu Qing's mind rests on those names.

Among them, Chen Liuer's name is the most dazzling, followed by the names of Shang Shaoyang's children, Chen Zi'an's name, the names of the children of Second Master Feng's family...

Xu Qing takes a rough look, and there are many names of the descendants of acquaintances on the list.

Continuing to look down, Xu Qing notices a name with a very special status—Shi Xiaoyu.

This name, condensed from incense, is exceptionally dim in color; not only are the edges of the strokes blurred, but the entire name is also gradually becoming transparent and fading, as if it could dissipate into the mist at any time.

Xu Qing frowns slightly and subconsciously mobilizes more incense wish power, attaching it to the name Shi Xiaoyu; the dim name condensed from incense smoke instantly ripples like water waves, turning into an "incense mirror".

The mirror surface woven from incense is shrouded in mist; when the mist parts, Xu Qing sees in the mirror a child constantly tossing and struggling on the water surface; as the intensity of the struggle becomes smaller and smaller, the child's thin figure begins to sink into the water.

Through the incense connection of the Scripture of the Living, Xu Qing can clearly perceive the location of the child in the mirror.

That is the Linjiang Port...

Xu Qing instantly realizes that in addition to recording the names of children who have formed a bond with the Baosheng Temple, the Scripture of the Living can also use the connection of incense wish power at any time to see the 'living person's revolving lantern scene' of every child on the register.

Besides this, the booklet in front of him seems to have other functions that have not yet been displayed, but how could Xu Qing care about exploring these at this moment?

Seeing the child about to sink into the water on the other side of the mirror, Xu Qing instantly drains the magic power of his Prostrate Corpse transformation, performs the Divine Wandering Heavenly Book, and arrives at the Linjiang Port area in an instant.

While falling from a hundred feet in the air, Xu Qing opens his Wide-Eye Perception, and in an instant, he locks onto the water area where Shi Xiaoyu is drowning.

The Golden-Hanging Banner shoots out, and Xu Qing's figure follows closely, appearing above the water surface where the ripples have not yet subsided.

The Water Corpse domain unfolds, and Xu Qing pushes aside the water flow; in no more than two breaths, he pulls the drowning child out of the water.

After a round of massage and stimulation with the A-B acupuncture method, the child, whose consciousness was blurred, finally regains his senses.

With his shock calmed, Xu Qing subconsciously looks at the booklet in the Blood Lake Dharma Realm.

Opening the first page, he sees that the incense name recording Shi Xiaoyu, after experiencing a series of flickering changes, begins to become solid at a speed visible to the naked eye at the edges of the originally dim and blurred font, and that layer of pale red radiance symbolizing vitality also lights up again!

Although it still cannot compare to the brightness of a healthy child, it is no longer the bleak scene of being on the verge of death.

At this moment, the weak but gradually steady breathing of the child in front of him rises and falls in correspondence with the gradually brightening name on the thin booklet.

Xu Qing's emotions are inexplicable.

No wonder he always felt that the Baosheng Mother's godhead was missing something.

Xu Qing also never understood what other uses the special incense gathered in the Blood Lake Dharma Realm had, besides resisting disasters.

And now, with the return of the childcare manual and the appearance of the Scripture of the Living, all the fog has dissipated, and Xu Qing has also seen the cultivation path unique to the Baosheng Temple deity.

This is a path diametrically opposed to saving the dead.

If there were no Blood Lake Dharma Realm and no Baosheng Mother avatar, even if Xu Qing wanted to touch this cultivation path, it would be absolutely impossible!

Everything is a coincidence.

After Xu Qing comes to his senses, he turns to look at the shivering child beside him.

A wisp of Blood Lake incense silently envelops the child's body; although it is early winter, Shi Xiaoyu feels that the cold on his body has completely disappeared, and his whole body is warm.

Xu Qing examines the child in front of him and asks in the tone of an adult questioning a child:

"Little kid! Let me ask you, you are not at home in the middle of the night, how did you run to the port and fall into the water? Where are your parents?"

Shi Xiaoyu pouts, tears welling up in his eyes, and says, "My mother and my third dad were resting in the back cabin; I was alone in the front cabin. I got up to pee in the night and went to the bow of the boat; I accidentally stepped into the air and fell into the water."

Being only five or six years old, the child's mind is not yet mature; Xu Qing asks several times but cannot find out where the iron-headed boat Shi Xiaoyu mentioned is, and as for his parents' names...

Shi Xiaoyu only knows his mother is called Shi Chunlan, and he has four or five dads; he usually calls the dads 'big dad', 'second dad', and so on. If you ask him what their names are, he cannot answer a single one.

Xu Qing, adhering to the principle of seeing a good deed through to the end, simply opens the Scripture of the Living again.

A wisp of incense is injected, and the page floating above the Blood Lake changes again; below Shi Xiaoyu's name, a few lines of small incense characters slowly condense—

Father: Jiang, given name Yuanyang, a native of Shanyang County, Guangling Commandery.

Mother: Shi, maiden name Chunlan, a native of Linjiang County.

Married on the 27th of the Peach Month in the Dingyou year.

Infant Shi, given name Xiaoyu, born on the 9th of the first month of the winter in the Guimao year.

Seeing the information about Shi Xiaoyu's biological parents, Xu Qing's expression is quite strange.

So his Scripture of the Living also has the function of a paternity test?

Jiang Yuanyang, a native of Guangling...

Xu Qing recalls the mother of Shi Xiaoyu acknowledging four or five godfathers for this child, and instantly understands.

Does the child's mother not know who Shi Xiaoyu's biological father is?

Xu Qing takes out two paper-crafted gold ingots and a paper-crafted little girl with rouge on her cheeks, and says, "You stay here and don't move around; I will go find your mother. If you feel scared, play with these little things."

The child is ignorant and doesn't know the taboos of paper-crafted funeral items; when he sees the little paper person and the paper gold ingots, his gaze is instantly attracted.

After comforting Shi Xiaoyu, Xu Qing searches along the river and finally finds the iron-headed boat where Shi Xiaoyu's mother is three miles away.

Xu Qing listens to the sound of waves crashing against the shore inside, ponders for a moment, and then picks up a stone from the shore and throws it at the moored iron-headed boat.

Before long, a shirtless big man walks out of the boat, and behind the big man is a woman with disheveled clothes.

The big man curses and swears, pulls the rope to bring the boat to the shore, and then jumps out, wanting to give Xu Qing, who disturbed his good deed, a piece of his mind.

Xu Qing turns his body to the side, trips the big man to the ground with one foot, and without even looking at the other party, turns his head and says to the woman at the bow of the boat:

"Since you are the child's mother, you should take good care of him. It was just a coincidence that I happened to run into him today and saved your child who fell into the water; if there is a next time, you might not be so lucky!"

Shi Chunlan instantly comes to her senses; she runs to the front cabin, and when she cannot find Shi Xiaoyu, her eyes instantly turn red with anxiety.

"Where is my child?"

Before Shi Chunlan finishes speaking, the big man who just climbed up from the river beach also asks anxiously, "Where is my baby!"

Xu Qing glances at the big man who is more anxious than anyone else and points his hand toward the distant riverbank.