Chapter 248: The Troubles of a Small Village

"None? Small villages really are small villages. Do you have 【Ash-Grey Cloth】? Wipe a few more times and you can dispel this kind of curse too."

Fang Yue continued to shake his head in a daze.

"Then… forget it, forget it. Tell me, what do you have here?"

"I don't know, probably nothing at all? But I have An Shenyi!"

"A physician… then I'll write you a variant prescription for the Feibai Pill. Don't worry, I'll write down all low-grade materials—your village should be able to scrape them together."

A prescription?

Fang Yue's eyes lit up. Now this was practical.

After Ni Dongmei finished writing, Fang Yue carefully accepted it as if he had found a treasure.

But when he examined the prescription closely, it looked like a heavenly book to him—he still couldn't make out a single ingredient. The processing methods for some ingredients left him completely baffled, with one technical tool term after another.

If Fang Yue didn't know this game was no simple matter, he would probably have started cursing it as a trash game.

A physician, too, must start from scratch and learn step by step before they can grow and understand prescriptions.

Someone like Fang Yue, who had never even studied medicine, naturally couldn't understand what was written. As long as An Shenyi could understand it, that was fine.

"Many thanks to Lady Ni for bestowing the prescription!"

Fang Yue was about to leave when Ni Dongmei said coolly, "Who told you this prescription is free?"

"Ah, this… I don't have any money!"

Fang Yue's only remaining asset was the fire stones he hadn't finished using yet.

As for the Silver stones? Fang Yue would never hand those over!

【That's right! The Silver stones are mine!】

……Shut up, they're mine!

【They're ours!!】

Fang Yue couldn't be bothered with the parchment. Right now, he was the creditor, and the parchment still owed him the Black Ember. That guy had been behaving himself lately!

"Of course I know you don't have anything good. I want to use this prescription in exchange for you doing something for me."

Hearing Ni Dongmei's calm tone, Fang Yue's heart skipped a beat.

He couldn't help but ask cautiously, "What is it?"

"Go to Maple Leaf Forest in my place and find Tail. I want to see for myself how her Trial is progressing."

"See for yourself?"

"Mm. I'll plant a mark on you. Through the mark, I can see whatever your gaze falls upon. This kind of mark consumes a great deal of power, so I'll only notify you to activate it at key moments."

The moment he heard about having a mark planted on him, Fang Yue immediately felt some resistance.

He knew full well this woman could place a curse on him in a single encounter. Dealing with such a thorny character, one could never be too careful.

As if she had seen through Fang Yue's worry, Ni Dongmei gave a cold smile: "Relax, a small fry like you isn't worth my wasting energy to deal with. I didn't kill you before, and naturally I won't make a move now."

No, no, no—that move of yours earlier, anyone else from Mo Cun definitely couldn't have withstood it…

Fang Yue was still somewhat conflicted inside, but Ni Dongmei quickly said, "If you're not comfortable with that, I can change the method. I'll give you a strange artifact. Carry it on you, then go to Maple Leaf Forest and find Tail."

Fang Yue kept waiting for her to continue, but seeing Ni Dongmei say nothing, he couldn't help but ask, "And then?"

"There's no 'and then.' Do this much, and the prescription is yours."

……It wouldn't be some dangerous strange artifact, would it?

Strange artifacts come in many types. Some terrifying ones bring disaster the moment they're touched.

For example, the Clock of Returned Time.

According to the parchment, when the Clock of Returned Time was at full power, it was something an ordinary person could never touch.

Only now, with the passage of time and the dissipation of its power, had it become so ordinary—even absorbed by the parchment.

"You're too suspicious. If I wanted to kill you, I have over ten thousand ways to do it. I don't need to be so roundabout."

Ni Dongmei glanced at Fang Yue and casually tossed over a meatball the size of a palm.

Fang Yue hurriedly reached out and caught it.

"When I need it, this meatball will wrap around your arm and establish a special connection with me. At that time, I will come in person.

This item has no danger whatsoever. If you're not at ease, feel free to go ask Lang Wu and the others.

Also, if you see Tail and she hasn't completed the Trial yet, then tell her the Trial has failed. The time I've given her is already very generous. Even if something went wrong, if she still hasn't finished by the time you find her, there's no need for her to enter Extreme Ice Sect anymore.

If she has completed the Trial, use the meatball to summon me, and I will bring her back personally."

Saying so, Ni Dongmei told Fang Yue a location in Maple Leaf Forest.

Fang Yue had never been to Maple Leaf Forest and had no concept of the spot Ni Dongmei pointed out. He nodded to show he understood, then kept staring at the meatball.

Unfortunately… his Analysis Pupil couldn't see through this thing at all.

Carrying an unknown strange artifact on him versus removing a curse that currently posed no danger—the two didn't really seem comparable.

Fang Yue was uneasy about the large number of Sheep-Empty Stranges piled up outside, so he wanted to remove the curse quickly. Now Ni Dongmei's condition for removing the curse was for him to leave the village, which Fang Yue found a bit hard to accept.

But just then, Ni Dongmei said with a hint of mockery, "You must think this deal isn't worth it."

Fang Yue felt it was a little strange—why ask when she already knew the answer? —but he still nodded and said, "…A little, yes."

"You're honest enough. In that regard, I quite like it." Ni Dongmei raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised.

"Let me put it this way: the smell-type curse on you really only lets the Sheep-Empty Stranges, that group of anomalies, find your location and lock onto you as a target. In the beginning, this wasn't a problem. The problem is… the appearance of the Sheep-Empty Strange tribe.

This means there's an intelligent being among their tribe. Such beings are usually very powerful and hold the supreme position of commanding the entire tribe.

You, as the target, have already been spotted by it. Even if you remove the curse, it has long since memorized your scent and knows you're in Mo Cun.

In other words, simply removing the curse is already meaningless. The most important function of this kind of curse is to identify who the target is.

You've already been exposed. Without an intelligent being, removing the curse would be a win-win. With an intelligent being in command, you're nailed to the Sheep-Empty Strange tribe's generational list of hunting targets to be killed.

And although an intelligent being isn't highly intelligent, it still knows how to wait by the stump for a rabbit."

"By the time the curse is lifted, the other side will react immediately, and what you'll face will be nothing but a vast, endless sea of Sheep-Ghost creatures, surrounding the entire Mo Cun so tightly not even a drop of water could leak through. Do you want to see that kind of situation?"

Fang Yue imagined the scene of Mo Cun being surrounded by a dense, packed mass of Sheep-Ghost creatures, and immediately felt a chill run down his spine.

Mo Cun would become a trapped beast, and no one would dare venture outside ever again.

If Ni Dongmei hadn't lied to him, then Fang Yue's current situation was truly not at all optimistic.

Fang Yue's face darkened: "If Mo Cun really gets surrounded and sealed off by a swarm of ghosts, isn't there anyone who'll step in and do something about it?"

(End of chapter)