Chapter 30: Yellow Clay Village

Hearing that they would set out in the afternoon, Shen Xin hurried to the newly rented apartment and told Shen Lan about it.

Shen Lan didn’t say much. She already had her own pursuits now—working as a teacher at a training institute. With her college entrance exam scores, the institute almost wanted to hold onto her as a mascot. Thirty thousand a month just to play the mascot, with nothing else to worry about; Shen Lan was quite satisfied.

Yu Yanan hadn’t been idle either. She’d enrolled in a nearby cooking class, learning to make dishes.

Shen Xin pulled Yu Yanan into his room, had her take a few sips of his blood, and only then felt at ease to leave.

Within the team, the most eager was Chen Jiawang, who was practically ready to skip lunch just to follow Liu Yemei.

Naturally, Old Mo stopped him. Old Mo remained as steady as ever, encouraging everyone to prepare thoroughly, just as they had for their previous expedition. Everything needed was packed. After a hearty meal, each person shouldered a heavy backpack and set out.

Near the highway entrance to Niucheng, the two teams finally met.

Chen Jiawang hit the brakes, parked the car, and enthusiastically greeted every member of the Spirit Fox squad. He’d even thoughtfully prepared a large gold bracelet for each of them.

Shen Xin glanced at the gold bracelets, estimating each must weigh over a hundred grams. Five bracelets meant five hundred grams—at least half a million yuan given away just like that.

But the members of Liu Yemei’s team ignored the bracelets entirely, not even acknowledging them.

Liu Yemei paused briefly, then introduced, “Let me introduce the four beauties of our team. Our leader Wu You, second Wu Chou, third Wu Bing, and fourth Wu Zai. They are quadruplets, born of the same mother.”

Everyone couldn’t help but marvel—not only were quadruplets rare, but for all of them to be beautiful was even rarer, and for all four to be Awakened was unheard of.

Even Tang Ziran couldn’t help asking, “Sister Mei, how did you find them?”

“Heh, fate and coincidence. Anyway, let’s get serious. We’ll lead the way, and we’ll talk when we reach Huangni Village.”

“Alright!”

Old Mo nodded, dragging the grinning Chen Jiawang into the car, starting it up and following Liu Yemei’s vehicle. He sighed, “Shen Xin, you ought to get a driver’s license. Jiawang isn’t reliable.”

“Mm!” Shen Xin readily agreed. He was already studying for the first part of the exam, planning to use his junior-year summer vacation to get a license.

Tang Ziran dismissed the idea, “Why bother with a license? As long as you know how to drive—just the steering wheel and pedals! Uncle Mo, let me drive. I’ve watched enough, I know how!”

“You stop right there! Who starts out driving on the highway? I still want to see my daughter get married, don’t you endanger me!”

Old Mo quickly stopped Tang Ziran as she tried to climb from the back seat.

A hundred kilometers was just an hour’s drive.

After leaving the highway, they followed a provincial road, then a county road, and finally a village path. The two off-road vehicles wandered the village path for nearly half an hour before reaching Huangni Village.

In the car, Shen Xin searched for information about Huangni Village on his phone. The village wasn’t populous—only four or five hundred residents—but covered a large area, as it was nestled in the mountains. Many big mountains belonged to the village, making the search for spiritual beings all the more difficult, relying entirely on luck.

When they reached the village entrance, they got out and saw a large crowd already gathered there.

Most of them were holding up phones, live-streaming. They’d probably heard online about the appearance of spiritual beings in Huangni Village and had come to chase traffic.

“Let’s go, have a look,” Old Mo led the way to the group of streamers, quietly watching their broadcast.

Their arrival didn’t attract much attention; the others assumed they were there to stream as well.

Just then, a streamer was chatting with a gray-haired old man.

“Sir, have you ever seen the child in the red bellyband?”

“Oh, many times. I saw him as a child myself. The little boy has always looked the same, never changed.”

The streamer nodded and asked, “The village elders say the child is the incarnation of a spiritual being. What do you think?”

“Absolutely. We locals call him the Spirit Turtle Boy. They say he’s the manifestation of the spirit turtle from the earth veins.”

The streamer’s eyes lit up and hurriedly asked, “Sir, do you know what powers the Spirit Turtle Boy has?”

“Oh, his powers are many. He can fly and burrow, and he protects the village. Huangni Village has favorable weather every year, never any major disasters. We even built a small temple for him.”

“Fly and burrow?”

Shen Xin frowned as he listened. If the old man was telling the truth, finding the Spirit Turtle Boy would be much more difficult.

The streamer continued, “So does the Spirit Turtle Boy appear during the day or at night?”

“During the day. Villagers work from sunrise to sunset, rarely go out at night.”

“Why not go out at night? Don’t you have the Spirit Turtle Boy’s protection?”

The old man shot the streamer a look and laughed, “Because the lighting’s poor at night. There are snakes, bugs, rats—what if you get bitten?”

Old Mo listened for a while, then entered the village with Liu Yemei’s team.

Very few locals remained, mostly elderly people. The houses were old, with a strong sense of time. Though made of brick and tile, they must have been built two or three decades ago. The outer walls were mottled, paint peeled from the windows and doors, and some roofs had collapsed.

Liu Yemei cleared her throat and said crisply, “We’re nine in total. Wu Bing will stay in the village and cook, the rest will go into the mountains.”

She pulled out a colorful map, resembling a satellite image. Pointing to a mountain on the ground, she asked, “Who will take this one?”

Shen Xin nodded, “I’ll go.”

She assigned tasks to everyone. Tang Ziran picked a mountain near Shen Xin, Chen Jiawang chose one close to Liu Yemei.

“Alright, let’s begin. We’ll regroup at six. If anything happens, use the walkie-talkie.”

Everyone set off toward their assigned mountains.

Shen Xin was not unfamiliar with the mountains. He’d wandered them since childhood, so entering felt almost comforting. He strolled leisurely, taking photos of any unusual plants or animals he encountered.

Walking and stopping, it was soon five o’clock. Shen Xin began heading back. Passing a giant rock beside a stream, he suddenly saw a child in a red bellyband sitting atop the stone, munching on an unknown fruit.

Shen Xin’s spirit jolted. Was his luck really so good, finding the Spirit Turtle Boy so soon? He immediately stopped, activating his eye technique to try to immobilize the Spirit Turtle Boy.

But the Spirit Turtle Boy only grinned at him, and in the next instant vanished from the rock.

“What? My eye technique had no effect on him!?”