Min Shin observed that the blue worm was no where to be seen. He made up his mind despite the unknown and crawled inside. 'Tsk, I'm not a headfast idiot to go without thinking, but this time somehow I want to follow my instinct'.
Though he perceived some uneasiness, he was even more sure that there must be a baby ahead. I don't know how long I crawled and found light seeping from the end. By contracting his eyes and slowly following the path, he quickly reached the edge.
As soon as he put his hand forward, he seemed to fall head down straight into a pool. The pool was as clear as a jade and even the bottom can be seen. At the same time his body seems to be cool and greatly supplemented with energy.
By opening his eyes, he found some jade bottles at the bottom. They must be some great pills or so he thought. He swam down quickly at collected them and resurfaced. Rowing to the edge, he finally removed his clothes and wrung them up to dry them.
Only the moment he was careless, he suddenly felt creepy. Looking behind, there was a golden behemoth snake with 20 feet tall and three heads. This is the first time Ming Shin ever felt such panic. His confidence has been hit severely even though he wanted to live desperately.
The snake didn't give him enough time and was so close to swallow him. Only now did the snake suddenly have the urge to retreat as it felt a dangerous breath looming. But it was too late.
Ming Shin who thought would be killed instantly, looked ahead blankly as the snake was violently blasted away by the lucky charm. Within a short span, It lost the living breath. I don't know from where a trembling worm daringly found it's way to the corpse.
Until spotting the blue worm, Ming Shin couldn't make any heads or tails out of what just happened. His left arm seems to give some heat when saw one of the four colored beads instantly losing it's color. He quickly figured out that this by no means a simple lucky charm.
That monster looked so strong that even father would have a hard time fighting it. But it is just killed simply like that. He quickly wiped the cold sweat and remembered his mother's words to be a hundred careful.
'Eh? Why is the blue worm digging into the corpse?' he was perplexed. As he was observing the surroundings, he found the blue worm to be a bit bloated and also carrying a shiny yellow bead. Just when the blue worm is about to carry it away, the yellow bead was sucked quickly by the special marble in Shin's robes. It glowed for some time and eventually dimmed.
Just what is this marble? Looks like the shiny bead was something special. Just when he took the marble to his hands, he heard a low scream from within which sounded like the dying scream of the behemoth before. It seems the soul of the snake could not escape the marble and died with final struggle.
Ming Shin found this extraordinary. Didn't the snake just die over there? What's this xiao snake in the yellow bead? When he looked at the blue worm again, it seemed pretty annoyed that it's prize was stolen away but it was bloated to the point that a snail could win the race.
Whatever, this seems like a good thing, he finally wrapped up the marble along with the lucky charm beads. Meanwhile Min Jian who was attending to some duty on the fourth day of the celebrations seemed to sense something towards the Juuko village.
When he saw his wife nearby and her empty wrist, he understood that Ming Shin must have faced a danger, but he should be alright since the other three beads didn't go off.
"aahcchooo" Ming Shin sneezed. "I'm so wet and it's somehow so cool here". He waited while drying up his clothes and carefully examining his surroundings before something jumps out again.
He picked up the worm and put it in his hair and looked at the jade bottles he collected. When he caught the jade bottle, a fragrant smell has lingered around but after opening it, all the pills crumbled into powder and were blown away.
How long were these bottles stacked away here? I guess this place was no t found for hundreds of years. Going forward, he found a small cave to the side but after entering it, he could tell something was off. It looks like a trap with only darkness ahead and path behind can be closed off any time.
He decided that his strength was too low to explore anything and backed off. While just moving away outside, his legs were trapped by some strong vines. No matter how hard he tried, he could not escape from the cave. He suddenly felt an evil aura lurking around.
He used both his hands to desperately tug off with the vines. When the left hand came in contact with the vine, the marble instantly sucked the cold evil sapping out from the vines. Visible to naked eye it lost the strength to pull him in. He ran out immediately with all he had and gasped heavily after escaping from the cave.
"Grass !! What day is it today? I came for a baby, but I lost one instead" Shin was distressed on losing one of the jade beads from the lucky charm. As he was lamenting about it, from the corner of his eye, he caught a light blue color fruit glowing from the vines he pulled out.
He slowly approached it, gulped and looked around for any danger. He was as fast as a cheetah, quickly grabbed the fruit and ran away some distance. Looking back finding nothing abnormal, he still didn't relax his vigilance.
He came to the snake body and wished to kill it so badly. Alas it was already dead.
'Wait, it's skin and meat is more valuable' he thought. It took nearly three hours to remove the entire skin and it was so heavy that he could not carry it's meat. He cut only a small portion with the sharp rocks nearby and packed it in two bags mage of snake skin. The other bad was packed with the cold fruit he collected earlier.
'Looks like I need to head back' Shin and the blue worm made their way back through the crack through which they entered. He jumped down from the tree branch and felt the air quality was bad compared to the inside.
He went to the coachman and planned to return around. While Shin had such an adventurous day, Pitu village ushered in the announcement of final candidates who made to join the convoy back to the town.
The merchant strategic exam qualified candidates including the Bai siblings were seven people all of whom received confirmation from Ping Lao and were told to make necessary arrangements with their family.
Wu Lao who presided over the martial arts assessment approved of the eleven people who are to accompany. He also wished to make an exception and take the boy named Ming Shin along with him, but Aunt Shu was made to interject that it is the Ye clan's decision which would be final for him.
Ming Rui was visibly relieved as she would be too far away or to know any news of her son, were he to be taken by the Wu clan. How can such a small child face such vigorous and crude training.
Wu Lao was just a bit disappointed. It's not like he had not seen such talented kids. In fact there were many more strong kids at around the same age in his clan. Ye ling sneered at this from above.
Next, the announcement was made that a total of 15 people were selected in the medical assessment. But people were surprised that Ming Shin's name was not among them. Even Ming Rui couldn't comprehend what was going on.
She immediately made her way to Ning Shu and asked her what was going on. Ye Ling politely answered her "Senior Rui, since my entourage shall only have women, I cannot accept any male followers. I believe you do not want to just send your son to be a herbal boy" while looking in the eye.
Ming Rui was agitated but calmed herself soon 'This is also good. He can stay with his father more until he grows up. I don't need to worry about his safety too'. She composed herself and bowed " I have seen Miss Ye".
"Don't need to be too polite with me. You are like Aunt Shu, already a deacon of my Ye clan. You do not need to observe such ceremonies" the formed kindly responded.
'Truly not a bad girl as Ning Shu said. Might be a spoiled brat, but not bad at heart' Ming Rui smiled. While this was going on, Tai Xue and others had no idea why Ming Shin was not selected.
They were about to question it when Ming Rui returned and explained them of criteria of only women as followers.
Night fell and when the villagers were immersed in celebrations, Ming Jian silently left and halted Shin's carriage which just entered the village.