Twilight Boundary-Chapter 517 - 509 True Grand Scheme

Ever since Granny left, the Blood Food had never been so plentiful...

Hu Ma, holding a piece of Blood Food, examined it closely before sighing. He took a deep breath and then... frowned.

Logically, this Blood Food was a strange treasure, and eating it raw should be fine. However, when he first arrived in this world, the conditions were so poor that Granny had to cook it for him. Now, being expected to eat it raw still gave him some pressure.

But refining Blood Food Pills? That was a skillful craft that required various herbal medicines and meticulous refinement. He couldn’t do it himself; what he had given to Little Hongtang was just a piece of meat that he had tried hard to roll to make it look round.

So, although he was very eager, he hesitated for a moment, went to the kitchen, gathered some firewood, and set up a wooden rack.

Meanwhile, in the large sleeping room of the front wing, the servants of the Manor had heeded Li’s instructions and hidden inside, not daring to show their heads. But after waiting a whole night, apart from a few gusts of weak, cold wind, nothing unusual had been noticed.

It wasn’t until the middle of the night, while they were full of anxiety, that they smelled a strange aroma of meat. This left them bewildered, "What is Shopkeeper Hu doing outside?"

Of course, he was roasting meat!

Having consumed two large pieces of Blood Food, Hu Ma once again felt the fire qi in his stomach surge, just as it had when he first arrived in this world. It washed through his limbs and bones, almost breaking through his meridians.

Normally, in this state, he would think of women.

Extremely crave them!

But now he held back and quietly practiced. His fourth column’s cultivation, which he had attained earlier but never replenished, was rapidly filling. He clearly felt that this extra-life column of his was swiftly growing.

A slight introspection brought him to his Lifebound Spirit Temple. There, he saw that besides the three incense sticks in his incense burner, a section had already formed for the fourth incense stick.

This was accomplished in just one night of work, and he hadn’t even reached his limit for refining Blood Food. At this rate, wouldn’t he be able to fully condense this fourth incense stick in just a few days?

Once the fourth incense stick was formed, it would mark the best state, greatest ability, and most opportune time for him since he arrived in this world...

...the time had come to retrieve the Hu Family token!

"Senior, Senior..."

Just as Hu Ma was lost in these emotional fluctuations, and various thoughts flashed through his mind, the expectant and excited voice of Gua Shao pulled him back to reality. "Everything is safely withdrawn here, Senior."

"How about your side? Was it smooth, and what do you think of my performance?"

"..."

Performance? What performance?

Hu Ma didn’t know what Gua Shao had done. Wasn’t it just attacking a few Truth Sect followers to divert their attention?

But now, he didn’t dwell on this. He just exhaled slowly, smiled faintly, and said, "It went smoothly. I used the Heavenly Communication Technique and have successfully taken the Blood Food."

"Ah?"

Gua Shao was both surprised and delighted. Just now, she had been mingling in the crowd, paying attention to the Blood Food Storage’s situation, and had seen no one approach it. Had Senior silently completed the task?

It truly was a Heavenly Communication Technique!

She pressed down on her pounding heart. "How...how much did you get? Was it...was it two thousand jin?"

She had heard Hu Ma say there were three thousand jin of Blood Food there, but she didn’t really expect to completely empty their storage. Getting two thousand jin would be a huge windfall; even obtaining a thousand jin would be an unprecedentedly large score.

Listening to her cautious guesses, Hu Ma just smiled faintly and said, "What two thousand jin? What I plan to distribute to you alone is two thousand jin."

"What?"

Gua Shao’s voice suddenly rose. Then there was a long silence, followed by a trembling voice, "Senior...you, someone so formidable, wouldn’t...wouldn’t be joking with me, right?"

Hu Ma said calmly, "I don’t like to joke. This is what you deserve."

Gua Shao’s voice disappeared again. After a while, her sobs came through, "Senior, Senior, how can you be so generous to me? In two lifetimes, I haven’t met anyone so generous..."

"Senior, you’re giving me so much all at once. I’m truly uneasy about this. If it absolutely won’t do for me to just accept it... I... I could come over and keep you company for a night?"

"..."

"?"

Hu Ma was bewildered by her words. After a long pause, he replied, "Don’t make jokes. I got quite a haul this time. Though I haven’t weighed it yet, since you helped, you should have at least two thousand jin."

"Of course, I need to handle the aftermath and distribute the spoils, deducting the cost of the prior intelligence, so my share might be...slightly more than yours. You don’t have any objections, right?"

"..." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"No, no, absolutely not..."

Gua Shao, who had been sobbing just now, burst into tears again. "Indeed, only a Reincarnator is a true ally! I just did a little, and I get two thousand jin..."

"That’s enough for you to keep me!"

"..."

"Enough, enough..."

Hu Ma was also somewhat speechless. He cleared his throat, restored his solemnity, and deliberately said lightly, "Don’t have such low aspirations. This little bit now is nothing."

"What’s coming next, that’s what you call a big deal. It all depends on whether you can keep up."

"..."

"Big..."

On her end, Gua Shao’s sounds of wiping her face and nose could be heard. Then, full of excitement and anticipation, she asked, "How...big?"

"To put it simply..."

Hu Ma also slowly, thoughtfully, said, "Use your imagination. Think about the biggest thing..."

"Wow..."

Gua Shao, hearing this, immediately got excited. "Destroy the world?"

"?"

Hu Ma was dumbfounded. "You’re thinking so grandly, how am I supposed to respond?"

But on second thought, he gently sighed and said, "Strictly speaking, it might be even more difficult than what you said..."

"Like, for example, causing rivers of blood to flow and mountains of corpses to rise? Or driving all the heroes under heaven as pawns for battle and Gu Fighting? Or perhaps inviting these noble masters to die and usher in a new era for the world?"

"..."

"Ah?"

Gua Shao’s voice quivered. "Is it really that big of a deal?"

Hu Ma smiled, saying softly, "Yes, it’s already begun. Here in Mingzhou, we’re starting with the Red Lantern Society..."

Meanwhile, in Zhu Men Town, in a Red Lantern Lady Temple that looked seemingly modest yet somewhat grand, the red lanterns hanging at the temple gate illuminated half the street. The light inexplicably made people feel a bit confused.

The Left Protector followed the Red Lantern Lady back. After formally seating her, the Left Protector knelt on the prayer mat before the divine altar. After all, the Lady had already established a temple and become a case god, so the rules naturally had to be well observed.

Yet now, accompanying the Lady’s return, confusion filled her heart. "That Heavenly Destiny General might truly be Heaven’s chosen. Just a distant salute from him made me feel as if Mount Tai was pressing down, a soul-stirring, body-snatching sensation..."

"...but what puzzles me most is, since when has the Lady’s Mana also greatly advanced, even to the point of intimidating him and making him retreat?"

"..."

She was already trying to keep her voice polite to avoid any offense, but the confusion and bewilderment in her words could not be hidden.

Unexpectedly, behind the incense table, the newly carved statue of a palace-dressed woman displayed even more confusion and puzzlement than she did. In the dim temple, the hanging red lanterns seemed to have a bizarre glow, as if a voice resonated in her mind:

"I...I don’t know either..."

"Wasn’t building the temple something you and the Right Protector suggested to me?"

"Initially, when the temple was being built, it was alright. But after it was completed, I only felt the incense become abundant, flowing continuously. I often feel countless people bowing before me, yet I can’t clearly see their faces..."

"..."

"Building a temple..."

Listening to this, the Left Protector felt even more perplexed. "Building a temple doesn’t come with this kind of benefit..."

A statue and a living person stared at each other, each seeing only guilt and distress in the other’s eyes.

"We still need to ask the Right Protector; it’s too bad he’s not here..."

Left Protector Shen Hongzhi eventually sighed, shook her head, and said, "But no matter what, the Lady’s profound Mana is our foundation. That Heavenly Destiny General has extraordinary origins and backing. In the past, he was someone we couldn’t afford to provoke..."

"We still can’t afford to provoke him now..."

The glow of the red lanterns in the temple clearly showed some guilt. "Since he’s asking for Blood Food from us, well, if we can’t refuse, let’s just give it to him. It wasn’t ours to begin with anyway..."

"He’s being polite and only wants ten thousand jin. So if we give it to him, we can still have three or four thousand jin left. It’s all pure gain..."

"..."

These words made Left Protector Shen Hongzhi fall silent. At first, they thought the Truth Sect wanted to take everything. But now, he had publicly announced he only wanted ten thousand jin.

Moreover, in the jianghu, one isn’t afraid when the opponent is fierce, but rather when they’re polite. The Red Lantern Society was originally not as powerful as the opponent, and now their demeanor made them feel squeezed. In a situation where they could save part of the Blood Food, it truly made one hesitant...

But just as the two were hesitating and weighing their options, as the day grew later and the rooster had already crowed, they were still unable to make a decision. The Left Protector was preparing to leave first and send a little ghost to the Right Protector for advice when she suddenly felt a cold wind blow in from outside.

It was a little ghost dressed as a servant in a green robe. It rushed into the temple and wailed, "It’s gone! The Blood Food in the storage, it’s all gone..."

"What?"

The Left Protector stood up abruptly, and the Red Lantern Lady’s lanterns suddenly shone tenfold. After detailed questioning, they learned that at the Blood Food Storage, after the rooster crowed, they had opened the locks to inspect and found the doors and windows undamaged, but the Blood Food had been swept clean.

"This is bad..."

The Left Protector suddenly realized what had happened. She stood up, her lips trembling. "We’ve fallen into the Truth Sect’s trap..."

"His asking for only ten thousand jin of Blood Food wasn’t to give us face..."

"Those bastards, they used the chaos from before to move all our Blood Food, and then said they only wanted ten thousand jin. They were deliberately setting us up..."