Chapter 24

Fu Ming reacted swiftly, stepping in front of Lin Yu and jabbing his sword at the figure behind the altar. He didn't draw the blade; instead, the scabbard of Qingxian pressed firmly against the person's chest.

Lin Yu pressed her lips together, shoved Fu Ming aside, and scooped up the child hiding behind the altar.

It turned out to be a three-year-old toddler with a flushed face who had tumbled behind the altar. The tablecloth was so long that no one noticed the child when they entered the temple. Seeing no danger, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where are your parents?" Lin Yu patted the child's cheek. "How did you end up here all alone?"

"Mama... Papa..." The toddler stared blankly for a moment, then something seemed to click. Her eyes lit up—but when she saw the unfamiliar faces around the temple, she burst into loud sobs, thrashing in Lin Yu's arms. Lin Yu couldn't hold her, so she set the child down on a cushion.

The toddler wiped her tears. "Mama and Papa aren't Mama and Papa anymore... They changed... Nunu is scared..."

She looked terrified, grabbing the altar cloth and trembling as she curled into a ball, trying to crawl underneath. Lin Yu yanked her back out. The little girl, called Nunu, kept crying and sniffling as she wiped her tears.

No one in the room had ever soothed a crying child, and none of them knew what to do. In the end, the couple who had come to worship wiped the sweat from their foreheads, crouched down in front of Nunu, and tried to comfort her—but it didn't do much good.

Through her sobs, Nunu suddenly remembered something. She turned around and looked up at the lofty Rain Goddess statue towering above her. She wiped the remaining tears from her face and knelt down before the statue.

"Goddess! Please save my mama and papa! Save them—they're going to die!" Nunu kowtowed before the piles of gold and silver. Her posture was proper and precise, and after three bows, she buried her head in the cushion and stayed there without getting up.

The couple followed the child's movements and knelt on the cushions behind her, bowing devoutly three times.

After finishing their bows, the couple moved to present the bundle behind them before the altar. The moment they set it down, Lin Yu picked it up. She opened it, grabbed several large lumps of gold from the altar table, and stuffed them into the bundle until it was nearly bursting. Then she neatly handed it back to the couple.

Lin Yu performed the whole sequence in one smooth, natural motion, as if the temple were her own home. The couple was scared half to death, waving their hands frantically and urging Lin Yu to put the gold back—they absolutely couldn't risk offending the Rain Goddess.

Lin Yu stroked her chin and made up an excuse. "You two may not know this, but I'm from Jiangnan myself, so naturally I understand the Rain Goddess's rules better than you. Since you've come to pay your respects and shown your sincerity, now that the Goddess knows about your village's situation, she'll surely look after your village in the future. And the drought in your village was the Rain Goddess's own failure, so there's no need for these offerings."

She continued, "Since it was her failure, it's only right she compensates you. Don't worry about taking it. Look at this temple—gilded and piled high with gold and jewels. The Rain Goddess doesn't need your hard-earned money. You've already paid your respects, so you should be on your way."

"But..." The couple still hesitated, afraid to accept.

Fu Ming spoke up: "A deity's duty is to bless the people with good weather and peace. You've suffered so much because of the drought—the Goddess ought to compensate you. By heavenly reckoning, if the villagers accept this gold and their lives improve, the Rain Goddess will actually gain merit from it. Take it."

Hearing that the Rain Goddess would gain merit because of them, the couple was finally persuaded. They accepted the heavy bundle. By now it was pitch dark outside, so Yu Jia offered to escort the couple away.

After they left, Nunu was still kneeling blankly before the statue. Lin Yu pulled her up. Nunu raised her head, her eyes hollow and lifeless.

Lin Yu sat down on the cushion beside Nunu, facing her with her back to the statue. "Where are your parents? Big sister is a doctor. Why don't you take me to see them? Maybe I can help them?"

"Doctors are useless. They can't fix it. Mama and Papa have taken so much medicine and nothing works..." She started crying again.

Lin Yu raised her hand, gathering a bit of spiritual power in her palm. The green light radiated warmth in the cold winter air. "Big sister isn't an ordinary doctor. Big sister can use magic, just like a deity. Are you sure you don't want to try?"

Nunu's eyes went wide as she leaned in close to Lin Yu's hand, irresistibly drawn to the glow. She grabbed Lin Yu's hand, a smile spreading across her face. "Goddess sister! I'll take you to my home!"

The child was so delighted she darted off like a rabbit. Before Lin Yu could even prepare, she was yanked out the door. Fu Ming followed close behind, exiting the Rain Goddess Temple.

Zhang Yulin, however, was still inside, captivated by the temple's treasures. She was touching this and looking at that, marveling at it all, when she turned around and found the temple empty.

Zhang Yulin: ?

Spotting a few blurred figures racing away, Zhang Yulin quickly dropped the jewelry she had piled onto her hands and chased after them. "Hey... wait for me!!"

...

Children were like that—impulsive and erratic. The moment she heard there was hope, she grabbed Lin Yu and bolted without a second thought.

Thankfully, Nunu's home wasn't far. In less than the time it took for half an incense stick to burn, the group passed by a medicine shop. Nunu suddenly stopped, and Lin Yu finally caught up to her. "Here... this is my home..."

Lin Yu bent over with her hands on her waist, marveling at how youth was wasted on the young—running that fast without even a flush or heavy breath, while she herself was left gasping for air. It took her a long pause before she could manage a second sentence: "You... you live in a medicine shop?"

The child was too focused on finding her keys to answer Lin Yu. She dug through her pockets, pulling out a pile of odds and ends and dropping them on the ground, then crouched down to rummage through the mess for the key.

Lin Yu unfastened her cloak and casually handed it to Fu Ming, who had just caught up to her. She still hadn't recovered her breath—her waist ached, her legs were sore, her throat burned—so she grabbed Fu Ming's sleeve and discreetly used him for support.

Suddenly feeling a slight weight on his shoulder, Fu Ming stood there expressionlessly holding the cloak...

Just then, Zhang Yulin finally arrived, panting hard as she appeared behind Lin Yu. Feeling guilty under Fu Ming's gaze, Lin Yu let go of him and casually latched onto Zhang Yulin instead. The two of them stood side by side, hands on their hips, gasping for air.

Zhang Yulin looked like she was about to die: "Why were you running so fast? Gone in a flash. What's the rush?!"

Lin Yu shrugged. "Kids, you know."

Lin Yu looked at Zhang Yulin innocently. "This kid could race your divine beast... maybe you should try to tame her and make her your new beast?"

Zhang Yulin: "Divine beasts are meant to be ridden..."

And Nunu barely came up to their knees.

Lin Yu: "Oh."

"Sisters, let's go inside!" The child had finally found her key. She clutched it and sprang to her feet, startling Lin Yu and Zhang Yulin.

Nunu led them inside. The moment she stepped through the door, Lin Yu caught a strange smell. She had run a medicine shop before and knew the scents of various herbs intimately—this foul odor was definitely not any normal medicine.

A faint glimmer flickered in the darkness, flashing past Lin Yu's eyes. "Someone's here!"

At that moment, a wave of medicinal fragrance flooded in from all directions, surrounding them.

The lamps in the shop suddenly blazed to life. Only then could they see clearly: they were surrounded by a horde of rotting, festering creatures!

Those things had them encircled, each one with disheveled hair standing on end, exposed skin an eerie blue-purple, veins bulging on their arms as if they were about to burst. They caught the scent of living humans and were closing in step by step!

So these were the resurrected ones the Xianzun had mentioned?

Shock flickered in Lin Yu's eyes. Before she left, the senior sister at Heaven's Mandate Tower had roughly described what the resurrected looked like and their weaknesses. Judging by these creatures, it was a match.

Seeing Fu Ming raise his sword without even blinking, ready to decapitate one of the resurrected that had crept close, Lin Yu shouted in panic: "Don't kill them! They're still useful alive!"

The resurrected came in two types—conscious and unconscious. Lin Yu didn't know if these had awareness, but if she could capture one with consciousness to interrogate for clues, it would greatly help in finding the source of the resurrected.

She yelled: "They're resurrected—fragile and easy to kill! Don't strike to kill!"

Resurrection itself defied heaven's will, so these beings were extremely fragile and easily destroyed.

Nunu, trapped in the middle and unable to move, screamed in terror as those creatures reached for her: "Papa! Mama! Come quick! Ah!"

Nunu shrieked in panic, ducking behind Lin Yu and refusing to look at the resurrected.

One of the resurrected paused at the sound of her cries, but only for a moment before surging forward again to surround them!

These resurrected had already died once; their lives were terribly fragile. Lin Yu had just gained some spiritual power but wasn't yet familiar with using it, so she didn't dare attack them—afraid she'd kill them with one blow. She could only dodge and evade as much as possible, careful not to let them touch her.

If touched by a resurrected, there was an extremely high risk of infection. She'd end up rotting all over like them, or even turning into a corpse. It was incredibly difficult to balance not killing them while still driving them back.

The group could only dodge, never daring to strike.

In the chaos, Nunu tried to run toward the inner room. A disheveled woman seized the opportunity to grab her. Nunu shrieked and kicked wildly at the resurrected creature—and the thing actually got knocked flat on its back by the child's blows!

Lin Yu hurried over to check on the fallen resurrected. She hadn't expected this batch to be so frail that even a three-year-old's kick could topple them.

At the same time, Fu Ming, unable to control his strength, caught one of the resurrected's head with his scabbard. The creature crumpled to the ground and didn't move again.

Soon, from the two dead resurrected, orbs resembling pills floated out of their bodies. These must be the Soul-Renewing Pills the Xianzun had mentioned.

Lin Yu counted. Two dead, seven remaining. The odds of finding a conscious one among the seven grew even slimmer. She was on the verge of losing it: "I told you they're fragile! Don't hit them!"

At her rebuke, Fu Ming, who had been on the verge of fighting back, stood frozen in the middle of the creatures, utterly at a loss. Since Lin Yu said not to attack, he truly didn't move a muscle—even as the horde closed in around him!

One by one, the resurrected stretched out their arms, reaching toward Fu Ming's breathing form, nearly touching him!

But Fu Ming only leaned back slightly, taking a single small step.

Lin Yu panicked: "Fight back, damn it!"

Fu Ming lightly pressed his scabbard against the abdomen of a nearby resurrected to stop its advance—and with that single touch, the creature toppled over, dead.

Lin Yu: ...

Lin Yu had never experienced an encirclement like this. In terms of threat level, there was practically none—they died at the slightest touch—but she needed them alive. That meant she had to try to summon their reason.

This was Nunu's home, so among these creatures there had to be someone who was Nunu's relative, or at least someone who knew her...

At that thought, Lin Yu shoved Nunu down to the ground. Nunu looked confused, but obediently lay still. Lin Yu called out to the creatures: "Whose child is this? Looks badly hurt, might not make it..."

The resurrected were unmoved, still flailing their claws in every direction.

Seeing that no one claimed her, Nunu finally couldn't hold it in and burst into tears: "Papa? Mama? Where are you? Nunu brought people to save you! Papa! Mama!"

Her cries echoed through the silent courtyard.

Finally, a woman in coarse purple garments halted her movements. She stood frozen for a moment, then rushed toward Nunu on the ground. The woman in purple scooped the child into her arms, smiling. "Nunu's home. Let's go inside and find Papa, shall we?"

The remaining resurrected were still stiff and mindless. Lin Yu confirmed they were all unconscious ones, and before she could say a word, Fu Ming cut down the rest.

Lin Yu shot him a look, and the group quickly followed the woman's steps into the house.

She seemed not to notice Lin Yu and the others at all, absorbed in her own world. She carried Nunu into the inner room, took off her dirt-stained coat, wet her fingers to wipe the grime off Nunu's little face, and gazed at her with tenderness.

After coaxing Nunu to sleep, she wandered around the room a few times as if she didn't recognize the place. She searched for ages before finding the door, nearly walking into the wall twice, and eventually shuffled into another room.

The lamp flickered on. A heavyset man was already seated on the bed there—presumably Nunu's father. The woman in purple walked in and sat down beside him on the edge of the bed.

Nunu's father must have stayed in the room the whole time, never coming out. His clothes were clean, unlike those other resurrected ones caked in dirt.

"Tell me honestly—do we have no money left in this house?" The woman in purple demanded.

The man sighed. "I've already made arrangements. We'll pawn the shop, and tomorrow I'll send an apprentice to deliver the money to the Lu residence. Our lives are still in Miss Lu's hands, and Nunu is so young—there's no way anything happens to us."

Lin Yu stood by the window, brows furrowed. The Lu residence. Miss Lu...

Lu Yao?

The woman suddenly began to cry. "Our Nunu has such a hard lot. She's still so little, and we two are useless—just dying like this..."

The man patted her back, his own eyes filling with tears. He consoled her, "At least heaven showed us mercy and gave us a chance to live again. We have to live well, so we can see our Nunu grow up safe."

Then came the sound of muffled sobbing from inside the room, the two clutching each other as they wept.

Lin Yu watched their backs, lost in thought. It seemed it was time to pay this Lu Yao a visit at the Lu residence.