My Scales Can Make Equivalent Exchange
Chapter 599 - 520

Chapter 599: 520

"Okay!" Tears welled up in Li Shengshi’s eyes as he choked out his reply.

"Hmm, Ling’er wants to eat, too!" The tiny turtle child popped out, cheerfully saying, "Ling’er wants to eat lots and lots, Ling’er wants to eat the food Father made with his own hands!"

"You little glutton!" Wang Zijia playfully ruffled her white jade skull with a fond smile.

"Right, she’s going to get fat soon!"

"You’re the fat one, your stinky brother is such a fat pig!"

"Little fat turtle! A chubby one!"

"Dad, look, my stinky brother is bullying me!"

"Haha..."

By the clear stream under the afternoon sun, the family of three laughed and talked as ordinary folks, roasting their food and merrily munching away. It was filled with warmth.

...

They made a racket for the whole afternoon, leaving behind an unforgettable memory of this picnic.

During these three months, Wang Zijia brought endless happiness to the children, using all kinds of tricks from his previous life, playing games and the like.

The children had grown more attached to Wang Zijia than to their own parents.

After finishing their meal, Wang Zijia watched with a radiant smile as the two children scrambled and played with each other.

As evening approached, Wang Zijia laid on top of a tree, hands folded behind his head, one leg stretched out flat, the other bent, pressing a branch into the shape of a crescent moon.

He lazily watched the sunset sky, savoring a moment of rare leisure.

"Dad, Dad, hurry up and see, Stinky Brother brought back a man."

At this moment, the little turtle, who had been playing by the river in the distance and had ventured quite far upstream, suddenly shouted out.

Wang Zijia vanished instantly, leaving behind only the swaying branch.

...

In the blink of an eye, Wang Zijia was by the upper reaches of the riverside.

He saw Li Shengshi sitting by the riverside, next to a young man lying on the ground.

He had just been pulled out of the river. The baby turtle was hovering nearby, gazing curiously at the scene.

In these past three months, she had grown to not be afraid of people.

However, she remained extremely cautious around strangers. Clearly, the training from the womb had had a powerful effect.

Wang Zijia came over and found a sturdy young man laying on the ground, dressed in rough linen clothing. He seemed to be a herb gatherer from the mountains.

It appeared that he had fallen off a cliff while gathering herbs, but luckily, he fell into the upstream river or pond, which was why he had survived.

When Li Shengshi saw Wang Zijia, he moved aside.

Wang Zijia squatted next to the fallen youth and lightly tapped his chest twice with his hand.

"Cough, cough!" With a subtle ripple of mana, the feigning death young man suddenly broke into a coughing fit.

Murky water dribbled from the corner of his mouth as he gradually regained consciousness.

"Wow, he’s still alive!" exclaimed the little turtle child.

The sturdy young man looked up in a daze, his consciousness gradually returning.

He was met with the sight of an unworldly Immortal, a beautiful, curious jade turtle hovering in mid-air, and a young boy.

He was startled momentarily and quickly regained his senses, bowing reverently and saying, "Thank you all for saving my life!"

Wang Zijia gave him a casual glance, then turned away and went back to his tree branch to rest.

"Where do you live? Are you a local herbalist? Do you need us to take you home?" After three months of rescue work, Li Shengshi was used to dealing with these kinds of situations.

The youth’s distressed expression darkened as he sighed, "In answer to your question, distinguished Immortal, my home is about ten miles up the stream in Stream Village. Our village has been destroyed in the disaster. I was fortunate to have been out gathering herbs when it hit, allowing me to escape."

"I dare not return to the village now and have been hiding in the mountains. Today I was so hungry that I wanted to climb up the cliff to forage for some fruits but I was too weak and I accidentally lost my footing and fell into the pond. Thank you for saving my life, little immortals."

As he spoke, he bowed in gratitude to Li Shengshi.

Li Shengshi remained silent for a moment, then said, "What’s your name? Would you like us to take you to the nearest town? I should be able to find you a place to settle."

"In answer to your question, Immortal, my name is Nong Shaoyong. I really don’t know what to do now." the young man replied with a confused expression.

He was dark-skinned and robustly built, but it seemed like he would have been about fifteen years old.

"Whoosh!"

The two people in conversation halted simultaneously when they saw Wang Zijia flash back to their side. He looked at the dark-skinned young man and asked, "What did you say your name was?"

"In response to your question, great Immortal, my name is Nong Shaoyong!" the young man answered carefully.

Wang Zijia’s pupils glowed with a golden spiritual light as he looked at Nong Shaoyong.

’He really does have spiritual roots and they’re top grade, approaching the peak level.’

So, the last of Changbao’s Five Giants, the Strength King Nong Shaoyong, was finally here?

After three months of rescuing refugees and intentionally searching, they hadn’t been able to find any suitable candidates. Who would have thought he’d just be waiting here?

Why did this seem familiar, almost as if he was gathering disciples for a journey to the West?

Was this implying he was about to pass away?

Was his foster-father going to perform a heavenly sacrifice, displaying his boundless mana?

Wang Zijia looked at the dark-skinned, robustly-built young man in front of him, his thoughts wandering.

"Ninth Brother, is there a problem?" Seeing Wang Zijia staring at Nong Shaoyong in silence, Li Shengshi asked.

Wang Zijia shook his head and replied, "There isn’t a problem per say, I’ve just suddenly realized that this child has spiritual roots, and his talent is impressive."

As he spoke, he looked at Nong Shaoyong and said, "Since you have no place to go, would you be willing to cultivate with me?"

Nong Shaoyong was stunned for a moment before immediately kneeling and bowing to Wang Zijia, saying, "I greet the immortal!"

Li Shengshi cast Wang Zijia a puzzled look. In these past months, they had taken in a number of people, but he hadn’t seen one receive such attentiveness.

Wang Zijia wore a faint smile as he nodded and asked, "You mentioned that your village was struck by a disaster. Do you know what kind of calamity it was?"

"In response to the immortal, I’m not sure. I was out gathering medicine when I faintly heard cries from the village. Later, when I climbed to the top of the cliff and looked down at the village, I found it already in ruins, so I didn’t dare to return!"

In the middle of his narration, Nong Shaoyong seemed to recall something horrifying and his body trembled slightly as he spoke.

"You are quite sharp witted!" Wang Zijia thought. It was only fitting, as in this chaotic world, those without cunning would not be able to survive. "Show me the way to your village."

With that, Wang Zijia already bundled up the children and soared into the sky.

Nong Shaoyong suddenly found himself high above the ground. His face turned pale and his legs trembled.

However, he still managed to somewhat keep his composure, faring better than most.

Feeling Wang Zijia’s inquisitive gaze, he immediately pointed in a direction.

Wang Zijia then transformed into a beam of rainbow light, flashing like lightning in the indicated direction.

······

After a few breaths, the ruined village came into view. The entire place looked desolate, as if it had suffered some sort of rampage.

At sunset, there were several skeletons moving within the ruins.

Upon seeing the skeletons, Nong Shaoyong instinctively trembled slightly.

Apparently, after discovering these, he was even less inclined to return to the village.

Meanwhile, Wang Zijia wore an expression of \’as expected\’, and glanced at Nong Shaoyong subconsciously.

In a large city of tens of millions, the appearance of time ghosts would claim countless lives.

In such a small mountain village, visible at a glance and with only about ten households, the appearance of ghosts would invariably lead to its destruction.

And yet, this man managed to survive, was rescued by Li Shengshi after falling off a cliff, and caught his attention.

This string of miraculous encounters and background...he must have been someone with great fortunes!

If not the protagonist, he was almost there!

No wonder he later became one of Changbao’s Five Giants!

While lost in his thoughts, Wang Zijia’s divine thought swiftly expanded. In a flash, he followed the traces and led the children deeper into the mountains.

As for the skeletons in the village, of course, Wang Zijia dispelled them with a wave of his hand.

Along the way, Wang Zijia encountered several skeleton beasts, all of which he dispelled as well.

He kept going, constantly searching for traces.

After a moment, Wang Zijia’s eyes lit up. A distinct perception struck him, and he found the ghost.

Out of caution, Wang Zijia first habitually sealed the children up before hiding his physical form and heading towards the ghost.

This was a young peasant. To Wang Zijia’s astonishment, he was not a skin and bones figure, or at least not entirely.

The man was as thin as a stick, his clothes torn by the foliage in the woods, leaving him in tatters. The man himself looked like a mummy that had just crawled out of the ground.

What caught Wang Zijia’s attention was the dense silver cracks permeating the man’s body, looking like a mummy-shaped porcelain that was about to shatter.

’A ghost with special abilities?’ Seeing this scene, Wang Zijia’s eyes flickered.

The previously encountered rat ghost had left a profound impression on him.

He hid his physical form, flashed to its back, ready to behead it with a single sword strike.

Yet the moment he flashed behind it, the ghost sensed him, brutally turned around and smashed at Wang Zijia with one claw.

The shield around his body quickly crystallized, but what made Wang Zijia’s pupils shrink was that together with the ghost’s mummy-like palm, a fierce space fluctuation arrived. Wang Zijia’s crystallized shield cracked immediately.

No!

It was the space in front of Wang Zijia that had cracks following the force of its palm, as if the silver cracks from its body had extended into it.

All the spiritual light on his body lit up, and Wang Zijia instinctively retreated dozens of feet. However, the ghost almost simultaneously appeared beside Wang Zijia.

’Teleportation?!’

Wang Zijia’s face turned pale, instinctively using the most effective move against ghosts.

’Taoist Art: Heavy Mountain Thorny Ground Spikes!’

In the next moment, with Wang Zijia at the center, the surrounding tens of meters underwent a gravitational change. The powerful pressure caused the ghost’s movement to pause for an instant.

The next moment, a strong suction power came from the ground at the same time that spear-like spikes protruded.

"Plop plop!"

Two spear-like spikes impaled the ghost, but it didn’t die. Its body began to violently exert force, with silver cracks spreading into the surrounding void.

Wang Zijia violently turned his hand, and a golden seal, with the weight of a mountain, came crashing down.

"Thud thud!"

It took four or five consecutive hits before Wang Zijia stopped.

"Huff······"

The golden seal disappeared. Seeing the lifeless mummy at the heart of it all, Wang Zijia quietly heaved a sigh of relief.

The seemingly brief confrontation had caused Wang Zijia to break out in a cold sweat.