Chapter 109 Witch 13

The next day, Xia Qi woke up to find that he had overslept.

He rarely had the habit of sleeping in. Even before he entered the dungeon, he would wake up at 7 o'clock sharp to do something else.

Xia Qi abruptly rose from the bamboo bed and rushed barefoot to the ground floor.

"A Qi, you're awake." Ah Ma was downstairs picking vegetables. Seeing Xia Qi come down, she wiped her hands on her apron. "There's some steamed Jiji vegetable rice, cold fern salad, and Toona sinensis fried eggs in the steamer for you. I'll go get them."

After coming to the first floor, Xia Qi noticed various baskets piled up near his door. The baskets were filled with chickens, ducks, fish, and all sorts of vegetables he had never seen before, including several baskets of green-shelled eggs.

He struggled to walk through the pile of baskets and found the supplies outside the door even more overwhelming, forming a small mountain as if they were gifts for a wedding proposal.

"What are all these things?"

Once Ah Ma brought the breakfast up, Xia Qi picked up his chopsticks and asked curiously.

"Oh, these are all gifts from the neighbors. They said it's to help you regain your strength," Ah Ma said with a smile. Early that morning, the entire village came to their house with presents, which gave her a great sense of satisfaction. Ah Ma praised generously, "Our A Qi is really accomplished."

"Why are they suddenly sending us gifts?" Xia Qi was more concerned about the reason behind it.

There's no such thing as a free lunch, Xia Qi thought suspiciously. Could it be another trick by the Witch God?

"It's the priest's idea." Ah Ma smiled slightly, "They said you helped them a lot down the mountain."

The high priest's idea?

Xia Qi looked strangely at the mountain of supplies at the door, feeling that the high priest couldn't possibly be so bored. She still had a whole bunch of corpses to deal with. How could she suddenly care about him?

Xia Qi stared at the three dishes in front of him and asked suspiciously, "Did they send these dishes too?"

"Yes, the priest specifically instructed to prepare these dishes for you to eat." Ah Ma was resting her chin on her hands, looking at Xia Qi expectantly.

Specially for him?

Xia Qi felt something was very off. He picked up some fern shoots with his chopsticks and asked, "Is this the fern shoots?"

Ah Ma nodded.

"System, can you tell me the effects of fern shoots?" Xia Qi called out to the system in his mind.

Since the last time Xia Qi lost his temper, the in-game system had become very well-behaved, answering everything honestly, like a little fairy who never caused trouble.

"Fern shoots: Clears heat, lubricates the intestines, and lowers qi."

"What about Jiji vegetable?"

"Jiji vegetable: Harmonizes the spleen, promotes urination, and brightens the eyes."

Xia Qi frowned. Both of these vegetables are for cooling heat?

Was he angry?

Actually, he had already let go of a lot of the anger he brought back from the last dungeon. Why would the Witch God send him so many heat-reducing wild vegetables?

"Tell me the effects of Toona sinensis too." Xia Qi was about to eat the "Toona sinensis fried eggs."

"Toona sinensis: Treats cold pain in the lower back and knees, stops bleeding and pain, and reinforces kidney yang."

Xia Qi: "..."

"Slap," he slammed the chopsticks on the table. What does the Witch God mean by sending me these things?

"A Qi, what's wrong? Is the food not to your liking?" Noticing Xia Qi's sudden change in expression, his mom asked nervously.

Xia Qi took a deep breath, gritting his teeth. "No, it’s fine."

To ease his mother's worries, Xia Qi endured and finished his breakfast carefully.

After washing the dishes, Xia Qi left his stilt house and headed out to find Xiao Ou to discuss yesterday's situation.

"You lazy woman, all you know is sleeping!"

As soon as Xia Qi arrived at Xiao Ou's yard, he saw Xiao Ou's mom chasing him, brandishing a huge mallet.

Xiao Ou, running around the tree on the platform, whimpered, "Mom, I was entertaining guests last night... no, I let someone climb through the window. I just slept in a bit longer. How did I become a lazy woman?"

"No!" Xiao Ou's mom swung the mallet fiercely. It grazed Xiao Ou's head, and with a loud "thud," it hit the tree trunk. Xiao Ou's mom, her face flushed red, scolded, "The more boys come to see you, the harder you need to work!"

The mallet knocked all the flowers off the locust tree. Xiao Ou, terrified, realized that if he had been a bit slower, the mallet would have cracked his head open.

"Ahhh, Brother Xia! Come save me!" Xiao Ou, frightened out of his wits, dashed out of the yard.

Just as he reached the gate, Xiao Ou almost ran into Xia Qi. Xia Qi grabbed his shoulder and asked, "Why are you fighting again, Xiao Ou?"

"Brother Xia, you're finally here to save me!" Xiao Ou, seeing Xia Qi as a savior, quickly hid behind him and pushed him forward. "Quick, take me away. I'm going to die!"

Xiao Ou's mom, who had just sent gifts to Xia Qi's house that morning, smiled excitedly at Xia Qi. "A Qi, come into my house and sit for a while. I've woven a phoenix waistband for you. Come and take a look. See if you like it."

"Why did you weave a waistband for me?" Xia Qi asked, not moving from his spot.

Xiao Ou's mom was much more gossipy than his own. Last time, Xia Qi had learned quite a bit of information from her.

Xia Qi intended to chat with Xiao Ou's mom a bit more.

"A Qi, I heard you're about to dedicate yourself as a shaman priest. The phoenix waistband is a congratulatory gift for you!" Xiao Ou's mom winked at him.

Xiao Ou poked Xia Qi's arm and added, "I also have a phoenix waistband, but yours is even more beautiful. This waistband is tied around the waist on the wedding night. Think of it as the groom lifting the bride's veil, but this waistband adds a bit of a risqué touch. The groom has to help you remove it. I find it quite interesting..."

Xia Qi: "..."

Sure enough, he knew there was something strange about the congratulatory gifts delivered to his doorstep today!

With a grim expression, Xia Qi exchanged a few words with Xiao Ou's mom but didn’t learn anything new. He then stepped in again, shielding Xiao Ou and taking him out of the house.

Of course, even after Xia Qi took Xiao Ou out, Xiao Ou was still assigned a tea-picking task.

Since Xia Qi had nothing to do, he accompanied Xiao Ou to pick tea. Yesterday, he experienced the male player’s bungee jumping and corpse-carrying missions. Today, he wanted to try the female player’s tasks to see if he could uncover any other issues in the dungeon.

"Brother Xia, you’re my savior. I'll repay you even if I have to work like a dog." Xiao Ou, moved to tears, knew that if it weren't for Xia Qi pulling him out of the fire from his mom, he would have been doomed today.

Seeing Xiao Ou’s miserable state under his demonic mom, Xia Qi couldn’t bear to tell him about his special player benefits, which included eating, drinking, and relaxing, making him feel a bit embarrassed.

To avoid Xiao Ou noticing that he wasn’t working, Xia Qi quickly changed the subject, steering clear of the mom issue.

"Yes, she’s been assigned heavy labor by her mom too. She’ll definitely be at the tea plantation today."

The two walked for about half an hour and arrived at the tea plantation on the hillside.

She was indeed at the tea plantation today, having arrived even earlier than Xia Qi and Xiao Ou. She looked sleep-deprived, clearly another player tormented by their mom.

After exchanging greetings, Xia Qi asked directly, "Before entering this dungeon, did you already know Liu Feng?"

Liu Feng was the player who broke the rules on the first day and was skinned. Yesterday, when they were rushing to the edge of the field, an NPC who looked like Liu Feng appeared in the central plaza. The female player had mistaken the NPC for Liu Feng.

Xia Qi had noticed it at that time and had been looking for an opportunity to talk to the female player.

Over the past two days, all the players except Xia Qi didn’t seem to care about Liu Feng at all. Unexpectedly, when Xia Qi asked her about Liu Feng, the female player saw it as an emotional outlet and answered truthfully, "Yes, I know him."

"Are you sure Ah Jiang looks exactly like Liu Feng?" Xia Qi asked again. Judging from the female player's disappointed expression that day, it seemed that she and Liu Feng had a pretty good relationship.

"Sigh, yes," the female player replied, wiping the corner of her eye and choking back tears, "I'm certain I didn’t mistake him. Ah Jiang really is Liu Feng, but for some reason, he doesn’t recognize me and speaks in the local dialect of the village..."

She and Liu Feng were teammates in the last dungeon, and they had been through life-and-death situations together. She knew Liu Feng very well, even the moles and beard on his face. How could she possibly mistake him for someone else?

"Think carefully again, what about Ah Jiang's build? Is he the same height and weight as Liu Feng?" Xia Qi frowned and continued asking.

"Ah?" The female player was momentarily stunned. She had only been concerned about Liu Feng's face and hadn’t paid attention to his height.

With Xia Qi's reminder, the female player carefully recalled and indeed found that Liu Feng's height seemed off.

"He's taller and slimmer," the female player said in surprise, "What's going on here?"

Hearing this, Xia Qi fell into deep thought.

When Liu Feng broke the rules, the female player had watched him get skinned with her own eyes. Liu Feng was definitely dead.

As for why Ah Jiang looked exactly like Liu Feng, Xia Qi suspected that Ah Jiang might be the same type of creature as the corpses, needing to borrow someone else's skin to resurrect and become a "human" again.

Of course, whether a corpse could wear human skin was also related to the witch power on Tianxing Mountain.

As Xia Qi was thinking, a sudden thought struck him. Could it be that the Witch God really decided to burn his own body?

Thinking of this, Xia Qi shuddered.

"I need to leave for a while; you two continue picking tea," Xia Qi briefly instructed Xiao Ou and the female player, then turned around and ran towards the altar.

When he was just a short distance away from the altar, three men suddenly appeared at a fork in the road. These men had blue headscarves wrapped around their heads, clearly dressed as villagers, and they carried back baskets on their backs, each holding a few old hens in their hands.

Rushing past the three men, Xia Qi had just moved two meters away when he suddenly stopped in her tracks.

"Excuse me, what are your names? Have we met before?" Xia Qi asked, turning his head curiously towards the three men who had emerged from the fork in the road.

He felt a sense of familiarity with these three men, as if he had seen them somewhere before.

"Haha, Shaman, we met just yesterday at the foot of the mountain. Don't you remember us?" The most astute man, with a soldier's face, said with a grin.

Looking at their vivid expressions, Xia Qi was momentarily stunned.

"You... are the brothers from the mountain?" Xia Qi vaguely remembered that after these three corpses had emerged from the fire pit and put on the soldiers' skins, their skin had looked tattered and torn. If he hadn't seen their true forms yesterday, he wouldn't have been able to tell they weren't human today.

"Yes, Shaman, yesterday we wanted to carry you in a sedan chair, but we were worried we'd scare others," another man replied.

Following Xia Qi's advice, they had returned to Yanhui Cave at night. Thanks to Xia Qi bringing the Witch God back, the witch power in Yanhui Cave was particularly strong, and they had regained their human appearance overnight.

"By the way, Shaman, we heard that you're about to dedicate yourself to the Witch God and become the new shaman of the ancient village. We spent the whole night preparing a gift for you," the last man said with a humble smile, showing off the old hens in his hands, "We wish you and the Witch God a long and harmonious life together!"

Xia Qi: "..."

The author has something to say: Xia Qi: Am I the only one in the world who doesn’t know I’m about to dedicate myself?

Someone: Actually, I didn’t know either; they set me up for this.

Xia Qi: ... Haha.