Taking advantage of the bandit gasping from pain, He Lingchuan poured the insect powder into his mouth, forced two mouthfuls of water down, and made him swallow.
Meanwhile, the mother grasshopper's abdominal sac, along with the nymph inside, was swallowed by Wu Shaoyi. He even crunched down twice, the crisp snaps clearly audible to He Lingchuan.
"What else needs to be done?"
"Nothing. Just wait."
After merely dozens of breaths, He Lingchuan heard Wu Shaoyi's breathing grow steadier. Checking his pulse again, it beat with increasing strength.
He unwrapped the medicinal bandages on Wu Shaoyi's body and found that the terrifying, gaping bloody holes were slowly contracting.
On the other side of the room, the bandit screamed ceaselessly in agony.
Wounds appeared one after another across his flesh, in the exact same positions as Wu Shaoyi's. Spreading from tiny gashes into wide tears, blood poured forth.
Then came a series of sharp cracks as several of his bones snapped in succession.
In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Wu Shaoyi's wounds were essentially healed, leaving only red marks on his skin. He Lingchuan pressed probing fingers against him and discovered his broken ribs had also knit back together.
Looking back at the bandit, nearly all of Wu Shaoyi's prior injuries had manifested upon him. Now it was his turn to exhale more than he breathed in, clinging by a thread to life.
"Apart from severe blood loss, your wounds have basically recovered," He Lingchuan remarked with wonder as he examined Wu Shaoyi. "Can you draw that yellow talisman?"
Wu Shaoyi had not lied to him. The casting process for this secret art was not difficult; anyone watching once could do it, and He Lingchuan could already deduce most of the underlying principles.
There was an old saying: *a grasshopper after autumn hasn't many days left to hop.* In truth, the mother insect became exhausted soon after laying her eggs and quickly starved or froze to death, while the newly hatched nymphs grew rapidly underground.
In essence, it was a generational transfer of vital essence.
Wu Shaoyi had borrowed this connection to transfer the bandit's life force to himself while shunting his own injuries away.
The keys to the art lay in the talisman paper and the turtle pearl.
Earlier, when he took the yellow talisman paper, he had examined it closely. The glyphs upon it were drawn in cinnabar. Yet strangely, no matter how intently he focused, the lines only grew blurrier the longer he stared, impossible to commit to memory.
Advanced talisman arts were all like this, complete with anti-theft protections. Otherwise, anyone could copy them upon laying hands on one, reaping the rewards without any effort.
Wu Shaoyi shook his head. "I'm just a rough fellow. How would I know such things? The Holy Master said that no more than three people in the world understood this secret art. Now that he is deceased, only two remain."
He slowly sat up. His complexion remained deathly pale, and He Lingchuan could not help feeling he looked several years older.
Even though the turtle pearl had supplied him with such abundant energy.
"The Holy Master said I had a great tribulation written into my destiny that would be hard to survive, which is why he bestowed this talisman paper upon me." Wu Shaoyi gave a wry smile. "Yet this spell is far too vicious and defies the harmony of heaven. Even with my wounds healed, I can live at most another three to five years, all my cultivation is stripped away, and every year at this time, the old wounds will reappear, forcing me to endure a full day of agony all over again!"
"That certainly sounds grueling." In his heart, He Lingchuan scoffed at the idea. In a world where men were treated worse than dogs, what "harmony of heaven" was there to speak of? "I've already burned quite a bit of time here. It's time to find the main force. Can you ride a horse?"
Wu Shaoyi stood and flexed his limbs. "No problem."
He merely could not fight, and having lost so much blood, he needed rest. But both understood there was no time for him to convalesce right now.
By now, the bandit had breathed his last and dropped dead.
Had the art not been performed in time, the one drawing his final breath would have been Wu Shaoyi.
Wu Shaoyi solemnly bowed to the corpse. "Many thanks for dying in my stead!"
Stepping out of the house, he finally asked for He Lingchuan's name. After giving it, He Lingchuan glanced at the giant crocodile basking on the beach and could not resist asking, "By the way, I saw that demon crocodile ambush you on the western path and drag you straight into the water. How did it ever give you a chance to fight back?"
To say nothing of a Crocodile God with cultivated power, even an ordinary crocodile monster over three meters long left humans virtually helpless once attacked, unless aided by their fellows.
Wu Shaoyi sighed. "It dragged me to the bottom and swam for a bit, but soon surfaced to reposition me so it could swallow me more easily. I took that chance to wedge my spear open between its jaws."
He Lingchuan suddenly understood.
Crocodiles, lizards, and birds fed by biting rather than chewing, relying on swallowing. If prey went into their mouths crosswise and could not go down, they would make a brief tossing motion to turn the catch before gulping it down.
Wu Shaoyi had seized that fleeting instant to save his own life.
Easy to say, but such composure in the face of mortal peril earned He Lingchuan's deep admiration. Putting himself in Wu's shoes—with dozens of fangs embedded in his flesh and blood pouring endlessly from his wounds—could he have remained as calm as Wu Shaoyi?
Right then, figures appeared in twos and threes along the road outside the village. Spotting Wu Shaoyi, they rushed over, overjoyed. "General, you're alive!"
These were naturally Wu Shaoyi's men. Earlier, when Wu was ambushed by the giant crocodile, the leaderless bandits had scattered at the first strike from Lu Yao.
Aside from those won over by Lu Yao, the rest had been lingering not far outside the village, preparing to select a new chieftain.
For so many men to move, eat, and drink without a commander would be nothing short of a disaster.
Wu Shaoyi commanded immense prestige in his own army; when the sable scurried over to gather them, men rallied in droves.
In barely an hour, most of the men had actually returned.
He Lingchuan made a rough head count and found five to six hundred men. He felt a quiet thrill of joy.
With such numbers and strength, if deployed properly, they could become a formidable surprise force.
When questioned, Wu Shaoyi hid nothing, recounting how he had fought the Crocodile God single-handedly, reaping endless waves of awe and reverence from his men.
The bandits spoke politely to He Lingchuan as well, since Wu Shaoyi directly identified him as his savior. And in their eyes, anyone who could ride a giant crocodile back alongside their boss was presumed to be no ordinary figure.
Given that several giant crocodiles lay resting by the lake, no one doubted their words.
More people brought more noise. The Crocodile God, finding the shore no longer peaceful, turned its head slowly, preparing to return to the lake.
Sharp-eyed, He Lingchuan hurried over. "Hey, Crocodile God, wait a moment!"
The giant crocodile stopped.
In the past, it paid no heed to any human except Hong Xiangqian. But He Lingchuan had helped it earlier, and it was a creature that kept its debts and grudges clear.
"What is it?"
"Why did you act as a thug for Lu Yao?" This was also Wu Shaoyi's question. "Hong Xiangqian is dead, so why would you attach yourself to Lu Yao?"
"Hong Xiangqian once possessed a drop of black dragon essence blood. Lu Yao offered it as compensation in exchange for two strikes," the giant crocodile answered slowly. "The signal was red quinoa powder. This was the final time."
*Right, these scaled beasts are utterly obsessed with dragon blood; it must be of immense benefit to their cultivation.* He Lingchuan's eyes darted thoughtfully. "Why did Lu Yao bring you to Xianling Lake?"
"He said I was needed to help here."
Hearing this, Wu Shaoyi's bandits all showed looks of anger.
Chapter 135