You Won't Survive Half a Month

"Take off your hat!"

The gate guard stared at the bulging bundle on Ye Qianfan's back. "And what's in your bundle? Open it for inspection. Hurry!"

"Brother, here's my entry permit." As Ye Qianfan handed it over, he slipped a piece of silver beneath it. "There's something wrong with my eyes. They can't stand the light. Please make an exception, brother."

"Who are you calling brother?"

The gate guard deftly took the silver hidden beneath the entry permit.

After weighing it briefly in his hand, he suddenly called out the name on Ye Qianfan's permit. "Ye... Ye Fu? Oh, right, I remember you! Aren't you the son of Butcher Fu next door? You should've said we knew each other! Go on, go on. Don't hold up the people behind you."

"Thank you, brother. Thank you!"

Ye Qianfan froze at the gate guard's blatant fabrication.

But he quickly realized that his bribe had worked. He was through!

However...

Not long after Ye Qianfan entered the city...

A soldier whose red hat ornament stood a little higher than the other guards' suddenly approached the guard who had inspected Ye Qianfan. "The man you just inspected was called Ye Fu? Which Ye and which Fu?"

"Ye as in 'leaf,' and Fu as in 'talisman paper'!" the guard replied, puzzled. "Captain, is there something wrong with him?"

"That lecher actually dared to return to the city! I'll notify the master immediately. Send someone to keep an eye on him!"

"Yes, Captain!"

Meanwhile, Ye Qianfan had no idea that he was already being watched!

Boom!

Boom, boom!

Not long after the two entered the city, drums sounded at the end of the street.

At the sound of the drums, the street vendors began hurriedly packing up their stalls. Pedestrians quickened their steps home, worry written across their faces, while some roadside shops began ushering customers out and putting up their door boards, preparing to close.

"It's curfew."

Hearing the drums, the Daoist immediately warned Ye Qianfan, "The curfew inside the city is much stricter than outside. I suggest you find an inn quickly, or if you run into soldiers on night patrol, your identity will probably be exposed!"

"Got it."

Ye Qianfan strode briskly down the street amid the hurrying pedestrians.

Soon, the street was completely deserted, but the drums at the corner continued to sound. Presumably, the moment the drumming stopped would be when curfew began!

Just as Ye Qianfan passed the government office, with its large stone lions flanking the entrance, the sharp-eyed Daoist spotted a sheet of yellow paper posted on the noticeboard beside it. He hurriedly called Ye Qianfan to a halt. "Look over there!"

"What?"

Ye Qianfan turned toward the noticeboard!

[Sinister entities now run rampant throughout Great Yao, bringing calamity upon the people!]

[To resist their incursions, the Demon-Quelling Office is recruiting skilled individuals and extraordinary talents from across the martial world to vanquish evil together!]

[Those who pass the trials may join the Demon-Quelling Office. In addition to a generous monthly salary, members will receive an additional allotment of medicinal pills and may exchange merits for special magical treasures!]

[Interested applicants may assemble at the hour of the dragon on the seventh day of the sixth month to take the assessment!]

[May 31]

"So there really is a Demon-Quelling Office assessment tomorrow!"

Ye Qianfan's eyes lit up as he read the yellow notice!

But then he grew a little worried. "With this body of mine, though, won't genuine experts see through me?"

"Are you looking down on me?"

At Ye Qianfan's words, the Daoist suddenly retorted, "If the Demon-Quelling Office in this backwater could see through my puppet's Painted Skin technique, our Puppet Sect might as well pack it in!"

Boom, boom!

Boom, boom, boom!

While Ye Qianfan stood reading the noticeboard, the drumming grew increasingly urgent.

Ye Qianfan decided to find an inn first and think through the matter of the Demon-Quelling Office afterward!

Just then...

Several government runners actually emerged from the office. Ye Qianfan hurriedly lowered his hat brim and left.

His luck was good, too. He had barely gone any distance from the government office when he spotted a large inn sign swaying in the night wind.

[The Inn with a Room]

Ye Qianfan asked about the rates. A superior room cost five hundred copper coins a day, while a basic room cost two hundred.

One tael of silver would pay for two days in a superior room or five in a basic one.

He had just found twenty taels of silver in Ye Fu's home, making him fairly well-off. Naturally, spending someone else's money didn't pain him in the slightest.

"A superior room, please."

"Right away! This way, honored guest!"

Once the waiter left, Ye Qianfan hurriedly took off his shoes and clothes and began inspecting his body!

While walking, he had felt something wrong with several spots on his feet and body, a hollow sensation as though air were leaking through. Now that he had undressed, his suspicions proved correct...

His body really had torn!

His torso wasn't too bad. Friction had merely worn holes beneath his armpits and along the insides of his upper arms, even exposing Little Talisman's black body within.

His feet, however, had suffered so much friction that almost his entire soles and toes had worn away. Only the tentacles sprouting from Little Talisman, crammed inside his shoes, had kept him walking. Now that he had taken his shoes off, the tentacles almost spilled entirely out of his feet!

Looking at his feet, Ye Qianfan suddenly felt as though he had mutated!

"Isn't this Paper Puppet of yours a little too flimsy?"

Ye Qianfan couldn't help complaining.

The Daoist retorted, "A Paper Puppet is made of paper, just as the name says. How durable did you expect it to be?"

"Am I going to have to keep living in this fragile body forever?"

Ye Qianfan took yellow paper from his bundle and pasted it back on bit by bit using the mucus secreted by Little Talisman, feeling rather hopeless!

If he had to live in this body from now on, he truly couldn't withstand wind or rain. Otherwise, it wouldn't merely be a matter of getting sick—his entire body would collapse!

That was right!

Collapse in the literal sense!

"Of course not," the Daoist said with an infuriating air. "Because that would be utterly impossible!"

"At this rate of wear, the umbrella frame inside you will fall apart in half a month at most. No matter how much you patch it up, you'll only stretch that to somewhere between twenty days and a month before it gives out."

"And you expect to keep living forever?"

"..."

Ye Qianfan rolled his eyes hard. "So..."

"Were you planning to wait until my body fell apart completely before telling me this wonderful news?"

"No. I was going to tell you once you took me to the Puppet Sect," the Daoist said, rather gleeful at his misfortune. "Then I'd repay you with some of the Puppet Sect's magical treasures, and we'd be even. But since you asked now, I'm telling you early!"

"Well, thank you so very much."

Ye Qianfan felt helpless.

Still, he had at least figured out his most pressing priority!

He had to get to the Puppet Sect as quickly as possible. Otherwise, even staying alive would probably be difficult!