Chapter 115

Could this actually be a supernatural power-enhancing item?

Was the leader of the Guard waiting for items to fall from the tree?

Items drop randomly

Mechanism?

A few thoughts flashed through Ye Jiang's mind. She looked up and observed the willow tree in the corner of the wall. This willow tree was deeply rooted in the yard, like a guardian of the yard. But apart from that, it was just an ordinary willow tree. She had seen it when she entered the yard, but hadn't paid much attention to it.

Holding the willow leaf that resembled a prop, Ye Jiang gently placed her hand on the rough trunk of the willow tree. Sure enough, she sensed an energy similar to that of the willow leaf in her palm, indicating that this willow tree was no ordinary tree.

Ye Jiang took the willow leaves and left the courtyard. After going out, she walked around the town from beginning to end. She did not find her mission target during this walk. She found that the town had most of the basic infrastructure, but there was no school. As the sky brightened, more and more townspeople came out, but she still did not see any children.

A group of townspeople gathered together and were led in one direction by a member of the Guard. Ye Jiang followed them and eventually saw them enter an enclosed area. She peeked inside and discovered that it was a fairly large pharmaceutical processing plant. She thought she might have found the reason why the town was relatively wealthy.

The processing plant was clearly not a place where tourists could freely wander around, and to avoid unnecessary trouble, she left after exploring the area for only a short time.

Back in the town center, Ye Jiang encountered the leader of the Guard again. This time, the leader was accompanied by only one subordinate. The two were dealing with a dispute among the townspeople. A couple had started arguing over a trivial matter. What was originally just a minor quarrel escalated when the Guard arrived. Instead of stopping, the two started fighting and exchanging insults as they fought.

"I must have been blind to have gotten together with you!" The husband, his face flushed and neck red, shouted, "You're a crazy woman!"

The wife retorted without backing down, "You bastard, you stole my words! I'm the one who was blind to have fallen for a mangy dog like you!"

"Hmph, is that so? Since you look down on me so much too, then let's get a divorce! Let's get a divorce!"

"Fine, let's get a divorce! I've had enough of this life for a long time!"

Both husband and wife are superpowered individuals, so their fights inevitably involve exchanging superpowers. Presumably to avoid being affected by the superpowers, the Guard only stood by and tried to break up the fight. However, when they heard the words "divorce" being mentioned, the situation became serious, and they finally intervened to forcibly separate the two.

The Guard pulled them apart one by one, and the couple were finally separated, kicking their legs angrily through the air.

The Guard, exasperated, restrained her husband and advised, "You two are an old married couple; don't bring up divorce so easily."

The wife stared in disbelief. "But I really don't want to live with that bastard anymore! Divorce, this marriage must end!"

"Fine, let's get a divorce!"

The couple became extremely anxious.

"Dong Song, Li Feng."

The Guard captain suddenly called out the couple's names, and the two who had been cursing their superiors immediately fell silent. They looked at the captain, whose gentle expression vanished, and a few seconds later he put on a smile again.

"What did we say back then...?" The Guard captain looked at the couple, "Life is tough, so we must..."

The leader said, enunciating each word clearly, "We will protect and support each other, never leaving one another's side."

The couple's expressions calmed down.

"You remember now?" the Guard said gently. He released his grip, and the husband stopped his rioting and simply stood quietly, no longer restrained. The leader was pleased. Then he turned to look in Ye Jiang's direction and said, "If you understand, don't do this anymore. Don't let our guests laugh at us, thinking that the people of Shuiling Town are such unruly people."

The husband's suppressed temper resurfaced, and he glared at Ye Jiang: "She dares!"

Ye Jiang, mingling with the crowd watching the spectacle, munched on the snacks she had bought from the food street in the south, her face expressionless.

The Guard chuckled softly, patted his husband's shoulder reassuringly, and then seemed to remember something. "By the way, Dong Song, I heard you like cats?"

"?"

The leader looked at his subordinate, who, upon receiving this gaze, suddenly grinned. He tightened his grip on his wife's hand, causing her to instinctively pull away in pain. The Guard holding her tightened their grip and restrained her.

"Ah!"

The wife screamed in agony. As she screamed, tiger-striped yellow hair rapidly grew from her hands. The hair spread and quickly covered her torso and neck. Her head twisted and deformed, turning into a cat's face.

She transformed into a cat-person who walks upright.

The crowd was silent, except for the wife who covered her face and screamed in terror.

"Dong Song, don't you like your wife much more now?" the Guard captain said. "Now you two should be able to live a good life, right?"

His smile was gentle and kind; it was the smile of a guardian who had diligently solved the problems of the townspeople.

The husband was lost in thought. Something flashed across his face, and he subconsciously reached out to his wife. The leader glanced at him, and he withdrew his hand as if he had been electrocuted, pulling it behind his back and clenching it into a fist.

"Ha, ha, this woman looks much better now!" He laughed loudly, his eyes inexplicably becoming bloodshot.

Ye Jiang stopped stuffing snacks into her mouth and watched the scene quietly. The leader looked at her, then took the snacks away after a while.

The dispute was resolved, and the Guard, in their uniforms, gradually disappeared into the distance. Soon, the crowd of onlookers also quietly dispersed, leaving only Ye Jiang alone. She stared at the couple ahead, and finally, the couple left as well.

A ripple of emotion flickered in Ye Jiang's eyes.

Shuiling Town, though a remote town, seemed anything but peaceful and tranquil, always in a state of restlessness. Ye Jiang returned to Hua Ling's courtyard, and just as she jumped onto the wall, a fireball grazed past her head. The homeowner Hua Ling, was fighting with another woman in her own yard.

The woman threw fireballs while yelling, "You, surnamed Hua, I've put up with you for so long! I've never caught you dumping dirty water in my yard before, but today I caught you red-handed dumping garbage at the gate. What are you going to say about that?"

Hua Ling: "Pah! Who dumped dirty water into your yard? Do you think I'd do that? It was clearly a stray dog that saw your dirty yard, mistook it for a dog toilet, and went in to pee. You're really good at framing people!"

Woman: "Still trying to deny it!"

Hua Ling: "Heh."

Ye Jiang hesitated to enter and squatted down on the wall instead.

A figure ignored her and swept past her into the courtyard. A man joined the fight, accusing Hua Ling of lusting after his good looks and of pretending to be drunk at the tavern the day before yesterday to pinch his buttocks. He called her shameless. Ye Jiang saw that Hua Ling's face had darkened and she was chasing after the man, beating him.

The young man appeared silently in the corner, and Ye Jiang, who was crouching on the wall, watched the battle from a high position and a low position, respectively.

In the end, Hua Ling, who fought two against one, prevailed. The two invaders were terrified and fled while uttering threats. Hua Ling chased them for quite a while before returning.

Returning to the courtyard grumbling, Hua Ling became even angrier upon seeing the two guests watching the performance, and angrily asked, "Was it good?"

Ye Jiang looked down at the young man and asked, "Is it pretty?"

Rong Yin looked up slightly to meet her gaze and said, "What do you think?"

Ye Jiang said, "It's quite lively."

Although she had only Shuiling Town for a short time, she had already deeply felt that this small town had a kind of... deliberate noise.

The young man said "hmm," but it's unclear whether he genuinely thought so or was just responding casually.

Hua Ling rolled her eyes at the two guests' comments and stormed into the small building. Ye Jiang jumped down from the wall, and a willow leaf fell from her. Rong Yin caught it, handed it back to her without looking at it, and Ye Jiang glanced at him before taking it.

Ye Jiang didn't go out for the rest of the time, which allowed her to witness the liveliness of the small building she was staying in. Following the woman and the man, several more people soon barged into the courtyard, each accusing Hua Ling Hua Ling stealing things without asking and of not paying for things she bought Hua Ling. The commotion in the front yard never stopped.

Ye Jiang didn't go any closer to watch. She waited until it got dark before going downstairs. By then, the courtyard had been quiet for quite some time. When Ye Jiang came downstairs, Hua Ling was gulping down water from a kettle to cool down. She had been quite upset by those people all day. Ye Jiang walked out without looking at her. Hua Ling stared at her, a smirk on her face, and asked, "Going out so late?"

Ye Jiang said, "Let's go for a walk."

Hua Ling said casually, "If you're going out to find a restaurant, then you don't need to go out. I ordered too much takeout."

She said she ordered too much takeout and didn't intend to admit that she went to the trouble because she felt guilty about the little one in the morning.

After saying this, Hua Ling's face flushed, but luckily her dark skin made it less noticeable. Ye Jiang turned to look at her, Hua Ling avoided her gaze, clearing her throat and unconsciously raising her voice to cover it up. "I can't finish it all by myself. People in our town have always valued thrift!"

Ye Jiang looked away, her face expressionless as she refused, "But I'm afraid you might have spat in my takeout."

Thanks to those intruders, she already knows that the homeowner, Hua Ling, is a petty thief, greedy, lecherous, bullying, and utterly despicable person.

"Ugh--cough cough!" Hua Ling choked, clutching her chest to catch her breath. She understood the unspoken meaning behind her words, her face turning as black as the bottom of a pot, and a string of profanities gushed out of her mouth. Ye Jiang listened for a while and felt that she didn't seem to be cursing her, so she ignored it.

Ye Jiang ultimately didn't stay to eat the free takeout; she went out as dusk fell. She found a restaurant to eat at, and although the owner's attempts to exclude outsiders weren't entirely smooth, it wasn't a big problem, and she still managed to eat. In the end, ignoring the owner's unappetizing expression, she left the restaurant with a satisfied belly.

She did this all day; she's become quite experienced and adept.

Having solved the dinner problem, she didn't go back home. Instead, she leisurely made her way to the house of the young girl Mei Ti, and chose a scenic spot on the rooftop to sit down. To resolve the doubts she had during the day, she decided to start staking out the place that night.