“It shouldn’t have been like this…”

When Hu Ma left the room, he felt a sense of absurdity. He felt more at ease knowing there were more bad people than good in this world.

He didn't feel any guilt about what he had done to the old shopkeeper, nor did he blame him. He had simply settled the score in his heart. No matter what he schemed or did, his conscience would be clear.

He only felt a faint pang of sympathy for Wu He, the girl. She was kind at heart, after all, and had managed to leave him a message in that critical moment.

However, what's done is done. The members of the Tan'er Sect were all dead, which could be considered revenge for her.

As for what she and Shopkeeper Wu had experienced on their trip, he would only know when he returned to the spirit temple.

Everyone in the outer courtyard had been called out, and several torches had been lit, illuminating the courtyard brightly. Under Zhou Datong's arrangement, the shop assistants were preparing to go out and do some work together.

But the shop assistants were still uneasy after the scare they had gotten earlier. They huddled in front of the courtyard gate, afraid to go out. So Hu Ma walked over and said loudly, "Don't be afraid, everyone. It's all over now. This is just cleanup."

"Brothers, just do your jobs well. After these few days, you can all collect your money and grain and go back to celebrate the New Year in style."

"..."

The shop assistants felt a little more at ease after hearing this.

Although they were afraid, they thought about the fact that they had eaten and drunk well that night. Although they had been frightened by some ghostly thing, they were unharmed. Hearing Hu Ma say that it was all over, and promising them money and grain for the New Year, they grew bolder.

Zhou Datong was able to arrange the work with less effort. He raised his lantern, and a row of torches went out the door.

Hu Ma didn't go out for the time being. He had been seriously injured and should go back to rest. After lying down, he quickly fell asleep.

When he entered his natal spirit temple, he felt a little anxious. He reached out and pressed down on the incense burner, saying, "How is it?"

"Hehe..."

Before long, the smoke coming from the incense burner had split into two, simultaneously connecting with Er Guo Tou and Miss White Wine.

It seemed that they had been waiting here for a long time, sharing information about this matter and discussing how to divide the spoils... how to divide the benefits, and how to deal with the aftermath.

Hu Ma first heard Er Guo Tou's laughter: "How could it not be good, with such a foolproof plan?"

Hearing the word "good," Hu Ma breathed a sigh of relief.

Now that the blood provisions had been obtained, his daring risk and exposure to resentment had not been in vain.

"We were waiting for you to come and talk."

Miss White Wine's voice also rang out, still as clear and cold as ever, but with a pleasant tone: "I had already followed Shopkeeper Wu out of your village and waited for the Tan'er Sect to come back for the blood provisions."

"I only showed up and took the blood provisions after they had worn each other out. Of course, as you said, I also injured a few members of the Tan'er Sect to prevent your shopkeeper from being unable to defeat them."

"The little girl who was affected by the Animal Creation Technique looked pitiful, so I gave her a few pointers. But we can't take care of the aftermath."

"Now, this batch of blood provisions has been properly secured."

"So you know, there are over a thousand pounds of blood provisions in total, including seven hundred pounds of Green Provisions, over a hundred pounds of Blood Provisions, and..."

"..."

Hearing that there were seven hundred pounds of Green Provisions and over a hundred pounds of Blood Provisions, Hu Ma felt a surge of excitement in his heart.

He would get a lot of it...

But when he heard Miss White Wine suddenly fall silent, he felt a little surprised. Er Guo Tou even asked anxiously, "Speak..."

"Why did you stop talking?"

"..."

"Don't rush me!"

Miss White Wine said, "Let me struggle for a while."

Hu Ma and Er Guo Tou were both surprised. What was there to struggle about at this time?

"Sigh..."

Miss White Wine actually struggled for a while before sighing, "I could have kept it to myself and swallowed it all, but I'll give you two a break!"

"In this batch of blood provisions, besides Green and Blood Taisui, there's actually a bag of strange stuff. Although it's blood-colored flesh, it has fine golden纹 (wén - lines/patterns). It must be some rare stuff, but I'll have to investigate it carefully to find out what it is."

"Eh?"

Hu Ma was pleasantly surprised to hear this.

Besides the black, white, green, and blood categories of Taisui cut from the Flesh Mountain, they often found some strange flesh that was difficult to classify into these four categories. For example, the Green Jade Paste he had given to the old shopkeeper was one of them. It was not Blood Taisui, but it had other wonderful uses.

There was actually something like this in this batch of blood provisions?

Of course, these rare Taisui often had specific values, either worth a thousand pounds or worthless. It depended on the result.

Miss White Wine was adorable. She could have kept quiet about it and just brought a bag of Green Provisions to replace it. After all, he and Brother Er Guo Tou had never seen the stuff.

But even though she was reluctant, she still told the truth.

"This is a pleasant surprise..."

Brother Er Guo Tou laughed, "But no matter what it is, we'll divide it into three shares."

Neither Hu Ma nor Miss White Wine had any objections to this.

From this method of division, Hu Ma understood the unwritten rule among reincarnators that Miss White Wine had mentioned before: as long as you participated, you had to share whatever you got.

For example, Er Guo Tou was originally responsible for dealing with the issue of the Red Lantern Society's higher-ups and shifting the blame if the old shopkeeper said that the blood provisions had been robbed.

Now, the old shopkeeper had directly skipped that sentence. It seemed that Er Guo Tou had contributed the least among the three. Should he not get anything?

But if that were the case, it would be a competition for credit. He had provided the most important information, so should he take the biggest share?

Miss White Wine had risked coming in person to seize the blood provisions, so should she also take the biggest share?

It was better to just divide it into three parts to avoid arguments.

"Of course we have to divide it."

Miss White Wine said, "But in that case, you two should talk about it!"

"Should I directly designate a place and put the blood provisions there for you, or should I refine them into Blood Provision Pills and then give them to you?"

"..."

Hearing this, Hu Ma understood what she meant.

It was easiest to directly divide it into three parts, with each person taking one share of the blood provisions.

But refining them into Blood Provision Pills would make them easier to store and keep out of sight.

This was his first time participating in this "division of spoils," so he didn't have much experience. But Brother Er Guo Tou laughed directly when he heard this: "Of course it's Blood Provision Pills. Blood Provision Pills personally refined by the skilled young owner of the Herbal Heart Hall are usually impossible to buy. How could we not take advantage of this?"

"As you wish."

Listening to Er Guo Tou's words, Miss White Wine said indifferently, "Anyway, ten pounds of blood provisions can only produce eight and a half pounds of Blood Provision Pills."

"The remaining fifteen percent is considered labor costs and losses."

"I don't think you, the Red Lantern Society's favored Right Protector, would care about such a small amount of stuff..."

"..."

"Ah, this..."

Listening to the subtle jabs in their words, Hu Ma found it a little funny, but suddenly he was startled.

Wait, what did they just say?

The skilled young owner of the Herbal Heart Hall, and the Red Lantern Society's most favored Right Protector?

Damn...

They just revealed their identities to each other like that?

This surprise came a little too suddenly. Originally, among the three of them, Hu Ma felt it was unfair because his identity was known to the other two, but he could only guess at their identities.

Now, they had revealed everything while bickering?

"Miss White Wine is really too much..."

But as Hu Ma was thinking, Er Guo Tou didn't seem to care. He just smiled and turned to Hu Ma, saying, "Brother Lao Bai Gan, have you handled things properly on your end?"

"It's been handled."

Seeing Er Guo Tou ask, Hu Ma sighed and said, "Thanks to Miss White Wine's reminder in advance, and the sinister methods you taught me, I not only saved my life, but the shopkeeper didn't suspect anything..."

"...However, one thing is curious. When the Red Lantern Mother asked him, the old shopkeeper didn't mention the blood provisions at all. I had prepared a speech in advance, but there was no place to say it."

"Hehe, of course he wouldn't mention it."

Hearing this, Er Guo Tou sneered, "If he mentioned it, wouldn't the Red Lantern Mother ask where the blood provisions went?"

"If he said that someone suddenly appeared and intercepted the blood provisions, who would believe him?"

"Besides, even if someone believed him, it wouldn't do him any good if the batch of blood provisions was intercepted again. He had already taken the blame once for this stolen batch of blood provisions, and now he's lost it again, wouldn't he have to take the blame for nothing again?"

"If he said it, it would be a big mistake. If he didn't say it, he would still have some small credit..."

"..."

Hearing this, Hu Ma felt a little relieved and said to Miss White Wine, "What was the result of their fight with the Tan'er Sect?"

"Hehe, the result was not much different from what we speculated."

Miss White Wine smiled faintly and said, "Your shopkeeper is very smart. He guarded the Tan'er Sect people coming over just to make sure if the Tan'er Sect people had a method to dispel the evil technique that his daughter had been affected by."

"The result is of course certain. If the Animal Creation Technique were so easy to dispel, it wouldn't be so feared."

"After he confirmed that they didn't, he had the idea of intercepting the batch of blood provisions and fleeing far away."

"Of course, this would be a never-ending battle to the death. If you didn't have this scapegoat, he wouldn't have been confident of winning."

"According to his meaning, as long as he could seize the batch of blood provisions and leave, he wouldn't care whether you, the scapegoat, lived or died, or what happened to the shop assistants in your village later."

"..."

Hu Ma now understood the whole story and sighed softly, but he didn't know what to say.

"The matter has already been done, and the loose ends have been cleaned up."

Er Guo Tou seemed to have noticed Hu Ma's thoughts and said, "Brother Lao Bai Gan, don't think about it anymore."

"It's hard work for Miss White Wine to handle this batch of blood provisions. We can only feel at ease when we get them into our hands."

"You can't be careless now, there are still things to deal with."

"Tomorrow, as soon as it's dawn, people will definitely be sent over from the city, but as long as you say what we agreed on, nothing will happen."

"On the contrary, you'll have credit, and there will be rewards for you."

"..."

Hearing this, Hu Ma's heart stirred slightly and said, "Can I choose the reward myself?"

ps I recommend an old friend's Dragon Ball fanfic "Dragon Ball: I, a Saiyan, Finally Become an Angel". Those interested can go and take a look.

It gave me a scare. I thought it was blocked, but it turned out I forgot to schedule it.

I said, I wrote it so truthfully and beautifully...