"Chen family girl, this time I really need your son's help."
Xiluo's earnest gaze fixed on Chen Yun, and her serious tone successfully made Chen Yun hesitate.
Chen Yun wasn't blind to all the oddities happening with her son.
At first, she thought some Mountain God or Spirit Monster had taken a liking to her boy.
That's why she'd been jittery, running all over the place burning incense and bowing to every god she could think of.
Now that she knew it was Xiluo who had set her sights on her son, Chen Yun actually felt a wave of relief.
Even though she'd never heard of any nearby temple worshiping Xiluo,
Chen Yun still trusted this red tabby more than all those wild Ghost Gods in the mountains.
Aside from her bad temper and her habit of tricking kids out of their candied hawthorn…
This red tabby really was a proper Mountain God.
At the very least, when Chen Yun was lost, it was this tabby who tirelessly led her through woods and over rivers until she found her way home.
"Even so..."
Chen Yun hadn't even finished speaking when Xiluo's eyes lit up. Suddenly, she pointed her paw at the fields behind Chen Yun and spoke up.
"If I help you finish the land-tilling and loosening, will you let me borrow your son for a few hours?"
Every spring, the villagers tilled their fields, breaking up the soil.
While pulling out weeds, they also improved the earth's fertility and made it breathe easier.
Only, it took a lot of muscle, and if you wanted fine work, it required a fair bit of spirit and energy too.
Even with Li Yu and Chen Yun's expert teamwork—
So far, they'd barely managed a tenth of what needed doing.
Especially for women like Chen Yun, they simply couldn't match all those big, burly men in the village.
Since Li Yu had to split time defending the village and hunting in the mountains, most of the spring tilling fell on Chen Yun's shoulders this year.
"This..."
Xiluo could tell Chen Yun was wavering.
So Xiluo pressed her advantage, opening her mouth and spitting out a crystalline, gleaming tooth.
"What's this?"
Not only did Chen Yun have her attention snared,
Even Li Boyang and Big Girl, standing nearby, turned their gazes to the tooth.
It wasn't Xiluo's own tooth, but resembled a wild boar's tusk or perhaps a bit of ivory.
Yet it was only as big as a palm, nothing like the real thing in size.
"This is a Dang Kang's tooth."
"But some folks call it a Tusked Porpoise."
Xiluo tapped it lightly with a paw, and the little tusk twitched as if it were alive.
In the next instant, the earth all around began to gather toward the tooth, soon shaping itself into a wild boar-like giant beast.
Bzzzz…
The monster was dusky green all over, about six feet long and four feet tall.
It had a pair of big ears and four huge, tusk-like fangs curling out from its mouth.
"It isn't a real Dang Kang, just a puppet shaped from earth."
"See those four tusks? That's the best plowing tool there is. It can help you finish this year's tilling."
Sure enough, just as Xiluo had said,
The boar with four tusks obediently headed to the fields and started rooting around with practiced expertise.
It turned up every weed and stone from the earth.
Snakes, insects, rats, and ants hiding in the soil were gobbled up in a flash, and it looked absolutely satisfied doing it.
"If this were a living Dang Kang, its manure would be the best fertilizer too..."
"Shame this is only a Dang Kang's tooth, so it can help with breaking ground and plowing fields only."
When Xiluo spoke, her eyes glimmered with long-lost nostalgia.
As if, long ago, she'd personally witnessed Dang Kang plowing fields and helping people farm.
"This..."
With eyes wide in awe, Chen Yun saw at once how remarkable the Dang Kang's tooth was.
This world wasn't short on cows and horses for plowing,
But given the primitive tools and the challenge of taming them, ordinary mountain people simply couldn't afford stock like that.
Compared to all that, the Tusked Porpoise, with those four tusks, was the best farm tool you could ask for.
She couldn't say if its habit of eating things was useful or not, for now,
But it was clearly smarter and better at its job than any bovine or horse she'd ever seen.
The best part was, the creature had no wild animal viciousness at all—even a woman like her could handle it easily.
"Well?"
"Good, isn't it, this Tusked Porpoise!"
Xiluo, returning from her memories, looked at Chen Yun with utter confidence.
"Until I bring your son back, I'll lend the Tusked Porpoise to you!"
Taking a deep breath, Chen Yun glanced at Xiluo first.
Then she turned and locked eyes for a long time with Li Boyang, before finally relenting.
"All right. But I've got a condition—Big Girl goes with them."
"If she's not there to keep an eye, I can't rest easy."
Chen Yun spoke as she crouched down, rubbing the dirt off of Big Girl's piebald face.
Then she reached over and wiped away the smudge on Li Boyang's cheek, before turning to look at Xiluo with the utmost seriousness.
"You're a Mountain God—I trust you won't have the kids do anything dangerous."
"But if they're not back before dark..."
"Doesn't matter which Divine Temple you're from—I'll smash every Mountain God Temple nearby, I swear!"
Chen Yun's warning was dead earnest; no one would doubt a mother's resolve.
"Don't worry, I'll bring them back before dark, I promise."
......................................................
Not long after Xiluo left, the Tusked Porpoise was hard at work.
Watching the bluish boar rooting back and forth through her fields, Chen Yun suddenly realized she felt newly unburdened.
With this Tusked Porpoise's help, all she had to do was the finishing touches; she'd be done with plowing in no time at all.
"Non-crying Baby, Big Girl..."
With such thoughts swirling, Chen Yun looked up at the sky with complicated feelings.
It was in the direction where Xiluo had left with Li Boyang and Big Girl—a day when, for the first time, she'd witnessed Divine power.
Transforming into a Red Leopard, treading on Fire Cloud...
Xiluo's battle form had shaken Chen Yun far more than she'd imagined possible.
And for a Mountain God like that to ask her own child for help...
No matter how open-minded she was, Chen Yun couldn't help doubting herself a bit.
But whenever she thought of those traces of longing and hesitation she'd seen in Li Boyang's eyes, she knew she'd made the right choice.
Her child wasn't some ordinary boy, and she would never become a stumbling block for him.
"No matter what you want to do, Mom will always support you."
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