Aunt Zhou suddenly realized what was happening and shouted, “Bao Gu, you stay here and watch. I’ll go report to the County Magistrate! This is a monster!” Without waiting for Bao Gu’s response, she hurriedly ran towards the direction of the County Magistrate’s office.
Bao Gu snapped back to reality and shouted, “Aunt Zhou, it can fly, run, and breathe fire. I can’t control it!” She saw Aunt Zhou continue running without looking back. Despite being thin and weak from hunger, Aunt Zhou moved with agility that could rival a strong man in his prime. Bao Gu doubted that she could even stop Aunt Zhou if she tried. All she could do was watch as Aunt Zhou disappeared into the distance.
A blinding light accompanied by scorching heat engulfed Bao Gu. She turned her head and was instantly shocked, her mouth gaping open. The enormous toad that was originally outside the mountains was now hovering directly above her head. It looked like a mountain wreathed in flames. The toad hopped in the sky, its feet stomping on rolling flames. It continuously spewed fire, illuminating the sky and raising the temperature on the ground. Bao Gu’s sweat beads evaporated instantly. What surprised Bao Gu even more was the humanoid figure not far in front of the giant toad, engulfed in roaring flames and riding a flying sword.
Bao Gu was shocked beyond belief. She wondered if she would survive being burned alive.
But the humanoid figure in the sky not only survived, but also moved with agility, even more agile than the hopping toad. No matter how the toad spewed fire, the humanoid figure narrowly dodged the flames. The toad chased after the humanoid figure, continuously spewing fire, while the humanoid figure retreated and occasionally released blinding light towards the toad. Bao Gu’s eyes were stinging from just two glances at the sword-shaped object, tears streaming down her face.
As Bao Gu’s eyes recovered from the stinging, she tried to look up again, but the blinding light prevented her from opening her eyes. She heard the croaking sound of the toad, like a heavy drum, which made her eardrums ache. Then she heard a woman’s stern shout, “Get out of the way!”
Bao Gu couldn’t open her eyes due to the blinding light, so she raised her arm to shield her eyes.
Suddenly, Bao Gu felt a sharp pain and was hit by something heavy, causing her to spin in the air. She then realized that she was flying at an extremely fast speed over the rooftops. The tiles and streets were rapidly passing beneath her, and she screamed in terror. She saw herself hurtling towards the ground at high speed, but before she could collide and suffer a head-splitting injury, the momentum slowed down. She quickly raised her arms and uncovered her eyes, only to find herself lying on the ground unharmed. In her confusion, Bao Gu heard the croaking sound of the toad behind her. She turned her head and was shocked to see a giant flaming toad blocking the middle of the street. The buildings on both sides of the toad were set ablaze, with flames reaching the sky.
Bao Gu was terrified and wanted to get up and run, but her trembling limbs were too weak to move. She suddenly remembered that frogs and toads are half-blind and can’t see if you stay still. Terrified, she dared not struggle. She couldn’t move, but uncontrollably stared at the enormous fire toad. The toad stared back at her with its round eyes, and then its mouth opened wide—
Bao Gu thought the fire toad was going to breathe fire, and in her heart she cried out, “I’m done for, I’m going to be cooked!” But she discovered that the toad spat out a red light from its mouth, which rolled towards her. In that instant, she thought of the toad frog’s long tongue. At this critical moment, Bao Gu didn’t know where she got the strength from, but she suddenly climbed up and rushed to the side. Suddenly, a fiery figure leaped out from the house beside her and rushed towards her from behind. She felt that her back was suddenly engulfed in a sea of fire, and she heard the loud and miserable cry of the big toad, “Gua—”
Bao Gu ran forward without regard for her life, running more than ten zhang away until she couldn’t run anymore, and then she stopped. Then she heard a loud bang, and she was so scared that she turned her head to look, only to be surprised to find that the fire-breathing toad was rolling its eyes, limbs spread out, dead on the ground.
In front of the toad stood a humanoid flame. The flames on the humanoid flame quickly converged, and Bao Gu could see clearly that the flames were actually ignited from a girl wearing a red dress. When all the flames entered the body of the girl in the red dress, she let out a long sigh and sat directly on the ground, magically pulling out a wine pouch and pouring wine into her mouth.
Smelling the fragrant aroma of the wine, and being dehydrated from being roasted, Bao Gu also felt very thirsty. At this moment, she was both thirsty and hungry, and her lips were cracked.
The girl in the red dress finished drinking the wine, and the wine pouch in her hand disappeared magically. Then she sat cross-legged on the ground with her eyes closed.
Bao Gu looked at the girl in the red dress sitting there motionless, while the fire on both sides of the street became more and more fierce, already burning over half of the street. Even the toad’s body was covered by the flames, and it looked like it was about to burn the girl in the red dress. She quickly ran over and shouted, “Miss, the fire is coming.”
The fire was too big, even though Bao Gu was a zhang or two away, she was still roasted, feeling that her hair and clothes were being scorched by the heat of the fire. She saw that the girl was still not moving, and thought that if she didn’t leave now, she would be burned to death, so she quickly bent down and reached her hands under the girl’s armpits to drag her back. Just as she exerted force, the girl suddenly struggled free, stood up, and magically produced a gourd in her hand, sucking all the fires on both sides of the street into the gourd with a “whoosh” sound.
Bao Gu was once again shocked, her eyes wide open.
The girl in the red dress raised her hand and waved, and the giant toad on the street, which was wider than three carriages side by side, disappeared into thin air.
Bao Gu was shocked, her eyes wide and her mouth agape!
But it wasn’t over yet. The clothes on the girl in the red dress suddenly changed color, from a slightly stiff fiery red to a flowing and soft pure white, and at the same time, Bao Gu recognized that it was the flowing fairy dress worn by the Immortal Yu Mi.
Is this Immortal Yu Mi?
The girl slowly turned around, her beautiful eyes falling on Bao Gu.
Looking at these familiar eyes, Bao Gu confirmed that this was indeed Immortal Yu Mi! She thought that Immortal Yu Mi must be ugly, which is why she covered her face, but she didn’t expect her to be even more beautiful than the fairy in the painting. Extraordinary temperament, outstanding appearance, truly like a banished immortal who walked out of a painting. The only flaw was that her complexion was slightly pale. Bao Gu and Sun Xiucai were neighbors. When she first learned to read, she went to Sun Xiucai’s house to borrow books and read them all. Among the books she read were medical books related to the Yellow Emperor’s Medicine, and she learned a little bit of medical knowledge on her own. She knew that Immortal Yu Mi’s pale complexion was due to a deficiency in vital essence and inadequate blood circulation.
Yu Mi looked Bao Gu up and down, her eyebrows slightly raised, and said with a hint of pride, “Do you still doubt the power of this Immortal? This immortal said that if she wants to destroy it, she will destroy it! Just a small demon, hm!” The contemptuous tone made it sound like she was not destroying a small hill-like toad, but rather crushing a small ant to death.
In reality, she had used all her treasures, suffered heavy damage, and was even blasted down into the city by the Earthfire Toad. As she descended into the city, the Earthfire Toad chased after her, and there was a mortal standing on the street who didn’t know any better. She didn’t want the innocent mortal to be implicated, so she asked the mortal to step aside. Unexpectedly, the mortal was stunned and didn’t know how to dodge. Instead, she raised her hand to cover her face. In her urgency, she used a life-saving talisman. That life-saving talisman was made by her own hands and contained her own lifeblood. It was not worth using on a mortal, but both her and the mortal were in a critical situation at the time. She was only in the late Foundation Establishment stage, while the Earthfire Toad had already formed a Golden Core, surpassing her by one cultivation level. The life-saving talisman could only withstand the force of one strike from the Earthfire Toad when she had lost all her treasures.
She gave the life-saving talisman to the mortal to save her life, while she activated the concealment bracelet her master had given her. Although the Earthfire Toad had formed a Golden Core, its spiritual intelligence was not high, coupled with extremely poor eyesight. It relied on sensing the breath to find its target. Her life-saving talisman had her breath on it, so when it hit the little girl, the Earthfire Toad mistakenly thought it was her. Furthermore, the little girl was a mortal with no cultivation, and she only had the faint spiritual energy fluctuations from the talisman on her body. This made the Earthfire Toad think that she was severely injured and depleted of spiritual energy after that strike, and had no strength to struggle, so it wanted to swallow her alive. In the moment when the Earthfire Toad extended its tongue to swallow the little girl, she rushed out and cut off its tongue with a sword, while also sending the last Thunderfire Talisman into its mouth to detonate it. She exhausted her last bit of spiritual energy to unleash all her attacks on the Earthfire Toad, finally killing it.
Although Yu Mi suffered heavy losses, compared to the benefits she gained from eliminating a Golden Core demonic beast, the losses were still insignificant. Therefore, she was in a good mood. Seeing the little girl staring at her dumbfoundedly without saying a word, she assumed that the little girl was already convinced by her heroic act of slaying the demon across realms, and she felt somewhat proud. She took out a piece of jade and said to Bao Gu, “Put your hand on the spiritual stone.”
Bao Gu didn’t understand, but still followed the Immortal Yu Mi’s instructions and placed her hand on the stone. To her surprise, she found that this translucent stone, like jade, was emitting light.
Yu Mi looked at Bao Gu with a hint of surprise and said, “You really have a connection with the immortal path.”
Bao Gu, completely confused, said, “Isn’t meeting an immortal considered a connection? What does it have to do with the stone emitting light?”
Yu Mi glanced at the little girl, who was only shoulder-high to her, and explained, “This connection refers to cultivating immortality. This is a spiritual stone artifact used to test one’s spiritual roots. If it emits light when you place your hand on it, it means you have spiritual roots. Only those with spiritual roots can cultivate immortality.”
Bao Gu blinked her eyes. Although she didn’t understand what “spirit root” was, she understood the phrase “I can cultivate immortality.”
Immortal Yu Mi asked, “Do you want to cultivate immortality?”
Bao Gu replied in her heart, “Of course, who doesn’t want to become a god?” She quickly nodded her head vigorously.
Yu Mi said, “Alright, go home and say goodbye to your family, then come with me.”
Bao Gu said, “I don’t have any family.” She thought for a moment and said, “I’ll go tell Aunt Zhou.” After speaking, she ran back home, running through several streets. Just as she turned the corner, she saw Aunt Zhou and a few remaining neighbors standing in the middle of the street, discussing something. Bao Gu called out, “Aunt Zhou.” Aunt Zhou turned around and when she saw Bao Gu, she said, “Bao Gu, where did you run off to? Didn’t I tell you to watch that big toad? I haven’t seen you since I came back.”
Bao Gu ran to Aunt Zhou’s side, panting, and said, “I just met Immortal Yu Mi. She said she wants to take me to become a god.”
“What?” Aunt Zhou exclaimed, then she said, “If you’re going to become a god, what about our eldest child?” Her brain reacted quickly, and she slapped her thigh, saying, “Oh my, Bao Gu, Aunt Zhou didn’t expect that not only do you have good relationships with people, even immortals like you. Shouldn’t you tell Immortal Yu Mi to take our eldest child along to become a god too?”
“One person becomes an immortal, and even the chickens and dogs ascend. Bao Gu, take us along so we can have food and drink and not suffer from hunger.”
“Bao Gu, now that you’re becoming a god, quickly make it rain. The land has been dry for three years!”
“Bao Gu, how did you suddenly become a god? I even held you when I was a child. Let me also experience being a god!”
“Becoming a god, is it fake?”
“What do you mean fake? As soon as Immortal Yu Mi saw Bao Gu, she said she had a divine connection. It can’t be wrong. Don’t call her Bao Gu anymore, from now on, call her Great Immortal Bao!”
