Keqing, it’s just cultivating immortality, is it that difficult?

"The princess?"

"This is your stuff. I'm returning it to you. But when we meet the convoy later, I'll have to trouble you to fetch some water. After all, I came out this time just to find water."

But Tan Mingruo quickly shook his head, pushed the beads over, and decisively refused.

"My Lord, you saved me. I am yours, and this bead is yours too. Take it if you need it..."

"You really don't want it? This is yours..."

Keqing looked at her in surprise.

"No, I'll give it to you. If it weren't for you, I would have died long ago and I wouldn't have known that this thing is a good thing. Besides, I'm alone and I need your help to go home. I'll also need your help on the way."

"It is said that treasures belong to those who are capable. It would be a waste if I had such a good thing. With my strength, I cannot keep it. Princess, you have outstanding abilities, noble status, and a keen eye. Such a treasure should be in your hands."

Seeing her firm attitude, Keqing did not refuse anymore. After all, she was right. If she hadn't come, Tan Mingruo would have died sooner or later, and her treasure would have fallen into her hands.

After all, in this world, only my little silver dragon can hunt for treasures, and only the little silver dragon can open treasures.

After all, even if it is a Water Spirit Pearl, it has the word "spiritual" in it, and can be regarded as a kind of treasure that is the essence of heaven and earth. After all, to be able to produce a spiritual object in this mundane and soulless place is also a gathering of blessings, which is rare in a thousand years and cannot be used easily by ordinary people.

"We came out this time because we were short of water and needed to find a water source. Now that we have the Spirit Pearl, the danger has dissipated and the purpose of this trip has been achieved."

"But

Don't rush back, let's solve the current situation first... Do you know the details of these thugs? "

After stopping the overflowing water and putting the bead into her palm, Keqing began to ask questions.

There must be more than three man-eating monsters. Usually, those without moral bottom line would gather together. What could three of them do? I'm afraid they would have become prey long ago.

Not to mention that these three people looked fat and well-fed, and they were not at all skinny and weak as refugees should be. It was obvious that they had enough food.

But now the rivers have dried up and there is a severe drought. Where would the common people get their food? I'm afraid they have eaten it all long ago. So it is obvious what the edible "food" is.

Moreover, to be able to eat so well and become so plump, it is obvious that one must have a certain ability, and this ability is also reflected in the number of manpower.

After all, even if the bandits don't have weapons and manpower, they can't do anything without rice. They must have enough strength. Tan Mingruo is far away in Tongzhou Prefecture, so how could he appear here? You have to know that this place is not far from Tongzhou Prefecture.

Keqing asked all these questions one by one, and learned some information from Tan Mingruo.

It turned out that there was a refugee riot in Qitian Prefecture, which was next to Tongzhou Prefecture. Because of the natural disaster, Qitian Prefecture was more affected than Tongzhou Prefecture. After all, Tongzhou Prefecture had Tong Lake, while Qitian Prefecture had no large lakes or rivers, only some streams and small rivers.

It dried up within a few months of the drought.

The fact that Tan Mingruo is in this situation now has nothing to do with Tongzhou Prefecture, but it has something to do with Qitian Prefecture.

……

It turned out that because of his funding and secret development, the Tan family had gone from having a small fortune to being one of the richest families in Tongzhou Prefecture, and became one of the three richest families in Tongzhou.

The biggest source of income for the Tan family was the grain business. After all, he had thought of accumulating grain from the beginning. What could be easier than becoming a grain merchant? Therefore, he asked Sister Xianglan to become a grain merchant.

The Tan family started out as grain merchants.

Back to the topic, when drought came, the Tan family, as one of the top grain merchants, naturally could not stay out of it, so they took the lead in donating food, providing porridge, and helping refugees. Because of the leading role of the state's top grain merchant, the prefect also praised them highly and used them as a model for others to follow suit.

After all, if the refugees were not controlled in time, those who held the food would probably suffer in the end. So, with the Tan family's donation of food, other wealthy families were also forced to donate their love. It was also because of this that the refugees from Tongzhou Prefecture who came from all directions did not cause chaos.

When saying this, Tan Mingruo looked at Keqing cautiously, afraid that she would be angry.

After all, the Tan family said that the grain belonged to them, but in fact it had already belonged to the little princess. Without the little princess's order, her brother actually donated such a large amount of grain. There was so much grain that even if it was sold at half the current market price, it could fetch 70,000 to 80,000 taels of silver.

So when my brother donated it, everyone thought he was crazy. It was also because of this that the prefect publicized it as an example.

But she knew that the food did not belong to them alone, but to the little princess. If they donated the little princess's things, wouldn't that be stealing?

So when he said this, Tan Mingruo stuttered and looked at Keqing with a guilty look.

Keqing understood what she was thinking.

"Don't worry, I won't blame you."

"I told you earlier that if I couldn't be contacted in case of a special situation, I could handle it on my own. Even if I knew about it, I would support your brother in donating food and porridge."

"After all, that's my fiefdom, isn't it?"

Seeing that the young princess had no intention of blaming him, Tan Mingruo breathed a sigh of relief and nodded quickly.

"Yeah, I knew that the princess was a good person who was dedicated to the people. When donating grain, my brother also found an excuse to show respect to the princess and donated in the name of the princess."

"So... everyone in Tongzhou knows that the Tan family is working for me?"

"No, no, no, my brother just found an excuse, saying that he received your kindness when he was a child, so he wanted to donate food to the people in your fiefdom."

"If they knew my brother was working for you, how would they dare to touch us?"

Speaking of this, Tan Mingruo became a little angry.

It turns out that this is related to what happened later.

Tongzhou Prefecture was temporarily stabilized because of the grain donation, but the situation was different for the neighboring Qitian Prefecture. There was not as much grain as the Tan family, and there were no people as generous as Tan Heng, so the number of refugees gathered more and more, and in the end, a riot almost broke out.

It was only because the prefect of Qitian Prefecture opened the granaries and released grain that the disaster was averted.

However, the granary was not enough. Perhaps due to corruption or other reasons, the granary was only one-third full of food, which should have been full. It was barely enough to support the refugees outside for more than a month.

Helplessly, the prefect could only resort to tough measures and prepare to force the grain merchants to sell grain at a fair price. At this time, whoever controls the grain will have the upper hand. Even the prefect could not force those who bowed down and donated grain for no reason, so he could only negotiate with them to release the grain.

Some people say that the prefect is an official, and he should be a scholar, farmer, merchant, and artisan, so why should he be polite to those rich people?

The prefect is a high-ranking official, and so are the scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans. However, some things are not as simple as they seem, nor can they be summed up in four words.

Enclosed.

You have to know that in order to avoid corruption and factionalism, officials are replaced every three to five years, but those wealthy families have taken root from generation to generation and have long become local tyrants. Their power is stronger than that of the prefect. If their clans are included, there will be thousands of people. How can the prefect resist even if he is an official?

We have to be polite to local forces.

So they could only negotiate. After all, even the commander in charge of the military households had to give them some face.

However, who could have thought that the prefect gave them face, but the wealthy gentry did not!

They actually relied on the fact that they had grain and asked for an exorbitant price, which made the prefect very angry. In the end, he was so furious that he simply joined forces with the commander-in-chief to threaten the grain merchants, forcing those old foxes to spit out some grain. This temporarily solved the food crisis.

However, who could have imagined that this would lead to such a disaster? Seeing that the prefect did not give them face, those guys actually instigated the refugees, contacted the Goddess Cult, and secretly transferred the grain.

By the time the prefect reacted, it was too late to save the situation. The refugees were rioting, and the grain merchants had already left with large quantities of grain.

The prefect of Qitian Prefecture had no choice but to ask Tan Heng for help. The prefect of Qitian Prefecture and Tan Heng were good friends, so Tan Heng agreed to provide some food aid and left for Qitian Prefecture with a batch of food, leaving only his sister Tan Mingruo at home.

However, half a month later, Tan Mingruo suddenly received a letter one day, which said that Tan Heng was in danger, and refugees gathered in the provincial capital. The food sent was not enough and they were trapped in Qitian Prefecture. Only more food could solve the crisis.

So Tan Mingruo hurriedly gathered some food and rushed to Qitian Mansion.

As a result, they were attacked on the way and were robbed by a group of refugees. Then the group of people who robbed them encountered a group of cannibalistic thugs, and one of the two sides was bound to be injured in the collision.

Logically speaking, the refugees who kidnapped Tan Mingruo were numerous, twice the number of those cannibalistic thugs, and they should have been able to win.

But who could have imagined that these man-eating fellows were so violent, fearless, and extremely strong, because they could eat humans to make themselves stronger. The refugees were defeated step by step and were soon killed without a single piece of armor left. The soldiers took them as food and spoils of war.

Tan Mingruo was also treated as a high-quality commodity because of his fair skin and high-quality flesh.

What he just saw was that she took the opportunity to escape but was discovered and chased by those ogres.

"Oh right... those who arrested me seem to be from the same faction, called the Goddess Cult."

"They said they wanted to use me to threaten my brother... They heard that my brother had a lot of food hidden away, so they wanted to exchange me for food."

It was then that Tan Mingruo realized that this might be a conspiracy, a conspiracy against his brother and their family's food.

"Are you sure? They're talking about the Goddess Cult?"

The Goddess Cult that took advantage of the natural disaster to launch a rebellion? Have they reached out to this side?

"Yeah, I heard it clearly."

Tan Mingruo nodded quickly, very sure that those people did not avoid her at all. Although their voices were not loud, they were not small either, and she could hear them clearly.

Maybe it was because he felt that it was inevitable and a sure win, so he didn't guard against her at all.

And from their words, she also heard that her brother was fine. Although they instigated the refugees to riot, the city government was not a pushover either, and the two sides were in a stalemate.

These people from the Goddess Cult wanted both land and food. They knew that if it weren't for Tan Heng, they would have occupied Qitian Mansion long ago, so they used this plan.

Chapter 543 Goddess Cult

"These guys actually want my food."

Keqing never expected that her own food would be coveted by the Goddess Cult. It seems that they are really ambitious.

Moreover, they even went so far as to come up with conspiracies and tried to threaten hostages. I don't know whether I should praise them or scold them for being stupid, but since they could think of using Tan Mingruo to threaten Tan Heng, it also indirectly proves that Tan Heng is currently very safe.

However, this revealed a piece of information, which is why the refugees knew that Tan Heng favored his sister, and even forged a fake letter through a messenger.

Does this prove that there are external traitors and internal traitors?

The thought flashed through her mind and Keqing blinked, but she didn't think much about it.

"I understand what happened. It seems that a lot of things happened here."

I was wondering why the letters from Tongzhou were interrupted recently. Now, I didn’t expect that Tongzhou also suffered a natural disaster.

Tan Mingruo also said that his brother Tan Heng sent someone to deliver a letter when there were signs of drought, but as the saying goes, the mountains are high and the waters are long, and the distance is thousands of miles, so he was afraid that he might have missed it.

By the time the letter was delivered, he had already left the capital, so naturally he had no news of the changes in Tongzhou Prefecture.

But since I'm here, I can't just sit there and do nothing. But before that, I have to solve the problem at hand first.

For example, that group of cannibalistic desperadoes.

"Where are the thugs located?"

"There, in the southeast direction, the direction I came from, there is a small mountain village about seven or eight miles away. That mountain village is also one of the must-pass roads between Tongzhou Prefecture and Qitian Prefecture."

"Those people occupied the place, pretending to be honest civilians, accepting the passing refugees and caravans, but secretly knocked the passers-by unconscious, and then took them to the back hill behind the village as if they were cargo and locked them up."

Tan Mingruo had also been held captive for a few days. Those people were like refugees, perhaps because they thought she was powerless and had already

Since the prey was already in hand, there was no way it could escape, so there was no need to hide.

Therefore, Tan Mingruo had some understanding of that group of man-eating thugs.

Thinking of this, a hint of fear flashed in her eyes.

"They separated the men and women into several groups, with the men and the elderly together and the women and the children together."

"When it's time to eat, they'll grab some people and go out to eat."

Thinking of this, Tan Mingruo felt a little nauseous. Those people had lost their humanity and would not care about her at all. It’s not that there was no resistance, but they all had knives when they came in, and anyone who resisted would have his head chopped off on the spot.

Sometimes when they were in the mood, they would chop off people's hands and feet and make them into human sticks. Then they would bring a large iron pot and drain the people's blood to store it as a precious water resource.

After that, after the blood has been drained, while the person is still alive, they throw the person directly into the boiling iron pot to steam him. The process is clean and neat, with skilled movements and a natural look.

It was as if they were not slaughtering their own kind, but chickens, sheep, pigs and dogs.

Of course, it was just a coincidence that she knew all this. When she found a way to escape, she saw that group of people were cooking people alive in the village.

It was almost dawn, and when she saw that scene, she was so frightened that she broke out in cold sweat and her legs went limp. However, Tan Mingruo knew that if she couldn't run away, her fate would be the same as that of the man who was slaughtered like a pig.

So when her body regained consciousness, she hid and ran out through a road in the back of the mountain that no one had walked on.

Fortunately, those ogres were not an army and did not have any strict patrols or defenses, which gave her the opportunity to escape.

However, in the end, those guys were alarmed and somehow they caught up with us.

"vomit--"

Thinking of this, Tan Mingruo suddenly felt a little nauseous. Because of her previous escape and her tense will to survive, the only thing in her mind was to run farther and farther, to escape from the sea of ​​suffering and not be eaten by those man-eating villains.

My mind was empty throughout the journey and I had no time to think about anything.

Now that he was out of danger, he felt completely relaxed. The scene he saw when he escaped before was still vivid in his mind. It was extremely clear. When he recalled it now, it seemed as if it was right in front of him.

So, she suddenly vomited. A disgusting and sticky feeling churned from her stomach and tried to rush out of her throat. She retched and suddenly bent over with a painful expression.

His brows were tightly furrowed, and tears and snot suddenly burst out.

"vomit……"

She began to dry heave again.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?"

Seeing her like this, Keqing wanted to reach out and pat her on the back to soothe her body.

However, he found that there was a big difference between his height and hers, and the action of patting her back was indeed a bit strange. Thinking that he had to tiptoe, he stopped immediately, and instead held her wrist with his hand and infused the gentle inner energy he had adjusted into her.