"Tai Sui..."
Hu Ma muttered in his heart, "So this is the Tai Sui Lord that Grandma mentioned..."
But how could such a massive, bloated piece of flesh grow out of the ground in this world?
Something so obviously unnatural and horrifying—how could they dare to eat it?
Wait, no... how could they dare to feed it to me?
The sheer shock of it all left Hu Ma dazed for a long moment.
His mind flooded with countless thoughts, and he even felt a twitching in his chest, as if he were about to vomit up the Tai Sui meat he had just eaten.
"You really are a lucky kid, huh?"
Second Uncle, noticing Hu Ma's pale face, believed that the boy truly didn’t remember anything.
He sighed lightly and patted Hu Ma’s shoulder.
"You have no idea how hard it was for Grandma to cut this Tai Sui for you. What you see now is a massive mountain of flesh, but not every part of the Tai Sui Lord is edible. Most of it is black and called Black Tai Sui. Sure, you can cut it and eat it, but if you do, bad things will happen."
Hu Ma snapped out of his daze and quickly asked, "What kind of bad things?"
"Some people who eat it turn into evil spirits. Others lose their grip on reality, unable to tell what’s real and what’s not," Second Uncle explained.
"Of course, most just get sick and die, or suffer from other strange afflictions."
He pointed to a section of the massive flesh mountain, where a large depression seemed to have formed, with layers of cuts visible on the surface.
"The side facing the sun is whitish in color. That’s the part you can cut and eat. It’s called White Tai Sui. Eating it won’t harm you—in fact, it’ll make you stronger, even better than eating grains. And then there’s Green Tai Sui, which is even better. Eating that can cure illnesses and extend your life!"
"Of course, you can’t just cut it whenever you want. After each cut, you have to wait for the Tai Sui Lord to slowly recover and grow back. The Blood Food Gang from the city comes down once a year to recruit people from our village to cut the meat. We only get to do it once a year, earning some money and keeping a bit for ourselves to eat."
"I’ve been a meat cutter my whole life. The kids here learn the skill from me. But we don’t call it ‘cutting Tai Sui’—that’s disrespectful. We call it ‘worshipping Tai Sui.’"
"..."
"Cutting meat? You have to learn that?"
Hu Ma found all of this utterly bizarre and couldn’t help but ask.
"Ah, my bad," Second Uncle said, tapping his forehead.
"You’ve forgotten a lot, haven’t you?"
He then added with a warning tone, "Little Hu Ma, remember this: it’s fine for me to bring you here to see, but never come near the Tai Sui Lord on your own. The meat of the Tai Sui Lord can ward off evil, cure illnesses, and extend life, but it can also attract evil spirits. That’s why there are so many evil spirits around our village—it’s because of the Tai Sui Lord."
"My skills are nowhere near your grandma’s. She’s a proper ghost walker, while I’m just a miner. The kids who learn from me do it so they can work for the Blood Food Gang when they come down, earning a bit of money. Of course, they only do it for a few years, unlike me—I’ve been doing this my whole life."
"..."
"So..."
Hu Ma slowly began to understand.
"Your skill is warding off evil spirits?"
"Exactly," Second Uncle said with a smile, ruffling Hu Ma’s hair.
"My skill makes it harder for evil spirits to attach to me, which is why I can do this job. You have no idea how poor our village is. We barely harvest enough grain to last the year. It’s only through this annual ‘worshipping Tai Sui’ that we can earn a bit of money. The kids here learn from me just for that bit of income."
Hu Ma nodded slowly, then suddenly thought of something.
"If Tai Sui is so valuable, why don’t we just cut it ourselves and sell it?"
"Tai Sui is indeed valuable," Second Uncle said, nodding slowly.
"But without the Blood Food Gang overseeing it, not many dare to cut it. You’re more likely to bring trouble than earn money."
"Before the Blood Food Gang comes down, the only person I know who dares to cut Tai Sui on her own is your grandma. Of course, don’t go spreading that around."
"..."
Listening to Second Uncle, Hu Ma began to understand something.
In his past life, he had seen this kind of thing often.
The countries that produced blood diamonds didn’t get rich from them.
Oil-rich countries weren’t all swimming in wealth.
And in certain notorious regions, the locals were still dirt poor.
He had vaguely noticed a similarity between the two worlds.
But he knew that Grandma had the ability to cut Tai Sui on her own.
However, Second Uncle seemed to misunderstand—Grandma didn’t just cut White Tai Sui...
Thinking silently, Hu Ma tentatively asked, "What about something better than Green Tai Sui?"
Second Uncle chuckled.
"Of course there is. The Tai Sui Lord isn’t just in our Old Yin Mountain. In other mountains, even in cities, there are massive flesh mountains like this one. The bigger the mountain, the more likely it is to produce rare parts. White Tai Sui and Green Tai Sui are just the more common ones, which can be cut regularly. But others are much rarer."
"For example, there’s Blood Tai Sui, which is even rarer than Green Tai Sui. Cutting it once means it won’t grow back for three years. But its effects and value are far beyond Green Tai Sui. You couldn’t buy it even with a pound of gold."
"..."
"That expensive?"
Hu Ma was already aware of the value of Blood Tai Sui, but hearing it again still shocked him.
He couldn’t help but ask, "What does it do if you eat it?"
"..."
"I don’t know," Second Uncle admitted.
"In my whole life, I’ve only dug up a small piece of Blood Tai Sui once. I fought with three other miners over it and finally managed to get it. But such a precious thing—I didn’t even dare to smell it. I immediately handed it over to the foreman and got a small gold coin in return."
"Heh, you have no idea how valuable that little gold coin was. In our village, I could’ve married any woman I wanted. I could’ve bought enough grain to last for years and even built a small house."
"..."
"Then..."
Hu Ma couldn’t help but think, Second Uncle usually lives outside the village, in a rather modest environment.
Where’s your little house? Where’s your wife?
Second Uncle seemed to know what he was thinking, or perhaps he just remembered that Hu Ma didn’t recall much.
He sighed.
"That damn Zhao Lao Jiu won it from me in a game of cards. You’ve seen the nicest little house in the village, right? That’s his. He used my gold coin to marry the prettiest girl in the Zhou family."
"Otherwise, how would I know how valuable that little gold coin was?"
"..."
Hu Ma didn’t know what to say.
It seemed he had touched on a sore spot for Second Uncle.
But hearing all this, he gradually realized what he had been through since waking up.
He had been eating Blood Tai Sui.
He clearly remembered eating Tai Sui every day, at least a pound of it.
He had been so full he thought he might burst, and only under Grandma’s stern gaze had he managed to swallow it all.
If Blood Tai Sui was as valuable as gold, didn’t that mean he had been eating over a pound of gold every day?
But how did Grandma have the means to feed him this as if it were ordinary food?
Of course, even with all her skills, Grandma couldn’t have an endless supply of Blood Tai Sui.
Otherwise, why would she stay in this village?
Perhaps that was why she had sent him to Second Uncle.
Only by gaining the protection of the ancestors or learning Second Uncle’s skill of warding off evil spirits could he truly live without relying on Tai Sui meat.
"Second Uncle..."
Hu Ma thought carefully, trying to act as clueless as possible.
"How can I learn your skill?"
"Learning my skill isn’t easy!"
Second Uncle, being a carefree man, quickly forgot about the gold coin incident.
He picked Hu Ma up and threw him onto his back, then started walking into the forest.
"My skill requires two things: a strong body with good natural foundation, and the ability to endure hardship. Everyone wants to earn money by cutting meat, but why do so few learn from me? Because they can’t handle it."
"Right now, you’re still injured. Normally, I’d let you recover first and then assess your potential. But Grandma said it’s urgent, and considering she fed you so much Tai Sui meat to heal you—probably Green Tai Sui, otherwise your foundation wouldn’t be so good—your body should be fine. So we won’t delay."
"Tonight, I’ll help you light the furnace!"
"..."
"Light the furnace? What’s that?"
Hu Ma wanted to ask more, but Second Uncle was already striding into the forest with him.
This time, Second Uncle didn’t run, and his body didn’t grow hot.
The deep forest seemed even more mysterious and eerie.
Hu Ma thought he heard rustling sounds around him, but when he looked, he only saw some branches quietly retracting.
"The first step to lighting the furnace is to find you a godparent."
Second Uncle carried Hu Ma through the forest, eventually stopping under a large willow tree by a stream.
The willow tree was ancient, its trunk thick enough to embrace, its branches hanging down like countless strands of hair in the darkness.
"Little Hu Ma, kneel down and kowtow. Be sincere."
Second Uncle set Hu Ma down and said, "I’ll be your witness. From today on, this is your godmother."
(End of Chapter)