Huh? Isn't this an adventure kingdom building game?!-Chapter 90: The Story in the Textbook

"Ha, after having a child, you’re taking me hostage and making us willingly become slaves?"

Qiao Mei had prepared for two scenarios from the start. If bribing the village chief could save her daughter, she would give him three gold coins and then find a chance to take her daughter and the remaining gold to find her son. If the bribe failed, knowing they would definitely try to seize the gold through foul play, she must be ready to flee at any moment.

Thus, upon hearing the other’s outright refusal, she feigned shock while actually gathering her strength, waiting for the moment when they lunged at her to silence her, she would strike back, colliding into the village chief’s chest. The village chief never expected such a skinny woman to resist and, caught off guard, stumbled back a step, losing the opportunity.

Qiao Mei turned and ran toward the west of the village, shouting as she ran, "The village chief stole my gold! Whoever gets it can have it!"

Originally, there were guards nearby to prevent anyone from approaching Cat Hill, but seeing her acting like a madwoman, fighting and biting whoever she encountered while shouting about the village chief stealing her gold, the word "gold" was too enticing for anyone to bother stopping her.

The guards all rushed towards the village, hoping to seize some advantage.

Qiao Mei dashed through the forest straight towards Cat Hill.

If someone could still turn the tide, in her limited knowledge, it was only that young man at Shuiyun Lake who sheltered Wan Mingchuan. Back then, he saved many villagers from the rat demon, so he should be able to save her daughter from being thrown into the river!

"Help!" Qiao Mei didn’t know how long she had been running, but countless times her lungs burned with pain, and her legs grew weak and numb, making her nearly fall. Yet she knew she must not fall; her daughter was still waiting to be rescued. Her son was heading alone to Anping Town; they had no father anymore and absolutely could not lose their mother too!

When she saw the welcoming house at the end of the wide bluestone road, Qiao Mei, almost beyond her limit, mustered up her last strength and sprinted at top speed, "Wan Mingchuan! Little Immortal! Please save my child!"

"It’s Aunt Lin from the Lin Family!" The voice calling for help reached Wan Mingchuan.

He couldn’t hear clearly, so he got up and stepped out of the yard. Upon seeing her, his pupils constricted suddenly, "Master, quick, quick..."

He didn’t even know what to urge his master to do quickly, but seeing Aunt Lin in this state, something big must have happened!

"Thud!"

Almost colliding in front of Wan Mingchuan, Qiao Mei completely lost her strength and fell to the ground, but she still held on to a breath and urgently said, "The Big Three families said the village needs to offer a bride to the River God; they chose Xi’Er! I’m begging you and your master to save Xi’Er, or she’ll be drowned!"

"The River God taking a bride?" Jiang Yuan, who had followed out, was stunned.

He never expected the story he learned from a textbook in elementary school to be happening in the Wilderness World just like that!

[Qiao Mei: A villager from Riverfront Village, due to starvation and urgency, bursts into a running speed for too long causing her life energy to be extremely weak. Food can be made using the stove or purchased at the market to replenish.]

Along with the system prompt, a nearly empty and extremely short health bar appeared above Qiao Mei’s head. Even at full health, she looked like she couldn’t withstand two hits from herself now.

"Don’t worry, eat something to restore your physical strength first." Jiang Yuan quickly took a pack of braised pork knuckle from his storage bag and handed it over, "Eat up and rest, I’ll go save your daughter."

Wan Mingchuan helped her to sit down and fed her the fragrant pork meat.

"Thank you, Little Immortal, I..." After a few bites, Qiao Mei’s health bar gradually restored, giving her energy and strength. Watching his bright eyes, she suddenly had a delusional feeling—that his eyes seemed able to see things now.

It was probably because of cultivating an immortal technique.

Without thinking much, she glanced up at the sun, which was almost overhead, and urgently asked, "What should we do? They said the wedding ceremony will be at noon! What about my Xi’Er?"

"Master..." Wan Mingchuan hesitated. Although he knew his master had powerful and mysterious means, they were going to sacrifice to the River God!

His master originally had no ties to Riverfront Village and had even saved villagers, yet was maligned and slandered.

Would he offend the River God for the sake of Lin Chunxi, whom he only met once?

"Time is tight; we must hurry." Jiang Yuan didn’t think so much. He already understood that so-called immortals were just demon or ghost cultivators. Just like dealing with Yin Messenger and Yin Mountain’s female corpse, he’d handle this the same way.

If negotiations could be reached without sacrificing human lives, that would be best; otherwise, if negotiating failed and it wanted to consume people, it’s simple. There were still plenty of scoundrels to deal with among the families loyal to the Big Three; throw a few of them for it to eat, wouldn’t that suffice?

Originally intending to travel together on the golden eagle, he feared Qiao Mei’s pale complexion and weak body couldn’t withstand it, so he went to the storage box in the straw house to adjust the items in his storage bag.

He then took out one golden eagle and two paper horses, breathed life into them, rode the golden eagle, and advised, "Mingchuan, you two riding the horses won’t be slow and will be steadier. I’ll go ahead to ensure Lin Chunxi won’t be thrown into the river and drown; you two come after."

The textbook had given the best solution, just follow it, didn’t it?

"Alright!" Wan Mingchuan agreed, assisting Qiao Mei onto the horse and comforting her, "Don’t worry, Auntie, since my master has taken action, he will definitely save Chunxi! You don’t need to be afraid of riding, the horse my master made is especially gentle and obedient."

With that, he mounted the horse, squeezed the sides, and galloped off with a shocked and speechless Qiao Mei towards Cat Hill.

It was still early; "River Goddess" Lin Chunxi had been washed thoroughly, dressed in a simple bridal outfit made hastily, her hair was adorned with flowers, and her lips painted with red lipstick.

"Mom? Where’s my mom?" With her head full of flowers, her already petite face appeared even more innocent.

Being asked to sit upright in a temporarily erected simple pavilion, with red curtains hanging on all sides fluttering in the wind, she could see the chaotic crowd not far away.

She couldn’t see the figures of her mother and brother and gazed at the rolling river water, feeling more and more desperate.

"Qiao Mei said, said there are three more pieces of gold!" The gold coins on the village chief hadn’t even warmed up before being discovered by the Xu family’s elder who rushed over. Faced with his father-in-law, the man who secured his position as the village chief by being a son-in-law mumbled vaguely, "She seemed crazy, who knows if she was telling the truth..."

"Fool!" The Xu family elder glared at him, "Pure gold placed in front of you and you can’t tell if it’s real? There must be three more pieces, find them quickly! Wait, where did that woman go?"

The village chief pointed towards Cat Hill, "She went shouting and raving into the mountain, and Da Lin who was supposed to be guarding accidentally got bitten and couldn’t stop her."

"I’ll ask her daughter." The Xu family elder, dissatisfied that his son-in-law didn’t seize all the gold, sauntered over to the pavilion, putting on a benevolent and amiable façade, smilingly said, "Dear Chunxi, you’re about to become the River Goddess of our village. As long as you keep the River God happy and bring favorable weather to the village, your mom and brother will enjoy a good life too!"

Seeing the young girl staring blankly at the river, he asked, "Where did your mom get the gold from?"

No wonder she hadn’t seen the figures of her mom and brother, they must have tried to use the gold to save her, only to be deceived by the greedy Big Three!

Now, she couldn’t even cry, having stayed up all night making her groggy, she suddenly recalled a story her mom told when she was little: A poor man couldn’t sleep at night from hunger and discovered golden light on the mountain. Upon investigation, he found it was the Mountain God drying gold in moonlight. The Mountain God gave him a bag of gold, and he lived a happy life with lots of good food afterward.

"The gold... was given by the Mountain God!" Facing impending doom and unsure of what would happen to her mom and brother now that the gold was found, Lin Chunxi blurted out with a serious face, "You know there’s gold in the Old Dragon Cave, right? The Mountain God oversees all that. If you marry me to the Mountain God, you’ll definitely get lots and lots of gold!"