Chapter 111: Solution

Chapter 111: The Solution

Sitting on the ground, Li Huowang's face was etched with profound hesitation and inner struggle.

Having remained rooted to the spot, lost in thought for a long, long time, he finally took up the writing brush and began to write on the xuan paper.

Yet, after every few characters, Li Huowang would pause for a lengthy while.

Unaccustomed to the brush was one issue, but more importantly, Li Huowang was already beginning to forget how to write many common characters.

Li Huowang understood that this meant he was growing more and more like Danyang Zi.

After writing a sprawling mass of text, Li Huowang concluded with five large characters: Li Huowang's Final Words.

Having finished this, Li Huowang blew the ink dry and handed the paper to the plump nun beside him.

"If my senior and junior martial brothers and sisters come looking for me, I trouble you to deliver this letter to the tall one; he can read."

Immediately after, he handed over the Heavenly Book gourd and the Daoist bell. "I also trouble you to give these three items to them."

"They know how to use the gourd and the bell. As for the Heavenly Book, let it serve as a keepsake for them."

Miaoyin's gaze flickered over the three items before shifting to the Record of a Myriad Worlds at Li Huowang's waist.

"You're not giving that away?"

Li Huowang's hand rested on the bamboo slips that had brought him endless agony. He shook his head slightly. "No. This thing is inauspicious. Leaving it with them would make my departure uneasy; it is better it goes with me."

Having sorted out all his affairs, Li Huowang turned his head to look at Jingxin, who was waiting nearby. "Abbess, everything is prepared."

Abbess Jingxin nodded and turned toward the depths of the Ance Nunnery, her loose, sagging flesh dragging across the floor like a skirt.

She walked ahead, and Li Huowang followed behind, clutching his abdomen. The two remained in silent communion.

They passed through the swamp of moldy food and traversed several dilapidated, filthy temples, until a short, black pagoda gradually came into view.

Seeing the pagoda, Jingxin finally spoke. "Are you truly determined to do this?"

Li Huowang nodded. "Your earlier words gave me a realization. What I have always truly wanted to do is to utterly eradicate Danyang Zi. As for whether I can survive..."

Saying this, Li Huowang chuckled softly. "Thinking back on it now, I do not actually care that much about my own life."

Li Huowang pressed against the wound on his abdomen, his face revealing intense exhaustion.

"Abbess, to speak frankly, after going through so much, I am truly tired. I do not want to see my mother suffer anymore, nor do I want to endure Danyang Zi's corrosion every moment. I just want to rest properly."

Thinking of the impending death, Li Huowang felt no fear as he had imagined; instead, a trace of relief washed over him. "Sigh, I feel so incredibly tired..."

Abbess Jingxin nodded and led him toward the pagoda. "Very well, as you wish."

"Thank you, Abbess. Among the countless people I have met in this world, you are the only truly good person."

"I am a monastic, and monastics hold compassion as their guiding principle. It is only natural."

"Abbess, since you are a disciple of the Buddha, may I ask you a question?"

"Oh? What question?"

"Do you think that in this world, when people die, do they truly become ghosts?"

"Then you are about to die yourself. Would it be better to become a ghost, or to simply vanish into nothingness?"

"I think that just being alive is exhausting enough. When dead, one should just rest and not cause any more trouble," Li Huowang said with utmost calm.

Jingxin tilted her head slightly, looking at Li Huowang anew with her shriveled eyes. "Are you truly certain you have no attachments left? Is there truly nothing in this mortal world worth lingering for?"

Li Huowang's expression stiffened slightly, his mind recalling many things. "I do, but in my current state, being with them would only bring them harm."

Seeing this, Abbess Jingxin said no more and continued walking toward the black pagoda ahead.

As they drew closer, Li Huowang heard a rustling sound, a very peculiar noise, like leaves rubbing against one another.

Looking up toward the source of the sound, he finally discerned where it was coming from. It was cockroaches, countless black insects densely packed and squeezing into the pagoda.

Jingxin did not pause her steps, but simply led Li Huowang straight into the swarm of cockroaches.

The sensation of cockroaches crawling all over his body was deeply unpleasant, but Li Huowang, resolved to die, paid it no mind.

He could only forcefully push aside the scurrying insects, barely managing to keep up without falling behind.

After walking through the cockroach swarm for about half an incense stick's time, the space before Li Huowang suddenly opened up. But before he could catch his breath, the sight before him made his whole body tremble.

Gray rats of various sizes had their tails intertwined, forming massive, huddled clusters of rats moving as one.

The rat clusters merged together, ultimately forming a colossal mountain of rats.

At this moment, the countless small and large red eyes within the rat mountain stared fixedly at Li Huowang.

Amidst the writhing rat mountain was a hole, as if waiting for someone to enter.

"This is the place, then?" Li Huowang took a deep breath and stepped toward the rat hole within the mountain.

Having taken only a few steps, Li Huowang stopped again, turning to confirm with Abbess Jingxin. "Abbess, are you certain that after I die, you can truly eliminate Danyang Zi?"

His own life was a small matter; ensuring that damned beast suffered eternal damnation was what truly mattered.

Having received a very affirmative confirmation, Li Huowang finally let out a breath of relief and stepped toward the rat hole.

In the final moment before death, the figures of Yang Na and Bai Lingmiao simultaneously surfaced in Li Huowang's mind. Gradually, their forms overlapped into one.

"Farewell, this wretched place!" Li Huowang thought, raising his foot to step inside.

Just as Li Huowang was about to crawl into the rat hole, Abbess Jingxin's voice rang out from behind.

"Since you are not even afraid of death, I can offer you another choice. If it truly proves useless, you can die then without delay."

Hearing this, Li Huowang turned his head in surprise, looking at Abbess Jingxin. "There is another way?"

His heart, which had just been like dead ashes, was instantly ignited by the Abbess's words.

Jingxin nodded, pointing a finger at the Record of a Myriad Worlds at his waist. "Seek help from the original owner of this thing."

"Them?" Li Huowang looked at the red bamboo slips in sheer astonishment. "Abbess, I never asked you before, but where does this thing, which requires flesh and blood sacrifices, come from?"

"The Xianjing Sect," Abbess Jingxin uttered a name that felt utterly alien to Li Huowang.

"In the past, they were two separate sects, the Xian Sect and the Jing Sect. Later, for some reason, they merged. The Record of a Myriad Worlds in your hands belongs to them."

"The Xianjing Sect?" Li Huowang stood rooted to the spot, murmuring to himself. He knew of Buddhism and Taoism, but this Xianjing Sect was truly his first time hearing of it.

"Do they have a way to separate Danyang Zi from my body?"

"You can go find them and try. If there is anyone in this world who can resolve your bizarre condition, it would only be those who are even more bizarre."

"Of course, if they truly help you, you might not be able to easily break free from them later. But since you are not even afraid of death, you should not be afraid of this either."

Having finished speaking, Abbess Jingxin gently folded the loose, sagging skin on her body with her hand, then traced her finger across it, cutting away a piece of human skin.

Her pitch-black fingernails swiftly traced across it, carving rectangular lines of Nüshu script onto the skin.

Having finished writing, she walked over to Li Huowang and placed the item in his hand.

"Show them this when you meet them. They will not attack you immediately upon seeing you."

"If it turns out they have no solution either, you can come back and die then without delay."

Li Huowang gently rubbed the skin letter in his hand, feeling a sense of disbelief. He had already made up his mind to face death, yet there was still a sliver of hope.

"Thank you, Abbess! If I truly manage to eliminate Danyang Zi, I will repay your kindness a thousandfold in the future!"

To live, if one can, is always preferable to dying; clinging to this final, fragile thread of vitality, Li Huowang turned and strode toward the writhing mound of cockroaches outside.

"Revered Abbess, then it is a solemn pact! If they, too, fail to vanquish Danyangzi, I shall return in two months' time and submit myself to your blade."

Scarcely had Li Huowang departed when a stout nun emerged from the seething mass of rats, making her way to Jingxin’s side.

"Revered Abbess, why go to such lengths to aid that lad Xin Su? You even entrusted him with a personal missive—a tremendous favor, especially when we are already at odds with those people."

Abbess Jingxin gazed toward the path Li Huowang had taken, her expression a tapestry of profound and tangled emotions, and only after a long, heavy silence did she finally speak.

"Just now, that child cupped my face in his hands and called me Mother."

"Do you not see it? He bears such a striking resemblance to Yu'er in her youth, not just in his features, but in the very way he carries himself and speaks."