Chapter 136: Zuowang Dao

Chapter 136 The Path of Sitting and Forgetting

Gazing at the abbess before him, Li Huowang gripped his sword in one hand and bowed to her with the utmost solemnity.

"Many thanks for bestowing this sword upon me, Abbess! As long as I draw breath, I shall repay this kindness a thousandfold!"

Li Huowang was never one for eloquent words; rather than dwelling on what to say, he placed far greater emphasis on what to do.

He knew perfectly well in his own heart who treated him well and who treated him ill.

Upon hearing this, Abbess Jingxin's tone immediately turned somewhat displeased.

"Who said I was bestowing it upon you? This is a sale, mind you, so do not even think of defaulting on the debt—thirty thousand taels with interest, not a single copper coin short, and every bit of it you must repay."

"I know you cannot produce the money right this moment, so here is what we will do: whenever your purse is heavy in the future, just have the courier post send some over. A thousand taels of gold would never be too much, nor would half a string of copper coins be too little."

"There, there, the matter is settled, so you may go. I will not keep you for a meal, as I doubt you would care for the vegetarian fare in our nunnery. Just remember to bring more pastries next time you visit."

With that, Abbess Jingxin shifted her corpulent frame, turning and waddling back toward the inner chambers.

Seeing this, Li Huowang hurried forward to stop her, for he still had other questions to ask.

"Wait a moment, Abbess, I still have a few trivial matters to inquire about."

"Sigh, you child are truly long-winded. Hurry up and ask, for I need to take a nap after my meal," Abbess Jingxin remarked, showing clear impatience.

Standing rooted to the spot, Li Huowang deliberated for a few seconds before asking, "Abbess, I have only just stepped into the martial world and remain ignorant of the various factions across the realm. Could you enlighten me on their taboos and the depths of their power?"

"What is there to enlighten or not enlighten about?" The abbess scratched her belly with her hand, thoroughly impatient.

"You are a Heart's Purity, are you not? When you run into people from other sects, how else are you supposed to deal with them? Run, of course."

"Just like that?" Li Huowang was evidently taken aback.

"Of course just like that. Did you expect to run over and chat with them for a while? Have you not already suffered losses at the Zhengde Temple?"

"You are a Heart's Purity, which means in the eyes of others, you are no different from a ginseng spirit tied with a red string. No matter what cult or what person it is, fight if you can win, and run if you cannot."

"And do not even think about joining them. There has never been a sect that takes a bewildered Heart's Purity as a disciple, not even the Anci Nunnery. If anyone tells you otherwise, they surely harbor malicious intentions toward you."

The words of Abbess Jingxin struck Li Huowang like a sudden, sobering blow to the head.

"Truly, there is no one else to trust besides you?"

"None. Who would help you for no reason at all?" The three layers of fat on the abbess's chin swayed from side to side as she shook her head.

Although he had long known this, upon hearing the news from Jingxin's own lips, Li Huowang still felt profoundly disheartened.

The road ahead for him was likely to be far from peaceful.

After carefully digesting this information, Li Huowang raised another question he had been pondering along the way.

"Abbess, could you enlighten me on the cultivation methods of the Anci Nunnery? How do you attain your supernatural powers?"

Over these past many days, aside from knowing that the Xianjing Cult achieved it through sacrifices to Ba Hui, he remained utterly in the dark as to why certain people in this world could obtain supernatural powers.

"Ha~" The abbess yawned. "What use is it for you to ask this? Even if I told you, you could not cultivate it. Have you not seen that the Anci Nunnery is full of nuns?"

"It matters not. I still beg for your clarification."

"Sigh, it is not that I will not tell you, but that kind of technique cannot be spoken aloud; it must be written in women's script, and besides, you are a man..."

With the matter laid out so plainly, Li Huowang did not wish to make things difficult for her.

"Then I thank you for your guidance, Abbess. Until we meet again." Bowing once more, Li Huowang turned and walked toward the gate.

Just as he lowered his head, cradling the long sword in both hands to examine it carefully, the abbess's voice suddenly rang out from behind.

"Hold on a moment. You interrupted me just now, and I nearly forgot. It just came back to me—there is a certain group of people you truly need to watch out for."

These words immediately made Li Huowang prick up his ears, and he quickly turned around to say, "I am all ears."

"Remember this well. That group of people is called the Path of Sitting and Forgetting."

"The Path of Sitting and Forgetting?" Li Huowang subconsciously frowned, feeling as though he had heard these three words somewhere before.

Yet, after pondering it carefully, he realized he had absolutely no memory of the Path of Sitting and Forgetting.

"Sigh, I am talking to you. Why do you keep spacing out, child? If you do not want to listen, I will simply stop talking."

"Abbess, please enlighten me. Why single them out? Could it be that this group, the Path of Sitting and Forgetting, does not harbor hostility toward the Heart's Purity?"

"No."

"When others do things, whether they rob you or kill you, there is always a reason. But the Path of Sitting and Forgetting is an entirely different matter."

"This group, the Path of Sitting and Forgetting, is a band of swindlers who love to gamble."

"Hmm?" Li Huowang was somewhat bewildered at this moment.

"The Path of Sitting and Forgetting is neither a band of bandits occupying a mountain, nor a cultivation sect. No one knows what those people even are. The only certainty is that they love to play tricks, and for the sake of playing tricks, they have no taboos."

"Aside from gambling with money, what these swindlers love most is playing people."

"Let me give you an example. They once pretended to be the emperor's eunuchs and tricked an entire city of men into castrating themselves. They did it simply because they were bored and wanted a laugh."

After the abbess had spoken so much, Li Huowang still did not understand what she was trying to convey.

He asked, his voice tinged with a hint of hesitation, "A group of gamblers who love to deceive people? But... what does that have to do with me?"

Not to mention how many factions covet him, why would the abbess bring this up so abruptly and out of the blue?

"Sigh, have you forgotten that you are a Heart's Purity who cannot distinguish truth from falsehood? If they were to run into you, what do you think they would do?"

"If they so much as find out you are a Heart's Purity, the matter will not be so simple."

"Even if that is the case, why would I be deceived by a bunch of mortal gamblers who play tricks? Why would you be so tense, Abbess?"

The abbess closed her eyes and shook her head. "They are not just a bunch of gamblers. I do not know where they got some of their supernatural powers from, but they are exceedingly bizarre and troublesome."

"Besides that, their most skilled art of deception is incredibly formidable, so much so that they could even fool me."

"Last time, a member of the Path of Sitting and Forgetting sneaked into the Anci Nunnery, trying to trick us into breaking our vows. Fortunately, we discovered them, and in the end, they saw the light and returned to the Buddhist fold."

"Remember this: the people in the Path of Sitting and Forgetting are not afraid of death. You must absolutely not let them stick to you, otherwise, more and more will cling to you."

"They even dare to trick you?"

"Mm! Not only do they dare to trick me, they even want to trick gods! I heard that a hundred years ago, a group of the Path of Sitting and Forgetting pondered in secret for over thirty years and actually managed to trick the God of Joy."

"The God of Joy? The God of Joy from the Hu family shrine?" Li Huowang's pupils contracted slightly.

"No, that is the God of Joy. I am talking about the God of Double Happiness." The abbess scraped her fat flesh with her blackened fingernails.

(End of Chapter)