Chapter 149: Trouble

Chapter 149: Trouble

Hearing Yang Xiaohai's voice, Li Huowang snapped back to his senses, realizing they had already reached the edge of the small town.

Before him stood a few stone-built bungalows, and in front of them lay a vast, spacious horse ranch.

Camels, sheep, and horses were kept in separate pens, and the pungent stench of various livestock hit him in the face.

The people inside seemed to have noticed Li Huowang, and they all turned their gazes toward him in unison.

From their attire, it was not hard to tell that this family was in the business of trading livestock.

This also hinted from the side that the young Daoist girl, unlike Xiaoman, was not sold; her family must be well-off.

Taking the urn of ashes from Yang Xiaohai, Li Huowang took a deep breath, steadied his mind, and stepped toward them.

Seeing Li Huowang approach, a burly man pushed aside a nearby horse and came forward. "Buying livestock?"

"No, delivering something." Li Huowang sized him up; judging by his age, he was likely the girl's father.

Faced with Li Huowang's sudden visit, the strong man was clearly not immediately trusting, but when Yang Xiaohai mentioned the girl's name and some details, they finally believed him.

The news of their daughter's death was like a bolt from the blue, and the whole family gathered around the urn, weeping uncontrollably.

Looking at the sorrowful scene before him, Li Huowang thought he would be moved by their grief, but he was not.

He had seen too many dead people, to the point of being somewhat numb.

The monk beside him, seeing this, lost his smile; with a devout expression, he walked over, pressed his palms together, and began to chant for the soul in the urn.

"Amitabha... Amitabha... Amitabha..."

Because he was pestered by the girl's father for details, it was already very late when Li Huowang and the others returned to the inn.

"Come on, meeting is fate. I'll get you a fine room, so you don't have to sneak into the outhouse to sleep like before."

"I have travel money." The monk shook his cassock, and the sound of copper coins clinking came from his person.

"Besides, you're talking nonsense. When have I ever slept in someone else's outhouse?"

Hearing this, Li Huowang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where are you heading? If it's on the way, we can travel together from now on."

In this wretched place, it is not easy for a person like him to survive; if he can look out for him, he will.

"As long as I can do good deeds, I can go anywhere. I'm not picky. Let's talk tomorrow, I'm leaving first, or the communal dorm will close."

Watching the monk's receding figure, Li Huowang smiled and turned to walk into the inn.

As soon as he entered the main hall, he saw Lu Zhuangyuan, his face flushed red, arguing with his son.

"Manager Lu, what are you doing?"

Lu Zhuangyuan pushed his son away, his fingers excitedly tracing shapes in the air.

"That bunch of Nuo opera performers are shameless! Daring to say my plays came from them, that their plays are the ancestors of ours!!"

"Father, forget it, forget it. Why argue with them about this? This is their territory."

"Forget it? I can forget other things! But not this! If I don't stand up for my honor now, how can I face the ancestors? We're all actors from the lowest class, and I'd be afraid of them? Let go of me!"

Realizing it was just Lu Zhuangyuan arguing with the Nuo opera troupe, Li Huowang couldn't be bothered to get involved and turned toward his bedroom.

"Miaomiao, do you still remember that old monk? He—" Li Huowang's words abruptly stopped as he just entered the room.

Bai Lingmiao was clearly exhausted; having washed up, she was already fast asleep in bed.

Li Huowang walked to the bedside and gently stroked her face with his hand.

Feeling Li Huowang's presence, the drowsy Bai Lingmiao habitually reached out and embraced him.

Seeing her like this, Li Huowang suppressed his urge to share what had happened.

Blowing out the oil lamp, Li Huowang lay down, staring blankly at the ceiling beams.

"Phew... finally, a few rare days of peace."

Li Huowang wasn't actually that greedy; he just wanted to quietly maintain this kind of life, and that would be enough.

"Except... those two." Li Huowang turned his head slightly, looking at Jiang Yingzi and Danyangzi beside him.

In the quiet bedroom, those two entities were still far away in the distance, wearing that ambiguous, half-smiling expression.

"Hmm?" Li Huowang sat up in surprise, realizing he could actually see things in the dark.

"In terms of perception, my abilities are growing stronger and stronger," Li Huowang murmured, speaking of this news that he didn't know was good or bad.

"Senior Brother Li...?" Seeing that Bai Lingmiao was about to be woken, Li Huowang quickly patted her gently. "Sleep... sleep..."

Saying this, Li Huowang slowly closed his own eyes.

Perhaps because of years of traveling, Li Huowang fell asleep in the blink of an eye, and rarely, he did not dream.

Just as Li Huowang was resting in deep sleep, suddenly his whole body tensed, feeling something approaching.

The next moment, a sharp pain in his finger instantly woke him up.

Subconsciously raising his hand to look, he found that the flesh of his finger was torn open, bloody and mangled.

Recognizing the location and this beast-like bite mark, Li Huowang immediately realized it was bitten by Bai Lingmiao's Second God!

Looking left and right, Li Huowang did not find the woman with the red veil over her head.

Suddenly lowering his head, Li Huowang saw that there were actually three pairs of shoes by the bed; besides his and Bai Lingmiao's, there was a pair of red embroidered shoes sandwiched in between.

As Li Huowang saw them, the embroidered shoes slowly retreated under the bed.

Glancing at the sleeping Bai Lingmiao, he frowned and whispered to the space under the bed, "What are you trying to do!"

"There's something..." A soft, tingling female voice suddenly rang in Li Huowang's ear.

Li Huowang instantly gripped the hilt of his sword under his pillow with one hand, holding his breath to sense the environment outside the room.

Li Huowang's perception was extremely sharp at this moment; logically, if someone had really come, he should have sensed it, yet he felt no anomaly.

Just as Li Huowang thought the Second God was playing a trick on him, a noise came from outside the window, a crisp sound of metal clashing.

"Tap~!" Suddenly, a shadow resembling a shadow puppet was plastered against the wall.

It was hard to say what the shadow puppet represented; it looked like a spider overall, but its face was that of an old man from a New Year painting.

Six arms with barbs, and solid tentacles bearing complex patterns like paper-cuttings, retracted and extended from within.

This unknown shadow puppet crawled rapidly behind Li Huowang's window.

"Hmph, a Xinsu? And from the Ao Jing Sect, truly rare."

At the very first moment of hearing these words, Li Huowang, gripping his sword with one hand, rolled over and climbed out of bed.

(End of Chapter)