Chapter 163: See the Abbess Again

Chapter 163: Farewell Once More to the Abbess

Burdened with pastries, Li Huowang panted heavily, struggling up the dirt path of Mount Henghua.

With only one arm left and so many pastries to carry, this ascent was far more arduous than the last.

To keep the pastries from being soaked by his sweat, Li Huowang deliberately held them farther away, making the climb all the more exhausting.

Finally, at a bend in the path, he could hold out no longer; he set the pastries down and leaned against a crooked-necked tree, gasping for breath.

Having rushed to the foot of the mountain and immediately begun the climb without rest, Li Huowang suddenly felt quite hungry.

After a moment's thought, he reached into the pastry box, pulled out a mung bean cake, and popped it into his mouth.

The crisp exterior and soft interior soothed his starving stomach; he had never eaten such pastries before, yet to his surprise, they were unexpectedly delicious.

The pastries seemed freshly made that very day, flaky and fragrant, tasting far better than the cream cakes and chocolates he had eaten before his transmigration.

As for eating the Abbess's pastries, Li Huowang didn't think much of it.

It wasn't his first visit, and there was no need for formalities with the Abbess; surely, she wouldn't stand on ceremony either.

"With so many pastries, this should be enough for the Abbess to eat, right?" Li Huowang said, looking at the stack, before breaking into an understanding smile.

"No, even double this amount probably wouldn't be enough for the Abbess."

Li Huowang smiled first, then froze; when had his relationship with Abbess Jingxin become so close?

Thinking back, although the Abbess was greedy, lazy, and unkempt, she was the one person in this world, aside from his senior and junior martial siblings, who had treated him the best.

She hadn't harmed him for being of the Pure Heart, but instead helped him drive away Danyang Zi, and before he left, fearing the dangers of his journey, she had deliberately gifted him a sword.

"If it weren't for escorting Bai Lingmiao and the others home, settling down in the town at the foot of the mountain would actually be a fine choice; this is the territory of the Ance Nunnery, and other factions wouldn't dare trouble me here."

Lost in these random thoughts, Li Huowang ate more than half the box of mung bean cakes before hastily stopping himself.

Gazing at the lush green scenery of Mount Henghua all around, Li Huowang slowly exhaled in relief; suddenly thinking of something, he reached into his robe and pulled out a book—the translated text of the True Scripture of the Fire Ao.

As he slowly opened it, intending to see how much he had been influenced by Danyang Zi, he was shocked to find that he couldn't recognize a single character.

This bizarre change made Li Huowang's heart clench tightly just as he was catching his breath. "No, I must hurry!! Danyang Zi's speed of seizing my body is accelerating! If I delay any longer, I'll be completely assimilated by Danyang Zi!"

Li Huowang quickly stuffed the book back into his robe, picked up the pastries again, and continued climbing along the dirt path.

Finally, after the moon had risen high in the sky, Li Huowang returned to the gates of the Ance Nunnery.

Seeing the diamond-shaped couplet written in Nüshu once more, Li Huowang felt a sudden surge of warmth and familiarity.

"Abbess, I'm back! Look what I've brought for you all!"

The excited Li Huowang called out as he walked toward the pitch-black Ance Nunnery.

"No lamps lit inside the nunnery? Looks like they couldn't be bothered to light them."

The moment his front foot stepped into the dilapidated Bodhisattva Temple, Li Huowang suddenly felt that something was off.

"Why... isn't it stinking anymore?"

Li Huowang threw the pastries in his hands to the ground, stood still, and took several deep breaths, shocked to discover that the thick, pungent stench that usually permeated the Ance Nunnery had vanished without a trace!

"No! Something is terribly wrong!" With his mind in turmoil, Li Huowang disregarded everything else and dashed toward the depths of the nunnery.

"Abbess Jingxin! Miaoyin!! Miaoxin!! Where are you!!"

Li Huowang's voice echoed continuously through the nunnery, yet it drew no response from anyone; his heart plunged into sheer panic.

Suddenly, Li Huowang heard some commotion in the distance; he hurried over, and only upon drawing close did he realize it was the grunting and snorting of pigs.

When he reached the pigpen behind the latrine, the sight before him froze him instantly in his tracks.

A fat woman, as large as a small cottage, lay in the pigpen, surrounded by black-haired, plump pigs clustering around her like suckling piglets.

Yet they were not nursing; they were eating a human!

The troughs, meant for swill and feces, opened and closed as they tore fatty, bloody flesh from the giant woman and swallowed it down; every pig's snout was smeared blood-red as they feasted with relish.

"Get away!" Red-eyed, Li Huowang drew his sword and charged down; before the pigs could even turn around, he executed a sweeping slash, cleaving them all in half.

The remaining black pigs, terrified by Li Huowang's murderous aura, scattered and fled in all directions.

When Li Huowang reached the dead giant, he slowly fell to his knees, cradling the head that had been gnawed down to half a face—it was the face of Abbess Jingxin.

"Ahhh!!" Li Huowang's heart-wrenching scream echoed throughout the entire Ance Nunnery.

Clutching the Abbess's face tightly, Li Huowang's tears fell to the ground. Abbess Jingxin was dead; the only person in this world who had been good to him had taken his heart's hope with her into the grave.

"Who did this!!" Nearly driven mad, Li Huowang burst out of the pigpen like a whirlwind, sword in hand, searching the nunnery for the enemy.

Yet, aside from finding more corpses of nuns, he found no one else alive within the nunnery.

Abbess Jingxin had been dead for some time; whoever those people were, they had long since departed.

"Who on earth killed them!!" This thought nearly consumed Li Huowang's entire mind, but as he drew his sword and charged toward the mountain gate, he gradually slowed to a halt.

With bloodshot eyes, Li Huowang returned to Abbess Jingxin, drew his long sword once more, and began digging a grave right beside her; he had to bury the Abbess, unwilling to let her be gnawed by pigs in death.

The grave needed to be large enough to bury the Abbess, and Li Huowang dug for a long, long time, only barely finishing by noon the next day.

Just as Li Huowang was about to push the Abbess into the grave, he noticed something unusual; her body had lain there all night, showing no signs of rotting, nor had it attracted a single fly.

Seeing this, Li Huowang subconsciously recalled the corpses on the water's surface; they too had not rotted, remaining just as lifelike.

"Could they all have been killed by the same group of people! Do those killed by them never rot? Who are they?!"

"Something's wrong! Wait!" Li Huowang suddenly realized he had overlooked something; after a moment's thought, he rushed back into the pigpen to look at the black-haired pigs he had killed earlier.

After a night and a day, the pigs he had killed also showed no signs of rotting and had not attracted a single fly.

Li Huowang stumbled out of the pigpen, looking around in disbelief at the surroundings, which bore absolutely no traces of a struggle.

In any world, decay is an indispensable part of the cycle.

Yet at this moment, it was as if this world had suddenly developed a flaw, as if the very function of decay had broken down.

"Perhaps... the Abbess wasn't killed by someone else."

Only now realizing the truth, Li Huowang turned to look at Abbess Jingxin; her skin, which should have been rotting, covered in pustules and maggots, was now incredibly smooth and pale.

The "decay" of this world had vanished.

(End of Chapter)