Chapter 22: Exit

Chapter 22: The Exit

Inside the alchemy chamber of the Breeze Temple, Li Huowang stood rooted to the spot, drenched in his master's blood, clearly yet to process what had happened. "Were those three pills really that powerful? What exactly were Danyangzi and I refining—elixirs or explosives?"

After lying on the ground for a long while, he finally pushed himself up, wiped his face with a hand, and bent over to sift through the debris on the floor.

Having searched for ages without finding a single twitching chunk of flesh, and seeing that even Danyangzi's copper bell had been blasted flat, Li Huowang finally breathed a sigh of relief; Danyangzi was truly, thoroughly dead by his own hand.

"But he's dead, so what do I do now?" Li Huowang stood there, momentarily at a loss as to which way to go.

Li Huowang had always assumed he would be overjoyed after exacting his revenge, yet when the moment truly arrived, he found himself lost in a haze of confusion.

All his planning over these past days had revolved entirely around killing Danyangzi. He had never once considered that he might actually survive.

Now Danyangzi was dead, Bai Lingmiao was safe, and he had fulfilled all his promises. What was left to do?

Just as he was pondering this question, the door to the alchemy chamber was suddenly pushed open, and Changren and Changming entered cautiously, each holding a longsword aloft with one hand.

Glancing left and right and failing to find Danyangzi, they turned their wary gazes upon the blood-soaked Li Huowang. "Halt! What manner of demon are you? Speak! Where is our master?"

"Master? You're stepping on him. Also, it's me, Xuanyang, senior brothers."

These words made Changren and Changming instinctively look down and lift their feet, revealing bits of viscera beneath their soles; their pupils instantly contracted to pinpricks.

Li Huowang looked around, picked up half of Danyangzi's face from the ground, and said, "See, he's really dead."

"I killed him," Li Huowang muttered to them, almost talking to himself.

"Logically speaking, he's slaughtered countless people in his life and deserved to die long ago, but that's not why I killed him. I killed him for a personal grudge."

Just as Li Huowang was about to explain his reasons to the two men before him, Changming and Changren exchanged a glance and, without a single word, swiftly sheathed their swords and bolted out the door.

"Hey, wait until I finish talking before you leave!" Li Huowang called out to them helplessly.

After shouting for a while with no response, Li Huowang gave a bitter smile, clutched his still-aching stomach, and walked toward the doorway.

"Scabby is dead! He's dead! Come out, everyone, you can go home now!!" Li Huowang shook the dented copper bell in his hand with all his might, shouting loudly to the surroundings.

Today was the first day of the Lunar New Year, and the piercing ring of the bell summoned no wandering deities, but instead drew out the child servants and the human ingredients.

When they saw the half-face in Li Huowang's hand, they were overcome with wild joy, throwing themselves to the ground and kowtowing in all directions.

Li Huowang walked slowly along the cavern tunnel, determined to deliver this news to the ears of every single person in the Breeze Temple.

More and more people joined his procession, beginning to shout along with him: "Scabby is dead! He's dead! We can go home!"

Just then, Li Huowang felt someone reach out to support him; he turned his head to see Bai Lingmiao, weeping tears of joy.

Li Huowang smiled at her, raising Danyangzi's half-face and waving it vigorously. "Scabby is dead, you can all go home, it's the New Year! You can all go home!"

"Yes! Senior Brother Li, you can go home too! We can all go home!"

Li Huowang's expression stiffened for a moment, then he continued to shake the copper bell in his hand with all his strength, roaring at the top of his lungs: "Danyangzi is dead! Come out, everyone! You can go home!!"

However, not everyone in the Breeze Temple was so overjoyed; just as Li Huowang approached Danyangzi's quarters, he heard the clash of metal and stone echoing from afar.

Leading the crowd over, Li Huowang saw Xuan Yuan confronting Changming and Changren in Danyangzi's filthy dwelling, all with weapons drawn, the atmosphere taut as a bowstring.

Looking at the so-called heavenly book wrapped in black thread and copper coins, Li Huowang naturally understood what they were fighting over.

"Junior Brother Xuanyang! Come quickly! Let us kill these two accomplices of Danyangzi together and share this heavenly book of immortality!" Xuan Yuan urged Li Huowang, his face stripped of its usual amiability.

Beside them, Changming stepped forward and swept his right foot, pointing his longsword directly at Li Huowang in the doorway. "Get lost if you don't want to die! Master taught you the alchemical path! In a situation like this, do you really think you can handle the two of us who cultivate the sword path?"

Li Huowang sighed softly, looking at the scene before him with a hint of helplessness. "That's not some heavenly book of immortality at all; it's just ancient scripture. Everything I said before was made up to trick Scabby."

"Don't believe Scabby's nonsense; that guy was full of lies, saying it was a personal gift from Lord Laojun. Given his nature, he probably just murdered someone and stole it. Let's go, senior brothers."

Changming and Changren pinched two black talismans between the fingers of their left hands and wiped them along their swords, instantly filling the room with a chilling, ghostly wind.

"Junior Brother Xuanyang, since you don't want to get involved, stop wasting words and just leave."

"Junior Brother Xuanyang, since you don't want to get involved, stop wasting words and just leave."

Raising their longswords, Changming and Changren spoke in unison.

Feeling Bai Lingmiao timidly tugging at his Daoist robe, Li Huowang cupped his hands in a salute to both sides and led everyone toward the cave entrance of the Breeze Temple. "Then we'll leave you to it, senior brothers. Until we meet again."

The moment Li Huowang thoughtfully shut the door behind them, the clamor of battle erupted inside.

In the dark tunnel, a group of homeward-bound people walked with fervent excitement, every hand holding an oil lamp trembling with emotion.

The tunnel was unfamiliar and rugged, requiring rope climbs from time to time, a place Li Huowang had no memory of ever visiting.

Yet he knew with absolute certainty that this was the exit of the Breeze Temple, for he saw the hands of those around him shaking ever more violently.

After walking for about the time it takes to burn two incense sticks, light began to appear in the distance of the cavern tunnel. The moment they saw the light, everyone's pace grew frantic, shifting from a walk to a run.

As they broke into a run, the distant light grew larger and larger, eventually engulfing their entire field of vision.

The instant they stepped out of the cave, almost everyone squinted; having lived in the cavern for so long, the outside world was far too bright for their eyes.

As their eyes gradually adjusted to the light, the landscape outside the Breeze Temple unfolded before them all.

The distant sky was just revealing the pale white of a fish's belly; the distant mountains and forests were so pure they lifted the spirit, resembling a delicate ink wash painting.

And just then, the first ray of morning light on the first day of the New Year pierced through the thin mist, falling upon everyone's faces.

Squinting at the sunrise in the sky, Li Huowang murmured to himself, "Did Scabby and I stay in the alchemy chamber all night? The sun is already up; the weather is truly fine today."

Suddenly, someone beside him moved—a child servant, tears streaming down his face, pumping his legs and rushing headlong down a small path that vanished into the woods.

His dash triggered a herd effect; more and more people began running in that direction, desperate to run far, far away from this place of sorrow.

Before long, only seven or eight people from the ingredient shed remained at the cave entrance, their gazes now all fixed on Li Huowang.

"Senior Brother Li, let's go too," Bai Lingmiao said, smiling brightly despite the tear tracks on her face.

"Wait a moment," Li Huowang said, pulling some slips of paper from his pocket and pressing them into Bai Lingmiao's arms. "These are the last words and home addresses left by the deceased ingredients. When you get out, find an escort agency along the way and have them delivered."

Holding the slips of paper in both hands, Bai Lingmiao stood rooted to the spot, momentarily at a loss as to what to do.

Li Huowang smiled once more at those who remained, then turned around with the oil lamp in his hand and walked back into the pitch-black Breeze Temple all alone.

(End of Chapter)