Chapter 235: Darkness

Chapter 235 Darkness

"Senior Brother Li, who is Wang Wei?" Hearing Li Huowang muttering to himself, Bai Lingmiao beside him could hardly restrain herself from asking.

Li Huowang shook his head indifferently. "Heh, Wang Wei is nobody. He does not exist at all."

With Bai Lingmiao's support, Li Huowang led the others gradually back.

Compared to entering, the way back seemed less torturous.

After all, no one had died, and they had found the Black Tai Sui; everyone walked with light steps.

"Senior Brother Li, we won't rush to leave on the way back, right? Can we rest properly at Old Sun's place? I want to eat several more meals of mutton properly. Coming to this wretched place once costs at least half a year of lifespan."

The speaker was Gouwa, his face blotched white and yellow, staring at Li Huowang with a bitter gourd expression.

Glancing around at the exhaustion on everyone else's faces, Li Huowang nodded. "Fine, thank you all for your help on this trip. Resting a bit longer is only right."

People are not made of iron after all; he indeed needed to consider others' endurance.

Hearing this, Gouwa excitedly clenched his fists. Thinking of those delicious muttons, drool began to form involuntarily in his mouth.

"Oh my, Qingqiu's mutton truly lives up to its reputation. Nowhere else can compare."

"Wait a moment, Gouwa, what are you holding in your hand?" Li Huowang saw some white fur fragments floating around with the shaking of his fist.

Gouwa raised his fist before Li Huowang and opened it. "Oh, this? These are white fur fragments from those lions. I cut off quite a lot. Since it turned Sun Baolu like that, it certainly isn't an ordinary thing."

"Perhaps in a big city, we can sell them for a good price. It could subsidize us, couldn't it? Food and clothing expenses along the way were considerable."

Those white tufts wrapped in cloth were presented before Li Huowang. Piles looked like balls of cotton.

Li Huowang shook his head; Gouwa couldn't talk three sentences without mentioning money. "Those dancing lions are dead. Whether this stuff is useful is debatable, yet you brought it back?"

Hearing this, Gouwa's heart skipped a beat. He cautiously extended his little finger and gently scratched against the white tufts.

Then he watched helplessly as his fingernail cap twisted with his sliding motion, flipping to where the fingerpad should be, while the fingerprinted pad shifted to where the nail cap belonged.

"This... this... this..." Gouwa looked at his reversed little finger, helpless, turning to Li Huowang. "Senior Brother Li, it's reversed, it's reversed."

"Why panic? Whether front or back, it functions the same. Don't rush to sell this thing for money either. Better figure out how to use it to kill enemies, say, wrap it on a needle and blow it out through a thin tube or something."

Li Huowang's reminder made Gouwa's eyes light up instantly. "Ah! Right! Senior Brother Li knows characters after all, smarter than me, a mud-legged peasant."

At this moment, his heart grew somewhat excited. Counting this, he possessed a divine power to transform bodies.

Regardless of truth or falsehood, if he showed this trick before that woman, wouldn't they rush to be his wife?

Moreover, he wouldn't need to play second fiddle anymore; he could also help Senior Brother Li.

Thinking of this, Gouwa ignored his flipped little finger, quickly took off his shirt, and carefully wrapped up those white tufts.

Just as Gouwa pondered his little schemes, he noticed the others' steps slowly stopping.

"Wait a moment, something is wrong. How come we've walked so long and haven't reached that bronze ding yet?"

Li Huowang's words were like a basin of cold water poured onto everyone's hearts, extinguishing the joy within and making some timid ones tremble inside.

Everyone looked blankly at the surrounding darkness, attempting to find similarities with the way they came.

But to their despair, the darkness all around was completely identical.

"This place is wrong! It makes us get lost!" The previous relaxation vanished completely; anxiety and tension hung on everyone's faces.

"Don't panic! Look at the footprints! We follow the footprints!" Li Huowang's words made everyone thrust the glowing stones in their hands to the ground immediately.

Seeing the clear footprints on the ground calmed everyone's panicked hearts slightly.

"Go! We retreat back, following the footprints backwards."

Afterwards, everyone started moving according to Li Huowang's instructions, even if footprints weren't clear in some places.

The blood spots constantly dripping from Li Huowang indicated the way back for them.

One quarter hour, two quarter hours, half an shichen passed. Clearly, they hadn't walked for so long before.

Yet now the dancing lion corpses still hadn't appeared, while blood spots on the ground continued spreading into the darkness.

Sun Baolu, eyes carrying a hint of despair, looked at Li Huowang. "Senior Brother Li, we can't get out. This cave wants to swallow us completely."

Trapped in such a desperate situation, Li Huowang's expression also became very ugly, but suddenly his expression turned puzzled.

"Shh~!" Li Huowang lowered his body quickly, closing his eyes and listening intently with furrowed brows.

In this strange posture, he began to move, walking slowly towards the east. "Put away the stones, there are human voices...."

Others complied. When darkness enveloped everyone, each heart panicked involuntarily; they held onto each other to avoid getting lost.

"Where are human voices? Why can't I hear anything?" As soon as Gouwa said this, Li Huowang covered his mouth.

They walked forward side by side. After about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, Li Huowang suddenly stopped. Others listened carefully but still heard no sound.

However, a sharp old man's voice pierced Li Huowang's ears. "Let me test you. Born as a human, what makes one human?"

Immediately, a milky-voiced little girl answered: "Humans are made of flesh, so flesh is human."

Li Huowang's brows gradually furrowed. He stopped in place, listening to what these two entities in the darkness were saying.

"Not so! Mortal flesh is merely a skin bag."

"But Master didn't say that. He said don't think too much, humans are just made of flesh,"

"Don't believe our Master. That old man's words are all fabricated! It's all fake."

"Can you stop beating around the bush? If you won't speak, don't speak, I'm annoyed!" The little girl's voice carried a hint of irritability.

The old man's voice carried a hint of pride. "Human is One, One is Human. Because everyone possesses this One, One gives birth to Two, transforming into Life and Death Dual Forces. Then Two gives birth to Three, extending later into the Three Corpses and Seven Emotions."

"Cultivating the Dao is cultivating that One. So we must discard the Seven Emotions, sever the Three Corpses, break Life and Death, only then can we become that One!"

(End of Chapter)