Chapter 253: Mutton

Chapter 253 Mutton

The wheels of the ox cart, long idle, began to roll once more, carrying them toward the border between the Liang Kingdom and Qingqiu.

On the road, Gouwa, shielding his forehead with his hand, fanned his sweating face repeatedly. "It's so hot today, Senior Brother Li, why don't we just wait until tomorrow to go?"

"Tomorrow will be hot too, so shall we go the day after? The day after will be hot too, so shall we wait until autumn passes? Since that place is so good, why did you follow us along? Wouldn't it be better to herd sheep with Baolu?"

Hearing Li Huowang's mockery, Gouwa glanced at the remaining women, chuckled softly, and fell silent again.

He wasn't that foolish; he was about to win over a wife, how could he stay behind? Was meat really better than a wife? Besides, following Senior Brother Li, would he fear having no meat to eat?

Noticing Gouwa's gaze, the pear-faced woman first looked at Li Huowang, then immediately feigned coquettishness and shot him a sidelong glance.

"Hoo~" Li Huowang slowly unfolded the parchment in his hand, gazing at the so-called Imprint of the Immortal Capital upon it. This counted as one of the few unexpected gains from their journey beneath Qingqiu, aside from the Black Tai Sui.

"Senior Brother Li, what is this?" asked Zhao Wu, who was driving the ox cart.

"A cultivation method for supernatural powers."

Li Huowang's words instantly drew the burning gazes of the others. "Then have you practiced it, Senior Brother Li?"

"I haven't practiced it, dare not practice it. After all, it was forcibly pried from its mouth. One fears not ten thousand possibilities but the one chance; who knows if there are problems."

Tampering with cultivation methods was a trick Li Huowang knew all too well; back then, he relied on this very trick to escape from Qingfeng Temple. He certainly didn't want to end up like Dan Yangzi.

Li Huowang pulled out the copper coin sword from his back, played with it in his hand for a moment, then sheathed it again. "Hmm... I need to find someone to test it out."

"Senior Brother Li! Me! Me!" Li Huowang looked up and found the speaker was the only surviving Daoist acolyte, Yang Xiaohai, whose eyes brimmed with fervor.

"Do your job properly; don't meddle blindly in adult matters."

This thing might easily turn into a trap; using one of his own people was definitely out of the question. He needed to find someone whose status was just right, so that if something went wrong, they wouldn't suffer consequences.

"Senior Brother Li, look quickly, what is this!" Chun Xiaoman reached into the tent and pulled out a golden box inlaid with agate and gems; the gold ingots inside were strangely familiar.

Li Huowang paused for a moment; he remembered this item. It was Sun Baolu's mother's dowry, surely slipped in secretly by her last night.

He understood the meaning behind her action; undoubtedly, since he had restored Sun Baolu's body to its original state, she sent this gold as payment to repay him.

He turned his head to look back; the tents were long gone, leaving only vast expanses of green.

"Forget it, since it is someone's kind intention, let's not refuse it. Keep it as travel money, and when we reach the Liang Kingdom, it can help establish a household foundation."

For the next period, perhaps because Qingqiu was vast and sparsely populated, or perhaps because bad luck lasted long enough that good fortune began to arrive, the journey remained calm without any incidents.

They traveled for over a month; although the dog days of summer had passed, the weather grew hotter and hotter.

A harsh bird cry exploded from the sky. Li Huowang, who was studying the parchment map in his hand, looked up at the blurry speck in the air, then returned his gaze to the object in his hand.

He handed the map to Bai Lingmiao beside him and asked, "Can you read this? Do you remember where your family's Ox Heart Mountain is?"

Although the map of the Liang Kingdom collected from Qingqiu was not very detailed, the general shape was still marked out.

With entry into the Liang Kingdom imminent, it was time to determine the specific location of their destination.

"This... isn't right... this isn't right either..." Facing the various winding lines on the map, Bai Lingmiao's expression was very hesitant.

Trying to find the hometown from her memory among these simple lines was obviously very difficult, though it wasn't her fault; sometimes even Li Huowang got confused looking at this map, drawn far too rudely. Li Huowang took the map back, thinking silently: "It seems regarding this Ox Heart Mountain, we must buy a new map after entering the Liang Kingdom and ask the locals."

"By the way, I remember, aren't you from the Liang Kingdom? Where exactly are you from?" Li Huowang turned his head to look at Gouwa.

"It's fine, I don't mind not going back. I grew up eating rice from many households; if I don't return, I can save some grain for my fellow villagers."

Gouwa said with a smile, showing no expectation of returning home; his eyes were fixed entirely on the pear-faced woman beside the carriage ahead.

Li Huowang saw through it but said nothing, looked up at the sun in the sky, and spoke: "The time is about right, let's have noon meal. We're almost out of Qingqiu, so let's slaughter a sheep."

Hearing this, everyone's faces brightened, filled with joy. Although meat was not lacking in Qingqiu, they had been poor all their lives and hadn't eaten enough meat yet.

Li Huowang wasn't suddenly being so extravagant; it was just that the Liang Kingdom clearly didn't have as much grass to feed sheep as Qingqiu. If they didn't eat them now, the sheep would starve thin by the time they reached Liang.

"Baa~~ Baa~~" An old sheep was dragged out of the flock by Gouwa pulling its horns, driven toward the riverbank in the distance.

Having eaten sheep so many times on this journey, everyone was already accustomed to the process: bleed first, then skin, then open the belly, steps concise and clear.

The white sheep body was rubbed evenly with salt and spices, then skewered with that twelve-foot halberd, placed between the two carts to roast.

If Peng Longteng saw his weapon being desecrated like this, he would probably be angry enough to come back to life.

Looking at the dry sheep dung burning below, and the whole roasted sheep sizzling with oil above, Gouwa licked his tongue and smiled: "Hehehe, this counts as the original soup digesting the original food, quite comfortable."

After being hit on the back of the head by Chun Xiaoman, Gouwa shrank his neck and turned to walk toward the group of women picking wild vegetables.

When the whole roasted sheep was done, the wild vegetable and sheep offal soup was ready over there; greasy roasted meat paired perfectly with light vegetable soup.

Everyone gathered in groups of three or five on the grass, enjoying this feast.

Gouwa smiled as he broke open the sheep head belonging to him, pulled out the long sheep tongue inside, and placed it in the bowl of wild vegetables held by the pear-faced woman. "Hong'er~ Come, I specially saved this good thing for you, sheep tongue."

That woman named Hong'er shyly cradled the bowl in her arms, picked up the long tongue with her hand, and ate it bite by bite.

Facing Gouwa's emaciated body leaning close, she offered no objection.

Meanwhile, Yang Xiaohai nearby, facing the round-faced woman asking for his sheep tail, refused indignantly.

At this moment, Zhao Wu sitting on the ox cart, seeing this scene, revealed a trace of envy deep in his eyes.

But glancing at his own limbs which lacked strength, Zhao Wu sighed lightly, focusing all his attention on the wild vegetable and sheep offal soup in his hand.

(End of Chapter)