Chapter 366: Hope

Chapter 366: Hope

Gazing at the terrifying Li Huowang, who was now smiling gently as Bai Lingmiao leaned against his chest, he shifted to a more comfortable position and lightly rubbed against him.

"Look at you, so scared. Lie down quickly, I'll explain slowly."

Li Huowang's tense body relaxed, yet his heart clenched in knots—was the Bai Lingmiao before him a great deity or a lesser one?

This point had to be clarified; it would determine what he should do next.

Bai Lingmiao closed her eyes, deep in thought, then suddenly burst into laughter for no apparent reason.

"What are you laughing at? Speak quickly!"

"Oh, how can I even begin to tell you? That feeling is hard to describe with ordinary words."

"Then just say it simply. The simpler, the better."

Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao pondered carefully before speaking slowly: "Huowang, do you know what is inside a person? Or put differently, what are people made of?"

This question caused Li Huowang to frown. He couldn't understand what the hell she was trying to explain.

"Oh~ Huowang, guess! Guess!" Bai Lingmiao's deliberately coquettish act made Li Huowang uncomfortable—he had never seen her behave like this before.

"Flesh and blood?"

"Hmm~" Bai Lingmiao shook her head slightly. "Well, if I must say, people are formed by ten emotions and eight sufferings. The ten emotions are joy, anger, sorrow, greed, hatred, delusion, fear, love, aversion, and the eight sufferings are birth, aging, illness, death, meeting those we hate, separation from those we love, unfulfilled desires, and the five aggregates."

Everyone has these ten emotions and eight sufferings, some more, some less, but everyone has them. Whatever a person does is due to these things.

Li Huowang's heart stirred. "Who told you all this? A celestial being?"

"No need to rush! Let me finish," Bai Lingmiao scolded him with a glare, continuing, "When people don’t use certain ones of these ten emotions and eight sufferings, they don’t disappear—they hide."

"Ordinarily, they're just hidden. But when someone performs spirit possession, it's different. Usually, there are two sides—a great deity and a lesser one."

Li Huowang silently looked at the two women beside him, waiting for Bai Lingmiao to continue.

"Though we share the eight sufferings, the ten emotions are divided. The celestial beings used my hidden ten emotions along with their scattered fragments to create the lesser deity."

"In other words..."

"In other words, we are one person. Though our memories differ, we are indeed Bai Lingmiao. Due to the aura of malice, I used up joy, anger, hatred, aversion, and greed, leaving none for her."

"The original Bai Lingmiao didn't use those emotions much, so they were taken by the lesser deity."

Li Huowang stared at the face so close to his, his mind swirling with confusion—these were things he'd never heard before.

"Who told you this? Celestials? Don't trust them too much! They might be deceiving you!"

"What are you saying? The Celestials aren't from the Forgetful Dao. It wouldn't be fun to trick you with something so well-known."

It was Hongzhong who spoke. As he appeared, Li Huowang instinctively pulled the blanket over Bai Lingmiao's body.

"Do you know about these ten emotions and eight sufferings too?" Li Huowang asked hesitantly.

"How novel! It's common knowledge. Aren't you hiding in the Heavenly Observation Bureau? Ask a few people around—you’ll know whether I’m telling truth or lies."

After spending so long in this world, Li Huowang still didn't know about these ten emotions and eight sufferings.

"That guy from the Luo Sect with an infant soul once mentioned them, but I didn’t pay attention."

Li Huowang remembered that his cultivation philosophy seemed to be to abandon all ten emotions and eight sufferings, becoming the sole entity.

"So, Huowang, now do you understand? All I have is a bit more joy, anger, hatred, aversion, and greed, but Bai Lingmiao is still Bai Lingmiao. And this Bai Lingmiao is even more free, even more... comfortable!"

"No, the original one—the one I knew was Bai Lingmiao!"

Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao wasn't at all upset. She pointed directly at the lesser deity beside her. "Isn't that her? The timid, spineless, weak Bai Lingmiao."

Li Huowang raised his head to look at the lesser deity. When he saw the huge beast-like pupils filled with pitifulness, that familiar yet strange gaze, his hands involuntarily reached out and gently held her in his arms.

"Fine, I'll leave you two alone. I'll make room for you." After putting on her undergarments, Bai Lingmiao lifted the curtain and left.

Li Huowang pressed his face closer, feeling the cold snake scales and sharp hedgehog spines scratch his skin.

"Don't worry, I'll turn you back. I promise!" Li Huowang's voice was firm.

In the following days, under Bai Lingmiao and the lesser deity’s care, his body gradually recovered, but his mood grew increasingly uneasy.

After such a long time, with no news from the messenger, Li Huowang began to worry that something might have gone wrong.

Another day without dawn, Li Huowang woke up. As he sat up on the bed, a soft foot kicked him forcefully.

"Hey! You’re so annoying! Waking me up again!"

Li Huowang had already gotten used to it. He lifted the blanket, got up quickly, and covered himself back up to keep the warmth in.

He opened the window and jumped onto the roof. Then he patted his belly and took out a primer book to read.

A tentacle emerged from his navel, wrapping around his eyes, and began reading the book carefully.

Listening to the overlapping voice of his own recitation, Li Huowang realized the book’s task was nearly complete. It was time to find something else to teach Li Sui.

But choosing what to teach was difficult. With his level, he could only teach the primer.

Higher-level classical texts were too obscure for him to explain.

"Maybe I should just give up? He doesn’t plan to become a top scholar anyway. He speaks clearly now, and he gets along well with me. I’ve already achieved my goal."

"Dad, I want to learn this," Li Sui said, rolling a yellow paper toward Li Huowang using his tentacles.

"You want to learn talisman drawing?" Not considering whether it would work, just imagining the writhing tentacle monster drawing talismans made him feel odd.

As Li Huowang hesitated whether to try it, a black shadow flashed across the sky. When he looked up, a stack of letters fell from above.

"This is..." Li Huowang's heart pounded. As he quickly opened it and saw the heading “Ear Ji Tai Jian,” his pupils shrank instantly.

"This is what the messenger promised to give me!"

Excitedly, Li Huowang read every word, constantly searching for the words "Beifeng."

As he searched, he suddenly stopped, breathing rapidly, palms sweating.

"Since our parting in Yinling, more than twenty days have passed, today..."

From the records in the Heavenly Observation Bureau, Beifeng from the Forgetful Dao was also a Heart Essence like himself!

Because he was a Heart Essence, he could dissolve attachments with the confusion in his heart, eventually living to 194 years old!

Not only that, according to the long-term records from the bureau, Beifeng truly had a way to escape illusions!

At this moment, tears of excitement welled in Li Huowang's eyes. After all this hardship, he finally felt hope!

(End of Chapter)