Chapter 398: Noodles

Chapter 398: The Face

Standing amidst the chaos of the bedroom, the scholar Lü stared in disbelief at what lay before him. He never imagined that this blind man—this so-called righteous figure—would actually kill the Ku Ye and everyone else without hesitation.

“Isn’t this supposed to be a virtuous sage who punishes evil and upholds justice? Why is he killing the good? Why does this not match what the old man told me?”

At that moment, the blind man suddenly turned his head toward Scholar Lü. Though he was blind, the gesture sent chills down Lü’s spine.

“Oh no,” the blind man muttered, “why is there still one left in the room?” With that, he raised his mirror toward Lü.

Clatter! Lü immediately wet himself in terror. Trembling, he held up his copper coins with all his might and shouted as loudly as he could, “Don’t kill me! My master is Li Huo Wang!”

Upon hearing those words, the blind man stopped instantly.

Lü clutched at the straw that had just become his salvation, desperately pleading to the blind man, “Great one, you know my master, don’t you? For his sake, spare me this once! I truly have no connection with those people outside!”

The blind man walked over and picked up each coin from Lü’s hand one by one. “What’s this Li Huo Wang? Dog fire-wang, I don’t know him. But these five coins are decent—they have a bit of spiritual energy. They’re your ransom.”

He weighed the old copper coins in his hand, then took his white banner and turned to leave.

After the blind man had gone for quite some time, a gentle breeze blew through, causing Lü to shiver and come back to his senses.

Looking out the window at the vast pool of blood and flesh, he realized how utterly worthless he had been in front of that blind man. His own master, Ku Ye, had died so easily, like nothing more than an ant beneath the feet of this stranger.

This blind man’s actions shattered Lü’s self-satisfied mindset completely.

This was nothing like his own master, Li Huo Wang. Although Li Huo Wang was cold and somewhat erratic, he never killed lightly. Just like the old man had described, he was a true sage. But this blind man was different—he could take Lü’s life at any moment if he so wished!

Thinking of it, fear gripped Lü’s heart, making his body tremble uncontrollably. If not for those five coins, he would’ve met the same fate as Ku Ye and the others.

After the fear passed, a burning sense of injustice welled up from deep within him. Why? Why did he matter so little in the eyes of others? He wanted to become like this blind man too!

What he couldn’t learn from his master, he had learned from this blind man. Eating well, drinking well, playing with women—what kind of strength was that? Only becoming as powerful as this blind man counted as real ability!

Just imagining that all lives were in his hands made Lü’s body shake with excitement.

“I’m going back to find my master! I’ll beg him to teach me divine powers!” Lü clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and leaped over the wall to dash outside.

—

“Ah, young scholar, let me test you. Who founded the Great Qi Empire? Of course, you wouldn’t know. Well, here’s the answer: when the black calamity fell, it was General Qilu who led his people across the sea.”

“At that time, this land was wild and untamed. Various Daoist and Buddhist kingdoms existed in disorder. It was General Qilu who fought battles north and south, eventually establishing the Great Qi capital in his ninety-fifth year. His grandson, Qi Heng, unified the empire. The Heavenly Observing Bureau was also founded by him.”

“Woo,” the bun lying on the Black Tai Sui tilted its head, looking at the clean-faced scholar before it. As a dog, it simply couldn’t understand what the man was talking about.

Inside the carriage, aside from the massive Black Tai Sui occupying most of the space, every other corner was filled with Zhuge Yuan’s books and calligraphy scrolls. He didn’t mind. Seated among the books, he continued lecturing to the bun.

With a yawn, the bun stood up, preparing to leave, only to see the man holding a piece of meat. Instantly, the bun sat back down, tongue out, listening intently.

Li Huo Wang, who was driving the horses, heard the voice from inside the carriage and sighed helplessly. Zhuge Yuan wasn’t insane—he wasn’t trying to teach a dog history.

He was merely trying to get Li Huo Wang to listen by pretending to teach the bun history.

He didn’t know why, but he always felt compelled to teach him the history of the Great Qi. If not history, then he’d go on about his calligraphy techniques. He found Li Huo Wang’s hard strokes unbearable to look at.

Zhuge Yuan was a teacher by nature, and his mouth never stopped. It was just odd that such a person, whose abilities were so profound and mysterious, had such a chatty personality.

The wheels of the carriage rolled slowly along the road. Soon, a small stall appeared beside the roadside, emitting white smoke. Clearly, it was a food vendor.

“Brother Li, why aren’t we stopping? We’ve been eating dry rations for days. How about changing our taste?” Zhuge Yuan pulled back the curtain and asked with surprise.

Li Huo Wang, gripping the reins, frowned and stared at the diners eating noodles and the old woman serving them. “It’s unsafe. These people may be from the Forgetful Dao Sect. They might be setting a trap for us.”

The Forgetful Dao Sect hated Zhuge Yuan to the core. To stop him, they would use every trick in the book.

“Using a fake food stall to poison people? That’s too petty. The Forgetful Dao Sect wouldn’t do something so low.”

“And besides, Brother Li, aren’t you trying to find the Northern Wind Forgetful Dao Sect? If you’re so suspicious, how can we even find them?”

Li Huo Wang paused. Right. It wasn’t the Forgetful Dao Sect trying to deceive him anymore—it was him searching for them.

He tugged the reins, and the carriage came to a halt. Li Huo Wang, Zhuge Yuan, and the bun got out and walked toward the stall.

“Young men want noodles? Our fish soup noodles are delicious! Whole fish, scales, bones, and meat—all cooked into the broth,” said the kind-faced old woman, approaching their table.

“Bring three bowls,” Li Huo Wang said clearly, staring directly into her face.

Startled by Li Huo Wang’s demeanor, the woman hurried back and whispered urgently with the noodle cook.

“Brother Li, calm down. Just eat. They’re definitely not from the Forgetful Dao Sect,” Zhuge Yuan said, wiping his chopsticks with a cloth.

“Oh? Brother Zhuge, do you have a way to distinguish real from fake members of the Forgetful Dao Sect?” Li Huo Wang looked at Zhuge Yuan, who remained perfectly calm, curious.

“Heh, I do. Since they all cultivate illusions, as someone with a Heart Core, if I were close enough, I would’ve seen the threads connecting them to their Life Fate.”

“Threads? What threads?” Li Huo Wang listened intently. This mattered greatly to his future confrontation with the sect.

“The threads linking them to their Life Fate.”

Zhuge Yuan’s words stunned Li Huo Wang. This contradicted everything he knew. “Do they have Life Fate?”

“Of course. Without Life Fate, where would their powers come from?”

(End of Chapter)