Chapter 403: Mistake

Chapter 403: A Blunder

"Clack-clack-clack."

Beholding the broken silver Zhuge Yuan had tossed onto the vegetable platter, the waiter raised the coin high and cried out with robust enthusiasm, "Many thanks to the Scholar-Lord for the bounty of three maces of silver!"

Once the steamed bun beneath the table had finished its gluttonous feast, Li Huowang and Zhuge Yuan began to dine as well, the former whispering his anxieties to his companion.

"Brother Li, since it is you who seeks them, then the more critical the moment, the less you must hasten, lest they discern your intent."

"As long as I remain here, the Fools of the Sitting-Forget Path will surely come. Set your heart at ease."

"Brother Zhuge, it seems to me that while one may play the thief for a thousand days, one cannot guard against a thief for a thousand days. Since they refuse to show themselves, perhaps we should—"

Li Huowang's words abruptly seized. With a grim visage, he picked up a slice of stir-fried mutton from the platter, shoved it into his mouth, and chewed with deliberate force.

With a sharp clatter, Li Huowang slammed his chopsticks onto the table. "Stop eating! This is fucking human flesh!!"

The moment Li Huowang lunged forward, pressing his sword against the throat of the man counting on an abacus behind the counter, the steamed bun beneath the table began to wobble violently.

Striking the man's skull with the hilt of his blade, Li Huowang instantly raised his sword, reached in to slice a great rent across his own stomach, and emptied everything he had just swallowed.

Fearing the lingering effects of the knockout drug, Li Huowang swiftly thrust his stomach into a nearby jar of wine to rinse it clean.

Even as Li Huowang acted, the others reacted in kind. Some swallowed elixirs, others chanted scriptures, while that Xia Dongsheng reached directly beneath his garments, seized the hooks driven into certain acupoints upon his body, and pulled with a violent yank.

Li Huowang’s outburst did not merely alert his companions; it also aroused the lackeys of this den of thieves.

The once-amiable waiter had now shouldered a massive executioner’s blade, charging out at the head of a gang.

Yet the final sight that met the waiter's eyes was that of the red-robed Daoist, dragging his sword in fury, stepping forcefully upon a table, and leaping savagely toward him.

What followed left no room for suspense; it was an utterly one-sided slaughter. Within moments, the entire inn was rendered a shambles, reeking of blood.

Li Huowang stood amidst the mountain of corpses and the sea of blood like a god of slaughter, seven or eight black tentacles sprouting from his torso, each entwined around a different weapon.

This spectacle profoundly struck the Mirrormasters of the Great Qi Empire. As members of the Supervision Bureau, they were accustomed to all manner of horrors in their line of duty, yet they had truly never beheld an abomination such as this.

The doubts they had previously harbored vanished in an instant. Truly, he was worthy of being Lord Zhuge’s companion, a man of extraordinary caliber.

Gasping for breath, Li Huowang approached Zhuge Yuan and asked in disbelief, "You failed to perceive that the food was laced with knockout drug?"

Wiping the saliva from the corner of his mouth with a handkerchief after dry-heaving, Zhuge Yuan spoke with a most unseemly complexion, "This humble scholar naturally perceived it. Yet I believed it to be merely a knockout drug, and thinking it a waste to discard the food, I intended to dissolve the poison after dining. I never imagined this mutton was counterfeited from human flesh! Truly, truly detestable!"

Looking down at his own rent abdomen, Li Huowang sighed heavily. It was rare for him to be in a pleasant mood today, only to stumble into such an affair.

Though he no longer feared such occurrences, it was like a toad crawling over one's foot—it did not harm, yet it thoroughly disgusted.

"Has the Great Liang Empire not always been peaceful and stable? How can there still be such treacherous dens that drug and murder folk?"

Red Dice, whom he had not seen for a long while, crawled out from a nearby table. "Hehehe, Li Huowang, you err in your judgment. Did you not hear what their Heart-Flesh Vessel said? This is the Great Qi now, not the Great Liang~!"

Li Huowang caught himself in a slight daze. "Has this truly become the Great Qi? What manner of power does this Heart-Flesh Vessel possess?"

In that instant, a myriad of thoughts rushed through his mind. He opened his mouth, on the verge of questioning Red Dice, but seeing the spirit's smug expression that practically begged to be asked, he forced himself to hold back. Instead, he simply retrieved the Fire Blazer True Scripture to heal his wounds.

Yet this time, Red Dice refused to let the matter rest. "My, Lord Li is truly a man of vast experience and profound knowledge, to even distinguish the flavor of human flesh. Admirable~ Admirable~!"

Just as Red Dice was about to say more, Li Sui’s voice suddenly intervened, "Father, can you give me a few swords?"

"A few swords? What for?" Li Huowang ceased his chanting.

"I wish to aid Father. The next time we encounter villains, I can strike and assist, just like you did!"

"My body is already cramped enough housing you. Where would I find room for swords? Do not be mischievous, be good."

Yet this time, Li Sui proved unyielding, "No, no, I want swords! I want swords!"

As Li Sui thrashed, his black tentacles squirmed out from the cuffs of Li Huowang’s trousers, rolling about the floor like a child in the streets clamoring for their parents to buy them candied hawthorns.

"Damn it, where did Li Sui learn such behavior?"

After coaxing the creature for a time, Li Huowang finally pacified it by presenting his pouch of torture implements.

"See here? Everything is inside. Knives, saws, awls, shears, clamps, and shovels—they are all yours now. Should you encounter villains in the future, you may use these to entertain them."

Li Sui’s tentacles slithered out from his navel, continuously toyed with the implements of torture, and the joyful laughter of its delight echoed incessantly in Li Huowang’s ears.

Shaking his head slightly, Li Huowang followed the Mirrormasters of the Great Qi Bureau who had already stepped out of the den of thieves.

Since the lackeys of the establishment had all been slain by Li Huowang, the mounts in the rear courtyard naturally fell into their possession, and Li Huowang’s carriage soon gained new companions.

Seeing Li Huowang emerge from the inn, Zhuge Yuan walked over to him and said, "Rest assured, our compatriots in Youdu have already been informed that Elder Qin encountered enemies. They will dispatch reinforcements shortly, and we shall soon arrive in Youdu."

Glancing at Elder Qin, who required assistance merely to board and alight from the carriage, Li Huowang remained less than optimistic.

He boarded his own carriage, pulled out the map, and sought his bearings. "At our current pace, I fear we will not arrive so swiftly."

Li Huowang’s blood-stained finger traced along the coastline toward the center of the Jiangnan Circuit, "Eh?! Youdu?"

Beholding those familiar yet alien characters, Li Huowang nearly believed his eyes deceived him. Yet upon closer scrutiny, he confirmed it was indeed Youdu, not the Shangjing of before.

Utterly astonished, Li Huowang looked toward Zhuge Yuan. "Is this your map?"

A flash of annoyance crossed Zhuge Yuan’s face. "Brother Li, your jest grows excessive. This humble scholar possesses a wealth of learning that fills five carts; I have never had need for a chart."

"Then this..." Just as Li Huowang hesitated, Red Dice manifested once more.

"Is this not natural? Now that you reside within the Great Qi, if you do not employ a map of the Great Qi, what else would you use?"

Li Huowang stared at the map before him, his brows knit tight. His gaze was fixed unblinkingly upon a spot of red grease in the upper left corner.

That was a droplet he had inadvertently spilled while eating oil-splashed noodles and examining the map during his previous search for Apricot Island. This was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the very map he had brought with him.

Yet this map, which he had purchased in Shangjing, bore no mention of Shangjing at all. Instead, it marked Youdu, the capital of the Great Qi.