Chapter 613: Visitor

Chapter 613: A Stranger Appears

Before the sudden appearance of an unknown man in Niuxin Village, Li Huowang was naturally filled with suspicion.

"Li Sui, go investigate his background."

"Understood, father."

Several of Li Sui's tentacles shot out and quickly dragged the ragged man from the kitchen.

These appendages, entering through the seven orifices, thoroughly explored every corner of his body from inside out.

In the rising moonlight, Li Huowang could now clearly see the man’s face.

He was a bearded man, but he looked extremely emaciated and worn down. Beneath his tattered clothes, each rib was visible. In his arms, he carried a small pumpkin and two sweet potatoes.

“Ugh…” The man bent over, and Li Sui’s tentacles slowly withdrew from within him.

“Father, he’s human. There’s nothing else in his body. He has some clumps in his stomach—just a regular person.”

Seeing this pitiful figure, Li Huowang, who had been on high alert, finally relaxed. If someone went to such lengths to infiltrate Niuxin Village just to steal a few sweet potatoes, he didn’t believe it for a second.

Li Huowang reinserted the spine sword behind his back and asked the man directly, “Why have you come to our village?”

“I... I’m running from disaster! I’m starving, immortal sage, please spare me this time—I’m about to die of hunger. I won’t do it again!”

The man trembled on the ground, not daring to raise his head.

Seeing others gathering around, Li Huowang scanned the crowd for a moment and pointed at Gouwa, who had been watching from afar. “Deal with him. Feed him well. Whether he stays or leaves is up to him.”

Without waiting for Gouwa to respond, Li Huowang pulled his tentacles back into his body and walked toward the Bai family compound.

Seeing that Li Huowang confirmed the man posed no threat, Gouwa’s courage grew.

He strode forward with his hands behind his back, his face marked with patches of white and black, making the man shudder in fear. “Running from disaster, huh? You’ve suffered quite a bit on the road, haven’t you?”

“Y-yes!” The man nodded repeatedly. As he reached into his chest to pull out a sweet potato, Gouwa snatched it away.

“Heh, clearly you’ve never been truly hungry before. If you keep stuffing yourself like this, you’ll burst! You need porridge first. After two days of porridge, then you can eat dry food.”

Gouwa glanced around and pointed at two villagers nearby, speaking with a swagger. “You two—yes, you—go cook some porridge immediately. Didn’t you hear what your father said? This matter is under my jurisdiction.”

Upon hearing that someone had escaped from disaster, the villagers gathered around like curious onlookers.

Under their scrutiny, the man drank three bowls of porridge in succession, but Gouwa stopped him.

“That’s enough! You’ll burst if you drink more.” Gouwa snatched the bowl from him and sat down on a stool with his bottom. “Now that you’ve eaten, tell me—where are you from?”

The man looked nervously around, then his eyes lit up when he saw the pig fat sugar in the woman’s hand. Instinctively, he licked his lips. “I... I’m from Xixian County.”

“Xixian? Where is that? I’ve never heard of it. What calamity struck your home? Why are you running?”

At this, the man’s eyes widened with terror, and his whole body began to shake. “T-Tempest! The celestial dog devoured the sun! Demons and monsters from the eighteen layers of hell broke free! They kill anyone they see! I hid in a temple and barely escaped.”

“When the disaster passed, most people were dead. To survive, I went looking for grain. But the land had been dry for three years—there was simply no food left.”

“No choice. I had to flee, look for a way to live.”

“Oh~” Gouwa nodded knowingly. “So that’s how it is. A natural disaster, right? I know about those. We had one here once—it was terrifying. But it only lasted a short while.”

“A short while?” Hearing this, the man’s voice cracked, his eyes filled with anguish. “Why?! Why did yours last only a moment, while ours lasted dozens of days?! Why!!”

This statement made the crowd gasp. If a disaster lasted dozens of days, it would indeed be unbearable. No wonder he fled.

“You’re not from Daliang, are you? From what I know, all disasters in Daliang only lasted a short while,” Zhao Wu frowned and asked.

“What? Daliang? Where is that? And yet, in just a moment, I’ve crossed the border?” The man looked utterly confused.

“You’re not from Liang?”

“No, I’m from Da Qi.”

Hearing this, the crowd buzzed with murmurs.

“Da Qi? Where is Da Qi? Isn’t Liang bordered by Qingqiu on the left and the sea on the right? Where is this Da Qi?”

“What about above and below?”

“I... honestly, I don’t know. But it couldn’t possibly be Da Qi. I remember there was a dynasty called Da Qi a thousand years ago.”

Meanwhile, Li Sui, who had already replaced her skin with human flesh, silently stored these words in her mind. She lifted her skirt and walked toward her own house.

“Father! Father!” As soon as she entered, she saw her father cutting open his own scalp to check the recovery of his brain.

“Father, there’s a man from Da Qi down there. Could it be that the place we visited before was Da Qi?”

“What? Da Qi? Are you sure you didn’t mishear?” At that moment, Li Huowang didn’t even bother wiping the blood from his head—he leaped through the window straight toward the kitchen.

Under the threat of his row of torture tools, the man no longer dared to conceal anything. He spilled everything he knew.

Through his memory of Da Qi, Li Huowang realized that this man was indeed from Da Qi—no pretense, no disguise!

“A man from Da Qi has come to Daliang… to Daliang…”

After a long moment of contemplation, Li Huowang turned to the man and demanded again, “Speak! How did you get here? Did you have another route?”

“What route? I... I just followed the path ahead.”

The man’s face turned pale, unable to say more.

“Take me there!” Li Huowang grabbed him and led him toward the dirt road at the edge of the village.

Soon, guided by the man, Li Huowang arrived at a fork in the mountain path beneath Niuxin Mountain.

“I... I came from that road. I thought the forest here was thick, so I followed the wheel tracks to find your village.”

“Go on. Keep going.” Though Li Huowang didn’t understand what this meant, he sensed things weren’t simple.

But after walking only a short distance, they stopped. There was no path ahead—this was a dead end.

Seeing the gleaming instruments at Li Huowang’s waist, the man nearly cried. “I swear by the Three Mountains King—I’m telling the truth! I really came out from here!”

Just as he tried to speak further, Li Huowang, whose ears twitched slightly, shoved him aside and rushed into the nearby woods.

Soon, he spotted an old man, ragged and bloated, sitting beneath a large tree, wielding a sharp stone and carving into the bark.

When he peeled off a large piece of bark, he carefully removed the soft, green inner layer underneath.

Then, with his mouth barely holding a few teeth, trembling hands, and tears in his eyes, he stuffed the tender skin into his mouth.

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Next chapter updates at 11:30 PM

(End of Chapter)