Mutated Tao

“Benefactor Li, let’s meet again!”

“Safe travels!”

“Take care of yourselves!”

The entire escort office came out to send off Li Huowang and the rest. With this, they had officially left the Longteng Escort Office.

As he saw them traveling further and further away, Wang Chengxing stopped smiling and glanced at his Master. “Master, did you see the sword on that person’s back? It was not something you can see everyday. I could feel dense killing intent from it.”

Zhao Qin frowned and nodded. “Of course I did. I also know whose personal sword it was. It belonged to General Zixiong.”

“What? General Zixiong’s personal sword? Then why did you not do anything for the past half a month?” asked Wang Chengxing.

“And what would you have liked me to do? Steal it? Ask him where he got it? Or report him?”

Wang Chengxing remained silent as Zhao Qin continued to chastise him. “You think I am blind? Do you think I couldn’t tell that there was something wrong with him? The red bamboo slips on his waist, the various torture tools, and that gourd. Heck, even the comrades around him were all malformed in one way or another. This matter is not something I should interfere in. He improved Fengxia’s condition and in return I acknowledged his request to get him a sword training manual. I even gave him a letter of recommendation from me. At the very least, everyone earned something. This was the best case scenario. While we must always make sure to see through everyone’s intention, we mustn’t say it out loud all the time.”

Meanwhile, back in the carriage. The horses were already restless from not traveling for half a month. The moment they were out of the city gates, the horses ran joyfully.

“Ho… Hold on!” Zhao Wu handled the reins and calmed the horses down, maintaining a constant speed.

Then, he turned around and asked, “Senior Li, where should we go now?”

“To the border. We’ve done everything we needed to in the kingdom of Si Qi, and so it’s time to leave. The situation here is getting more and more chaotic, so it’s best if we reach the Liang Kingdom soon,” replied Li Huowang.

As he spoke up to this point, Li Huowang felt uneasy; he turned to Bai Lingmiao. “Since even the kingdom of Si Qi is about to get involved in the war, would the Liang Kingdom also be affected? Your house—”

However, even before Bai Lingmiao could answer him, Lu Zhuangyuan overheard his words and approached him. “Hai! Young Taoist, you are thinking too much. The Liang Kingdom is at least four to five times larger than the kingdom of Si Qi. Also, the emperor of the Liang Kingdom is a powerful individual. If there really is a war, then it would be them waging it against another kingdom and not the other way around.”

With this, Li Huowang now knew that the Liang Kingdom was a major kingdom compared to the others. It was clear that Lu Zhuangyuan had done his homework beforehand.

Just then, Li Huowang realized something was different about Lu Zhuangyuan. “Troupe leader Lu, did something good happen to you?”

Compared to aged and wrinkled appearance from before, he looked like he had become a few years younger and there was a constant smile hanging on his mouth.

“Hehe, oh it’s nothing, hehehe.” Lu Zhuangyuan wanted to endure but the smile on his face sold him out.

Then, he climbed up his horse carriage and grabbed a sack. “Here, have some eggs.”

Two red eggs were passed into Li Huowang’s hands. It was not only Li Huowang who got them, everyone else did as well.

Lu Zhuangyuan was not someone who would be generous enough to give everyone eggs for no reason. After a moment, Zhao Wu realized the meaning behind the red eggs.

“Brother Juren! Is your sister-in-law pregnant? Congratulations! May she give birth to a healthy son,” congratulated Zhao Wu.

Faced with his well-wishes, Lu Juren’s smile was unnaturally forced. On the other hand, Lu Zhuangyuan took charge of the situation quite naturally.

“Did you see my daughter-in-law’s stomach? The bulge is sharp and recently, she has been craving sour food. It seems that I’m having a grandson this time around!” said Lu Zhuangyuan, his voice full of joy.

As she heard his words, Luo Juanhua sat on the horse carriage, looking just like a proud general returning victorious from a war.

“Everyone, please join us in the full moon celebration when the time comes.” The more Lu Zhuangyuan spoke, the happier he became, while his eyes became slanted from smiling so much.

Li Huowang munched on his eggs while observing the difference in the father-son duo. He felt that something was amiss, to the point that the egg tasted weird. But he decided to ignore them; he was not interested in gossip and was too lazy to be bothered by it. He just leaped onto the horse carriage and unfurled his map.

“The next kingdom is… The next one…” As Li Huowang stared at the strange blocky character, he felt stunned. He had never really thought about how impaired he would be from becoming illiterate.

He sighed and popped his head out from the carriage. “Troupe leader Lu, what’s the next kingdom on our way to the Liang Kingdom?”

“I think it’s called the Hou Shu Kingdom,” replied Lu Zhuangyuan.

“Hou Shu?” mumbled Li Huowang as he stared at the words on the map.

“Troupe leader Lu, do you know any famous sects in Hou Shu Kingdom? Or maybe dangerous evil beings?” asked Li Huowang.

“Hai~ Young Taoist, you are asking me questions I don’t know the answer to. I’m not that knowledgeable. It’s already very good of me to know that the kingdom next to the kingdom of Si Qi is Hou Shu.”

That’s a fair point. He’s a performer so it’s natural that he wouldn’t know details pertaining to another country.

“Do any of you know anything about Hou Shu?” Li Huowang turned to the rest of his group.

It would be better for him to understand the places they would be arriving at.

However, he was disappointed when everyone shook their heads. From the looks of it, none of them were captured from Hou Shu.

“Senior Li, I remember that one of the assistants was from Hou Shu, but he drowned last time,” said Xiaoman.

Hearing this, Li Huowang sighed.

They could only take one step at a time. At the very least, things were much better off than the last time. He was no longer in danger of being possessed by Dan Yangzi. They also had more methods of self defense compared to when they first walked out of the Zephyr Temple.

As Li Huowang leaped down from the horse carriage, he saw Lu Zhuangyuan smiling sheepishly while approaching him.

“Aiya~ My brain is really getting old. I almost forgot the story of Hou Shu that my blind second uncle used to tell me when I was younger. He told me that the people of Hou Shu do not prefer to watch traveling performers like us. I recall him saying something about them instead preferring to watch Nuo Opera.”

“Nuo Opera?” asked Li Huowang.

“Yeah, Nuo Opera is a weird name. My second uncle even said that they don’t have to put on makeup. When they perform, all they need to do is to cover their heads with a red cloth and wear different wooden masks to perform,” explained Lu Zhuangyuan.

Li Huowang stopped him; he was not interested in listening to the difference in theater performances between different kingdoms. The people of Hou Shu could watch any type of theater performance they liked and it wouldn’t matter to him. He was not like Lu Zhuangyuan, who was trying to steal some of their business.

Chacha and Char's Thoughts

Just so you know, sometimes performances in China are also called operas, like Beijing or Sichuan Opera

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