Mutated Tao

A horrifying shadow monster skulked near the window in the middle of the night.

It was truly a scary sight, but what scared Li Huowang the most was that the shadow was capable of recognizing him as a Strayed One. Li Huowang knew what it would mean if someone could find out that he was a Strayed One.

“Who are you?” Li Huowang asked the shadow monster.

“Hehe, you came to my territory and yet you don’t even know who I am?” asked the voice.

At that moment, Li Huowang saw the monster slowly phasing through the paper panes of the window and into the room.

Jiang!

Li Huowang immediately unsheathed his sword, filling the entire room with killing intent.

At this moment, a dark red sword was held in Li Huowang’s grasp. This was the first time he unsheathed it.

Something leaked out from the hilt of the sword and spread through his body, causing his blood to start boiling and his vision to be dyed red.

As Li Huowang saw the lattice-patterned black tentacle slowly rise out from the paper pane, he instantly lunged at it with his sword.

“Die!” He shouted unconsciously.

Seeing this, the shadow monster dodged to the right, unwilling to block the attack from the blood-red sword directly. The sword was filled to the brim with murderous intent!

As it moved to the side of the wooden door, the sound of metal clanging rang out.

“Hmm? That sword… What kind of relationship do you have with the You family from the kingdom of Si Qi?” asked the shadow monster. Seeing Li Huowang’s sword, the monster became hesitant. At the same time, its movements also became much more cautious.

Usually, Li Huowang would’ve taken the time to listen to it, but with the murderous intent of the sword assaulting his mind, he couldn’t think rationally.

The monster hadn’t even finished its sentence when the sword reached it once again.

A crimson flash could be seen when the sword sliced through the wooden door along with the shadow monster.

Seeing this, Li Huowang ran out of his room. He saw a figure using some wooden sticks to control the shadow monster from the window at the end of the corridor.

The shadow monster was being controlled by someone all along! The figure was somehow controlling the shadow using a puppet!

As soon as the figure saw Li Huowang, it immediately threw away the puppet before entering one of the vacant rooms.

Li Huowang tried to chase after the figure, but there was nothing left in the empty room, save for the puppet that was slowly turning to ashes in the center of the room.

Li Huowang was only able to catch a glimpse of the assailant and the bronze coin veil that they were wearing.

Jiang~

At that moment, Li Huowang sheathed his sword and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

What is their goal? Are they trying to capture me for money?

Even though he had chased them away, he had a feeling that the situation was not so simple.

“Wait… Bai Lingmiao!” Realizing that he had left Bai Lingmiao alone, Li Huowang immediately ran back to his room.

It was only after he saw Bai Lingmiao sleeping soundly on the bed that he heaved a sigh of relief.

He was flustered; she meant a lot to him.

However, thinking back, there shouldn’t have been any danger since Bai Lingmiao was a shaman. There was no reason to worry about the enemy luring him away.

At that moment, Li Huowang started inspecting his sword as he sat on his bed.

There was nothing weird about someone attacking them. However, this time was different. This time, it was no longer him trying to escape, but the assailant. The one who escaped was the assailant.

Thinking about this, Li Huowang started to get excited; it meant that he finally had sufficient power to be able to survive in this bizarre world.

At the same time, he decided that he had to thank the Abbess for giving him this sword. One look at the sword was all it took to discourage the assailant from attacking Li Huowang. He could tell that rather than being wary of him, the assailant was wary of the sword.

Not only was the sword powerful, but it also had other uses.

“You family from the kingdom of Si Qi? Is that where the owner of this sword comes from? That doesn’t seem like a sect name,” mumbled Li Huowang.

Li Huowang didn’t have an answer. The only thing he knew was that the sword belonged to someone famous. Thinking about this, he felt even more indebted to the Abbess.

As Li Huowang was slowly inspecting the sword and its scabbard, he felt something weird. He looked down and saw a pair of pale white hands with black fingernails grabbing his thigh.

This time, Li Huowang didn’t pull his legs away and instead whispered to the Second Deity. “Thank you for alerting me. If it wasn’t because of you, then I would’ve been attacked in my sleep.”

Regardless of what had happened before, today the Second Deity had indeed helped him out.

But Li Huowang was still confused. He had been able to use his heightened senses to detect the bandits from a faraway distance before. So how was the assailant able to approach him until they were just outside the window? He even needed someone else to alert him.

Did the assailant have something on them that could hide their presence? I wonder if that item will be able to help with hiding the signs of me being a Strayed One? It would be great if I could just grab it from them. Then at the very least I won’t be plagued by people trying to hunt me down just because they were able to figure out that I’m a Strayed One.

Just as Li Huowang was lost in his thoughts, he felt a different sensation on his thighs.

He looked down. At this moment, the pale hands had disappeared, replaced by several tentacle-like creatures crawling up his thigh. They were cold to the touch and had the texture of soft snakeskin.

At the same time, a seductive voice rang out beside his ear. “Dear husband~”

Hearing the voice, Li Huowang felt his scalp go numb. “Enough! I told you to stop it!”

Just as Li Huowang was about to unsheathe his sword, the tentacles slowly retreated from his pants.

Li Huowang glanced at the sleeping Bai Lingmiao and then whispered underneath the bed in a harsh tone, “I don’t want to talk about what happened last time! Enough is enough! Go to sleep!”

After saying that, Li Huowang lied down on the bed.

The Second Deity also chose to silently remain underneath the bed, causing the room to once more become silent.

After the incident that just happened, Li Huowang dared not sleep, choosing to stay awake until the morning. It was only when he heard the shouts of the stall vendors from outside that he allowed himself to fall asleep.

By the time he woke up, it was already afternoon.

He wore his clothes and walked into the mess hall. As he ate, he thought about what had happened last night.

Based on their methods, they don’t seem to be from a sect like the Righteous Monastery or the Benevolent Nunnery. Maybe they are someone cultivating on their own like Dan Yangzi. In that case, there shouldn’t be too much of a problem. They said that this was their territory rather than their sect’s territory, so it’s very likely that they are indeed alone.

Li Huowang did not want to leave this town so quickly. After all, it was much easier to be ambushed in the wilderness than in a busy town.

As Li Huowang was eating some peanuts, he saw Lu Zhuangyuan proudly walking in with his sons.

Thinking back upon yesterday, it was not hard to determine what had happened.

“Troupe leader Lu, did you go and argue with the performers of the Nuo Opera? Looks like you won,” said Li Huowang.

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