Mutated Tao

Li Huowang walked alongside the horse carriage while thinking about what the Lama had said.

What did he mean by “there won’t be a second chance”?

Li Huowang thought about the Lion Dance Palace and the dead Han Fu. Those were the only things he recalled doing in Qing Qiu.

Bai Lingmiao shook her head. “I don’t know either. He just said that there will be no second chance next time and didn’t say anything else.”

Li Huowang didn’t know why the Lama had just left like that. Still, he was very interested in the Lama’s identity.

He’s from the Surveillance Bureau of Qing Qiu? So that’s what someone from the Surveillance Bureau looks like.

Li Huowang had just learned what the Surveillance Bureau would look like on the inside. He was sure that the organization would be crawling with weird people like the Lama.

But… he didn’t know if that was good news or bad news.

Li Huowang looked at the sun above their heads and told all of them, “Everyone, we can stop and rest for now. I will guard first.”

Hearing his words, everyone brought out their sleeping mats and blankets from the ox-cart and immediately fell asleep on the ground. Some of them were even snoring loudly. After walking for so long and being scared by the Lama, their body had long since been at the breaking point.

Li Huowang was also tired, but he had no choice but to stay awake. Even though the Lama said that he would let them go this time, Li Huowang still didn’t trust him.

Every time Li Huowang was about to fall asleep, he would bring out the torture tools and keep himself awake through the pain. He was already very good at this after traveling for so long.

Everyone slept until late into the evening. When they woke up to prepare dinner, Li Huowang finally laid down on the ox-cart and closed his eyes.

Even though he fell asleep due to how tired he was, he didn’t really sleep all that well. Different scenes appeared in his dream.

Li Huowang suddenly woke up when one of the dreams made him realize something. “The Lama’s presence! I have felt that presence before at the Baiyu Capital. It was coming from the white Bodhisattva! That’s the presence of Death!”

Having said that, Li Huowang fell back limply and once again fell asleep under everyone’s gaze.

——————————————

The wheels of the ox-cart continued to move. They passed by some trees and fields, an indication that they had left Qing Qiu and entered the Liang Kingdom’s border.

With this, everyone became much more cheerful. At the very least they would be safer within the Liang Kingdom.

Bai Lingmiao was naturally the happiest; she was finally back in her home country. She circled around Li Huowang and continued talking about her home, her parents, her siblings, and even the goose who loved to lie down on the village head’s lap.

But Li Huowang was distracted throughout. He was still thinking about the black-robed Lama.

I’m definitely right! He was exuding the presence of Death. That means that he was someone from the sect that worshiped Death using that massive cauldron within the caves!

Even though he didn’t know the name of the sect, he knew that they had to be powerful; after all, they used the power of Death.

He was glad that he hadn’t fought against the Lama or he might have had to pay a heavy price.

“Senior Li, I’m talking to you. What are you thinking about?” Bai Lingmiao grumbled at Li Huowang who was ignoring her.

“Hm? Did you say something?” Li Huowang stared at her sheepishly.

“I said that with this much silver, we can build our own house!” replied Bai Lingmiao, pouting.

“Oh. That’s great.” Li Huowang was about to just gloss over her when he saw that she wasn’t wearing her blindfolds and immediately took the strip of silk from her wrist. He used it to cover her eyes and held her hands. “I told you to wear it when the sunlight is strong. If you keep hurting your eyes like that, then you will go blind.”

After saying that, Li Huowang turned around and looked at the people around them.

As they approached the Liang Kingdom, he saw more and more people walking on the path. They were skinny and tanned, and held bags of grains above their heads.

It was clear that the passersby were afraid of Li Huowang and everyone else. No one would dare stand beside a group of people covered in black veils. If it wasn’t for the Lu family Troupe walking with them, the passersby would have all run off.

Li Huowang thought about something and walked up to where Lu Zhuangyuan was playing with his grandson before whispering something to him.

“Alright, I will do just that. Don’t worry, Young Daoist,” replied Lu Zhuangyuan, finally feeling that he was being useful. Then, he took his smoke pipe and happily walked up to one of the passersby.

Meanwhile, Li Huowang pulled out the lamb fur from his ears so that he could hear their conversations.

“Hello~ May I know where everyone is going?” asked Lu Zhuangyuan.

“We are heading to harvest the wheat,” replied the passerby.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, it’s almost harvest season. We are harvesters that help people harvest their wheat,” explained the passerby.

From their conversation, Li Huowang learned that the harvesters didn’t have a lot of fields of their own. To earn money, they would go and ask people with a lot of fields to allow them to help with harvesting the wheat.

Here, Lu Zhuangyuan's years of experience shined greatly, easily allowing him to obtain information from the honest men with just a few questions.

“Young Daoist, they told me that there’s a large village just further up. After passing the village, there should be a town. They told me that the town is quite large and many people from Qing Qiu would go there to sell their lambs,” reported Lu Zhuangyuan.

Li Huowang nodded in approval when he looked at Lu Zhuangyuan’s smiling face. “Do they know where Cowheart Mountain is?”

Li Huowang had not forgotten the reason they had traveled so far. They needed to send Bai Lingmiao home.

“Hmm. They didn’t know where it was. They said that the area bordering Qing Qiu mainly consists of flatlands. The deeper we enter the Liang Kingdom, the more mountains there will be,” explained Lu Zhuangyuan.

Li Huowang was not disappointed when he heard that; it was as if he had already anticipated it.

“Since they are locals, we can just follow them so as to not get lost. Once we reach the town, we can purchase a map of the Liang Kingdom and determine where to go after that,” declared Li Huowang.

“Alright~” Lu Zhuangyuan felt useful and happily walked away with his smoke pipe.

They walked along the dirt path and passed through a bamboo forest. When they finally got out of the forest, they saw the scenery unfold in front of their very eyes.

Fields of rice and millet swayed with the wind, rippling like a sea of gold.

At the same time, numerous black dots the size of ants were swinging their sickles to harvest the grains.

“The soil of the Liang Kingdom is so rich! Back in our old home, we didn’t get a harvest like this every year.” Lu Zhuangyuan was quite envious of the scene in front of him.

But no matter what they said, the passersby only saw the field as money. They walked down to discuss their prices with the owner.

“It’s good if they have a good harvest. That way, we at least know that the food and ration prices will be cheap here in the Liang Kingdom,” said Li Huowang as the ox-cart slowly moved into the village.

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