Mutated Tao

As Li Huowang looked at the seventy-nine lifespan pills, he felt his heart pounding uncontrollably.

Why did it give these pills to me?

Maybe it wanted him to eat the pills, or maybe it was trying to explain how it became a Human Xiao.

But at this point, the Daoist Human Xiao was dead and so this question would remain unanswered. After all, the dead couldn’t be revived.[1]

After hesitating for a moment, Li Huowang decided to cut the Daoist Human Xiao’s body into eight pieces to prevent it from moving, just to be safe.

Then, he picked up the lifespan pills and placed them all into his gourd.

Once he was done with all this, he turned toward the frightened old people and shouted, “Move! Don’t stop moving!”

While these old people did look miserable, when he thought about how they were in cahoots with the Human Xiaos, Li Huowang had no intention of being kind to them. In fact, he would’ve killed all of them if it wasn’t for the fact that he couldn’t carry so many babies out by himself.

They continued to move slowly before finally exiting the cave the babies were being held in.

After that, Li Huowang searched the entire cave system. He wanted to remove any and all possible threats.

If they are using babies to refine pills, then they must’ve had books, recipes, or some notes somewhere.

Li Huowang wouldn’t be able to rest unless he destroyed those books, lest someone else find them and start learning from the same recipes once again.

Li Huowang searched the entire area and found something useful. It was a furnace the size of a watermelon that was placed beside a larger furnace.

There were several corpses of babies beside the furnaces. It was clear this was where the Human Xiaos refined their pills. But different from Dan Yangzi, they deboned the babies before refining the pills.

As he looked at the furnace, Li Huowang had an idea. He would finally be able to use the pill recipes he had learned from Dan Yangzi. With this, he would finally be able to replenish his stock of pills.

After searching for a while, Li Huowang then found several books written in a strange language.

Since Li Huowang could not decipher the language written by the Human Xiaos, he decided to directly burn all of them down without even trying to confirm if there were any recipes that were using babies written in them.

After that, he once again looked around, only to find a gray stone slab. Li Huowang was quite perplexed as he looked at the strange object.

“The sacred text? Why is it here? Where did it come from and why is it so proliferant?” Li Huowang grabbed the heavy stone slab as he thought about it.

“Did the Human Xiaos learn the recipe to refine pills using babies from reading the sacred text?” guessed Li Huowang.

He read through the text on the stone slab, and found that it was exactly the same as the one he had found back in Dan Yangzi’s chambers. The contents were still asking the readers to be kind to others.

“Do you know anything about this?” Li Huowang turned around and asked Hong Zhong who had been hiding himself.

Faced with the sudden question, Hong Zhong smiled mysteriously and shook his head. “Hoho, I don’t know. I don’t know anything.”

Hearing his reply, Li Huowang directly threw away the sacred text into the underground river, instantly causing Hong Zhong to start panicking.

“Hey! What are you doing? It might be something valuable! Quickly, pick it up!” said Hong Zhong anxiously.

“Since you think it's a treasure, you can go and pick it up yourself,” said Li Huowang as he picked up the crying baby and approached the boat he had used to come in here.

The boat was quite small, and he had to row against the current. Due to this, it took him several trips before he was finally able to get everyone to the river bank.

When Li Huowang brought the group of old people and the babies back to Cangshui County, the entire town exploded in a flurry of activities.

While Li Huowang did look quite monstrous due to his wounds, none of them paid any attention to him. All their attention was focused on the babies on the ground. Among them, the families who had lost their babies were at the forefront.

The families who found their babies all kneeled in front of Li Huowang and thanked him profusely, while those who didn’t see their babies started crying loudly on the ground.

Meanwhile, Magistrate Lou and the other officials all bowed to Li Huowang out of respect. “Thank you! Thank you, my Lord! You are the biggest benefactor of Cangshui County.”

“Don’t get too happy yet. We still have things to discuss,” said Li Huowang as he told the man about the old people and their actions.

“What? You mean they were helping the evil beings?” asked Magistrate Lou.

Magistrate Lou was shocked. He had originally thought that Li Huowang had rescued them from the evil beings.

“What is their punishment according to the laws of the Liang Kingdom?” asked Li Huowang as he looked at the old people who stood there silently.

“Dismemberment!” replied Magistrate Lou, his eyes cold.

“Oh? Is the punishment that harsh? Since they are already so old, wouldn’t it be better to just cut off their heads?” asked Li Huowang.

Hearing this, Magistrate Lou disagreed with him for the first time. “My Lord, we can’t do that. A person’s age and the crime they commit have no relation at all. If we spare them due to their age, won’t the babies who were killed be even angrier down on the Yellow Spring Road[2]?”

Li Huowang thought about it for a moment and agreed. “You are right. Then I will leave it to you. It's time for me to go.”

However, Magistrate Lou held him back. “My Lord, why are you in such a rush? Please give us a chance to serve you before sending you off.”

When Li Huowang looked at his tattered and bloodstained clothes, he nodded. “Sure. I haven’t slept in two days. I will go and rest first. Help me prepare some clothes.”

Li Huowang fell asleep the moment he reached his inn. Even the pain he was experiencing was not enough to win against his fatigue.

He didn’t know how long he passed out before finally waking up from hunger. He rubbed his eyes and saw that it was still sunny outside. He just wasn’t sure what day it was.

“Daoist, you’ve been asleep for an entire day and night. Magistrate Lou came by to see you, but returned when he saw that you were still asleep,” said Monk.

Li Huowang looked at the smiling Monk. “You seem to be happy.”

“Of course! We did good deeds together, and it's very meritorious indeed! Shouldn’t we be happy?” asked Monk.

“We should. We should,” replied Li Huowang lazily as he endured the pain and sat up. Then, he changed out of his disgusting clothes and wore some new ones.

Magistrate Lou had placed quite some thought into it and prepared a set of clothes that was identical to the ones that Li Huowang was originally wearing. He even dyed the Daoist robe in the same dark red shade.

In fact, there were five new sets of Daoist Robes.

“Hoho, Magistrate Lou sure is generous,” commented Li Huowang as he wore his clothes.

After wearing his clothes, Li Huowang left the inn through the back exit and went to the stables.

“Daoist, they wanted to treat you to a meal. Are you sure you don’t want it?” asked Monk.

“No. It’s a waste of time. Since the mission is over, we need to quickly head back to Yinling City now. It’s a long journey.” To Li Huowang, completing the mission was his priority.

However, when he entered the stable, he was shocked to see what had happened to his horse carriage.

At this moment, his carriage had been thoroughly cleaned. There was not even a speck of mud on the wheels. Even his horse had been groomed, its mane looking neat and tidy.

At the same time, various types of preserved meats and food had been placed all around the carriage. Bun was seated in the middle of all the food while munching on a bone.

“Woof woof!”

Bun excitedly greeted its master and wagged its tail. Li Huowang hadn’t seen Bun in a few days and somehow had a feeling that the dog had grown fat.

Meanwhile, Monk smiled again and said, “Daoist, look. This is what I meant when I said that good people often have good karma.”

1. except for MC apparently ☜

2. In Chinese folklore, it's a passage where all the dead have to pass to reach the Gates of Hell. ☜

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