Mutated Tao

Puppy carried a hoe as he walked briskly down the mountain. Though they had just buried many bodies, he was not acquainted with any of them, and thus it didn’t affect his joyful mood at all.

Now, he had a house and his own fields. More importantly, his wife was about to give birth. Everything he had dreamt of previously was now going to materialize.

“Ah, I, Cao Cao, am truly a genius. Every step I took was right. If I was not so smart, how could I have a share of these things!”

If the journey back wasn’t so long, he really would have wanted to return with glory to his hometown and announce all his accomplishments to everyone.

He glanced at the people behind him, then quickened his pace to increase the distance between them. Then, he carefully took out a book from his pocket.

Just as he happily touched the words he could not understand in the book, a hand covered in black fur reached over and snatched it away.

“Hey! What’s wrong with you!” Puppy anxiously tried to snatch it back, but was stopped by a stern glare from Chun Xiaoman.

Puppy withdrew his hand indignantly and said, “In the tiger-less mountains, monkeys become kings. Look at you. If I didn’t know any better, then I would have thought that you were the one that rescued us from Zephyr Temple.”

“Where did this book come from?” asked Xiaoman.

“Stop lying. We’ve only met street vendors twice so far, and neither of them was selling books!” said Xiaoman as she flipped through the book and looked at those incomprehensible words.

With the help of Gao Zhijian translating, Chun Xiaoman learnt what this book was called—Verses of Hard Work and Enlightenment. Even if she couldn’t read, she could tell that there was something amiss with the title; it was as though it was some sort of cultivation technique.

“Spit it out, where did this thing come from! I saw that you have been acting sneakily for a while now,” asked Xiaoman.

Feeling that things were not quite right, Gao Zhijian frowned and took a step forward with his shovel.

“What’s wrong? Am I breaking the law? Why do so many people need to get involved in this? I picked this book up!” Puppy raised his hand in annoyance and finally snatched the book back from Xiaoman’s hands.

“Picked up? Can you just pick such a book randomly?” asked Xiaoman.

“Of course!” said Puppy before continuing in a softer voice, “But it was from the cellar under the Bai family ancestral hall…”

“You—!” Xiaoman was about to speak, but Puppy immediately shushed her nervously.

He stole a glance at the dispirited Bai Lingmiao, and then leaned toward Xiaoman and said, “Sis, think about it. Do you think the Bai family did so much and built all that for fun? Think again, Senior Li came back in such a state. We all know his incredible skills. Could the Bai family have forced him into such a state if they didn’t have skills of their own? They must have some methods! Regardless of what they used before, since they’re all dead, their things all belong to us now!”

Hearing all this, Chun Xiaoman’s expression turned cold. “What’s the point of learning those things? Are you going to learn to use living people as a foundation? If you dare to learn that, then don’t blame me for not being cordial!”

“Hey! You’re so inflexible. Let’s only learn things that won’t harm our conscience. We can just ignore those techniques that involve killing people,” retorted Puppy. “Let me tell you, there are many things in the house! There are still many more books, and there must be more techniques as well! Once we learn those easier things that don’t involve killing, who would dare to bully us then?”

Xiaoman looked down at the sword on her waist, as a trace of hesitation appeared on her face.

Now that Senior Li was gone, could she really protect all of them with this longsword if they were faced with a crisis?

After a moment, she reached out and snatched the book back from Puppy’s hands, then examined it carefully. “Don’t tell Miaomiao for now. Her condition is not too good. Let’s look at this from all angles before we make a decision.”

“Alright, we’ll listen to you. This time’s gain is enough for the three of us to share in.” Puppy readily agreed.

Meanwhile, back in Yinling City, the dusty Li Huowang dismounted from the horse before tying it in the inn’s stable. He was somewhat surprised to not see Bun shaking its head over there.

He circled his own carriage a few times before spotting the dog standing with its claws on the manger, stealing the horses’ feed.

“So fat and still eating?” Li Huowang lifted it up, “Come here. I brought you here to watch the carriage, and not to eat more.”

“Woof woof!”

Bun was rather excited after not having seen its owner for some time. It shook its head and wagged its tail, twisting its body like a maggot.

Just as Bun was about to lick Li Huowang’s boots, it was pressed down by Li Huowang.

“What’s going on? Are you injured? Who did this?” Li Huowang looked at the notch on Bun’s ear and frowned slightly.

Bun obviously did not know what Li Huowang was talking about, and just wagged its tail as it tried to burrow into Li Huowang’s arms.

“Come here!” Li Huowang grabbed the nape of its neck and lifted it, then headed toward the lobby.

“Innkeeper, didn’t I give you enough silver? Why can’t you even look after a dog?” asked Li Huowang.

The fat innkeeper looked helpless. “Ah, dear guest, this is not my fault. Your dog ran out by itself.”

“You know too that this is a female dog. It ran to the street and fought with another female dog for attention from a male dog. In the end, it lost the fight and was bitten like this by the other dog,” explained the innkeeper.

Bun didn’t know what the two people were talking about, and just looked innocently at Li Huowang as it sat on the ground.

This made Li Huowang rather speechless. He didn’t even know how to get angry. “Where’s the dog that bit it?”

“That female dog ran away. After mating, those wild dogs usually run away,” said the innkeeper.

Feeling helpless, Li Huowang patted Bun’s head, and then headed back upstairs to the guest rooms.

In his haste to travel, they had only been eating and sleeping when he could. Thus, Li Huowang was exhausted, and slept for an entire day and night.

After waking up, he called up the kitchen to order some dishes. After washing up, Li Huowang began to eat heartily.

While eating, he started pondering on what excuse he should use to ask Ji Xiang about information on Zhuge Yuan without directly approaching and asking more.

I should contact Tuoba Danqing first, and confirm the situation with Ji Xiang. With how he looked the last time, the consequences for the failure of this task should be quite severe.

Just as Li Huowang was thinking to himself, the cooing sound of the pigeon rang from the rafters.

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