Mutated Tao

After returning the horses, Li Huowang walked into an inn. The journey had been exhausting, and he needed to recover his strength before boarding the ship.

“Guest, your dishes are ready,” the waiter said and turned around to leave.

“Wait," Li Huowang said, stopping the waiter. "Why are these fish and shrimp still alive? How am I supposed to eat them?”

“Hehe, is this your first time in Huating City? No, they’re not alive; it’s called raw pickling. Look, the other guests are eating it that way. Try it out first. If you don't like it, then it’s going to be on the house.”

Li Huowang glanced at the food on other tables, and then he used his bandaged right hand to shoo the waiter away.

Due to its proximity to the sea, the local cuisine had a significant difference compared to the local cuisine in other regions. Of course, the local cuisine featured mostly seafood.

Li Huowang found it a bit hard to get used to it first, but he found the dish to be surprisingly refreshing. The pickled meat was sweet with a unique flavor to it.

Li Huowang ate to his heart's content, and then he lay down to sleep. Li Huowang woke up later in the day. He sat up on the bed and shook his groggy head before getting out of bed.

“All right, let's go find that ship,” Li Huowang muttered to himself. He had no issues locating the ship heading to Xing Island, as it was a square-bottomed ship capable of accommodating dozens of ships.

Li Huowang was about to get aboard the ship when the unkempt and bearded ship captain stood in his way and asked, “Stop, stop, stop. What’s your surname?”

“Er,” Li Huowang replied.

“You'd best not fool around. Who has the surname Er in this world? If you don’t want to tell me the truth, then you better get out of here. I can't be bothered to talk nonsense with you.”

“Bai,” Li Huowang added.

"That's more like it," the captain said. Then, he examined Li Huowang from top to bottom and waved his hand.

"Next! What’s your surname?” the captain asked someone else.

Soon, the ship left the port, and the harbor district gradually disappeared into the horizon,

Li Huowang exhaled slowly while standing on the deck of the ship. He was about to meet Zhuge Yuan once more, and he felt complicated emotions at the idea alone.

Was he excited, happy, curious, and suspicious? If Li Huowang were asked, he would reply that he felt a hodgepodge of emotions.

Li Huowang rubbed his belly and felt a bit more at ease. He was no longer the Li Huowang who had just left Zephyr Temple. He was prepared regardless of what would happen next.

“Hehe, why not sit inside the cabin for a while?" A voice echoed from behind Li Huowang. "The sea breeze on deck is quite cold.”

Li Huowang turned and saw a young man with bandages around his forehead. The young man grinned while leaning closer toward Li Huowang, who was leaning on the railings of the ship.

Li Huowang couldn't be bothered with the overfamiliar young man and moved away with a frown.

“It can be said that we share the same fate, as we've embarked on a journey on the same ship. It's going to take us six days to reach Xing Island. How about you come inside and play a round of leaf cards with us? We're short one player, and it's a great stroke of coincidence that I saw you out there," said the bandaged young man.

“No,” Li Huowang replied coldly. He took a few quick steps toward the other side of the deck.

The bandaged young man didn’t insist and turned around to walk into the cabin.

The world abruptly darkened.

Everyone looked up and saw a massive ship passing by. The ship seemed to be as huge as a mountain. She blotted out the sunlight, and she had bronze lion heads the size of Eight Immortals' tables on her port and starboard sides.

The bronze lion heads were wide agape, and their teeth were glimmering jewelry.

The colossal ship was a warship, and the warship's current condition meant that she had just gone through a grueling battle.

Everyone on deck immediately prostrated upon identifying the ship.

Liang Kingdom’s warship? Who are they fighting? Li Huowang pondered as the warship emitting a powerful, oppressive aura slowly made its way toward the harbor district.

Everyone on deck sighed in relief and stood up when the sun shone down on them once more.

“You've got guts by not prostrating toward the ship. If what you've done had provoked the soldiers, you would have lost your life!” The bandaged young man gave Li Huowang a thumbs-up.

“Where were they from?” Li Huowang asked.

“I don’t know, but there are some rumors that they went overseas to find something,” replied the bandaged young man.

They used a warship just to find something? Li Huowang was immediately reminded of the Muddled One that Ji Xiang and himself had been looking for. What if the Muddled One was just one of the things they're looking for? Why do they want so many treasures?

Li Huowang felt that something big was about to happen, but he had no clues about it. In the end, Li Huowang shook his head and pushed away the distracting thoughts. Then, he turned around and headed toward the cabin.

Nothing eventful happened in the next few days. The sea was calm, but Li Huowang felt like time was excruciatingly slow, as he couldn't wait to reach Xing Island.

“Jade Kirin.”

“Six hundred.”

“Ten thousand. Baldhead, can you play faster? You dawdle like a woman.”

“Hey, wait a minute, I won! Pay up! Pay up!”

Li Huowang leaned against the ship’s railings and watched silently at his fellow passengers playing leaf cards to pass the time. It only took him a few days to figure out how the game worked.

In a nutshell, the leaf cards game was like mahjong but with fewer tiles

Mahjong had over a hundred tiles, while leaf cards had only a few dozen cards.

In other words, it was a game with a much faster pace than mahjong. In addition to the rules of the game, Li Huowang had already analyzed the game behavior of the players; the bandaged young man had a penchant for cheating, while the bearded bald man was the best player and had won the most games.

Li Huowang wasn’t the only spectator. The other bored passengers formed a crowd to observe them playing the game for entertainment.

“Damn it, you brat, how dare you cheat! No wonder I've been losing every round all this while!” someone exclaimed, and the card game quickly turned into a brawl.

However, the onlookers were more entertained rather than scared.

“Ahhh…” Li Huowang heard a soft voice below him. He looked down and saw that a little girl, seemingly under four years old and wearing open-crotch pants, had wobbled over to him and was tugging at Li Huowang’s pants.

Upon sensing Li Huowang's gaze, the little girl grinned and opened her palm, revealing a half-eaten piece of sesame candy.

Li Huowang could see from the little girl's innocent eyes that she only wanted to share her tasty candy with others. Li Huowang was suddenly reminded of his foolish female senior back at Zephyr Temple, who wanted to share her candy with him.

“Sniff!” Bun sitting in the corner stuck its head out.

The little girl was overjoyed to see the yellow dog, and she immediately handed the half-eaten candy to Bun.

Bun opened its mouth carefully to take the candy when a tentacle rushed out and snatched it away.

The little girl let loose a peal of laughter while staring at the black tentacle retracting into Li Huowang’s red Daoist robes. The little girl clearly had no idea as to what had just happened.

The little girl rushed up to Li Huowang and tiptoed with her mouth wide open while staring at where the tentacle had vanished.

Just then, a woman with a pale yellow complexion rushed toward her and hugged her. The woman held her struggling daughter and bowed repeatedly toward Li Huowang before walking toward the female-exclusive cabin.

Bun glanced at its motionless master and tilted its head. It leaned over to lick the small handprint on the red Daoist robes, and it found that the sticky handprint still carried a hint of sweetness.

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