Mutated Tao

“Dense fragrances call upon the universe; send the incense to the Heavenly Gates. Golden crows soar across the clouds, and the jade rabbits glimmer like the kaleidoscope~”

Lu Zhuangyuan was smoking his pipe while standing in the carriage when he heard a familiar chanting. He turned around and saw his youngest son, Lu Xiucai, practicing a technique near the campfire. Lu Xiucai was holding an incense stick with his butt up while chanting toward a drawing.

“Hmph! If only you were as filial to me as you are with your training," Lu Zhuangyuan said.

However, Lu Xiucai ignored Lu Zhuangyuan as he continued chanting.

“May the constellations shine and the rainbow clouds gather. The purple palace reveals the sacred castle, and the goddesses invite the immortals. Welcome us after the long journey with flying clouds and horses. Accept our humble greetings~”

Lu Xiucai chanted three times in delight before stabbing the incense sticks into the ground.

He prayed three times to the drawing before putting it away. Puppy had been lying on the ground beside him out of boredom.

“Xiucai, what are you chanting all day? We were woken up by you so early in the morning. I've never seen you chant so much even though you've been cultivating the techniques of the White Lotus Sect.”

Lu Xiucai scoffed at him. “I’ve finished cultivating the First Words. I’m starting on the Second Drawing, so it’s not strange that the requirements are different. Even though you can be proud of the items that your master has given you, that’s all you'd amount to in your life. You cannot improve by relying on external tools. Unlike you, I’m becoming stronger every day, and I will surpass you soon!”

“Yiyi~ Ah~ Ah~”

The sound of Lu Zhuangyuan’s disciples practicing their vocals first thing in the morning irritated Puppy a lot. He buried his head into the pillow to try and sleep.

However, there was no way he could sleep in such conditions. He stood up in frustration and walked toward the stream to wash up.

The world was slowly warming up, but the water in the stream was still cold, so it felt good to stand in it.

When Puppy went back to the campfire, Luo Juanhua had finished making breakfast. Today’s meal was wild vegetable soup with noodles and dried radishes.

Puppy ate the dried radishes and drank the soup before shaking his head. “It’s not as good as Xiaohai’s meal.”

Luo Juanhua was not someone who'd coddle Puppy; she already knew Puppy's position in the village, so she knew that he was not that important.

“Aiyo, Lord Puppy. This is our Lu Family's food. If you don’t like it, you can go back home.”

“Aiyo, do you really think that I want to travel? It's been so long since Senior Li left, and he hasn't come back yet. If it weren't for the fact that the village needed someone to go out and find him, do you really think that I'd come out and travel? There’s no meat to eat; how can we have the energy to travel? Wait a minute, I thought you guys were earning a lot of money while performing those pink shows. Why are you not spending money?” Puppy complained while eating.

Lu Zhuangyuan revealed a salted egg out of nowhere, seemingly in a magic trick. He placed the oily yolk into his own three-year-old granddaughter’s bowl before placing the egg white into Puppy’s bowl.

“Lord Cai, please don’t leave. Things are very chaotic right now, and the Lu Family still needs you to guard us along with that dog. We're not daring enough to travel to Shangjing without you.”

Lu Xiucai stood up furiously and roared, “Who are you calling a dog!?”

They were about to fight, and Puppy had no choice but to stop them.

Puppy was just trying to have fun. If Gao Zhijian and Xiaoman learned that he had run back home halfway, they'd certainly beat him to death.

Their breakfast was brief and noisy. Soon, the Lu Family’s three carriages continued their journey to Shangjing.

“Shangjing, the capital city of the Liang Kingdom. I’ve heard that it’s the largest city in the world. It must be even more prosperous than Yinling City.” Luo Juanhua was looking forward to the city because she had only heard of it when she was young. She had been fantasizing about how grand Shangjing had to look even in her younger days.

The entire Lu Family was thrilled as well. They were hyped up by the peddlers' words about Shangjing.

Lu Juren was walking silently as he carried his daughter in his arms when Lu Zhuangyuan approached him.

“Juren, we’ve earned quite a lot since we came to the Liang Kingdom. Once we reach Shangjing, we can ask them how much a plot of land costs. If it's slightly above our budget, we can always borrow more from the Daoist, and then we can build our own theater in the largest city in the world!” Lu Zhuangyuan said with shining eyes. It was not an exaggeration to say that he had dedicated his whole life to building one.

What had been a dream was now within his reach, and it could come true once he was in the Liang Kingdom.

“Once we have the theater, we can relocate our ancestral graves there, too. Once we do that… Hehehe... it feels so great just thinking about it.”

Lu Zhuangyuan was still stuck in his fantasies when Puppy came over and said, “So that’s why you agreed so readily back to travel to Shangjing. I guess you weren’t trying to look for Senior Li.”

“Of course, we are there to find him. I just think that the young Daoist is so strong to the point where we don’t have to worry about him. I doubt we can do anything to help him if he really encountered a problem.”

Lu Zhuangyuan thought of Li Huowang as an Immortal who could fly to the heavens at any moment.

“Heh. Hard to say. What if his illness relapses while traveling?”

They walked and talked, but their chatters soon stopped. The sun was high in the sky, and everyone felt so hot that they didn’t have the energy to talk anymore.

Fortunately, they found a pond near the entrance of a village. They ran over in excitement to wash their faces and drink some water from the pond.

“Dad, we finally found a village. Why don’t we ask to borrow their kitchen? The sun is too hot for us to start a fire outside.” Luo Juanhua was wiping her daughter’s sweat while complaining to Lu Zhuangyuan.

Lu Zhuangyuan nodded. “Alright, but don’t give them any money first. We should ask if they want us to perform. If they want us to perform, we could earn ourselves some money and maybe a meal.”

Feeling refreshed, they entered the village with their carriages. The village was big, and many people peeked out of their door and pointed at the Lu Family.

Lu Zhuangyuan did not mind them and looked around. He wanted to find the richest person in the village to perform. Regular villagers had no money to hire performers. He looked around the village before he saw something that piqued his interest. One of the houses was drying tobacco leaves in the courtyard.

Lu Zhuangyuan shouted at an old man smoking in the house. “Sir, how much for your tobacco?! I want to buy some because I just finished some of mine—what?! Why is it so expensive? You don't have to cut and dry them for me. I want raw ones.”

Lu Zhuangyuan haggled aggressively before buying a big bundle of raw tobacco leaves with five coins.

“Hehe.” Lu Zhuangyuan put away the tobacco in delight. I just have to add in some chili leaves, and this bundle can last me half a year!

“Father! There are some noises over there. The noises sound like gongs to me!”

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