Mutated Tao

“Beat the drum and the gongs~ Stop the gongs and hear my song~ Hear me sing the eighteen touches~”

Someone's singing came from the left side of an alley. Li Sui heard the voice and looked over, but Li Huowang frowned. He urged the horse to run faster so Li Sui wouldn't learn the inappropriate words.

“Touch the edges of my legs, and the skies are covered in clouds~ Touch the tip of my forehead, and feel how full it is~”

Lu Juren sang on the stage with his white makeup as he gestured with both of his hands according to the lyrics.

The men beneath the stage listened attentively and even looked at each other with a knowing gaze, snickering as they did so.

Everyone cheered and showered the stage with bronze coins at the end of the show. The Lu family’s performance wasn't from the Liang Kingdom, so none of the audience had heard of it before. They relished in the novelty of it.

“Encore! Encore! One more time!”

“Do you have female performers?! I want them to sing for us!”

“Yeah, we want female performers! We will pay you more!”

While Lu Zhuangyuan was happily picking up the bronze coins, someone shouted, “What are you doing here?!”

Everyone saw that the shout had come from the city guards, so they ran away in a panic.

Lu Zhuangyuan panicked and froze.

“Who granted you permission to perform here? And you're even performing a pink show! This is an outright offense to public decency! Are you blind? Did you not see the warning on the city gates?!”

Lu Zhuangyuan lowered his head humbly. “Officer! I don’t know how to read… Please forgive us…”

“I don’t care whether you can read or not! We will seize all of the money you've earned here! Pick those coins up!”

Lu Zhuangyuan didn’t want to part away with so much money, but there was nothing he could do. The officials were of higher rank than him.

Soon, the city guards walked away happily with the money in hand, and the performers were left to pack up the stage with frowns.

Halfway through, Lu Xiucai and Puppy returned while bickering.

“Stupid! Your method is useless! Those beggars searched for so long and didn’t even manage to catch a glimpse of my master!”

“Shut up! At least I’m doing something. What about you? Except for flapping your mouth, you are doing nothing to help!”

The two only stopped bickering when they saw the performers packing up.

“Troupe Leader Lu, what happened? We finally found a place to perform. Why are you packing up now?” Puppy scratched the side of his face in confusion.

After learning what had happened, Lu Xiucai stomped the ground angrily and waved the bronze coin sword that he had stitched himself. “The people of Shangjing are so cruel! I will go and cut them down!”

Lu Zhuangyuan sighed and massaged his lower back, “It’s fine. We already have enough issues, so stop giving me more. We don’t need the money.”

“We can’t do that. We have to feed ourselves and the horses. Everything is so expensive in Shangjing. Even a single piece of bread costs five coins,” Luo Juanhua grumbled with the bronze mirror in hand.

“Do you really think that I don’t know how to manage my money?” Lu Zhuangyuan chided and looked at Puppy, “Sir Cao, did you manage to find the young Daoist?”

Lu Zhuangyuan couldn't wait to leave Shangjing after learning that he couldn’t build his own theater here. He couldn't even earn money here. However, he didn’t know what to tell the others if he returned without results.

Puppy could say nothing but lie about how he was close to finding Li Huowang.

However, Shangjing was so large, and there were too many people inside of it. It was like trying to find a needle in the haystack.

“Nevermind. Let’s report the situation back to Xiaoman using the pigeons. I’ve already asked the beggars, so they can’t blame me for not trying to find Li Huowang.”

Puppy walked toward the nearest City God Temple to find a scholar who could help write a letter for him.

Unbeknownst to them, Li Huowang was out of the city. After traveling for a few more kilometers, Li Huowang found an isolated place to park the carriage. He prepared food and water for the horse before traveling to the Qi Kingdom.

Upon sensing Li Sui inside of him, Li Huowang took a deep breath and gripped the spine sword tightly.

“Let’s go!” Li Huowang swung the sword. He stomped his feet onto the ground along with six tentacles before launching himself towards the crack in space.

He was getting used to the movements. This time, he didn’t even get his robes torn off.

Li Huowang didn’t even get to celebrate his small achievement when he was shocked to see what was happening in front of him. A massive cloud was heading towards him!

“Those are…” He stared into the distance to identify it, “Locusts!”

The locusts covered the sun and crashed downwards like a black tsunami.

Li Huowang put away the spine sword and brought out the purple-tasseled sword. The killing intent around him scared the locusts away. However, some of them still managed to chew on his robes and head before flying away.

The locusts flew around him, devouring anything in their path. When the sun revealed itself again, everything around Li Huowang turned barren. The plants have all been chewed off.

“Junior Li, this is a Natural Disaster.”

“Natural Disaster? But they are just locusts.”

“To normal people, food is the most crucial part of their life. They don’t care about the Heavenly Daos because they can still live on without the Heavenly Daos, but without food, they will quickly die from hunger. To them, a locust swarm is worse than a Natural Disaster. More importantly, more disasters would follow after the locusts. There would be a drought, war, and finally, a plague. The world would become desolate.”

“What's happening with the Qi Kingdom?” Li Huowang said, staring at the You Capital. He then looked at Zhuge Yuan and asked, “Senior Zhuge, is there something you need me to do here? Tell me, and I will—”

Zhuge Yuan shook his head. “Junior Li, you are not someone from the Qi Kingdom. This is not your karma, and you don’t need to interfere. You are also in a bad place. I love the people here, and I wish to protect them, but there’s nothing I can do for them.”

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