CLANG! The longsword and the Heavenly Book collided, producing an excruciatingly harsh screech that made everyone else in the room instinctively cover their ears and take two steps back.
Didn't even leave a mark. Changming's sword is useless, huh? Isn't he supposed to be a Sword Cultivator? This sword shouldn't be an ordinary piece of junk, Li Huowang thought. Gripping the hilt with both hands, he swung it around and brought it down hard again.
He gritted his teeth and hacked at it several more times. Finally, something changed—but the change didn't come from the so-called Heavenly Book, but from the longsword in Li Huowang's hands.
CLANG! The sword blade snapped in two at the point of impact, turning the fine longsword into a broken one.
Staring at the broken sword, Li Huowang was dumbfounded. The weapon he had just acquired was gone, just like that.
Glancing around, Li Huowang quickly walked over to Changren's corpse and snatched his sword. "Thank goodness for a spare."
SWISH. The longsword slid into its sheath. Li Huowang circled the Heavenly Book, pondering his next move.
Originally, I planned to destroy this so-called Heavenly Book, but now it seems this thing is something special. It's hard to deny it might be a real treasure. Since I've decided not to give up on myself, there's no way I'm just going to toss aside something so valuable. No matter what, I'll keep it for now. Worst-case scenario, I can pawn it for some money.
Li Huowang had completely abandoned the unrealistic fantasy of achieving immortality through the book. He had already seen the fate of those who tried before, and he had no desire to be the next.
With considerable effort, Li Huowang hefted the slab. It was even heavier than he had imagined, but still within a manageable weight.
After wrapping the stone tablet in cloth and slinging it over his back, he turned to the others waiting nearby. "Let's go. We're leaving this place."
Lamp oil was splashed across Master Danyang's foul-smelling cavern. Tongues of flame slithered across the ground, igniting everything flammable—including the bodies of Changming, Changren, and Xuan Yuan.
The blaze was immense. Watching the scene, Li Huowang realized for the first time that the human body is a natural combustible.
They retraced their steps, setting fire to every room as they went. The scorching flames swayed and merged, beginning to consume everything burnable within Qingfeng Daoist Temple and blacken everything that would not ignite.
"COUGH, COUGH." The thick smoke made the others begin to cough, and everyone picked up their pace.
After the time it took for three incense sticks to burn, they all stood under the sunlight, silently watching smoke belch from the entrance of the cave temple.
Billowing clouds of smoke swirled upwards, enveloping all the darkness and evil within Qingfeng Daoist Temple before disappearing into the bright sky.
Li Huowang looked up and chuckled again. With the longsword and stone slab on his back, he turned and strode toward the forest path in the distance. "Let's go."
The others, carrying the provisions, quickly followed. Unbeknownst to them, Li Huowang had already become their leader.
As he watched the forest path draw closer, Li Huowang's spirits began to lift.
"Ah, this world is a strange place. I wonder what kind of people and things I'll encounter in the future. Suddenly, I'm kind of looking forward to it."
The sunlight warmed his face. As he breathed in the fresh air, his mood began to brighten.
"Senior Li, slow down. My eyes hurt."
Li Huowang turned to see Bai Lingmiao shielding her eyes from the sun.
He walked over, cupped her face, and observed her carefully. He was shocked to find that he could see the blood vessels in the back of her eyeballs right through the center of her pupils—their pinkish-red hue illuminated by the light.
This… must be some kind of defect, he guessed.
He wasn't a doctor and didn't understand medicine, but he could make an educated guess. Li Huowang recalled that the elderly albino fortune-tellers and masseurs he had seen were almost all blind.
It seemed Bai Lingmiao's condition made her eyes defective, far more fragile than a normal person's.
This won't do, he thought. He tore a strip of cloth from the hem of his blue Daoist robe and gently tied it over Bai Lingmiao's eyes. "From now on, whenever the sun is out, keep this on."
"But… then I can't see."
"It's fine. I'll hold your hand." Li Huowang took Bai Lingmiao's soft right hand and led the others at a brisk pace into the woods.
After stumbling a few times, Bai Lingmiao broke into a trot to keep up with him.
***
THWACK, THWACK, THWACK. Top Scholar Lv, his face a web of wrinkles, tapped his long-stemmed pipe forcefully against a theater trunk.
After knocking out the clogged, blackened tobacco, he took fresh shreds from his pouch, packed the bowl, and lit it with a tinderbox.
Taking a long, satisfying puff, he hollered toward the front of the cart. "Hey, boy, are you done yet?"
"Almost, almost!" a youth's voice called back from the woods.
"A lazy donkey at the millstone pisses and shits more than it grinds. How can taking a crap be this slow? Anyone would think I've been mistreating you, feeding you potter's clay," Top Scholar Lv grumbled between puffs, complaining about his youngest son.
His gaze drifted past the cart to his entire opera troupe on the forest path. Besides a wagon loaded with costumes and instrument cases, there was his eldest son with his wife and child, plus two distant nephews he had brought from their village. The troupe was small, but it was the sum of everything he had managed to scrape together over the years.
It was this small opera troupe alone that allowed his entire family to eat their fill in these difficult times.
"Dad, have some water and a bun," Lv Elevated Man said, offering food and a water calabash to his father.
"Eat? It's not mealtime! Do you think grain is free? Do you have any idea what it costs these days? Your daughter is two years old, but you still act like a child! When will you grow up?!"
Despite the torrent of scolding, Lv Elevated Man wasn't angry. He just smiled foolishly, retreated, and had his wife put the things away.
"So, did you get scolded again?" Luo Juannhua asked as she put the food back on the cart. "You just like being scolded, don't you? Always looking for a tongue-lashing." She then playfully poked their precious daughter, who was sitting on a trunk.
"Getting yelled at a couple of times won't make me lose any flesh. Let him yell. Dad's just been like this ever since Mom died."
"Hey, dear, about what I told you last night… did you say anything to Dad yet?"
"Let's wait a while. We haven't gotten many shows recently, so Dad's tight on cash." At the mention of this, Lv Elevated Man's expression soured.
"Tch! Is he so tight on cash he can't even spare money to buy cloth for his own granddaughter's clothes? She's still wearing stage costumes."
"Costumes… they're actually fine…"
"AAAAHHH! A GHOST!" A terrified scream cut off their conversation, and the entire troupe instantly tensed up.
Moments later, they saw a bare-bottomed boy burst out of the woods, wailing for his parents as he threw himself into Top Scholar Lv's arms.
"A ghost? What ghost! There are no ghosts in broad daylight! Now get your pants on!"
Even as he scolded his youngest son, Top Scholar Lv pushed Scholar Lv behind him, tightened his grip on his pipe, and stared warily toward the woods.
Figures stirred within the trees. Someone was coming.