Chapter 117
Chapter 117
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 117
>Chapter Title: Ao Jing Sect
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"You wanna be called what?" Li Huowang looked at the skinny native dog in front of him, wagging its tail.
After raising it for several days, it was still terribly emaciated. But at least all those densely packed bloodsucking ticks hanging from its ears had been removed.
Both ears were bitten ragged, looking like a bloody mess. Even after taking Li Huowang's healing pills, it would take time to recover.
"Woo~" The native dog squatting on the ground tilted its head in confusion as it gazed at Li Huowang.
After glancing around warily, it lowered its head and nuzzled its bony skull affectionately under Li Huowang's hand, trying to get him to pet it.
Li Huowang patted its head lightly, a faint smile flickering in his eyes.
A few nights ago, he'd thought something was wrong with this dog. But after enduring the hallucinations, Li Huowang realized he'd been mistaken.
If it truly harbored ill intentions, it would've struck while he was lost in hallucinations.
For the time being, it seemed like just a dog—an utterly ordinary one—even if he still had no idea where it'd come from.
Li Huowang pulled a steamed bun from his bundle and tossed it over. He watched as Bun pounced excitedly and tore into it.
"Since you like steamed buns so much, you'll be called Bun from now on."
Li Huowang casually settled on the name.
"Woof! Woof!" Bun leaped up excitedly, reacting to Li Huowang's call.
With his right hand—now sprouting the barest stubs of nail roots—he gently stroked the fur between Bun's neck.
"Since you're homeless like me, stick with me. It's handy having a dog around. You can keep watch at night and keep me company during the day."
"When I have an episode, you might not be much help, but you're better than nothing."
"Of course, the main thing is I want to test whether hallucinating-me hurts others. You're my first guinea pig."
As Li Huowang finished speaking, Bun had wolfed down the bun. It licked its chops repeatedly, gazing longingly at Li Huowang.
"You probably don't get what I'm saying anyway. Let's go—we're almost there."
Li Huowang patted Bun's head again, stood, and looked toward the distant mountains—his destination.
The brief moment of ease from interacting with the dog vanished. As thoughts of what the nuns had said about the Ao Jing Sect resurfaced, Li Huowang's expression grew grim.
The abbess had said they might have a way to deal with Danyangzi. But they were just as dangerous—as the Great Thousand Records alone made clear.
This utter lack of control felt awful. Yet Li Huowang had no choice: either trust them or die waiting.
"Let's go."
The Daoist in red robes set off toward the distant mountains, yellow dog in tow.
The saying "distant mountains kill horses" rang painfully true for Li Huowang this time.
After two full days trekking with the dog, they finally reached the mountain's base.
His final obstacle was a town—a town long dead.
Collapsed houses, bisected corpses, everything shrouded in dusty spiderwebs. Every sign pointed to a deadly calamity that had struck this place.
Li Huowang's face twisted in revulsion as he eyed a severed torso slumped roadside, blocking a tiny skeleton.
Anyone capable of massacring an entire town was inhuman to the extreme—viler-tempered than Danyangzi himself, most likely.
He passed slowly through the town. A thought bubbled up in Li Huowang's mind.
"Could the Ao Jing Sect be behind all this?"
His opinion of the sect he'd yet to meet began to shift.
After half a day of walking, the desolate town held no sign of life. The only living creatures were rats in the corners, gnawing on who-knew-what.
Spotting Li Huowang and his dog approaching, the grimy rats scattered in panic.
With everyone dead, there was nothing Li Huowang could do. Barely able to protect himself, he picked up the pace and hurried through the ghost town.
Beyond the suffocating town lay a winding dirt path snaking into the mountains.
The trail twisted upward like a serpent—the only route into these hills. The Ao Jing Sect had to be somewhere inside.
Li Huowang glanced down at Bun, tongue lolling at his feet, then gave its belly a light kick before starting the climb.
As he eyed the sparse, withered yellow woods on the slopes, vigilance crept into Li Huowang's heart. No telling how they'd react to seeing him—a pure heart.
"Woof! Woof!!" Bun suddenly barked toward the woods on the right.
Li Huowang's hand flew to the Great Thousand Records.
"Swish~" A lynx darted across the path to the other side.
Before Li Huowang could exhale in relief, he glimpsed something in the woods where the lynx had fled.
Approaching cautiously, Li Huowang entered slowly. Several ruined temples came into view.
"Is this the Ao Jing Sect's Cross Temple?" Li Huowang muttered, eyeing the symbol atop the structures.
It wasn't like any cross he'd seen before. This one resembled a withered black clover—shrunken and twisted, as if dead of thirst.
Staring at the weed-choked temples, Li Huowang's gut churned with dread.
If there was anything worse than the Ao Jing Sect attacking on sight, it was that they'd already been wiped out.
"Could those townsfolk not have been killed by the Ao Jing Sect? Did whatever-it-was hit them too?"
Expression dark, Li Huowang led Bun back to the path and pressed on.
This time, he scanned the woods' hidden spots with extra care.
As expected, he soon spotted another Cross Temple outpost. This time, he saw the god the Ao Jing Sect worshipped.
Atop the offering platform, a massive black cross bore a charred statue swathed in flames, seated in lotus position.
The carving was exquisitely detailed—the flames' flicker, flesh melted from roasting, hair curled from burning—all rendered lifelike in stone.
But Li Huowang saw no head. Everything above the neck lay in fragments.
"Just what did the Ao Jing Sect piss off?" Li Huowang wondered anxiously.
They'd crossed the abbesses of An Ci Nunnery and survived. That alone attested to their power.
And after experiencing the Great Thousand Records' might firsthand, Li Huowang struggled to imagine what could demolish their Cross Temples.
Then he noticed something. Wiping away the spiderwebs beneath the platform revealed a line of text.
"The Bull God undying is called the Mysterious Womb. The gate of the Mysterious Womb is the root of limpid heaven and earth. There exists a thing of primal chaos, born before heaven and earth."
Li Huowang looked up anew at the headless god atop the cross.
"Is that the Bull God?"