Chapter 138
Chapter 138
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 138
>Chapter Title: Sitting Oblivion Dao
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Chapter 138: Sitting Oblivion Dao
Looking at the abbess before him, Li Huowang held his sword in one hand and bowed to her very solemnly.
"Thank you, Abbess, for gifting me this sword! As long as I keep surviving, I will repay you with a gushing spring in the future!"
Li Huowang wasn't good with words. Compared to saying things, he preferred to show it through actions.
He knew full well who treated him well and who treated him poorly.
Hearing this, Abbess Jingxin immediately sounded a bit displeased.
"Who said it's a gift? This is a sale. Don't think about welching on the debt—thirty thousand taels plus interest, not a single copper coin short. You have to pay all this back."
"I know you can't fork over the cash right now, so how about this: whenever you're flush with money down the line, have the post station send some over. I won't turn down a thousand taels of gold, and I won't mind half a string of copper coins either."
"Alright, alright, we've said all that's needed. Off you go. I'm not keeping you for a meal—I figure you wouldn't like the temple's vegetarian fare anyway. Remember to bring some pastries next time you visit."
With that, Abbess Jingxin shuffled her rotund body around and headed back into the room.
Seeing this, Li Huowang hurried forward to block her. He still had other questions.
"Wait, Abbess. I have a few trifling matters to ask."
"Sigh, you're such a dawdler, kid. Spit it out quick—I'm full and ready for a nap." Abbess Jingxin seemed a bit impatient.
Standing in place, Li Huowang pondered for a few seconds before asking, "Abbess, I'm new to the jianghu and don't know much about the powers of the world. Could you tell me a bit about their taboos and their depths?"
"What's there to tell or not tell?" The abbess scratched her belly irritably with her hand.
"You're a pureheart, aren't you? When you run into folks from other sects, what else can you do but run?"
"That's it?" Li Huowang clearly found this shocking.
"Of course that's it. What, you gonna run over and chat them up? Didn't you learn your lesson at Zhengde Temple?"
"You're a pureheart, so to them, you're no different from a ginseng spirit with a red string tied to it. Doesn't matter if it's some cult or whatever people—fight if you can beat them, run if you can't."
"And don't even think about joining them. No sect ever takes a bewildered pureheart as a disciple—not even An Ci Nunnery. If someone says otherwise, they're definitely plotting against you."
Abbess Jingxin's words hit Li Huowang like a thunderbolt.
"Aside from you, is there really no one else I can trust?"
"Nope. Who's gonna help you for nothing?" The three layers of fat on the abbess's chin jiggled left and right as she shook her head.
Though he'd known this deep down, hearing it straight from Jingxin's mouth still left Li Huowang deeply dejected.
His journey ahead would likely be anything but peaceful.
After carefully digesting this information, Li Huowang tossed out another question he'd been mulling over on the road.
"Abbess, could you tell me a bit about An Ci Nunnery's cultivation methods? How do you all obtain your supernatural abilities?"
All these days, aside from knowing that the Robe Scenery Sect gained powers through sacrifices to Ba Hui, he was utterly clueless about why certain people in this world possessed supernatural abilities.
"Ha~" The abbess yawned. "What's the point of asking that? Even if I told you, you couldn't cultivate it. Haven't you noticed everyone in An Ci Nunnery is a nun?"
"No matter. Please enlighten me."
"Sigh, it's not that I won't tell you—it's just that those techniques can't be recited by mouth. They have to be written in women's script. And you're a man to boot..."
Since she'd put it that way, Li Huowang didn't want to put her in a tough spot.
"Then thank you for your guidance, Abbess. Until we meet again." Li Huowang bowed once more and turned toward the door.
As he lowered his head to carefully examine the sword cradled in both hands, the abbess's voice suddenly rang out from behind him.
"Hang on a sec. You interrupted me just now, and I nearly forgot. I just remembered—there's one group you really need to watch out for."
This instantly perked up Li Huowang's ears. He spun around at once. "Please, do tell."
"Commit this to memory: that bunch is called the Sitting Oblivion Dao."
"Sitting Oblivion Dao?" Li Huowang instinctively furrowed his brow. He felt like he'd heard those three words somewhere before.
But after racking his brains, he realized he had no memories at all about the Sitting Oblivion Dao.
"Sigh, I'm talking to you! Why do you keep spacing out, kid? If you don't wanna hear it, I won't say it."
"Abbess, please explain. Why single them out? Do they not target purehearts?"
"Nope."
"Other people have reasons for robbing or killing you, but the Sitting Oblivion Dao? Totally different story."
"Those Sitting Oblivion Dao folks are a bunch of swindling gamblers who love to cheat."
"Hm?" Li Huowang was baffled at this point.
"The Sitting Oblivion Dao aren't your run-of-the-mill mountain bandits, nor are they a cultivation sect. No one knows what they really are. The one sure thing is they love to gamble, and for the sake of gambling, they'll do anything."
"Aside from cheating at money, what they love most is cheating people."
"For example, they once pretended to be the emperor's eunuchs and tricked every man in an entire city into castrating themselves—just because they thought it'd be a fun way to kill time."
Even after all that, Li Huowang still didn't grasp what she meant.
With a hint of hesitation in his voice, he asked, "A bunch of cheating gamblers? But... what does that have to do with me?"
There were plenty of factions eyeing him—why was the abbess bringing up this out of the blue?
"Sigh, have you forgotten you're a pureheart who can't tell truth from lies? If they run into you, what do you think they'll do?"
"If they find out you're a pureheart, things won't be so simple."
"Even so, why would I fall for a bunch of mortal gambling cheats? Why are you so worried about them, Abbess?"
The abbess shook her head with eyes closed. "They're not just gamblers. I don't know where they get their supernatural abilities from, but they're damn tricky and hard to shake."
"On top of that, they're masters of illusions—good enough to fool even me."
"Last time, one of them sneaked into An Ci Nunnery, trying to trick us into breaking our precepts. Luckily we caught him, and in the end, he saw the light and converted to Buddhism."
"Remember this: people from the Sitting Oblivion Dao aren't afraid of death. Never let them latch onto you, or they'll stick closer and closer."
"They even dare to cheat you lot?"
"Mm-hmm! They don't just dare cheat me—they even try to cheat gods! I heard that a hundred years ago, a group of Sitting Oblivion Dao schemed for over thirty years and actually tricked the Joy God."
"Joy God? The one from the Hu family ancestral hall??" Li Huowang's pupils contracted slightly.
"No, that's the Joy God. I'm talking about the Xi God." The abbess scratched at the fat on her body with her grimy black fingernail.
(End of chapter)