Chapter 165
Chapter 165
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 165
>Chapter Title: Seeing the Abbess Again
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Li Huowang, carrying the pastries on his back, panted heavily as he arduously climbed the dirt path up Heng Hua Mountain.
He now had only one hand, and he'd bought a lot of pastries this time, making the ascent even more grueling than the last.
To keep his sweat from soaking the pastries, Li Huowang deliberately held them out farther away, which made it even more exhausting.
Finally, at a bend in the path, Li Huowang could hold out no longer. He set down the pastries and leaned against a crooked tree, gasping for breath.
He had rushed straight to the foot of the mountain and then immediately started climbing without pause, leaving him feeling quite hungry.
Li Huowang thought for a moment, then reached into the pastry box, pulled out a piece of mung bean pastry, and popped it into his mouth.
The crisp exterior and soft interior soothed his hungry stomach. He'd never eaten anything like it before, but once he did, he found it surprisingly delicious.
These pastries seemed to have been made just today—crisp and fragrant, better than any cream cakes or chocolates he'd eaten before crossing over.
As for eating some of the abbess's pastries, Li Huowang didn't feel the least bit bad about it.
This wasn't his first time here, and he didn't need to stand on ceremony with the abbess. Surely she wouldn't mind either.
"With this many pastries, there should be enough for the abbess, right?" Li Huowang said, looking at the stack. He immediately grinned to himself.
"Not enough. Even twice as many probably wouldn't be enough for the abbess."
Li Huowang smiled at first, then froze. Since when had he grown so close to Abbess Jingxin?
Thinking back, the abbess was greedy, lazy, and filthy, but she was the kindest person to him in this world—aside from his fellow disciples.
She hadn't plotted against him even after learning he was heart elemental, had helped him expel Danyangzi, and before he left, she'd even given him a sword out of concern for his safety on the road.
"If I weren't taking Bai Lingmiao and the others home, settling down in the town at the foot of this mountain wouldn't be a bad choice. It's the territory of Peaceful Mercy Nunnery—no other factions would come bothering me here."
As these random thoughts filled his mind, Li Huowang polished off more than half the box of mung bean pastries. He quickly stopped himself.
Gazing at the lush green scenery of Heng Hua Mountain all around, Li Huowang slowly let out a breath. Then something occurred to him, and he reached into his robe to pull out a book—the translated text of the *Fire Robe True Scripture*.
He flipped it open slowly, intending to check how much Danyangzi's influence had corrupted him, only to be shocked to find he didn't recognize a single character.
This bizarre change yanked Li Huowang's heart tight just as he'd caught his breath. "No good! I have to hurry!! Danyangzi's possession is speeding up! If I delay any longer, I'll be fully assimilated by him!"
Li Huowang shoved the book back into his robe, picked up the pastries again, and resumed climbing the dirt path.
Finally, after the moon had risen high, Li Huowang returned to the gates of Peaceful Mercy Nunnery.
Seeing the diamond-shaped women's script couplet again filled him with a sense of familiarity.
"Abbess! I'm back! Look what I brought you!"
Excited, Li Huowang shouted as he headed toward the pitch-black Peaceful Mercy Nunnery.
"No lamps lit inside? Looks like they're too lazy to bother."
The moment his front foot stepped into the dilapidated Bodhisattva temple, Li Huowang sensed something was off.
"Why doesn't it stink anymore?"
Li Huowang tossed aside the pastries and stood still, taking several deep breaths. To his shock, the thick stench that had permeated Peaceful Mercy Nunnery was completely gone!
"Something's wrong! Big trouble!" Heart racing, Li Huowang ignored everything else and rushed deeper into the nunnery.
"Abbess Jingxin! Miaoyin!! Miaoxin!! Where are you!!"
Li Huowang's voice echoed through the nunnery, but no one responded. Panic gripped him completely.
Suddenly, he heard a sound from afar and rushed toward it. As he drew near, he realized it was the grunting of pigs.
When he reached the pigsty behind the latrine, the sight before him froze him in place.
A massive fatty, like a small house, lay in the pigsty, surrounded by the black-furred swine as if they were nursing piglets.
But they weren't nursing—they were eating her!
The trough teeth meant for slop and shit gnashed open and shut, tearing greasy chunks of flesh from the enormous body and swallowing them down. Every pig's snout was bloodied red, and they ate with relish.
"Get lost!" Eyes bloodshot, Li Huowang drew his sword and charged in. Before the pigs could turn, he swept his blade in a circle, cleaving them all in two.
The other black pigs fled in terror from Li Huowang's murderous aura.
When Li Huowang reached the dead fatty, he cradled the head—now half-eaten away—and slowly knelt. It was Abbess Jingxin's face.
"Aaahhh!!" Li Huowang's heartbroken wail echoed through the entire Peaceful Mercy Nunnery.
Clutching the abbess's face tightly, Li Huowang's tears fell to the ground. Abbess Jingxin was dead—the one person in this world who had truly been kind to him, taking his hopes with her.
"Who did this!!" Nearly mad with rage, Li Huowang burst from the pigsty like a whirlwind, sword in hand, searching the nunnery for enemies.
But aside from more nuns' corpses, he found no one.
Abbess Jingxin had been dead for some time. Whoever had done it was long gone.
"Who the hell killed her!!" The thought consumed Li Huowang's mind, but as he charged sword-first toward the gate, he gradually slowed to a stop.
Eyes threaded with blood, Li Huowang returned to Abbess Jingxin, drew his sword again, and began digging a pit beside her. He would bury her properly—no way was he letting pigs eat her after death.
Burying the abbess required a massive pit. Li Huowang dug for a very, very long time, not finishing until noon the next day.
Just as he prepared to roll her in, he noticed something odd. Her body had lain there all night, yet it showed no sign of rotting—no stench, no flies.
Seeing this, Li Huowang instinctively recalled those corpses on the water. They too hadn't rotted, just as lifelike.
"Could they all have been killed by the same group? Do their victims stop rotting? Who are they?!"
"Something's not right! Wait!" Li Huowang realized he'd overlooked something. After a moment's thought, he rushed back to the pigsty and examined the black pigs he'd killed.
After a night and a day, those dead pigs showed no flies or rot either.
Li Huowang staggered out of the pigsty, staring in disbelief at the surroundings—untouched by any signs of struggle.
In any world, decay was an inescapable part of the cycle.
Yet in this moment, something had gone wrong with this world. The function of rotting had failed entirely.
"Maybe... the abbess wasn't killed by someone else."
Realization dawning late, Li Huowang turned to Abbess Jingxin. The skin that should have rotted, swollen with pus and crawling with maggots, was now impossibly smooth and pale.
This world's "rotting" was gone.
(End of chapter)