Chapter 218
Chapter 218
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 218
>Chapter Title: Rabbit
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Hearing this, a hint of confusion flickered across Sun Baolu’s face, but it quickly returned to normal. “I don’t know if those Luoist lamas count or not, but my dad and grandpa both respected them greatly. They said those lamas could communicate with the divine and summon ghosts.”
“I’ve only heard about them, never really seen them much. From childhood to now, I’ve only seen them twice. They came for alms, and my dad hosted them properly.”
From Sun Baolu’s explanation, Li Huowang got a basic sense of what those so-called Luoist lamas were like.
From his description, they presided over all weddings and funerals in the entirety of Qingqiu, and they were extremely worldly—eating meat, drinking wine, with no taboos whatsoever.
Moreover, these lamas claimed that it was precisely because of the protection of their Eternal Life Heaven that all of Qingqiu was free from evil beings.
“No evil beings? Truly nothing at all?” Li Huowang asked in surprise, scanning the surroundings once more. This place was so different from everywhere else.
“Mm, at least I’ve never seen any, and neither has anyone else, really.” Sun Baolu wasn’t as emphatic as Li Huowang had imagined.
“No evil beings... Should I try contacting those lamas? Maybe I could ask about Heart Elementals.”
But after thinking it over carefully for a moment, Li Huowang ultimately dismissed the idea. It was too dangerous to rashly make contact with another faction right now. Though he wore a copper coin mask, what if they recognized him as a Heart Elemental? That would be big trouble.
After all he’d been through, aside from Benevolent Nun Temple, not a single other faction had proven decent.
Beyond Qingqiu lay Liang Kingdom. Getting there safely and steadily was more important than anything right now.
“I can’t bring this group along. Once I drop them off, maybe I can go find them myself.” Li Huowang quickly made up his mind.
“Come on, keep talking. Tell me everything about these so-called Luoist lamas. What’s their reputation around here?”
“Not bad, at least from the few times I saw them.”
Li Huowang then meticulously extracted every scrap of information Sun Baolu had in his head about the Luoist lamas.
“Senior Brother Li, here, time to eat.”
A bowl of clear soup noodles was placed before Li Huowang, with some small, finger-sized white round root vegetables floating on the surface.
“What’s this?” Li Huowang picked one up with his chopsticks.
“No idea. Senior Brother Sun said these wild veggies are edible. He said he used to dig them out of the grass as a kid and eat them as snacks. Calls them wild crystal heads.”
Li Huowang popped a wild crystal head into his mouth and bit down gently. It was a bit like bitter potato—decent enough.
Mantou, sprawled on Li Huowang’s body, suddenly perked up its ears and bolted toward the distant grassy field.
“Why’d Mantou run off? Should we go check?”
“Let it play. We’re always on the road—rare to have this much downtime. Mantou’s smart; it knows when to come back.”
With that, Li Huowang started eating, while Bai Lingmiao squatted silently beside him, watching.
He quickly finished the bowl of wild crystal head noodles and had Bai Lingmiao fetch him another.
Perhaps because the skin on his body was growing back, Li Huowang’s appetite now rivaled Gao Zhijian’s and Bai Lingmiao’s.
She reached out with her right hand and gently patted the dust off Li Huowang’s body, then said with a hint of anticipation, “Senior Brother Li, once we pass Qingqiu, we’ll reach Liang Kingdom soon.”
“Once we get to the foot of Ox Head Mountain and return to our village, we can settle down.”
“We can use silver to buy a few mu of fields. You can plow with the ox we use for the cart, and I’ll raise silkworms and weave cloth at home. Once we’ve saved enough for a house, we can split off from my parents.”
“Men plow, women weave? Is that the life you want forever?” Li Huowang slurped the noodles into his mouth.
Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao’s voice carried a trace of caution. “Senior Brother Li, don’t you want to plow fields? It’s fine if you don’t—we have the ox.”
“I’m fine doing anything, but there’s one condition: I want to cure my illness.”
Just as Li Huowang finished speaking, Bai Lingmiao grabbed his hand. “Senior Brother Li, it’s okay. This is fine as it is. I don’t mind. When you have an episode, I can take care of you right by your side.”
Li Huowang recalled how he’d previously beaten her face swollen. He shook his head firmly. “No, it has to be cured.”
Otherwise, he didn’t dare stay by her side at all. He’d be a ticking time bomb, liable to do something he’d regret forever at any moment.
Though there was Yang Na and his mom in the hallucinations, fake was always fake—it could never become real. He should’ve given that up long ago.
“Senior Brother Li, I beg you, this is fine as it is. Don’t go looking for anything. Didn’t you tell me even that powerful nun couldn’t find it?”
Li Huowang set down his noodle bowl and looked at Bai Lingmiao in surprise. “How will we know without trying? Don’t you want me to be cured?”
Bai Lingmiao hesitated to speak, then finally lowered her lashes and stayed silent beside Li Huowang.
Worry for his safety was one thing, but deeper down, she feared that if Li Huowang one day truly cured his illness and no longer needed her, he’d abandon her.
A healthy Li Huowang was too perfect—far too perfect for someone like her.
Li Huowang kept eating his noodles, his eyes fixed on Peng Longteng, the monk, and that half of Jinshan Zhao in the distance.
Recalling his earlier suspicions about the Sitting Oblivion Dao, his gaze grew even more resolute.
“No, I must resolve the Heart Elemental problem once and for all. If the Sitting Oblivion Dao’s North Wind really is a Heart Elemental, then there must be a way.”
“Even if there isn’t, I have to search. Otherwise, I’ll never accept it!”
At that moment, Mantou returned from afar, something in its mouth. As it drew near, they saw it was a dead rabbit.
Mantou placed the rabbit before Li Huowang, tongue lolling, tail wagging excitedly.
Mantou’s arrival broke the tension between them. Bai Lingmiao reached out and petted its head. “Good boy, knowing Senior Brother Li needs some nourishing right now.”
With that, she cradled the rabbit in both hands and headed toward the pot.
Li Huowang glanced at Bai Lingmiao’s retreating figure, then spoke to the tongue-lolling Mantou. “I know she means well for me, but I really don’t dare live the rest of my life like this with her. To be honest, I’m truly afraid I might kill her one day by accident.”
“Woof! Woof!!” Mantou barked at the Li Huowang who’d spoken to it, then pressed its nose to the ground and sniffed around.
Li Huowang reached into his clothes and peeled off another piece of dead skin with his hand, tossing it toward Peng Longteng in the distance. Mantou instantly charged toward Peng Longteng’s crotch.
Sun Baolu roasted the rabbit, and he seemed quite skilled—the taste was excellent.