Chapter 257
Chapter 257
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 257
>Chapter Title: Birth
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Lv Zhuangyuan continued explaining to his eldest son: “The young Daoist is a man who does big things. Don’t think he’d care about this pittance of small change, but even if he doesn’t mind, we’ve got to show some savvy when we work and get things done!”
“Besides, who knows—this could be an opportunity for our Lv family! Didn’t you hear Xiucai say that the flower-faced skinny guy got a divine power bestowed by the young Daoist? We’re at least better off than him, aren’t we? Ponder this stuff carefully on your own time under the covers at night.”
Lv Juren’s eyes widened as he stared at his father’s wrinkled old face. So that’s what he’d been circling around for.
“Ask less and do more! Stop daydreaming about nonsense all day long.” Lv Zhuangyuan grabbed his son and headed toward the carriage.
Before long, the Lv family troupe seized the downtime to warm up their voices and practice their acrobatics. With the opera company on the verge of setting up again, they couldn’t let their fundamentals go to waste.
After finishing lunch, everyone set off once more, heading toward Liang Kingdom with a touch of anticipation.
They still didn’t know their exact location, but as the green grass on the ground grew sparser, gradually giving way to scattered bushes, everyone knew they were very close to Liang Kingdom.
As the sun slanted westward, a sharp cry of pain shattered the easygoing atmosphere of the ox cart convoy. Everyone whipped their heads toward the sound and saw it coming from Luo Jinhua, who was sitting on an ox cart.
She clutched her belly in panic, staring down at her skirt soaked with amniotic fluid.
“Hurry! Get her onto the carriage—Jinhua’s giving birth!” Lv Zhuangyuan’s shout sent everyone into a flurry and brought all the ox carts to a halt.
The women rushed over to help, while the men kept their distance.
“What are you going to do there? You can’t help with anything.” Li Huowang called out to Bai Lingmiao as she hurried past.
She turned around, her cheeks flushing faintly as she glanced at him. “I-I’m going to see how they deliver the baby. Maybe this knowledge will come in handy someday.”
Li Huowang planted a foot on the carriage wheel and vaulted onto the roof, lying back to gaze at the swaths of clouds overhead, stamped red by the setting sun.
Listening to the chaotic commotion in the distance, Li Huowang closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, then slowly let it out.
No hallucinations. It had been a long time since Li Huowang had felt this much at ease—he no longer had to struggle between reality and illusion.
“Daoist, it’s been a while since you’ve had an episode.”
Li Huowang turned his head to look at the monk hovering in midair out of nowhere, along with Peng Longteng and Jinshan Zhao beside him.
The hallucinations might be gone, but these three stuck around with him all the same.
“Yeah, the Black Tai Sui did the trick. I won’t get trapped in those illusions anymore. Heh, you know, when I gave Wang Wei that final push, part of it was this faint hope that maybe that side was real after all. Too bad—hallucinations are just hallucinations.”
With that, Li Huowang stared vacantly at a cloud in the sky that looked just like Yang Na, his voice thick with nostalgia. “Truth be told, I kind of hoped that side was real.”
“Daoist, what are you talking about? I don’t get it.”
“Heh.” Li Huowang rolled onto his side, facing the solitary blue-green hill in the distance. “If you don’t get it, fine. Just don’t talk, or people will think I’m sick again.”
After a while, Li Huowang sneaked a glance back at the carriage. It had been some time already—why hadn’t the baby come yet?
He had no idea if the wait was too long or too short; he’d never been through childbirth before, after all.
“Hope it goes smoothly. If it doesn’t, there’s nothing much I can do.”
“No, wait—I studied alchemy for a bit back at Clear Wind Temple. Shame I don’t even have a pill furnace on me; I couldn’t refine so much as a Blood Nourishing Pill.”
“. . . Hiss.” A barely audible sound made Li Huowang bolt upright. He listened intently, but found nothing around him.
Puzzled, he lay slowly back down. “Did I mishear? Where’d that come from?” After a moment’s thought, he stuck his pinky finger into his earhole and dug around, dislodging something.
As his fingernail kept scraping, he finally pulled a long, stringy blood scab from his ear.
The instant the scab came out, everything sharpened around him—he could even hear the grass growing on the ground.
“It’s way too loud like this. Can’t have that.” Li Huowang pulled out a small pair of serrated scissors, leaped down from the carriage, snipped some wool from a sheep, and stuffed his earholes full.
“Phew~ Much better.” Li Huowang looked down and tucked the little scissors back into his bundle of torture tools.
“Hm? What’s that?” Li Huowang peered at a tiny black speck atop a distant mountain, but it was too far—even with his superhuman eyesight, he couldn’t make it out clearly.
“Wah~ Wah~ Wah~” A lusty infant’s wail rang out, drawing Li Huowang along with the others toward the ox cart.
He arrived to find Lv Juren grinning like a fool by himself, muttering nonstop under his breath, “Heh heh~ I’ve got a son, heh heh~ I’ve got a son, heh heh . . .”
When Li Huowang spotted the squalling baby boy cradled in Bai Lingmiao’s arms, he couldn’t help a twinge of doubt. This kid must have some kind of disease—he was ugly as sin. Just like a little monkey boiled alive and plucked bald.
Chun Xiaoman, standing nearby, saw Li Huowang’s expression darken and knew exactly what he was thinking. She hurried to set him straight.
“Senior Brother Li, all newborns look like this. He’s not like us.”
“Oh? Really?” Only after Xiaoman’s detailed explanation did Li Huowang realize he’d gotten it wrong. The babies he remembered were at least three months old, after they’d filled out a bit.
They all looked this hideous fresh out of the womb.
Spotting Lv Zhuangyuan crawling out of the carriage on hands and knees, butt in the air, Li Huowang stepped over to offer congratulations.
“Heh heh heh~ Congratulations all around!” Lv Zhuangyuan’s deeply creased face bloomed like a chrysanthemum in full flower.
He promptly cupped his hands to the others crowding in. “Everyone~! Forgive me! No eggs here, but once we hit the next town, I’ll make it up with red-dyed ones for sure!”
As the others showered him with congratulations and the mood stayed warm and jovial, Li Huowang’s heart clenched for no reason. He snapped his head up, eyes locking on the distant grassland.
The field, which should’ve been bathed red in the afterglow, now bore a small black ring upon it. That speck from the mountaintop—it had drawn much closer!
“Something’s not right!” The anomaly in the distance turned Li Huowang’s face grim in an instant. “Round up the sheep! We’re leaving—now!”
Li Huowang’s command shattered the festive air. Though confused, his dead-serious look left no one daring to dismiss it.
Amid Mantou’s frantic barking, the flock of dozens of white sheep trailed after the ox carts as they lurched into motion once more.
Time ticked by, the sky growing ever darker. By the final glimmers of dusk overhead, Li Huowang saw that black blotch closing in relentlessly!
(End of chapter)