Chapter 259
Chapter 259
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 259
>Chapter Title: Big Village
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Li Huowang walked alongside the carriage, pondering the message passed on by that lama.
“What do you mean 'this won't happen again'?” Li Huowang's mind flashed to the Lion Dance Palace and the deceased Han Fu. It seemed like those were the only two things he'd done in Qingqiu.
Bai Lingmiao shook her head awkwardly, her expression uneasy.
“I don't know. He just said 'this won't happen again' and nothing else.”
Li Huowang still had no idea why the other party had suddenly left.
Compared to that, he was actually more concerned about the man's identity.
“This won't happen again... this won't happen again. So he's from Qingqiu's Supervising Heaven Division? So that's what the Supervising Heaven Division is like.”
For this government office he'd only heard of by name, Li Huowang now had a whole new understanding. He was almost certain that within this so-called Supervising Heaven Division, there were plenty more freaks like that black-clad lama.
He just didn't know yet whether this news was good or bad for him.
Snapping back to reality, Li Huowang glanced up at the sun overhead and said to the others,
“Everyone, take a break. I'll keep watch.”
At his words, they all grabbed their bedding from the oxcart, tossed it onto the ground, and lay down, immediately starting to snore.
After fleeing in fear all day, their bodies were truly at their limit.
Li Huowang was tired too, but he could only force himself to hold on. Even though the lama had said 'this won't happen again,' he simply couldn't trust that kind of person.
When he felt like he really couldn't hold out any longer, he used his torture tools to create some pain and stimulate himself. By now, Li Huowang was quite practiced at it.
Everyone slept straight through until evening. When they got up to prepare dinner, Li Huowang lay down on the oxcart and closed his eyes.
Exhausted, Li Huowang fell asleep, but it wasn't a sound sleep—various disjointed dreams kept swirling through his mind.
Suddenly, in his sleep, Li Huowang bolted upright.
“That's not right! That lama's aura—I felt it in White Jade Capital. That White Bodhisattva was covered in it! That's deathly aura!”
After saying that, Li Huowang's body went limp, and under everyone's gaze, he lay back down without another sound.
The cartwheels slowly rolled along the dirt road. The nearby trees and fields proved they'd completely left Qingqiu behind and fully entered Great Liang territory.
This lifted everyone's spirits quite a bit. At least in Great Liang, there were no such bizarre lamas around.
Feeling like they were about to return to familiar soil made Bai Lingmiao the happiest of all.
She chattered around Li Huowang, sharing stories from her hometown—from her parents to her siblings, from the neighbors to the big goose she loved to watch at the village entrance.
But Li Huowang remained absentminded, still thinking about that black-clad lama from before.
“No mistake—it's definitely the deathly aura from White Jade Capital. Back underground, the sacrificial death with that giant cauldron must've been their sect!”
Though he didn't know the name of their sect, since they could wield death itself, their power was undoubtedly formidable.
Good thing he hadn't clashed with him in the end. Even if he'd won, it probably would've cost him dearly.
“Senior Brother Li, I'm talking to you. What are you thinking about?”
Bai Lingmiao half-complained as she looked at Li Huowang, who was completely ignoring her.
“Hm? What did you say?”
Li Huowang turned to her.
“I said, with all this silver we've got, we can rebuild the house! We'll have our own place to live!”
“Oh, that's great.”
As Li Huowang brushed her off casually, he suddenly noticed her eyes weren't covered with the cloth strip again. He quickly untied the ribbon from her hand.
After covering Bai Lingmiao's eyes, Li Huowang clasped her hand with his fingers interlocked.
“How many times have I told you? Cover them up when the sun's strong. If you keep using your eyes like this, they won't last—they'll go blind before long.”
With that, Li Huowang turned to look at the others around them.
From earlier, he'd noticed that the road wasn't just theirs—there were also some gaunt, dark-skinned men, each carrying bedding on one end of a shoulder pole and dry rations on the other, traveling together.
Clearly, these men were a bit afraid of this group wearing black bamboo hats with unknown origins—they didn't even dare glance their way.
If not for the normal-looking Lv family troupe there, they probably would've bolted long ago.
Li Huowang thought for a moment, then walked over to Lv Zhuangyuan, who was coaxing his grandson, and whispered a few words to him.
“You got it, young Daoist. Don't worry.”
Feeling useful, Lv Zhuangyuan tucked his pipe under his armpit and chuckled as he approached the men.
Li Huowang pulled the wool plugs from his ears, and their distant voices came through clearly.
“Heh heh~ Good sirs, where are you headed?”
“To the threshing ground.”
“Oh?”
“Harvest time's coming up. We're reapers for hire.”
From their exchange, Li Huowang learned these reapers were tenant farmers with little land of their own, taking advantage of the autumn harvest to earn some coppers cutting crops for others.
Lv Zhuangyuan was indeed an old troupe master who'd seen it all— in just a few words, he coaxed the desired info out of the honest men.
“Young Daoist, he said there's a big village not far ahead. Follow the village further, and you'll hit a county town.”
“I heard that county town's pretty big. Even some Qingqiu folk take their sheep there to sell.”
Li Huowang nodded at Lv Zhuangyuan's smiling face.
“Then do they know where Oxheart Mountain is?”
Li Huowang hadn't forgotten—one main reason he'd come all this way to Great Liang was to take Bai Lingmiao home.
“Er, they don't know that one. They said it's mostly flat around the Qingqiu border—no mountains. The deeper in you go, the more mountains there are.”
Li Huowang showed no disappointment, as if he'd expected this.
“Since they're locals, let's follow them so we don't get lost. Once we reach the county town, buy a map of Great Liang, and we'll figure out the next leg.”
“Hey~ You got it!”
Feeling useful again, Lv Zhuangyuan chuckled as he headed back.
They followed the muddy path until afternoon. When they emerged from a bamboo grove, the view ahead opened up dramatically.
Golden rice, millet, and sorghum stretched out like a golden sea, rippling in waves with the breeze.
Ant-sized black specks in the distance swung sickles, harvesting the golden bounty.
“Great Liang's land sure is fertile. Back home, we might not see a harvest this good for years.”
Lv Zhuangyuan's eyes brimmed with envy at the sight.
Whatever the others thought, those reapers saw their fat paychecks and eagerly headed to the fields to haggle prices with the landowners.
“Good harvest or not, it'll make grain cheaper for us.”
With a flick of the small whip on the ox's rump, the cartwheels rolled slowly toward the big village.
(End of chapter)