Chapter 296
Chapter 296
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 296
>Chapter Title: Tuoba
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Chapter 296: Tuoba
Long-stuffed cotton wads were pulled from his ears, and with a buzz, all sorts of sounds flooded Li Huowang's ears.
The chatter from the neighboring guest room, the hawking cries outside the window—even his own heartbeat sounded extraordinarily clear and thunderous.
Li Huowang squeezed his eyes shut in agony, enduring as he sifted through the cacophony. It took the time of burning one incense stick before he finally picked out Black Tai Sui's distinctive, halting voice amid the din.
"I'm talking to you! Can you hear me!!" Amid the clamor, Li Huowang bellowed at the top of his lungs.
Soon, Black Tai Sui responded—not with terrifying murmurs or sinister, alien tongues, but still just those simple, unrelated words.
"Mouth... heaven... Wu."
"What the hell are you saying!! Can you understand me? If I die, you won't live either! Let's talk!!"
This thing could crawl in and out of his nose and throat at will; leaving it unchecked was no option. He had to find a way to deal with it.
He'd originally wanted to negotiate with it—whatever its goal, they could work something out.
But reality didn't play by Li Huowang's script. In response to his questions, Black Tai Sui kept replying with those simple syllables.
Hearing these overly simplistic single syllables, Li Huowang felt like he was conversing with a babbling toddler.
"Toddler? Toddler?!" Li Huowang suddenly realized something. He scrambled up from the bed and called for the waiter to bring writing materials. Gritting his teeth against the growing racket in his ears, he began jotting down Black Tai Sui's words.
"Mouth... wood... water... fire... field... document."
One simple-stroke character after another appeared on the paper. Seeing the sequence and these familiar words, realization dawned in Li Huowang's eyes.
"No wonder its words sounded so familiar. Everything this thing says is from what I taught Lv Xiucai before!"
The truth was out. That explained why Black Tai Sui only uttered these simply pronounced words—it only knew these!
It had just happened to pick them up while he was teaching Xiucai.
Black Tai Sui didn't understand the meanings at all; all it did was repeat them endlessly.
"This Black Tai Sui can't even speak properly. How am I supposed to communicate with it?"
Li Huowang stuffed the cotton back into his ears and paced the room with hands clasped behind his back for a long while, considering every method he could think of—only to reject them all.
It was inside his gut now. To suppress the hallucinations, he couldn't drive it out. To resolve this trouble, he'd have to try something else.
After racking his brains, Li Huowang realized the only option was the dumb method: teach Black Tai Sui to read and speak.
Once it could speak, they could communicate. Its surprise effect in the last clash with the Sit-Forget Daoists had been invaluable.
If he could communicate well, maybe he could even use the thing as a hidden weapon.
Teaching a mass of tentacles to speak—he had no idea how long it would take, but it was sure to be no quick task. Hence, the dumb method.
"Fine, if I have to teach it, I'll teach it. Better than no way at all." Li Huowang struggled to sit down and spread out a fresh sheet of yellowish xuan paper.
He knew teaching Black Tai Sui to speak wouldn't happen overnight, so he could take it slow.
Compared to that, he had a more pressing matter: collecting his reward from Big-Head Doll. This was his first job from the Surveillance Bureau.
Feeling his wounds mostly healed, Li Huowang had the others pack up and hit the road. No amount of dissuasion worked this time.
Bai Lingmiao argued with him fiercely, but Li Huowang compromised by buying a carriage. For this leg of the journey, he'd lie only in the carriage.
After the long trek, when Li Huowang returned to the unusually prosperous and bustling Yiling City, the wound on his chest had fully healed.
But the lost eye and the two ribs at his waist hadn't grown back.
For some reason, compared to flesh and nails, bones and eyeballs grew excruciatingly slowly.
"Senior Brother Li, according to the map, we don't need to enter the city. This side path is faster. Master Lv travels from place to place performing—might not even be as quick as us."
Standing at Yiling City's gate, Gouwa offered his suggestion to Li Huowang.
"Quit yapping. Into the city—to the same inn as before. Book rooms."
Li Huowang certainly wouldn't tell this blabbermouth he was here to collect from the Surveillance Bureau.
All his past hardships had been for this very purpose.
Li Huowang had figured if they didn't show, he'd stay a few extra nights. But clearly, all of Yiling City was their eyes.
That evening at the second watch, when Li Huowang reached the stables, Big-Head Doll was already sitting on a pile of horse feed, holding a yellow cloth sack.
Before Li Huowang could speak, Big-Head Doll flipped down from the feed and approached him, his tone noticeably milder than before.
"Heh, who would've thought—you've got some real skill, kid. You handled Ganyuan Village beautifully. Not a single death."
Hearing this, Li Huowang's suspended heart finally settled. He'd passed the test; he was officially in the Surveillance Bureau now.
"Nah, just luck."
"Hey, luck's a skill too. Don't sell yourself short. Oh, right—no injuries? If you've got any, internal or external, we've got people in the Bureau to patch you up."
Seeing Li Huowang shake his head, Big-Head Doll grabbed the doll-head hood on his head and yanked it off.
Li Huowang saw an unusually kindly, plump face underneath, with tiny pea-sized eyes blinking cutely.
This smiling chubby middle-aged man clasped his hands and bowed slightly to Li Huowang, his face wreathed in smiles.
"Sorry about that, truly. Without testing your moves and getting a read on you, I couldn't drag you into the Bureau."
He reached into his sleeve and pulled out five Yangshou Pills wrapped in yellow talismans. "Here—these are the ones you gave me before. I'm giving them back."
"Senior, what're you doing? Once a gift's given, it's not taken back." Li Huowang reached to push them away.
"Take them. Take them first, then hear me out." The man forced the Yangshou Pills into Li Huowang's hand and continued slowly: "You know you came in through me, so if you ever mess up down the line, I'll catch hell for it. This is like an insurance policy."
"But if you really want to join the Surveillance Bureau, no need for the policy. Right?" The fat man said with a beaming smile, impossible to refuse.
"I'm a few years your senior—family name Tuoba, given name Danqing. Brother Erjiu, if you don't mind, call me Brother Tuoba."
This was the first time anyone had kindly told Li Huowang their surname. It clearly meant something.
Deeply moved, Li Huowang bowed to him. "Thank you, Brother Tuoba."
"Hey, consider that my congratulatory gift to you. We're family now—wishing Brother Erjiu a bright future!"
Looking at the Yangshou Pill in his hand, Li Huowang felt a warmth in his heart. It wasn't about the pill itself, but the man's attitude.
Ever since crawling out of Clear Wind Temple, aside from his late master, everyone had either beaten or tried to kill him. No one had ever stopped plotting against him.
Li Huowang wasn't some naive kid; he knew this was probably all an act. But after so long, he'd never even enjoyed feigned goodwill.
Tuoba Danqing reached out and pulled Li Huowang toward the stable doors. "Come on, brother—not the place to talk. Let's find somewhere more comfortable."
(End of chapter)