Chapter 316
Chapter 316
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 316
>Chapter Title: City God Temple
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Since Tuoba Danqing had left, there was no point in Li Huowang staying alone in the tavern.
He’d learned a lot today and needed to go back to digest it all.
Just then, clapping came from Red Middle beside him. “Not bad, not bad. As expected of one of the Grand Three Yuan. Lies wrapped in truth, truth wrapped in lies—even if that old coot investigates, he won’t find any flaws.”
Li Huowang shot him a glare and opened his mouth to say something.
A waiter with a white towel draped over his shoulder walked in.
Seeing the waiter bow toward him, Li Huowang said nothing and headed out the door.
But right then, the waiter’s voice came from behind him.
“Sir, you haven’t touched most of the food yet. Would you like it packed in a box to take away, like last time?”
Li Huowang’s expression instantly turned icy. “Take away? No!”
The waiter watched him leave, looking aggrieved. “He took it last time, so why not today?”
The next day, Li Huowang rode in a carriage along the wide streets. The City God Temple in Silver Mausoleum City was naturally quite prominent.
He soon spotted the grand and imposing temple at the crossroads.
From the carriage, he looked up at the full view. Green trees encircled the courtyard, flowers and plants clustered around, apricot-yellow compound walls, and blue-gray roof ridges. It was hard to imagine such a magnificent temple wasn’t some grand religious site but the City God Temple found in every city.
“Amitabha, Amitabha.” The monk beside him pressed his palms together and devoutly bowed toward the City God Temple.
Incense smoke wafted through the entire temple as endless streams of Silver Mausoleum City residents arrived to worship.
After standing by for a short while, Li Huowang noticed that the most frequent visitors were the courtesans from Linglong Tower, their faces adorned with dark blue ceramic floral patterns.
These women were utterly devout. They pressed their palms together, raising them past their chests, foreheads, and crowns before prostrating flat on the ground. They did this day after day, wearing grooves into many spots on the stone slabs.
Li Huowang’s sharp hearing caught their prayers.
“City God Grandpa, please, send any man to redeem me and take me as a concubine.”
“Please, City God Lord, have mercy on this little woman. In my next life, I want to be reborn as a man—let me be a man!”
Li Huowang stood outside the City God Temple, peering far inside. Three black-faced City Gods holding crescent plaques sat in the center of the temple.
Towering, oppressive ox-headed and horse-faced guardians stood at their sides. No matter how you looked at it, these City Gods didn’t seem like the type to grant such wishes.
Li Huowang cracked his whip on the horse’s rump, and the carriage slowly moved toward the base of the City God Temple. A few people were setting up stalls there—fortune-tellers, word-diviners, sellers of almanacs, and ghostwriters for letters.
Li Huowang quickly found Blind Chen, whom he’d met once before. He was squatting there, reading a woman’s fortune.
“Your fate ain’t good—ain’t good at all. They call it a woman offending the wounding officer, clashing with her husband. A lotus in parched earth won’t survive. You’ll either eat from two families or scrub pots for three.”
As Blind Chen shook his head dramatically, he naturally drew curses from her. He didn’t get mad and just sat there calmly waiting for her to finish.
Once the woman left, he turned his milky-white eyes toward Li Huowang. “Don’t look at me like that, heh heh heh. I only read fates, I don’t resolve them.”
Though the man was blind, Li Huowang felt like he was being stared at.
“Heh heh heh, young fella, if I’ve reckoned right, you’re the benefactor here to deliver my Bagua mirror?”
In a rush to leave and not wanting to waste words, Li Huowang pulled the mirror from the ox cart and set it on his stall.
Two hands covered in wrinkles reached out and felt around. When they touched the Bagua mirror, a ugly smile spread across Blind Chen’s aged face.
“Not bad, not bad. This is the one I lost. Oh, right—where’s that Sitting Oblivion Daoist pretending to be my granddaughter?”
“He’s dead. I killed him.”
Hearing this delightful news, Blind Chen laughed with unrestrained joy. “Hahaha! Good! Good riddance! Tricking a blind old man by pretending to be my granddaughter? Serves him right to get his comeuppance!”
Seeing this, Red Middle scoffed disdainfully. “Loser!”
“Master Chen, you mentioned something to Brother Tuoba before. Please honor your word.”
“Of course, of course. I wouldn’t dare play tricks with the Bureau of Celestial Oversight.” With that, he lowered his head and rummaged through a nearby bamboo basket.
Soon, he held out a dark blue thread-bound book with both hands toward Li Huowang.
“This is a manual our temple never shares with outsiders. Alas... ever since our patriarch inexplicably went mad, the clay idols toppled, and people’s hearts scattered.”
Li Huowang flipped it open. It detailed how to draw talismans, incantations, uses, what blood to use, what turmeric paper—everything was clearly recorded.
The functions were varied: warding homes, exorcising ghosts, healing, divination, even housewarming rites.
It was comprehensive, requiring only one’s own blood and turmeric paper. He just didn’t know how effective they’d be.
But these talismans were odd, unlike the Luoism kid’s before. In every twisted character of each one hid a very subtle, distorted human face.
As Li Huowang was about to ask, Blind Chen spoke. “Young fella, I keep my word. What I give is definitely useful, but there are taboos.”
“First, no more than three of any talisman per day. Also, whether drawing or using them, you must never look.”
“What if I do look?” Li Huowang asked.
“Look?” Blind Chen chuckled lowly, staring at Li Huowang with his blank white eyes.
“Then the talisman comes alive. It latches onto you. To survive, you’d have to do like me—gouge out those peepers.”
After weighing the pros and cons, Li Huowang nodded without a change in expression. “That’s fine.”
With that, he slapped the horse’s rump, ready to set off.
“Huh? That’s fine?” Blind Chen paused, clearly not expecting that reaction.
“Hey, don’t rush. Since you avenged me, I owe you. I don’t like owing folks. Here, sit. Let this blind man read your fortune.”
“No need!” Li Huowang’s hand instinctively touched the copper coin mask on his face.
But Blind Chen lunged forward, reaching straight for Li Huowang’s shadow on the ground.
“Mmm... mmm...” He felt along Li Huowang’s shadow carefully, as if pondering something.
Li Huowang frowned at the bizarre behavior for a moment. Seeing no further movement, he warily led the horse around and turned to leave.
Just as he’d gone a few dozen paces, Blind Chen’s voice came from behind.
“A full moon waxes and wanes, scant cold stars circle the remnant moon. Sand lamps blaze high before the door, an empty purse endures spring and autumn.”
(End of chapter)