Chapter 390
Chapter 390
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 390
>Chapter Title: The Sedan Chair
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He wanted to divine a hexagram, but this small fishing village on Apricot Island made it hard to find human bones. Li Huowang could only use his own. Fortunately, the bone wasn't ruined after using it.
After divining with his own arm bone, Li Huowang shoved the cracked bone back into his flesh.
"Next is to find the spots where the bone is cracked." Li Huowang muttered to himself as he headed toward the seaside fishing village.
The whole village wasn't large. A few steps and you'd bump into acquaintances.
He spotted the sallow-faced woman in the distance buying steamed buns with her daughter. She hesitated for a long time before finally getting herself a coarse grain bun and half a brown sugar one for her daughter.
Seeing such a destitute mother and daughter, Li Huowang's heart softened. He gave the reins a light shake, pulling the carriage over.
"Bene factor." Spotting Li Huowang, the woman hurriedly bowed in greeting. Her face filled with terror, as if struck by a sudden memory.
The little girl shyly buried her face in her mother's embrace, not daring to look up.
"Why'd you bring your daughter to Apricot Island?" Li Huowang asked, eyeing them.
"M-My man died. I came here to throw myself on some relatives." The woman spoke timidly, not even daring to meet Li Huowang's gaze. Her expression was utterly abject.
Li Huowang paused for a moment. He reached into his robes and pulled out the money he'd won playing leaf cards, stuffing it straight into the little girl's hand.
"Kids are small, but half a brown sugar bun per meal won't cut it. Take it and get her something proper to eat."
Before the woman could react, Li Huowang whipped the carriage toward the inn in the distance.
Talisman divination had its uses when it did, but none when it didn't. Timing was utterly uncontrollable. Once you'd cast it, all you could do was wait for fate to come knocking.
This was the perfect chance to hole up at the inn, rest up properly, and steel himself for the crisis ahead.
Stepping into the inn meant the usual routine: wash up, eat, sleep.
Li Huowang figured he'd have to hunt around for Zhuge Yuan. He never expected someone on the island to track him down first.
Deep in slumber, Li Huowang snapped awake, senses screaming. He kicked at the steamed bun by the bed.
Someone was outside.
"Bang bang bang." The door rattled under sudden knocks.
"Is Daoist Li in? Is Daoist Li in?"
The voice from outside was shrill and thin, half-man half-woman, grating on the ears.
Li Huowang threw on his clothes in a flash and cracked the door just enough to peer out warily.
The visitor wore blue satin robes cinched with a jade pendant at the waist—dressed like money. A slender mustache dangled under his nose. But he'd caked his face in powder. Moonlight washed his features ghostly pale.
Li Huowang sensed something off about the man, though he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Are you Daoist Li? My master has been waiting ages. Please, come with me."
The man bowed low, his tone easygoing as he asked again.
"Who's your master?" Li Huowang's hand had already clamped onto the Violet Tassel Sword's hilt.
"My master's family name is Zhuge, given name Yuan, style name Chenmo, sobriquet the Storyteller. Didn't Daoist Li cast a hexagram for him just today? That's how he knew you'd arrived."
Li Huowang's heart lurched at the words. He'd divined for Zhuge Yuan, and the man had instantly known who did it—pinpointed his exact spot.
Better not toss this divination at powerful folks recklessly. Otherwise, enemies would know right where to find him.
Seeing Li Huowang frozen at the threshold, the man started prodding.
"Daoist Li, you coming or not? If not, I'll head back and report."
"Lead on." The door creaked open. Li Huowang followed him downstairs. The inn was pin-drop silent, save for their footfalls.
Outside under the silver moonlight stood a pristine white sedan chair right in front of Li Huowang. Four black-clad bearers loomed like statues, utterly still. Eerily so.
"Daoist Li, please, hop in. Master's place is a good trek. We'd best make haste." The man tittered and sidled to the sedan, drawing back the curtain with a withered hand.
Li Huowang's brows knit tighter. Unease coiled in his gut.
But he recalled the spindle Zhuge Yuan had gifted him before, along with that mollifying tone. In the end, Li Huowang climbed into the sedan.
Creak. The bearers hoisted it up and dashed off with a whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.
"How long to Mr. Zhuge's place from here?" Li Huowang got no answer to his call. Lifting the curtain, he saw the man had vanished.
The four bearers were strange too. Their limbs moved without joints, rigid strides pumping, eyes bulging ahead without a blink.
The sheer wrongness spiked Li Huowang's doubts.
"What's going on? These people aren't from Zhuge Yuan?"
As Li Huowang braced himself, the world outside shifted. The village's layered black tiles faded away, supplanted by dark green bamboo fronds.
Amid the dense, inky bamboo stalks lurked something vague, half-there.
"Hee hee hee." Giggles drifted from the depths. Li Huowang strained to hear—only wind rattling leaves.
Rocking in the sedan, Li Huowang pushed deeper into the bamboo.
The road dragged on forever. Two full hours, and he was still lost in the bamboo.
"This grove's massive." Li Huowang muttered, only for his pupils to shrink to pinpricks.
"Wait! I saw that rock just a bit ago. You're not traveling at all! You've been going in circles! Stop this sedan!!"
The black bearers didn't halt at Li Huowang's shout. They pumped limbs faster.
Clang. The Violet Tassel Sword flashed free, carving a gash in the sedan's floor. Legs tucked, Li Huowang dropped through.
He hit the ground—and it gave like ox tendon, the carpet of dead yellow leaves sucking downward to swallow him whole.
Li Huowang slashed horizontally with his sword. An inhuman screech ripped out as the mounded earth gushed thick blood and collapsed.
Panting hard, Li Huowang steadied himself in the bamboo. No white sedan. No black bearers. Just him, alone.
"What in blazes were those things? How'd they know I'd divined for Zhuge Yuan? Has Apricot Island's evil grown clever?"
(End of chapter)