Chapter 455
Chapter 455
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 455
>Chapter Title: Acquaintance
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Chapter 455: Acquaintance
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> “Coo-coo-coo~~!” As the rooster crowed, Niuxin Village, which had been deep in slumber, gradually awoke.
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> After washing up came breakfast. Ordinary folk couldn’t usually afford breakfast. Except during harvest season, when they ate three meals a day to keep up their strength for reaping, they normally only had two meals.
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> But that wasn’t the case in Niuxin Village. Everyone had breakfast, which was one reason so many were deeply grateful to Bai Lingmiao.
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> She fed them their fill, taught them to read, and even gave them a share of the crops from the fields. Where in the world could you find such a good boss?
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> “Get up! Hurry up! The first pot of porridge is the thickest—don’t even stir for your meal! When will you ever hustle in life?” Lv Zhuangyuan pounded relentlessly on his eldest son’s door.
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> “Dad, we’ve got money now. Why not cook at home?” Luo Jinhua, Lv Juren’s wife, grumbled about never getting to sleep in.
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> “What, you wanna burn money like it’s meat on your body? Free food’s going begging, and you wanna buy grain? Spendthrift! Get up!”
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> After railing at his daughter-in-law with his pipe in hand, he turned with hands clasped behind his back and went to bang on his apprentices’ doors.
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> He wasn’t kindly calling them for breakfast, but to rise and drill basics.
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> Lv Zhuangyuan taught exactly as his own master had: strict and repetitive. No practice, no food.
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> To perform great operas, you had to start young. At their age of teens and up, they needed to work even harder to make it.
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> Amid the uneven voices warming up their throats, Lv Zhuangyuan led his whole family grandly toward the Bai estate.
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> They’d just entered the courtyard when they spotted Yang Kid directing two men to carry a pot of steaming porridge into the hall.
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> He started to beam and step forward, but his face fell when he saw his wastrel son Lv Xiucai there too. “Hmph!”
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> He’d beaten and berated this youngest, but the stubborn beast stuck to his guns, deaf to all reason.
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> Facing his father’s hostility, Lv Xiucai muttered curses under his breath—old turtle, just you wait, someday—and the like.
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> His bought wife, Tao’er, watched her father-in-law and husband silently from behind, lost in thought.
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> “Hey now, everyone’s here.” Gouwa’s grating voice rang out as he supported his big-bellied wife coming in.
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> “Right, due any day now—full term. Should be these next few days. My son’s coming!” Gouwa grinned at Lv Xiucai.
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> Lv Xiucai sneered with disdain.
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> “Did I ask you? Showing off?”
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> “Heh heh heh.” Gouwa, face alight with joy, helped his wife sit, then sidled up to Lv Xiucai and whispered:
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> “How’s that supernatural art coming, Xiucai?”
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> “Same as ever. Can’t read, so it’s slow going. Why? Wanna learn?”
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> Gouwa chuckled.
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> “Nah, not me. Too tiring. I’ll eat breakfast, walk it off, then wait for lunch.”
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> “I’ve got my four mu of fields farmed by others. Come harvest, I get grain. Nothing to do, grain every year. So free. We’ve endured so much hardship—time to rest easy.”
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> After roaming far and wide with Senior Brother Li, he hadn’t mastered much else, but experience? That he had. Freebies were rare in this world, and botching supernatural arts was deadly dangerous.
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> Truth was, he planned to wait a few months. If Lv Xiucai turned out fine, then he’d learn. Another lesson from Senior Brother Li.
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> “Hmph! All you do is eat and sleep—no ambition!” Lv Xiucai scorned Gouwa openly.
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> “Hey, no ambition here. But I’ve got a son. You?”
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> As they bantered, Li Huowang descended the steps with Bai Lingmiao. The others fell silent, waiting for him to sit.
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> Li Huowang’s skinless look was ghastly, but they’d long grown used to it. They’d seen worse.
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> Once Li Huowang sat at the head and picked up his chopsticks, everyone dug in.
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> Li Huowang wolfed mantou with pickled veg and salted eggs, slurping porridge with huge bites.
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> “Slow down! Starving ghost reborn? No one’s snatching it.”
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> Li Huowang ignored Bai Lingmiao’s nagging and kept eating.
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> Cultivation took a full day. He needed to fill up now; no lunch till afternoon.
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> “Hey, no villains in Niuxin Village to hurt you—why’re you still covered in blood?” Bai Lingmiao picked at the scabs on him.
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> “Better safe than sorry. Don’t worry, I won’t die.”
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> “Won’t die, but doesn’t it hurt? You addicted to pain? Sharing a bed, you scare me even for a midnight piss.”
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> Under Bai Lingmiao’s chatter, Li Huowang wolfed down breakfast and left the Bai estate. Li Sui was already waiting outside.
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> The tall and short pair set off along the rugged path toward Niuxin Mountain.
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> But just past the village edge, white mist rose from the woods. Li Huowang frowned, gripped his purple-tasseled sword, and yanked it partway out.
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> “Who! Show yourself!”
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> The surging killing intent blasted the mist away. As it cleared, a wooden-masked face emerged from the fog.
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> “Oh dear, big water flooding the Dragon King Temple—one family not knowing another? It’s you, Er Jiu!”
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> “Liu Zongyuan?” Li Huowang eyed the wooden-masked man in surprise. He remembered him—one of the group with Ji Xiang and Tuoba Danqing hunting heart turbidity.
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> Times changed fast. Of the five who’d acted together, Ji Xiang was dead, Heart Idiot Monk dead, Tuoba Danqing trapped in heart turbidity. Just the two of them left.
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> Reunited, they sighed with a touch of camaraderie.
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> With Liu Zongyuan here, no cultivation today. Li Huowang brought him to the parlor for tea.
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> Sipping tea, Li Huowang asked curiously:
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> “Brother Liu, you here specially today—does the Surveillance Bureau have a task?”
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> Liu Zongyuan was Surveillance Bureau too, but Li Huowang doubted it was about the capital incident. He’d used Beifeng’s woman’s body then—no trail led back.
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> Liu Zongyuan’s words soon confirmed it.
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> “Hey, heard folks moved in here. Thought it might be White Lotus cultists, so I came to check. Never dreamed I’d find you.”
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> (End of chapter)