Chapter 458
Chapter 458
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 458
>Chapter Title: Heavenly Disaster
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“Heavenly dog eating the sun?”
Hearing Zhuge Yuan’s words, Li Huowang furrowed his brows tightly as he stared at the pitch-black sky overhead.
“Could it be a solar eclipse?”
Li Huowang guessed in confusion.
But he quickly dismissed that possibility. Back when he was in first grade of elementary school, he had once had the fortune to witness a solar eclipse.
Even during a solar eclipse, the sun in the sky wouldn’t be completely black—it would only be left with a faint halo. It absolutely wouldn’t turn this thoroughly dark.
“Clang clang clang clang clang!”
The deafening sound of gongs rang out, accompanied by Lv Zhuangyuan’s shout laced with an operatic cadence, echoing above Cowheart Village.
“The heavenly dog is eating the sun~ Hurry and beat the gongs and drums to scare the heavenly dog away!!”
The village was fine as long as the sound didn’t start, but the moment it did, the entire place descended into panic.
Li Huowang placed one hand on the windowsill and vaulted directly down to the first floor, heading toward the source of the noise.
He didn’t have to go far before he spotted Lv Zhuangyuan leading his troupe. They held lanterns in one hand while vigorously banging the instruments they used for their opera performances with the other.
“Enough! All of you, stop!”
Li Huowang snatched the gong right out of Lv Zhuangyuan’s hands.
“Young Daoist priest, you might be skilled at other things, but not this—you really don’t have my experience! This is the heavenly dog eating the sun! Back then, it was my third grandpa who led the whole village in beating gongs to drive away the heavenly dog!”
Lv Zhuangyuan’s earnest assurance made Li Huowang frown deeply.
“This is useless! Quick, tell everyone in the village to gather at the Bai family compound! Do a headcount!”
“But if we don’t beat the gongs, what if the heavenly dog really eats the sun?”
“Go now! Keep yapping, and I swear I’ll set fire to everything you’re holding!”
Lv Zhuangyuan looked like he wanted to say more, but seeing how deadly serious Li Huowang was, he immediately took his son and apprentices to round up the others.
Watching their lanterns recede into the distance, Li Huowang finally had a moment to look up and question Zhuge Yuan carefully.
“Brother Zhuge, is this really a heavenly disaster? You’re certain it’s not something else?”
In this deranged world, he wouldn’t be surprised if any other madness occurred.
Zhuge Yuan glanced toward the upper left corner as he recalled.
“It should be unmistakable. I once read in a minor record about this calamity of endless darkness.”
“Brother Zhuge, regarding this so-called heavenly dog eating the sun, did that minor record say anything else?”
“Nothing. But Brother Li, the key isn’t the disaster itself—it’s the timing. Do you remember when the last heavenly disaster happened?”
“Last year, wasn’t it?”
Li Huowang tilted his head to gaze once more at the ink-black sky, recalling the heavenly disaster he’d endured back then.
Last time, decay had vanished, so nothing in the world spoiled or rotted anymore. The process wasn’t particularly fast or slow.
That was why Li Huowang was so calm right now. It might be called a heavenly disaster, but aside from the abbess’s death, the previous one had had zero impact on him.
“Exactly. But heavenly disasters have always cycled every few decades. Why another one after just two short years? Brother Li, ignorance of reason brings calamity; any abnormality must herald a demon!”
Zhuge Yuan’s words made Li Huowang’s heart sink.
“You mean... right now, inside that Bai Yujing...”
Before Li Huowang could finish, the solemn-faced Zhuge Yuan cut him off directly.
“Brother Li, since you’re a heart elemental who’s started cultivating the truth, it’s best to mention those things as little as possible from now on, lest...”
Li Huowang instantly understood what he meant and swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.
He stood there pondering intently for a long while, until Lv Juren arrived with a lantern to report that every single person from Cowheart Village had gathered. Only then did he cease his deliberations.
Li Huowang cupped his hands toward midair.
“Brother Zhuge, regardless of what’s happening there, I say we first focus on safely weathering this heavenly disaster.”
“Those matters... I don’t need to worry about them at all. Because no matter what I do, I can’t change a thing.”
“No, no—the rise and fall of the realm concerns every man. Give me a moment to think it over properly.”
Zhuge Yuan tapped his forehead with his folding fan and fell silent.
Seeing Lv Juren gasp and stare at him in terror, Li Huowang offered no explanation. He simply strode toward the Bai family compound.
When he returned to the Bai family compound, Li Huowang saw many people kneeling on the ground, kowtowing frantically toward the surrounding darkness. In such surroundings, fear always drove people to seek some pillar of support.
“Kid, do we have enough food?”
In this situation, Li Huowang had no intention of venturing out. He planned to hole up in the Bai family compound with everyone and wait out the heavenly dog eating the sun.
“Senior Brother Li, don’t worry—plenty. There’s still last year’s aged rice in the granary, enough to feed us all for two or three years. The courtyard has a well too, so food and water aren’t an issue.”
Li Huowang nodded and snatched the dao bell from Chun Xiaoman’s waist, shaking it vigorously. The piercing ring instantly drew everyone’s attention.
“No need to panic! It’s just a heavenly disaster—gone in a few days. We wait it out.”
With Li Huowang’s assurance, the others from Cowheart Village still looked frightened, but far less so than before.
Finally, when Li Huowang ordered Yang Xiaowa to butcher a cow for meat, their attention was instantly diverted to the debate over killing the cow and eating beef. No more random fretting.
“Great job, Red Boss! Brilliant, Red Boss! Playing these folks is like toying with a pack of idiots!”
Li Huowang ignored the taunt from his Sitting Oblivion Dao hallucination entirely and spoke to Zhuge Yuan once more.
“Brother Zhuge, how much effort do you reckon the Supervising Heaven Bureau will need to suppress this heavenly disaster?”
“Though they claim it’s to resist heavenly disasters, I truly doubt they have any real method.”
If the emergence of heavenly disasters represented the Sages vying for the Heavenly Dao...
Having witnessed the Doula’s terrifying power, Li Huowang seriously questioned whether that paltry mortal organization even qualified to intervene.
Or perhaps all the Supervising Heaven Bureau’s proclamations were nothing but boastful hot air?
“They do have ways, but they fought to mutual destruction with the Sitting Oblivion Dao before this. I just don’t know if they can handle it right now.”
Hearing this filled Li Huowang with complicated emotions. In the past, he’d mostly reviled the Supervising Heaven Bureau for their disregard of human life.
Yet he’d never imagined he’d one day hope they’d hurry up and get back to normal operations.
After all, no matter how poorly they performed or how many they killed, they were indispensable to the realm’s common folk.
“Brother Zhuge, about what you mentioned earlier—the abnormality of two heavenly disasters coming so close together—the Supervising Heaven Bureau will surely address it, right?”
“True enough, but this Great Liang branch mingling with the royals... I don’t trust them.”
“Even if Great Liang is fake, per ancestral precepts, the Supervising Heaven Bureau must never collude with any worldly powers, nor aid royals in conquests and sieges. Those are matters for the military.”