Chapter 474
Chapter 474
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 474
>Chapter Title: Relic
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“Esteemed sir, are you looking to acquire this face covering? It’s a fresh arrival, top-quality stuff.”
The eunuch with two copper coins embedded in his eyes grinned at Li Huowang, speaking in that eerie, androgynous voice.
“Yes, I’ll take it. How many Lifespan Pills will it cost?”
Hearing this, the eunuch’s face lit up with a beaming smile. “Oh~ Sir, you’ve got a good eye for quality. Thirty years’ worth of lifespan will do the trick.”
“That expensive?” Li Huowang couldn’t help but be taken aback. He knew full well the value of those Lifespan Pills.
“Hey now, that’s why we say you’ve got a good eye. Things from Si Qi are rare as hen’s teeth around here. Let me tell you about this face covering’s uses. You just put it on and—”
“Enough, no need to explain. I’ll take it.” Li Huowang pulled the gourd from his waist and poured out thirty Lifespan Pills from within.
“Generous as always, sir~! This copper coin face covering is yours.” The other party reverently accepted the Lifespan Pills, his coin eyes gleaming with insatiable greed for lifespan.
Li Huowang picked up the copper coin face mask and fitted it over his face. The familiar, hefty weight brought him a flicker of reassurance. His gaze then shifted back to the eunuch before him.
“Judging by those wealth-attracting eyes of yours, you worship the Civil God of Wealth? You pay open homage to that right in the palace, and no one reins you in?”
“Heh heh heh~ Sir, you jest. Who in this world doesn’t worship the God of Wealth? Who’d ever complain about having too much money? Right? Heh heh heh~”
Seeing the eunuch dodge his question, Li Huowang dropped it and cut straight to the purpose of his visit.
“Oh~ You want to restore sight to the blind~? I’m not entirely sure on that, but follow me, sir. I’ll have someone below check for you.”
Li Huowang followed him into the rows upon rows of wooden cabinets. Surrounded on all sides by cabinets crammed with tiny compartments, he felt as if he’d stepped into a forest.
The deeper they went, the more decrepit the cabinets became, their edges sprouting patches of green mold.
He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but as they passed those moldy spots, Li Huowang felt a vague sense of being watched.
Under the eunuch’s lead, Li Huowang reached a wall on the left side, its moldy surface pocked with holes of varying sizes.
Just as Li Huowang was wondering what this was about, the eunuch grabbed a vermilion brush from a nearby table, scribbled some characters on a strip of white paper, rolled it into a ball, stuffed it into a bamboo tube, and tossed it into one of the holes in the wall.
“Sir, please wait a moment. We’ll have an answer shortly. Rest assured, I reckon we can get those eyes of yours seeing again. The treasures in this inner treasury? The Celestial Surveillance Division has been stockpiling them for centuries. Good stuff aplenty.”
“No rush.” Li Huowang replied, then stood quietly waiting by the wall.
After a while, with the atmosphere growing quiet, Li Huowang thought for a moment before speaking to the eunuch beside him.
“Right, Your Excellency, do you know anything about the recent heavenly calamity? Any other news from within the Directorate?”
Hearing this, the eunuch cupped his hands toward Li Huowang. “Sir, I can answer questions about the inner treasury, but as for outside matters, I’m afraid I can’t help. I’ve never left this inner treasury since the day I was born.”
The words sent a chill through Li Huowang’s body. The Great Liang truly spared no extremes in treating people like tools.
An eunuch who’d never seen the outside world was naturally incapable of smuggling anything out. And more terrifying still, there were likely more than a few like him.
“Thud~!” A bamboo tube was ejected from a hole in the wall.
The coin-eyed eunuch snatched it up, unfurled it, and spoke with what seemed like genuine delight for Li Huowang. “Sir, what did I tell you? There really is a way! And not just one!”
“Oh?! Tell me quick!” He’d guessed right after all. Mere blindness was nothing; the Celestial Surveillance Division surely had a fix.
“The first one’s called the Flowing Pearl Dharma Eye. Bury that fist-sized dharma eye into your brow center, and not only will you see more clearly, it’ll ward off evil and dispel malign spirits too.”
“Only one? Fist-sized? And it has to be embedded in the brow center?” Li Huowang pictured Bai Lingmiao staring at him with an eye in her forehead and felt a shiver of unease.
“Sir, what’s one not enough for? Aren’t you missing just one yourself?” The eunuch stared pointedly at Li Huowang’s blind eye.
“That won’t do. My full-body circulation passes through the brow center. Next one.”
“Oh, the second is the Golden Bridge Wonderful Scripture. They say comprehending it lets you bring the dead back to life and mend flesh and bone. But it demands high aptitude—years of recitation required, true sincerity opening even stone and metal.”
“Next.”
One option after another was rattled off by the eunuch, only for Li Huowang to reject them all. Either they didn’t meet his needs, or they came with troublesome side effects.
After picking through them, few remained. Just as Li Huowang hesitated over whether to take the dharma eye after all, the eunuch’s words caught his attention.
“This eighth one is a sarira from an enlightened high monk of the Great Qi era. Dissolve it in unrooted water and swallow, and you gain the mind’s eye vision. With the mind’s eye, even the blind can perceive their surroundings.”
“This... sounds promising.”
He’d been thinking down a dead end before. Bai Lingmiao didn’t necessarily need physical eyes. As long as she could move freely, any method would do.
And this mind’s eye vision seemed to counter invisibility and illusions, boosting her strength even further.
“Your Excellency, this one. I’ll take it.”
“Sir, hold on, I haven’t finished. Not just anyone can use this sarira. It requires a kind-hearted person with affinity. The kinder the heart, the stronger the mind’s eye. But for the wicked-hearted? The sarira will send them straight to transcendence.”
“Kind-hearted? No problem. This is the one.” If anyone along this journey had the kindest heart, it had to be Bai Lingmiao.
The coin-eyed eunuch looked up in surprise, glancing at the bloodstained Daoist robes on Li Huowang, then at the two rows of bloodied torture instruments dangling from his hem. His voice dripped with doubt.
“Sir, are you truly kind-hearted?”
Clearly, he thought Li Huowang meant to use it on himself.
“Is my heart not kind enough? Quit wasting words! I want this one! Fetch it now!” Li Huowang snapped, brows furrowing.
At that, the eunuch said no more and turned to lead Li Huowang back into the forest of wooden cabinets.
But after a few steps, he turned his head to Li Huowang, hesitating as he spoke. “Sir, my sincerest apologies. I nearly forgot the most important part. Don’t take offense at my bluntness, but... this sarira costs four hundred Lifespan Pills. Can you afford it?”
(End of chapter)