Chapter 475
Chapter 475
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 475
>Chapter Title: Spirit Spawn
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>“Four hundred?!” Hearing that price, Li Huowang’s pupils shrank slightly. He didn’t even need to check his own gourd to know there definitely weren’t that many inside.
“You mustn’t think it’s too expensive. This is a fine item from the Great Qi era a thousand years ago. Where are you going to find high monks who produce sariras upon their passing these days?”
Li Huowang truly wasn’t thinking it was too expensive, but he really didn’t have that much. He’d been busy dealing with his hallucinations all this time—where would he have remembered to earn yangshou pills?
“Then how much was the dharma eye before?” As long as it would let Bai Lingmiao see, Li Huowang didn’t care if it made her uglier.
“Five hundred.” The eunuch’s words completely dashed Li Huowang’s hopes of substituting with a cheaper ritual implement. He hadn’t expected the dharma eye to be even pricier than the sarira.
He could see it now: in this world, nobody was more black-hearted than the Supervising Heaven Bureau.
All the yangshou pills he’d earned through life-and-death struggles outside were rendered worthless the moment he stepped into their inner vault.
Without yangshou pills, he couldn’t get the sarira for Bai Lingmiao. And without the sarira, she’d soon end up blind. This was something Li Huowang absolutely could not tolerate.
Back then, Li Zhi’s gourd had held only four yangshou pills. Now he needed a full four hundred. Even robbing someone, he wouldn’t know where to start.
“But I’ve already killed her entire family—what’s this little bit of effort compared to that? No matter what, I have to get that sarira for Bai Lingmiao!” Li Huowang strode with heavy steps toward the exit of the inner vault.
He didn’t leave through the Supervising Heaven Bureau but headed straight to the grand hall filled with folding screens. This was where the Supervising Heaven Bureau yamen assigned missions.
The people were the same as before, but Li Huowang’s attitude toward them had shifted from hostility to a more neutral frame of mind.
The Supervising Heaven Bureau might treat lives as weeds, but this world truly couldn’t do without people like them.
“Er Jiu?! You’re still alive? I thought you were dead.” Hearing the man surnamed Nangong say the exact same thing as Sima Lan had before, Li Huowang couldn’t be bothered to explain again.
“I want to take on a mission. Which ones have the highest rewards?”
Seeing Li Huowang’s somewhat heavy expression, Nangong Ziqu didn’t pry and simply pulled out a book, placing it in front of him. “Find it yourself. It’s on the last page.”
Li Huowang flipped it open directly, and a mission written in vermilion ink jumped out at him: “Sit-Forget Dao Red Inscribed, dead or alive.”
His gaze lingered on it for a moment before he started flipping backward through the book.
Sit-Forget Dao to get rich, Sit-Forget Dao West Wind, Sit-Forget Dao White Tablet, Sit-Forget Dao, Sit-Forget Dao—one mission after another for several pages, all Sit-Forget Dao. Liu Zongyuan’s intel had been spot on; the Supervising Heaven Bureau was truly at war with the Sit-Forget Daoists.
Though the rewards were all quite valuable, Li Huowang truly didn’t want to deal with those swindlers.
There were connections between the Three Yuan Four Joys—they were like stubborn dog-skin plasters. Kill one, and the troubles they brought would stick to you no matter what, just like what had happened with Zhuge Yuan before.
“Brother Er Jiu, didn’t you say before that you wanted revenge against the Sit-Forget Dao? Why not take one?”
“I paid with one of my eyes to settle that grudge. I killed the Sit-Forget Dao grand elder with my own hands.”
After seriously flipping through several pages, Li Huowang’s hand suddenly stopped. His finger slowly traced over two brush-written characters. “Spirit spawn?”
Right below the name was its reward: four hundred thirty yangshou pills and five years of untainted lifespan.
He looked up at Zhuge Yuan standing beside Nangong. “Spirit spawn? The Ling generation?”
“Brother Li, this isn’t of the Ling generation. All the others are, but not this one.” A trace of disgust appeared on Zhuge Yuan’s face.
“That’s right, it’s precisely a spirit spawn.” Nangong took over the conversation. “But are you really planning to take this mission? Don’t get greedy just because of the untainted lifespan. Dealing with it is honestly worse than dealing with the Sit-Forget Dao—at least that’s safer.”
“This spirit spawn is that dangerous? What’s its origin?”
“Dangerous? Well, it’s definitely less so than heart turbidity, heart purity, or heart coils. Truth be told, how tough a spirit spawn is to deal with entirely depends on what it’s latched onto.”
“If it’s on a person, that’s still manageable at worst—a mad half-immortal. But if it’s on some powerful evil being, or something else... heh, then you’re in for it.”
“Like some kind of parasitic freakishness.” Li Huowang began inquiring with Nangong about the details of spirit spawns.
What was utterly baffling was that spirit spawns took on entirely different abilities depending on their host, sometimes even diametrically opposed supernatural powers.
Looking at the various records about spirit spawns in the book, Li Huowang began assessing them, judging whether he could handle such situations with his current strength.
After some contemplation, Li Huowang ultimately decided to accept the mission. He now possessed the power of Red Inscribed—he was no longer the old Li Huowang. He might not even fear this spirit spawn.
Even if he couldn’t win a fight, escaping should be no problem.
Moreover, not all spirit spawns were that powerful. The book even recorded a lucky monk who stumbled upon one latched onto a dogtail grass and got a huge bargain for free.
“This one. I’ll take it.” Li Huowang dipped his finger in the red ink paste and pressed down hard on the book.
“Alright. These are four locations where our internal scouts have detected possible spirit spawns. You can check them all out.”
“I have to find it myself?” Li Huowang reached out and took the map.
“Of course. You think such generous rewards come for free? Though with your badge now at banner rank, you can recruit a few others to help. That’d lower the risk.”
Li Huowang had no intention of teaming up like Ji Xiang had before. He took the map directly and turned to walk out.
Bringing on one more person meant one more share of the reward. If it got split, it wouldn’t be enough to buy the sarira.
After just one night in that small courtyard in the capital, Li Huowang set off again with Li Sui and Bai Lingmiao.
He’d thought he’d find the spirit spawn quickly, but unexpectedly, the first two locations turned out to be false leads—no trace of any spirit spawn.
A month and a half passed in the blink of an eye.
“Thwack thwack thwack.” Bai Lingmiao turned sideways, raising a wooden club to vigorously pound Li Huowang’s red daoist robe on a large riverside boulder.
After pounding for a bit, she lifted the robe and swished it in the rushing river water before scrubbing it against the rock.
Without lye soap, this was the only way to get them really clean.
After washing Li Huowang’s clothes, she moved on to her own, handling them with great care—after all, these were bought for her by Senior Brother Li in the capital.
The clothes were very pretty. She loved them.
Once all the garments were thoroughly cleaned, she placed them in the wooden basin and stood up.
Holding the basin, Bai Lingmiao picked up a thumb-thick bamboo pole from the ground. She tapped it ahead of her continuously with the pole as she made her way toward the carriage.
(End of chapter)