Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 48
>Chapter Title: Escape
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Creak. The wooden door slowly cracked open, and Li Huowang peered vigilantly through the gap at the outside.
The soft afternoon sunlight filtered through the swaying leaves, casting dappled tree shadows on the ground.
It was extremely quiet outside right now. Aside from the distant sweeping monk holding a broom and cleaning up, there was nothing unusual.
Yet to Li Huowang, who had now fully grasped the truth, this serene scene looked entirely different.
“Hmph! It’s all an act! They can’t fool me! They’re doing this to keep me calm, to trick me into willingly joining that Universal Salvation Grand Ritual they keep talking about!”
As soon as he said this, a thought flashed through Li Huowang’s mind.
“Wait, why are they doing this? I’m just an ordinary person, and they’re so powerful. If they wanted to do something, they could just come at me directly, right?”
This question had no answer for now, but Li Huowang didn’t need one. All he wanted was to escape this hellhole as quickly as possible.
As Li Huowang speculated whether that distant sweeping monk was there to watch him, the monk saw there were no more fallen leaves on the ground, picked up his broom, and turned to leave.
“The monks of Zhengde Temple haven’t noticed anything off about me yet. That’s the only advantage I have right now,” Li Huowang calculated silently in his mind.
The outside was completely empty now, but Li Huowang didn’t leave. Instead, he waited quietly for something.
Time ticked by slowly, and sweat began to bead in Li Huowang’s palms.
“Dong~ Dong~ Dong~” A deep bell toll echoed instantly throughout Zhengde Temple, jolting Li Huowang’s entire body.
After staying here so long, Li Huowang knew this bell signaled the hour of You, which was also the call for all the monks of Zhengde Temple to eat.
Creak. With a calm expression, Li Huowang stepped out of his quarters and joined the monks he encountered on the road, heading toward the dining hall.
His presence here was perfectly reasonable. Over the past few days, he had always gone to eat just like this.
Compared to where he stayed, the dining hall was clearly much closer to the main hall crowded with pilgrims. Since they were using illusions to deceive him, they surely didn’t want ordinary people seeing their horrific, sinister side.
Along the way, Li Huowang noticed quite a few monks sneaking glances at him and whispering among themselves, seemingly gossiping about the afternoon’s events.
Their eyes held mockery, hostility, and curiosity.
But Li Huowang knew it was all fake. These monks were just putting on a show.
“They’re all in cahoots with Xin Hui. There’s not a single good person in all of Zhengde Temple. They all want to harm me!!” Li Huowang concluded firmly.
After walking unhurriedly for about the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense, Li Huowang spotted the dining hall swarming with bald heads. He didn’t run away directly but instead flowed with the crowd and went inside.
He took a wooden bowl, filled it with rice, and sat calmly on a bench, eating the vegetarian dishes in front of him.
Today’s dishes were taro soup, konjac stir-fried with fried tofu, oil-drenched greens, and potatoes stewed with wax gourd.
There was no meat at all, but the flavors were still decent.
However, after what had happened, Li Huowang had no appetite whatsoever.
To fool them, though, he didn’t dare act unusual and kept shoving food into his mouth.
“Pat.” A hand slapped onto his shoulder, making Li Huowang’s body jolt. “Little Daoist, you’re here too? Hey! Why’d you run off in such a panic earlier?”
Hearing that familiar voice, Li Huowang, his mouth bulging, turned his head and, as expected, saw that gap-toothed grinning face.
It was the old monk he’d met on the road. If not for him dragging Li Huowang to see those stone statues today, things wouldn’t have turned out like this.
The old monk carried his own bowl of rice and forcibly squeezed in beside Li Huowang, sitting down. “Let’s eat together.”
Li Huowang glanced with his peripheral vision at the surrounding monks, who showed nothing unusual. He chewed the food in his mouth a bit before burying his head and continuing to eat. “Whatever.”
“Daoist, where are your other companions? Tell them not to stay at the inn—come eat together! I’m telling you, meals here are free!”
The oblivious old monk was still his usual carefree self.
But this time, Li Huowang, desperate to escape, couldn’t be bothered with him.
After finishing dinner at his usual pace, Li Huowang let out a satisfied belch and headed out of the dining hall.
Back on the stone-paved path outside, the old monk followed again. “Don’t go yet. Let’s chat a bit. These monks here are boring as hell.”
Li Huowang licked the food remnants from his gums and looked at him with a hint of impatience. “Stop following me. Go back and sleep.”
“Sleep? It’s not even that late yet. Let me tell you something—”
The old monk’s words cut off halfway as he saw the little Daoist, who had seemed fine moments ago, suddenly turn ghastly pale.
The next instant, Li Huowang whispered urgently to the old monk, “Run! As fast as you can! This temple is dangerous!”
In the very next second, Li Huowang kicked off the ground with both feet, using every ounce of strength to sprint toward the main hall.
His sudden dash immediately drew the attention of the other monks around him. They all turned to look, but he ignored them and kept running wildly.
Li Huowang’s heart pounded furiously, his nerves stretched taut, eyes scanning every possible spot where that old bastard Xin Hui might appear.
Ten zhang! Five zhang! One zhang!!
As Li Huowang burst out through that side door, the world around him exploded into noise—footsteps, voices, and the sound of wooden fish drums flooding into his ears.
He was back in the incense-filled main hall, thronged with worshippers. The common folk shoving past made him sway unsteadily.
Standing in the midst of the bustling crowd, Li Huowang froze for a moment. The natural expressions on all those faces around him seemed to silently tell him something.
Breathing heavily, Li Huowang suddenly thought of something and whipped his head back toward the side door.
It was empty. No pursuers in sight.
In the distance, neither the welcoming monks greeting guests nor the sign-interpreting monks glanced this way even once.
To Li Huowang, everything seemed so normal... normal to the point of being a little abnormal.
“Could it be...? That those were really just my hallucinations? That those disgusting things were all my imagination?”
But Li Huowang quickly dismissed the ridiculous notion, shook his head hard, and strode quickly toward the temple gates.
He couldn’t gamble on something like this. Not even a sliver of possibility.
Leaving the temple was effortless, just as easy as entering had been.
Li Huowang reached the inn as fast as he could.
Seeing Li Huowang after several days, the drug primers swarmed around him warmly.
“Senior Brother, why are you back? Did you finish your business at the temple?”
“No time for catching up. Pack your things quick—we’re leaving! Get out of this place now!”
“Alright, I’ll go tell Troupe Leader Lv.”
“No waiting for them! We’re going now! Hurry, hurry!!”
“Senior Brother, where are we headed?” Bai Lingmiao asked, full of confusion.
“Out of the pass!”
(End of chapter)