Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 54
>Chapter Title: Wandering Lord
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“Thud!” The massive wooden club slammed heavily onto the ground, kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
Next, the hefty club was raised high again before crashing down once more.
Li Huowang, supported by Bai Lingmiao, watched from the side as the Fool swung the wooden club.
Though the wound on his neck hadn’t fully healed, after several days of lying like a corpse to recover, he could barely stand now.
“Harder! Smash it harder!” Li Huowang shouted from the side.
Lv Zhuangyuan walked over from the campfire, holding two coarse-grain steamed buns, grinning from ear to ear. “Little Daoist, what’re you up to? Quite the commotion.”
One swing after another, the surrounding woods and bushes were smashed into a chaotic mess.
“Heh, it’s nothing. A big guy like this just hauling people and luggage around would be a waste. I’m training him a bit.”
“Oh, that’s great, that’s great.” Lv Zhuangyuan nodded repeatedly as he retreated.
Li Huowang’s gaze returned to the Fool in front of him, shirtless and drenched in sweat as he swung the club.
Don’t let this guy’s dim wits fool you—his body was genuinely impressive. Li Huowang eyed his broad back and sturdy frame, thinking to himself.
“With a build like that, he might not handle everything, but ordinary bandits should be no problem.”
That was Li Huowang’s plan: strengthen his group’s capabilities. Relying solely on Wandering Lord or Danyangzi, both with their massive drawbacks, wouldn’t cut it. Even without knowing the ins and outs of this world’s mysticism, he still understood the most primal method.
Civilian pursuits for the poor, martial for the rich—barbaric or not, having it beat nothing.
Not just for aiding in future fights, but also to guard him when he had an episode.
“Alright! That’s a hundred! Take a break!”
Hearing this, the bald Fool tossed the wooden club aside and strode toward the campfire, panting heavily.
Without pausing to rest, he grabbed his oversized bowl and slurped down the noodles noisily.
In no time, a jin of noodles vanished into his belly. But the big oaf, fresh from exertion, was clearly still ravenous. He went to the large black pot and scooped out more with his bowl.
Watching him down another jin, Li Huowang felt a pang of emotion. Sure enough, literacy’s for the poor, martial arts for the rich. Good thing he still had some silver left, or this guy would eat them into poverty.
Something suddenly occurred to Li Huowang. He reached out and pulled the dao bell from his person.
Staring at the bell in his hand, Li Huowang’s mind flashed back to the Wandering Lord that had been smashed to pulp.
“Can this thing still work?” A question mark hovered faintly in Li Huowang’s mind.
In this bizarre and motley world, whether it worked or not was a big deal.
“Come on, help me to the woods over there.” Li Huowang said to Bai Lingmiao.
They walked far enough that the sounds from the campfire faded away before Li Huowang finally stopped.
“You go back first.” But this time, Bai Lingmiao didn’t obey.
“Go on and pee, I won’t look...”
Her words left Li Huowang torn between laughter and tears. “I’m not relieving myself. Go back—one quarter-hour, then come find me.”
Only after ensuring he was alone in the woods did Li Huowang, leaning against a white birch tree, press his hand to his forehead and begin shaking the dao bell.
As expected, everything around him started to distort, but the lines twisted wildly in all directions, failing to form a Wandering Lord.
Unwilling to give up, Li Huowang shook it harder. “Is this thing really done for?”
No sooner had the thought arisen than the writhing lines recombined into a new Wandering Lord. “Prepare the fields and cultivate discipline?”
Yet in response to Li Huowang’s puzzled question, the Wandering Lord’s strange tongue carried no emotional fluctuation, as if it hadn’t been the one palm-smacked to death by the Buddha earlier.
Gritting his teeth through the dizziness, Li Huowang quickly conversed with the Wandering Lord and learned some surprising information.
First off, the Wandering Lord did have a name—it just couldn’t be pronounced through human mouths.
God knows what the person who first encountered it went through to name it “Wandering Lord.”
Second, things like Wandering Lords had no concept of death—or rather, they weren’t alive to begin with.
Beyond lacking the notion of death, they also lacked any notion of quantity.
“No quantity?” Realization dawned on Li Huowang, and he shook his head vigorously. His already spinning mind grew even dizzier.
Now everything appeared in double vision, including the Wandering Lord.
Staring at the two overlapping images of the Wandering Lord before him, Li Huowang seemed to grasp something. He shook even harder.
The more his head shook, the more Wandering Lords appeared, until the dizzy, vision-blurred Li Huowang saw nearly twenty or thirty of them.
“Urp~” Li Huowang finally couldn’t stomach the vertigo and bent over, vomiting furiously.
The bell’s toll ceased, the surroundings normalized, and the Wandering Lords vanished swiftly.
After heaving up his lunch, Li Huowang started retching clear liquid.
He kept going until there was nothing left, nearly bringing up bile, before he finally stopped.
Propping himself up, Li Huowang wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, gasping for air as he held the dao bell up to his eyes.
“If I’d known this trick earlier, would I have needed to self-harm to summon Danyangzi?”
After a moment’s thought, Li Huowang pocketed the bell. “No good. Summoning Wandering Lord costs yang lifespan—three months per call. With so many, one go might shave off a decade.”
Supporting himself on a tree trunk, Li Huowang staggered back the way he came.
Just as he reached the roadside, he saw his group and Lv Zhuangyuan’s huddled together.
“Everyone, take a look—all top-quality goods! If anything inside’s fake or shoddy, may Zhu Dexi die a miserable death! May eighteen generations of my ancestors be beasts!”
Li Huowang walked over and saw a peddler with a mule-drawn cart, chattering away as he hawked his wares.
Bai Lingmiao stood by the cart with the Hairy Woman, hesitating over some needles and thread.
“With the world so chaotic, you still dare peddle out here? Not afraid of highwaymen robbing you?”
The young man with the hairy mole on his lip chuckled at Li Huowang’s question but offered no explanation.
“Daoist, want some cinnabar? I’ve got it!”
Lv Zhuangyuan, who’d been watching the show, sidled up and whispered disdainfully in Li Huowang’s ear: “Highwaymen robbing him? No way—these peddlers are the same breed as those cutthroat bandits. The highwaymen rob, and types like him fence the loot!”
“So that’s how it is...” Li Huowang nodded in understanding. Makes sense—even mountain bandit lairs needed goods circulating, and these itinerant peddlers were the most discreet.
“Daoist, no cinnabar? Check out the other stuff! I’ve got everything.” Zhu Dexi paid no mind to the stares and kept pushing his sales pitch.
Li Huowang thought for a moment before asking, “You’ve got everything? Got anything for killing people?”
His words drew every eye around him in unison.
Zhu Dexi clapped his hands excitedly and rummaged through his mule cart. “Got it! Got it, got it, got it!!”
(End of chapter)