Chapter 569
Chapter 569
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 569
>Chapter Title: Search
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When Li Huowang climbed out of the well, he suddenly froze. Why had the sky gone dark again?
He looked up at the sky and saw that Da Qi’s sun had become even more ruined, eroded by the blackness until only a rough outline remained.
Suddenly, Li Huowang sensed a gaze from the extreme distance. His mouth opened involuntarily, coughing at first before turning into a crane’s cry. “Yu’er God!”
His entire body tensed as he drew his spine sword and swung it hard, burrowing back into Da Liang at top speed. Only then did Li Huowang have a moment to pop his dislocated jaw back into place.
Drenched in cold sweat, Li Huowang now understood exactly what was happening. Da Qi’s calamity was starting again.
The previous calamity had lasted so long. Li Huowang had no idea if this one would wipe out all the remaining survivors.
Li Huowang recalled what Zhuge Yuan had told him. He let out a deep sigh and clenched his fist, smashing it hard against the tree trunk in front of him.
Then he turned and headed toward the spot where he’d tossed out the little Da Qi emperor. He had to find that child!
Li Huowang mounted a horse and raced back to the location of the rift at full speed. Last time, he’d only casually asked Li Sui about it without paying much attention.
This time, Li Huowang searched the woods meticulously, not overlooking the slightest trace.
To his great surprise, though, with his heightened senses, he still found nothing.
“That’s not right. I clearly stabbed right through that Da Qi emperor and he bled a ton. Even if a wild beast dragged him off, there’s no way there’d be zero bloodstains.”
Just as Li Huowang started expanding his search radius, some faint footprints made his heart jolt.
Da Qi could collapse at any moment—he had no time to waste. Li Huowang immediately followed the shallow prints.
His keen perception made him excellent at tracking. As the footprints grew clearer, Li Huowang’s hand gripped the hilt of his sword.
Soon, amid the bushes, Li Huowang spotted a hunched back. With the gray-streaked hair coiled up on his head, it looked like an old man.
The old man was crouched there, motionless like a statue. The bizarre behavior put Li Huowang on high alert.
Li Huowang drew his copper coin sword and swung it hard toward the figure. The instantly elongating string of coins shaved off the old man’s coiled hair.
“Ouch! Mom!” The old man shuddered and tumbled to the ground.
“Alive?” Li Huowang gripped the hilt and rushed forward, finding not some strange evil but just a terrified ordinary old man who’d pissed himself in fear.
“Mercy, great immortal! Mercy, great immortal!” Without even looking at Li Huowang’s face, the old man kowtowed repeatedly on the ground.
“Get up!” Li Huowang pressed his sword against the man’s shoulder.
“I’m asking you—did you pick up an infant around here today?”
“Huh? A baby? I came to the woods to catch ginseng babies! Never saw no baby!”
“Ginseng babies? What ginseng babies?”
Seeing the man shakily point ahead, Li Huowang stepped forward through the bushes. He saw no ginseng, just a small pit and some red strings tied with bells.
“Where’s the ginseng?”
“You scared it off! I squatted here half a year for this. If I caught it, I could sell it in town...” The old man whined pitifully.
“What nonsense is this? Answer me—do you know the area around here well?”
“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” The old man nodded frantically, as if nodding slower would bring the sword down on him.
“Has anyone else been here recently besides you?”
“Dunno about that, but only folks from our village come to this spot.”
“Could someone from the village have picked up the Da Qi emperor?”
Li Huowang recalled the palm-sized Da Qi emperor with nearly transparent skin. No way the kid had walked off on his own.
“Come on! Take me to your village!”
The old man couldn’t refuse and led Li Huowang out of the woods.
The more they walked, though, the more familiar it felt to Li Huowang. This seemed to be the village where he’d traded his jade pendant for a horse last time.
Just as they reached the village entrance, Li Huowang saw an eleven- or twelve-year-old boy stripped naked and hung from a willow tree, being lashed with willow branches until his body was covered in swollen red welts. Snot and tears streamed down his face as he wailed pitifully.
Some villagers stood in a circle, pointing and whispering, making no move to stop it.
“Hey! That’s my grandson! What’s going on?”
The old man beside Li Huowang panicked instantly and rushed over, blocking the man wielding the branch. “Son! Have you lost your mind? Beating your own boy to death like this!”
“I wish I could beat him dead and make a new one! You know what this little shit did? Three days ago, he took a dump in our well!”
“What!?” The old man snatched the willow branch and started whipping his grandson like a spinning top.
Li Huowang glanced at the onlookers and, after a moment’s thought, leaped onto the willow tree in two strides.
“Folks! My older sister gave birth prematurely not long ago! I buried it a bit farther out in the woods to the east! But that Yang the Half-Immortal said my little nephew is still alive!!”
“So my sister sent me to find him. If anyone helps me locate my nephew, I’ll reward you with ten taels of gold!”
Li Huowang’s words instantly set off the crowd like a bomb. Even the old man stopped whipping his grandson and huddled with his son, whispering.
Li Huowang’s eyes darted around, scrutinizing everyone’s subtle expressions and the Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings visible all over their bodies.
He wasn’t counting on the reward to find the Da Qi emperor. He was using the Sit-Forget Dao’s supernatural sight.
These were ordinary villagers. If any one of them had found the Da Qi emperor, their demeanor would show something off.
To Li Huowang’s disappointment, though, after scanning them all, he found no signs. It seemed none of them had seen the Da Qi emperor.
“Sigh, tossing a baby in the woods? Probably got carried off by wolves or dogs long ago.”
“Yeah, no way to find it now.”
“This Daoist seems pretty humane. He’s a monk but still cares about family.”
“Hey! Isn’t this the guy who stole Old Man Song’s horse? Heard he was a red-robed Daoist too.”
Hearing their chatter, the disappointment on Li Huowang’s face deepened. It really seemed like no one here had seen the Da Qi emperor.
“Sigh~ Maybe some kind-hearted soul picked it up. Some folks beg for a son and can’t get one, others have sons and toss ’em. Speaking of which, thirty-some years back...”
When an old man in the crowd started puffing on his water pipe and launching into his oft-repeated tale, the others scattered.
“Why’s no one listening? Anyway, it was the minor New Year’s thirty-odd years ago. Old Yan from the east end of the village really did find a bloody little baby in the woods, like a skinned monkey, chest all split open. Back then, us few tried telling Old Yan to bury it somewhere—if it died, it might turn ghost and haunt him. But in the end...