Chapter 57
Chapter 57
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 57
>Chapter Title: Jumping the Great God
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
“I don’t know what the Red, Yellow, White, Liu, and Bei Five Immortal Families that jumping the great god represents mean. I just overheard some old folks in the village mentioning it casually and remembered it.”
“The time I encountered them was when someone in the village had run into evil spirits. They were crawling on the ground barking like a dog. The jumping great god shaman happened to be passing by the village edge and came over to take a look.”
“I don’t know what happened after that. I just remember that the person who’d run into evil spirits was fine the next day and went down to the fields to work.”
Li Huowang listened to Xiaoman’s fragmented bits of information about jumping the great god, silently mulling it over in his mind.
“So, jumping the great god in Siqi does pretty much the same work as the daoists? Exorcising evil and averting disasters. Does that mean their abilities come from things like the Wandering Lord too?”
“Since jumping great god shamans have to interact with people often, they should be easier to talk to than the monks at Zhengde Temple, right?”
He wasn’t worried right now that these so-called jumping great god shamans were too strong. He was afraid they might be too weak and completely unable to deal with Danyangzi.
After all, a lone fighter couldn’t compare to a group.
The creaking of the donkey cart fading away brought Li Huowang back to his senses. He saw that the others had already gone into the woods to gather firewood and fetch water.
He looked up at the sky and realized that the sun had unknowingly shifted toward the west. It was time to rest.
He didn’t just sit there idly. He drew the sword from behind his back and started digging a pit in the ground. The sword was extremely sharp, and in no time, he’d dug a small dirt pit the size of a head.
The Fool, who had long since prepared beside him, lifted the black pot from the donkey cart and placed it over the pit.
As long as they opened a hole on each side—one for the firewood and one for the smoke—a little earthen stove would be complete.
Compared to rice, dried noodles were more practical—easier to store and quicker to cook.
After waiting for the water in the pot to boil, several bundles of longevity noodles bought in the town at the pass were dropped in amid the steam.
Some dandelions picked by the roadside served as vegetables, a salted duck egg per person as meat, and a big bowl of noodles for each—a simple dinner was ready.
Li Huowang used his chopsticks to crack open a salted duck egg bobbing in the noodle soup. The oily yolk sizzled, instantly floating a layer of golden oil on the entire bowl, making it look extremely appetizing.
He picked up a softened dandelion stem with his chopsticks and slowly chewed it in his mouth. It had a slightly bitter taste and a texture a bit like spinach.
He hadn’t known before that dandelions were edible, but after seeing that old monk eat them with such relish, he’d learned they were a kind of wild vegetable.
He blew away the steam and took a full swig of the soup. His stomach immediately felt warm and cozy—very comfortable.
Seeing these wild vegetables made Li Huowang think of the old monk from Zhengde Temple.
“I wonder how he’s doing. He’s so simple-minded and blind to everything. He should be living pretty well in a place like that, right?”
A pair of chopsticks placed an oily salted duck egg yolk into Li Huowang’s bowl.
“I don’t eat yolks.”
Bai Lingmiao, sitting beside him, said softly.
Li Huowang nodded silently, picked up some noodles with his chopsticks, and slurped a big mouthful into his mouth.
“There’s a daoist bell in my robes. Do you remember? The one I brought from Clear Wind Temple.”
“Mm.”
“I’m telling you now how to use it. If anything happens to me, remember to take it out and use it to save your life.”
“Okay.”
“First, you need to shake it. You’ll feel extremely dizzy—endure it. Then grab a handful of mud from the ground and stuff it in your mouth.”
The sky gradually darkened, Li Huowang’s bowl emptied, and his words came to an end.
Bai Lingmiao took the bowl and chopsticks from Li Huowang’s hands and walked toward the small river in the woods.
Li Huowang watched her slender back, which unknowingly transformed into the figure of a girl in a red high school uniform—that was Yang Na’s back.
He shook his head forcefully, and Bai Lingmiao returned to normal. Feeling somewhat irritated, Li Huowang lay down on the ground and gazed at the increasingly visible starry sky.
Night deepened gradually. Li Huowang was still on watch for the first half of the night. His sleep had been poor lately—or rather, it had never been good.
Li Huowang used his sword to poke at the bonfire in front of him and added a piece of firewood.
He shook it off. In the firelight, he looked toward his weapon.
This blade that could cut through iron like mud was truly wasted in his hands—not used for digging pits as a shovel, then as a fire-poking stick. Now the tip was all black and grimy, extremely unsightly.
The only time it had seen blood was when he’d used it to slit his own throat.
“Senior Brother Changming, if you saw your precious sword reduced to this state, would you be so angry you’d come back to life?”
Li Huowang muttered to himself as he sheathed the longsword behind his back once more.
“Shh~”
A soft sound from behind made Li Huowang leap to his feet. He grabbed a burning branch from the bonfire and hurled it straight ahead.
The bright firelight flashed past a human silhouette before landing in front of a pair of embroidered shoes.
Those embroidered shoes were an eerie, blood-red.
“Who’s there! Come out!!”
Li Huowang’s shout made the others sitting up groggily from their sleep.
When they saw the feet in embroidered shoes in the distance, they were instantly scared fully awake, the sounds of swords and blades being drawn ringing out nonstop.
“Heh heh heh, don’t make a move. Just a misunderstanding.”
With a casual voice, a man with graying hair around fifty years old walked out from the pitch-black woods.
He was dressed plainly, the patches on his clothes indicating he wasn’t well-off. Besides a small bundle on his back, he had only a dirty old drum slung at his waist, tied with colorful cloth strips.
Facing the weapons of Li Huowang and the others, he stood there explaining,
“I was traveling at night, y’see. Saw light up ahead, so I came to take a look. Didn’t expect to run into you folks.”
Seeing Li Huowang’s gaze fixed on those red embroidered shoes, he continued explaining.
“No worries, that’s my wife. She’s shy. Goose, come here.”
As soon as he spoke, the embroidered shoes slowly emerged from the darkness and came to stand beside the old man.
It was a woman with her face covered by a red veil. Her red-and-purple clothes were garishly bright, and colorful cloth strips were tied to her body just like on the drum.
She stood there utterly still. Seeing something like this in the dead of night sent chills up the spine.
“This is your wife?”
Li Huowang, sword raised, confirmed again. With something like that beside him in the middle of the night, no one would believe it wasn’t a zombie he’d rounded up.
At that moment, Xiaoman hurried over from the side and whispered,
“Senior Brother Li, he’s a jumping great god shaman.”
This sentence sent Li Huowang’s vigilance to its peak.
“That’s right! Exactly. We’re jumping great god shamans. I’m the Great God, my wife’s the Second God.”
Seeing no reaction from the group before him, the man spoke again,
“What, you don’t believe me? Well then, I’ll give you a bit. Ahem~”
Before Li Huowang could stop him, he opened his mouth and shouted,
“Please~ the~ gods~ come~!!”
This full-throated call echoed far and wide through the dark woods.
(End of chapter)