Chapter 10: Mantou

Li Huowang curled up into a ball, like an unborn baby, remaining motionless and withdrawn in a corner of the storage room.

The other captives neither dared nor wished to disturb him, quietly attending to their own tasks.

Night fell imperceptibly. The oil lamps on the walls extinguished, and darkness enveloped Li Huowang like a quilt.

He lay there like a corpse, unresponsive to the changing world outside.

At the third watch of the night, a faint candlelight flickered from the doorway, illuminating the nearby shelves and dispelling the darkness around Li Huowang.

A timid Bai Lingmiao approached Li Huowang, carrying a bundle of dry grass. She carefully spread the grass over him.

Next, she pulled a multi-grain steamed bun from her pocket and placed it near his mouth.

Seeing that Li Huowang remained motionless, she pursed her lips and gently nudged him. "Senior Brother, please eat something. You haven't had anything all day."

Li Huowang's eyes were open, staring numbly at the cold ground, having not blinked for hours. His gaze did not shift towards Bai Lingmiao in the slightest.

Bai Lingmiao wanted to leave, but after a moment of hesitation, she finally took a jade pendant from her embrace and placed it by Li Huowang's hand.

"Senior Brother, this is yours. Please take it back."

This time, Li Huowang finally reacted. He looked at the object and recognized it as the round jade pendant he had stolen from the previous Xuan Yang.

Li Huowang remembered giving this item to Yang Na to exchange for money. At the thought of Yang Na, his battered heart began to bleed anew. "How... how did you get this?"

"You... you gave it to me, Senior Brother Li. I said I didn't want it, but you insisted on forcing it into my hand."

Li Huowang slowly sat up, carefully examining the cloud-patterned round jade pendant in the dim candlelight.

In that moment, he had never felt anything so real. Yet, this reality held nothing but genuine despair and genuine pain.

If he had a choice, he would have loved to remain trapped in that beautiful illusion.

Seeing Li Huowang respond, Bai Lingmiao softly asked, "Senior Brother Li, where were you taken from by Master? I'm from Liang. Where are you from?"

Li Huowang paused for a moment, then shook his head despondently. "I don't know."

He truly didn't know. He did have memories of the past, but after the events of the day, Li Huowang himself couldn't distinguish how much of those memories was real and how much was illusory.

Even here, he was still a madman, unable to differentiate between reality and illusion.

As he shook his head, Li Huowang suddenly felt something strange on his scalp. He touched it and found that his hair was matted with dried blood scabs, indicating he had been injured earlier.

Seeing Li Huowang touch his head, Bai Lingmiao explained, "Senior Brother Wang did that."

Li Huowang knew that Senior Brother Wang was the harelipped fatty who had tried to harm Bai Lingmiao earlier. "Where is this Wang fellow?"

"You... you kicked him to death."

Hearing this, Li Huowang's mind flashed back to Old Liu, whom he had kicked away in his illusion. He lowered his head and chuckled silently. He truly was mad enough.

Li Huowang reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden ankle bracelet wrapped with a red thread, offering it to Bai Lingmiao. "This is yours, isn't it? Take it back."

Bai Lingmiao looked at her ankle bracelet and pushed it back with both hands. "Senior Brother Li, you were right before. This thing is useless here. You keep it."

Li Huowang stared blankly at the golden bracelet. But this item was of no use to him now; everything he cared about had vanished.

"Um, Senior Brother Li, could I use this as payment and ask you for a favor?" Bai Lingmiao's words made Li Huowang turn his gaze to her.

"If you manage to get out of here alive, could you deliver a message to my parents for me? They live at the foot of Ox-Heart Mountain in Liang. Just tell them that their daughter was unfilial and couldn't take care of them in their old age or bury them." As she spoke of her sorrow, Bai Lingmiao's voice became choked with emotion.

"Senior Brother Li, I truly don't want to trouble you, but I have no other choice. They'll probably take me to the alchemy room very soon, and I..."

Hearing this, Li Huowang, whose face had been filled with despondency and numbness, felt a tightening in his heart, and a spark returned to his silent eyes.

He glanced at the dry grass covering him, then at the steamed bun beside him. With a pull of his hand, he tucked the red-threaded golden bracelet back into his pocket.

"I keep my word. Since I took your item before, I will help you."

Bai Lingmiao's sorrowful eyes instantly brightened, but then quickly dimmed again. "Senior Brother Li, this won't do. It will get you into trouble too."

"Heh heh... do you think I'm afraid of that now?" At this moment, Li Huowang had come to terms with things. He had completely given up on everything. Since everything he cared about was gone, what was there left to fear?

"Alright, Senior Brother Li is mighty!" A male voice suddenly echoed from outside the storage room door, startling both occupants.

As the candlelight illuminated the person, they saw a grinning face with a pointed chin and monkey-like cheeks, marked with patches of yellow and white, appearing to suffer from a skin condition resembling vitiligo.

This person produced two multi-grain steamed buns and fawningly placed them beside Li Huowang.

"Heh heh heh, Senior Brother Li, have a bun. During dinner, I remembered you hadn't eaten, so I specially saved two for you."

"You might not know me, Senior Brother. I'm just a simple fellow, grew up without a proper name. You can just call me Gouwa, heh heh heh. Just yesterday, I even paid my respects to you with seventeen coins."

Gouwa's fidgety hand-rubbing almost literally broadcasted his flattery. It was clear he wanted to use Li Huowang as a patron, to avoid being sent to be an "ingredient." There are clever people everywhere.

Li Huowang said nothing. He grabbed the three somewhat hardened buns and devoured them ravenously; he hadn't eaten all day.

He ate so quickly that he nearly choked. Gouwa immediately, and thoughtfully, ran out to get Li Huowang a cup of water.

Washing them down with cold underground water, Li Huowang managed to get the three multi-grain buns into his stomach.

He stood up, swaying and struggling. Having lain on the ground for so long, his legs had gone numb.

Bai Lingmiao reached out to help him, but Li Huowang pushed her hand away.

His gaze fixed on the dark exit of the storage room in the distance, he staggered out.

At this moment, his enemy was no longer his mutating illness, but rather Danyangzi, the bald-headed Daoist priest who used people to make elixirs.

As Danyangzi's ugly, repulsive face appeared in his mind, a strong ferocity gradually surfaced in Li Huowang's eyes, and his teeth began to grind audibly.

Just moments ago, he had been devoid of any will to live, but now he was filled with renewed determination. The only thing he had to do now was find a way to kill him!