Chapter 177: Carriage

"Brother Li, what's wrong with you?"

Seeing his strange reaction, Bai Lingmiao was clearly frightened by Li Huowang.

She quickly reached out to touch him, but was startled by Li Huowang's burning hot skin. It was scorching to the touch.

"Brother Li, don't think about it anymore! I won't ask, I won't ask!" Bai Lingmiao, on the verge of tears, held Li Huowang tightly.

Listening to Bai Lingmiao, Li Huowang closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, desperately trying to think.

As he strained his mind, fragmented memories that had been deliberately hidden began to piece themselves together.

They formed a picture so overwhelming that merely contemplating it was stifling. Things that should have been forgotten resurfaced.

The scene was both dynamic and static. He intended to describe it using words his listener could understand, as best he could.

"Behind that jade pendant, in a place that might be called Bai Yujing, I saw things... things I can't describe. They were immense, and so... cold!"

Li Huowang's voice was hoarse and heavy, his words disjointed and confused.

As he spoke, Li Huowang's body began to tremble uncontrollably once more.

"That place isn't for humans... If people go there, they'll be taken. Their essence will be taken by them. Humans are pieced together by them! When nothing is left to take, they vanish completely, just like Master Danyang!"

"Then something... in Bai Yujing... it was drawing me in! I went there! I saw the entire world!

I felt it! I felt what it was thinking!"

Besides Bai Lingmiao's hands, another pair of hands suddenly reached from behind, gripping Li Huowang's forehead.

Those hands, like a tightening curse, squeezed tighter and tighter. This pressure brought a rare moment of relief to Li Huowang's throbbing headache.

At that moment, Li Huowang had no time to wonder whose hands they were. He could only grit his teeth and continue.

"I could understand it! Do you know? I could understand what it was thinking! It couldn't be anyone else! It had to be me! Only I could understand it! Because it's insane!"

As soon as he said this, Li Huowang felt as if the scene in his mind was slowly slipping from his control.

Certain elements from that vision began to peer back at him.

"I saw its past. It wasn't... not like this before! It used to be good! It's crying!

It's screaming!"

"Who is it?" A chilling female voice came from behind Li Huowang.

Veins pulsed across Li Huowang's head, as if they were about to burst at any moment.

Li Huowang, with all his might, yelled out what was in his mind: "Da Nua! It's called Da Nua!"

As soon as he spoke, the atmosphere inside the carriage turned eerie. The warm quilt seemed powerless against the cold outside.

Faint whispers reached everyone's ears, and from outside the carriage came the neighing of horses and Mantou's barking.

Li Huowang knew that wasn't Da Nua. Da Nua was insane; it couldn't be paying attention to him. Something else was.

"Get out!" With Li Huowang's low growl, the surroundings immediately cleared and gradually fell silent.

Sweating profusely, Li Huowang lay on the ground, gasping for breath. Bai Lingmiao's tearful voice sounded in his ear.

"Brother Li, I was wrong, I truly was. Please don't think about it anymore. As long as you stay by my side, I won't ask again!"

Inside the dark carriage, two hands first helped Li Huowang up. Another hand wiped his forehead with a towel, and yet another brought a bowl of water, carefully pouring it into his mouth. Under the repeated ministrations of these four hands, Li Huowang's breathing slowly steadied. The buzzing in his mind and the extremely sharp ringing in his ears gradually faded.

Li Huowang weakly looked at the girl before him. "That's... how it is..."

At some point, Li Huowang drifted into a hazy sleep.

When he woke again, it was bright outside the carriage, and his underclothes had been changed.

He looked at the carriage ceiling above, then felt the empty quilt beside him. Li Huowang sighed, pressing his temples repeatedly with his fingers.

Most of what he had desperately tried to recall the previous night had dissipated. Some memories that should have been clear in his mind were now thoroughly blurred.

But even through the haze, Li Huowang had learned a few things.

The Zhengde Temple that worshipped a flesh and blood Buddha, the filthy, lazy, and greedy An'ci Convent, the Zuowang Dao who played tricks on both humans and deities, and the shamanistic rituals that exchanged human lives.

All the supernatural abilities used in this place were bizarre.

Not to mention the malevolent entities like the 18th of the 12th lunar month, Lord You, Granny Da, and the God of Joy.

He had previously thought he had merely transmigrated into a world that was inherently chaotic.

But now, it seemed that wasn't the case at all. The fundamental reason was that something was wrong with the world itself.

It was sick, just like him. Otherwise, it wouldn't be like this; it should be... more normal.

"What exactly is wrong with this world?" Li Huowang murmured to himself.

"It's called Da Nua? Is it related to those who perform Nuo plays? According to Scholar Lu, Nuo opera is a very ancient form of theater, the ancestor of other plays."

"It sounds like those who perform Nuo plays are worshipping... Da Nua, but..."

Li Huowang recalled the people who had attacked him after being deceived by the Zuowang Dao. They didn't possess strength matching their powerful background; they weren't even as formidable as ordinary bandits.

"Sigh..." Li Huowang sighed. He was too weary to try and comprehend these matters anymore.

Whatever had happened to Da Nua, it had nothing to do with him.

As an ordinary person, he should now focus on something more directly related to himself.

Why was he alive? This was a new question Li Huowang had just acquired. He had delved deep into the terrifying and strange Bai Yujing, a place where no human should exist.

Yet, not only had he not vanished like Master Danyang, he had actually survived.

"Is this also a power of the Cinnabar Heart? Or did the Bahui I saw save me?"

Li Huowang made wild guesses. He wanted to find answers, but they weren't easy to come by.

Being alive was certainly good, but Li Huowang feared that such good fortune might be followed by trouble.

As he pondered, Li Huowang sat up again and began to put on his clothes, which he retrieved from a box beneath the quilt.

Upon stepping out of the carriage, Li Huowang saw Bai Lingmiao by the distant river. The morning breeze gently stirred her white hair, as if creating ripples.

She was intently washing clothes, her profile illuminated by the morning light, looking so graceful and elegant.

Watching the young woman who had shared his hardships from afar, Li Huowang's heart was suddenly touched.

"However I survived, since someone is with me, life must go on. Fortunately, things have finally settled down for now."