Chapter 236: Blackness

"Senior Brother Li, who is Wang Wei?" Bai Lingmiao couldn't help but ask, hearing Li Huowang mumble to himself.

Li Huowang shook his head dismissively. "Haha, Wang Wei is nobody. He doesn't exist at all."

Supported by Bai Lingmiao, Li Huowang led the others as they gradually made their way back.

Compared to their journey in, the path back felt less arduous.

After all, no one had died, and they had found the Black Grand Sui, so everyone moved with a light step.

"Senior Brother Li, now that we're heading back, can we take our time? Could we rest well at Old Sun's place? I'd love to have a few more meals of mutton. A trip to this wretched place has probably shortened my life by at least half a year."

It was Gou Wa speaking, his face pale and sallow in patches, as he looked at Li Huowang with a long, drawn face.

Li Huowang scanned the tired faces of the others and nodded. "Alright. Thank you for your help on this trip; it's only right that we rest for a while longer."

After all, people weren't made of iron, and he really should consider everyone else's endurance.

Hearing this, Gou Wa excitedly clenched his fist. The thought of delicious mutton made his mouth involuntarily begin to water.

"Ah, the mutton from Qingqiu truly lives up to its reputation. Nowhere else can compare."

"Wait, Gou Wa, what are you holding?" Li Huowang noticed white fur fragments floating around as Gou Wa's fist moved.

Gou Wa raised his fist to Li Huowang and opened it. "Oh, this? These are white fur fragments from those lions. I cut off a lot. Since they transformed Sun Baolu like that, they definitely aren't ordinary."

"Maybe in a big city, they could fetch a good price. And it could help cover our expenses, couldn't it? Our food, clothing, and other needs on this journey haven't been cheap."

The white tufts, wrapped in discarded cloth, lay before Li Huowang. They looked like clumps of cotton.

Li Huowang shook his head. Gou Wa couldn't go three sentences without mentioning money. "Those lion dances are dead. Whether this stuff is useful is debatable, yet you brought it back?"

Gou Wa's heart sank upon hearing this. He cautiously extended his pinky finger and gently brushed it across the white tufts.

Then, he watched in horror as his fingernail. With his movement, it twisted and flipped to where his fingertip should be, while the ridged fingertip rotated to where the fingernail had been.

"This... this... this..." Gou Wa stared at his inverted pinky, then looked at Li Huowang, helpless. "Senior Brother Li, it's reversed, it's reversed!"

"Why panic? It works the same whether it's reversed or not. Don't be so eager to sell this stuff for money. Instead, think carefully about how to use it to kill enemies. For example, you could wrap it around a needle and blow it through a thin tube."

Li Huowang's suggestion made Gou Wa's eyes light up immediately. "Hey! That's right! Senior Brother Li truly is educated; he's so much smarter than a country bumpkin like me!"

At this moment, his heart filled with excitement. All things considered, he now possessed a supernatural ability to alter people's bodies.

Regardless of whether it was real or fake, if he showed off this ability to women, wouldn't they all scramble to become his wife?

Plus, he wouldn't have to be just an assistant anymore; he could genuinely help Senior Brother Li.

With this thought, Gou Wa disregarded his inverted pinky finger, quickly took off his upper garment, and carefully wrapped the white tufts inside it.

Just as Gou Wa was lost in his private thoughts, he noticed that the others had slowly come to a halt.

"Wait, something's wrong. How have we walked this long and still haven't reached that bronze cauldron?"

Li Huowang's words were like a bucket of cold water poured over everyone, extinguishing their joy and making the more timid among them tremble.

Everyone stared blankly into the surrounding darkness, attempting to find any similarities to their path on the way in.

But to their despair, the darkness around them was completely uniform.

"This place isn't right! It can make us get lost!" Their earlier sense of ease had completely vanished, and anxiety and tension were etched on everyone's faces.

"Don't panic! Look at the footprints! We'll follow the footprints!" Li Huowang's words prompted everyone to immediately point their glowing fluorite stones at the ground.

Seeing the clear footprints on the ground helped to stabilize everyone's panicked minds slightly.

"Let's go! We'll retreat, following the footprints back."

Everyone then began to move according to Li Huowang's instructions, even if the footprints were not very clear in some places.

The blood drops continuously dripping from Li Huowang guided them back.

Fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, then half an hour passed. They clearly hadn't walked this long on the way in.

Yet, the lion dance corpse still hadn't appeared, and the blood drops on the ground continued to spread into the darkness.

With a hint of despair in his eyes, Sun Baolu looked at Li Huowang. "Senior Brother Li, we can't get out. This cave is going to swallow us whole."

Trapped in such a desperate situation, Li Huowang's expression also turned very grim, but then it suddenly shifted to one of confusion.

"Shh!" Li Huowang quickly lowered his body, closed his eyes, and listened intently, his brow furrowed.

He began to move in this strange posture, slowly heading east. "Put away all the stones, I hear voices..."

The others complied. As darkness enveloped them all, everyone's heart involuntarily pounded. They clutched onto each other to avoid getting lost.

"Where are the voices? I can't hear anything!" No sooner had Gou Wa spoken than Li Huowang clapped a hand over his mouth.

They walked side by side for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Li Huowang suddenly stopped, but the others, despite listening carefully, still heard nothing.

Then, a sharp old voice pierced Li Huowang's ear. "Let me test you: born human, what makes one human?"

Immediately after, a childish girl's voice replied, "Humans are made of flesh, so flesh is human."

Li Huowang's brows gradually furrowed. He stopped in place, listening to what these two presences in the darkness were saying.

"Incorrect! The mortal body is merely a shell."

"But Master didn't say that. He said not to overthink it, that humans are just made of flesh."

"Don't believe our master. That old man just makes things up! It's all fake."

"Can you stop beating around the bush? If you're not going to say it, then don't! I'm getting annoyed!" The girl's voice carried a hint of irritation.

The old man's voice held a trace of triumph. "Human is 'one,' and 'one' is human. It is because each person possesses this 'one' that 'one' gives birth to 'two,' manifesting as the two polarities of life and death. Then 'two' gives birth to 'three,' further extending into the later 'three corpses' and 'seven emotions'."

"Cultivating the Dao means cultivating that 'one.' Therefore, we must cast aside the seven emotions, sever the three corpses, and cut off life and death to finally become that 'one'!"