Chapter 25: Forest Path

The longsword clanged against the Heavenly Book with an ear-splitting screech, making everyone else in the room instinctively cover their ears and step back two paces.

"Didn't even leave a scratch. Changming's sword is useless. Isn't he a sword cultivator? This sword shouldn't be an ordinary one," Li Huowang muttered, raising the sword. After a few seconds of thought, he gripped the hilt with both hands, swung it in a wide arc, and brought it down heavily again.

He gritted his teeth and hacked at it several more times. Finally, something changed, but the change didn't come from the so-called Heavenly Book; it came from the longsword in Li Huowang's hand.

With a clang, the blade split in two at the point of impact, turning a perfectly good longsword into a broken one.

Staring at the broken sword in his hand, Li Huowang felt momentarily bewildered; the weapon he had just acquired was already gone.

He glanced around, then quickly walked a few steps and snatched the sword from the hand of the deceased Changren. "Good thing there's a spare," he mumbled.

With a 'swish', the longsword was sheathed. Li Huowang circled the Heavenly Book, pondering his next move.

He had originally intended to destroy the so-called Heavenly Book, but now it seemed to possess some true substance; it was difficult to deny it might be a treasure.

Since he had decided not to wallow in self-pity anymore, discarding something so valuable was out of the question. "I'll keep it for now, no matter what. At worst, I can pawn it for some money," he thought.

As for the unrealistic idea of achieving immortality with this object, Li Huowang had completely abandoned it. He had seen the fate of those who had tried before him, and he had no desire to become the next.

Li Huowang laboriously picked it up and weighed it. The stone slab was much heavier than he had anticipated, but still manageable.

After wrapping the stone slab in cloth and slinging it over his back, he turned to the others who were waiting. "Let's go, we're leaving this place."

Lamp oil was splattered throughout Danyangzi's foul-smelling grotto. Flames spread along the oil on the ground, igniting everything combustible inside, including Changming, Changren, and Xuanyuan on the floor.

The fire grew rapidly. Only then, witnessing the scene, did Li Huowang realize that human bodies were natural fuel.

As they made their way back along the path they had come, they gradually set fire to all the rooms. The scorching flames swayed, merging together, consuming everything flammable within the Pure Breeze Temple, and charring everything that wouldn't burn.

"Cough, cough," thick smoke began to make the others cough, and everyone quickened their pace.

After the time it takes for three sticks of incense to burn, everyone stood in the sunlight, silently watching the entrance to the Pure Breeze Temple, which was now spewing thick smoke.

Billowing smoke twisted upwards, enveloping all the darkness and evil within the Pure Breeze Temple, and vanished into the bright sky.

Li Huowang looked up and chuckled again. With the longsword and stone slab on his back, he turned and walked towards the distant forest path. "Let's go," he said.

The others, laden with food, followed close behind. Unknowingly, Li Huowang had become their leader.

Watching the forest path gradually draw closer in the distance, Li Huowang's spirits were no longer low.

"Ah, this place seems very peculiar. I wonder what kind of people and events we'll encounter in the future. Suddenly, I'm quite looking forward to it."

The sunlight warmed his face, and as he breathed in the fresh air, his mood began to shift for the better.

"Senior Brother Li, slow down, my eyes hurt."

Li Huowang turned his head and saw Bai Lingmiao covering her eyes in the sunlight.

He walked over, cupped her face, and examined her closely. To his surprise, he could see the blood vessels behind her eyeballs through the center of her pupils; the pink was the color of the dark red vessels illuminated by the light.

"This... must be some kind of defect, right?" Li Huowang surmised.

He wasn't a doctor and didn't understand such things, but he could make an educated guess. Li Huowang remembered that most elderly albinos who worked as fortune-tellers or masseuses were blind.

It seemed Bai Lingmiao's condition made her eyes defective and much more fragile than an ordinary person's.

This wouldn't do. Li Huowang tore a strip of cloth from the hem of his cyan Daoist robe and gently blindfolded Bai Lingmiao. "From now on, whenever the sun is out, you must wear this," he instructed.

"But... I won't be able to see like this."

"It's fine, I'll lead you." Li Huowang took Bai Lingmiao's soft right hand and strode purposefully into the forest with the others.

After a few stumbles, Bai Lingmiao began to jog along with Li Huowang.

---

"Tap, tap, tap," Old Scholar Lu, his face full of wrinkles, forcefully tapped his dry tobacco pipe against a theatrical trunk.

After tapping out the stuck black tobacco, he pulled fresh tobacco from his pouch, put it in, and lit it with a tinderbox.

After a satisfying puff, he called out towards the forest in the direction of the horses, "Little brat, are you done yet?"

"Almost, almost!" came the boy's reply from that direction.

"You're like a lazy donkey at the mill, always having to relieve itself. Taking so long to poop, anyone would think I'm mistreating you and making you eat clay," Old Scholar Lu grumbled, smoking his dry tobacco and complaining about his youngest son.

His gaze shifted behind the cart, sweeping over his entire troupe on the forest path. Besides a horse-drawn cart laden with costumes and instrument cases, there was also his eldest son's family of three, and two distant nephews brought from the village. Though the troupe was small, it represented all the assets he had painstakingly accumulated over the years.

It was this small troupe that allowed his entire family to eat their fill, especially during these lean times.

"Father, have some water and bread," Master Lu offered, holding out food and a water gourd to his father.

"Eat what? What are you eating when it's not mealtime?! Do you think food grows on trees? Do you know the price of grain these days? Your daughter is two years old, yet you still act like a child! Why are you so thoughtless!"

After being thoroughly reprimanded, Master Lu didn't get angry. He simply smiled foolishly, stepped back, and had his wife put away the items in his hand.

"How was it? Got scolded again, didn't you? You just have a knack for getting yelled at," Luo Juanhua said as she put the food back on the cart and then playfully tickled her precious daughter, who was sitting on a trunk.

"A few scoldings won't hurt. Let him scold. Father's temper has been like this ever since Mother died."

"Hey, husband, did you talk to Father about what I told you last night?"

"Let's talk about it later. We haven't had any performances recently, and Father is short on money." Master Lu's expression turned bitter as the topic came up.

"Tsk! So short on money that he can't even afford fabric for his granddaughter's clothes? She's wearing theatrical costumes all the time now."

"Theatrical costumes... actually, they can also..."

"Ahhh! Ghost!!!" A terrified scream interrupted the couple's conversation and instantly tensed the atmosphere of the entire troupe.

Soon after, the others saw a bare-bottomed young boy rush out of the forest, crying for his mother and father, and throwing himself into Old Scholar Lu's arms.

"Ghost, what ghost?! Where would a ghost come from in broad daylight?! Hurry up and put on your pants!"

Although Old Scholar Lu was scolding his youngest son, he still shielded Lu Xiucai behind him, gripping his pipe tightly, and cautiously peered into the forest.

Figures were stirring within; it seemed people were approaching.