Chapter 330: Tai Sui

Choking, Bai Lingmiao felt herself float upwards, drifting towards the ancestral hall's rafters. When she looked down, she saw her own lifeless body with upturned eyes, and the High Priest's red bridal veil.

“Is this what it feels like to die?” Bai Lingmiao looked down, trying to see her body, but there was nothing there, just emptiness.

A sudden thought brought a flicker of joy to Bai Lingmiao’s heart. “My parents can’t have gone far,” she thought. “I can still catch up to them!”

However, just as she raised her head, ready to search for her family, she saw indescribable masses of something blocking out the entire starry sky.

Watching the constantly shifting forms, Bai Lingmiao was certain they were immortals, and clearly distressed, as the emotions they had just absorbed still clung to them.

“I’m already dead,” she said. “What more do you want from me?”

As Bai Lingmiao spoke, she tried to pass through them, but was instantly repelled, knocked backward, and found herself hanging upside down, face-to-face with her own body on the rope.

She saw that her body had completely transformed; its originally pink eyes were now replaced by a pair of slender, crimson, monstrous beast eyes.

Even more disturbingly, several slits had opened on her face, with more beast eyes glaring out from within.

Suddenly, Bai Lingmiao watched as the figure in front of her raised its hands, now covered in long nails, and violently seized her head, opening its mouth wide and swallowing her whole.

Revolving snake scales pierced Bai Lingmiao’s skin, effortlessly severing the taut rope.

Bai Lingmiao crashed heavily to the ground. Before she could fully recover, an intense pain erupted from deep within her mind, causing her to clutch her head and scream.

The sensation was excruciating; she had never experienced such pain before.

Immediately afterward, a cold, emotionless character, ‘Two,’ appeared in Bai Lingmiao’s mind.

This was her task for the month. If she failed to complete it, she could imagine the consequences.

And it was clear that this number would only increase over time.

With a bruised neck, Bai Lingmiao despairingly raised her head towards the dark rafters.

From the moment she became a High Priest, her life had ceased to be her own; she couldn't even choose to die.

Her previous experiences had made her secretly pleased that she could help Senior Brother Li, but this time, the immortals were finally baring their fangs.

Bai Lingmiao recalled what Li Zhi had said just before his death: “Never again will I be a High Priest in my next life; it’s simply too stifling…”

At that moment, she finally understood the meaning behind the elder’s words. As a High Priest, she was nothing more than a slave to those immortals, devoid of any freedom.

“Wuwuwu…” Bai Lingmiao covered her face with her hands, squatting in the dark ancestral hall and sobbing uncontrollably. Her cries echoed endlessly through the hall.

The High Priest, who had been admiring the moon, seemed to recall something upon hearing the weeping. With a sigh of emotion from the three mouths beneath its red veil, it pulled out a jade pendant from its robe and gazed at it repeatedly.

“Dad?”

“Not Dad, Master.”

“Dad?”

Li Huowang was losing patience with the constant corrections. He now bitterly regretted eating at that noodle stall earlier; who knew a simple meal could lead to such trouble.

“Quack, quack, quack!” The ducks in a nearby cage squawked, irritating Li Huowang. He wondered what was happening today; so many people were heading to Yinling City to sell goods, completely jamming the wide road.

“……Dad?”

“Alright, be quiet.” Li Huowang pulled out two more wads of cotton and stuffed them deeper into his ears.

After half a day of waiting in the carriage, Li Huowang finally arrived. Upon presenting his Bureau of Celestial Observation badge, he was immediately granted passage.

Back in the bustling Yinling City, Li Huowang breathed a sigh of relief. He drove the carriage towards the inn; finally, after such a long journey, he had arrived.

When he saw the makeshift earthen kilns set up at the crossroads, Li Huowang was puzzled. “What are those?”

“Daoist, it’s Mid-Autumn Festival today,” the Monk explained, helping Li Huowang. “Don’t you know people build earthen kilns for Mid-Autumn?”

Li Huowang shook the reins and then his head. “We don’t have that custom where I’m from.”

“Then what customs do you have?”

“We don’t have any customs, just eating mooncakes.”

After Li Huowang settled into the inn, dusk gradually fell outside. Yinling City, usually under curfew, was uncharacteristically lively, its curfew lifted for the occasion.

The brightly lit markets and children carrying pomelo lanterns transformed Yinling City into a city that never sleeps.

Li Huowang waited at the inn for Tuoba Danqing to arrive, but after a long wait, only a carrier pigeon arrived with a message.

“Today is the Moon Festival. Your brother will return home to reunite with his wife and children. We can discuss matters in detail tomorrow evening.”

Reading the note, Li Huowang felt disheartened. Did the Bureau of Celestial Observation actually celebrate holidays?

He gained a new understanding of this massive organization.

Sitting in his room, his eyes momentarily unfocused. What should he do next?

“What else can you do? Celebrate the festival, of course! Besides New Year, Mid-Autumn is my favorite,” the Monk piped up from the side.

“Celebrate Mid-Autumn? With whom?”

“With us, of course,” Hong Zhong chimed in at that moment.

Li Huowang glanced at the four illusions before him, then walked to the window and whistled at Mantou, who was guarding the carriage in the stables.

Mantou immediately barked, wagging his tongue, and excitedly rushed over.

He called a waiter and asked for a banquet to be prepared by the kitchen and delivered to his room.

He paid generously, and the feast included every kind of meat: chicken, duck, fish, and pork. Watching Mantou devour food beneath the table, Li Huowang picked up his chopsticks, grabbed a piece of three-yellow chicken, and began to chew.

The chicken tasted good, but Li Huowang found it strangely bland. He picked up the ceramic wine flask and took a large swig directly from it. Not accustomed to alcohol, he quickly became drunk.

A drunken Li Huowang raised his wine cup, swaying, and toasted the full moon in the sky. “It was still better back then, with them in the wilderness, fishing out those dough dumplings from the iron pot,” he mumbled.

“Dad?”

“Ah! Son!” Li Huowang lifted his foot and gently nudged Mantou. “The three of us will celebrate Mid-Autumn!”

Li Huowang didn't know when he had fallen asleep. When he awoke again, he saw Mantou crouched low, baring his teeth and growling menacingly at the black tentacles emerging from Li Huowang’s body.

Li Huowang flicked a finger at a tentacle, and it instantly recoiled back into his navel. “Can the Black Grand-Eunuch come out on its own now?” he mused.

This might be bad news, but Li Huowang wasn't particularly bothered by it at the moment.

“Go on, watch the carriage.” As Li Huowang pointed towards the door, Mantou tucked his tail between his legs and slinked away.

Li Huowang sat up, picked up his chopsticks again, and resumed eating the feast that had long since gone cold.

After he had eaten his fill, Li Huowang sat by the window and pulled out a book. This time, it wasn't the Three Character Classic, but the more advanced Thousand Character Classic.

“…The sword is called Juque, the pearl is named Nightglow; fruits are cherished such as plum and crabapple, vegetables are valued like mustard and ginger; the sea is salty, the river is fresh, scales dive and feathers soar…”

As he recited, Li Huowang became aware of indistinct, echoing sounds near his ears. They were chaotic at first, but gradually grew clearer.

“…Singing and joy are especially precious, propriety distinguishes rank; superiors and inferiors are harmonious, husband and wife follow each other…”