Chapter 384: Sugar

After returning the horse, Li Huowang entered an inn. Exhausted from the journey, he needed to recuperate properly before boarding the ship.

"Sir, your food is served," the waiter said. He had just finished serving the dishes and was about to turn away when Li Huowang stopped him.

"Wait, are this fish and shrimp still alive? How am I supposed to eat them?"

"Haha, is this your first time in Huating City, sir? They're not alive; this is called raw marinated seafood. Look, all the other customers eat it this way. You can try it; if you don't like it, you don't have to pay."

Li Huowang looked at the food on the other tables. Only then did he wave his right hand, which was wrapped in gauze, to dismiss the waiter.

Perhaps due to its proximity to the sea, the local cuisine was significantly different from other places, consisting primarily of seafood.

Although it was a bit unfamiliar at first, it was undeniably fresh. The raw marinated meat was subtly sweet, offering a unique flavor.

After eating his fill, Li Huowang immediately fell asleep. He slept until late the next morning. Shaking his somewhat groggy head, Li Huowang got out of bed. "Time to board!"

The ship bound for Apricot Island was easy to find. It was a medium-sized, flat-bottomed Fu ship that could easily accommodate dozens of people.

Just as Li Huowang was about to board, the scruffy, unkempt captain stopped him. "Hold on!" he called. "What's your surname?"

"My surname is Er."

"Don't mess with me!" the captain retorted. "There's no such surname as Er! If you don't tell me the truth, get off. I don't have time for your nonsense."

"My surname is Bai."

The captain scrutinized Li Huowang again from head to toe. Then he waved his hand. "That's better," he said. "Next! What's your surname?"

A short while later, as the distant port gradually shrank, Li Huowang slowly exhaled. His feelings were very complex as he was about to meet Zhuge Yuan again.

Suspicion? Excitement? Joy? Curiosity? Perhaps a bit of everything.

He patted his stomach, feeling a bit reassured. He was no longer the Li Huowang who had just left Qingfeng Temple; no matter what happened next, he was prepared.

"Haha, why don't you come inside the cabin and sit for a while? The sea breeze out here is so cold," a voice said from behind him.

Li Huowang turned his head and saw a young man with a plaster patch on his forehead, leaning beside him with a cheeky smile.

Frowning slightly, Li Huowang couldn't be bothered to respond to this overly familiar person and shifted his body to the side.

"It's fate that we're on the same ship," the young man continued. "It'll take six days to reach Apricot Island. Come inside the cabin and play some Yezi cards with us; we're three, so we just need one more."

"I don't know how," Li Huowang replied coldly, walking quickly to the other side of the deck.

Seeing Li Huowang's attitude, the man decided not to bother further and turned to walk towards the cabin.

Just then, the sky suddenly darkened. Everyone looked up simultaneously, startled to see a massive ship passing by.

The ship was enormous, like a small mountain. Its mere proximity blocked all sunlight from the Fu ship. Along its side, rows of copper lion heads, each the size of an eight-immortals table, hung side-by-side.

The lion heads were wide open, and something inside them glinted with a cold light, like the sharp fangs of a bronze lion.

This was clearly a warship; marks on its hull indicated it had just concluded a battle.

The moment the ship appeared, everyone on deck immediately prostrated themselves, their bodies trembling like sieves.

"A ship from the Great Liang Kingdom? Who are they fighting?" Li Huowang wondered. As he pondered this question, the imposing warship slowly sailed towards the port.

When the sunlight returned to the Fu ship's deck, the others finally let out a sigh of relief.

The man with the plaster patch from earlier walked over to Li Huowang and gave him a thumbs-up. "You've got guts, not kneeling," he said. "If you angered the soldiers, your life would be over!"

"Where are they returning from?" Li Huowang asked him.

"How would I know that?" the man replied. "But the rumor in the city is that they went overseas to search for something."

"Such a massive operation, just to find one thing?"

Li Huowang immediately remembered the 'Heart Turbidity' that he and Jixiang had been looking for. That, too, was a search for something.

"Could it be that 'Heart Turbidity' is just one of the things they're looking for?" he wondered. "What do they want with so many heavenly treasures and earthly wonders?"

Li Huowang had a persistent feeling that something significant was happening somewhere, but he had no clue what it might be.

He shook his head slightly, dismissing these irrelevant questions, and turned to walk towards the cabin.

Nothing notable happened in the following days; the journey was calm and uneventful. But for Li Huowang, sitting on this ship slowly approaching Apricot Island, time seemed to drag endlessly.

"Jade Qilin!"

"Six hundred pieces!"

"One hundred thousand cash!" someone shouted. "Baldy, can't you play cards faster? You're so slow every time, like a timid woman."

"Hey! Wait, I won! Pay up! Pay up!"

Li Huowang leaned against the ship's rail, silently watching the people play Yezi cards to pass the time. After a few days of watching, he understood the game; to put it simply, Yezi cards were essentially mahjong played with cards.

But there were far fewer cards; Mahjong had over a hundred tiles, while Yezi cards only had a few dozen. This made the games quicker to play, with wins and losses happening rapidly.

Not only did he understand the rules, but Li Huowang also understood the players. The man with the plaster patch liked to cheat, but the bald, bearded man had the best card skills and consistently won the most.

Li Huowang wasn't the only one watching; other bored passengers also gathered around, watching the game to pass the time.

"Damn it! You little brat, you dared to cheat! I knew there was a reason I kept losing!" Soon, the card game devolved into a brawl, but this didn't deter others from enjoying the entertainment.

"Ah, ah," a little girl, less than four years old and wearing split pants, said as she walked up to Li Huowang and tugged at his pant leg.

When Li Huowang looked at her, she giggled and offered him the half-eaten sesame candy in her hand.

Li Huowang looked into her eyes. The little girl's eyes were utterly pure, and her mind was utterly simple; she simply wanted to share her delicious candy, just like his simple-minded senior sister who had given him candy back at Qingfeng Temple.

"Woof, woof..." Mantou, crouching in a corner, poked his head out.

The little girl was overjoyed to see the large yellow dog and immediately offered the raised sesame candy to Mantou instead.

Just as Mantou carefully opened his mouth, ready to take the candy, a tentacle swiftly extended and snatched the sesame candy away.

Seeing the sticky black tentacle retract into Li Huowang's red Daoist robe, the little girl immediately burst into giggles, completely unaware of what had just happened.

Just as she placed her hands on Li Huowang and let out a loud babbling sound towards where the tentacle had vanished, a woman with a sallow complexion quickly scooped her into her arms.

Holding her struggling daughter, she quickly bowed several times to Li Huowang, then walked towards the women's cabin.

Mantou glanced at his motionless master, then tilted his head and leaned against him. He kept licking the small handprint on the bloody Daoist robe, the sticky handprint having a faint sweet taste.