Chapter 54: You Lao Ye

"Thud!" The huge wooden stick slammed heavily onto the ground, raising thick clouds of dust. Immediately after, the heavy stick was lifted high again and brought down with another forceful blow.

Supported by Bai Lingmiao, Li Huowang watched from the side, observing the simpleton as he swung the wooden stick. Although the injury on his neck hadn't fully healed, after several days of resting completely, he was barely able to stand.

"Harder! Hit it harder!" Li Huowang shouted from the side.

By the campfire, Lu Zhuangyuan approached with a smile, holding two multi-grain steamed buns. "Young Taoist, what are you doing? It's quite a commotion."

With each successive blow, the surrounding woods and bushes were thrashed into disarray.

"Haha, it's nothing. It would be a bit of a waste to have such a big fellow just carry people and luggage. I'm training him."

"Ah, that's good, that's very good." Lu Zhuangyuan nodded repeatedly as he backed away.

Li Huowang's gaze returned to the simpleton in front of him, shirtless and drenched in sweat. Despite his mental limitations, this guy's physique was genuinely impressive, Li Huowang thought to himself, observing his burly, powerful build.

"Such a massive build might not be good for everything, but it should at least be enough to handle ordinary bandits."

This was Li Huowang's plan: to strengthen his group. Relying solely on the greatly detrimental methods of Master You and Dan Yangzi wouldn't suffice. Even without understanding the mystic ways of this world, he still knew the most fundamental approach. Whether it was crude or not, having something was better than nothing. Not only could he assist them when they encountered enemies in the future, but he could also protect Li Huowang when he suffered his episodes.

"Alright! That's a hundred hits, you can rest now!"

Hearing this, the bald simpleton threw down the wooden stick and strode towards the campfire, breathing heavily. Without pausing to rest, the simpleton immediately grabbed his oversized bowl and noisily slurped down the noodles.

In no time, another pound of noodles disappeared into his stomach. But the large simpleton, clearly famished after his exercise, went to the big black pot and started scooping out more noodles with his bowl. Watching him devour yet another pound, Li Huowang sighed inwardly. It was true: "poor scholars, rich warriors." Fortunately, he still had some silver, otherwise, he would truly be eaten out of house and home by this fellow.

At this moment, Li Huowang suddenly thought of something and raised his hand to take out his Taoist bell. Gazing at the Taoist bell in his hand, Li Huowang recalled Master You, who had been smashed to smithereens.

"Can this thing still be used?" A question mark subtly formed in Li Huowang's mind. In this bizarre and wondrous world, whether or not he possessed this item was a crucial matter.

"Come, help me to the woods nearby," Li Huowang said to Bai Lingmiao.

They walked until the sounds from the campfire were no longer audible, then Li Huowang stopped. "You go back first." This time, however, Bai Lingmiao didn't obey him.

"Go on, pee. I won't look..."

Her words left Li Huowang somewhat exasperated. "I'm not relieving myself. You go back first, and return in fifteen minutes."

After ensuring he was alone in the woods, Li Huowang leaned against a birch tree, pressed a hand to his forehead, and began to shake the Taoist bell. As expected, everything around him began to twist, but the lines darted wildly and did not coalesce into Master You.

Li Huowang shook it harder, feeling a hint of reluctance. "Has this thing really become useless?"

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, the swirling lines around him re-merged, forming a new Master You. "備畠躾？" Yet, facing Li Huowang's questioning gaze, Master You's strange language conveyed no emotional fluctuations, as if it hadn't been the one previously struck dead by Buddha's palm.

Enduring his dizziness, Li Huowang quickly conversed with Master You and learned some unexpected information. Firstly, Master You had a name, but it was a name that humans could not pronounce. It was unknown what the first person to see it experienced, or why they named it Master You. Secondly, entities like Master You did not have a concept of death, or rather, they were not living beings to begin with. In addition to having no concept of death, they also had no concept of quantity.

"No concept of quantity?" Li Huowang, realizing something, vigorously shook his head, making his already dizzy head even dizzier. Everything he saw now was a double image, including Master You. Observing the two blurry afterimages of Master You in front of him, Li Huowang seemed to grasp something and shook the bell with even greater intensity. The more he shook his head, the more Master Yous appeared, until a dizzy Li Huowang saw nearly twenty or thirty of them before him.

"Ugh~" Li Huowang finally couldn't suppress the dizziness, bending over and vomiting uncontrollably. The bell's ringing stopped, his surroundings returned to normal, and the numerous Master Yous quickly vanished.

After vomiting up his entire lunch, Li Huowang began to dry heave. He continued to retch until there was nothing left, nearly bringing up bile, before finally stopping. Propping himself up, Li Huowang wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and, panting heavily, held the Taoist bell before his eyes.

"If I had known this earlier, would I have needed to harm myself to summon Dan Yangzi?"

After a moment's thought, Li Huowang put the bell away. "No, summoning Master You requires sacrificing lifespan. One summons costs three months, and with so many Master Yous acting, a single summon might cost ten years of life."

Leaning on the tree trunk, Li Huowang stumbled his way back along the path he came. Just as he reached the roadside, he saw his group and Lu Zhuangyuan's group gathered in a circle.

"Ladies and gentlemen, take a look! All these items are of the finest quality. If anything is rotten or inferior, may I, Zhu Dexi, die a horrible death! May my ancestors for eighteen generations be beasts!"

Li Huowang walked over and saw that it was a peddler with a mule and cart, volubly hawking his wares to the others. Bai Lingmiao stood by the cart with the long-haired woman, hesitating over some needles and threads.

"With the world in such chaos, you still dare to come out selling things? Aren't you afraid of being robbed by bandits?"

Faced with Li Huowang's question, the young man with a large hairy mole at the corner of his mouth chuckled, offering no explanation. "Taoist Master, do you need cinnabar? I have it all here!"

At this point, Lu Zhuangyuan, who had been observing, leaned in and whispered contemptuously to Li Huowang: "How could bandits rob him? Peddlers like him are cut from the same cloth as those damned bandits. The bandits are responsible for robbing, and people like him are responsible for collecting and selling the stolen goods!"

"So that's how it is..." Li Huowang nodded in understanding. Indeed, even bandit strongholds in the mountains needed goods to circulate, and these scattered peddlers were the most discreet way to do it.

"Taoist Master, if not cinnabar, then take a look at other things! I have a very comprehensive selection," Zhu Dexi continued his sales pitch volubly, completely unconcerned by others' gazes.

Li Huowang thought for a moment, then asked, "A comprehensive selection, you say? Do you have anything for killing people?"

At his words, everyone else present turned to look at him in unison. Zhu Dexi clapped his hands together excitedly and began rummaging through his mule cart. "Yes! Yes, yes, yes!"