Chapter 635: Beard

Li Huowang didn't respond immediately to Qian Fu's words. He first took a sip from his bowl of pumpkin porridge, washing down the lettuce in his mouth. After carefully scrutinizing Qian Fu from head to toe, he finally said, "So, you have a dual personality?"

"You could say that, but I'm different from others with dissociative identity disorder," Qian Fu replied. "I don't just have one illness; my other identity suffers from a mental illness."

"A dual personality, and one of them is normal while the other has a mental illness?" The more Li Huowang pondered this, the stranger it seemed. He couldn't help but wonder, "Could this guy have a severe, undiagnosed delusional disorder?"

"I have no other intention; I just wanted to apologize," Qian Fu said. "Since my other identity hasn't affected you, that's truly excellent. In that case, please continue your meal; I'm leaving." With that, Qian Fu turned and departed.

"This guy is seriously ill," Li Huowang muttered, shaking his head. "I knew I shouldn't have wandered into the severe ward." He then continued his dinner.

He took his medication half an hour after dinner, then sat in the lounge and watched the news for a while. Soon, it was time for lights out.

In fact, setting aside the impact of their illnesses, life in the mental hospital was quite healthy and regular. No one could stay up late, and unhealthy junk food was unavailable. The quality of life was noticeably higher than outside.

Despite this, Li Huowang naturally couldn't fall asleep so early. With no entertainment activities in the ward, he could only lie in bed, staring blankly.

Drifting into a daze, Li Huowang began to feel a hint of drowsiness. He closed his eyes, just about to drift off to sleep.

Just then, Li Huowang suddenly tensed up. He abruptly sat up in bed, opening his eyes to look out the window. There, he saw Qian Fu, whom he had just met earlier that day, with his hands pressed against the window, staring intensely at Li Huowang, his eyes like those of a ghost.

Anyone else would surely have been frightened by this sight, but for Li Huowang in his current state, he merely felt a touch of irritation mixed with anger.

Tossing his blanket aside, Li Huowang walked to the window and met Qian Fu's gaze through the glass. "I don't want any trouble," he warned, "but you'd better stay far away from me from now on, or I won't be so polite."

He really hadn't expected that a casual stroll would lead to him being pestered by this person.

Yet, confronted by Li Huowang's threat, Qian Fu remained unfazed. His grin widened until he chuckled, then said in a fawning tone, "Little Li, let's cooperate. You alone can't possibly fight them. We need to find more allies."

"Only then will we have a glimmer of hope," Qian Fu insisted. "If we lose, everything will be over!"

Li Huowang deadpanned, "And who are 'they'? Aliens from Leo, right?"

"Exactly!" An excited Qian Fu nodded vigorously.

"Don't play crazy with me. When it comes to craziness, I'm crazier than you!" Li Huowang snapped. "Since you've seen my news, you should know what I've done."

After Li Huowang delivered this final harsh statement, he grabbed the curtains and yanked them shut. Then he spoke to the surveillance camera in the corner, "Is this how you earn your money? A mental patient is out roaming around late at night, and no one cares, right?"

After speaking, Li Huowang lay back down on his bed and closed his eyes. However, the interruption had largely made his drowsiness disappear.

Fortunately, there was no more movement outside, which significantly eased Li Huowang's mind.

After tossing and turning for a long time, Li Huowang finally drifted off to sleep.

In his dream, Li Huowang felt as if he was back at school, sitting in Yang Na's seat.

Staring at the ribbon around her neck, Li Huowang gripped his pen tightly and, uncontrollably, hooked it across.

Just as it was about to pass through the bow, a muffled thud, "Peng!", echoed from a great distance.

"Peng...Peng...Peng!"

"Peng!" A massive wooden mallet was raised high, slamming down repeatedly onto the steamed glutinous rice in a stone mortar. Beside it, an old man squatted, using water-dipped hands to turn the rice during the intervals between strikes.

Each time someone became exhausted and another person took over the mallet, a burst of laughter and teasing would erupt.

Men, women, and children from the village gathered around with joyful expressions, watching the mallet rise and fall as if it were a play. They watched the white rice being pounded in the center, while Li Huowang, at that moment, was perched in a tree canopy, watching them warily.

"Is this them? Is this a den of the Law Cult?" Li Huowang, with furrowed brows, thought to himself with some trepidation.

People swapped places back and forth, with various individuals taking turns wielding the mallets and pounding furiously. Before long, the hot, freshly steamed glutinous rice was pounded into a sticky pulp.

Afterward, while the rice pulp was still hot, small lumps were squeezed out and rolled in a mixture of black sesame seeds and white sugar. The white, sticky glutinous rice pulp, coated with white sugar and black sesame, formed the *maci*.

For some reason, seeing the *maci* being popped into the villagers' mouths, Li Huowang was inexplicably reminded of his senior disciple sister who had once given him diluted sugar.

That foolish senior disciple sister was just like this glutinous rice, pounded into a pulp by Dan Yangzi, strike by strike.

Although it looked normal, Li Huowang felt it was necessary to conduct a thorough check, regardless, since he was already here.

Li Huowang released his grip from the tree canopy, his body's tentacles spreading out, and he descended from above like a giant spider.

Shifting his body's color to blend with the ground, Li Huowang gripped his sword hilt and became fully alert, approaching the small mountain village.

As he drew closer, Li Huowang heard more details. It seemed that one family had given birth to twins, which was why they were using precious large quantities of grain and white sugar to make *maci* and share the family's joy.

Faced with white sugar and white flour, which were typically unavailable in ordinary years, the village children were overjoyed. They held bowls and ate with chopsticks, spearing the *maci*.

Watching their grubby faces, devoid of any suspicious smiles, Li Huowang continued deeper into the village.

Everyone had gone to eat *maci*, so the village was much less crowded, which significantly facilitated Li Huowang's search.

He quickly searched the entire village, but found nothing suspicious.

Drawing on his experience from Niuxin Village, Li Huowang specifically searched the ancestral hall, but still found no secret doors.

"Could the information the Siqi Si Tianjian found in He Xinlai's mind be false?" he wondered. "Or did they move everything in advance?"

Just as Li Huowang was thinking this, a disturbance arose from the direction of the village entrance.

When Li Huowang flitted across the tiled rooftops and returned to the village entrance, he saw a nine-foot-tall tattooed man with a flowery face, wielding a massive crescent-bladed shovel, make a sudden swing. Three heads instantly flew into the air, and the ground was completely stained with blood.

Just as he was about to charge at several children, Li Huowang revealed himself, stepping directly in front of him.

With a "Clang!!" sparks flew, and the two instantly separated. Li Huowang was surprised by the opponent's immense strength, while the opponent was aghast at his crescent-bladed shovel, which now had a chip missing.

Li Huowang did not draw his Spine Sword, because he noticed the Sky-Viewing Bureau's waist token hanging from the other man's belt.

"Are you from the Sky-Viewing Bureau?"

"Indeed!" The man's bull-like eyes widened. After sizing up Li Huowang's attire for a moment, he plunged his crescent-bladed shovel into the ground. "Ah, it's truly a case of 'the flood washing away the Dragon King's temple' – a family failing to recognize its own!" he exclaimed. "So it was Lord Ear. My apologies, my sincere apologies."

"You just casually kill people, even children?" Li Huowang asked, his gaze unfriendly. "What if you were wrong?"

"If I guessed wrong, I guessed wrong," the man said dismissively. "Besides, your subordinate wasn't wrong. If you don't believe me, just look."

Li Huowang turned around and saw the villagers who had just been scattering in fear now glaring at him with hateful expressions.

"Kill all the imperial dogs!"

"Kill all the imperial dogs!!"

With each shout, they each tore a piece of black cloth from their waistbands and draped it over their shoulders.