Chapter 70: Lake

“For this cracked, poor-quality jade, three taels.”

“Three taels?! No deal!” An extremely displeased Li Huowang picked up the jade pendant and walked out of the pawnshop.

This jade pendant was worth at least 400,000 in the real world, but here it was only valued at three taels. This pawnshop was utterly unscrupulous.

After stepping outside, Li Huowang turned to look back at the pawnshop’s signboard. “This place is so unscrupulous; they must have swindled a fortune. Maybe I should just come back tonight and rob them?”

As soon as this thought arose, Li Huowang’s heart jolted. He clenched his fist and punched himself hard in the face, then strode irritably towards the inn.

Back in his room, Li Huowang found the map and spread it out across the bed. To Bai Lingmiao, who was doing needlework with drum skin nearby, he said, “Go get Xiaoman.”

Li Huowang’s finger slowly traced south on the map. Before he died, Li Zhi had mentioned a group of black-robed nuns to the south who might be able to resolve the Danyangzi affecting him.

Currently, Danyangzi was constantly affecting him. He had to find a way to deal with Danyangzi as soon as possible; this was more important than anything else. Everything else, including the Black Grand Master, had to take a backseat.

Li Zhi had said those nuns were barely considered good people, but Li Huowang didn’t believe it. After everything that had happened, he trusted no one now.

To ask those nuns to resolve the Danyangzi, he would have to offer them benefits they couldn’t refuse, all while ensuring his own safety.

His gaze fell on the Celestial Book, which lay next to the Longevity Gourd on the bedside. These were all the bargaining chips he had.

However, that was for later. For now, the most important thing was to find the nuns Li Zhi spoke of.

“Senior Brother Li, you called for me?” Xiaoman walked over, a little out of breath. Apart from a slight redness at the corners of her eyes, her emotions showed no other change.

“Where were you just now?” Li Huowang asked.

“I found an escort agency and gave them a note of last words to take back to Si Qi.”

“You could have had someone else do these things. You should hide for a while to avoid trouble with the town constables,” Li Huowang told her.

Xiaoman’s eyes flickered slightly, and she shook her head calmly. “It’s fine.” Then she added, “My mother didn’t report it to the authorities.”

“Oh, then come over and help me look at this map. You’re from around here, so you must know this area well, right?”

Xiaoman walked over and looked at the spot Li Huowang was pointing to on the map.

“Do you know of any nunneries around this area? Ones where the nuns wear black robes.”

“Nunnery? Black robes?” Xiaoman thought for a moment, then pointed her fuzzy finger towards a mountain in the southwest.

“That must be it, Mount Henghua. I heard that Master Sun from town went there to worship a gilded Bodhisattva.”

“A gilded Bodhisattva! How much do you know about this nunnery?” Li Huowang tried to gather as much information as possible about the place.

“Not much, really. My family is poor, so we can’t travel that far to burn incense and worship Buddha. I’ve only heard that it’s very popular with worshippers.”

“Hmm…” Li Huowang secretly shook his head. That was as good as saying nothing; Zhengde Temple was also very popular with worshippers.

“Does this nunnery have any unique characteristics? For example, Zhengde Temple is very effective for those praying for children.”

Xiaoman thought for a long time, then finally said, “I only heard that the nuns there are all very fat.”

“Very fat? How is that special?” Li Huowang thought for a moment, then tapped that spot on the map with his hand. “Let’s go. We’ll go see this place.”

Li Zhi’s half-diao of coins had been exchanged for dried rations, thin rice noodles, and a large jar of lard. Li Huowang and his group set off for their next destination.

They were not alone; many people were traveling the same route.

From snatches of their conversation, Li Huowang gathered that these people believed war was imminent and that living near the border was unsafe, so they were preparing for the worst by moving inland.

Walking and stopping, they journeyed on. As they passed various forks in the road, the crowd gradually thinned out.

Just as Li Huowang thought they would soon be the only ones left, a vast expanse of water blocked their path.

A gentle breeze swept across the water, causing Li Huowang’s Daoist robe to sway slightly.

“Is this the sea Great-Uncle mentioned?” Gouwa asked, surprised.

The vast surface of the water lay before them like a mirror between heaven and earth, its edges nowhere in sight.

Li Huowang took out his map again and looked at it. “No, this isn’t the sea. It’s just a lake, a very, very large lake.”

Si Qi was already known for its many bodies of water, so a lake of this size was not surprising.

“Senior Brother, why is the lake water so dark?”

The lake water was quite deep in color, and even standing at the edge, one couldn’t see the bottom. It involuntarily filled people with dread.

Li Huowang put away his map and watched the other people standing by the water. “Let’s wait and see what they do.”

When a small black speck appeared in the distance, a ripple of movement passed through the crowd on the shore. It was a wooden boat; people here crossed the lake by boat.

The wooden boat looked very old, but it was also very large.

“Come, come! Everyone aboard! Seventy cash coins per head!” a boatman stood on the deck, hailing the others on shore.

“Why seventy cash? It was only forty-six last year,” someone on the boat complained about the price.

But the barefoot boatman didn’t humor him at all, glaring angrily. “I’m just asking if you’re riding or not. If you’re so capable, swim across yourself.”

Seeing the man meekly pay and give in, the smug boatman spat into the lake. “With war on the horizon, and still so many rules! What’s wrong with me raising the price?”

“Let’s go, get on the boat.” Li Huowang stepped forward. In this unfamiliar territory, he didn’t fear high prices as much as he feared malicious intentions from others.

The boat, carrying dozens of people, began to move slowly towards the center of the lake.

People who hadn’t been on a boat before easily got seasick, but Li Huowang felt fine.

He turned and asked the boatman, “Captain, how long will it take to reach the other side?”

“Heh heh, we’ll be there in two hours. Don’t worry, we’ll definitely be there before dark.”

Li Huowang nodded, cautiously watching the lake water being churned up by the boat’s bow.

The inky black lake water looked very oppressive, as if something terrifying might emerge from within.

“There shouldn’t be any man-eating creatures in this lake, right?”

After so many experiences, Li Huowang was easily startled.

“What are you saying? Those are just stories made up by idlers. I’ve been living on this lake for almost twenty years, and look, I’m still alive and well, aren’t I? Don’t worry, nothing will happen. I take money, and I absolutely get the job done.”

Hearing this, Li Huowang felt a little more at ease.

As the boat slowly moved forward, the sun in the sky was gradually moving westward.

When the clouds in the sky were dyed red by the setting sun, the boat slowly moved into a large patch of reeds.

“We should be close now,” Li Huowang thought to himself, looking at the surrounding reeds.

Just as he was thinking this, a ‘splash’ sounded from behind.

When everyone who heard the sound instinctively turned to look back, they discovered that both the boatmen steering the boat and the boat captain were nowhere to be seen!

“Oh god! They’ve been eaten by something in the water!”

A cry from an unknown person immediately sent dozens of people on the boat into a panic.

“Everyone sit down! Do you want the boat to capsize?” Li Huowang’s sharp rebuke considerably quieted the boat.

He turned around to face his own group. “Which of you knows how to steer a boat?”

But all he received was a unanimous shake of heads.

Just as Li Huowang was pondering what to do, the surrounding reeds stirred.

Several small wooden boats, carrying men, women, and children holding weapons, approached the large boat, encircling it.

On one of the wooden boats, Li Huowang saw the boat captain from earlier.

He was holding a small dagger, seemingly shaving something from his face. Noticing Li Huowang watching him, he said with a chuckle, “Youngster, heh heh, do you want to eat ‘rolled-knife noodles’ or ‘wonton noodles’?”