Chapter 91: Li Huowang

On the way back, the surroundings were terrifyingly quiet; there was no sound other than their footsteps. Walking in such a place, everyone's heart was in their throat.

However, they hadn't walked long when their footsteps suddenly ceased. Li Huowang and the others stared intently at the surrounding darkness, and at the glowing green eyes that suddenly appeared within it. It wasn't a single pair, but a multitude. The things in the darkness did nothing but stare intently at them with those green eyes, some large, some small. To Li Huowang and the others, it seemed as if a monster covered in eyes had spawned from the darkness.

“Damn it!” Annoyed by the repeated taunting, Li Huowang's expression turned grim. With a swift pull of his right hand, the red bamboo scroll rapidly unfurled before him.

Li Huowang raised his right index finger, bringing it close to the sharp edge of the bamboo scroll. The next moment, he thrust his finger forward, and piercing pain shot through him. Immediately after, Li Huowang pried again, and his fingernail detached from his finger, spinning with blood as it vanished into the surrounding darkness.

A short while later, accompanied by a tragic cry, one pair of the glowing green eyes in the darkness disappeared. Li Huowang felt this wasn't enough. He raised his middle finger again, and after three fingernails were gone, all the eyes in the darkness vanished. The air began to fill with a foul, fishy smell.

When they walked over, holding their lanterns, the light revealed a gruesome scene of mangled flesh before them. It was only then that Li Huowang and the others realized those eyes weren't from malevolent spirits, but from forest animals: lynxes, hedgehogs, foxes, and more. They were all dead now, their bodies fragmented, not a single one intact.

“Brother Li, did we break the rules again? Didn't they say not to provoke these animals?” Xiao Man's words sent a chill down everyone's spine.

However, Li Huowang disagreed. He lifted his right foot and stomped down hard, crushing a fox's head near his foot into a bloody pulp. “Rules, my ass! It’s all just a charade. If these things could fight us head-on, why would they go to all this trouble? Don't let others lead you astray on matters like this. Let's head back to the courtyard!”

After walking for about another fifteen minutes, they once again saw the lights of the Wu family compound.

“Li Huowang!” A shout, as if from a great distance, made them all stop.

“Who’s there?” Li Huowang turned around and peered into the darkness, but still found nothing.

“Keep up your deception. One day, you won't be able to fool anyone anymore! The eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, I'm telling you! Those eyes of yours are mine!!”

After this menacing declaration, he led the others back to the brightly lit Wu family compound.

The goat-bearded village chief, who had been sprawled on the ground, was now tied to a pillar. A bowl of cold vegetable broth was picked up from the table and splashed onto his face.

“Cough, cough~!” When Wu Qing groggily opened his eyes, he immediately saw Li Huowang's menacing face. He shivered in fright. “So, you’re bandits!!”

“Slap!” As a slap landed, half of Wu Qing’s face visibly swelled. He was instantly dazed by the blow.

“Speak! Where is the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month? What is your relationship with it?”

“What are you talking about? I... I'm telling you, this is Wu Family Village, and everyone in the village is named Wu! If you’re really going to act, you’d better think carefully!”

Seeing Wu Qing still feigning ignorance, he bared his teeth in a chilling grin. “Old man, I’m being polite first, then forceful. The eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month determines whether I live or die. If you continue to be stubborn and protect it, don’t blame me for being heavy-handed.”

As he spoke, he raised his bleeding right hand, from which a fingernail had been pried off, and tapped it on the torture implements laid out before him. “These things aren’t just for my own use; in critical moments, they can also be keys—keys that can unlock anyone's heart!”

Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao, who had been looking worried, took a step forward but was pulled back by Xiao Man. She gently shook her head.

“What... what do you want? What eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month? The Qingming Festival just passed; the twelfth lunar month is still far away. Young man, please spare me. Have pity on an old man like me.” Wu Qing’s face turned pale with fear.

Seeing the other man remain defiant, Li Huowang hooked his right hand, and a small, long awl with a barbed blade appeared in his grasp. With a cruel smile, Li Huowang held the dreadful awl and slowly moved it towards Wu Qing’s collarbone. Wu Qing clearly panicked. He screamed in terror, struggling desperately, but refused to reveal any information about the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Just as the blade was about to pierce his clothes, a large hand from behind pressed down on his wrist. “Enough,” a voice said. “It seems he really doesn’t know anything.”

“How can we know without trying? This man is clearly suspicious. As soon as we entered the village, he started talking about rules. He must be connected to the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month!”

“Calm down. You weren’t like this before. You'll just become more and more like Dan Yangzi.”

Hearing this, his heart sank. Unbeknownst to himself, he had indeed started treating others less and less like human beings, just like that bald-headed man who used people to concoct elixirs. He quickly retracted the awl from his hand, turned, and said, “Thank you for the reminder, Brother Li. If you hadn't said anything, I might not have realized it.”

Immediately after, he saw Li Huowang, dressed in a blood-red Daoist robe, give a familiar faint smile. “We are brothers. There's no need for such formalities. Now, we should think about what to do next, since there are no other clues.”

He frowned, looking at the old man who was on the verge of fainting, and silently pondered the problem. Although his recent heavy-handedness might have been influenced by Dan Yangzi, he also knew it was inseparable from the increasingly pressing time constraint. If he couldn't find the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, he couldn't get rid of Dan Yangzi who was attached to him. He could only watch himself become more and more like Dan Yangzi, and he truly couldn't wait.

“Perhaps we should wait until daylight and ask the other villagers? Maybe someone else knows,” Gou Wa suggested.

“Alright. We've been through so much tonight, everyone's tired. This is all we can do for now. When it's light, I'll go speak to them.”

Hearing Li Huowang say this, he said nothing more and turned to walk towards the west wing.

When dawn broke, he awoke to find that the other disciples had already left their sleeping quarters. When he went out, he was surprised to see that the disciples were acting as if nothing had happened, drinking porridge with the Wu family, despite how he had just treated Wu Qing.

“Come quickly and eat,” Li Huowang told him. “I’ve explained your difficulties to Village Chief Wu. He’s not a petty man.”