Chapter 288 - Reinforcement
Li Huowang leaned against a tree and thought about it. “Senior Chen, could you tell me everything that has happened ever since you came here? I need to know the situation before I can make a plan. As you know, I have to pay a terrible price to use the techniques of the Ao Jing Sect.”
Hearing this, Blind Chen nodded and started using his cane to poke at the mud below. “After I was given this mission, I entered the village as a fortune teller. Due to this, I managed to touch a lot of faces[1] for the first few days. To my surprise, on the third day, the beings within the walls actually came out and let me touch their faces so that they could get their fortune told. They thought that since I couldn’t see, I was easy to trick; however, my ears are much sharper than that of regular people. That night, I was alone, but then, three more people suddenly appeared in my room! I hadn’t even heard any footsteps coming in from outside. They just appeared out of the dirt and mimicked humans to try and get their fortunes told.”
“I touched their faces to tell them their fortune. Even though their facial structures resemble humans, all of their fortunes pointed to the fact that they were already dead![2] I stabbed them with my cane, killing one of them and hurting another in the process. Back then, I had thought that I did quite a favor for the people of Ganyuan Village by getting rid of those evil beings, but rather than treating me to a meal, all of them chased me out! I circled back and came to learn that the entire village had fallen under the control of the evil beings. If we don’t get rid of them, then we will not be able to save the villagers. That is why, every night, I wait until everyone in the village is asleep before coming in to kill the evil beings. But as you’ve seen, they are even more slippery than a catfish. There have even been times when they even tried to ambush me, but I always managed to see them coming.”
Blind Chen’s throat was parched after the long explanation, and so he squatted down and drank some water from a little puddle that was made from an ox stepping in the mud.
Then, with his throat feeling better, he turned toward Li Huowang and asked, “Junior, I’ve explained so much. Did you listen to it? Quickly think of a plan.”
Li Huowang’s voice came from another direction, “I’m listening. Don’t worry senior. I’m thinking about how to force them out.”
“Yeah. Quickly now. Ah~ next time I’m choosing a mission that is closer to my place. It’s so arduous to travel here,” said Blind Chen. Then, he once again sat on the mossy rock and brought out a Bagua-shaped mirror[3]. He carefully cleaned it before placing it back.
“Senior, I think I have a plan. Where do the evil beings usually hide?” asked Li Huowang.
“The shrine that houses the clay Bodhisattva. I have no idea why they like that place,” replied Blind Chen.
“Then let us go there first,” said Li Huowang.
“Sure, but we need to hurry; it will be dawn soon and the villagers will wake up then. It will be quite difficult to kill the evil beings later on,” said Blind Chen as he immediately stood up and started using his cane to navigate back into the village. He was following Li Huowang’s footsteps.
The village was still quiet and no one was walking around at night. Only the fireflies illuminated their path ever so slightly.
As they walked, Blind Chen suddenly got serious and placed one of his ears against the ground.
“Junior Er, be careful. Something isn’t right. I’ve never heard sounds like these before. There are four people approaching us; two men and two women. One of the men is quite massive, and based on the sound of his footsteps, he should be wearing armor!” said Blind Chen.
Hearing this, Li Huowang also became serious as he looked around. “The four foreigners are probably enemies. Who else would come into a village this late at night?”
After saying that, Li Huowang ran away without waiting for Blind Chen to say anything.
Meanwhile, Blind Chen continued to place his ear on the ground to listen to those sounds.
Soon, the four people left the village.
“Senior, I’ve returned. I used an illusion technique to distract them away from Ganyuan Village,” reported Li Huowang after coming back.
“Let’s go and quickly finish our job. They must be up to something,” said Blind Chen.
Hearing this, Li Huowang nodded and quickly followed after him.
By the time they appeared in front of the shrine once more, it was already the second section of the night. To be more precise, they were in an alley close to the shrine.
“We can only go this far. Any further and you would end up alerting them. That’s how they were targeting you just now,” said Blind Chen.
Li Huowang estimated the distance, and then took out a bronze bell from his robe. “Senior, it might get a bit noisy for a while.”
Then, Li Huowang shook the bronze bell and a piercing sound exploded within the quiet village.
Li Huowang shook it hard, splitting the single Wandering God in front of him into eight separate individuals. Then, he swiftly placed some soil in his mouth and ordered them to attack!
Following his instructions, the Wandering Gods immediately dove down into the ground.
Blind Chen didn’t know what was happening; the sound of the bell was interfering with his hearing.
“Junior Er, I don’t think this is going to work! At this rate, you will wake the villagers!” shouted Blind Chen amidst the ringing of the bell.
“Don’t worry Senior Chen! Even though it’s noisy, we can force them out very quickly like this!” said Li Huowang, shaking the bell even harder.
Hearing this, Blind Chen hobbled towards Li Huowang. Once he was behind Li Huowang, he felt his cane touch something and bent down to pick it up. However, just as he bent down, Blind Chen suddenly used his bamboo cane to stab at Li Huowang! There was a sword hidden within it.
It was a vicious strike that didn’t produce any sounds under the ringing bell.
But just as the cane was about to stab Li Huowang, he moved his body, causing the sheath of his sword to block the tip of the cane. However, even though Li Huowang managed to block it, the force from the attack still forced him several meters forward.
At the same time, the Wandering Gods that had been waiting in ambush all came out and attacked Blind Chen at the same time.
Just as Li Huowang stood up and was about to shout something, Blind Chen beat him to it.
“Hmph! Sitting Oblivion Dao! Don’t think that you can fool me! I never called for reinforcements, and so there’s no way that you are one!”
1. Because fortune-telling often involves looking at the faces of people, a blind fortune teller would have to touch the people’s faces to be able to conduct the fortune-telling ?
2. It means that their fortune was something that couldn’t possibly exist on a living person. ?
3. a symbol illustrating the nature of reality being composed by opposing forces reinforcing one another. ?
R𝑒ad latest chapt𝒆rs at freew𝒆(b)novel.c(o)m Only