Chapter 312 - Li Huowang
Li Huowang waved his food as he leaped onto a parked car. Immediately the car’s alarm started blaring.
“I’m a lunatic! I’m mentally ill!” shouted Li Huowang, his voice spreading out far and wide.
Li Huowang’s behavior soon attracted everyone’s attention. When the owner of the car ran over with a broom to brush Li Huowang away from his car, more and more people started gathering around them.
On the other hand, Li Huowang just kept laughing maniacally, stopping only when he spotted a cute little girl. He saw that the girl’s mother was dragging her far away from him.
The little girl was wearing a cherry hair clip.
When he saw her, the maniacal expression on Li Huowang’s face slowly dulled down, gradually replaced by pain.
After a while, he jumped down from the car and left with his food, completely ignoring the car owner who was beating him with the broom.
Back underneath the bridge, Li Huowang refilled the cup of boba tea with some river water and drank it. Then, he ate the bun. It tasted weird from being spoiled, but he didn’t care. He didn’t want to know what he was eating on the other side either.
Li Huowang ate the bun quite slowly, savoring its taste.
“Uncle?”
Hearing the voice, Li Huowang turned around and saw a little girl in a white dress standing beside the bridge. The sunlight reflected off her dress and made her look like she was glowing.
As Li Huowang looked at her face, he unconsciously called out, “Eighteenth Lunar?”
The little girl was visibly afraid and hesitantly said, “I’m... I’m not Eighteenth Lunar. My name is Liu Yuhuan, and my mother calls me Huanhuan.”
When Liu Yuhuan saw Li Huowang stand up, she took a few steps back. Then, she hastily opened her bag, took out a piece of paper, placed it on the ground, and then placed something else on the paper. After that, she took one hurried glance at Li Huowang and ran away.
Li Huowang approached the paper and saw that it was a bag of buns. The buns were shaped like the faces of pigs, something that would be quite appealing to children.
After a moment, Li Huowang smiled, took the bag, opened it up, and started eating the buns.
The buns were warm, a clear indication that they were freshly baked. These weren’t her leftovers but something she bought specially for him.
Li Huowang sat down and carefully ate the meat-filled buns. They were delicious.
As Li Huowang munched on the buns, his surroundings once again started shimmering. He soon found himself sitting on the side of a muddy road while eating a mudball.
“Hehe...” Li Huowang shook his head in defeat as he finished the mud ball.
After finishing his meal, Li Huowang returned to the temple and picked up his sword under the gaze of the four illusions.
Just then, Li Huowang heard the sound of footsteps and a horse-carriage. He was quite familiar with those footsteps.
“Miaomiao?!” Li Huowang ran out with his sword, only to see someone unexpected.
It was the Second Deity.
Even though the rain had stopped at this point, the Second Deity’s red veil was wet. Tears were streaming down from underneath the red veil.
Li Huowang stood in front of the temple with a complicated look on his face. He stared at the horse carriage for a moment and then turned to the Second Deity and asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Woof woof!”
At that moment, Bun squeezed out from the back of the horse carriage, shook the rain water off its fur, and happily ran over to Li Huowang. As it excitedly jumped on Li Huowang, it left behind many muddy pawprints on his shirt.
Just then, the Second Deity removed the tarp covering the horse carriage, allowing Li Huowang to see the Black Taisui that was being bound inside the carriage. Then, she took the horse carriage and held Li Huowang with her cold hands before leading him into the temple.
Once they were back at the only dry spot within the temple, the Second Deity used a towel to wipe Li Huowang dry. Then, she took out new clothes and shoes from within the horse carriage and handed them to him.
After the Second Deity waited for Li Huowang to wear his shirt, she took out his old red Daoist robe and donned it on Li Huowang.
Just as the Second Deity lowered her head to help Li Huowang tie his belt, Li Huowang extended his hands and pulled off the red veil.
At that moment, Li Huowang saw the Second Deity’s face blossom like a flower.
The Second Deity’s face was like a flower covered in snake scales, porcupine quills, and many other animalistic features. And in the middle of the flower was a face, half of which resembled Bai Lingmiao’s face. She was crying as she looked at Li Huowang. The other half resembled a fox-like creature. With time, her face shifted and her facial organs twisted and turned. Sometimes, the face would look more human-like, while at other times it looked more like a beast. Even the number of eyes changed.
The Second Deity hugged Li Huowang lightly, but eventually tightened her grip. “Husband.”
As she spoke, the Second Deity reached behind Li Huowang and carefully pried open his palm to let the sword fall from his grip. She then removed the white cloth wrapped around her wrist and used it to carefully cover Li Huowang’s eyes which didn’t have any eyelids.
“Husband, we will wait for you. We will wait until you’ve been treated,” said the Second Deity.
Hearing those words, Li Huowang finally hugged her back. He looked at her feline eyes and hugged her even tighter.
This bizarre world was a pit of despair to many. Li Huowang’s life thus far had been steeped in pain.
Even so, no one truly wanted to die. Sometimes, all it took was one pull from someone to save a person’s life.
The Second Deity eventually left, but not before handing over the horse carriage with the Black Taisui and Bun to Li Huowang.
After the Second Deity left, Li Huowang sat on the ground as he stared at the ceiling. A long time passed before he once again picked up his sword.
Looking at his face through the reflection on his sword, he snarled and stabbed it into the air, aiming right at a black pigeon.
“Wait, a pigeon?”
Just as Li Huowang was thinking about what it was, the pigeon flew down and landed on Li Huowang’s shoulder. He then saw that there was a small letter tied to the leg of the black pigeon.
When he opened the letter, he saw that there was a symbol at the top. Li Huowang thought that the symbol looked like an eye under the character of Heaven. As he read its contents, he was shocked and quickly rode the horse carriage away from the temple.
The letter was from Tuoba Danqing. He was telling Li Huowang to once again meet him at Yinling City, at the same place.
Li Huowang then remembered his plan. He needed to find out more about Bei Feng through the Surveillance Bureau.
At that moment, a strong sense of unwillingness surged up from deep within his heart and suppressed all his pain.
“Bun, let’s go! This fucking place won’t kill me that easily! Since I have nothing to lose, I’m not afraid of anything! Even if I die, I’m going to gouge a chunk of flesh out of death itself before going down! I will get rid of my status as a Strayed One! And then... And then I will finally...”
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