Chapter 49 - Strayed One
Dak dak dak~
The sound of hooves resonated as the donkeys ran down the road non-stop. At the same time, the others followed the donkey carts as fast as they could, their faces filled with fear. They were walking quite fast but still turned to look back and see if anything was following them.
“Senior Li, why are we leaving this kingdom so soon?” Puppy asked as he wiped the sweat off his face.
“Why do you think the Righteous Monastery could operate for so long and is so popular amongst the people? There’s a reason why we need to leave as soon as possible,” Li Huowang said, his face solemn.
Hearing him say that, the girl with hypertrichosis said, “Since the Righteous Monastery could operate in the same city as the Imperial Palace without any issues for such a long time, it's very likely that they have control over the ministers in the palace. Basically, even the ministers and palace officials here cannot be trusted!”
Li Huowang nodded. It would be normal for such a large sect to fool the common people, but if they were trying to control the ministers and palace officials, it meant that they had something shady going on in the background that couldn’t afford to be brought to light.
“We’ve already stayed here long enough. I’ve even passed on the final words of the guiding drug ingredients to Zhao Wu. No matter what, we were planning to leave the kingdom anyway,” Li Huowang said as he opened up a map while sitting on the donkey cart; even if it was just a rough sketch, he finally managed to buy a map in the Western Capital City.
He pointed at a spot on the map and drew a line representing the proposed path for their journey. They would pass through the kingdoms of Si Qi, Hou Shu, and Qing Qiu before arriving at Bai Lingmiao’s home in the Liang Kingdom.
“Yeah, let’s all go to my place. There are no scary monks over there; they are all just kind and friendly,” said Bai Lingmiao.
Hearing her words, Li Huowang glanced at her before closing the map and storing it. He couldn’t really trust anything at this point since he couldn’t determine whether the monks that Bai Lingmiao was talking about were truly kind, or were they also using the same type of illusion spell.
He was still too weak. There was nothing he could do against such strong opponents just yet.
They kept walking until the sky was almost dark before they stopped to rest.
At this moment, Li Huowang was staring at the campfire in front of him, feeling restless; their speed was too slow. To be fair, he wasn’t really hard-pressed on money. If he needed more, he could just sell the jade pendant. At the very least, they could each have gotten a horse.
But the problem was that none of them could ride one!
No, this won’t do. We have to hide within the forest after we finish our dinner. Out here on the road, we are way too exposed.
“Senior Li, I added some extra pork lard into your noodles. We have a long journey ahead of us, so we need to eat better,” said Bai Lingmiao.
A steaming hot bowl of noodles with bits of pork meat floating in the broth was passed to Li Huowang.
Bai Lingmiao sat beside Li Huowang as he ate the noodles and placed her head on his knees. “Since the monks of the Righteous Monastery are bad, then what about your requirement? Do you really need to find a monk? What about a nun?”
Li Huowang almost choked on his noodles before barely managing to swallow them. Then, he blew the broth and drank it all in one big gulp.
“Don’t worry. Compared to the monks who are chasing us, my issues are nothing,” said Li Huowang.
Since the monks had lied to him, it meant that everything about his current situation was extremely bizarre. Maybe they couldn’t even get rid of Dan Yangzi, or maybe Dan Yangzi wasn’t even what they claimed him to have become. Dan Yangzi may or may not exist. Thus, it should be fine to delay handling that issue.
“Did you have enough? Do you want me to bring some more noodles for you? There’s still some in the pot,” offered Bai Lingmiao.
Li Huowang shook his head and passed his bowl back to Bai Lingmiao before patting Simpleton on the head. “Come, stop eating and follow me into the forest.”
“Oh...”
In the forest, Li Huowang and Simpleton stood in a line before giving a small tree some extra fertilizer.
Glancing back at the campfire, Li Huowang whispered something to Simpleton before heading back.
Back at the Righteous Monastery, the night had just arrived, and the monks were closing the entrance to the monastery.
Meanwhile, the rest of the monks were attending night lessons, causing the sound of chanting to fill the entire Righteous Monastery.
Jian Dun was fiddling with his prayer beads in his right hand while clenching his left hand as he walked somewhere deeper into the monastery.
Soon, he entered the Five Buddha Palace and saw Xin Hui, who was threading a new set of prayer beads.
“Abbot, I went and checked on benefactor Xuan Yang, but he was missing. It seems that he has run away,” reported Jian Dun.
Abbot Xin Hui was sitting on a prayer mat as he lifted the prayer beads out of the water and inspected his handiwork. After a moment, he placed the prayer beads onto the floor and picked up a baby from a basket beside him.
“Sigh! Such a poor child. If we had arrived any later, you would’ve been drowned by your own father.” He held the baby girl and gently coaxed her to sleep.
“Abbot, benefactor Xuan Yang is gone,” repeated Jian Dun.
“I’m not deaf yet. No need to talk so loudly; you might startle the child awake. Knock.”
Tatatata~
At that moment, the sound of the wooden fish resonated throughout the hall, giving the palace a much more serious aura.
Xin Hui carefully placed the baby on the floor and gently wrapped the prayer beads around her body.
Under the sound of the wooden fish, Xin Hui started chanting. However, rather than sutras, he was chanting something much more sinister.
“Jade rabbit on the moon~ Golden crow in the sun~ Tortoise and snake are a pair~ Twisted and whole~”
As the sound of chanting continued, the prayer beads wrapped around the baby girl started to come alive and tighten around her.
“Twist and wound, life perseveres, a golden lotus blooms in the fire~”
Xin Hui made a lotus seal with both his hands and pointed it toward the baby.
The sound of the crying baby soon turned into laughter and grew louder and louder. In the end, it became so loud that the five Buddha statues in the palace started grinning.
“Combine the five elements and reverse the flow~ Become a Buddha and live on as an Immortal~”
Soon, the sound of the wooden fish faded as Jian Dun walked forward and placed a flower vase beside Xin Hui.
Xin Hui worked a bit on the baby, and soon the baby was placed in the vase, with just her head at the top; it was identical to the one Dan Yangzi had in his cave. And thus, another girl in a vase was born.
After completing the ritual, Xin Hui sat back down and started threading a new set of prayer beads.
“Since he has escaped, then go and catch him; bring him back,” ordered Xin Hui.
“Yes, I obey,” replied Jian Dun.
“Be careful; even though he knows nothing about the world, his potential is huge. Dan Yangzi might have been a thief, but he was very lucky. I have no idea where he found a rare Strayed One.”
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m