Chapter 86 - Departure
“What sort of person? Isn’t Senior Li quite good?” asked Bai Lingmiao. Those words made her feel rather unhappy; she felt as though her own belongings were being defamed.
“He...” Xiaoman hesitated. “Do you really think Senior Li has no issues? If that really was the case, then why would Baldy capture him to be used as a guiding drug ingredient in the first place?”
The room fell silent. They all knew each other quite well after having spent some time together. And so they knew that when compared to their physical issues, Li Huowang suffered from the much more thorny mental problems.
It was just that everyone consciously avoided the topic.
Bai Lingmiao’s expression was gloomy. “So what? If he’s like that, then am I much better? Everyone calls me a White-Haired Goblin back at home. Others are also afraid when they see me. But Senior Li has never looked at me differently, and he even saved me on multiple occasions. Someone like me couldn’t even dream of being able to find someone like Senior Li. I’m already overjoyed that he doesn’t despise me.”
Hearing this, Xiaoman no longer continued on this topic. She just sighed lightly and closed her eyes. “Go to sleep.”
The bedroom gradually became quiet, with the only sound being from the two’s soft breathing.
When Xiaoman heard the breathing behind her getting shallow, she turned around and looked at the delicate girl before her.
Xiaoman looked at her long eyelashes and reached out to caress her cheek. The sensation was like a boiled chicken egg that just had its shell peeled, making her feel infatuated.
“I... know... don’t rush...” Bai Lingmiao mumbled in her sleep.
Hearing this, Xiaoman’s brows quivered under her dense hair, as she leaned her cheek over.
Bang!
At that moment, the door was suddenly kicked open, causing Xiaoman to instantly sit up. Then, she pulled out a dagger from under her pillow and stood before Bai Lingmiao.
"Senior Li? You’ve come down from the mountain?" Xiaoman exclaimed in surprise as she looked at the young man before her. The one who had opened the door was Li Huowang, who had just returned from Henghua Mountain.
"Where's all the gold?" Li Huowang got straight to the point.
"It’s all with Simpl... with Gao Zhijian. He's guarding it," replied Xiaoman.
Li Huowang glanced at Bai Lingmiao, who was still half-asleep before turning around and walking off in the direction of the other guest rooms.
“What happened? Was someone here?” Bai Lingmiao sat up drowsily.
Xiaoman gently laid her back down before saying in a soft voice, "It's alright... go back to sleep. We'll talk about it tomorrow."
The next day, Xiaoman pulled Bai Lingmiao’s hand and brought her to another guest room where they saw Li Huowang. She immediately noticed the mud on his shoes. From the looks of it, their Senior Li had been outside all night long.
"You are here? Have a seat. Let me tell you about the next steps of our journey," said Li Huowang as he opened a map.
"This is where we're going next; I need to retrieve something from there first. After that, I'll send all of you home," said Li Huowang as he pointed at a spot on the map.
After saying that, Li Huowang didn't wait to hear anyone's opinion. He directly rolled up the map and headed toward the door. "Pack your things. We're leaving at noon today."
"Senior Li! What happened on the mountain? Is it dangerous where we're headed?" asked Bai Lingmiao as she followed after him.
Meanwhile, Xiaoman turned to the others and asked, "What happened? What is Senior Li up to? Why did he come back?"
"How would I know? Senior Li never consults us with anything. It's already unprecedented for him to have given us a heads-up today," Puppy said gloomily.
“Why the long face? We’re only leaving, right?” asked Xiaoman.
Tears streamed down Puppy’s face upon hearing this question. "Senior Li gave away all the gold! If I had known he would do that, then I wouldn't have gone to the brothel earlier. I should have bought myself a wife first!"
“What?! He gave it all away? Didn't any of you try to stop that from happening? Don't you know that Senior Li has mental problems?" Xiaoman shouted anxiously.
"I did try to stop him! I tried to block him yesterday when he was giving it away! But I could only do so much," replied Puppy.
Xiaoman turned and hurried outside, but her actions were in vain. The gold had already been sent to the Benevolent Nunnery during the last night.
"Don't worry, I kept some for the journey," said Li Huowang.
With heavy hearts, Xiaoman and the others once again set off on a journey; they had little say in this decision.
Li Huowang had killed the water bandits and taken the gold. Thus, none of them had the authority to stop him even if he wanted to give it all away. It was just that the sudden transition from being extremely wealthy to being penniless was truly hard for them to adapt to.
Late at night, Xiaoman opened her eyes to see a statue-like Li Huowang sitting by the campfire as he looked at the red bamboo slip. Then, she gently crawled out from under the blanket and walked toward the mist-covered forest.
In a secluded grassy area, she took out a book and a long knife from her waist. Then, she struck a fighting posture and began to learn from the book.
The blade in her hand danced through the air. Though she was still quite unskilled, her eyes shone with determination as she practiced seriously.
Whoosh~
At that moment, she stopped her blade as she was startled by Li Huowang’s sudden appearance.
He was still the same; his neck was full of scars, and he had an exhausted expression on his face.
“Where is this book from?” Li Huowang stepped over and flipped through the book on the ground. There were only a few small figures showing a person wielding swords on it without any words. It looked like a sword-fighting manual.
“Didn’t you ask us to buy the things that we wanted previously? I found an escort from the escort service, and used some gold to buy this book from him,” Xiaoman replied.
"Anyone who becomes an escort these days has at least some level of skill. I spent quite a bit to buy this. It is genuine," She chuckled softly and continued. “After I killed my dad, I’ve been thinking; back then, if I had a blade in my hand, would he still have dared to sell my sister and me? And so, I want to become stronger, strong enough to protect myself and others.”
Hearing this, Li Huowang nodded silently, then turned back toward the campfire.
Xiaoman hesitated as she looked at his back. Finally, she yelled, “Senior Li, Junior Bai truly cares about you a lot. Please don’t let her down!”
Li Huowang did not stop as he took large strides out of the forest. “Show this book to the others as well. Perhaps they may also be able to learn something from it.”
Even with a horse carriage, two hundred miles still took quite some time to cover; they had already been traveling intermittently for several days.
As they approached their destination, Li Huowang had the others wait in a small village close by.
At this moment, the others were bored and were playing card games in the courtyard of a moderately-sized farmhouse.
Puppy sneezed and asked Sun Baolu, who sat in front of him, “Where has Senior Li gone? I haven’t seen him all day long. We’re almost there already, so why are we waiting here? This isn’t his usual style.”
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