Rules

Chapter 88: Rules

“Don’t move. Nobody move.” Li Huowang’s voice cut through the dim bamboo grove, and everyone froze on the spot.

They stood motionless, staring up at the rows of bamboo tips hanging above their heads, terrified that those things would come straight down and pierce them.

“No one move,” Li Huowang said again. He lifted his right foot and took a step forward.

The others felt their hearts leap into their throats. But when they saw that the bamboo poles overhead hadn’t changed, they all let out a collective sigh of relief.

Li Huowang took a few more steps, circling the area. The bamboo remained just bamboo, unchanged.

“Maybe… maybe the bamboo in this shithole just grows funny?” Gouwa said hesitantly.

Whether it did or not, Li Huowang wasn’t about to gamble on it. With one hand, he began shaking his bell. The Wandering Lord, formed from lines and curves, swiftly began patrolling the grove.

After a while, when the Wandering Lord returned to Li Huowang and indicated there was nothing wrong, Li Huowang finally relaxed a little.

What put him at ease wasn’t so much what the Wandering Lord had said, but the fact that the strange feeling of being watched had vanished.

He didn’t immediately dismiss the Wandering Lord. Instead, he kept it with him as they advanced.

The ringing of the bell was dizzying, but it was still better than being ambushed by that so-called “Layue Shiba.”

“Stay close. Let’s get through this grove quickly.”

As he spoke, Li Huowang snapped open the buckle on his leather bundle while walking. The torture implements inside spread out across the hem of his robe, glinting faintly in the light of the fluorescent stones.

Everyone gripped their weapons, holding their breath. They moved in a tight file, one after another, terrified that falling behind meant never catching up.

Time passed. The bamboo tips overhead grew lower and lower, until they were scraping against the canvas roof of the wagon.

The sound of bamboo scraping across the wagon top was sharp and piercing, pressing down on everyone’s spirits. Yet the Wandering Lord still showed no sign of any enemy.

Moving through that strange bamboo grove, everyone felt as if they were crawling through the mouth of some creature, with those bamboo tips as its jagged teeth.

In that environment, Li Huowang lost track of how long he’d been walking. The dizziness muddled his sense of time.

Then he saw light in the distance. An exit!

Excitement surged through him. He raised his sword—the blade that could slice through iron like mud—and swung hard. A thick patch of bamboo was cleaved away, and dazzling sunlight poured in.

Everyone squinted instinctively. The sun was too bright. Judging by its position, it had to be late afternoon.

When their eyes adjusted and they looked ahead, they widened in surprise. Beyond that strange grove, they saw a village.

Green-tiled roofs were scattered haphazardly in the distance, no different from any other village Li Huowang had passed on the road.

By a clear pond at the village entrance, a group of young women and older wives were washing clothes, chatting and laughing as they beat the fabric against the stones.

“Brother Li, are you sure this is the spot? Did we take a wrong turn?” Xiaoman asked, frowning slightly.

Li Huowang quickly filtered through the directions the abbess had given him. He tucked the Taoist bell back into his fingers and strode toward the distant village.

“Stay tight. Don’t let your guard down. This could just be an illusion from Layue Shiba.”

“Would Layue Shiba… look like a village?” Bai Lingmiao murmured.

Her question was also Li Huowang’s thought. The only information the abbess had given him about Layue Shiba was that the evil spirit was red.

As Li Huowang’s group drew closer, the women washing clothes were the first to notice them. They gathered up their laundry and headed into the village, whispering among themselves.

Such a large group of people in black veiled hats approaching was bound to attract attention. Young and middle-aged men, clutching farm tools, began to gather at the village entrance, their eyes wary.

“Outsiders! What business do you have in Wu Family Village? Passing through, or visiting relatives?” an old man with a goatee called out from a distance.

Li Huowang swept his gaze across every villager’s face but found nothing unusual. On the surface, it really did seem like a normal village.

Would Layue Shiba hide here? he wondered.

When the village head called out a second time, Li Huowang led his people forward. He cupped his hands in a polite salute and unfolded the map.

“Elder, a question. Does this map show your village?”

“What? Asking for directions?” The old man took the map and exchanged a few hushed words with the people beside him.

Li Huowang kept his eyes fixed on their faces, watching every expression.

After discussing for a while, the village head handed the map back with both hands. “Outsider, you’ve got the wrong place. The spot on this map is twenty or thirty li from here.”

“Wrong? We haven’t reached it yet?” Li Huowang quickly calculated the distance from Anci Nunnery to here. The abbess had said two hundred li. He wasn’t a machine; a little deviation seemed normal.

“Ah, my apologies. I was reckless and came to the wrong spot.” Li Huowang generously cupped his hands in another bow.

“But elder, the sun is about to set. Would it be possible for us to stay the night? We’ve been on the road for half a month, and we’re truly exhausted.”

“Well…” The village head eyed Li Huowang and his group with obvious wariness.

“Elder, please do us this kindness.” Smiling, Li Huowang stepped closer. His long sleeve brushed against the old man’s hand.

The village head felt a slight weight settle in his palm. His expression shifted as he pinched it with his fingers.

“Fine. The west wing of my house is empty. You can stay there. Remember, one night only.”

As the two wagons clattered across the moss-covered flagstones into the village, Gouwa sidled up to Li Huowang and muttered, “Brother Li, didn’t we come to the wrong place?”

Li Huowang turned his head slightly, catching a glimpse of villagers peeking at them from their doorways.

“Maybe we didn’t come to the wrong place at all. Maybe this is exactly where we need to be.”

The most important thing he had learned after all this time was that you could only trust three-tenths of what anyone told you.

Since Layue Shiba could take any form, a complicated village would be an extremely convenient place to hide.

He didn’t even know if it ate people. But if it did, this village would also be a very convenient place to find food.

His eyes began searching. Searching for anything red in the entire village. But even after they reached the house, he still hadn’t found a single trace of red.

Beneath the entrance archway, the village head stood with his hands tucked into his sleeves, sizing up these outsiders.

“I’ll say this first. Wu Family Village has rules. They’ve been passed down from the elders, and they can’t be changed. If you want to stay, fine. But you have to follow the rules. If you can’t do that, you’d best leave now.”

“Rules?”