Dog

Chapter 116: Dog

At dusk, Li Huowang walked silently along a winding forest path. According to the directions he had gotten from Anci Nunnery, the end of this road led into an unbroken chain of mountains.

The Ao-Jing Sect he was searching for lived somewhere among those peaks.

Ever since he had fully awakened back at Qingfeng Temple, he had been living with others. Now, being alone all of a sudden felt strange—he wasn’t used to it.

“So quiet,” Li Huowang muttered to himself, looking at the sparse woods around him. The farther he went in this direction, the more barren the land became.

The stillness that surrounded him slowly calmed his gradually fraying nerves.

He raised both hands and stretched hard, let out a sigh, then lifted his right foot again.

He walked and walked, and then it was dark. Li Huowang pulled a fluorescent stone from his chest and continued forward by its dim light.

But soon, he put the stone away. The moon had come out. Tonight there wasn’t a single cloud, and the moon was very large.

Bright moonlight lit the forest road clearly.

Beneath the clean white light, Li Huowang walked on alone. He had been walking all day. His legs were swollen and heavy.

If I survive this, I’ll have to learn to ride a horse, he thought.

He kept going until the full moon hung high overhead. Only then did he finally tire. He sat down against a tree, pulled out a hard mantou, and bit into it, planning to eat a few mouthfuls and then sleep.

Suddenly, Li Huowang’s chewing stopped. His eyes fixed on a single point in the darkness. He had sensed something.

It wasn’t just his sense of pain or taste anymore—his other perceptions were also gradually surpassing normal. For example, right now he could clearly feel that something was watching him.

“Who’s there!”

After he shouted, a yellowish thing crept timidly out from the woods.

It was a large, mangy country dog—the kind with a yellowish coat and dirty white paws. It looked terrible. It had lost a lot of fur, ticks clung to its body, and it was so thin that every rib showed through its skin.

“A dog?” Li Huowang looked around at the desolate surroundings. This didn’t seem like a place where anyone would keep a dog, anywhere.

The dog stared at the cold mantou in Li Huowang’s hand. It licked its mouth again and again. Then it began wagging its tail at him.

“I don’t care what you really are. Get lost!”

Frowning slightly, Li Huowang patted the Thousand Greats Record tucked in his robes.

Dog or whatever it was—he just wanted to keep moving. He didn’t need more trouble.

The dog backed away timidly, but it didn’t give up. Its drooping tail wagged faster.

The bronze Daoist bell shook violently. The harsh, grating ring tore through the air. The dog yelped in fright and bolted.

Li Huowang was about to put the bell away when the expression on his face froze.

“Shit! Why now of all times!”

In the pitch-black forest, the dog poked its head out cautiously from under the leaves, ears drooping. What it saw next was something it couldn’t understand.

The man sitting under the tree had a warm smile on his face. He was tilting his head back and talking to the bright full moon in the sky.

“Dad? You came too? Yeah, I know. I’m fine. I’m doing great.”

“No, I know. You two aren’t hallucinations. You’re not. I was… confused before. But now I can tell the difference.”

The dog paced back and forth at the edge of the woods for a long time. When it saw that the man wasn’t making any hostile move toward it, it focused on the half-rolled mantou lying on the ground.

It crept forward carefully, head low, and reached out to snatch it. But the man’s next words made it flinch back.

“Mom, I don’t want an orange. Don’t untie me. It’s fine with both hands tied.”

“Oh, right. Did you exchange the gold for money? Did you pay off all the debts? Good. That’s good.”

“Mom… you have more gray hair. Go dye it. You used to like getting perms, didn’t you?”

Smiling softly, Li Huowang raised his hand and reached toward the moon hanging in the sky.

“Hey, don’t ask. The gold was clean. Did you sell the jade pendant too? No? Why not?”

The dog edged forward again, circled twice more, and when it was sure the man really wasn’t paying attention, it darted in, snatched the mantou, and ran.

Because it was starving, it ate too fast once it ducked into the trees and choked.

When it had recovered, it came back to the roadside and stared at the man longingly.

Its sensitive nose told it clearly: there was more food in that bag of his. There was even meat!

“Sell the jade pendant. Buy our house back. Having your own place… that’s what makes it a home.”

“No, really, don’t leave money for my treatment. Just find somewhere and chain me up. That’s enough.”

“Mom, I’m not talking crazy. Hey—don’t cry. I’m not having an episode now. I really mean it.”

“Woof…”

The dog tilted its head at the strange man. It really couldn’t understand what he was doing.

Cautiously, it crept closer again. Then it lay down in front of Li Huowang and began wagging its tail nonstop.

“Whine…”

Just then, the dog noticed that the man had finally spotted it. Its tail wagged even faster.

“Heh. Who gave you this rag doll? Ugly as hell. Looks like a dog. A dog… wait!! Something’s wrong! That dog is still here!”

Li Huowang, who had been perfectly calm a moment ago, shot to his feet. His face twisted as he screamed at the dog, hysterical.

“I told you to get lost! Do you want to die?!”

The dog was terrified. With a yelp, it dove back into the forest.

When it timidly poked its head out from behind the leaves again, it saw the man sitting back down, a look of guilt on his face as he spoke once more to the moon.

“Mom, don’t be scared. This has nothing to do with you. I’m not having an episode. There’s just… something I need to deal with over there.”

“I’m really not having an episode. How about you two go first? Come visit me next time. I need to handle this.”

“Yeah. I know. There is no ‘over there.’ Right. It’s all just hallucinations. I’ll cooperate with the doctors. I’ll get treatment.”

“Woof!”

Li Huowang tensed immediately. His eyes darted around, unfocused. “No. Something’s moving.”

He slowly drew his longsword and stared into the darkness around him, fully alert.

Then his expression shifted to frustration.

“I can’t explain! I can’t! Just go! Both of you—just go!”

His frantic shout carried far into the night.

That night, Li Huowang didn’t sleep at all. As best he could, while trapped in his hallucinations, he tried to stay alert for any real-world threat.

But when the hallucination finally faded, he realized his method hadn’t worked.

He was standing in the middle of a small stream, holding last night’s dog in his arms. The dog was licking his chin affectionately.

A lot must have happened last night. Things he couldn’t remember.

“…Tch. I really can’t be alone, can I?”

Li Huowang carried the dog toward the bank.