The Ao-Jing Sect

Chapter 117 The Ao-Jing Sect

“What should I call you?” Li Huowang looked at the mangy dog wagging its tail in front of him.

He had been keeping it for a few days now, and it was still terribly thin. But at least the blood-sucking ticks that had been clustered in its ears were all gone now.

Both ears had been chewed up, looking raw and bloody. Even with the healing pills Li Huowang had fed it, it would take a while.

“Woof?” The dog sat on its haunches, tilting its head and looking at Li Huowang with confusion.

After a wary glance around, it lowered its head and pressed its skinny skull affectionately under Li Huowang’s hand, as if begging to be petted.

Li Huowang patted its head gently, a faint hint of a smile in his eyes.

A few nights ago, he had thought there might be something wrong with this dog. But after surviving that round of hallucinations, Li Huowang realized he had been mistaken.

If it had had any ill intent, it would have struck while he was lost in his visions.

For now, it seemed to be just a dog. A very ordinary dog. Even if he still had no idea where it had come from.

Li Huowang pulled a steamed bun from his pack and tossed it over. He watched as the dog pounced on it excitedly, tearing into it.

“Since you like steamed buns so much, from now on, I’ll call you Mantou.” Li Huowang settled the dog’s name with careless finality.

“Woof woof!” Mantou jumped up excitedly, as if responding to Li Huowang’s words.

With his right hand, where the very tips of his fingernails were just beginning to grow back, Li Huowang gently stroked the fur around the dog’s neck.

“Since neither of us has a home anymore, you can follow me. It’ll be more convenient having a dog around. You can keep watch at night, and during the day, you can keep me company.”

“When I have my episodes, you can’t really help, but it’s still better than nothing.”

“Of course, my main reason is I want to see if the me in a hallucination will hurt anyone else. You’re my first test subject.”

By the time Li Huowang finished speaking, Mantou had already finished the bun. The dog licked its chops, looking up at him with a hopeful, hungry gaze.

“I doubt you understood a word of that. Come on, we’re almost there.” Li Huowang patted Mantou’s head one more time, then stood up and looked toward the distant mountains—his destination.

The brief, light-hearted moment of connection with the dog vanished. As he recalled the information the nuns had given him about the Ao-Jing Sect, Li Huowang’s expression grew dark.

The abbess had said they might have a way to deal with Danyangzi. But they were just as dangerous. Just looking at the Thousand Greats Record was enough to tell him that.

This feeling of complete passivity was terrible. But Li Huowang had no other choice now. Either he tried to trust them, or he waited to die.

“Let’s go.” The Daoist in the red robe led his yellow dog toward the distant mountains.

From the mountain, a horse dies. Li Huowang truly understood that saying now.

He and the dog walked for two whole days before they finally reached the foot of the mountain.

The last thing blocking his path was a town. A town that was already dead.

Collapsed buildings. Skeletons split in two. Everything covered in dusty cobwebs. All the signs pointed to one thing: this town had once suffered a deadly catastrophe.

Seeing a half-skeleton propped next to a smaller skeleton by the roadside, a look of intense disgust twisted Li Huowang’s face.

People capable of slaughtering an entire town were utterly devoid of humanity. Their nature was probably even worse than Danyangzi’s.

As he slowly made his way through the town, a thought popped into Li Huowang’s head. “Did the Ao-Jing Sect do all this?”

The wariness he felt for this sect he had yet to meet began to curdle into something else.

He walked for most of the day through the desolate town without finding a single living person. The only signs of life on the ground were the rats gnawing on something in the corner of a wall.

As Li Huowang and his dog approached, the large, dusty grey rats scurried away in panic.

The people were already dead. There was nothing Li Huowang could do about it. He could barely save himself. He quickened his pace, rushing through this dead town.

Once he passed through the oppressive settlement, a winding, earthen mountain path appeared before him.

The trail twisted up the mountain like a long snake. It was the only way into the mountains nearby. The Ao-Jing Sect should be somewhere up ahead.

He looked down at Mantou, who was panting at his feet. Li Huowang gave the dog a light kick in the ribs and began to climb.

As he stared at the sparse, withered yellow trees on the mountain, Li Huowang grew more alert. There was no guarantee what their reaction would be when they saw a Heart-Element like him.

“Woof! Woof!” Mantou suddenly barked at the woods on the right.

Li Huowang’s hand immediately went to the Thousand Greats Record.

Swoosh! A lynx darted across the mountain path and disappeared into the trees on the other side.

Before Li Huowang could breathe a sigh of relief, he thought he saw something in the woods where the lynx had vanished.

Moving carefully, he walked over. Several collapsed temples came into view.

“Is this the Ao-Jing Sect’s Temple of the Cross?” Li Huowang murmured to himself, looking at the markings on the temple roof.

It wasn’t any kind of cross he had seen before. This one looked more like a skinny, black lucky leaf. And it looked like it had died of thirst—withered, shriveled, and twisted.

Seeing the weed-choked temples before him, a powerful sense of foreboding surged in Li Huowang’s heart.

If there was one thing harder for Li Huowang to accept than the Ao-Jing Sect attacking him on sight, it was finding out that they had already been wiped out.

“Did that town not die by the Ao-Jing Sect’s hand after all? Did they get attacked by that same thing too?”

With a grim expression, Li Huowang led his dog back to the path and kept moving forward.

This time, he focused more on scanning the hidden spaces among the trees.

It was just as he feared. He soon found another Temple of the Cross outpost. This time, he saw the god the Ao-Jing Sect worshipped.

On the offering altar, a large black cross sat. Cross-legged on top of it was a charred sculpture, completely enveloped in flame.

The sculpture was incredibly detailed. The flickering quality of the flames, the melted, clinging flesh, the hair curled from the heat—it was all carved from stone with lifelike precision.

But Li Huowang didn’t see the deity’s head. Everything above the neck had been shattered.

“What in the world did the Ao-Jing Sect piss off?” Li Huowang thought uneasily.

They had dared to stand against the abbesses of the Anci Nunnery and had survived intact. That was proof enough of the Ao-Jing Sect’s power.

Add to that what Li Huowang already knew about the might of the Thousand Greats Record. He honestly couldn’t imagine what kind of being could have destroyed the Ao-Jing Sect’s Temple of the Cross.

Just then, Li Huowang noticed something. He brushed away the cobwebs under the altar, revealing a line of text.

“The Gou God does not die; this is called the Mysterious Female. The gate of the Mysterious Female is called the root of Heaven and Earth. A thing confusedly formed, born before Heaven and Earth.”

Li Huowang raised his head again, looking at the headless statue seated cross-legged on the cross. “Is that the Gou God?”

Sorry, there will be one more chapter, but it will be very late.