The Road

Lü Xiucai was shivering from the cold when he woke. Blinking groggily, he looked toward the campfire and saw that the heart of the flame had nearly gone out. He shot a dissatisfied look at Gouwa, who was supposed to be keeping watch.

That sharp-faced, rat-like fellow had his head drooping, bobbing up and down—clearly, he had fallen asleep ages ago.

But Lü Xiucai didn't dare go over and scold him. His father had already made it clear: these people were their future bodyguards. If he wanted to keep following them, he couldn't get into any conflict with them. He had to tread carefully.

With a resigned expression, Lü Xiucai got up, threw enough firewood onto the embers to revive the flames, and crawled back into his bedding.

But the moment he closed his eyes, barely having dozed for a few seconds, he felt his father's pipe stem prodding him.

"Ya-xi-wa, wake up. Go to the river and fetch water. It'll be light soon."

Lü Xiucai let out a groan and pulled the blanket over his head.

The next second, the pipe stopped prodding and started thumping.

"Get moving! All you do all day is laze around and eat! You want to be a good-for-nothing slacker? Slackers can't even afford a wife!"

The sun gradually rose, and everyone around the fire began to stir.

Bai Lingmiao rubbed her eyes, propping herself up from the warmth of Chun Xiaoman's embrace, and looked around.

When she still didn't see that familiar face, disappointment flickered across her features.

Then she lifted her gaze to the far distance, toward the mist-shrouded peaks.

According to Abbess Jingxin, Li Huowang's destination was there. If they couldn't run into him along the road, they would have to go into the mountains to ask.

She pulled her feet out from under the covers and began putting on her socks and shoes. They had travel ahead of them and couldn't afford to go hungry.

Just eating what they had on hand wouldn't last. They had to economize from every angle, and adding supplementary foods was one way. More foraged food meant less grain consumed.

She, Xiaoman, and Lü Zhuangyuan's daughter-in-law went into the woods together to dig for wild greens.

It was the turn between spring and summer, and the forest floor was rich with edible plants. In no time, Bai Lingmiao's basket had gathered some Solomon's seal, wild onions, and wood ear fungus.

They passed a patch of mushrooms but didn't pick them.

After so many days of practice, Bai Lingmiao could basically identify the wild greens.

But mushrooms were a different story. One mistake could kill you, so she didn't dare touch them, even though these looked completely normal and seemed harmless.

When she returned to the campfire with the washed greens, she saw that Yang Xiaohai had already cooked the flour fish.

Little lumps of dough shaped like tadpoles tumbled and rolled in the boiling water.

"Yang Xiaohai, you should let the adults handle things like this." Bai Lingmiao pinched the wild greens into small sections and dropped them into the pot.

"It's fine, Sister Bai. I like cooking. Hehe."

Wild greens cooked quickly. With the last spoonful of white lard melting into the pot, a bowl of hearty wild-green flour fish was ready.

The group picked up their bowls and ate hungrily, slurping noisily.

At first, the two parties had cooked separately.

But after a few days, they realized it was too troublesome and wasted both time and effort. In the end, Lü Zhuangyuan simply proposed that they pool their meals, each side providing ingredients for one meal a day.

Schlurp. Lü Zhuangyuan sucked a fragrant flour fish into his mouth and asked while chewing, "Miss Bai, are we sure this path is the right one for Little Daoist? Wouldn't want to go the wrong way now."

"We're sure. Abbess Jingxin said that Senior Brother Li could only have gone this way. There's no other road." Bai Lingmiao's tone was resolute.

She had been the first to notice that something was wrong with Li Huowang's demeanor when he left.

When he talked to her, the gloom in his face had lifted, replaced by a strange look of release—a feeling that, every time she replayed it in her mind, sent an inexplicable chill through her.

That was why she had rushed back with the others, but in the end, they still missed him.

And so, taking the Lü family troupe she had encountered by chance, she headed in the direction Li Huowang had gone. "Senior Brother Li… please don't let anything happen to you…"

"That's good, that's good. I was just asking, just asking." Lü Zhuangyuan put on a smile.

But despite the smile on his face, he couldn't help feeling anxious on the inside. He had left the pass to escape the chaos of war, placing all his hopes on Li Huowang. When they finally met up, they found everyone else there except the man himself.

They had been traveling for so long without catching sight of his reliable bodyguard, and he honestly couldn't shake his unease.

The big pot of wild-green flour fish was soon scraped clean, not even the broth left behind. The broth had oil in it, and tossing it would have been too wasteful.

With their bellies full, they broke camp and set off again.

Traveling was monotonous. The whole day passed like that, with nothing changing except that the distant mountains grew a little clearer.

As the light began to fade, Bai Lingmiao noticed a glimmer on the mountains in the distance.

"Have the people up in the mountains already met Senior Brother Li? Abbess Jingxin said those people are very dangerous. Is Senior Brother Li in danger right now?"

That night, by the firelight, Bai Lingmiao used a needle and thread to mend her shoes. All that walking day after day took its toll on footwear.

Apart from Zhao Wu, who was keeping watch, everyone else had gone to sleep. Compared to the bustle of the day, everything around them had gone still.

"Zhi Jian, your shoes are torn too. Take them off, and I'll patch them up for you." Bai Lingmiao spoke to the big man holding an iron staff.

"Mmn… mmn… smelly!" Gao Zhijian pulled his feet back.

"It's all right, just take them off. Look, your toes are poking out. If I don't fix these shoes, they're going to fall apart."

After some stammering reluctance, just as he was awkwardly pulling off his shoe, he suddenly gripped his iron staff with both hands and let out a loud roar toward the right side of the forest.

That sudden shout startled everyone awake. Once they came to their senses, they quickly understood why Gao Zhijian had reacted that way.

From the pitch-black forest came a sound. A sound of crack-crack-crack—the sound of something gnawing. And with it, a low moaning, like a ghost wailing.

Two such sounds emerging from the woods in the middle of the night instantly sent a chill down everyone's spine.

"What… what now? Another one? Am I really this unlucky this year? Again?" Lü Zhuangyuan, pulling his coat around him, complained bitterly.

Then he turned and cupped his hands toward Bai Lingmiao's group. "You all are Little Daoist's junior brothers and sisters, right? With a situation like this, surely you can handle it, yes?"

As he spoke, the sounds drew closer, nearer—so close it felt like they were just on the other side of the thicket.

The tension climbed. Everyone grabbed their weapons.

Suddenly, the brush rustled. A woman stepped out from the trees. She wore a red bridal veil and a colorful garment.

"Ma ya!! A female ghost!!" Lü Xiucai shrieked and dove under the cart.

"What is it? What is that thing?" Bai Lingmiao asked the Second Spirit cautiously.

The Second Spirit said nothing. She simply raised her right hand—the one with the long, black nails—and gestured continuously, beckoning Bai Lingmiao to come closer.