Shadow Play

In the dead of night, a hideous shadow-puppet monster clung to the dim paper window.

The scene was deeply unsettling. But what unsettled Li Huowang even more was the word it had used. It had called him a Heart-Element.

After everything he’d been through, he knew exactly what that meant when someone used that name for him.

“Who are you, really?” Li Huowang demanded, his face grim as he stared at the strange shadow-puppet.

“Heh, you’re on my turf, and you don’t know who I am?”

The voice had just fallen silent when Li Huowang saw the puppet on the paper window begin to seep into the room.

Clang! The blade was drawn, and the air in the room instantly became thick with murderous intent.

A dark red longsword materialized in front of Li Huowang. It was the first time he had formally drawn this blade.

The next moment, something surged from the strange beast-shaped hilt, flooding through Li Huowang’s entire body. His blood raced, his veins bulged, and everything he saw was tinged with red.

Just as the black, window-patterned tentacle began to rise up from the paper, Li Huowang stamped his right foot forward and launched a direct thrust in a bow stance.

Pressing his tongue against his palate, he couldn’t help but roar, “KILL!”

Seeing the blood-red sword tip, wreathed in killing intent, stab toward it, the puppet didn’t dare meet the blow. It slid swiftly to the right.

A loud metallic rattle sounded as it instantly relocated to the wooden door beside it.

“Huh? This sword… What’s your connection to the Right Family of Siqi?”

Seeing the sword in Li Huowang’s hand, the thing’s voice revealed a hint of hesitation, and its movements became more cautious.

On a normal day, Li Huowang might have stopped to hear it out. But now, with that surge of heat clouding his mind, he couldn’t.

Before its words had even faded, his sword was already upon it.

The red blade, gleaming with cold light, slammed heavily into the wooden door. A sharp crack rang out as the door was instantly shattered into splinters.

The shadow-puppet was crushed along with the doorframe.

Bursting out of the room, Li Huowang’s gaze cut through the corridor ahead and landed on a figure behind a far window. A man held several wooden rods in his hands, manipulating the puppet in the air.

The thing Li Huowang had just been fighting was nothing more than the shadow cast by this man’s puppet frame!

Seeing Li Huowang give chase, the man immediately tossed the puppet aside and ducked back into the house.

When Li Huowang stormed in after him, he found the room empty—nothing remained but the puppet, slowly turning to black ash on the floor.

He’d only caught a fleeting glimpse earlier, not enough to notice much. The one detail that stuck was the worn bronze mask on the man’s face.

Clang. The sword slid back into its sheath. Li Huowang took a few deep breaths and calmed down.

“What was he after? Did he really just see a Heart-Element and think it was easy money?”

Even though he had driven the man off, Li Huowang felt it couldn’t be that simple.

“Wait… Bai Lingmiao!” On alert, Li Huowang rushed back to their lodgings at full speed.

When he saw Bai Lingmiao sleeping peacefully in bed, he finally let out a breath.

He’d been too anxious. Bai Lingmiao was no weak, helpless woman. There was no need to worry about a diversion.

Walking to the bedside, Li Huowang examined the sword in his hand closely.

Trouble coming wasn’t strange, but this time was different. He wasn’t running away anymore—now, it was the enemy who fled.

That thought stirred something in him. It meant he had finally found a foothold in this chaotic, grotesque world.

And that was all thanks to this sword from the abbess. The man had lost all will to fight the moment he saw it.

Li Huowang knew the man wasn’t backing down out of fear of him—he was afraid of the sword.

Beyond its raw power, this blade carried something else of value.

“Siqi’s Right Family? Is that the name of its original owner? It doesn’t sound like a school name.”

He had no answer. All he knew was that this sword was no ordinary blade, and the debt he owed the abbess had just grown heavier.

As his fingers stroked the scabbard, Li Huowang suddenly felt something wrong.

He looked down. A pair of pale hands with long black nails were gripping his calves.

He thought for a moment, then didn’t pull away. Looking down toward the Second Spirit under the bed, he said, “I need to thank you for the warning today. If you hadn’t tipped me off, he might have caught me off guard.”

The past was the past, but today, Bai Lingmiao’s Second Spirit had genuinely helped him.

Still, it bothered him. His senses were so sharp now—he could detect bandits from a great distance. Yet that man had managed to get right to his doorstep, and he’d needed someone else to warn him.

“Does that guy have something that blocks perception? I wonder if it could help me with the Heart-Element problem. If I could use it too… maybe I should take it.”

“That way, maybe fewer people would come looking for my head.”

Just as Li Huowang was getting lost in thought, he felt a change in the sensation around his calves.

He looked down again. The pale hands were gone. Now, several cold, slippery things were creeping up his pant legs.

Against his skin, they felt a bit like snake hide—soft, unsettling.

Then, a numb, feminine whisper drifted beside his ear. “Husband~”

Li Huowang’s scalp went tight, and goosebumps erupted across his whole body. “Stop! I said stop!”

His hand went for the sword hilt, but just as he was about to draw, the things in his pant leg slowly retreated.

He glanced at the sleeping Bai Lingmiao. “What happened before is done. I don’t want to talk about it. Go to sleep!”

With that, he lay back down on the bed.

The Second Spirit under the bed said nothing more. The room fell silent.

After all that, how could Li Huowang possibly sleep? He lay awake until dawn, staring at the ceiling.

It wasn’t until he heard the morning vendors’ calls from the street that he finally drifted off.

When he woke up again, he found he had slept straight through until the afternoon.

Dressed now, he sat in the inn’s main hall, eating a late lunch and thinking over the events of the previous night.

“Judging by his methods, he’s nowhere near the league of Zhengde Temple or Anci Nunnery. Maybe he’s just a rogue cultivator, like Danyangzi. If that’s the case, it’s not a huge problem.”

“He said ‘this is my turf’—not ‘ours’ or ‘our school’s.’ That means it’s very likely he’s alone.”

Li Huowang wasn’t planning to run, either. If it came to a real fight, the busy, crowded town was better for him than the open wilderness, where it was easier to set an ambush.

He had just popped a grain of uncooked rice into his mouth with his chopsticks when he saw Lü Zhuangyuan striding in with his two sons, looking proud and pleased.

Connecting it to what had happened last night, it wasn’t hard to guess.

“Head Lü,” Li Huowang called out. “Look like you’ve been arguing with those Nuo opera performers again? And given how cheerful you are, I take it you won?”