Arrival

“Shhhhhlah.” The sound of copper coins clinking rang out as the copper coin mask was placed over Li Huowang’s face.

Inhaling the unique scent of smoke and scorched metal clinging to the mask, Li Huowang felt a sense of security he had never known before.

“When we get to Anci Nunnery, we’ll have the abbess take a look. If it can fool even them, then this thing is worth a fortune.”

Wearing the mask, Li Huowang stood up. With a hint of excitement in his voice, he called out to the others behind him, “Let’s move! Get to Mount Hengheng as fast as possible!”

The iron-banded cartwheels began to roll again, heading towards Siqi.

As they gradually neared Siqi, a land of many lakes and rivers, the vegetation along the roadside began to revive, and even the air grew moist.

But the journey back was not without obstacles. The border crossings of Siqi had become increasingly vigilant.

Fortunately, the border between Siqi and Later Shu was naturally long. The border troops, some of whom had already been redeployed, could not possibly guard every inch.

Taking advantage of a shift change at a garrison outpost, Li Huowang’s group slipped back from Later Shu into Siqi.

One early morning, Li Huowang was tied tightly to a tree with a wrist-thick iron chain, his fellow disciples silently watching as he rambled incoherently.

Having been through this so many times, they were used to it by now. They were no longer as shocked as before. They had come to understand Li Huowang’s affliction very well.

After a long while, Li Huowang’s eyes gradually cleared. He looked up at the bright sun overhead, then at the lush green trees lining the road, and let out a slow breath.

No matter what had happened on the road, they were finally almost there.

“Let’s eat lunch. After we finish, we’ll move on. If we pick up the pace, we should reach Mount Hengheng before dark.” Li Huowang said to Bai Lingmiao, who was untying him.

Her gaze flickered to his left sleeve, which had remained unchanged for so many days, and a flicker of pain passed through Bai Lingmiao’s eyes.

She turned and picked up the wooden bucket, heading to the nearby river to fetch water.

The clear river water was very clean. The wooden bucket and Bai Lingmiao’s tears fell into the stream together.

“You’re worried about Senior Brother Li?” Chun Xiaoman, who had followed along, asked softly.

“He’s a cripple now! His hand will never grow back!” Bai Lingmiao choked out.

Chun Xiaoman seemed to want to offer comfort, but found she didn’t know where to start.

She was this heartbroken… she had truly taken Senior Brother Li as her own man.

“This time it was just one arm. But what if there’s a next time? Why is it so hard for us just to go home? Wuwuwu!”

Seeing her closest friend Bai Lingmiao so devastated, Chun Xiaoman felt the pain as if it were her own.

Although Li Huowang hadn’t explained anything to them, Chun Xiaoman had pieced it together during their journey. The red bamboo slip at his waist was used to exchange parts of his own body for supernatural power.

As long as Li Huowang kept that thing on him, the parts of him that were ‘still there’ were bound to dwindle.

Chun Xiaoman looked at the weeping Bai Lingmiao, her heart softening. She pulled her into an embrace.

“In the end, it’s because we’re not strong enough that this happened. If we had the strength to easily handle this kind of situation, things wouldn’t have come to this.”

But convincing Senior Brother Li to throw away the bamboo slip was nearly impossible. The cost was enormous, but so was its power.

Steeling herself, she made a silent vow: “If it comes down to it, I’ll just ask Senior Brother Li to teach me how to use the bamboo slip.”

Since anyone could use it, it might as well be her.

“If it were my hand that was broken…” Chun Xiaoman looked down at the weeping Bai Lingmiao, then at her own hand, covered in black fuzz. “…that would be fine too!”

After a few more minutes of quiet comfort, the two of them went back to fetching water. The others were still waiting for their meal, and they couldn’t afford to delay the journey.

The wooden bucket was lowered back into the cool water, beginning to fill.

“Hold on.” Chun Xiaoman used her furry hand to dab some water and gently wiped the corner of Bai Lingmiao’s eye. “There’s a bit of dust. Let me clean it off for you.”

“Thank you, Sister Xiaoman.”

“Don’t mention it. We’re sisters. One day, I’m going to be your child’s godmother.”

Chun Xiaoman had just finished speaking with a smile when she saw Bai Lingmiao’s expression twist into terror. “Sister Xiaoman! Look behind you!”

Xiaoman quickly pressed her hand to the sword at her waist and spun around. There, in the clear river water, corpses were drifting slowly by, tangled and strewn about.

Soon, everyone had gathered by the riverbank. They all stared in silence at the bodies on the water.

Judging by their clothes, these were soldiers of Siqi. There must have been a battle upstream.

When war ravages the land, common folk suffer the most. Among the soldiers’ corpses, there were also many ordinary civilians. Their eyes still held the last traces of despair.

“So many floaters… Just how many people died up there?” Gouwa, leaning against a tree trunk, remarked with a heavy sigh.

“We probably can’t drink from the river anymore. We’ll have to stick to well water from now on.”

While his fellow disciples worried about the water supply, Li Huowang was thinking about something else.

“All of you have seen plenty of dead bodies by now. Don’t you think these corpses look a little too… fresh?”

Li Huowang’s words drew everyone’s attention to the details of the bodies.

Under normal circumstances, unless they died that very day, waterlogged corpses usually looked horrifying. They absolutely should not look like this.

“Yeah, look! These dead people still have color in their faces!”

“If they couldn’t move, they’d look almost exactly like living people.”

Li Huowang narrowed his eyes as he took in the scene. These corpses gave him a strong sense of unease.

“Was it killed by some special ability that made them look like this? Has some other sect gotten involved in the mortal wars?”

“Or am I thinking about this wrong? In this world, maybe a war with strange sects mixed in is the normal kind of war?”

After pondering by the river for a while, Li Huowang led the others away.

Perhaps because of the sheer number of dead they had seen, everyone’s mood was heavy. No one spoke much until they reached the small town at the foot of Mount Hengheng.

When they saw the familiar sights of the town they had visited so many times appear before them again, everyone finally let out a sigh of relief.

“Senior Brother Li, it’s so late. Are you going up the mountain now, or will you wait until after breakfast tomorrow?”

“Not yet.” Li Huowang walked into a pastry shop filled with a fragrant aroma.

When he came out, he was carrying a large stack of pastry boxes. He had almost cleaned the place out.

“I’m going. You all stay at the same inn as last time. I’ll find you later. Oh, and where’s Gouwa? I just saw him.”

“He went to the latrine.”

As the words left her mouth, a contented-looking Gouwa emerged from a nearby alley.

“Hey, this place has a really clean outhouse. Didn’t see a single fly or maggot.”