Death of a Dream

Chapter 209: Danger

When the urn-doll saw Li Huowang, who was as huge as a mountain before it, its face, slathered in white powder, twisted into an expression mixing shock and fear.

"So you bastards can be scared!"

With a clang, the longsword left its sheath, reeking with sky-piercing killing intent as it swung down.

Accompanied by the crack of ceramic, the two dolls were instantly decapitated.

What splashed from their pallid bodies was not blood, but a kind of greyish-brown powder.

Mixed in with it were white fragments of bone. Cremains. These dolls had been molded from bone ash!

"Not right. This doesn't look like a wild evil spirit."

Staring at the clear fingerprint indentations inside the ceramic urn, Li Huowang's heart tightened.

Shhhh— The sound of bamboo leaves scraping against paper made Li Huowang leap to his feet.

His face instantly turned extremely ugly. This time, it wasn't two gazes.

Countless gazes were shooting at him from every direction. He was surrounded.

Soon, Li Huowang saw them. Things wearing paper burial shrouds.

They had no faces. Instead, each one bore a white porcelain urn on their shoulders.

On the sickly white urn was pasted a strip of red paper with characters written on it, the thing staring at Li Huowang like an eye.

Their figures flickered faintly in the shadow-draped bamboo grove.

They were moving. Even though Li Huowang hadn't seen them shift.

But they were drawing closer, in a way that was impossible to perceive.

Rustle—The Thousand Greats Record spread rapidly on the ground. Li Huowang pulled out his pliers, ready to reach into his own mouth.

Just then, something red swayed into view, blocking Li Huowang's vision.

This red thing was like the yellow talisman in a zombie movie, plastered across Li Huowang's forehead.

Li Huowang snatched it off, shocked to find it was a wide strip of red paper with a line of writing on it.

The spirit tablet of Li Huowang, deceased husband.

Seeing the words on the slip, Li Huowang's mind was instantly flooded with a torrent of chaotic information.

"They're assimilating me? I'm becoming one of them? Who are they? No! I think I've heard of them before at Qingfeng Temple."

In a flash of lightning, a name surfaced in his mind.

"Great Grandmother! They're the Great Grandmother!"

Almost in that same instant, Li Huowang raised the pliers again. But this time, he aimed not at his teeth, but at his own left eye.

Pop.

As the eyeball burst, a strange radiance enveloped the surroundings. A sticky, hazy halo clung to the Great Grandmothers all around.

In that moment, all the gazes vanished.

Seizing the opportunity, Li Huowang surged forward and burst back onto the roadside.

The others on the roadside clearly had no idea what had just happened. They stood there, yawning listlessly.

"Move! Get out of this bamboo grove! This place is dangerous!"

Perhaps it was the authority of Li Huowang's left eye—a bloody, flesh-wrecked hole, still dripping gore—that no one questioned him. Dragging their exhausted bodies, they all broke into a run.

They didn't stop. Once they had crossed the bamboo grove, they found themselves in a stretch of grassland.

Everyone sprinted for their lives across the exposed, open plain. They didn't stop until the sky in the distance began to pale.

Jin Shanzhao, drenched in sweat, stumbled and threw the bamboo basket off his back. He collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air.

He grabbed a handful of tender grass, looked at it, and let it fall weakly. Panting, he said, "Ha... ha... Qing... we're almost... ha... ha... we're almost at Qingqiu... ha..."

In that moment, Li Huowang climbed back onto the roof of the ox-cart.

The open space gave him an extremely long line of sight. Frowning, he swept his single eye across everything around them.

If, even out here, those unidentified Great Grandmothers could still follow, he would have no choice but to fight it out with them.

Fortunately, as the sun climbed higher, its warm light dispelled the chill on Li Huowang's body. No more gazes shot toward him.

And back in the bamboo grove, there was no longer any sign of the Great Grandmothers. One of the rocks suddenly spoke.

"What do we do? This kid doesn't seem easy to deal with. He even shook off the Great Grandmothers we lured his way. Maybe we should go back to the department and call for backup?"

As the rock finished speaking, a bamboo shoot nearby replied, "Why bother with all that? Isn't Peng Longteng looking for this kid? Just tell her directly. Save us the trouble."

"Good point. If things go wrong, we can just pin it on her. If it goes well, we'll split the credit three ways."

With that said, the rock and the bamboo shoot never spoke another word.

That day, Li Huowang's group rested for a full day.

They had to rest. People weren't made of iron.

Fortunately, aside from a few passersby on the road, no other incidents occurred.

Bai Lingmiao, sitting with her legs curled to the side, watched Li Huowang with a pained expression as he slept.

Even in sleep, he was restless. He turned his head slightly, muttering something under his breath.

She raised her pale fingers toward the terrifying, bloody hole on his face. "How much must this hurt..."

Boom.

Li Huowang jolted awake from his dream, his hands already clamped around Bai Lingmiao's slender throat, squeezing tight.

This scare drew a cold sweat from everyone, including Li Huowang himself.

Panicked, he immediately let go. After a careful check, he found he hadn't crushed her throat. Only then did he pull her into his arms, hugging and kissing her.

"Brother Li... people are watching..."

Li Huowang stopped, his voice still shaking. "From now on, when I'm sleeping, stay away from me."

"But... we've always slept together."

"Be good, okay? I've been a bit on edge lately. We'll figure it out after this is over."

"...Alright. But Brother Li, your... eye."

"It's fine. This is better, actually. An even bigger change from before. Makes it easier to hide."

Then, Li Huowang and the others traveled across this vast grassland for three days. By noon on the third day, they finally saw a checkpoint.

Calling it a checkpoint was generous. This ramshackle place was nothing more than a low wall, with only a few border soldiers, all sprawled lazily against the wall.

"Of course. Qingqiu and Shu are allied states. They don't have that much of a guard between them," Jin Shanzhao explained, seeing the confusion in Li Huowang's eyes.

"Allied states? So the convict-soldiers won't chase us into Qingqiu?" Li Huowang asked, eyeing the bustling street ahead.

"Absolutely not. Entering Qingqiu with the Shu army would be practically equivalent to declaring war between the two sides. That's far more serious than killing a few thousand people."

Hearing this, Li Huowang felt a bit of relief.

Then a thought struck him, and he turned to appraise the old man before him. "So, you're heading back home?"

Jin Shanzhao smiled and cupped his hands toward Li Huowang. "True Man, until we meet again. I will never forget your life-saving grace."

"If one day I enter the court as an official, I will surely repay you a hundredfold."

Li Huowang chuckled. "Is that really your thing? Don't bother. Find a place to retire."

Hearing this, Jin Shanzhao's expression became rare and earnest.

"A gentleman must cultivate himself, order his family, and pacify the world! I have spent decades studying the art of statecraft. How could I let that go to waste?"

"I will realize my ambitions! To leave this land with no more strife between nations, and return a clear, bright heaven and earth to the world!"

In that moment, there seemed to be light in Jin Shanzhao's cloudy eyes.

To be honest, Li Huowang was stunned.

This old man, who seemed so timid, actually held such a great ideal in his heart.

And from the look of it, he was not just saying it for show.

Li Huowang gave Jin Shanzhao a formal Daoist salute. "Then I wish you a swift victory and the fulfillment of your grand vision."

A smiling Jin Shanzhao returned the salute. "Thank you, True Man. Then we shall part ways here."

Whoosh—whoosh— A sudden roar cut through the air.

Slash.

The smiling Jin Shanzhao was sliced in half by a massive halberd that appeared from nowhere.

Before Li Huowang's very eyes, standing right next to him, the man was bisected.