The Big Village

Li Huowang, following beside the cart, pondered the message conveyed by the lama as he walked.

“What does ‘no more exceptions’ even mean?” Li Huowang’s mind flashed to the Lion Dance Palace and the dead Han Fu. In Qingqiu, it seemed he had only done these two things.

Bai Lingmiao shook her head with a somewhat embarrassed expression. “I don’t know. He just said ‘no more exceptions,’ and nothing else.”

In the end, Li Huowang still didn’t know the reason why the other had suddenly left.

Compared to that, he was actually more concerned about the other’s identity.

“No more exceptions… no more exceptions… So he was from the Qingqiu Supervisory Heavenly Office? So this is the Supervisory Heavenly Office…”

Li Huowang started to form a new understanding of this office he had only heard about by name. He was almost certain that within this so-called Supervisory Heavenly Office, there were bound to be many more strange people like that black-clad lama.

He just couldn’t yet tell, for now, whether this information was good news or bad for him.

Snapping back to the present, Li Huowang looked up at the sun overhead and said to the others, “Everyone, take a rest. I’ll keep watch.”

Hearing this, everyone immediately grabbed their bedding from the oxcart, threw it on the ground, and lay down, snoring almost instantly.

They had been so terrified running all this way; their bodies simply couldn’t take it anymore.

Li Huowang was tired too, but he had to force himself to stay awake. Even though the lama had said “no more exceptions,” he really couldn’t trust someone like that.

When he felt he really couldn’t hold on anymore, he would use his torture device to create a bit of pain, to stimulate himself. Li Huowang was already quite experienced at this.

Everyone slept straight until evening. When they started to prepare dinner, Li Huowang lay down on the oxcart and closed his eyes.

Exhausted, Li Huowang fell asleep, but his rest was not peaceful. Various disjointed dreams kept surging in his mind, overlapping one after another.

Suddenly, Li Huowang sat bolt upright in his sleep. “No… that lama’s aura… I’ve felt it in the White Jade Capital! That White Bodhisattva was covered in it! It’s the aura of death!”

After saying this, Li Huowang’s body went limp. Under everyone’s gaze, he lay back down and was still.

The cart wheels slowly rolled along the dirt road. The nearby trees and farmland confirmed that they had completely left Qingqiu and entered the territory of Daliang.

This made everyone’s mood much better. At least in Daliang, there weren’t those strange lamas around.

The happiest person, feeling she was about to return to her homeland, was undoubtedly Bai Lingmiao.

She hovered around Li Huowang, constantly telling stories about her hometown—from her parents to her siblings, from her neighbors to the big goose that liked to lie around at the village entrance.

But Li Huowang remained distracted the whole time. He was still thinking about that black-clad lama from before.

“I’m not wrong. What he had on him was the death aura from the White Jade Capital. The ones who used that giant cauldron to sacrifice the dead back in the underground—that must have been their sect!”

Although he didn’t know the name of their sect, since they could wield death, their power was definitely extraordinary.

It was a good thing he hadn’t clashed with him in the end. Otherwise, even if he could win, he might have paid a severe price.

“Brother Li, I’m talking to you. What are you thinking about?” Bai Lingmiao looked at Li Huowang, who was completely ignoring her, with a hint of complaint.

“Hm? What did you say?” Li Huowang looked at her.

“I said, now that we have so much silver, we can build a new house! We can live in our own place!”

“Oh, that’s great.” As Li Huowang was giving a perfunctory reply, he suddenly noticed that she wasn’t wearing her eye covering again. He immediately untied the silk ribbon from her hand.

After covering Bai Lingmiao’s eyes, Li Huowang intertwined his fingers with hers.

“How many times have I told you? You need to cover them when the sun is strong. If you keep using your eyes like this, they won’t last long before you go blind.”

After saying this, Li Huowang turned his head to look at the others around them.

He had noticed for a while now that they weren’t the only ones on the road. There were also a few lean, dark-skinned men walking together, carrying bedding on one end of their carrying poles and dry rations on the other.

They seemed afraid of this group of people in black bamboo hats, whose origins were unclear, and didn’t even dare to look their way.

If it weren’t for the presence of the Lü family troupe, who looked normal, they would probably have left already.

Li Huowang thought for a moment, then walked over to Lü Zhuangyuan, who was coaxing his grandson. He whispered a few things to him.

“Sure thing, little Daoist priest. Don’t you worry.” Feeling that he was useful, Lü Zhuangyuan tucked his tobacco pipe under his armpit and, grinning, made his way toward those men.

As Li Huowang pulled the wool plugs out of his ears, the voices of the distant conversation became clear.

“Hehe, gentlemen, where are you off to?”

“Going to catch the wheat harvest.”

“Oh?”

“The autumn harvest is coming. We’re wheat-harvesters going to the fields.”

Through their exchange, Li Huowang learned that these harvesters were tenant farmers with little land at home. During this autumn harvest season, they earned a few copper coins by harvesting for others.

As expected of Lü Zhuangyuan, a seasoned troupe leader who had traveled far and wide, it only took a few words to coax the information he wanted out of those honest, simple men.

“Little Daoist priest,” Lü Zhuangyuan reported, “He says there’s a big village up ahead, and if you keep going past it, you’ll reach a county town.”

“Heard that county town is pretty big. Quite a few people from Qingqiu bring their sheep there to sell.”

Looking at Lü Zhuangyuan’s smiling face, Li Huowang nodded. “Do they know where Niuxin Mountain is?”

Li Huowang hadn’t forgotten that one of the main reasons for their arduous journey to Liang was to send Bai Lingmiao home.

“Ah, well, they really don’t know about that. From what they say, the area around Qingqiu is pretty flat, not much in the way of mountains. The mountains start further in.”

Li Huowang’s face showed no disappointment at this, as if the other’s words had already been within his expectations.

“Since they’re locals, we’ll follow them so we don’t get lost. When we get to the county town, I’ll buy a map of Liang. Then we can decide where to go next.”

“Yes, sir!” Feeling that he was being useful, Lü Zhuangyuan chuckled as he walked back.

They followed this muddy path until the afternoon. When they emerged from a bamboo grove, the scene before them suddenly opened up.

Golden rice paddies, millet, and sorghum stretched out together like a golden ocean undulating in the breeze.

Small black dots, like ants, were busy reaping the gold before them with their sickles.

“This land of Daliang is really fertile. Back in our hometown, we’d be lucky to get a harvest this good even in a few years.” Looking at the scene before him, Lü Zhuangyuan’s eyes were full of envy.

No matter what the others thought, the wheat-harvesters, seeing all this as if they could already see their generous wages, went down into the fields and negotiated prices with the landowners.

“A good harvest is good for us too. That way, we can buy grain a bit cheaper.” With a small whip against the ox’s rump, the cart wheels slowly rolled toward this big village.