The Blind Man

Chapter 288 The Blind Man

Inside the dim, oppressive temple thick with the scent of sandalwood, Li Huowang stood before three clay statues, turning a question over in his mind. Was that voice real, or was it the hallucination?

He had barely entered this village, and the Zuowandao hadn’t even shown themselves yet, but he was already getting himself twisted up.

Just as Li Huowang continued to wrestle with the question, the door was suddenly pushed open from outside. A white-haired temple keeper stuck half his head in, holding up a lantern. The dim candlelight illuminated everything inside the shrine.

By the weak glow of the lantern, he surveyed the interior of the village temple, paying special attention to the beams overhead.

But after a full circle, he hadn’t found a single person.

“Strange. No thief. Then why is the lock broken?” The suspicious temple keeper made another round, then pulled out a hemp rope and tied the tiger-head door handle tightly shut.

He was about to go back inside to sleep, but after a moment’s thought, he still felt uneasy. Deciding to be safe, he grabbed a straw mat from inside and lay down right at the temple’s main entrance. “Ah, this should keep the thieves out.”

As for Li Huowang, who had been inside the temple moments ago, he naturally hadn’t been trapped in there. He had already slipped out. Now he stood on a nearby rooftop, silently watching the temple keeper’s every move from above.

But aside from that one sound earlier, everything else was perfectly normal.

If not for the letter saying there really were traces of the Zuowandao here, Li Huowang would have thought this was just an ordinary village. If he had been passing through while traveling, he probably would have overlooked it completely.

Thinking back to that voice, Li Huowang’s brow furrowed even deeper.

“This won’t do. I can’t even trust my own senses right now. I’ll have to have Bai Lingmiao and the others come in. Let them see if there’s a sound.”

With that thought, Li Huowang hesitated no longer. He swung himself off the roof and headed out of the village.

The night village was very quiet. Aside from the faint barking of dogs in the distance, there was no other sound.

On the narrow path, a few fireflies flitted up and down among the weeds by the wall. Li Huowang walked along the road, but the further he went, the more something felt wrong.

It wasn’t the sharp prickle of being watched. It was something else, something he couldn’t quite put into words.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw no one behind him.

“What? Has someone spotted me?” Li Huowang, still walking, suddenly pressed his back against the mud-brick wall beside him, slowly edging toward the corner he had just passed.

In his invisible state, he moved steadily, but not slowly. His hand was already gripping the hilt of his sword, ready to cut down anyone who came around the bend.

Closer. Closer. Li Huowang’s heart beat faster and faster.

The moment he reached the turn, he took a deep breath, pressed his lips together, and was about to draw his sword—

A yellow mud wall stood before him.

Staring at the wall, Li Huowang felt as if he had punched something as hard as iron with a clenched fist.

He tried to turn around, but a pair of hands like iron clamps held him firmly in place.

“How is this possible?! I’m invisible right now! How did he find me?” Before Li Huowang could even finish the thought, a voice came from behind him.

“Shh—Don’t move! Let them hold onto you a little longer… Let them gather a bit more.”

The moment he heard that voice, lowered to barely a whisper, Li Huowang’s heart leaped into his throat. He stayed where he was, just as the other had instructed, his mind racing to identify the speaker.

“Ah, bad luck. It got away again.”

When Li Huowang felt the grip on his arms release, the first thing he did was turn to look at the speaker.

By the faint light of the fireflies all around, Li Huowang saw a blind man.

He was a lean old blind man, dressed in a wrinkled black gown, with a pair of worn cloth shoes on his feet. Besides the bamboo basket on his back, the only other thing he had was the yellowed bamboo staff in his hand, polished smooth by years of use. A black cotton skullcap sat atop his clouded white eyes. The sparse goatee beneath his mouth did nothing to lend him an air of immortal grace; instead, it added a touch of shabbiness.

Seeing him like this, Li Huowang understood how the man had so easily detected him. He was completely blind.

As Li Huowang sized him up, the man was observing him in return, though not with his eyes. He was using his nose.

“Heavy smell of blood. You’re from the Military Sect? My surname is Chen. If you don’t mind, friend, you can call me Blind Chen. I’m a Ninth-Grade Agent of the Supervisory Heavenly Office.” He held up an iron token identical to the one Li Huowang carried.

“No, sir. I’m a junior cultivator from the Ao-Jing Sect. My name is Er Jiu. My rank is a Tenth-Grade Agent in the office. Greetings, Senior Chen.” Li Huowang produced his own token as well.

Hearing this, a look of understanding crossed the other man’s face. “Oh—so you’re one of those Ao-Jing people. Since you’re here, you must be the reinforcement I was told about, right?”

With that, he kept tapping his staff on the ground as he spoke, and strode quickly toward the village exit.

“Come on. We’ll talk as we walk. I got here before you, so I can fill you in on a few things.”

Watching his back, Li Huowang smiled and followed after him.

“Senior Chen, have you been handling everything here before? Could you tell me what’s wrong with this village? And what were those ‘them’ you mentioned just now?”

“Don’t know what they are yet. That’s what I’m trying to figure out. All I know is, those things can move through the mud. Just now, they spotted you. They were about to make a move on you.”

“Is that so? Then this evil spirit is proving to be a bit troublesome.” Li Huowang’s tone was calm, going along with it.

“You said it. An evil spirit that can burrow through the ground—who knows what it looks like? But then again, if it weren’t for things like this, we wouldn’t have any pay to collect.”

“By the way, kid, since the office sent you as reinforcement, do you have any special skills?”

“Senior Chen flatters me. I have no special skills. Just the usual old tricks of the Ao-Jing Sect.” As Li Huowang answered, his gaze never left the man’s eyes, watching him without pause.

“Heh heh, you say that, but everyone knows you Ao-Jing folks are no pushovers. It’s just that finding the right catalyst for your rituals is always a pain. Say, did you come alone?”

“Ah, I came alone. Did Senior Chen come alone as well?”

“Ah, yes. Same as you. Came alone. Heh heh.” After Blind Chen said this, neither of them spoke again. They continued walking toward the village exit.

Only when they reached the outskirts of the village did they start talking again.

“So, Senior Chen, what you’re saying is, there’s still no way to deal with them yet?”

Sitting on a moss-covered stone, Blind Chen let out a sigh. “Who would’ve thought I’d live to see the day I had to call for backup? As you know, I’m blind. Those mud-devils are as slippery as loaches. Can’t catch them at all. And even if I do, I can only grab one at a time.”

“Ah, right, kid Er. For a situation like this, do you have any way to flush them out?”

As he said this, Blind Chen’s tone became extremely confident. “All you need to do is find a way to force them all out. Don’t let the fact that I’m blind fool you. When it comes to a real face-off, gong against gong, drum against drum, Blind Chen here isn’t afraid of them!”