Deceived

Li Huowang was staring at the White Wuchang in the thin mist, his face grim, mentally weighing how to negotiate with this thing when he suddenly snapped awake.

The moment he came to, he immediately sensed someone nearby.

He whipped his head around and saw a toddler who looked like he had just learned to walk.

The boy was sitting on the ground in split-crotch pants, curiously poking a finger at the copper coins on Li Huowang’s mask.

Li Huowang glanced around at the others still sleeping. He bent down, scooped up the child, took a few quick steps, and placed him into a woman’s arms.

Then he stood up and walked quietly toward where Bai Sai was sleeping.

Before Li Huowang got close, Bai Sai was already awake. Li Huowang gave him a meaningful look, then headed into the surrounding woods.

Slapping a mosquito dead on his neck, Li Huowang said with a grave expression, “I just dreamed of that man. He was still watching us. He hasn’t left.”

“What?!” Bai Sai’s face instantly turned paper-white. He paced anxiously among the trees, hands clasped behind his back.

“Don’t panic. I’m just giving you a heads-up. Whatever that thing is, since I promised Bai Lingmiao I’d get you all back safely, I will.”

Hearing this, Bai Sai’s complexion improved slightly. “Good, good. With you here, benefactor, they wouldn’t dare act recklessly. But what do you think that man wants? He already took the stone; why is he still fixated on me?”

Li Huowang shook his head. The thing wasn’t right in front of him; who knew why it was doing what it was doing.

“Let’s head back. If anything happens to the others, please let me know immediately.”

Just as Li Huowang was about to leave the woods, Bai Sai’s voice came from behind.

“Ah, benefactor… do you have something going on with Second Girl?”

“What?”

“Oh, Second Girl is Lian’s daughter, Bai Lingmiao. Strictly by seniority, she’d call me Second Uncle.”

Seeing Li Huowang frozen in place, Bai Sai walked over with a sigh of emotion and looked the young daoist over again.

“Good, good. Second Girl found a good man. Very good.” He appraised Li Huowang, looking more and more pleased.

Li Huowang said with a hint of embarrassment, “Chief Bai, let’s talk about these matters after we’ve gotten through this crisis.”

“Alright, alright. Don’t worry, I won’t tell Second Girl’s parents. When you’ve made up your mind, you tell them yourself.”

With that paper now pierced, Li Huowang could clearly feel that Bai Sai’s respect for him had diminished considerably, replaced by a much greater sense of familial closeness.

“Fine. Once we’ve worked together to get through this difficulty, I’ll be looking forward to drinking at your wedding!”

Thanks to this distraction, Bai Sai’s earlier anxiety about the danger had vanished without a trace.

Everyone set off again after waking. This time they arrived at a village.

Li Huowang immediately took out silver and bought up nearly all the livestock in the village.

When the oldest, single-toothed elder saw Li Huowang spending money again and seemed about to object, Bai Sai whispered something in his ear, and without another word, the old man climbed straight onto an oxcart.

Originally, with the old and young slowing them down, they hadn’t been moving fast.

But after buying these animals, their speed increased instantly.

During this time, Li Huowang was extremely tense. Even when sleeping, he kept one eye open, terrified that the thing would launch a surprise attack.

But strangely, everything stayed very quiet afterward. The White Wuchang didn’t appear again—not even in his dreams.

“This won’t do. You can’t guard against a thief for a thousand miles. Instead of waiting, I should find a way to smoke him out,” Li Huowang thought as he traveled.

Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly noticed something was wrong. “Chief Bai, this isn’t the road back to Niuxin Mountain, is it?”

Although he had come here on horseback, the surrounding environment was clearly different. Even someone slow on the uptake would have noticed.

Bai Sai wiped the sweat from his face and nodded. “Mm, we’re not going back to Niuxin Mountain first. I know a place—it’s a real maze. If we go in and take a spin, we might be able to shake the tail following us.”

“Oh? There’s a place like that? Where?” Li Huowang couldn’t help but be curious.

“It’s not far ahead. We should make it there today.” Bai Sai, his face covered in sweat, pointed ahead.

Li Huowang looked into the distance, but there was still nothing but a dirt road.

Soon, however, the surroundings began to change. The ground grew muddy, and Li Huowang’s boots were completely covered in black mire.

Pools of stagnant water with a pungent, rotting stench appeared here and there, dense masses of black insects writhing inside.

The weather was scorching hot, and the stench, steamed by the high temperature, made people feel dizzy.

By the time the environment had completely turned into a swamp, Li Huowang was about to ask Bai Sai if they had taken a wrong turn when a vast expanse of milky-yellow reeds appeared on the muddy ground ahead.

The reeds, several meters tall, stretched in a continuous sheet, swaying gently in the wind.

“This is it. Once we go in here, even the gods won’t be able to find their way. We’ll definitely shake that man!”

As he spoke, Bai Sai began leading the Bai family into the reeds, but Li Huowang suddenly stopped him. “Chief Bai, it’s easy enough for us to go in, but will we be able to get back out?”

This place didn’t look safe at all.

Bai Sai patted Li Huowang’s shoulder with confidence. “Don’t worry. Since I’m taking my clan in, I definitely have a way out. My sons and my parents are all in there. If anyone should be worried, it’s me more than you.”

Li Huowang felt a flicker of surprise. It seemed there was something about Chief Bai that he didn’t know.

But since the other man had said as much, Li Huowang didn’t stop him any longer. The oxcarts and mules slowly began to move toward the reeds.

No sooner had they started, however, than a thin mist gradually began to spread around them.

Li Huowang was intensely familiar with this kind of mist. Without a moment’s hesitation, he gripped his sword hilt and stood squarely in front of everyone.

“You go ahead! I’ll hold the rear!”

The moment Li Huowang finished speaking, the ground trembled. The enormous White Wuchang slowly revealed a hazy outline in the mist, the wooden mask hanging on its chest swaying left and right.

Seeing that the Bai family was about to slip away from its pursuit, the thing had finally lost its patience.

Its mouth, with its long red tongue, opened wide, and thick white fog poured out, making the surroundings even more blurred.

Shing! The purple-tasseled sword left its sheath. Li Huowang, his whole body wreathed in towering killing intent, stood there like a stabilizing pillar.

When the White Wuchang in the mist still didn’t react, Li Huowang remembered what Tuoba Danqing had told him. He immediately pulled out his identification token.

“Official business of the Supervisory Heavenly Office! If you don’t want to die, get the hell away!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the surging thin mist came to an abrupt halt.

“Ah… so you’re from the Supervisory Heavenly Office too. Why didn’t you say so earlier? Isn’t this a case of the Dragon King flooding the Dragon King’s temple?”

This jarringly casual voice suddenly came from the giant White Wuchang’s mouth.

“You’re with the Supervisory Heavenly Office? How can you be with the Supervisory Heavenly Office?” A stunned Li Huowang looked up at the three-meter-tall giant before him.

The moment he had first seen this thing, Li Huowang had completely ruled out the Supervisory Heavenly Office as a possibility.

“Hang on a second.” The enormous White Wuchang slowly faded back into the white mist, and then a man wearing the wooden mask from its chest stepped out of the fog.

The man pulled an identification token from his own chest—identical to the one in Li Huowang’s hand. It was also a token of the Supervisory Heavenly Office.

“Take a look at this. I’m actually a rank higher than you.”

Once he had confirmed that the other man’s token wasn’t a fake, Li Huowang let out a long breath, and his expression softened considerably.

“Since you’re also from the Supervisory Heavenly Office, then this is easy. There must be some kind of misunderstanding.”

When the man in the wooden mask heard this, he shook his head vigorously.

“No, no, no. There’s no misunderstanding here. The White Lotus Society is a heinous group—a bunch of heretical cultivators colluding with evil spirits. My senior brother and I went through a lot of trouble to catch them, and then you show up and slash the seal my senior brother placed on them!”

“What? That’s impossible!”

His mind buzzing, Li Huowang twisted around to look back at the reeds. The last of the Bai family, Bai Sai, had already walked inside.

Bai Sai glanced at the token in Li Huowang’s hand. His eyes went cold. With a sharp turn, he vanished into the reeds.

“Brother, think about it. If they hadn’t killed so many people, would the higher-ups have sent the Supervisory Heavenly Office? And not just one agent, but two?”