Hope

Chapter 369: Hope

Bai Lingmiao, who looked terrifyingly unsettling, smiled softly and nestled against Li Huowang’s chest, shifting to a more comfortable angle and rubbing against him lightly.

“Look how scared you are. Lie down first. I’ll explain it to you slowly.”

The tension in Li Huowang’s body melted away, but his heart clenched tight. Was the Bai Lingmiao in front of him the Da Shen or the Er Shen?

He had to be certain about this. It would determine what he did next.

Bai Lingmiao narrowed her eyes in thought, then suddenly let out an inexplicable laugh.

“What are you laughing at? Spit it out!”

“Aiyah, I really don’t know how to tell you. That kind of feeling is hard to explain with ordinary words.”

“Then use the simplest words. The simpler the better.”

Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao thought for a moment before slowly speaking. “Huowang, do you know what a person is made of? Or rather, what pieces are people pieced together from?”

This question made Li Huowang frown. He had no idea what this gibberish about “pieces” was supposed to explain.

“Hey~ Huowang, take a guess. Just guess.” Bai Lingmiao’s deliberate, coquettish plea made Li Huowang deeply uncomfortable. The old Bai Lingmiao had never acted like this.

“Flesh and mortal bones?”

“Mm-mm~” Bai Lingmiao shook her head slightly. “If I had to put it another way, a person is formed from the Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings. The Ten Emotions are: Joy, Anger, Sorrow, Greed, Resentment, Infatuation, Fear, Love, and Hatred. The Eight Sufferings are: Birth, Aging, Sickness, Death, Meeting What One Hates, Separation from What One Loves, Not Getting What One Desires, and the Flaring of the Five Aggregates.”

“Everyone has the Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings. Some have more, some have less, but everyone has them. Whatever a person does, it’s because of these things.”

Li Huowang’s heart stirred. “Who told you all this? The immortal?”

“What’s the rush! Let your old lady finish talking.” Bai Lingmiao glared at him in displeasure before continuing. “When a person doesn’t use some of their Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings, they don’t just disappear. They get hidden away.”

“For ordinary people, hiding them is fine. But it’s different for those who perform the spirit-dance. A spirit-dance usually has two sides: a Da Shen and an Er Shen.”

Li Huowang glanced silently at the two women flanking him—one on each side—and waited for her to continue.

“Although we share the Eight Sufferings, the Ten Emotions are split between us. Back then, the immortal used my hidden emotions, mixed them with some of their own scattered bits, and finally mixed them into the Er Shen.”

“So you’re saying...”

“So you’re saying that we are one person. We might have some differences in memory, but we are both Bai Lingmiao. It’s just because of the killing aura that I’ve been using too much Joy, Anger, Resentment, Hatred, and Greed. So naturally, she has none left to use.”

“The old Bai Lingmiao didn’t use much of those emotions, so naturally, those went to the Er Shen.”

Li Huowang stared at the face so close to his, his mind in a chaotic mess. This was all new to him.

“Who told you this? The immortal? Don’t trust them too much! They might be lying to you!”

“What are you saying? The immortals aren’t the Zuowangdao. It wouldn’t be any fun for them to trick you with something everyone knows.”

The speaker was Red Center. The moment he appeared, Li Huowang instinctively pulled the blanket over Bai Lingmiao’s body.

“You know about this ‘Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings’ too?” Li Huowang asked him hesitantly.

“What’s so new about that? It’s common knowledge. Haven’t you been hiding in the Supervisory Heavenly Office? Just go find a few people and ask. You’ll know if I’m telling the truth or not.”

After all this time in this world, Li Huowang was only now hearing about this “Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings.”

“That kid from the Luo Cult with the Nascent Soul... he seemed to mention it before. I just didn’t pay attention.”

Li Huowang remembered that his cultivation philosophy seemed to be about shedding all the Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings to become the One and Only.

“So, Huowang, do you get it now? I’ve just got a bit more Joy, Anger, Resentment, Hatred, and Greed on me. But Bai Lingmiao is still Bai Lingmiao. And this kind of Bai Lingmiao... she’s more at ease. More... comfortable!”

“No. The original one... that’s the Bai Lingmiao I know!”

Bai Lingmiao wasn’t the least bit agitated by this. She simply pointed at the Er Shen beside her. “Then isn’t she right there? That timid, spineless, weak Bai Lingmiao.”

Li Huowang raised his head to look at the Er Shen. When he saw that pitiful, helpless look within the enormous beast-like pupils—that familiar yet unfamiliar gaze—he reached out involuntarily and gently pulled her into his embrace.

“Fine. You two get busy. I’ll make room.” After putting on her bellyband and undergarments, Bai Lingmiao pulled aside the bed curtain and left.

Li Huowang pressed his cheek gently against her, feeling the cold snake scales and the sharp points of hedgehog quills scraping across his skin.

“Don’t worry. I will bring you back. I promise.” Li Huowang’s words were resolute.

In the days that followed, under the care of Bai Lingmiao and the Er Shen, Li Huowang’s body gradually recovered. But his anxiety grew with each passing day.

It had been so long. The Chief Recorder had sent no news, and Li Huowang couldn’t help worrying that something had gone wrong with him.

Another day, before dawn, Li Huowang woke up. As he propped himself up on the bed frame and sat up, a soft little foot kicked him hard.

“Hey! You’re so annoying! You woke me up again!”

Li Huowang was used to it by now. He threw off the covers, got up, and quickly pulled them back to keep the warmth in.

He opened the window, flipped himself onto the roof tiles, then patted his stomach. He pulled out a primer and began to read aloud.

A tentacle coiled around a double-pupiled eyeball emerged from his belly button, leaning close to the book to read along.

Listening to the voice that perfectly overlapped with his own recitation, Li Huowang understood that this book’s task was almost complete. He would need to find something else to teach Li Sui.

But he was stumped on what to teach next. At his level, he could only manage primers.

He had no idea how to teach those dense, obscure texts written in classical Chinese.

“Should I just give up? I don’t plan on making him a top scholar anyway. He talks clearly now and our relationship is good. That’s already what I set out to achieve.”

“Dad, I want to learn this.” Li Sui used a tentacle to roll a sheet of yellow paper in front of Li Huowang.

“You want to learn how to draw talismans?” Regardless of whether they would work, the thought of a wriggling, tentacled monster drawing talismans and performing rituals was just... bizarre.

Just as Li Huowang was hesitating about whether to try it, a dark shadow flashed across the sky. The moment Li Huowang looked up, a bundle of letters came tumbling down.

“This is...” Li Huowang’s heart pounded violently. He tore it open quickly, and when he saw the opening words—“To Er Jiu for your perusal”—his pupils shrank to pinpricks.

“This is the thing the Chief Recorder promised me!”

Trembling with excitement, Li Huowang read it word by word, searching frantically for the two characters “Bei Feng.”

As he searched, he suddenly stopped. His breathing grew rapid and ragged, his palms sweating.

“Since our parting at Yinling, a little over twenty days have passed. Today...”

According to the record from the Supervisory Heavenly Office, this Zuowangdao member, Bei Feng, was a Heart-Element, just like himself!

It was precisely because he was a Heart-Element that he could use the Bewilderment in his heart to wash away the obsession that accumulated with age. And in the end, he had lived to be a hundred and ninety-four years old!

That wasn’t all. Based on the Office’s extensive dealings with him, Bei Feng truly had a way to get rid of the hallucinations!

At that moment, tears of excitement welled up in Li Huowang’s eyes. He had endured countless hardships along this journey, and at last, in this moment, he could feel hope!