The Trap in the Bamboo Grove

Li Huowang wanted to cast a divination, but finding human bones in this small fishing village on Apricot Island wasn't easy. He had to use his own. Fortunately, after he was done, the bone wasn't ruined.

After divining with his own arm bone, Li Huowang reinserted the cracked bone back into the flesh.

"Now I just need to go find where the cracks in the bone lead," Li Huowang murmured to himself as he walked toward the small seaside fishing village.

The whole village was small; a few steps and you'd run into someone you knew.

He spotted a sallow-faced woman in the distance, buying steamed buns with her daughter. She hesitated for a long time before finally buying one coarse grain bun for herself and half a red bun for her daughter.

Seeing the impoverished mother and daughter, Li Huowang's heart softened. He gave the reins a gentle flick, guiding his cart closer.

"Benefactor…" When the woman saw Li Huowang, she quickly bowed in greeting. As if remembering something, her expression was full of fear and trepidation.

The little girl, shyly, buried herself in her mother's embrace, not daring to look up.

"What are you doing on Apricot Island with your daughter?" Li Huowang asked, sizing her up.

"My… my husband died. I came here to seek out relatives," the woman said cowering, not daring to meet Li Huowang's eyes, her expression utterly humble.

Li Huowang thought for a moment, reached into his chest, and pulled out the money he had won playing cards. He stuffed it directly into the little girl's hand.

"She's still small, but even so, half a red bun for a meal isn't enough. Take this and buy her something to eat."

Before the woman could react, Li Huowang had already driven the cart toward the inn in the distance.

This talisman divination was both useful and useless. It was utterly impossible to control the timing. Once the divination was done, all you could do was wait for fate to come knocking on its own.

He could take this chance to rest properly at the inn, gather his strength for the coming crisis.

Entering the inn, it was the same old routine: wash, eat, sleep.

Li Huowang thought he would have to go to considerable effort to find Zhuge Yuan, but he hadn't expected someone on the island to find him first.

Li Huowang, sinking into sleep, suddenly snapped his eyes open with alertness. He nudged the steamed bun beside his bed with his foot. Someone was outside the door.

Bang, bang, bang. The door was suddenly pounded. "Daoist Li? Are you there, Daoist Li? Daoist Li?"

The voice outside the door was very thin, androgynous, grating on the ears.

Dressing quickly, Li Huowang pulled the door open a crack and peered out with extreme caution.

The visitor wore blue silk, a jade pendant at his waist, an air of wealth. A thin, long mustache hung beneath his nose, yet despite this appearance, his face was heavily powdered and rouged. The moonlight hit his face, making it deathly pale.

Li Huowang felt this person was strange, but he couldn't quite say what was so strange about him.

"Is it Daoist Li? My master has been waiting for some time. Please, follow me." The man bowed, his tone genial as he asked again.

"And who is your master?" Li Huowang's hand had already found the hilt of the Purple-Tasseled Sword, though when it got there, he wasn't sure.

"My master's surname is Zhuge, given name Yuan, style name Chenmo, and his title is the Storyteller. Did Daoist Li not cast a divination for my master today? He knew you had arrived."

Li Huowang's heart lurched at these words. He had cast a divination for Zhuge Yuan, and the man knew instantly who did it and could pinpoint his location.

It seemed that using this divination on some powerful people was a bad idea. If an enemy knew his location, he'd be in trouble.

Seeing Li Huowang standing at the door without answering, the man began to urge him. "Daoist Li, are you coming or not? If not, I'll go back and tell my master."

"Lead the way." With a creak, Li Huowang pushed the door open and followed him downstairs. The entire inn was utterly silent, only the sound of their two sets of footsteps.

Outside the inn, under the silver moonlight, a pure white sedan chair appeared before Li Huowang. Four black-clad bearers stood as still as statues, not moving a muscle, their appearance extremely bizarre.

"Daoist Li, please get in the sedan chair. The place where my master lives is quite a distance, so we should hurry." The man chuckled as he walked to the sedan, pulling the curtain aside with a withered hand.

Li Huowang's brow furrowed deeper, a sense of unease rising in his heart.

But remembering the spindle Zhuge Yuan had given him, and the man's soothing tone, Li Huowang finally sat down in the sedan chair.

A creaking sound arose as the sedan chair was lifted by the bearers, who began to run forward with a rushing hu, hu, hu.

"How long will it take us to get to Master Zhuge's place from here?" Li Huowang's inquiry went unanswered. When he lifted the sedan curtain to look outside, he found the man from before had vanished without a trace.

It wasn't just that man who had disappeared; the four bearers were also incredibly strange. Their limbs seemed to have no joints, moving stiffly and straight as they ran, their eyes wide and staring, never blinking.

This bizarre change immediately heightened Li Huowang's suspicions. "What's going on? Could it be that these people weren't sent by Zhuge Yuan?"

As Li Huowang stood on guard, the scenery outside the sedan chair began to change. The layered black roof tiles of the fishing village gradually faded, replaced by the dark green of bamboo leaves.

Amidst the countless layers of dark green bamboo trunks, something seemed to hide, something barely perceptible.

Hee hee hee. A sound like tittering laughter came from deep within the bamboo grove, but when Li Huowang listened closely, he found it was just the sound of bamboo leaves rustling in the wind.

And so, Li Huowang continued on, sitting in the swaying sedan chair, traveling through the bamboo grove.

The journey lasted a very, very long time. A full two hours passed, and still, Li Huowang was within the bamboo grove.

"This bamboo forest is certainly vast," Li Huowang muttered to himself, when suddenly he saw something that made his pupils contract to pinpricks.

"Wait! I saw that rock not long ago! You haven't been traveling at all! You've been going in circles! Stop the sedan chair!!"

Hearing Li Huowang's words, the black bearers not only failed to stop but moved their limbs even faster.

With a clang, the Purple-Tasseled Sword was drawn from its sheath, quickly cutting a hole in the sedan's floor. Li Huowang brought his feet together and plunged down.

But as soon as he landed, the ground, covered in withered yellow bamboo leaves, sank as if made of ox sinew, trying to wrap around him.

Li Huowang leveled his longsword and slashed horizontally. Accompanied by a scream that was not of human origin, the bulging earth sprayed forth thick blood and rapidly subsided.

Gasping for breath, Li Huowang stood firm in the bamboo grove. The white sedan and black bearers were gone. He was utterly alone.

"What the hell were those things? How did they know I divined for Zhuge Yuan? Could the evil spirits on Apricot Island have become some kind of refined monster?"