Niuxin Village

Niuxin Village

Li Huowang, wearing a bamboo hat and leading his horse, stood silently by the roadside, gazing at the distant Niuxin Village.

Months ago, he had stood in this very spot, thinking about how to explain to Bai Lingmiao that he had killed her entire family.

Today, he stood in the same place, wondering how to explain to everyone else in the village everything he had experienced during his absence.

He had achieved his goal. He was no longer tormented by hallucinations. He was about to see them again, but for some reason, his heart was filled with an inexplicable anxiety.

Compared to the desolate silence of winter, Niuxin Village in spring was noticeably more lively. People and oxen filled the fields surrounding the village.

The workers were young, clumsy-looking but earnest in their labor, though strangely, none of them were particularly handsome.

“Woof, woof!” Mantou’s bark pulled Li Huowang’s gaze back from the distance. He looked at the big yellow dog behind him. It was arching its back, baring its teeth, and growling low at Li Sui, who was in the woods.

No matter how many times Li Huowang scolded him, Mantou seemed stubbornly fixed on this matter, always showing intense hostility toward Li Sui.

“Dad, why is it barking at me? I want to play with it, but it doesn’t want to play with me.”

Li Huowang looked at Li Sui. Her writhing tentacles were tightly wrapped in a large straw rain cloak, and a wide bamboo hat draped with black gauze covered her head.

To anyone unaware of her true nature, Li Sui, dressed in the rain cloak, looked like a short but unusually obese person.

“If it doesn’t want to play with you, then go play with something else. Don’t provoke it.”

He had once needed Li Sui to suppress the hallucinations in his mind, but that was no longer necessary. For now, Li Huowang couldn’t figure out what to do with her.

Just let her fend for herself? He couldn’t bring himself to say it. From the moment she gained consciousness, he had taught her, word by word. To say he felt nothing for her would be a lie, even if she was a horrifying demon.

She might look terrifying, but her mind was incredibly simple, far too easy to deceive. In this world, a Black Tai Sui was also considered a medicinal ingredient. If he let her go, she would likely be captured by someone else before long.

For now, the only option was to keep her, just like Mantou. At least she was easy to care for and not a burden.

“Once we enter the village, don’t take off your rain cloak under any circumstances, and don’t stick your tentacles out. You’ll scare people.”

“Dad, I understand,” Li Sui replied obediently.

Her tentacles writhed as she followed Li Huowang toward the village entrance, leaving a trail of shallow slime beneath her rain cloak.

The two of them, leading a horse and accompanied by a dog, were clearly not traveling peddlers. The people in the fields immediately took notice.

“Senior Brother Li!! Senior Brother Li, you’re back!” Yang Xiao Hai, who had grown a head taller, walked excitedly out of the fields, followed closely by a round-faced woman with curious eyes.

Seeing a familiar face he hadn’t seen in a long time, Mantou wagged his tail and ran over, jumping up on Yang Xiao Hai.

Yang Xiao Hai hugged Mantou and rushed over to Li Huowang, who was leading the horse, eagerly asking, “Senior Brother Li, where have you been all this time? We missed you! Are you okay?”

As he asked, more and more people gathered around Li Huowang. By the time he reached the entrance of the Bai family compound, practically the entire village was there.

Gao Zhi Jian looked even taller than before, standing out in the crowd like a crane among chickens. He opened his mouth, stammering as if he wanted to say something, but Gou Wa beat him to it.

“Senior Brother Li! Look! This is my wife! And look at her belly, she’s about to give birth! I’m going to be a dad! Hahaha!”

Gou Wa’s joyful laughter didn’t last long before Chun Xiao Man pushed him aside. “Senior Brother Li, you’re finally back. Miao Miao has been talking about you constantly, worried sick.”

Zhao Wu, leaning on a wooden crutch, spoke excitedly from the side, “Senior Brother Li, while you were away, I kept an eye on Niuxin Village’s finances. Not only did we not burn through our savings, we actually made a tidy profit!”

Everyone was happily talking about all sorts of things. The words Li Huowang had spoken before he left were already long forgotten.

Surrounded by these people, Li Huowang felt an indescribable sense of relief. The constant tension he held inside finally relaxed.

Maybe this is what home feels like, he thought to himself.

“Hehehe~ Hehehe~ Little Daoist, you’re back at last! Come, come, come, after a long journey, step over this brazier to ward off bad luck.” Lü Zhuangyuan chuckled, placing a brazier of burning coals at the entrance.

Of course, he was happy. With this master here to hold the fort, his heart was much more at ease. Besides, Li Huowang was his landlord, which made living in this village all the more legitimate.

After Li Huowang stepped over the brazier and entered the Bai family compound, he saw Bai Lingmiao leaning against the wooden window on the second floor, a faint smile on her face as she looked at him. It was as if the person who had stormed off in anger was someone else entirely.

“You’re back? Hey, kid, go and drag a sheep and a pig out of the pen and butcher them. We’re having a feast tonight.”

“You got it!” Yang Xiao Hai agreed excitedly. He put down Mantou and dashed toward the kitchen.

Under the barking orders of the savvy Lü Zhuangyuan, everyone else went to help. Some butchered the pig, some watched the butchering. For a moment, the vast Bai family compound grew much quieter.

“Is this Li Xiong’s cherished one? Should we perhaps make ourselves scarce?” Zhuge Yuan, watching Li Huowang head upstairs, suggested considerately.

“Scarce? What for! You’re new here, you have no idea what’s gone on between them. This is where it gets interesting! I’ve been waiting for this!” Hong Zhong excitedly tried to follow, but Zhuge Yuan stopped him.

“This fellow Daoist of the Zuowandao, I think not. This is hardly the act of a gentleman,” Zhuge Yuan said, blocking his path.

“I’m no gentleman! I’m Zuowandao! I’m a liar!”

But no matter what he said, Zhuge Yuan refused to let him near.

As Li Huowang climbed the stairs to the second floor, Bai Lingmiao walked up to him generously, truly like a wife, helping him remove his weapons and the heavy pack of torture implements.

But just as she was about to say something, she frowned with disgust at the short, stout figure behind Li Huowang. She thought to herself, Who is this? How did they follow us into the bedroom? They have no sense of propriety.

“This is Li Sui. Li Sui, call her ‘Mother.’”

“Mother.”

“Mother?”

With that single word, all the words Bai Lingmiao had prepared were cut short. She looked up in shock at the strange figure in the rain cloak.

“You explain this to me right now! Where did you get a child this big! Did that little slut Yang Na give birth to him for you?!”