Spirit Perversion

“Four hundred?!” Li Huowang’s pupils contracted at the quote. He didn’t even need to look at his gourd to know he didn’t have nearly that many.

“Don’t think it’s too steep, sir. This is a fine piece from the Great Qi era, a thousand years old. Where would you find a high monk today who could leave a relic after his cremation?”

Li Huowang truly wasn’t complaining about the price. The problem was that he genuinely didn’t have that many. He’d been too busy dealing with his hallucinations to remember to earn any Yang-Life Pills.

“Then how much was that Dharma Eye from before?” As long as it could restore Bai Lingmiao’s sight, Li Huowang didn’t care if it made her look ugly.

“Five hundred.” The eunuch’s words completely destroyed any hope Li Huowang had of replacing it with a cheaper artifact. He hadn’t expected the Dharma Eye to be even more expensive than this relic.

He was starting to see the truth of it. When it came to pure greed, no one in the world could outdo the Supervisory Heavenly Office.

He’d risked his life out in the field, trading blood for Yang-Life Pills, and when he finally came to the Inner Repository, he couldn’t afford to buy anything.

Without Yang-Life Pills, he couldn’t get Bai Lingmiao the relic. And without the relic, Bai Lingmiao would soon go blind. That was something Li Huowang absolutely could not tolerate.

Back then, Li Zhi’s gourd had only held four Yang-Life Pills. But now he needed a full four hundred. Even if he tried to rob someone, he wouldn’t know where to begin.

“But I already killed her entire family. What’s a little more sacrifice compared to that? No matter what, I have to get that relic for Bai Lingmiao!” Li Huowang walked out of the Inner Repository with heavy steps.

He didn’t leave through the main office. Instead, he went directly to the great hall filled with folding screens—the place where the Supervisory Heavenly Office assigned its tasks.

The same people were there, but Li Huowang’s attitude toward them had shifted from hostility to something more like ordinary indifference.

The Office might treat human life cheaply, but the truth was that the entire realm simply couldn’t function without them.

“Er Jiu?! You’re still alive? I thought you’d died.” Hearing the same words from this Nanguan man that he’d heard from Sima Lan before, Li Huowang couldn’t even be bothered to explain again.

“I want to take a job. Which ones pay the most?” Li Huowang asked bluntly.

Seeing the heavy look on Li Huowang’s face, Nanguan tactfully asked no further questions. He pulled out a ledger and handed it over. “Take a look yourself. The last page has them.”

Li Huowang flipped it open. A task written in cinnabar-red brushstrokes jumped out at him: “Zuowandao Hongzhong—dead or alive.”

His gaze lingered on it for a moment, then he began flipping backward through the book.

Zuowandao Facai. Zuowandao Xifeng. Zuowandao Baiban. Zuowandao. Zuowandao. Page after page of Zuowandao targets. Liu Zongyuan’s information had been right—the Office was really locking horns with the Zuowandao.

The rewards were substantial, but Li Huowang truly did not want to get involved with those tricksters.

The Three Yuans and the Four Joys were all connected. They were like sticky plasters. Kill one, and an endless trail of trouble would follow. He’d learned that lesson with Zhuge Yuan.

“Brother Er Jiu, didn’t you say before that you wanted revenge against the Zuowandao? Why not take this one?”

“I already got my revenge—at the cost of one eye. The Zuowandao who killed the Grand Elder died by my own hand.”

After flipping through a few more pages seriously, Li Huowang’s hand suddenly stopped. His finger traced slowly over two characters written in brush: “Spirit Perversion?”

Beneath the name, the reward was listed: four hundred and thirty Yang-Life Pills, plus five years of Stainless Yang-Life.

He looked up at Zhuge Yuan, who was standing beside Nanguan. “Spirit Perversion? Is it part of the ‘Spirit’ generation?”

“Brother Li, it’s not part of any generation. Everything else is, but this one isn’t.” A hint of disgust flickered across Zhuge Yuan’s face.

“That’s right. It’s a Spirit Perversion.” Nanguan picked up the thread. “But are you sure you want to take this one? Don’t just get starry-eyed over the Stainless Yang-Life. Dealing with this thing is worse than dealing with the Zuowandao. At least those are safer.”

“Is the Spirit Perversion that dangerous? What’s its origin?”

“Dangerous? Well…” Nanguan said, “it’s definitely less dangerous than a Heart-Turbid, Heart-Element, or Heart-Pan. But honestly, whether a Spirit Perversion is hard to deal with depends entirely on what it’s latched onto.”

“If it’s latched onto a person, that’s not so bad. At worst, you get a crazy half-immortal. But if it’s latched onto some powerful evil entity, or something else…” He chuckled darkly. “Heh. Then you’re in for a rough time.”

“So it’s some kind of parasitic thing…” Li Huowang began pressing Nanguan for details about Spirit Perversions.

But what he found deeply confusing was that because a Spirit Perversion’s host could be different, its abilities were completely different too. Sometimes its powers were even exact opposites.

Staring at the various records of Spirit Perversions in the ledger, Li Huowang began to assess his own chances. Could he, with his current strength, handle a situation like this?

After a moment of thought, Li Huowang finally decided to take the job. He had Hongzhong’s strength now. He wasn’t the old Li Huowang anymore. There was no reason to fear a Spirit Perversion.

Even if he couldn’t win, running away was still an option.

Besides, not all Spirit Perversions were that strong. The book even recorded a story about a monk who struck gold, finding a Spirit Perversion latched onto a blade of dog-tail grass. He’d gotten an easy score.

“This one. I’m not looking any further.” Li Huowang pressed his finger into a pad of red ink, then stamped it firmly onto the page.

“Alright. Here are four locations in the realm where our agents have found possible Spirit Perversions. You can check them all.”

“I have to go find it myself?” Li Huowang took the map.

“Of course. You didn’t think such a generous reward came for free, did you? But now that your rank is high enough, you can bring a few more people to help. That would lower the risk.”

Li Huowang had no intention of recruiting partners like the Chief Recorder had. He simply took the map and turned to leave.

The more people he brought, the more he’d have to split the reward. If he divided the payment for this job, he wouldn’t have enough to buy the relic.

After only a single night in the small courtyard in the capital, Li Huowang set out again with Li Sui and Bai Lingmiao.

He’d thought he would find the Spirit Perversion quickly, but to his surprise, the first two locations turned out to be false alarms. There wasn’t even a trace of a Spirit Perversion.

A month and a half slipped by in the blink of an eye.

Slap. Slap. Slap.

Bai Lingmiao knelt sideways, raising a wooden club and pounding it against Li Huowang’s red Daoist robe, which lay spread across a large rock by the river.

After beating it for a while, she picked up the robe, swished it through the rushing water, and began scrubbing it on the stone again.

Without soap, this was the only way to get it clean enough.

After finishing Li Huowang’s clothes, she started on her own. She washed them very carefully. Li Huowang had bought them for her in the capital.

They were beautiful clothes. She liked them a lot.

Once she had scrubbed every piece clean, she gathered them into a wooden basin and stood up.

Bai Lingmiao, holding the basin, picked up a finger-thick bamboo pole from the ground. Tapping the ground ahead of her with it, she began walking back toward the wagon.