The Retreat

Li Huowang didn't dare walk too fast through the peach-wood forest thick with the smell of charcoal. The bones and flesh at his waist were still active, as if they might snap at any moment.

Seeing him move further and further away, the fat woman's face grew anxious.

"Hey, young man! I don't want anything else! I just want the five years of untainted yang-life from the reward! Name your price! I'll buy it!"

"Not for sale!" Li Huowang refused without hesitation. He was saving that kind of side-effect-free yang-life to extend Bai Lingmiao's short lifespan.

The fat woman seemed reluctant to give up, trailing him from a distance. But when Li Sui appeared, crawling on all fours and baring her gleaming white teeth in a threatening growl, the woman finally stopped.

"Li... Li-shixiong?" Bai Lingmiao stared at the blurry black shape in the distance, her soft voice carrying a note of hesitation. It had been red just a moment ago, and now it was suddenly black?

Li Huowang mounted the horse immediately, enduring the searing pain throughout his body as he urged the draft horse forward.

"I'll explain later! Someone's on to us. We need to get out of here fast."

The cart raced along the dirt road in the dead of night. They ran for several hours straight, all the way until noon the next day, when the horse began foaming at the mouth. Only then did Li Huowang stop.

Seeing no one following, he breathed a slight sigh of relief. Whether the woman was wary of him or something else, at least she hadn't stuck to him like a persistent ghost.

Li Huowang had been forcing himself to hold on through a night of pain with his broken body, but now he finally gave out. He collapsed backward behind the carriage curtain.

"Miaomiao, I'm going to sleep. Don't touch anything on the bronze coin sword."

When the back of his head met the soft fabric, Li Huowang instantly lost consciousness.

This time, he slept for a long time. When he opened his eyes again, he saw Bai Lingmiao brushing something onto his charred body with a brush.

He took a light sniff. The particular smell told him it was badger oil for burns.

"How long have I been out?" Li Huowang's words let Bai Lingmiao know he was awake.

"Li-shixiong, you've been asleep for three days. I sewed up the wound on your chest and your waist with thread."

"Oh." Li Huowang suddenly thought of something. With a jolt, he sat up straight.

Ignoring the pain of his split, seared skin, he immediately reached for the bronze coin sword beside him. When he saw that it was no longer emitting black smoke, his heart sank.

"Li-shixiong, were you looking for that invisible thing? I bought a wooden box from the peddler and put it away for you."

Carefully opening the wooden box, Li Huowang used the other end of his chopsticks to gently poke into the seemingly empty container. Feeling that strange resistance, he finally relaxed. The Spirit-Blight was still there.

"Li-shixiong, are you hungry? I made some soup." Bai Lingmiao lifted the curtain to leave, but Li Huowang stopped her.

"I'll serve myself. Don't touch the fire in your condition, or you'll burn yourself again."

As Li Huowang climbed down from the cart, the freshly healed scabs on his body cracked open one after another, oozing blood.

It still hurt a lot, but after enduring so much, he was starting to get used to it.

When he emerged from the cart, he saw that it was dark outside. Li Sui was crouched by the campfire, holding a book, her hideous claws tracing something in the air.

"Dad? You're awake?" Li Sui looked up at him.

"Learning to draw talismans? Good. Study hard."

Li Huowang gently patted her head, then picked up a bowl with one hand and reached into the pot to scoop out some soup.

But just as he lifted a bowl of hot soup, Li Sui stuck her head over and began licking it furiously with her tongue.

"What are you doing?" Li Huowang curled his charred fingers and flicked her hard on the skull.

"Dad, can't I eat it? I always used to eat first."

This made Li Huowang size up the Li Sui in front of him. It seemed Mantou's memories and thoughts had merged into Li Sui's mind.

"It's fine. Eat, eat." Li Huowang placed the bowl in front of her.

Watching Li Sui quickly lap up the hot soup, he said softly, "Li Sui, I'm badly hurt, and your mother's almost blind. On the road ahead, you'd better take care of things a bit."

"Okay. What do I need to do?"

"Wash clothes, wash dishes, start fires... if that's too much, at least gather firewood," Li Huowang said.

"Second Mother's doing all that. If I do it, wouldn't Second Mother have nothing to do?"

"Second Mother?"

"Mm. The one who likes wearing the red hat. I like Second Mother. We sometimes chat secretly."

"We also go outside to catch meat to eat. Once we caught a really big piece of meat, and we split it, half each."

"Er Shen? When did she and Li Sui get so close?" Li Huowang thought it over and decided this wasn't a bad thing.

"Alright. When your Second Mother is working, you help her."

"Mm. Got it."

Watching Li Sui open her bloody maw, her tongue with its black tentacles lolling to the left, Li Huowang smiled knowingly. He reached out his left arm, pulled her head into his embrace, and patted it gently.

"Thanks for earlier, back in the peach forest. If you hadn't helped, that would have been a close one."

Li Sui had no time to answer. Smelling a familiar scent, she extended her tongue and kept licking Li Huowang's charred skin.

"Suisui, is there anything you want to do?" Li Huowang asked softly.

"I want to stay by Dad's side forever."

"You can't stay by my side forever. You're my daughter, not a pet."

"Not now, that's fine. You'll have something eventually. Think about it slowly, carefully. When you've figured it out, tell Dad. I'll see if I can help."

"Dad, I don't understand."

"You'll understand later. Now, take a bowl of soup to your mother. After we eat, we should sleep. We've got more traveling to do tomorrow."

Nothing more was said that night. But when Li Huowang woke up, he found the cart beneath him was moving. It seemed he had overslept again.

Pushing Li Sui, who was half-lying on top of him, aside, Li Huowang lifted the curtain and stuck his head out. The cart was in the middle of a bustling market district.

"Looks like we've entered a city. Which city is this?"

Li Huowang pulled out a map and looked. The place was called Linzhang. It wasn't as grand as Shangjing or Yinling, but it could be considered a major city.

"At this speed, we can reach Shangjing in ten days at most." Li Huowang traced a faint black line on the map with his charred finger.

"Li-shixiong, you're awake? You seem really tired. Maybe we should rest here for a few days," Bai Lingmiao suggested.

Looking at her almost completely white eyes, Li Huowang shook his head slightly. "Forget it. Once we've replaced your eyes, we'll go back to Niuxin Village and rest slowly. No need to stir up trouble."

Li Huowang said this, and he intended to do it. But even if he didn't go looking for trouble, trouble came looking for him.

The gaze was so open and direct that Li Huowang couldn't ignore it even if he tried.

He looked up and saw the fat woman from the peach forest, standing on the third floor of an impressive-looking tavern, smiling and cupping her hands in his direction.

"It seemed they hadn't shaken her off after all."