New Things

Li Huowang’s face was grim. He steadied the Zhuge spine sword in his grip, staring at the bamboo-green viper coiled around a stalk of emerald bamboo some distance away.

He sank his breath into his dantian, then lashed out with both hands, throwing all his strength into a single sideways cut of the spine sword.

The next instant, something like an invisible blade seemed to arc from the edge. Whatever that half-moon arc touched, it twisted into something else.

The emerald bamboo leaves turned withered yellow, pitted with insect holes. The viper flicking its tongue became a snake.

Crackling sounds of bamboo leaves and stalks rubbing against each other filled the air as the broken segments of bamboo scraped down and fell. When the arc of force gradually faded, all the twisted things vanished along with it.

Li Huowang began testing his new weapon on the bamboo grove, over and over again. The whole grove was soon left unrecognizable.

After a few days of practice, he could control the spine sword with precision. He could now not only use that “blade arc” to cut something into three pieces, but also, if he faced something he couldn’t handle, expand the “blade arc” wide enough to dump the whole mess into Great Qi.

In essence, that “blade arc” was actually more like another layer of history. Thinking about it, it was obvious that this kind of thing could not be blocked by ordinary magical tools or techniques.

On top of that, it was invisible and colorless, hard to dodge. More importantly, it was penetrative—even if someone was standing in the way, it didn’t help.

An hour later, Li Huowang stood where he was, panting heavily, staring in astonishment at the spine sword in his hand.

He had to admit—this thing really was worthy of being a magical tool refined from a Heart-Entwined being. This sword was powerful, stronger than any other magical tool he had on him.

Good thing he had closed in to fight that woman at close range. If she’d kept her distance and used this spine sword against him, he would have been in serious trouble.

“With this sword, my strength has gone up by at least forty percent,” Li Huowang said to himself. He picked up a strip of white cloth from the ground and began to wrap it around the blade.

“Dad, why are you wrapping it?” Sui, who was crouching beside him, asked curiously.

“Because I stole this from the Supervisory Heavenly Office. If I just hang it on my back in plain sight with nothing covering it, and the Office sees it—what do you think would happen?”

“What would happen?”

“You’d be… tsk.” He exhaled. “You’d end up hunted down by them.”

Li Huowang picked up some bamboo splinters from the ground and tied them onto the blade, making the whole spine sword look bulky, more like a heavy bladeless sword on the surface.

When he was done, he took out several black talismans he had prepared and stuck them on. These talismans had no actual meaning at all.

“Dad, what are these talismans for?”

“Just random scribbles to fool people. I don’t even understand what I drew, so naturally nobody else will either. Most people stay clear of things they can’t understand.”

“So that’s what it means to fool someone?”

Once everything was ready, Li Huowang slung the sword back onto his back and led Sui back toward the cart.

“Dad, you’re carrying so many swords. Isn’t it heavy? Want me to carry them for you?”

Hearing this, Li Huowang tossed the Luo Sect coin sword at him. “Carry this one for me.”

Sui’s seven or eight tentacles immediately coiled around it, threading in and out of the coin holes. It was obvious he was delighted to have a new weapon. “Thanks, Dad!”

“Don’t thank me yet. I didn’t say I was giving it to you. I just said you can carry it. When I need it, give it back.”

“Oh.”

Hearing the drop in Sui’s voice, Li Huowang let out a laugh through his nose. He reached under Sui’s bamboo hat and lightly patted the skinless scalp.

“Fine, fine. When I’m not using it, you can take it.”

“Great!”

Li Huowang shook his head helplessly at the joy in Sui’s voice. The thing looked terrifying enough, but he was still like a little kid who hadn’t grown up.

Back when he was still inside his belly, to keep him from harming him, Li Huowang had taught him to be this naive. At this point, it seemed like that had been a bad thing.

“Come on, stop grinning like an idiot. We’re heading back.”

When Li Huowang brought Sui back to the cart, the wheels started turning again, rolling out of the woods.

Li Huowang still had no intention of going straight back to Niuxin Village. To keep tabs on the imperial succession struggle, he sneaked off to the relay stations every few days to fish for news.

If the emperor really did ascend the throne, the news would definitely spread to all government offices via the relay stations across the land. He planned to wait until everything was settled before going back.

But what disappointed him was that the capital remained silent. There was still no movement.

As long as the emperor had not ascended the throne, and as long as those imperial family members had not all died, he would not be able to rest easy.

That thought was starting to annoy Li Huowang. Under these circumstances, always on edge, it was hard to find a quiet place to cultivate the Dao properly.

“Stop driving the horse. Let it rest too. Whether we go fast or slow, it’s all the same.”

After saying this to Sui, who was driving the cart, Li Huowang turned to Bai Lingmiao, who was holding a book, and asked, “Can you still read what’s in the book?”

Even though there were still some flecks of pink in Bai Lingmiao’s eyes, most of them were now covered in white. If you only looked at her eyes, she was indeed blind.

“Brother Li, I can see it.” Bai Lingmiao ran her slender, pale fingers over the characters, her voice soft. “Even though my eyes can’t see, I can feel the places where the ink dyed the paper. They’re different from the blank spots. Very clearly.”

“What book are you reading?” Li Huowang asked again.

“Some techniques for the Spirit Invocation. I can’t do the spirit dance anymore, and I’m completely unarmed now. So I thought I should learn something to protect myself.”

“The White Lotus stuff is useless junk. Don’t worry, I’m here. I can protect you.”

The strands of white hair on either side of Bai Lingmiao’s face swayed gently as she shook her head. “Brother Li, I can’t always rely on you. You’ll have to leave me sometimes too. Even if the White Lotus methods are no good, they’re still better than nothing.”

This made Li Huowang pause. He sensed a change in Bai Lingmiao’s personality. She was tougher now.

“Wait. Don’t study that for now. I just remembered something that would be perfect for you in your current state.” Li Huowang pulled open the cart curtain and reached into Sui’s belly to rummage around.

Soon, he pulled out the book on talismans he had once given to Sui to study.

“Dad, that’s mine.” There was a trace of grievance in Sui’s voice.

“I know it’s yours. What’s wrong with letting your mother learn from it?” Li Huowang placed the book in Bai Lingmiao’s hands. “Study this. These talismans can be used for injuring enemies, self-defense, divination, fortune-telling—everything.”

“Besides, unlike us, you can use it freely. Your eyes are already blind, so its side effects are useless against you.”

(End of chapter)