Mutated Tao

Li Huowang slowly sipped the tea from his cup. He didn’t really like drinking tea; it was just that the meal tonight was too salty for him.

Using the cover of the cup to block the tea leaves, he took a light sip as the bitterness of the tea filled his mouth.

“Dammit. I should’ve known that they wouldn’t have any good tea leaves,” said Li Huowang as he spat out the tea and placed the teacup down before heading back into his room. Due to the nightmare from last night, he didn’t get a proper night of sleep; he needed to recover his strength for tomorrow.

However, even as he walked back to his room, Li Huowang’s mind did not stop. He was thinking about his nightmare as well as the two pieces of jade.

If I get sucked into my hallucination once again, should I try taking something from that side and bringing it here?

However, Li Huowang did not hesitate long.

Yeah, I should try it; however, I can’t try it with the pendant. I need to take something that doesn’t exist on this side, such as a bottle of saline solution or a pair of handcuffs. If I can’t bring it over here, then I will know for sure that the world over there is fake. After that, there won’t be any reason for me to keep thinking about that place. But… what if I am able to bring something over here?

Amidst his thoughts, Li Huowang arrived at his room.

Creak.

He pushed the door open, but the scene inside instantly caused his thoughts to grind to a halt.

There were red candles lined up on the table and the walls were decorated with the upside down character for ‘prosperity’. Everything was red, from the pillows to the sheets to the… to the red veil on Bai Lingmiao’s head.

Staring at the scene in front of him, Li Huowang’s heart started racing. For a moment, he stopped right in between the red colored room and the dark night outside.

He felt conflicted.

He knew what it would mean if he walked in. Not only would he have a wife, but he would also have a responsibility and an oath to uphold.

After a moment of hesitation, he took a deep breath and walked inside, locking the door behind him. Then, he approached the bride and asked, “Are you sure about this? You know that I suffer from hallucinations. Are you truly willing to accept marrying an insane person like me?”

“Mm-hmm.” A small pair of hands reached out, gently grabbing his large hands. “Senior Li, as they say: you follow the chicken if you get married to one and you follow the dog if you get married to one. No matter what happens, I will live with you for the rest of my life.”

Her voice was as soft as usual, but a strong sense of determination could be felt from her voice right now.

Since she had said as such, Li Huowang would not be able to call himself a man if he hesitated anymore.

Just as he extended his arms to raise the red veil, Bai Lingmiao turned away. “Senior Li, it’s embarrassing… Could you please extinguish the light?”

Hearing this, Li Huowang waved his sleeves and the red candles were immediately extinguished.

On that night, both of them coiled around on the bed, and Li Huowang finally understood what they meant when they said girls were made from water.

Four hours later, within the completely dark room of the newly-weds, Li Huowang lay on the bed, panting heavily. He gently caressed the head of the girl that was laying on his chest as he recalled the wondrous feeling he had just experienced.

“Husband~”

A single call from her sent a tingle through his entire body. “You can just continue calling me Senior Li. I’m not used to it.”

“Alright, I will listen to you. You are the man of the house, so I will do whatever you tell me to do,” said Bai Lingmiao as she placed her ear on his chest and listened to his rapid heartbeat.

Li Huowang took a deep breath and hugged the girl even closer. Then, he kissed the top of her head that was covered with her soft hair and hair ornaments.

“Let’s go back once the issue with Dan Yangzi has been dealt with. Then we can officially become husband and wife once we get back to your house,” said Li Huowang.

“But what about your condition? Is there really no way to treat it?” asked Bai Lingmiao.

“I don’t know. I’ve only heard what others have told me. The Abbess from the Benevolent Nunnery probably did not lie to me nor does she have a reason to.” Li Huowang slowly slid his hands down and caressed her smooth skin. “Don’t worry. I have you by my side now. Now that I’ve grown my roots in this world, I won’t ever be deceived by the hallucinations.”

“Hehe.” Bai Lingmiao was very happy. She hugged him with all four of her limbs while pressing her head against his chest.

For some reason, the feeling that Bai Lingmiao gave Li Huowang in the bedroom was different. She said that she was embarrassed, but now she wasn’t.

Are all girls the same?

Li Huowang had no experience in this regard. This was his first time after all.

Sensing that Bai Lingmiao had started to move around, Li Huowang held her down with his hands. “Wait, I just felt something weird.”

“What are you talking about? I did bleed,” said Bai Lingmiao nervously.

Li Huowang laughed. “No, I don’t mean it that way; the feeling I got was something different.”

“Feeling? What kind of feeling?” asked Bai Lingmiao.

“I suddenly felt like my senses are much sharper than they were before. All of them are much sharper,” Li Huowang said as he recalled the moment he almost ascended to Heaven last night. Something felt off.

It hadn’t been noticeable before, but after his clash with the Eighteenth Lunar, he noticed that not only was his body capable of healing much faster, even his senses were much sharper than before. Regardless of whether it was his sense of touch, smell, taste, sight, or hearing, all of them had become sharper.

Is this Ba-Hui’s power?

Li Huowang realized that both the abilities given to him were related to self-mutilation or sacrifice.

Just as he thought about sharing his thoughts with Bai Lingmiao, he suddenly felt a piercing pain from his right index finger. “Yeowch! Why did you bite me?”

“Does it hurt more than before?” asked Bai Lingmiao.

“Yeah! It’s even bleeding, how could it not hurt?” asked Li Huowang.

“Then it looks like you are right; your senses have indeed become sharper, and so has your sense of pain,” said Bai Lingmiao. In the next second, Li Huowang felt his finger being placed somewhere soft as Bai Lingmiao started to suck on it. The pain instantly faded away.

“Previously, you told me about the Wandering Gods. Then, have you heard of Ba-Hui?” Li Huowang asked.

“Mm-mm” Bai Lingmiao shook her head while continuing to suck on his finger.

“Hmm …” Li Huowang opened his eyes as he stared at the ceiling. “Why did Ba-Hui grant me these two abilities? What is its true form?”

Li Huowang tried to picture what Ba-Hui looked like in his mind, but failed. He could not do so with his perception as an ordinary human.

Knock knock~

At that moment, there was a sudden knock on his room door in the middle of the night.

Li Huowang hugged Bai Lingmiao close to his chest and covered her up with a blanket. “Who’s there? If it isn’t anything important, then we can talk tomorrow.”

“Senior Li, it’s me, can I enter? For some reason I was laying down on the floor of the firewood room.” The sound that came from beyond the door was extremely familiar. Li Huowang instantly realized that it was Bai Lingmiao’s voice.

However, if Bai Lingmiao was outside, then who was the one currently in his embrace? Li Huowang suddenly felt a chill run down his body.

“Hehehe, husband~”

At that moment, Li Huowang suddenly felt the thing in his embrace suddenly shrink and roll out of the sheets.

Li Huowang threw off the sheets and lit up one of the red candles as fast as he could.

However, there was no one but him inside the room.

“Senior Li, what’s wrong? What happened?” Bai Lingmiao shouted outside.

Li Huowang turned to see his finger, the one that was sucked on just moments ago. It looked extremely pale. Looking at the nasty wound, he was certain that it was not something a human could do with their teeth. It was more like he had gotten bit by a beast with sharp fangs!