Mutated Tao

Both our donkey carts and the rest of our belongings are now at the bottom of the lake. We have to gather the money needed for our travels from this village.

Li Huowang planned what they had to do next as he observed the meat boiling in the pot.

No matter what had happened, it was all in the past now. He needed to let go of it and plan for the future.

The most important issue he had to deal with right now was to find the things that they needed from the village and leave with his group.

And I need to be fast. We cannot stay here for too long. After all, the only thing worse than a village filled with corpses is a village filled with decomposing corpses. A dead person might not be able to move, but they could end up killing someone in a different manner.

Li Huowang opened his mouth and chomped on a piece of meat at the end of his sword. Then, he looked at his companions who were eating voraciously and said, “Eaten enough yet? We have work to do once you have all eaten your fill.”

After they had dried their clothes, they followed Li Huowang out of the communal kitchen as they held the meat and continued eating.

Li Huowang did not wander around the village like a headless fly. Instead, he walked straight to the ancestral hall of the Yuan family. The village was built like a maze, and he needed a guide.

“Don’t … ! Don’t kill me!”

The youth that was scared shitless to the point of peeing himself was still hiding inside the hall. Li Huowang pointed his sword and cornered him, the youth’s thin face filled with fear.

Li Huowang didn’t bother wasting any words on him. “Where do you hide the money you rob from others? Take us there.”

“Warehouse! It’s all in my great-grandfather’s warehouse! We keep all of the money there!” The youth spilled everything he knew instantly. The blood on Li Huowang’s robes was still wet. Even the bloody stench coming from Li Huowang was enough to cause the youth to pee himself a little. He was so scared that any and all thoughts of fighting back had evaporated from his mind.

It was already dark, so the group held out their glowing stones to light up the path. They followed the youth as they navigated the village.

Under the dark blue-green glow of the stones, the bloody scene around them looked extremely grotesque. The youth’s body trembled at the sight of his surroundings.

At that moment, the youth’s body suddenly froze before he kneeled down beside the corpse of a woman and started crying woefully.

Seeing this, Li Huowang walked over and squatted down. He saw that the woman only had half of her face left. She looked young, and her eyes filled with terror and despair.

“Who is she?” Li Huowang asked coldly.

“She… she is my wife!” The youth’s voice trembled. “I loved her! But now she’s dead! Even my parents are dead!”

He cried even more loudly as he thought about how they had died.

Hearing his shrill cries, Li Huowang’s expression became ruthless as he swung his right arm.

Shriak!

“AAAAAH!” One of the youth’s ears was cut off in an instant as he cried out in pain and despair.

“Guide us! Did I tell you to stop?” Li Huowang roared aggressively.

At that moment, he sensed someone gently tugging at his sleeves, causing Li Huowang to swing his arms in irritation.

“Do you pity him? Do you think he’s some great romantic? Why don’t you ask him where his wife came from?” asked Li Huowang, irritated.

Sensing everyone’s gazes, the youth said awkwardly, “My father got her for me. All the wives in the village were abducted from the outside. Even my grandmother and mother were captured from outside.”

Bai Lingmiao’s mouth fell open in shock as she looked at the corpses of the women around her.

Meanwhile, when the youth saw Li Huowang once again raise his bloody sword, he shivered in fear and hurriedly got up before continuing to show them the way.

Seeing how shocked Bai Lingmiao was, Xiaoman walked to her side and gently placed her hairy hand on Bai Lingmiao’s shoulder before hugging her. “The women of a bandit camp are the same as the rest of the bandits. Don’t think about it too much.”

“But why did they accompany the rest of them to go and rob people? In the first place, they were also captured by them!” Bai Lingmiao was exasperated. She remembered that some of the bandits they encountered earlier had been women.

“Both humans and dogs can be trained,” said one of the guiding drug ingredients.

Hearing this, Li Huowang turned around; however, he couldn’t find out who had said that, causing him to sigh, “Sigh…“

They followed the youth and walked along the twisting paths for a while before arriving at a house whose door was securely locked with a sturdy padlock.

At the same time, their surroundings were no longer filled with buildings made from reeds. Instead, the houses around them were all made of wood.

This must be the most important area of the village.

Jiang!

Sparks flew as Li Huowang sliced the padlock in half. Then, he kicked the door open before grabbing the youth and using him as a shield as he entered the house.

Rather than a house, it would be more appropriate to call it a warehouse. Wooden shelves lined the wall neatly, and rows of wooden boxes sat upon them.

When the youth opened one of the boxes under Li Huowang’s instructions, a brilliant glow enveloped the room. It was a box filled with silver pieces.

They opened the boxes one by one. The more they opened, the more shocked they were.

Aside from the silver pieces, there were even boxes filled with gold jewelry. These were most likely taken from the female victims.

There were other types of valuables as well, such as silk, iron ingots, and books. The warehouse was filled with valuables that the bandits had robbed from others over the years.

“Oh my heavens! I’ve never seen so much money in my life. Just imagine how many wives I can marry with all this money,” Looking at the mountains of silver pieces, Puppy’s voice shook, his eyes filling up with greed.

On the other hand, Li Huowang was more interested in the books than the money.

He flipped through some of them and realized that they were books to teach others how to read and write, as well as some Buddhist scriptures.

That damned geezer’s method to summon the water monster using a pair of boy and girl infants as sacrifices… It doesn’t seem like he learned it from the books. Did he learn it orally from his ancestor?

Li Huowang was rummaging through the books when he was stunned by the final book he saw at the bottom of the pile.

He picked up the book and gazed intently at the words on the cover, trying to recall something. “What does it say?”

“Senior Li, should we move everything in the boxes outside? I don’t think we can carry all this,” Bai Lingmiao asked as she walked over.

Li Huowang showed the book in his hand to Bai Lingmiao. “Look at the words on the cover. Do you recognize them?”

Bai Lingmiao was confused. “Senior Li, I’m illiterate.”

Just as she said that, a stuttering voice came from her back.

“Hua… Hua… Huayan Sutra!”

Li Huowang raised his head and saw Simpleton standing behind Bai Lingmiao.

“Are you sure it says Huayan Sutra?” asked Li Huowang.

“Yes!” confirmed Simpleton.

After confirming it, Li Huowang slowly felt the words with his fingers, his eyes filled with uncertainty.

“Is this the character for ‘Yan’? Why… why can’t I even recognize the character for ‘Yan’ now?”

Chacha and Char's Thoughts

Dammit, where are those Universal Pouch or Dimensional Storage when you need them to carry all the treasure