Mutated Tao

“Hehe, you broke the rules,” a soft and somewhat feminine voice rang out.

In that moment, Li Huowang could not help but recall that ‘girl’ with tiny feet who had summoned the God of Happiness. This voice was quite similar to hers.

Li Huowang and the others walked out from inside the house to the courtyard, their faces covered in wariness. Once outside, they saw a small head propped up on top of the wall to the left of the house.

From the looks of it, she was a yellow-haired girl who appeared to be only about five to six years old. She giggled as she looked inside.

Her hair was tied into tall pigtails with the help of a red string.

Red!

Li Huowang’s heart raced when he saw the red string that tied her hair.

Could this child be the Eighteenth Lunar?

Li Huowang pondered for a moment as he watched the giggling girl. Then, he spoke, “I might have broken the rules, but you aren’t doing much better than me. Aren’t you not allowed to go outside during the night? Why are you still out here?”

"I'm a child. You adults aren’t allowed to go out, but us kids can go outside and play." She didn't show any hostility toward Li Huowang’s group.

Then, she shifted her head to one side and continued as she grinned, “If you give me some candy, then I won’t report you.”

Meanwhile, the others stared at the child’s head in surprise. The wall of the Wu Family’s courtyard stood quite tall at about six meters. However, this girl’s head was moving around on the wall quite effortlessly, meaning that she was not using a ladder and was just standing there!

Li Huowang looked at the small head, as well as the tall, dusty wall beneath it. He couldn’t imagine what a child would look like with a regular-sized head and a six-meter-tall body.

She might look like a stick insect?

“Hehe, are you going to give me candy? If not, then I’m going to shout for someone,” the girl on the wall continued.

“Yes, of course. But, I don’t have the candy on me right now. I have to go and get it first,” Li Huowang replied. Then, he turned to Puppy beside him and softly whispered some instructions to him.

Fear appeared on Puppy’s face as he listened to Li Huowang’s instructions, but he eventually nodded when Li Huowang passed the bronze bell to him. He turned around and headed into the house.

“Alright, he’s going in to bring back some candy. Let’s wait a while and chat to pass the time,” said Li Huowang.

“Sure! I like chatting.” The girl seemed very innocent.

Li Huowang kept his tone quite cordial when talking to this questionable being. “Which family are you from? How come we didn’t see you at the village entrance earlier?”

“I don’t know which family I belong to. They all say I’m the child of the Stove God. But I’m obviously not like that Stove God pasted on the wall,” she replied.

“Oh? You aren’t like the Stove God? In my eyes, you are rather similar, what with your love for candy. I remember back when we used to offer sacrifices, my grandpa would often smear some pastries onto the portrait’s mouth.” As Li Huowang spoke, his right hand quietly touched the red bamboo slip on his back.

The pigtails on her head swayed as she shook her head, “You’re making things up. The Stove God obviously has four pairs of eyes, five hands, and no legs. Tell me, just how do I look like him?”

Everyone felt a chill run down their spines when they heard her description. This was completely different from the Stove God that they knew of.

“Little girl, are you making things up? How can the Stove God have five hands and no legs? Then, how does he walk?”

Upon seeing Li Huowang’s deliberate questioning, the girl started growing more and more agitated. “How am I making things up? I saw it with my own eyes. Besides, who says you need legs to walk? The Stove God can have red sausages burrow out from its belly button to serve as legs.”

Just as she finished speaking, Puppy’s voice rang out from the other side of the wall. “Senior Li!! This brat doesn’t have a body! She only has a head!”

Swoosh~

The girl’s head quickly withdrew down the wall, causing Puppy to let out a terrified scream.

“Ring the bell!” Li Huowang gritted his teeth and quickly dashed toward the entrance of the Wu Family’s courtyard.

By the time they arrived on the other side of the wall, Puppy was already kneeling on the ground and kowtowing constantly while trembling and wailing loudly. His pants were also soaking wet.

Li Huowang looked at the dark alleys around him, then came to Puppy’s side and pulled him up. Then, he snatched back the bronze bell and shouted, “Stop kowtowing and tell me where it ran off to!”

Hearing this, Puppy shakily pointed toward the east.

Seeing this, Li Huowang threw him aside, then carried his sword in one hand and a lantern in the other as he dashed in that direction.

Amidst the pitch-black surroundings, everything around them seemed to look like man-eating creatures that were brandishing their claws in the space between darkness and light.

Even after chasing for a while, Li Huowang could not catch up to that female head. He came to an unfamiliar area that seemed to be the end of the village. The bamboo forest was visible just in the distance.

Li Huowang cursed under his breath due to his lack of any discoveries before turning back to gather with the others who were just approaching with lanterns in their hands.

No matter what that girl was, he could tell one thing clearly. Even if that wasn’t the Eighteenth Lunar, they should be closely related. He had not been mistaken; the Eighteenth Lunar was here.

When Li Huowang walked closer to the group, he was stunned momentarily. These people were indeed his companions, but they were all standing still on the spot, carrying their lanterns, and had their backs uniformly facing him.

“What are you guys doing??” Li Huowang cautiously took a step back as he tightened his grip on the bell.

Right after he spoke, everyone turned around.

Their faces had changed! Every single face was the same as that girl’s face!

Then, these identical female faces smiled simultaneously. “Hehehe, you once again broke the rules. If you don’t give me any candy, then I’m going to tell the others, and they will come looking for you.”

Ring, ring, ring~~!!

At that moment, the piercing sound of the bell rang out loud, immediately causing those figures to be chased away.

The piercing sound of the bell was particularly noticeable in the darkness. Not long after, Li Huowang saw his people gather toward him. This time, their faces were not replaced by that girl’s face.

After he carefully verified their identities by asking them about information that only the disciples from the Zephyr Temple would know, he heaved a sigh of relief. These really were his people.

"Senior Li, what's going on? What happened?" asked one of them.

“Nothing, it was just an illusion,” Li Huowang shook his head and surveyed the darkness around them. After confirming that nothing was unusual, he led them back on the path they came from.

However, not long after they left, a pair of blood-red eyes appeared within the darkness.

Chacha and Char's Thoughts

Yeah uh everything's just bizarre in this chapter