Mutated Tao

Their surroundings were eerily silent on their way back—there were no sounds besides their footsteps. Unsurprisingly, everyone was tense while walking through such an eerie place.

They had not yet walked far when the sound of footsteps stopped. Li Huowang and the rest had stopped and were scanning their dark surroundings when a pair of glowing green eyes suddenly appeared within the darkness.

No, it was not a pair but an entire group of green eyes. Due to the darkness, they couldn’t see what the creatures were. Their green eyes, both large and small, stared at them unblinkingly. Looking at these eyes, Li Huowang and the others felt as if there was a monster with numerous eyes on its body within the darkness.

“Fuck!” Having been tricked by it so many times, Li Huowang snarled in irritation. Then, he pulled out the red bamboo slip from behind his back and unfurled it in front of him.

Li Huowang raised his right index finger and placed it on the edge of the sharp bamboo slip before ripping out one of his fingernails and shooting it outward, blood trailing behind it as it flew into the darkness.

The fingernail managed to find its mark, causing a woeful shriek to be heard—one of the eyes within the darkness was gone.

However, Li Huowang was not satisfied with this. Soon, he used three more fingernails, finally getting rid of all of the eyes within the darkness. At the same time, a repulsive stench filled the air.

When the group walked over to where the eyes had been with their lanterns in hand, they bore witness to a bloody mess.

At that moment, Li Huowang and the rest finally realized what the eyes were. They were not supernatural beings; instead, they were just some random forest critters like a hedgehog, a fox, and a lynx. But now, they were dead and their bodies torn into numerous pieces.

Li Huowang was extremely cautious. He did not think they were dead and so he raised his leg and stomped down hard on the head of the fox beside him.

“What a stupid rule! It’s nothing but bullshit! If that thing was able to fight us fair and square, would it need to resort to such tricks? We can’t fall for its tricks and dance to its own tune. Let’s return!” said Li Huowang.

After walking for fifteen minutes, they finally saw the Wu Family’s courtyard.

“Li Huowang!” At that moment, a faraway voice was heard, causing all of them to stop.

“Who’s there?!” Li Huowang shouted and turned around, staring into the darkness; however, he didn’t see anything.

“Keep playing your tricks! But remember, one of these days you will fail! Eighteenth Lunar, I swear that I will have your eyes!” he shouted.

After shouting his threats, he brought the rest of them into the bright courtyard of the Wu family.

Soon, the goateed village head who was previously unconscious on the ground was tied to a pillar and a bowl of cold soup was splashed on his face.

“Cough cough~!” When Wu Qing gradually opened his eyes groggily and saw the faces that were filled with hostility, he was extremely frightened. “You guys are bandits!!”

“Piak!” A palm slapped across his face, causing half of his face to become inflamed. At the same time, Wu Qing was left stunned by the impact.

“Talk! Where is the Eighteenth Lunar?! What is your relationship with it?”

“What are you guys talking about? Let… Let me be clear about one thing; this is the Wu Family village, and everyone here has the surname Wu! Think wisely before you act!” said Wu Qing.

When he saw Wu Qing still trying to feign ignorance, he smiled, revealing his white teeth. “Old man, I’m trying to be courteous here instead of resorting to violence. The Eighteenth Lunar’s capture is going to quite literally determine my life. If you continue to protect it, don’t blame me when I accidentally hurt you.”

As he said that, he raised his bloody right hand that was missing its fingernails, using it to pat the interrogation tools hanging from his waist. “I don’t intend to just use these on myself. In certain situations, these things might be able to act as keys that open the hearts of those I capture!”

When she heard him say such a thing, Bai Lingmiao took a step forward with a worried expression on her face. However, Xiaoman pulled her back and gently shook her head.

“What… What are you guys saying? What Eighteenth Lunar? The Qingming Festival happened just a while ago, so it’s still quite some time before the twelfth month. Young man, please, spare me. Please take pity on this old man.” Wu Qing’s face was pale from fear.

When he saw Wu Qing continued lying, he whipped out one of the torture tools with his right hand. It was a pikehead with numerous hooks. Then, he smiled viciously as he held the horrifying pikehead and slowly placed it on Wu Qing’s scapula.

Wu Qing was visibly frightened as he started shouting in a panic and thrashed against his restraints. Even so, he did not say anything related to the Eighteenth Lunar.

Just as the sharp edge of the pikehead tore through Wu Qing’s clothes, a large hand pressed down on his wrist. “It’s fine. Looks like he really doesn’t know anything.”

“How do you know? This man is clearly suspicious. The moment we entered the village, he bombarded us with rules. He must know about the Eighteenth Lunar!”

“Calm down. You weren’t so aggressive in the past. You are becoming more and more like Dan Yangzi,” commented the owner of the large hand.

Hearing that, he paused. For some reason, he was becoming more and more cruel without him even knowing it; slowly, he was becoming just like the damned Baldy that used to refine living people into pills.

He quickly kept away the pikehead and turned around. “Thank you, Senior Li. If you hadn’t said it, then I might not have noticed it.”

At that moment, what he saw in front of him was Li Huowang, wearing a Taoist robe stained in blood as he revealed a familiar smile.

“We are in the same boat here. No need for such polite words. What we should do now is to plan out our next steps, since we don’t have any clues,” said Li Huowang.

Hearing this, he turned around and stared at the old man that had almost fainted.

Even though he knew that it was Dan Yangzi’s influence that was causing him to act so rashly, he also knew that he was running out of time.

If he couldn’t find the Eighteenth Lunar, then he would never be able to get rid of Dan Yangzi who was possessing him. Then, all he would be able to do was slowly see himself turn into Dan Yangzi. He couldn’t afford to wait any more!

“Why don’t we ask the other villagers when the day comes? Maybe they know something,” Puppy suggested.

“Alright, it’s been a long night and everyone is tired. We should stop for today. I will go and ask the villagers once it's daytime,” said Li Huowang.

Hearing what Li Huowang had said, he decided not to say anything else as he walked back to his room.

When he woke up the next day, he saw that the rest of his senior brothers and sisters were already up and about.

When he exited the room, he was surprised to see that everyone was acting normally as they ate congee with the Wu family despite how he had treated Wu Qing the night before.

“Come here and eat. I’ve already told the village head about your situation. The village head is not the type to hold grudges,” said Li Huowang as he looked at him.

Chacha and Char's Thoughts

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