Mutated Tao

“What’s wrong, young Daoist?” Jin Shanzhao asked as he took a few steps back upon seeing how agitated Li Huowang was.

To Jin Shanzhao, those black jars looked quite normal, just like any other clay jars that were used to pickle vegetables. The only difference he could spot were the red sheets with the upside down character for ‘prosperity’.

However, Li Huowang did not let his guard down. “Something just looked at me from within those jars!”

“Looked at you?” Jin Shanzhao was confused and re-examined the jars once more. “Could there be someone inside? But the jars are too small to fit a person.”

“I didn’t say it was a human!” said Li Huowang as he unfurled the Profound Records and shot one of his fingernails toward the black jar, shattering it in the process.

Splash!

The black jars broke one by one as the brown brine and pickled vegetables sprayed everywhere.

Li Huowang kept his guard up and carefully walked over, using his sword to pick up the pieces of the jars as he inspected them.

However, Li Huowang couldn’t find anything wrong. They were ordinary jars used to pickle vegetables.

The sound of jars being broken immediately caught the attention of the people inside. An old lady with a walking stick walked out. “You rascal! Why did you break my jars? Pay up!”

Li Huowang sheathed his sword and threw some fragmented pieces of silver toward her. Then, he carefully retreated, his eyes trained on the old lady.

“Daoist, where are we going? Aren’t we supposed to buy food?” asked Jin Shanzhao hurriedly.

“We need to leave this place now. We can buy food somewhere else!” said Li Huowang. He had lost any and all the trust he had in this village.

He would rather have guessed wrongly than be ambushed by something he didn’t know about; he had grown to be wary of everything in this bizarre world.

The old lady didn’t stop them from leaving. She just grumbled as she picked up the pieces of silver.

After leaving the village, Li Huowang brought everyone with him and resumed their journey once more. This time, they didn’t stop until midnight.

When they stopped, they were in a bamboo forest. At this point, Li Huowang felt that they were far enough away from the danger regardless of what the thing inside the jar was.

They set up a campfire and started cooking. Even though everyone was tired, they still needed to eat or their body would fall apart.

Li Huowang did not partake in the cooking. Instead, he stood guard while standing on the ox-cart. His eyes were extremely sharp and could see even within the darkness.

At the same time, Bun, who somehow understood what Li Huowang was doing, placed its nose on the ground. Then, it started sniffing the area to make sure that there was nothing suspicious.

Nothing happened even as the meal was prepared. It was as if the gaze he had felt within the village was nothing more than an illusion.

Did I make a mistake?

Li Huowang started doubting himself. To be honest, he didn’t even fully trust himself.

But then he immediately tossed those doubts to the back of his mind. Everything was in the past and there was no need to be hesitant anymore.

“Senior Li, the food is ready. Come and eat,” called out one of the assistants.

Tonight’s meal consisted of bamboo shoot noodles. They had collected the fresh bamboo shoots from within the bamboo forest. The bamboo shoots were quite crisp and sweet. Even though there wasn’t any meat, since they had used pork lard to cook the meal, it smelled heavenly. Li Huowang gladly ate the meal without a complaint.

All of them were huddled around the campfire as they ate their meal. The sounds of munching and slurping did not stop.

After eating their meal, all of them felt sleepy. Soon, they were lying down and covered in their blankets as they fell asleep.

However, Li Huowang was on night duties tonight. He trusted no one else to do this.

At this moment, there were no other noises in the bamboo forest besides the crackling of the flames.

Li Huowang sat beside the fireplace as he carefully caressed Bun’s soft fur. Unfortunately, given that he wasn’t a robot, he too soon felt sleepy. He shook his head in an attempt to stave off his sleepiness, but it was to no avail. Then, he took out one of the sharp pikes from his bag of torture tools and used it to stab his right palm.

The blood that poured out made his robes become an even deeper shade of red. Li Huowang’s body instantly tensed up from the pain and he no longer felt so sleepy.

“Young Daoist, why not switch with me? An old man like me doesn't sleep much anyway.”

Li Huowang didn't need to see who it was to know that the voice belonged to Lu Zhuangyuan. The footsteps and the smell of the smoke gave him away. “Troupe Leader Lu, go and sleep. We have a long way to travel tomorrow and you should rest, or you might collapse.”

Lu Zhuangyuan approached Li Huowang and sat beside him, his face filled with even more wrinkles than before. Then, he carefully took out three strips of tobacco before mixing them with some dried leaves and placing the mixture within his smoke pipe.

“Daoist, what do you think of my youngest son?” asked Lu Zhuangyuan.

“Hm?” Li Huowang looked at Lu Xiucai who was currently sleeping with his older brother and sister-in-law. He had never really thought highly of Lu Xiucai. Not only was he cowardly, he was also very hesitant and didn't have much self-confidence.

“Young Daoist, I know that this is just wishful thinking… But I would still like to give this a chance. Could you take him in as a disciple? He’s technically not a performer yet because he still hasn’t perfected his singing. I hope that you won’t dislike him. I don’t expect you to teach him everything you know, but at the very least our ancestors would be happy if he manages to learn even one of your powers,” said Lu Zhuangyuan.

Just as Lu Zhuangyuan finished speaking, Li Huowang suddenly stood up.

“They are here! Everyone, wake up!” Li Huowang shouted while the rest of them tried their best to shake off their grogginess.

“Prepare yourselves!” Li Huowang warned the others as he slowly approached one side of the bamboo forest. The darkness within the forest made it look even more sinister.

It wasn’t long before Li Huowang saw two white urns within the bamboo forest. The urns weren’t large, only around the size of the watermelon. There was a long sheet of red with words plastered on each of the two urns.

One of them read ‘Deceased Mother, Yang Fengling’ while the other read ‘Deceased Grandfather, Li Gongquan’.

It was clear that these were cremation urns. There were even signs of worship in front of them.

Seeing this scene, Li Huowang hesitated.

Should I smash them? Or would something pop out if I smashed them?

After much consideration, Li Huowang carefully retreated. At the same time, the bonfire disappeared as all of them ran.

It was only after some time had passed that the lids of the two urns slowly lifted up. Then, the head of a child popped out from each of the two urns, both of their faces smeared with white powder.

They were not normal children either. Their heads were roughly the size of a man’s fist. The red makeup on their cheeks amplified the paleness of the rest of their faces.

Both of them looked at each other and chuckled. Then, they raised their pale white arms and legs before climbing out from the urns.

Both of them were just about to leave when a shadow fell from the skies and blocked their path.

Li Huowang gritted his teeth, as his bloodshot eyes glared at the two weird things in front of him.

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