Mutated Tao

The ox-cart that had been left sitting for a long time started to move once more. This time, they were traveling to the Liang Kingdom from the border of Qing Qiu.

All along the way, Puppy covered his forehead with his hand while fanning his sweaty face. “Senior Li, it’s such a hot day today. Should we just travel tomorrow?”

“And what if it’s hot tomorrow and the day after that as well? We might as well start traveling only once autumn is here. Since Qing Qiu is so great, why are you following us? You can just follow Sun Baolu and herb the lambs over here,” said Li Huowang.

Hearing this, Puppy looked at the remaining women traveling with them and chuckled sheepishly. He was not stupid. He had almost gotten a wife for himself, so how could he stay in Qing Qiu? Having meat to eat might be great, but having a wife was his lifelong wish. Plus, he was not afraid of not having any meat to eat if he continued to follow Li Huowang.

As if sensing Puppy’s gaze, one of the women tried to shift his attention by staring at Li Huowang before giving up and rolling her eyes at Puppy. She was blushing while doing so.

Meanwhile, Li Huowang carefully unfurled the lambskin parchment and stared at the method of cultivating the Xiandu Cishe Seal written on it. Other than the Black Taisui, it was one of the other things he managed to obtain from adventuring down within the depths of Qing Qiu.

“Senior Li, what is this?” Zhao Wu turned around and asked while controlling the ox.

“This is a cultivation method of a new technique,” replied Li Huowang.

His words attracted everyone’s attention. “Senior Li, did you manage to learn it?”

“Not yet. I don’t want to learn it just yet, in case there’s something wrong with it. After all, I did get it from an enemy,” explained Li Huowang.

Li Huowang was very well aware of the possibility that the Nascent Soul might have tampered with the cultivation method. Li Huowang himself had done this before to escape from the Zephyr Temple and he did not want to end up like Dan Yangzi.

Li Huowang took the bronze coin sword off his back and tried flipping it around before placing it down. “I need someone to test the cultivation method first.”

“Senior Li, me! Let me try!”

Hearing those words, Li Huowang turned around and saw that it was the last of the remaining assistants, Yang Xiaohai.

“Do your work and don’t butt into adult’s affairs,” said Li Huowang, rejecting him. There was a chance that the method could kill someone, and so Li Huowang would never let someone close to him learn it. He needed to find someone who could technically die without affecting them.

“Senior Li, look!”

At that moment, Chun Xiaoman lifted off one of the tarps and showed them all a golden box with precious stones embedded onto it. The gold ingots contained within it were quite familiar.

Li Huowang was stunned. It was the dowry provided by the host family that gave away Sun Baolu's mother! She must’ve secretly hidden it in their cart last night.

As he looked at it, Li Huowang knew what she was trying to express. There was no doubt that she was extremely grateful to Li Huowang for curing Sun Baolu’s body and gave it to them as a thanks.

Li Huowang looked back but saw that the tents were long gone. All that was left were the grassy green plains.

“It’s alright. Since she gave it to us out of gratitude, we should just accept it. We can use it for our travel expenses. At least we can buy food to eat in the Liang Kingdom.”

They continued their journey. It was probably because Qing Qiu was sparsely populated, or maybe because their luck was turning for the better but their journey was relatively peaceful. Nothing happened at all while they were on their journey this time around.

They traveled for more than a month. The days were getting hotter even though the summer equinox had passed.

The sound of a bird call came from above. It was very harsh. Hearing it, Li Huowang, who was staring at the map in his hands, looked up at the bird in the sky.

After a moment, he placed the map in front of Bai Lingmiao and asked, “Can you understand this? Do you remember where the Cowheart Mountain is?”

Even though the maps of Liang Kingdom that they obtained in Qing Qiu weren’t very accurate, the major landmarks were accurate enough.

They were approaching the border of the Liang Kingdom, and so they needed to determine the accurate location of Bai Lingmiao’s home soon.

“This isn’t right… and this isn’t either…” Bai Lingmiao muttered as she traced the map with her fingers along various different routes, but she was hesitant.

It was a difficult task to determine where her home was based on just the crude lines; however, it wasn’t something that could be blamed on her. When Li Huowang saw the map for the first time he too had been confused. It was just too crude.

After a while, Li Huowang kept the map away.

It seems that I will need to buy another map in the Liang Kingdom if we want to know where Cowheart Mountain is.

“Wait, I just remembered that you are not from the Liang Kingdom. Where are you from?” asked Li Huowang as he turned and looked at Puppy.

“No worries. I don’t have to go back. I grew up as an orphan and had to rely on the villagers for food. If I don’t go back, then I can help them save some food.” Puppy chuckled. He had no desire to go home and was staring directly at one of the girls beside the ox-cart.

Li Huowang noticed it too and then stared at the sun high in the sky. “It’s almost time to eat lunch. Since we are almost out of Qing Qiu, we can kill one of the lambs.”

Hearing that, everyone grew excited. Even though they ate a lot of meat during their time in Qing Qiu, they still weren’t satisfied. Everyone of them had grown up poor, and so eating meat was a luxury for them.

Li Huowang, however, was just being rational. Since the Liang Kingdom didn’t have as much grass as Qing Qiu, the lambs would end up becoming skinny if they stayed in the Liang Kingdom for too long.

“Meeeeeeeh~”

Puppy pulled away one of the older lambs by its horn, bringing it over to a nearby river.

Everyone had had lamb so many times during their time in Qing Qiu that they were very adept at slaughtering one. Soon, they drained the blood, skinned, and gutted it. Then, they spread the salt and spices onto the lamb’s carcass before stabbing it with Peng Longteng’s halberd. They propped it up between the two carts and lit a fire below the lamb.

If Peng Longteng saw how badly they were treating her weapon, then she might just come back to life from anger.

Staring at the crackling fire lit by dried lamb feces and the smoking roasted whole lamb above it, Puppy licked his lips and chuckled. “Hehe, it’s a good thing to use the entire lamb completely~”

Chun Xiaoman smacked the back of his head, causing Puppy to yelp and get up before approaching the women who were collecting some wild vegetables nearby.

Once the lamb was done, the wild vegetable soup was done as well. The oily roasted lamb meat complemented the mild soup perfectly.

Everyone sat on the grass and enjoyed the delicious feast.

Puppy happily cracked open the head of the lamb and took out the roasted lamb tongue before placing it into one of the women’s bowls and saying, “Hong’er, come. I left the best part for you: the lamb’s tongue.”

The woman’s name was Hong’er. She blushed and accepted it with gratitude before eating the small pieces of meat one by one.

After a moment, Puppy approached her and sat beside her, but she didn’t move away.

As for Yang Xiaohai, the plump woman was asking him for the lamb’s tail but he refused angrily.

Meanwhile, Zhao Wu sat on the ox-cart, feeling envious of what he saw. He looked down at his powerless body and sighed. He turned and concentrated on his lamb offal and wild vegetable soup.

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