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Chapter 163 - Arrival

Wearing the mask, Li Huowang stood up and shouted excitedly to the people behind him, “Let’s go! Hurry to the Henghua Mountain!”

With his shout, the carriage wheels started to roll once again, this time toward the kingdom of Si Qi.

As they gradually approached the kingdom of Si Qi, which had a lot more lakes and rivers, the landscape around them also grew more lush, with even the air feeling more moist.

However, their journey was not completely smooth-sailing. The border guard of the kingdom of Si Qi had started to become a lot more strict.

Fortunately, the border between the kingdom of Si Qi and Hou Shu was quite long to begin with. Some of the border troops had already been moved away, leaving gaps in their defenses.

They used the time when the guards changed their shifts to re-enter the kingdom of Si Qi.

One morning, Li Huowang was bound tightly to a tree with chains that were as thick as a bowl.

His fellow disciples silently looked on as he rambled on nonsensically. They had already grown accustomed to this after having experienced it multiple times. Now, they were no longer as surprised as before; they were quite familiar with his illness now.

After a while, Li Huowang’s eyes gradually became clear. He looked up to see the bright sunlight, then glanced at the greenery by the roadside. Then, he heaved a sigh of relief.

No matter what they had gone through during their journey, they were finally about to arrive at their destination.

“Let\'s have lunch, and then we\'ll leave. We should be able to reach Henghua Mountain before nightfall,” Li Huowang said to Bai Lingmiao, who was untying him.

There was a hint of sadness in Bai Lingmiao\'s eyes as she inspected his empty left sleeve. There were still no signs of improvement even after so many days.

After a moment, she turned around, picked up a wooden bucket, and went to the nearby river to fetch water.

The river water was very clean. The wooden bucket fell into the stream, along with Bai Lingmiao\'s tears.

“Do you feel sorry for Senior Li?” Chun Xiaoman, who had followed her, asked softly.

“He’s disabled now! His hand cannot grow back!” Bai Lingmiao choked up.

Chun Xiaoman seemed to want to comfort her, yet found that she didn’t know where to begin.

At the same time, seeing as how she was so sad, it pointed toward the fact that she had already accepted Senior Li as her own man.

“It’s just his arm this time, but what if it happens again? Why is it so difficult for us to just go home?” sobbed Bai Lingmiao.

Seeing her closest friend so heartbroken, Chun Xiaoman felt quite sad for her.

Even though Li Huowang did not explain anything to them, in the time they had spent together, Chun Xiaoman had understood that the red bamboo slip on his waist was used to sacrifice a part of his body to exchange for supernatural abilities.

As long as Li Huowang was in possession of that thing, he would eventually have fewer and fewer organs.

Chun Xiaoman watched as Bai Lingmiao grew more and more distressed, causing her heart to waver as she hugged her.

In the end, it was all because their strength was not enough. If they had enough strength to easily resolve such situations, then such outcomes wouldn’t happen.

However, it was almost impossible to persuade Senior Li to discard the bamboo slip. Even though the price to use that thing was quite large, it had enormous power.

I should get Senior Li to teach me how to use that bamboo slip.

Since anyone could use that thing, she might as well use it herself.

Be it Bai Lingmiao or Senior Li, they would both feel pained if either of them got injured. And since she had already made the decision to never get married, her appearance didn’t matter anymore.

If it was my hand that was cut off...

Chun Xiaoman glanced at the dejected Bai Lingmiao, and then at her hand covered in black hair.

...it’s alright!

After Xiaoman consoled Bai Lingmiao for a while, the two of them continued filling the water.

The rest of them were still waiting to eat, and they could not delay their journey further.

After a moment, the wooden bucket was filled with the refreshing river water.

“Hold on,” said Chun Xiaoman as she dipped her hairy hand into the water before gently wiping the corners of Bai Lingmiao’s eyes. “There’s some ash here. Let me clean it off.”

“Thank you, Sister Xiaoman,” thanked Bai Lingmiao.

“Don’t mention it. We’re like sisters. I’m going to be your future child’s godmother.” Chun Xiaoman smiled.

At that moment, she saw Bai Lingmiao’s expression suddenly become terrified

“Sister Xiaoman! Look behind you!” shouted Bai Lingmiao.

Xiaoman quickly reached for the hilt of her sword and spun around, only to see several corpses slowly floating down the clear river.

Soon after, everyone gathered by the river bank, silently staring at the corpses.

From their clothing, it could be inferred that these were soldiers belonging to the kingdom of Si Qi—likely casualties from a battle occurring in a region upstream.

Amidst the chaos of war, the commoners couldn’t have fared much better either; there were quite a few commoners amongst the corpses, their eyes filled with despair.

“So many bodies... Just how many people must have died?” Puppy sighed as he leaned against a tree trunk.

“The river water is probably no longer fit for drinking. We’ll have to look for wells in the future,” said Li Huowang. He was busy considering other matters, different from the worries of the other disciples. “Does anyone feel that these bodies seem unusually fresh?”

Li Huowang’s words caused everyone to pay closer attention to the corpses. Under normal circumstances, as long as a person had not died that day, their corpse would look a lot more terrifying after a while in the water—they wouldn’t look like this.

“Yes, look, these corpses still have color in their faces!” commented one of them.

“If they were not motionless, they could easily be mistaken as being alive.”

Li Huowang squinted as he continued to observe. These corpses were causing him to feel a strong sense of unease.

Were they killed with some special ability to become like this? Or did some sect get involved in this war among mortals?

Or maybe I’m overthinking it. In this world, normal wars are probably fought with those strange sects joining in.

Li Huowang stood by the river and pondered for a while before bringing the others away.

Maybe it was because so many had died, but everyone’s mood was rather heavy. Nobody really spoke during their journey to the small town at the base of Henghua Mountain. They were only able to relax after seeing the familiar scenery of the small town around them.

“Senior Li, it’s already so late. Are you going up the mountain now? How about going tomorrow after breakfast?” suggested Bai Lingmiao.

“Hold on,” said Li Huowang as he walked into a pastry shop with fragrant aromas.

When he returned, he had a large stack of snacks on his back. It seemed like he had nearly emptied the entire store.

“I’m leaving. You guys can stay at the same inn as before, and I’ll meet you guys there. Right, where’s Puppy? I saw him just now,” asked Li Huowang.

“He went to the restroom,” replied someone.

At that moment, a contented-looking Puppy walked out from a nearby alley. “Ah... this restroom is clean enough. There’s not even a single fly or maggot.”