Chapter 163 - Arrival

Chapter 163 - Arrival

The bronze coins rustled as Li Huowang donned the veil of bronze coins on his face. The distinctive burnt smell emanating from the coin veil gave Li Huowang an unprecedented sense of security.

Once at Benevolent Nunnery, if this thing is even able to conceal me from Abbess, then it would be shockingly valuable.

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. The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

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.

“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.”