Chapter 207 - Someone’s Staring

Chapter 207 - Someone’s Staring

“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.

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.