Chapter 384 - Candy

Chapter 384 - Candy

After returning the horses, Li Huowang walked into an inn. The journey had been exhausting, and he needed to recover his strength before boarding the ship.

“Guest, your dishes are ready,” the waiter said and turned around to leave. New novel chapters are published on

“Wait," Li Huowang said, stopping the waiter. "Why are these fish and shrimp still alive? How am I supposed to eat them?”

“Hehe, is this your first time in Huating City? No, they’re not alive; it’s called raw pickling. Look, the other guests are eating it that way. Try it out first. If you don't like it, then it’s going to be on the house.”

Li Huowang glanced at the food on other tables, and then he used his bandaged right hand to shoo the waiter away.

Due to its proximity to the sea, the local cuisine had a significant difference compared to the local cuisine in other regions. Of course, the local cuisine featured mostly seafood.

Li Huowang found it a bit hard to get used to it first, but he found the dish to be surprisingly refreshing. The pickled meat was sweet with a unique flavor to it.

Li Huowang ate to his heart's content, and then he lay down to sleep. Li Huowang woke up later in the day. He sat up on the bed and shook his groggy head before getting out of bed.

“All right, let's go find that ship,” Li Huowang muttered to himself. He had no issues locating the ship heading to Xing Island, as it was a square-bottomed ship capable of accommodating dozens of ships.

Li Huowang was about to get aboard the ship when the unkempt and bearded ship captain stood in his way and asked, “Stop, stop, stop. What’s your surname?”

“Er,” Li Huowang replied.

“You'd best not fool around. Who has the surname Er in this world? If you don’t want to tell me the truth, then you better get out of here. I can't be bothered to talk nonsense with you.”

“Bai,” Li Huowang added.

"That's more like it," the captain said. Then, he examined Li Huowang from top to bottom and waved his hand.

"Next! What’s your surname?” the captain asked someone else.

Soon, the ship left the port, and the harbor district gradually disappeared into the horizon,

Li Huowang exhaled slowly while standing on the deck of the ship. He was about to meet Zhuge Yuan once more, and he felt complicated emotions at the idea alone.

Was he excited, happy, curious, and suspicious? If Li Huowang were asked, he would reply that he felt a hodgepodge of emotions.

Li Huowang rubbed his belly and felt a bit more at ease. He was no longer the Li Huowang who had just left Zephyr Temple. He was prepared regardless of what would happen next.

“Six hundred.”

“Ten thousand. Baldhead, can you play faster? You dawdle like a woman.”

“Hey, wait a minute, I won! Pay up! Pay up!”

Li Huowang leaned against the ship’s railings and watched silently at his fellow passengers playing leaf cards to pass the time. It only took him a few days to figure out how the game worked.

In a nutshell, the leaf cards game was like mahjong but with fewer tiles

Mahjong had over a hundred tiles, while leaf cards had only a few dozen cards.

In other words, it was a game with a much faster pace than mahjong. In addition to the rules of the game, Li Huowang had already analyzed the game behavior of the players; the bandaged young man had a penchant for cheating, while the bearded bald man was the best player and had won the most games.

Li Huowang wasn’t the only spectator. The other bored passengers formed a crowd to observe them playing the game for entertainment.

“Damn it, you brat, how dare you cheat! No wonder I've been losing every round all this while!” someone exclaimed, and the card game quickly turned into a brawl.

However, the onlookers were more entertained rather than scared.

“Ahhh...” Li Huowang heard a soft voice below him. He looked down and saw that a little girl, seemingly under four years old and wearing open-crotch pants, had wobbled over to him and was tugging at Li Huowang’s pants.

Upon sensing Li Huowang's gaze, the little girl grinned and opened her palm, revealing a half-eaten piece of sesame candy.

Li Huowang could see from the little girl's innocent eyes that she only wanted to share her tasty candy with others. Li Huowang was suddenly reminded of his foolish female senior back at Zephyr Temple, who wanted to share her candy with him.

“Sniff!” Bun sitting in the corner stuck its head out.

The little girl was overjoyed to see the yellow dog, and she immediately handed the half-eaten candy to Bun.

Bun opened its mouth carefully to take the candy when a tentacle rushed out and snatched it away.

The little girl let loose a peal of laughter while staring at the black tentacle retracting into Li Huowang’s red Daoist robes. The little girl clearly had no idea as to what had just happened.

The little girl rushed up to Li Huowang and tiptoed with her mouth wide open while staring at where the tentacle had vanished.

Just then, a woman with a pale yellow complexion rushed toward her and hugged her. The woman held her struggling daughter and bowed repeatedly toward Li Huowang before walking toward the female-exclusive cabin.

Bun glanced at its motionless master and tilted its head. It leaned over to lick the small handprint on the red Daoist robes, and it found that the sticky handprint still carried a hint of sweetness.