CH 161

Li Huowang put a piece of toasted yellow steamed bread into his mouth with one hand, chewing slowly.

He looked lifeless as he stared at the bonfire in front of him, calculating the possible remaining places they might encounter.

They were on their way to Siqi, and three old second-hand carriages had been added to their side. They had sold some camels and exchanged them for some silver. They needed the carriages to continue on their long journey.

A chopstick with several slices of hot sausage and steamy noodles was brought to Li Huowang's mouth, waiting for him to open it.

Li Huowang slightly moved his head, with a furrowed brow. "I can eat by myself, no need to feed me."

"Senior Brother Li, you only have one hand now. Let me feed you during the time you're waiting for it to grow back. By the way, how long will it take for your hand to grow back?" Bai Lingmiao asked with concern.

Li Huowang lifted his right arm and looked at the empty sleeve. He murmured with a bitter smile, "It will grow back soon, very soon."

"But it has been three days since it was cut off. Why is there no sign of it growing back?" Bai Lingmiao reached out and rolled up Li Huowang's sleeve, looking at the healed wound.

"Already three days?" Li Huowang's pupils shrank, as if he remembered something. He immediately stood up and looked around the barren Gobi, seemingly searching for something.

Soon, he found what he was looking for and walked toward a large rock in the distance.

"Senior Brother Li, where are you going? If you don't eat now, the noodles will become hard!"

"I'm going to fetch water. Don't follow me!"

Li Huowang arrived at the huge rock, which looked like a small hill. He gazed into the distance, where it had become a small black dot, and walked into the shadow of the rock.

There was nothing behind the rock except barren ground, which was exactly what Li Huowang wanted.

He faced the huge rock in front of him, sat cross-legged, and hesitated for a moment. But he eventually drew his sword and painted a mural of a person on the wall.

"Mom, you've worked hard during this time." Li Huowang spoke softly to the mural.

"Mom, I'm sober now. Can you please get my phone for me? Today is her birthday, and I want to call her."

"Don't untie me. Please help me dial her number. Her phone number is on the second line of my contact list."

Li Huowang took out a sharp small shovel and gently traced the face of the mural. After a while, a simple but somewhat familiar face appeared in front of him.

Li Huowang couldn't draw well, but the mural he painted was more beautiful in his eyes than anything else. "Happy birthday, Nana."

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"Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday to you~"

Li Huowang smiled alone, looking at the mural he drew on the huge rock, and sang gently.

The sound didn't travel far before it was torn apart by the harsh wind of the Gobi.

"Sorry, Nana, I can't be with you on your birthday this year. I can only congratulate you in this way. I'll make up for the gift when I have the chance." Li Huowang smiled, reaching out and gently stroking the mural's face.

After speaking, Li Huowang leaned over and kissed the mural before standing up with one hand.As soon as he turned around, Li Huowang came face to face with a person wearing a red hood. It was Twin Soul, who had just witnessed the warm and eerie scene between him and Bai Lingmiao.

"Shut up." Li Huowang said to her before turning and walking towards the carriage in the distance.

When he returned, he found that everyone else had finished eating and was chatting away.

Li Huowang took the bowl of noodles from Bai Lingmiao's arms and placed it directly on the ground. He then picked up the chopsticks and began eating greedily.

After eating most of it, a clear metallic sound made his body tense subconsciously. He had heard this sound before.

He looked towards the source of the sound and saw that it was coming from where Gouwa was sitting. He was holding his own knife and prying something off the ground.

Li Huowang stood up and walked towards him. "What are you doing?"

Gouwa was frightened by his words and looked at him with a sheepish smile. He picked up the object from the ground.

It was a row of old, blackened copper coins that seemed to have been burned recently. Li Huowang recognized it as the brass mask on the dwarf's face from the shadow play they had performed before.

He remembered that Erbing had taken it and even wore it on her face.

The burned brass mask had many scratches on it, and it seemed that Gouwa wanted to pry the coins out to use them.

"I didn't want to just throw it away with the ashes. This is worth over a hundred copper coins. I'm not planning on keeping it for myself. I was thinking of giving it to Sister Bai to keep. But I didn't expect that the chain connecting the coins would be so hard. I can't pry it open no matter what I do."

Li Huowang took the object and wiped off the black ash on the coins easily.

The fire had not damaged it at all, and the thin old chain threaded through the holes in the coins, connecting them into a strange brass mask.

Like ordinary copper coins, it was round on the outside and square on the inside, with four big characters that Li Huowang didn't recognize written around the edge.

"Dao...Dao...Dao Guang...Tong...Ah, Tongbao!" Gao Zhijian translated for Li Huowang.

"Dao Guang Tongbao?" Li Huowang didn't know what kind of currency it was, and he didn't care. He was thinking about the value of the object itself.

Li Huowang carefully considered it and then called for Mantou. He covered the mask on its head to see if there were any hidden dangers.

Then, a surprising scene happened. Although Mantou was shaking its head and scratching its head in front of him with its paws, he felt like there was no dog in front of him.

That night, the dwarf had attacked him with this mask on, and he wouldn't have been able to avoid it if Twin Soul hadn't reminded him beforehand.

Later, Twin Soul also wore this thing and hid among the crowd. He couldn't find her quickly at the time.From these two points, it seems that this thing is some kind of tool that can conceal one's breath.

"This thing... seems to be useful for me."

Li Huowang looked at this thing, his eyes gradually brightened. "This thing is not just useful, it is very useful for me!"

Although he didn't know why, anyone with a little ability in this world could easily see that he was a heart element.

And this thing might be able to prevent this from happening again, so he would never be a Tang monk meat again!