“Father, where are you?”
Li Sui was wandering on the streets as she looked around her.
The street was bustling with activity, and a market was taking place today. People were peddling their wares on the sidewalk. There were even performers earning their daily bread by having monkeys perform tricks. The atmosphere was full of life.
While Li Sui would’ve run around excitedly in the past, she didn’t intend to play around now. She had fallen here two days ago, and everyone kept saying this place was the Qi Kingdom. However, how could this place be the Qi Kingdom?
Her father had once used the spine sword to send her there, but he had also told her that god Yu’er had destroyed the Qi Kingdom—there shouldn’t have been so many survivors.
She didn’t know where she was or what was happening, leaving her in a state of confusion.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t just stand still and wait. She needed to move around because her father was still waiting for her to send Dragon Qi up there.
She stared at the people’s faces and hesitated. Then, carefully approaching an old woman who looked easy to talk to, she said, “Excuse me, ma’am. Do you know where the Emperor is?”
No matter where she was or what was happening, Li Sui knew that the correct choice would be to go to the place where the Emperor was.
If this was the Qi Kingdom, heading towards where the Emperor lived meant she would meet the monks. And even if the monks weren’t there, she could still head to the Surveillance Bureau to find where her father was.
“Huh? Emperor? I don’t know. He’s not in my house,” the old woman exclaimed loudly, her voice raised as her hearing was impaired.
“Little girl, why are you looking for the Emperor? Are you his secret child? Ha! I saw that plot in yesterday’s performance!”
Li Sui didn’t know what the old woman was rambling about, so decided to find someone else to ask.
She had just taken a few steps when a man with a medicinal plaster on the back of his hand grabbed her and dragged her out of the market. “Hey, why are you still walking around in the market? Your father is so anxious that he’s going crazy! Come with me.”
Li Sui perked up and quickly followed the man. “My father?”
After exiting the busy market and walking through half of the city, Li Sui was finally brought towards a massive estate.
“Master You! Master You! We found the young master!”
After thanking the old man, Li Sui walked out of town, found the road, and continued her journey.
She dared not stop moving—her father’s survival was still uncertain.
Li Sui walked for two days and felt very hungry. She swallowed her saliva when she saw a group of ducks in the river, but she decided not to catch them. There was a large flock of them, so it was clear that somebody had been raising the ducks.
Just then, all of the ducks entered the water to swim to the opposite shore. Li Sui immediately noticed some white dots on the river bank—duck eggs.
She ran over and picked three duck eggs before swallowing them whole one by one.
The three duck eggs weren’t enough to fill her belly. She looked around and found one of the duck eggs was cracked open on a rock. She ran over and scooped up the broken egg before sucking on her fingers.
As she was enjoying her meal, she heard footsteps behind her.
A tentacle sporting two eyeballs sprouted from the back of her neck and caught sight of a group of people trailing behind two Daoists. One of the Daoists was old, while the other was young.
Li Sui recognized the crowd. Most of them were from the You family, including the so-called Master You and his wife. Li Sui, however, didn’t recognize the two Daoists.
They wore strange Daoist robes without sleeves, revealing their arms as they gripped their cherrywood swords.
The old Daoist pointed the sword at Li Sui, causing her to jump from fright. “You animal! How dare you take the body of someone else! I shall enact justice in Heaven’s stead!”
As she stood up to run and get away, she found herself surrounded by another group of people from the other side. They were guards from the You family and some city guards.
“Die, you animal!” The Daoist ran at Li Sui to stab her with his bloodied cherrywood sword.
Li Sui didn’t want to fight him and kept dodging. As she was evading the attacks, the skies above her darkened and a foul-smelling liquid splashed onto her body.
The liquid was blood. While she was trying to wipe it away from her eyes, a sharp pain shot through her chest. The cherrywood sword had stabbed into her body.
The onlookers erupted in delight at the sight of Li Sui's injury. “Amazing! The black dog’s blood really is useful to ward off evil!”